Or all of the above!

It’s a tough call. I have to think about what are the real goals with Gateway Blogging, and what are the real needs of those who will benefit from the program?

To a business person, having downloadable, printable, and portable media is key. You’ve got to be able to take it with you. You’ve got to be able to take it in the media of your choice, such as audio for your music player when you’re on the go or multitasking in the office.

Thoughts like these are moving me away from a central learning environment and towards ebooks, audio, and video. All of these media are highly portable and do not require an internet connection to be of use once acquired.

A physical book can be hundreds of pages and still be perfectly manageable, but an ebook cannot. An ebook becomes a pain in the butt after about a hundred pages. Large ebooks are unwieldy to navigate, download, and they’re certainly too big to print.

So we’re looking at several ebooks and multiple audio & video files. I might even consider a physical product: printed books and real DVDs and CDs. That would crank up the price, but the value of a physical product is in its portability and reliability. Files can take a long time to download from the web. If something happened to your computer, at least you’d still have the product–all of that knowledge wouldn’t vanish. And many people simply learn more effectively when they’re not sitting in front of a computer.

We’ll see. My mind is not completely made up, yet. Those of you who are on the alpha tester list are going to get something to test pretty darn soon!

Do you have any thoughts on the format of the course? I welcome your feedback via blog comments below or you can contact me directly.

On the other hand, a business thinks of the people who show an interest in its products and services as prospects. But in business blogging, there really is something more like a slow transition (sometimes it isn’t slow at all) between a reader and a prospect.

There is an invisible line that people cross when they shift gears and go from simply reading your blog to considering making a purchase or otherwise converting. Gateway Blogging is all about getting people to cross that line quickly and easily, and to do it happily and willingly.

I’ve combined the words reader and prospect in the most creative way imaginable: by sticking them together with a hyphen! Go ahead and smirk (I do, I admit it) but hear me out on why this is to your benefit as you read the rest of this article.

Enter the Reader-Prospect

So if you have a Gateway Blog (your blog is a gateway to your products and services as taught in the Gateway Blogging course), the people who visit your blog are more than the black-and-white definitions of readers and prospects. They’re still the same people regardless how you think about them, but how you think about them changes how you treat them, and that has an ultimate effect on your bottom line as a business.

When you know that a visitor is more than just a reader, you do more in your blogging to provide value to them and meet their information-seeking needs in order to gain their trust over time.

Gateway blogs aren’t like other blogs people read for fun or entertainment (although they can and should be fun and entertaining). If you do Gateway Blogging correctly, then when people visit, it’s because they already have a high interest in what you’re offering.

When you think of a visitor as only a prospect, you may not think about the long term value necessary to build trust. You might be tempted to oversell them too quickly. Reader-prospects are timid creatures. They are testing the waters of trust to see if it’s safe to swim, so the last thing you want to do is come in like a shark and scare them away!

Gateway blogging allows you to show reader-prospects what’s inside the gate of doing business with you. Gateway blogging is one big exercise in trust-building. This happens over time in most cases. You continue to provide valuable content that is very carefully aimed at showing them how you solve their frustrations and fulfill their dreams, and eventually they will sell themselves (what do you think I’m doing with this blog?). The purpose of the Gateway Blogging course currently in production is to show you why and how you create this kind of “gateway” content.

The next day I had a new client.

Just before the weekend, I finalized the details of the project with the client, including a nice deposit on the work. This was not a coincidence, because I knew exactly what I was doing when I wrote that post. I deliberately set out to attract the right kind of person who is my client. I used two specific Gateway Blogging techniques to accomplish this.

Content Framing

The first technique I used is nothing other than knowing what your potential clients really want, which is part of an aspect of the major Gateway Blogging component of Content Framing. Content Framing is literally framing your content so that it appeals to and is findable by your prospective customers. To succeed at this, you must understand your customers in a deeply empathic way. When you understand your customers at this level, you know what to say to them.

Customer Success Stories

The second technique I used is customer success stories, which are an aspect of the major Gateway Blogging component of Storytelling. The idea behind customer success stories is that by showcasing the success of your existing clients to potential clients, you make it much easier for those potential clients to reach a buy decision. Potential customers see the success of your existing customers and they desire it for themselves. There’s only one way for them to get that, and that is to go through you.

Although customer testimonials are powerful social proof in marketing, it’s hardly probable that you will get your customers to write blog posts to sing your praises. But you can tell all the stories you want about your customers, as long as the customers are ok with you naming them and the story is verifiable (as soon as my client’s blog is about to go live, you will know who he is–I will make sure of it, because it’s a very exciting video blog project).

How do I know that this was not the result of some oddball coincidence? How do I know that my client reached a buy decision because of that single post? It’s simple: He told me so. He told me that he really liked what I had done with those sites. It put him past the tipping point into action, and he contacted me.

This Isn’t The First Time

This isn’t the first time this has happened. In fact, after I wrote the post Moving from WordPress.com to Self-Hosted WordPress in Plain English, I landed not just one, but two clients, both of whom needed their blogs migrated from WordPress.com to their own self-hosted solution.

If I can point to specific posts I’ve written that have landed me clients and made me thousands of dollars, I don’t think there’s any question about whether these techniques work. Clearly, they do. The Gateway Blogging Learning Program will teach you how to get these results for yourself.

Some of what you need to learn how has been revealed in this post. You can learn how to write blog posts like this in the Gateway Blogging Learning Program. The program won’t be ready until the fall, but you can still sign up for free to be an alpha tester. I haven’t closed off access to the alpha sign ups… yet.

Get on the list for alpha testing now:

cforms contact form by delicious:days

I’ve devoted the bulk of the posts here to the first group, the business owners. This post is for the bloggers looking to grow a business from their blog.

Not too long ago I touched upon this subject at Remarkablogger with The Bass-Ackwards Method of Starting a Business from Your Blog. In that post, I only identified one way of building a business out of a blog: freelance blogging.

In the Gateway Blogging learning environment, however, this entire subject is going to be given a comprehensive treatment. If all you have is a blog, you will be shown, step by step, how to develop a real business out of it. A real business could earn you considerably more money than your blog monetization efforts have so far. The initial course for this in Gateway Blogging is called Biz School 101, and the first topic in that course is called “Help! I Have No Business!” It covers the six elements any blogger needs to begin developing a business out of their blog:

• Customers willing to buy
• Something to sell
• A website
• A way to get paid
• A way to deliver what is sold
• Time, money, and effort to make it happen

Each element is then explained in detail. So you see, you do not already need to have a business. Based on the feedback I’ve received so far from people who have signed up to be an alpha tester, many of you do not currently have a business, but you plan to. Gateway Blogging lets you really start at the beginning and work through a detailed, prescribed process so that you can get your business off the ground. The business side and the blogging side go hand-in-hand with Gateway Blogging.

After you learn the very basics, the next step is to employ them to create your business. The courses will continue from there. The next course, in fact, offers more than 15 specific different businesses you can grow out of a blog.

From time to time, I’ll be giving out sneak peeks like this one into the content of Gateway Blogging. Many of them will be even more detailed than this. I might even give away entire topics! You never know, so please subscribe so you don’t miss out!

• Greg has left to pursue his own projects, and I’m very excited to continue Gateway Blogging.
• Currently, I am writing the first group of courses, which the alpha testers will provide feedback for in exchange for a sneak peek.
• Soon, those who signed up as alpha testers will get an email invitation to a short survey. The first thing that needs to happen is to better understand the audience for Gateway Blogging, so that expectations and needs are met.
• Shortly, I’ll begin building the interactive learning environment.
• In or before September, I hope to have enough content for the alpha testers to test. The test will be for a limited time period.
• At the beginning of October, the test period will end and charter memberships will be offered to the testers and a limited remaining number of other charter members who want to get in at a lower rate. Alpha testers get first dibs on the limited charter membership slots. Right now, I don’t know how many slots will be available, but it will be limited.

Alpha testers will help provide information and feedback in exchange for lower charter membership pricing when the site goes live. You also get to benefit from the knowledge you gain in Gateway Blogging before anyone else does!

If you wish to sign up for free to become an alpha tester, please submit the form below.

cforms contact form by delicious:days

Gateway Blogging is Michaels’ baby and he is 100% capable of developing this ILE on his own. In my opinion, the only people Michael needs to partner with is the customer. He has a very clear vision, the expertise to pull it off, and the passion for the subject matter.

I do not want anyone to feel abandoned or misled. Therefore, if you have enrolled for the Alpha Tester program prior to today and you would like a bit of business coaching I do so, pro-bono.

I wish Michael and you all the best and remember, “Live Large! Because shrinking does not become you.”

Greg Balanko-Dickson

Michael was concerned that people might “balk at the idea of having to learn new skills”.

In some respects I agree with Michael. Yet, in my experience, we do not always recognize our natural gifts and skills. We tend to overlook them because they are a part of who we are and as natural to us as breathing.

My goal with this post was to create an asynchronous coaching/learning process to encourage you to explore your potential - to awaken/discover new skills and abilities that have been concealed or forgotten. I challenge you to embrace this as an opportunity to positively impact and shape your life and business.

Note: For the best experience try the larger version it will expand to fit your screen. Enjoy!

Time to complete the entire program in one sitting? Approx. 20-30 minutes or you could spread iy out watch over seven sessions (7 X 5 minutes).

Greg’s Not So Complete List of Entrepreneurial Skill Sets

Here is the outline I used to help build this voice thread.

1. Discernment: Vision, Perceive Shifts, Maintain Perspective, Strong Observation Skills
2. Thirst & Hunger: Want, Aspiration, Eagerness
3. Change: Modify, Reorganize, Adjust course
4. Specific Ability: Skilled, Masters, Proficient, Professional
5. Maintain Focus: Move, Priority, Bias to Action
6. Ability to Learn: Adapt, Discover, Assimilate, Acquire Skill

About The Entrepreneurial Skill Sets Voice Thread

This voice thread has seven parts. You are in control of the experience. Remember, the best experience is via the larger version.

Each slide in this voice thread contains questions to jump start your discovery and a video or audio comment from Greg and Michael.

You can press the play button to sit back and watch, skip ahead one slide at a time, press pause and come back later to pick up where you left off.

You can leave a text, audio, or video comment within the voice thread to add or expand the discussion. Try it, you’ll like it!

No microphone? No problem, you can click the telephone icon, enter your phone number and the system will call you. Then you simply leave a voice message that will then appear in the voice thread time line.

To your success,

Greg Balanko-Dickson
Live Large! Because shrinking does not become you.

P.S. Here is a short thread that explains what a Voice Thread is and how it works.

P.P.S. I suggest that you print off the worksheet and make notes as you progress through the voice thread to maximize your learning opportunity.

As Michael said: “If you want to learn more and even have a valuable hand in shaping what Gateway Blogging becomes, please sign up to be an alpha tester when the time is right. Alpha testers will be given special pricing consideration when the site goes live with a paid membership model.” What the Blogging Gurus are Missing

cforms contact form by delicious:days

Since the last post on how most blogging gurus are missing something resonated with many (who expressed their thanks and relief in the comments), I thought it appropriate to lay down some Gateway Blogging 101. What is Gateway Blogging and what are the basic ideas behind it? Read on to the end to find out:

Gateway Blogging is a System to Create and Run a Business Blog–Successfully

Gateway Blogging is a method or a system for business blogging I created in October of 2007 that is designed to help a business further its objectives–usually in the form of increasing sales. It does this through the use of techniques that help business people turn their blogs into gateways for their products and services. It does this without overselling, which turns customers off, and without underselling, which turns your blog into a time and money sink. Gateway Blogging enables you to sell without selling.

Gateway Blogging is made up of three major components:

1. Content Framing
2. Positioning and Branding
3. Storytelling

These components and other vital knowledge about your business objectives set the stage for always knowing what to write about on a business blog.

Gateway Blogging is a Place Online Where You Can Learn the System

Gateway Blogging is going to be an online learning program that will teach you step-by-step and help you successfully implement Gateway Blogging for your business. Because the business knowledge and skills are most often everyone’s weakest points, Gateway Blogging is going to one part business school and one part blogging school. The combination will be like nothing you’ve ever seen on the web.

This business side of Gateway Blogging is critical for two reasons:

1. Many bloggers are looking for better ways to make money online through their blogs. Where most blogging monetization fails, business blogging can succeed–but there needs to be a business, first.
2. Many business people are failing to use blogs correctly to market their business and increase sales. Gateway Blogging is based on solid business, sales, and copywriting know-how, which will allow a business blog to provide real ROI.

The Gateway Blogging Online Learning Program will address the needs of both groups. Each one crosses over the other in many ways, making the combination of business school with blogging school almost as good as peanut butter and chocolate!

Gateway Blogging Resources Beyond the Learning

In addition to the many learning modules (both text and multimedia), Gateway Blogging members will also have access to a variety of useful resources. These resources would normally only be available for sale, but they will be included in the Gateway Blogging membership. Some of the resources will be unique to Gateway Blogging and will not available at all elsewhere online.

Free Sign-Up to Learn More and Be an Alpha Tester

If you want to learn more, help us, and receive special consideration with the paid membership site goes live, please fill in the short form below and add yourself to the list!

cforms contact form by delicious:days

Where Did Your Time Go?

You’re spending huge amounts of time reading how-to advice, you’re spending even more time writing blog posts, and on top of that you’re spending time trying to promote yourself through social media sites like Twitter or StumbleUpon.

Um… when, exactly, are you supposed to run your business? Because even if you were a writing whiz (and let’s face it, most of us are not), between the research, the blogging, and the social media promotion, there’s not much time for anything else.

Shouldn’t you be so busy running your business and making money that you hardly have time to blog?

But that’s not all. Where is that increase in sales you expected from blogging?

Where Are Your Sales?

Think back over all the blogging advice you’ve ever read (except from Remarkablogger, because I’ve been preaching this particular message for a while). What did the advice of the blogging “gurus” promise?

• you could increase traffic.
• you could increase RSS subscribers (when most of your customers don’t even know what RSS is).
• your writing would improve (but to what end?).
• you could get traction in the newfangled social media madness.

But there’s one thing it didn’t promise. The gurus missed something, something vital.

The Blogging Gurus Missed Something

The “gurus” aren’t showing you how to increase sales.

Take just a moment and let that sink in. The blogging “gurus” (and their name is Legion) missed something that is utterly vital to business success. How can this be?

You might think I’m going to say there is some mysterious, hidden secret, the blogging “gurus” are missing… but I’m not.

The Truth

The answer is not shocking or surprising in the least. In fact, there’s a perfectly ordinary explanation for this. Are you ready for it? Here it is:

The blogging gurus aren’t running a business, they’re monetizing a blog. The difference may not seem like much at first–after all, if you’re monetizing a blog, doesn’t that mean your blog has become a business?

Yes… and no. You see, a monetized blog is an entirely different kind of business. It requires different allocations of time and effort. And the results it needs to achieve are completely different than that of a business which sells products and services and which is marketing itself with a blog.

Monetization vs. Selling

The advice of blogging “gurus” isn’t getting your business anywhere. A monetized blog is an end unto itself. A business blog, however, is a gateway to your products and services (that’s why we call it Gateway Blogging–clever, yes?). A business blog needs to achieve an entirely different purpose altogether: it needs to increase sales. Knowing the difference between monetization and selling is crucial.

If this is so obvious, why isn’t it being shouted from the rooftops? Again, the answer is not at all surprising. Put your tinfoil hat away, there is no conspiracy. Here is the simple explanation for why this has happened:

Many of today’s blogging experts began their blogs as blogs, not as a business. That’s why the two paths are different right from the start.

Many people start a blog and then look for ways to make money from it. That is what’s commonly described as blog monetization. A business has a model for making money right from the beginning, usually by selling a product or service. No wonder the blogging “gurus” have completely missed the boat on this one.

We Have the Answer (What a Surprise!)

Heh… I couldn’t resist a little tongue-in-cheek humor here, but that’s only because it’s true–I just don’t want to come off with too much attitude. But really, Greg and I think we’re onto something, here. I’m not going to try and sell you anything now. I just want to tell you a little bit about what we’re doing: we’re creating the web’s first combination business school and blogging school. Gateway Blogging will be an online learning place unique to the web. We are tremendously excited about it. Combining business with blogging? Why, that’s the most common sense thing you’ve never heard of.

Learn More by Helping Us Get Started

If you want to learn more and even have a valuable hand in shaping what Gateway Blogging becomes, please sign up to be an alpha tester when the time is right. Alpha testers will be given special pricing consideration when the site goes live with a paid membership model. Just fill out the quick form below, and feel free to ask us anything in the message box:

cforms contact form by delicious:days

Up until now, I have been holding down a full-time job as well as working nearly full-time as a blog consultant. That’s about to change as I go part-time on my “regular” job. The sole purpose of this change is to allow me more time to work on that which matters most to me: setting up Gateway Blogging as the premier online learning experience for successful business blogging.

The need for this is pressing. Everywhere we look, we see wasted opportunities because people who are trying to market their businesses through blogging are not connecting with their audience. Millions of dollars are needlessly left on the table (not an exaggeration in the slightest). The normal blogging advice on the web does not address this.

The Gateway Blogging Difference

One part Blog School and one part Business School. You get Michael, a leader in business blogging and Greg, a seasoned business coach both focused on teaching, guiding, and coaching you to new levels of results for your business and blog.

Over the next few months, Greg and I will be setting up the ILE and creating content for it in the form of interactive learning modules. We plan on using some interesting and surprising tools and technologies to do this. We’d like to have something we can alpha test in September of 2008.

Keep an eye on the Gateway Blogging and make sure you subscribe to our feed.

If you are interested in being notified when we go into private alpha, please enter your email below. We will not sell or share your email address.

cforms contact form by delicious:days