“How do I get more fans?” I hear this a lot. I’ve written about how to get more followers a few times, so instead of the same old, I thought I’d address this to folks who are working on growing themselves to be a person who has something of a growing (or huge) platform and is trying to understand how to use social platforms to build something better/deeper/more. And there might be a good place to start. “WHY” are you seeking to get more fans? And do you really want fans?

What Are Fans?

I’m a fan. For instance, I’m a fan of Lorin and Bassnectar. By “fan,” I mean that I like his music, and appreciate some of the media he puts out. In the fan relationship, Lorin wants a few things from me:

• Support. And online, this means tweets and likes and things.
• Money. He would love it if I buy his records when they come out.

This is a really simple relationship. In the “fan” perspective, if I get the occasional @ reply from @bassnectar on Twitter, I feel that little “oooh! He spoke to me!” And that’s it. I don’t think that someday we’ll work on a track together. I don’t expect him to hang out with me at a concert. That’s it.

Why Community Members are WAY Cooler Than Fans

By comparison, I hung out with Sabrina at the annual PRSA event at the end of last year. We talked for a while. I got to hear what was going on in her world. I listened to some of the challenges of her role, and basically spent simple time with her. She then left her job, went to another organization, and convinced them I should keynote their May event. Thus, I got to see Sabrina again, hear about her father’s stories of Pakistan, and about her upcoming vacation. Hopefully, I added value to her event, too.

In my community are mentors, thinkers like Charlie Green, author of several bestselling books on consulting and leadership and generally smart guy, and Tim Sanders, the original Lovecat, and someone who’s working on some really cool stuff that I’m proud to be learning about. I can follow them from afar, and I can dip in and talk with them personally when I have a need, and if they’re not too busy for me.

Communities are made up of multiple levels of peers. Sometimes the community I have the honor to serve hires me for something and other times, I hire it. I spent a day with Dr. Nick Morgan learning more about how to do better at speaking, and I learned so much that I’m still unpacking everything that came from that single day.

Thank goodness that I’m much more than a fan of these people, and I’m grateful that none of them are my fans.

What Does it Take to Nurture These Relationships?

A community-minded relationship requires that you think (always) in three dimensions:

1. What do I offer that can help others?
2. Who do I know that can help this person?
3. How can I best work with this person?

To nurture those kinds of relationships requires more than a few considerations and preparations. Prepare for bullets:

• Keep the simplest of databases, even Evernote, to list names, contact info, and what people might need/want.
• Learn to make eye contact, and remember people’s names. Hard to be very personable or a community person if you’re bad with names. It takes practice, but it’s very doable.
• Do your damnedest to always find the time to spend a short while with any who linger. No, this doesn’t scale. Same with online. When you can, talk back and make connections, and talk about them and what they’re into.
• Open the circle to be inclusive. If you’ve ever met me in person at a conference, you’ve probably seen this one: when people come over, I just open the circle such that even more people can talk with each other. It’s the same online. Talk to the new folks just as much as you talk to those you’ve known a while. (Maybe more!)
• Always remember that you serve the community. It is never your community. If a roomful of people are wearing shirts with your face on it, you’re still the servant and the participant. Lead from the floor, and be inclusive in that leadership.

In most of these cases, those are both offline and online bits of advice. Here are some online bits in particular.

• You don’t have to follow everyone who follows you, but it’s way important to reply back as often as possible to those who message you.
• Having a fan page is tricky. It means you’re accepting the concept of “fan.” But should you have one, try to let it be YOU populating it and doing the conversing. I’m proud of Deepak Choprah (who I’m trying to get for an interview on this subject) and Nikki Sixx, of all the odd pairings, for running their own presence on places like Google+. The difference is vast.
• Be where you can best support the experience. If you can’t manage to have a profile active and communicate back and forth on Google+, Twitter, Pinterest, Soundcloud, Facebook, LinkedIn, and wherever, then don’t. But be where you are. And make it the best possible experience you can make it.
• “Behind the scenes” is for fans. “Part of the story” is for participants in a community. Find ways to get people into the action.
• The more ways you can connect other people together at the peer level, the more it’s about your community and not you-worship.
• Check yourself frequently. Eat humility every single day. Every time you feel like you’re all that and a bag of chips, talk yourself back out of it. Go do something for people who need it more. Whatever. But never let yourself believe for a minute that you deserve a pedestal. That never turns out well.

So, Get Fans If You Want

Or, make the world amazing by participating in a community of people you can care about and that you can admire, and who you can help whenever you can. Don’t build community around your book or your album. Build it around the bigger flag you fly, no matter what the current project is named. Make sure of that, because you’re going to have a next whatever, and if you’re lucky, people are going to remember you and the flag you fly, not the book title or album title or whatever.

And if you want more? Never fret that argument that it’s quality not quantity. You can have both. The more amazing people I meet in my travels, the more I know this to be true.

I’m convinced that one reason why many people fail at what they try to do (me included sometimes) is that they don’t properly define what they want to achieve.

Let me unpack that a bit…

If you are an author, professional speaker, business owners, entrepreneur, etc. then you need to know what you want to accomplish so that you can plot the proper course. More so than know, you need to write it down. If you don’t, the drift will set in and you’ll wonder aimlessly off the path.

Sounds like common sense right? Well, it is but itís so common that most of us miss it.

If you want to build a brand, attract more followers, and gain the attention you think you deserve (and probably do) then defining your goals is an imperative step.

Below are 5 ways to do just that from my friend Michael Hyatt, a top blogger and Chairman of Thomas Nelson Publishers. The tips are from his brand new book Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World. It’s really more than a book though, it’s a step-by-step guide to help you do what works in order to be seen and heard. I highly recommend it.

Bonus: To celebrate the launch of the book this week, Michael is giving away $375.98 worth of free Platform bonus content for those who purchase the book between May 21 and May 25. Complete details are available at http://michaelhyatt.com/platform

Five Reasons You Should Define Your Platform Goals

(Adapted Excerpt from Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World by Michael Hyatt)

1. Because it will force you to clarify what you want. Dave Ramsey, author of The Total Money Makeover, helps people who want to become debt-free to be crystal clear on their goals. Every credit card balance, each car loan, every dollar they spendóeverythingómust be written down and tracked constantly. Why? It forces them to be certain about their goals. Ramsey calls it “gazelle intensity.” He got the term from watching a program about how cheetahs stalk gazelles. While the cheetah is the fastest animal on land, it only catches a gazelle about one in nineteen times. “Around our office,” he says, “the counselors can predict who will make it out of debt based on how ‘gazelle-intense’ they are.” Writing down your platform goals can help you clarify what they are so you can become “gazelle intense” about achieving them.

2. Because it will motivate you to take action. Writing your platform goals down is only the beginning. You must execute on your goals. You have to take action. I have found that writing down my goals and reviewing them regularly provokes me to take the next most important action.

3. Because it will provide a filter for other opportunities. The more successful you become, the more you will be deluged with opportunities. In fact, these new opportunities can quickly become distractions that pull you off course. The only antidote I know of is to maintain a list of written goals by which to evaluate these new opportunities.

4. Because it will help you overcome resistance. Every meaningful intention encounters resistance. From the moment you set a goal, you will begin to feel it. But if you focus on the resistance, it will only get stronger. The only way I have found for overcoming this is to focus on the goal. Steven Pressfield’s book Do the Work is must reading on this topic.

5. Because it will enable you to seeóand celebrateóyour progress. Life is hard when you arenít seeing progress. You feel like you are going nowhere. But written goals are like mile markers on a highway. They enable you to see how far you have come and how far you need to go. They also provide an opportunity for celebration when you attain them.

Michael Hyatt is the Chairman of Thomas Nelson publishers and a speaker on leadership and much more. Get his amazing new book here.

I’m not fond of bragging. Though I can be as prideful as anyone, I just don’t see the point in it. So when I start my post with that title: Why Trust Agents Did So Well, I owe you an explanation fast.

I just finished watching this video, “Scamworld,” which goes with this huge post about bad internet marketing, false schemes, and all kinds of deception. I will first say that I didn’t read the entire post, but that I feel it’s an important one to dig into (so I’ll get it all read in the next few days). The video is a decent way to see the thrust of the concerns raised on the article:

Can’t see the video? Click Here

I very much liked Danny Sullivan’s article talking about it and adding his perspective. I respect and admire Danny a lot, and when he puts his thoughts onto something fiery like the world of internet marketing, I listen.

Why Trust Agents Did So Well

I make the same mistake that most marketers (most PEOPLE) do: I believe that the way I think is the way you think. I believe that you know exactly my motivation and my thinking. I believe that when I tell you that my goal is to help others conduct business in a more relationship-minded way, that you’re thinking, “Chris wants to help me conduct business in a more relationship-minded way.”

When I look at this video, and from what I’ve read in the article, the part that scares me is that there are SO MANY PEOPLE out there selling absolute garbage that says FOLLOW THIS AND YOU WILL BE RICH.

I believe Trust Agents sold so well because Julien and I said this, “be who you really are, connect with a community, learn how to take what you know and can do and make THAT serve you, connect people to each other, practice the art of being human, and band together to make your goals happen.”

I Love Making Money. I Love Business. I Am Not Rich. And I Didn’t Get Rich Quick.

I haven’t made millions for myself yet. I’ve helped clients and my companies do reasonably well. I think money is wonderful. It helps me eat food. It buys clothes for my kids. I have a really fun electric guitar and I drive a Camaro. I also get to give to charities that matter like Skip1 and Invisible People. I will never apologize for believing that money makes my life better.

I love business. I love helping companies grow. I love seeing companies and individuals do better at what they want to do. It’s the best feeling in the world to believe that something I’ve said helps someone else grow their business and feed their families.

I am not rich. I live in a 955 square foot loft in a very small town. My television (which is plugged into a Wii and a Blu Ray player) is about 26″ across, I think. I own one car. Most of my clothes come from the Men’s Wearhouse and Target. I eat well. I won’t deny that (as if my belly would suggest otherwise).

I didn’t get rich quick. Maybe some day after a few more years of working, I can get rich quick. That’d be cool. Like, you know, after 20 years of doing what I do, seeing a check with six zeroes once would be really cool. But that’s not what I do.

Trust Is So Fragile

When people debate where to spend their money, seeing a video like the Scamworld video and then reading some of the accompanying mega article and commentary just makes me feel so sad for people. People have to try and evaluate who is trying to rip them off. Everyone has a kind of “eyebrow raised and one foot ready to retreat” stance online, and it comes from all these kinds of experiences. It’s no wonder that people ask me some of the questions they do or assume some of the beliefs they have about me, about this space, about the potential to build business.

Even hearing the people use the term “affiliate marketing” in the video reminds me why so many people still have a very negative view of affiliate marketing: because there are still some people out there who abuse its potential and who use it for nefarious purposes. As a user of affiliate marketing programs for three years, I can tell you that I understand why people get tempted to go for it and make a gazillion dollars just pushing links to make cash. It just never seemed right for me and my business pursuits. If I’m going to sell you something, it’s because I believe it is an amazing product or service and I believe it’s going to benefit you.

Do you know that people still stop me in airports or at conferences and tell me that they bought this suitcase (affiliate link, naturally) based on my video review and on the word of others like Mitch Joel? That’s gratifying, because it’s a really great product, and I’m glad so many people have benefited from that video review and Mitch’s advice.

The Cult of Information vs The Agents of Trust

What’s most important from the Scamworld article and video isn’t that you get it. I’m going to assume something: you GET it. You know this isn’t how to get rich. What I believe, however, is that if you watch the video, and you listen to the woman on the phone being pressured into giving away $1000 for some program that will make her millions, I can imagine one of two things: you’ve done that and felt the sting before, or someone you know (most likely are related to) is about to fall into this because they didn’t know better. And that is the scariest part of the puzzle. It’s not whether you’re clever or not. It’s whether you can help those who might accidentally buy some kind of “you can make money starting TOMORROW” program from someone that’s less than reliable.

As an agent of trust (you’ve just been sworn in), it’s important to spread that gospel: that one doesn’t get rich overnight, and if they do, it’s related to someone else’s suffering most often. Money grown organically is money you can feel happy about. And if you’re not committed to the success of your customers and clients, then you’re on the wrong tack and likely headed for stormy weather.

I don’t agree with every single sentence in the article, and I don’t think that everyone the article singles out are evil or whatever. I think that the overall message and caution and concern should be that too many people are out there falling prey to the notion that you don’t have to work hard and you don’t have to build relationships of value to earn money.

Here, where’d this soapbox come from?

I just closed my LinkedIn account. Why? Because at least a MONTH ago, I reported a fairly simple problem: I can’t seem to add people back when they request that we connect. Oh, that would be about the 2nd primary thing one does on the site. You make a profile and then you connect. That’s about it. The connecting part has been broken.

I’m done. I don’t care. Whatever.

Why post this? Because I’m forever asked by people why I don’t talk much about LinkedIn. Why? Because it hasn’t done much for me for business.

Lots of people do great by it. Lewis Howes is a LinkedIn hero. JD Gershbein is a LinkedIn hero. Maybe they know more.

Me? Maybe I’m using it wrong. Whatever. Wishing you well Mario and Reid and everyone else I know there. See you on Google+ or wherever else business gets done.

I saw a YouTube advertisement for the fast food restaurant, Wendy’s, where they were promoting the use of the Twitter hashtag #upgradeyourmeal (click that for your own real time search). Running over to Twitter to see what they were getting for responses, I saw the sampling above.

Do any of those look like loyal Wendy’s diners to you? Do any of those tweets make the restaurant proud? Will this earn the restaurant any more buyers?

When I see this, I wonder just how it was sold. I wonder what was promised. I wonder what the agency said to the client.

Hey, Sometimes It Works

When I searched on #doritoslocostacos, the new hashtag to accompany the Taco Bell sensation of a Doritos-flavored taco shelled taco, I saw a lot more love and praise.

Why? My gut (pun intended) tells me that Taco Bell has more of a fan base than Wendy’s, and that Taco Bell might be a slightly better natural demographic fit. But what if it isn’t? Maybe Taco Bell’s agency spent more money and got a bunch of people to tweet some nice words. Maybe this is a pay-per-tweet project or another kind of “word of mouth augmentation” campaign (read as “not necessarily trustworthy”).

And Is This Really Moving The Needle?

Wendy’s wants you to “#upgradeyourmeal.” Is a trip to Wendy’s an upgrade? I like their chili a great deal. I like their Frosty. I sometimes eat their other products. No part of my mindset while there is “upgrade.” Is it for you?

I don’t normally write posts that complain about a marketing methodology, but I guess I’m just asking whether this is what we think these tools were built to accomplish. If I’m some VP of marketing at Wendy’s, who sold this to me, and why did I think it was okay? What metrics did I ask to see?

And are you selling this? How’s that working for you?

Are Love and Trust the Missing Ingredients?

I am willing to believe that people love Taco Bell. Not all of us. But I think they have a fan following. I think they have people who choose that brand of fast food over any other type. I’m fairly sure people trust Taco Bell to deliver on a certain kind of experience, however you choose to view that.

Has Wendy’s earned that? And if not, how will they get it back?

Food for thought. Yep. I said it.



It’s everyone’s fantasy. When you think about imaginary superpowers, you first wish for the ability to fly—doesn’t everyone? Then you wish for the power of invisibility, the ability to eat as much ice cream as you want, your own Batmobile, and so on. Specific superhero aspirations vary.

But sooner or later you dream of another impossible achievement: the creation of a clone, who can work while you sleep or take on tasks in your absence. You have so much you want to do—good things, not the unwanted obligations we all need to reduce—and you wish you could begin more projects without killing yourself.

It’s not about scale for the sake of scale; it’s about growing your influence. It’s about creating more positive change—mixing it up and reaching more people in a different way. As a business grows and the business owner begins itching for new projects, he or she essentially has two options for self-made cloning:

Option 1: Reach more people with the same message

Option 2: Reach different people with a new message

Either option is valid, and both can be rewarding. For the first option, it may be helpful to think of the “hub and spoke” model when building an online brand. In this model, largely popularized by Chris Brogan, the hub is your main web site—typically an e-commerce site where something is sold, but it could also be a blog, community forum, or something else. The hub is a home base, with most of the content curated by you or your team, and ultimately where you hope to drive new visitors, prospects, and customers.

The spokes, known as outposts by Chris, are all of the other places where you spend your time. These could include social networking sites, the comments section of your blog or other blogs, actual meetings or networking events, or something else. You can see how this works in the image below:

Credit: Mike Rohde

The goal for each of the outposts is to support the work of the home base, not usually the outpost itself. It can be a trap to spend too much time with any of the outposts, because things change—some outposts become less popular over time, for example. You also own the content and work you create in the home base, whereas most of what happens in an outpost is “owned” by another company.

For example, I see a lot of great photographers on Instagram. They get hundreds of “likes” with each amazing photo. But for many of them, it seems they have no other home—everything is lost in the Instagram archives, which aren’t conducive to longevity. Don’t leave your followers on someone else’s site! Bring them to the hub.

You’re Only One Person… or Maybe Two

Hub-and-spoke is great for reaching more people with the same message. But there’s also another way to think of it. What if you could effectively clone or franchise yourself to work in totally different markets, with more than one hub? This isn’t just “doing more”; it’s about applying your skills, activities, and passions in a totally different way. The difference is that you take the time to be strategic—just like Nathalie Lussier did.

Nathalie was an up-and-coming software engineer. Originally from Quebec, she had interned in Silicon Valley and then had the chance to take a big job on Wall Street. Her family said it was the job of her dreams… but as Nathalie thought more about it, she realized it was the job of someone else’s dreams. Turning down the offer, she returned to Canada and decided to pursue a different idea.

Nathalie had a personal success story of dramatically improving her health after switching to a raw foods diet. Eating only fruits, vegetables, and nuts sounded crazy at first, but the results spoke for themselves: in the first month, she lost more than ten pounds and suddenly had energy throughout the day. As she talked with her friends, Nathalie was a natural evangelist—not pushy or judgmental, but offering tips and strategies that people could use to make real improvements, even if they weren’t ready to jump into a completely raw diet like Nathalie had done.

After relocating to Toronto, the idea was to build a small business helping other people make the adjustment to raw foods. Being a software engineer (and a self-described geek), Nathalie programmed a database, set up an app, and built her own website. The first incarnation was Raw Food Switch, which correctly represented the concept, but seemed a bit boring. One day Nathalie noticed that the same spelling—and therefore the same website—could be rendered as Raw Foods Witch, leading to a new theme. Dressing in character with a pointed black hat for photo shoots, she rebranded the whole business around herself. Nathalie created programs, one-time products, and individual consultation sessions in the same way we’ve seen others do throughout the book. Raw Foods Witch grew into a $60,000 business after the first year.

What’s not to love? Just one thing: “From the outside,” she told me, “It looked like all I talked about was raw foods. No one realized I had done all the programming and really enjoyed the intersection of business and technology.”

The second business came about unexpectedly, after Nathalie began getting tech inquires from her raw foods clients who were also creating businesses. She decided to create a separate brand for tech consulting, operating under her own name instead of the moniker she used in the other business. Raw Foods Witch is still a powerful brand—friends and clients report that other shoppers have mentioned her in the grocery store when they see a cart full of avocados—but she restructured the business to run on 80% autopilot. It still brings in a good income, but now Nathalie spends her time building the second business. Instead of doing one or the other, Nathalie effectively franchised herself.

***

In your own business, you can hone your efforts, producing one killer project that changes the world and brings you a good income. Or you can indeed be in more than one place at a time, without killing yourself. The key to the latter is to be strategic, like Nathalie was, and to set up the right systems that allow you to divide and conquer—if you want to.

Whatever you do, always focus your efforts on making a difference in the lives of the people you serve. This focus will ultimately determine your success.

How are you working to grow or improve your business?

###

Chris Guillebeau’s new book, The $100 Startup, provides a blueprint for creating freedom by building a business with no special skills and a small amount of money. Chris also writes for a small army of remarkable people at ChrisGuillebeau.com.

I recently moved the delivery time of my beloved newsletter to be Sunday morning (well, that’s when it launches here, though my New Zealander and Australian friends all get it on Monday). In the process, I talked to people about sharing this information over breakfast, and with a “second cup of coffee” sometimes. I basically set a scene in the reader’s head that we were having a personal chat over breakfast.

Ask yourself this: in trying to reach others for whatever your goal may be, is it facts or emotions that will win them over? Which do you think plays the bigger role? Related: what’s the benefit of creating an experience for your customer or prospect such that you tell a story with every aspect of your communications? Would you guess it’s not important, or do you think it merits a lot of thought and consideration?

Create a Setting

Have you ever asked yourself about the “where” of your conversations or media making? I suppose if you’re shooting video then the where pretty much is evident in what you use for a background. But what about in your blog posting or other articles? Where do you want the reader to imagine herself when she’s reading? What stage do you want to set around her?

When we talk about a ‘setting’ for your material, this doesn’t have to be hokey. Just because I describe two delicious over-medium eggs and dipping into the golden yolk with crisp sourdough toast doesn’t mean you have to paint a specific picture like that, but it would be useful to consider the tone of your material and what you hope the reader will take from it. Are you writing for someone sitting in the boardroom? Are you writing for a busy mom on the go? Are you writing for an up and comer or an established pro? Should this be something one reads while waiting in line at the grocery store, or the kind of post that you should read on the front porch, with some lemonade and a cucumber sandwich?

In my mind’s eye, my blog is written as if you are at your desk, in between other duties, and you’ve found five minutes to check in and get some fuel for your plans. The blog, in my thoughts, is for your office, or your coffee shop office. My newsletter, as I said before, is for a personal chat over breakfast. And why is that?

Connect With an Emotion

If I had to give you a general emotional palette for this blog, it would be: confidence,a sense of accomplishment (when you realize something for yourself), and caring. Those are the emotions I want to tap into with you. Have you ever considered which emotions you’d most like to reach in your audience? What are they? And what do they say about your goals?

The business goal of this blog is (and has been for a while) to earn a prominent spot in your mind, and from that, to earn the occasional opportunity to help with strategic advice around developing your digital channel for business. The secondary business goal is to earn the right to keynote or privately educate your association or corporation. So how does this all mesh together?

My blog (and remember, I’m just giving you mine as an example) is written for two purposes:

1.) Educate and equip you for your own success.
2.) Gently remind you that I can help your company with larger goals.

In the case of my efforts here, I want you to find confidence, find a sense of accomplishment, and find reasons to care. Those are pretty reasonable emotions to tap into in this setting.

But there are obviously other emotions. What about fear? Does your writing help others remove fears? You could say that back in the day, Gary Vaynerchuk created Wine Library to remove the average person’s fears about knowing what to do with wine. How about greed? Would you say that John Chow writes to appeal to people who want to make money? I would.

Whatever you choose isn’t a bad or a good emotion (for the most part). But in most cases, people don’t tend to think about reaching out and connecting into emotions, and as such, they miss the opportunity to connect on a level that goes below numbers.

How Will you Apply This?

When I bought my Camaro SS, do you think I cared what the gas mileage was? Sure, I looked at what Consumer Reports had to say, but I couldn’t actually tell you much about it. I bought the Batmobile! That car, emotionally, is my view of speed and power and freedom. The car doesn’t make me feel young. It makes me feel like a superhero. So, if you were going to sell to me, what would you have to do? You’d have to figure out the emotions and the tone and setting with which to couch information to me.

Do you consider that much when writing your blog or creating your other media? My guess is you will now. I’m eager to hear what you think the setting and the emotional center of your site is, and what you’re doing to reach out to people in those ways. Let’s talk more about this in the comments, shall we?

And if you want to see my efforts on setting and emotion at work, check out my personal weekly letter to you.

Thanks to Jason Falls, I just read this post about how many marketing agencies are closing down their blogs and tweeting and Facebooking instead.

“Nobody reads agency blogs, and there are so many out there it’s impossible for people to keep up anyway,” said Sam Weston, director of communications at digital agency Huge.

Nobody Reads ANY Blogs- If They’re Boring

I’ll tell you without even having to look why nobody reads a blog: because it’s boring. Because it’s poorly written. Because it’s utterly self-referential.

Nobody has time to read junk. Why would you? There’s so much great material out there.

What Should An Agency (or YOU!) Blog About?

An agency should blog about the space it serves, in some regards, but along with that, an agency (and YOU!!!!) should blog about those things you’re passionate about. My dad is passionate about poker. My mom is passionate about proving you can do it if you try. I’m passionate about keeping “human” in the digital business channel.

Write about passion, but write it in service to others.

If you did only this, you’d get more attention, more readers, more connections via your blog. What people want is to feel lit up, to feel like you and they are on the same page, like they can run with what you’ve shared, or they can add to it, or they can bask in it and feel it.

Mom blogs are so successful because there are billions of moms (actual number) who can commiserate when their kid will only eat beige and orange foods. Tech blogs are successful because nerds and aspiring nerds always want more ideas and information and new shiny things to touch and/or covet. The blogs that stay lit up, people like Mitch and Julien and Chris and C.C. and others, are based on working from a core of passion.

Keep At It

It took me 8 years to get my first 100 readers. I have several friends in this space who remember me from the way old days, even if their “way old days” starts back about halfway into that (around say, 2005). They saw me transition from someone writing about myself to someone writing ideas that would equip people around me to be successful. That was the nugget. That’s when things started taking off. That’s when I realized that I could write almost every day and have something to say, because people are always noodling over some part of the problem.

You want 5 quick things to make your blogging better?

1. Brevity. Cut posts to sub-500 words.
2. Structure. Write something others can USE.
3. Simplicity. Big words are pretty. Help people understand the point, instead.
4. Positivity. Writing angrily only works if you want to attract angry people.
5. Outward-facing. Write more about others than you ever do about yourself.

If you did just those five things, I bet your blogging results would improve after a few months. This isn’t how to get seen. How to get seen requires another whole other set of skills.

Want to learn more about blogging? Here’s a whole huge best advice about blogging post for you.

Stay writing. Don’t abandon your blogs. Get better at it. This kind of media can change your world, if you work to change the worlds of others.

I was at a live performance the other night where Jacq sang and played with Girish, and I had a great conversation with Reggie, the drummer for the night. (I am SO sorry that I don’t know your last name, Reggie.) We talked about the fact that his typical drum kit for events is usually like 30 or so pieces, but that he decided to go minimal for the event. He had a kick drum, a snare, a tom, two cymbals, and a cowbell.

What Reggie said was something like this, “I really enjoy this, because it means I really have to use what I have to get the expression I’m aiming for. I can’t just lean on all the gadgetry. I’m using my skills and coaxing that expression out of these few tools.” That’s my translation of what Reggie said. He actually said it better. This isn’t the real conversation. This is just a tribute. (If you just smirked a bit, thank you. If you have no idea what I just said, move along. It’s okay.)

Work Within Constraints

With many things we do in life, there’s this little continuum. We start with something smallish or nothing, we then adapt and develop newer or bigger or more (or some mix). You start with a point and shoot camera and then you need a digital SLR camera. And then you need this amazing $3000 lens. And then, somewhere, at some point, oddly, you decide to go 180 degrees in the other direction. You think, “I bet I could get amazing photos out of one of those crazy cardboard box kit cameras.”

Constraints are magic, if you learn to embrace them. Learning how to write within 500 words is powerful. Learning how to take just one great photo with a simple point and shoot camera is wonderful. Learning how to get music out of two sticks and a bucket is wonderful. You can do a lot by learning how to embrace a lesser set of tools. You can learn a lot by saying, “This is all I have to work with, and I’m going to do that.” Jason Fried wrote a great book about that, by the way. Rework.Read also A Lesser Photographer manifesto. (Thanks to Michael Schechter for sharing this with me.)

What Are Your Constraints?

Are you working within a very tight budget? Do you not have enough time? Are you a cruddy writer? Bad on video? What’s your set of constraints? For instance, in music, I’m constrained by my lack of knowledge and ability with my use of Logic Pro and Abelton Live. Knowing this, I sometimes come up with hackish ways of creating a sound I want, because I don’t know how all the cool kids do it.

Where are YOUR constraints? And let’s think about this: there are constraints you just have (like my lack of knowledge) and then there are constraints you can choose for yourself: I like to write sub-500 word posts.

And what will those DO for you?

That’s the conversation.

When you wake up in the morning, you check your emails, probably from your phone. First thing. Yes? Why?

There’s no good answer to why. Even brain surgeons can wait until they’ve done other things before checking in on the world outside of your immediate proximity. So why do you do it? Because it’s a habit, a pattern.

Do you read the top tech and marketing blogs? Why? Why do you read this blog? Because you’re subscribed? Are you getting something from it? If no, then why are you still doing it?

Twitter and Facebook are hugely pattern-driven. They thrive off the same game dynamics as slot machines. Hit with even a small win every once in a blue moon, and you’ll reinstate that pattern incessantly. In the slot machine and gaming industry, they know that they can bleed you out of all the money you might spend with this method. They even have a term for it: “time to expire.” They look at you as a clock running down.

Breaking Patterns Is A Starting Point to Success

If you want to find great success, learn to recognize your programming, to assess whether it’s actually doing something useful for you, and then to break the pattern. This works with all things. Julien Smith asked me why I blogged daily. I said something lame and forgettable. He asked me to try blogging less than daily. Result: just as much traffic, just as much engagement, and probably better posts for you to read.

I’m moving my pride and joy, my free newsletter from Tuesdays to Sundays, because I’ve decided that I like the concept of the intimacy of being in a conversation with you on Sunday. It’s a break from my previous pattern, and I will see whether it yields better results for my goals.

Deciding to unfollow most everyone on Twitter was a huge shift and a break in my pattern. From it, I’ve learned a lot, and I’ve reclaimed some needed cycles.

What Are You Missing?

One of the biggest reasons we do a bunch of the things we do, especially online, is for fear that we’ll miss something. When eBay first came out, its explosive growth came from the ability to watch auctions spool out in real time. Twitter is like that, and so is Facebook and Google+. We love watching information roll past in real time. Further, we really love it if people reply to us, or share our stuff, or like or whatevers. We crave it.

When we are alone, we start worrying that we’re missing something. We check our phone for phantom texts. If nothing we regularly follow is updating fast enough, we might go off and scan things of lesser value, just to see something new.

But why? What’s the big value in that particular kind of “new?”

There are so many patterns you can break. Your choice of snack. Your choice of after-work activity. Your choice of online haunts. Your reading materials. Your target goals for your efforts. Your lack of planning. Your over-abundance of planning. Your reliance on the calendar. Your disregard of the calendar.

What patterns could you break? Which patterns are you missing? What are you doing on autopilot and is that serving you? How much time and opportunity can you get back by breaking some of these patterns?