Originally aired April 30, 2011.

Discussion with Todd Pillars, a certified Bob Burg Consultant and small business consultant. Jerry and Todd make the point that the secret to any communication is not to put on a persona. Effective communicators integrate their public persona with who they are in their personal lives, which is so much easier!

In terms of blogging, Todd encourages listeners to use their passion to interact and share with an audience, which can be far more effective than any expensive marketing campaign. Todd quips “people love real, so you need to keep it as real as you can”. He maintains that you can have online success in grabbing an audience where even big companies fail with huge marketing campaigns. People ♥ real.

Todd says his wife summed it up best by saying “sequence on a duck just leaves you a pretty duck” – reiterating the message that web content is key. You do not necessarily have to have the most whiz-bang site to network and promote a message online. Forget any rules or trying to find a formula for successful blogging. You need to find your own unique voice. Express yourself and you will connect with likeminded people.

Jerry says all you need in today’s world is an Internet connection and a computer to network and market your business, where even just a few short years ago, you would have had to have a massive bank roll to reach the kind of audience you can via blogging. Jerry refers to Gary Vaynerchuk’s book Crush It, where Gary compares the amount of money spent on promoting and traditionally advertising a family business vs using the Internet to market. The savings were huge. The effect of Gary’s online marketing by far more successful. Gary was able to find a connection with people genuinely via Youtube video clips. His family business grew.

Jerry and Todd also talk about being a “go giver” in business, particularly as an entrepreneur. You can earn money and make a living without building relationships with people, however to take your business to the next level in offering a true point of difference, you need to build relationships. Blogging, creating your online presence, and simply expressing yourself can do this for you.

How do you lure those eyeballs to your blog? How do you know if you are getting the “bums in seats”? Are you monitoring your traffic? Do you make use of the analytical tools that are out there and for the most part are free and easy to use?

The two key challenges to blogging are:

1) Quieting the voices in your head and blogging (where have we heard that before??) 

2) Marketing your blog. Marketing is something we are bombarded with daily, however, do you know how to do this for your blog?

The entire reason to blog is to engage with people, no matter the topic. You have something to say to express yourself and/or build your business. Your online engagement should include online networking. Building relationships. You simply cannot have the only engagement with people and potential customers be “hey take a look at my latest blog post!”. People will eventual just ignore you.

There are practical ways of building an audience. Use social media. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and the like are where people are spending their time. Build a core of friends (your audience) using these platforms. Most importantly, be genuine when engaging. Connect and ‘friend’ people who share common interests with you. Comment on their social media comments and blog posts. Once you have built up a rapport, you can approach this audience with links or teasers to your blog posts as you post them.  

Using social media can be the bulk of how you market your blog. Analysis and monitoring are the final components to marketing your blog. You can learn what is working for you and what people are most responding to if you use the tools to monitor traffic and track hits to links you send out.

It is easy to set up analytics, such as Google Analytics, and doing so will take your blog to the next level. You will be connecting with the knowledge of how many people are paying attention to what you are doing. In absence of this, not only will you not be able to properly grow your audience, but you can feel disconnected. Your blogging will eventually seem unproductive if you are unaware of the results.

Originally aired July 16, 2011.

Researcher Olaf Brescia joined the Blog Whisperer Radio show to discuss the unique challenges he has encountered blogging for a niche audience. His blog explores and assesses the way America spends money on its military, specifically in relation to US air power and its purported capabilities. Olaf notes that he is most proud of the fact that he includes numerous first-hand accounts as a part of his research and that his blog has received compliments from Boston University Professor and Author Andrew Bacevich.

Olaf explains that his blog posts fly in the face of the American narrative, where our air power has become legendary and unquestioned. Olaf also talks about the negative feedback he has received in making bold and unpopular statements. One of the main reasons he decided to start his own blog was the cyber bullying experiences he had when posting his comments on internet bulletin boards. Olaf says he spends a great deal of time on employing logically sound arguments and found the cyber bullying to be juvenile and unproductive.

Olaf seeks to engage others on the topics he covers with his blog, but has found it difficult to find his audience, such is the inherent issue with niche blogging. He primarily markets his blog via a distribution list of editors, political groups, and various news outlets.

Originally aired May 7, 2011. 

I am a late comer to Gary Vaynerchuk’s book Crush It, which outlines what it takes to be successful online. He writes about the importance of building your personal brand as it relates to major markets.  A lot of Fortune 500 companies are still quite wary of allowing their employees to share their connection to the company online along with their employees’ personal online presence. Companies should heed the advice Gary has in encouraging businesses to allow employees to further a company’s brand via their online presence and online connections. Companies not doing this should realize they are missing an untapped marketing resource. 

What are one of the key ways to trust employees who have an online presence? Hire good people. Take your time in the hiring process, even checking out what a potential employee’s current online presence is. Once you hire the new employee, refrain from putting too many restrictions on them. Let them be who they are. 

The prime message I am putting forth for both companies and individuals is: stop worrying about the public persona – be authentic. I encourage you to learn to be open as our lives are very much public now in this day and age. Turn it into an advantage, rather than a detriment. Trying to fake who you are in business will not reap you the best rewards. Be authentic – and do business with those who are accepting of this. Do not be concerned with being too professional in your online presence. Do not play dual roles. Be the best human being you can be and share this with the world. Those who are attracted to you will enjoy your authenticity. They will enjoy doing business with you. This advice serves not only bloggers, but salesman and marketing folks. 

Lastly, I remind everyone again that content is king! Generate content consistently! It is all fine and good to put money into cleaning up the code on your site or making the best use of SEO, however to attract the most traffic to your site, consistent, authentic content is a must. It is an investment of time to be sure. If you are time poor, you could make use of content you have already written, be it a book, essays, or whatnot. You could hire an assistant for a few hours a week to blog your content for you. But the key is to keep that content coming again, and again, and again.

Special Blog shout out: Johnny B. Truant’s blog re online reputation.

Originally aired May 14, 2011.

I address a topic recently covered on Jackie Dotson’s blog.  She blogged about resistance and how we need to overcome it. She notes that resistance is “writer’s block, procrastination, jitters. All that stuff rolled into one annoying package.”

Resistance is often grouped with the “shoulds” in our lives. Should is the granddaddy of mediocrity. When we are doing something we do not want to do, it is difficult to be anything other than mediocre. I suggest that rather than focusing on what you should do, focus on what you want to do. Pursue who you are. And pursue with passion.

Originally aired May 21, 2011.

In this Podcast I share the advice offered by Steven Pressfield, Author of Do The Work, which identifies the roadblocks of any creative endeavor. Blogging is very much a creative endeavor and any blogger should be aware of the three specific enemies as identified by Steven.

The three to be aware of as outlined in detail in this Podcast:

1) Resistance – What is resistance? Fear, self-doubt, procrastination, addiction, self-loathing, perfectionism, and so on. Resistance is out to kill ideas – it is insidious!

2) Rational Thought – You need to get your rational mind out of the way so you can express your soul! This concept is a HUGE part of what I try to bring across on my Blog Whisperer Podcasts and Blog. Great stuff.

3) Friends and Family. Steven says it best: “The problem with friends and family is that they know us as we are. They are invested in maintaining us as we are.” This is because that is comfortable for them. When we challenge and overcome our own resistance, we challenge their status quo.

Originally aired June 25

I am joined by Regena Garrepy, a certified coach, speaker, author, direct selling expert, sex educator, succulence seeker, and healthy living enthusiast. Regena is also a blogger. She is the creator and CEO of Reclaim Your Essence, which empowers women to get back into their groove and remember who they really are.

I am very happy to explore the lessons Regena teaches. She vigorously attacks the misperception many have of maintaining no overlap of your personal life vs business life. Her thoughts are in line with what I try to achieve on my blog – quieting the voices in your head so you can blog with the voice of your soul.

Regena is a firm believer in everyone knowing what their truth is and speaking that truth. She says we need to learn to trust our inner voice and express this; we need to reclaim our essence. She says this can be difficult to do when we, particularly women, are taught from childhood to be compliant. She says it behooves you to express yourself in your business and not be too professional. Expressing your humanity can be the point of difference to attract customers.

Regena recommends spending up to 15 minutes daily reflecting on who you are. She says the underlying “voices” will not go away just because you ignore them or defy expressing them. She says those “voices” want attention and will throw a temper tantrum if ignored. Channel the positive lessons those voices are trying to express. Regena also addresses the concept of our shadows; the parts of ourselves we are not willing to accept or are truly aware of. Our shadows are a part of those “voices”. Regena reveals that her shadow is perfectionism. She quips that she uses this aspect of her character in a controlled way as her “quality control coach”. I note that I have a Darth Vadar shadow and have learned to harness the resourcefulness this side of me can contribute.

Regena outlines the Good Girl Movement coaching work she has developed with Christina Dunbar, which teaches clients to claim your voice, dive into more pleasure, tap into power, and step into sizzling hot confidence. Regena will be joining us again in future – please send through any specific questions you might have.

Originally aired May 28, 2011:

This Podcast fell a bit outside of our usual focus, however I really wanted to highlight the financial message Ted Hunter has to share.

Ted is an Author, Blogger, and Entrepreneur and has recently released a book entitled  Money Smart. He offers unconventional financial ideas that work. He shares with listeners how simple it is to make money from your investments, without hiring a financial advisor/expert. In fact, Ted claims that the financial industry is terribly mismanaged and effectively lies to the public about their expertise. Ted maintains that individuals are better suited making their own financial investments.

Ted refers to a study co-conducted by Harvard Professor Daniel Bergstresser outlined in a report called Assessing the Costs and Benefits of Brokers in the Mutual Fund Industry . He says this report substantiates what he is asserting. Individuals can invest their money better than experts/financial advisors can.

Ted talks about the four key tips individuals need to employ to successfully invest:

1) You manage your own money.
2) Understand and act on market cycles.
3) When you are going to invest in the Stock Market, invest ONLY in broad based, no load (no commission), index funds.
4) Do not limit yourself to the Stock Market.

Ted advises against investing in Stocks as he claims it is simply shocking how corrupt the system is.

Originally aired June 4, 2011.

In this episode I address how you can effectively use social media, particularly for those small businesses and entrepreneurs whose time is very precious. It is a mistake to be tempted to pull the plug on social media altogether when efforts fail. Social media is where people (your potential clients!) are spending their time. You simply need to learn how to effectively participate.

When I consult clients on creating an effective online presence, I start with the following three questions:

1) Why do you do what you do?  - What is your purpose, your why? This is an area I cover in depth on my Motivation 101 Blog.

2) Who am I trying to reach? More specifically, who is your ideal client and not just your target market?

3) What do you want this ideal client to do next? What is the next step after they read your blog, listen to your Podcast, or otherwise read/watch something you have posted via social media?  And what compelling reason do you give them to take that next step?

Another key point to keep in mind is measurement. Put measurements in place to help you gauge how effective your online campaigns are. Make a list of every single social media platform you are making use of and ensure you create analytics to measure each one.

Employing analytics will help you identify what social media works for you and what does not. Stop spending time on the ones that do not drive traffic to your business site. Be armed with the statistics to better focus your efforts in engaging potential customers via social media. And if you need a hand figuring it all out, check out the online branding analysis on my Services page; I’m happy to help!

Remember, your blog should be the center of your online universe. Use social media to engage with your potential customers on a deeper level.

Originally aired June 18

I am joined by Rick Cooper, of AttractingIdealClients.com fame, to discuss online marketing strategies. One of Rick’s favorite tools is blogging, especially for positioning yourself as an expert. Rick maintains that you do not have to be a great writer to blog. There are other options, such as video blogging or picture blogging. There really is no reason not to use social media to create an online presence.

Rick says the better the blogging content, the more readers you will attract. He points out that many people are looking for great tips. Blog about things that have value to people. 

It is key, however, to know that you will have to put some effort into attracting readers to your blog. If you build it, they will NOT come. You have to have a strategy; a marketing strategy.

As well, Rick advises that when you first start blogging, you need to be conscious of keywords. He says keywords are how people find you when they search for a topic via Google (or whatnot). It is important to just start getting the content out there; that you start today writing about what you are passionate about or are an expert in.  He says you can always refine your keywords later, however it is imperative you do not skip giving keywords attention altogether. This is a critical point my Podcast guest from last week, Patrick Schwerdtfeger, really tries to drive home in his new book Marketing Shortcuts for the Self Employed. (The book includes very specific instructions on how to employ your keywords using free Google tools.)

Rick recommends keeping the mantra “write, write, write  – then edit, edit, edit” in mind when blogging.