Should you wait to “monetize”?

How big does your audience need to be?

These are common questions and the answers have been debated over the years. I am going to share an answer I gave George from the Man Up Blog during his blog critique.

George spent some time in the dating world, sometimes called the “pick up artist” niche. This is shy dudes learning to pick up the ladies mostly, but obviously the market caters to all genders and tastes.

It’s pretty obvious what people want from dating advice, but moving away from that into a broader (and less defined) hook of helping men with mindset techniques and self development tools was giving George some interesting challenges. He knows he can help, and he knows how valuable the offered outcome is, but how does he communicate his value so clearly so he can gather an audience who wants to buy what he has to offer? When does he know he has it right?

First, Define Your USP

If you have read much of this blog you will have seen me give quite a bit of advice around defining what you do and who for. You need a unique selling proposition, positioning, uniqueness, hook, or whatever you want to call it.

You need to know who you help, what with and how. You need to be able to communicate why someone would want to work with you rather than go with the other options available to them.

While you might not get there right away, it is worth thinking about what that might be and testing out some ideas. That’s going to take some work but the effort pays off and reduces some friction so you can build momentum.

You need this unique and beneficial hook if you are going to get networking contacts, get people to join your list, or just get people to take notice of what you are doing. When you see someone struggle to get subscribers it is often because nobody knows the answer to “what’s in it for me?“. For example, George had “Awesome newsletter” to describe his opt-in form, rather than describing what the reader would get for signing up in an attractive way.

In George’s case we had some ideas but we realised one of the main ways George helps men is to gain confidence. It might not be where George ends up but it is a good place to start. While George can help someone get a complete overhaul, that is too big a picture to define a nice specific hook around.

Monetization versus Product Launches

When it comes to making money from blogging, in most cases you can go with “monetization” or you can market a business.

Monetization is the “media” type play where your blog is an online magazine (or maybe more like radio). It’s about building an audience, content, traffic, and making money off it. Usually this involves ads, maybe affiliate offers, but it is more about getting enough traffic that the ad space is worth enough financially and also attractive enough that advertisers want to appear in front of your audience.

You can put ads on your blog from day one, but don’t expect anyone to buy those ads, or to make any money from adsense and other automated services, until your traffic is high. In the order of around a thousand page views a day upwards unless your niche is particularly valuable.

Affiliate offers can be a good way to work out what your audience is willing to buy and at which price points, but obviously it is not going to ever perfectly match what people want from you.

A business is more than having a revenue source. It is a planned undertaking that is there for the longer term, has a real business model, is less about trying out tactics and more about building something substantial. That’s where launching products and services come into play, but interesting enough, it can actually be harder to make money off advertising than having your own deals.

Selling a product or a service is not about having masses of subscribers or millions of page views, it is about putting the right offer in front of the right people at the right price and at the right time. A freelance designer probably can’t handle more than a handful of clients at any one time so what good would a million visitors a day do her?

The Vital Difference Between an Offer and Selling

You might still be wondering when it is time to try a launch. Don’t worry, we will get there.

One thing I think is vital but missing from most of these conversations is … You need to know when to sell, and when to pitch.

There is a difference between having a product or service on offer and actively pitching it.

Pitching your product or service uses up goodwill with your audience. Go to far and your audience will disengage or abandon you completely. You have to keep up the valuable content and keep the pitches down to a minimum, particularly early on. But that said, you can put things up on offer without making constant sales pitches.

My advice is that you can have a consulting call offer on your blog from the day you launch. You don’t even have to draw attention to it. Having it exist has a value.

Why?

It sets the scene. Having the offer there tells people you are in business and that your time and expertise has a value. You can even give free calls, but you can honestly tell people that ordinarily that call has a certain price.

If you don’t show that you mean business then people will not have the opportunity to send you money, and might at worst discount your advice as not worth anything. People don’t tend to give a lot of perceived value to free, so from that perspective alone it is worth putting a price on it.

Giving a price to your advice also allows you to filter. Not everyone is going to be a good fit for you, and some people do try to take advantage. Should someone want to “pick your brain” when you are busy, distracted, or just not interested, you can point them to your offer.

In George’s case he can offer one to one coaching calls to help men gain confidence in certain areas of their lives.

Get Deeper Insights and Get Paid

Consulting and coaching is an excellent way to deepen the insight you can get from readers and speed up the whole process.

You can really help people, get paid, plus all the while be gathering crucial research into what your audience most wants to know.

Most of my best content and product ideas come out of the coaching and Q&A calls I do. People ask me questions and I answer them, but the topics rattle around my head and later come out as articles.

A really cool added benefit is while people might tell you they are interested in something, when they buy your consulting the audience is taking action – they tell you with the best vote possible … their dollars. When people take you up on your consulting or coaching you know your audience wants what is in your head (no matter how you package it) and you even get a rough idea of how much that information is worth to them.

Should You Wait?

George told me he had been waiting until he had a critical mass of audience engagement before offering a product for sale. I told him not to wait, but it is worth understanding what the options are.

Coincidentally, while I was writing up this blog critique case study I was listening to today’s Third Tribe Q&A call with Sonia Simone and Brian Clark. Brian brought up his concept of a “Minimum Viable Audience” – the tipping point where your audience is large enough and you know enough about what they want from their feedback that you can successfully launch your product.

Copyblogger waited a long time before offering products. They had a massive audience of engaged readers, so when Teaching Sells came out they knew exactly what that audience wanted and gave it to them. It was a huge success, and still is.

That was a different time though. Audience tolerance for bloggers offering products for sale has transformed over the last few years.

There is another point in favour of having something for sale early on also. Sonia mentioned that if you don’t let people know you are in business then people can forget and then get annoyed when you sell stuff. This is an experience I had for a while where people thought of me as a “free guy” because of my free content, ebooks, seminars, and so on – even though by blog was about business.

So how should you progress? Should you wait or should you offer something now?

My advice is to follow these steps:

1. Offer consulting or coaching (especially if you can make it very easy to see what people are going to get, like my critique service).
2. Gain insights from the audience, surveys, metrics, questions, testing content ideas and from the private calls.
3. Do a test launch of a contained product to a small group – what we often call a Minimum Viable Product.
4. Expand the product based on the feedback you get from the test group.
5. Roll out to the public.

What do you think? Have you held off selling products or services? Do you rather blogs wait to offer items for sale? What do you think about George’s blog? Please share your thoughts in the comments … 

Sounds like a pretty nice result doesn’t it?

I was super happy, but a little disappointed in one specific respect. Only 500 people subscribed.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I loved and nurtured those 500 subscribers and 500 subscribers in any time frame is not to be sniffed at!

My problem was, how can you have 20,000 visitors check out my blog and only 500 of them want to stick around?

The cause? I was “Driving” traffic …

Big Lessons Learned

I had been involved with a couple of successful blogs at that time so I had some idea of what I was doing, but when I sat down and looked at my stats a light bulb went off.

As anyone familiar with Authority Blogger will know, I was breaking the norm a little bit with this blog at that time by steering away from traditional blog monetization. Those 20,000 visitors did not bring me any income at all in terms of ad clicks or page views.

For my fledgling blog to be a success, I had to get subscribers. I didn’t need to get millions, in fact my strategy has always required a more engaged audience rather than a mass audience (which is why my free ebooks are not about topics like generating a lot of cash overnight and other instant appeal subjects).

The two big lessons were:

1. Traffic sources have a massive impact on the success of your blog
2. What people see versus what people expect can determine what people DO when they visit

In conclusion, you are not a cowboy driving a herd of cattle, you are a content creator trying to attract people to check out your stuff.

Instead of driving a mass-audience to my blog, I should have been attracting the RIGHT people and showing them something compelling.

It’s a subtle difference, but one that could make ALL the difference.

The Demise of Digg and the Rise of Referrals

A big percentage of the traffic I received in those early days was from social bookmarking sites such as Digg.com.

Gratifying as that traffic was (and problematic as I hopped around from web host to web host to avoid traffic spikes shutting my site down), it was never as good in terms of quality as the traffic I got from friends, fans and partners.

When you think about it, that makes perfect sense.

It is like we have gone back to the local community where word of mouth is far more compelling than a primetime Super Bowl ad.

From the point I noticed this trend I changed strategy to suit, and therefore attracted only the best and most lovely people to this blog – people like you

How to Attract Visitors

So if driving traffic is the wrong thing, what should you do instead?

1. Work out who you most want to attract
2. Get to know those people as much as possible
3. Develop content that will be super attractive to the people you want
4. Meet them where they hang out and be useful
5. Bring them back home with links to your best, most relevant stuff

Where they hang out might be forums, other blogs, or social networking sites. You can turn up, hang out, be useful at any of those venues. It might be the big industry conference everyone talks about.

Just as long as you can get your best stuff in front of the right people at the right time, it will be far more effective than trying to herd people towards your site!

Look at your own approach – are you trying to push people to your site or are you attracting them? Is it about what you want them to do or how you can help them?

Notice the difference?

Your audience probably does not want to hear from you at all.

If you think that because your website looks great that people will want to visit it … think again.

What do they really want?

Your audience and potential customers know who they are and probably have a very good idea of their goals. At the very least they know their immediate needs.

They are looking for answers to questions, advice, and resources that help people like them get the stuff people like them want.

When someone seeks out and clicks on your content it is only as a means to that end (even if that need is 10 minutes coffee break entertainment).

While we talk about “our audiences” we have to remember these are people with their own wants, needs, biases, motivations, and attention spans. You have surprisingly little influence on their behaviour.

What does all this mean?

Previously I wrote about finding and communicating your unique value. If you manage to cut through the noise and present what you offer in a way that speaks to your target audience then you will succeed far more than being about “good content”. It’s about being highly useful and relevant, it’s about serving that particular audience.

But how do you know when you have the right answer?

I spoke about how your brand is making a promise, but how do you know what the right promise is to that audience?

This is the situation Matthew Setter was in with his Maltblue site when he contacted me for some advice. He wanted a critique to know if he was on the right track. His site is about PHP programming – a hugely competitive niche.

PHP is not a new topic. Since the late-1990′s there have been thousands and thousands of great resources produced for anyone wanting to learn the programming language. Standing out in the face of all this noise is a challenge to say the last.

Matthew has done a good job of setting up a nice looking site and building up some useful resources. He also made a start toward narrowing down his offerings to appeal to a certain subset of the overall group, which is a smart move.

The problem is, like many of us, it still comes across as too generic.

If you look at Matthews site you can see it has some signs it will be valuable, but nothing jumps out as obviously beneficial in a specific way. It’s an “Education Portal” for “PHP Professionals”. Is this a promise nobody else can make or is making? Why visit this PHP education portal?

We need a plan to get from “one of the crowd” to “go-to resource”.

You can’t get there in one leap and one of the most fundamental solutions is to research and test.

How to approach standing out in your market

1. Do as much research as you can to determine who your existing audience is – their wants, needs, desires, biases and habits.
2. Work out who you WANT as your audience – who can you most help, who do you want to help?
3. Drill down the research – What groups do they identify with? How do they describe their tribe? What are they looking for and WHY? Where do these people want to go?
4. Determine what you have to offer that intersects with what they want – more on this in a moment.
5. Get visible – put your content and ideas in front of these people in as large quantities as you can – public speaking, guest posting, forum posting.

Matthew worked out one of the valuable things he has to offer is his deep knowledge of specific tools and techniques that can help a professional PHP developer in their career, to be more productive and professional.

The next step is to see if that solution matches a problem your target audience actually has. Are there people looking for this? Would they recognise the value if they happened across it?

Testing your positioning

Anyone who has been through Authority Blogger, Make More Progress or listened to my Third Tribe and Teaching Sells seminars will know that I have a problem with “Analysis Paralysis” – I tend to over-think things unless I take some small actions that get me moving.

Therefore I am a person who does a LOT of testing!

I recommend testing not just because it gets you out of being stuck in theory, but also because when it is done right it gives you answers rather than guess work and assumptions.

First test with your free content on your own blog.

You can start by writing a variety of topics around the concepts you think work with what you have to offer, your unique hook, and the people you want to attract.

What do your readers like the most? Your existing audience will tell you via stats, shares in social media, page views, and so on. Matthew has a list of the most popular content right in his sidebar. Of course, some of this is a self-fulfilling prophecy because your audience might not match who you want, plus they can only choose from what you offer and promote, which leads us to …

Interact!

You need to engage the audience you are attracting to see if they are growing to be a closer fit to who you want and if you are serving them. Also dig down under the surface to find out the deeper issues and desires.

Find real flesh and blood human beings and talk to them. On the phone/skype, in forums, in social media, Google+ hangouts, twitter chats, IRC, and at conferences/workshops/meetups/user groups.

Get a bigger spotlight

Especially in the beginning you won’t have a big enough audience to do all the testing. You need to borrow someone else’s.

Creating a free resource, webinar, teleseminar, live conference session, local user group presentation, and so on can help you get noticed but also give you enough visibility for your ideas to glean conclusions. Of course you have to match the venue to where your target audience is going to be.

The ultimate test

Ultimately you have to get people to vote with their cash, not with their words and clicks. Work up from free to paid. If the signs with free are encouraging then you can move to investing in creating something for sale.

The great news is the work you have done so far will help you be more confident but will also help in attracting potential partners and customers. For example, the free resources and guest posting will have built your list up, and also testing your ideas in front of live audiences works a lot like a stand-up comic testing material before selling a DVD.

A lot of product and service models actually provide insight and feedback right into the process, such as coaching/consulting and offering Q&A. They will tell you what they are stuck on and what they need more of.

You can start small, create a Minimum Viable Product (the 20% of the packaging and content that gets 80% of the results, enough to cover what you know they need but with flexibility to course-correct as people consume the material), so you don’t put in too much up-front work and so that you know what you are producing is exactly what your target customer wants and needs. Do a test launch, get feedback, improve, then put it out again.

Conclusion

If you are at a stage where you think you are on the edge of something, just like Matthew, put it to the test.

Start with articles, move to a series, a free report, some videos, and so on. If you can get a couple of hundred people onto a webinar or teleseminar then you probably have a worthwhile subject and audience to pursue!

Get your ideas together and maybe pitch the next conference or local user group. Do a 10 minute version of a talk. If it gets accepted then that is the first sign, and the audience will give you feedback. If you get a line of people asking questions at the end then all the better.

The main thing is to remember it is impossible to fail. You might find out some of your experiments did not give you the results you hoped for but that is a very different thing from failure because at least you will have learned something valuable without betting everything on the outcome!

Please check out Matthews site and give him some feedback (or encouragement) in the comments below, because he and I would appreciate it

Why then do people struggle to find an audience. Never mind an audience who knows, likes and trusts them – ANY audience?

It’s weird but a lot of the time it is because you have SO much to offer, it’s hard to know who you are for and what specific benefit you provide.

A lot of my coaching clients have this problem and, thankfully, there is a solution. The solution is simple, but it isn’t always easy.

Check out Ryan Sullivan and his blog, No More Bacon.

No More Bacon

When you look at his site, it’s a really nice blog. I am sure you will agree he is doing a great deal very well … but what stands out as the key, specific, compelling benefit?

What is going to get you to come back, week after week?

This is what struck me when he asked for a blog critique. It’s hard to tell someone that they are doing very well when they obviously are not happy with the results they are getting!

Ryan is a talented and in-demand writer. He is an interesting guy with a fascinating story to tell. His blog should be doing stellar things.

Unfortunately his blog has lost its way due to a lack of direction.

Your audience needs to know what they are going to get, and it has to be something they want.

If your readers are going to share and spread your good stuff, they are going to need to be clear on how they communicate why your blog is awesome too!

Where are you going, and where are you taking us?

Look at the screen grab above and check out the various elements.

• Free download – cool. It’s about “Great Blog Design”.
• Free email updates – call to action mentions free email updates. Possibly bacon.
• The tag line is about weight loss? Life hacks? Focus?
• Navigation pages have “Feel Good”, “Dad Life”, and “WordPress” as captions.

Even the social media connection buttons are a buffet of choice!

Social Media Buttons

When you want your visitor to take an action, past a certain point, more choice is seldom better. In fact narrowing choices usually increases the chance of getting an action.

You have to know where you are going and where you are taking your audience. If you don’t know then you will not be able to communicate it, and if you can’t communicate it then you can’t expect your audience to understand!

This has to go through all your content, your interactions, your messages, your products and your services.

The key word here for the whole situation is focus.

Tighten Focus, Get Better Results

Being the “bacon dude” is fun. It might be memorable, and might be unique, but it is not enough.

• Why do only a small number of people come back regularly?
• Why are so few people subscribing to his blog right now, despite the richness of what he has to offer?

You have to remember that when you suggest people subscribe, you are not just competing for attention with other blogs and sites, you are also competing with the option of doing nothing. Your call to action has to be more appealing than the status quo. Your prospect is debating if giving up their email address is going to be a net benefit or more clutter in their inbox.

Despite what you might imagine, the value you offer is not obvious, and it is not more compelling for being free.

What will the reader really get that they can not get anywhere else? What will it do for them? Why should they care?

It’s not about just standing out, it is about standing for something.

Make it specific, beneficial, and unique.

The more generic you seem, the more they will think they can get this stuff elsewhere, and the less compelled to stick around your audience will be. Yes, they might be attracted by a piece of content, but they will not have a clear idea of why they should become a regular reader.

What is your mission? What is your promise?

Through your brand, you are making a promise to your reader. What is that promise?

The short version of mine is I help people build a business around sharing what they know. There are longer versions and tag-line versions (you will see more when my re-design is in place), but it all comes down to the same key messages:

• Attract an audience of people who know, like and trust you.
• Grow your authority so that you become the go-to person in your niche.
• Build an advice based business around your knowledge, ideas and experiences.

Your Signature Story

An exercise I often do with my clients is your signature story.

In conversation with Ryan I discovered he has a great story to tell about laughing in the face of adversity – that’s fantastic. It has drama, emotion, and lessons to take away. That’s his message to the world.

One way to come up with your signature story is the “Oprah Test”. I am not sure where I got this from but it is not my invention.

Essentially you imagine you have a once in a lifetime opportunity to be interviewed by Oprah (or John Stewart or your niche alternative) at short notice.

What do you talk about?

If you don’t know, then that is possibly why you are not getting people to pay attention to you. 

My signature story will possibly be familiar to you. The abridged version goes like this:

• I was an IT and programming geek.
• Worked at various consultancies, and advertising agencies.
• By sharing my solutions and tutorials I built an audience.
• This content sharing and community building lead to opportunities, a side business and book deals etc.
• Decided I didn’t want to be known for the computer side, I was enjoying the marketing side more.
• Reverse-engineered what I had done the first time around and established myself as a marketing consultant.
• ???
• Profit.

This is essentially the story of Authority Blogger but parts of the story have been used in all kinds of places (especially the mistakes I made along the way) because it explains my approach in a way that shows I have “been where you are”. When you hear it I might emphasise the human side or the strategy side. On rare occasions I will tell the whole thing, including family elements, tears and all. Our stories allow us to connect with an audience in a way tricks and tips never can.

Can you see how my story connects with my “mission”?

Having something specific to share, a compelling story to tell, will help you gain attention and will help you find your place.

This signature story can form the basis of your about page, your presentations, your networking, even a book.

The Best Draw is Self Interest

Want to make your stories and messages even more compelling?

Make the connection between what you offer or talk about, and what your audience wants and needs.

Even better if the audience already knows they want it. Especially if they want help urgently.

• Who is the audience you most want to attract and can most help?
• What are their goals?
• What are their problems?
• What are their biases?
• What experiences do you share?

How does what you offer help or connect with this? How does your signature story show empathy with their situation and a way ahead?

In my case I demonstrate:

• You don’t have to be a natural entrepreneur or salesman (I am anything but).
• There is power in sharing what you know, generously.
• That there is a way to build a business around what you are most interested in talking about.
• It’s possible to have a business that provides a lifestyle rather than be a slave to your work.

If you show you understand, that you have been there and learned the lessons, and that you can share a plan, then people will come along on the journey with you.

Bottom Line

1. Get clear on who you serve and what their goals and needs are.
2. Decide the outcome you can promise them (even if that promise is simply entertainment).
3. Connect what you offer to who they are and what they want.
4. Pull together the elements of your story that reinforce this.
5. Give your audience the content to lead them from where they are to where they want to be.

Most important of all? Clarity and focus!

What do you think? Please Check out “No More Bacon” and give Ryan your feedback in the comments because I am sure he will appreciate your thoughts …

The problem is, there are the usual caveats:

• It’s not fast.
• It’s not easy.
• You WILL encounter problems and tough challenges.
• You might not always enjoy it.

These are challenges facing Roman who asked me for a blog critique. He has been building a site all about his experience of creating a website that makes money called “How this website makes money” (how meta). Problem is, while he is getting some pretty OK traffic, it isn’t making him much money.

Roman shows how his website works

Kind of important for a site about making money with websites to make money, right?

It would be remiss of me at this point to ignore another challenge that would face many people …

• People might well say hurtful things, some of whom will be random internet strangers.

I would like to keep the conversation constructive. When you are considering what to write in the comments, please keep this in mind, ok?

Making Money with Websites is Hard

We have established that most people who set out to make money at anything will have a hard time. Most businesses fail, just a fact of life. What “fail” means in reality is a lot of people give up, a lot of people start multiple business and focus on the successful ones, and so on. I have a whole bunch of abandoned sites and domains just waiting for when I “have time”. But suffice to say, it’s not a certain or easy thing by any means.

Looking down that list above (which is not anywhere near exhaustive) and hearing this might well put you off.

At the very least it doesn’t seem as glamourous now, does it? But if you are still interested in learning about how to turn a website profitable, despite how hard it can be, then read on.

Still here? OK, I did mention that some people manage it … So how do you REALLY make money from a website?

Two Types of Websites that Make Money

There are two main types of website that make money.

1. A business that is marketed online.
2. A “magazine” or “media” business.

Mine is the former. I have a consulting, training and coaching business, and I mainly market that business via a website and other online channels. Another example would be Copyblogger Media. In fact, I would say now Copyblogger Media is a “software” business, but that is a discussion for another time A business sells products and services, the content is a way of attracting people and retaining their interest.

Examples of the second category would be the stereotypical blog – any of the gadget and tech blogs, such as Techcrunch, Gizmodo, et al. Your news sites.  They use advertising (and maybe affiliate links), and therefore are “monetized” media and eyeballs, clicks and page impressions.

Sites do not have to stay rigidly in one form versus another, but you do need to know your business model or at least the direction you are headed. Take Darren’s Digital Photography School. It started out magazine style, quickly turned into a community, and now sells information products.

For sure there are other models of profitable site that work, but for the most part these two categories are the ones that work for more people.

Back to the Critique

Roman’s business plan appears to be as follows:

1. Use the site as it’s own case study.
2. Report on the progress, metrics and tactics used.
3. Make money via hosting and domain reselling/affiliate, and some Adsense.

So far, at the time of writing, he has achieved the below milestones:

Milestones at "How this Website Makes Money"

Which business model would you guess Roman is following?

Yes, I would say Roman is following the “Magazine” format, and he is facing the classic challenges of that format.

Challenges of the Media/Magazine Website Format

While there are nice benefits to the magazine style format, there are several challenges too.

On the one hand, it seems like you can put most of your effort into what you do best and what you most enjoy, such as writing, engaging with your audience, and so on. You can make your own hours, or even not work at all. Some might even suggest you can make money with zero effort once the hard work is done – set it and forget it. And that is all true, for some, and for a varying amount of time.

It’s not necessarily true for you, though.

What becomes immediately obvious to anyone who has tried this approach is you need a LOT of traffic. Much more than what Roman is getting.

Adsense does not pay very well in all but a tiny number of high competition niches, so you need a heck of a lot of clicks, and that means a great deal of traffic and you need your ads to be very “in your face” (perhaps to the point of being obnoxious).

If you are going to be an affiliate or reseller for a commodity like domains and hosting, again you are going to need a great deal  of traffic. If that commodity does not have an already in demand brand name that you can rank in search for (especially for the purchasing type phrases, such as “[Brand] Review” or “Buy [Brand]“, then expect to need an eye-watering amount of traffic.

Relying on search traffic? You are also going to need a design that drives as many people towards clicks or purchases as possible. Blogs are made for browsing and “ooh shiny”, not pushing people down tracks that end up at conversions.

It can be done, but there is an alternative …

A Different Model

The good news is, while Roman has been struggling, he is actually in a pretty good shape.

His intentions and approach are not necessarily wrong, but I think his business model does not match his tactics, or at least implementation of them.

We had a brief discussion in email and he said he was wary of being too out there in terms of engaging his community, social media, public speaking, and so on. While all those things definitely do help, it’s not the only way.

What Roman needs is to improve in four areas:

1. Targeting.
2. Retention.
3. Conversion.
4. Sharing.

Audience Targeting

Right now, Roman’s hook is kind of self-referential. It’s all about Roman’s site. OK, there is the aspect of the reader “learns by example”, but the big flashing neon message subconsciously says “This is me doing my thing, come admire it”

The “you can too” aspect is let down by the lack of any proof – right now it is a case study in NOT making money, right? But that can be turned around by first focusing on what you CAN teach credibly (creating and maintaining a website under your own personalised domain that attracts traffic) and after making some money, you can return to the making money aspect.

Your hook is a promise. If you are not delivering on what people think you are promising then you will not get very far. Make a promise you can keep.

What does this have to do with audience targeting? Right now Roman is attracting people he can’t help very much. He needs to attract people he can help.

And actually there is content there that will help them. It might need to be packaged and promoted differently, but Roman has the experience and knowledge to help anyone who is having trouble building a website. Don’t overlook that – I get questions every day from people confused with domains, hosting and FTP – all things Roman knows well.

The best place to be is to find an audience with a self-identified problem that you can solve (profitably).

OK, they might not all be ready to buy quite yet, which brings us on to the next part.

Retention

When you have something to sell you have two choices. First you can try to make the sale right now, which is tough. The second option is easier, keep them interested until they are ready.

Retain the audience you manage to attract and keep them warm. Get people onto a list.

Let’s see how you can do that with some examples:

AuthorityBlogger Squeeze Page

My Sidebar Opt-in Form

A Copyblogger Landing Page

What these examples have in common is they are highly visible, you are given an incentive to sign up, and promises are made to keep you interested long-term.

Answer “What’s In It For Me?” – why should we sign up? What are we going to get that we can’t get anywhere else?

• The “Squeeze” example gives compelling bullets then limits the choice to opt-in or not. There are very few distractions.
• The “landing page” gives you some good stuff but then says if you want more then check out the newsletter.
• The sidebar is the most humble of the lot – it sits there waiting until the reader is ready, but does show WIIFM.

Use all of these in combination

It’s not just about having a list though, it is about having the reader’s attention over a longer period so you can show them the way to what they want (a profitable website?), piece by piece.

And, yes, show them offers too.

Even better in Roman’s case would be a drip-fed email based tutorial that shows step by step how to build a site, along with all the links to resources they would need.

Which leads us to conversions …

Converting Readers

I already mentioned that converting readers on first visit is crazy difficult. Instead, warm people up.

You know the best way to warm people up to your way of thinking? Educate them. Teach something they want to know.

If over time you share tutorials, videos, downloads, straight to their inbox, and they get results, then they are going to know, like and trust you. That “trust” one is the big one if you want people to take up your offers.

Show people how to use the tools you use to get the results they want and they will think favourably about buying those tools that you recommend.

Don’t just rely on affiliate/reseller offers though.

What could you offer people right away? A good example would be trouble-shooting or targeted website building training. You could sell 30min chunks of consulting time to help people out of problems they have gotten into or show them how to do something they are struggling with.

People don’t want “stuff”, they want solutions or they want to achieve something. When you help them do that, then they thank you.

Even better, they might bring friends …

Sharing

The last thing you want to do is rely on Google for both your traffic AND your revenue.

Instead you want to attract your visitors as much as possible from referrals with SEO as a nice side source.

We already established that social media is not high on Roman’s “want to” list, but for everyone else reading we know this is one good source of sharing that I would encourage.

At all times you should encourage as many of your readers to share your stuff as possible. We are talking about sharing buttons, sharable media such as YouTube videos and PDF, and written call to actions asking for people to share.

A big tip is to use headlines that go viral.

Bottom line for sharing is that you have to turn up as a real, likeable person, engage your audience, and reward your reader so much for giving you their attention that they want to tell all their friends about you.

Conclusion

Roman is doing lots of things right. He doesn’t have a content problem or an idea problem, it is more a packaging and promotion issue. It will be very difficult to create the masses of traffic he needs to monetize as he currently is, but by creating a list of people who are engaged and want to hear from him then he is much more likely to get the profit he wants.

For everyone else, there is a lesson here. It’s not just about getting attention and having something to offer. You have to either have a super-compelling offer, something the audience already knows they really want, or you have to build trust over time.

What do you think? Have any feedback for Roman? Think I missed something? Please share in the comments …

You can feel your lungs burning because you didn’t have time to grab a full breath … though you are surprising yourself how long you are managing to force yourself from gasping down a lung full of water …

All you can hear is your heart pounding.

Scary?

I don’t need to imagine what that would be like because I can remember in vivid detail. In fact I have had nightmares about it.

My overriding thought was drowning myself was a heck of a way to celebrate my birthday!

Learning from the things that scare us

Don’t worry, I’m not going to dwell too much on what happened in this article, I feel I have been melodramatic enough – but I do want to share more about what I learned from it. If you want more about the story, check out this interview Dries and I did shortly after.

Long story made shorter, I felt I was going to drown, and that scared the heck out of me!

After this traumatic event was over and I dried off, I had to make a choice. Do I get out and never go back in the water, or do I go back the next day?

I chose to go back, but only after a VERY restless night where I analysed every horrific far-fetched scenario you can imagine. If I didn’t go back then I would have gone from having one scary experience to having a brand new phobia. Great birthday present!

Fear versus Rationality

Was I actually going to drown? Probably not.

In fact the fear was making the situation worse!

The fact is, though, with fears it is not all about reality. Perception is actually the controlling factor.

At the time it felt like I was drowning. In those cases perception IS reality. I couldn’t take a step back and objectively work out that in all likelihood my instructor was trained. Yes, he reminded me a little too much of shaggy from Scooby Doo, but I am sure I am not the first to have my equipment malfunction on his watch.

The more scared I got, the more danger I was in.

To begin with I was pretty calm. I tapped the bottom of my little boat three times as instructed. When nobody came over to help I proceeded to tug on the cord which (in theory) would make me pop out of the Kayak and float to the surface.

I started panicking when no amount of tugging on that cord would release me from the boat’s grip. Then I really started panicking when I realised I was going to need to draw a breath real soon.

It’s not too far removed from when a particularly nasty and influential individual nearly caused me to stop building my programming training business. The reality was he was only influential with a specific group of people who were never going to be my customers anyway, but my perception was that if he publicly attacked me then nobody would ever buy my training again.

Feeling out of control of the situation and imagining far-fetched scenarios, giving into the fear and the emotion, nearly pushed me into making the worst possible decision.

What has all this got to do with you?

This scenario is not too different to other scary situations you or I have been in if we look past the potential watery grave. We feel confident right up until the uncertainty and lack of control gets too far out of our comfort zone and experience.

Rather than let fear dictate our actions we should instead seek to grow our comfort zones and experiences so we are better able to handle situations that come up.

I have tagged this as “moving the fear line” as a play on a popular marketing phrase

Business is often uncertain

In business we are going to be faced with situations over which we have little control and that scare us. A lot of what I work on with coaching clients is about mindset and their fears, and I have had to work on these things myself.

• Putting ourselves “out there” in public.
• Selling and self-promotion.
• Criticism and trolls.
• Fear of failure.
• Fear of success.
• Financial fears.
• … And more.

What can we do?

We have to take some action if we are not going to give into these fears.

• We can either let the fear dictate our actions or make a different choice.
• We can try to be objective and see where the perception ends and where the reality starts.
• We can aim to understand what the actual worst case and likely scenarios really are.
• We can face our fears and go ahead and do stuff anyway.

What really might happen?

• My first job was working for a hospital. I worked with people who literally made life and death situations.
• From birth my daughter has faced several health issues and has had her life saved several times.
• My Dad was an officer in the fire service, he had to send people into burning buildings.

What do we risk in business? Some money and reputation?

Not quite the same, is it?

You know what really helps me?

I have always, and continue, to put myself in situations that scare me. Both business situations (such as public speaking which terrifies me) and leisure situations, such as those below!

Blogger Super Car Day

Indoor Skydiving

Why? Because that is how we put things in perspective. It’s how we stretch our comfort zone. That is how we gain experience, and that is how we grow as people, as well as in business.

If I hadn’t been through scary situations and come through the other side, I don’t think we would have had the courage to move country and leave our comfort zone entirely behind.

What we quickly learn is what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger

I am not talking about taking unnecessary risks or living on adrenalin. But do shake yourself out of any rut you find yourself in, don’t live your life running on rails. Surround yourself with people who challenge you.

After all, if you only do what you have always done, you will only get what you have always got.

What do you think? How do you face your fears and stretch yourself? Please share your thoughts in the comments …

Added: Also check out this interview with Alison where I talked more about fears and facing them!

I’m not saying it would work for everyone, but it has certainly given me a new perspective on my own business.

Over the summer I achieved something I thought was unlikely at best, and potentially damaging at worst.

I went down from working 7 long days a week, to working only 3. At most. The best part? Even though I worked much fewer hours … My income stayed roughly the same.

• Without hiring a virtual assistant.
• While still handling my own email, telephone calls, social media, etc.
• Still with my advice-based business, NOT mythical “push-button passive-income” systems!

Could I have gone further? Maybe, but I didn’t want to comprise on delivering on my promises, obligations, and longer term business growth. Much as I would have loved the dream of a “four hour work week”, I know just with coaching alone I have much more on my plate than that would allow. I was pretty happy with how this experiment turned out!

How did I manage to earn the same income while doing much less work?

• Non-negotiable criteria – I HAD to earn the same level of income – My outgoings actually increased in that time and my reserve funds were depleted after moving country. There was no way to cut back, the budget was already as lean as it was going to get. And, besides, I like my lifestyle! There was no choice but to make it work.
• Motivation – I really wanted to work less hours – The whole plan was based on spending more time with my family over summer. My daughter got much more summer vacation time, and we were still settling in after our move so it was very important. So important that family time took priority over anything else.
• Waste – I knew I said “yes” too much out of fear of being the “bad guy”. I had done a lot of work with myself in that area so I went from “saying no more” to “No, by default”.
• Organisation – My clients were given open slots in which to book coaching time. Of course I had some flexibility, I am not an ogre, but 99% of the time they found time that worked. I outsourced a little (still working on my control freakishness), but mainly it was down to strict time management and not doing wasteful stuff and allowing myself to be distracted. A pleasant side effect is I could arrange my time so that my “social battery” didn’t run so low I couldn’t get anything else done (a hazard of being an introvert is talking to people can be draining and I have to recharge).
• 80-20% rule – My business was reduced down to the 20% of effort that brought 80% of the results. I had been working on my authority business processes for a while, essentially all I needed to do was be very strict and only work on the crucial parts. This “critical path” of my business was the real engine of what I do and while there was some friction and pressures around not dropping some balls, it worked out really well.

5 Steps to reduce your workload while growing your business

1. What can you not change? Work out what you absolutely must not compromise on. You will want to keep up quality, ethics, customer service, and likely want to grow your income – what else?
2. Why? Where is your motivation coming from? Don’t work less out of laziness because we are talking about a more focused effort not sipping chilled drinks on tropical islands while money shoots out of your computer Knowing why you are motivated will help keep clarity when you are pushed into hard decisions.
3. Can you say NO more? What are you currently saying “yes” to that distracts you from your goals or adds clutter to your day?
4. How can you organise your time so you can give customers the attention they need without taking too much of your schedule or energy? What can you safely outsource if you need to, while not compromising your relationships with contacts, customers, suppliers and colleagues? Can you batch similar work so you have less set up time? Take it in increments – I started by not working weekends, then stopped working past 6pm on weekdays, then started taking Monday off, etc.
5. What is the 20% in your business? Where does the majority of your results come from? How does your business generate the best leads for least time and effort? How can you shorten the conversion process? How can you deliver the best customer experience in a focused way with less chance of random and scattered attention? I found I could cut the fat in many areas, I am sure you can too.

Bottom Line:

I am so glad I tried this, even though there was a danger. I did have the safety net of knowing I was not setting it as the rule long term, but actually I really haven’t reverted back to the old routine hardly at all.

The outcome was we had a lot of great times as a family and I learned some valuable approaches that I will of course be passing along to clients. In terms of future prospects for the business, I now have two “extra” days in my week now my daughter is back in school to use for long term efforts such as business development and product and service creation.

It certainly was not easy. There were some stressful moments, and I don’t like turning away opportunities. It’s not nice saying no to everything, but it turned out with my hectic travel and house-moving logistics, I couldn’t have taken on the added stuff anyway!

For you it could come down to what you believe you should be doing versus what you really should be doing. “That’s just the way it is done around here” might be doubling your work load but making you less effective!

Even a small reduction in wasteful effort could be a huge energy boost and motivator for you, and at the very least bring some much-needed clarity to where you place your emphasis.

Over to you – do you think you are working too much? Do you have any questions? Please share in the comments …

• Traffic generation
• Community and relationship building
• Teaching and demonstration
• Social sharing
• Monetization

Still don’t feel you can do web video?

Admittedly I geeked out and bought a whole lot of equipment for my photography/video stuff but you don’t have to

Ben has some answers for folks who feel like they need fancy equipment or resources …

Now, in the previous article I showed how you can use a built in feature of YouTube to even record your video, and in most cases your videos will be pretty short, but what happens if you want to have longer videos hosted on YouTube?

Check out this quick tip …

How to increase your youtube video length limit

Feel Inspired? Want to get free help with making your own video?

Hopefully you will now be at least ready to try doing some video blogging.

If so, check out this free resource I have for you!

Ben Eadie (my video coach) and I have put together a whole bunch of resources to help you get started.

Right now there is NO CHARGE.

(I say right now because we will be charging at some point)

Go here and check out the free video blogging tutorials

At the moment we just want your feedback and questions. We want to know what you are struggling with.

Rather than keep trying to guess and make something perfect in isolation, we decided to put something up there and get you to let us know exactly what you want and need

You can either watch the videos or sign up for a free membership. If you sign up now for a free membership account then you will not be charged when we start selling the full video course, but membership is optional right now if you don’t want to register.

Please go ahead and check it out – Let Ben and I know what you think!

I get a lot of clients come to me with similar situations and many are on the verge of giving up due to this frustration.

Fact is, you could be doing many things right. The design could be lovely, your content great, and you have products and services that people should want. But still no further towards your goals.

What could be going wrong?

Onibalusi ordered a critique for he YoungPrePro.com site and I think he is in the situation I described above. He has good traffic, he has subscribers, Twitter followers, Facebook fans. He has appeared as a guest writer on popular blogs.

His site actually looks great – much better than many.

If he is doing so many things right, why are few people taking up his offers? Why can’t he live the passive income lifestyle that he wants?

Looking around his blog you quickly discover three fundamental issues holding him back, plus a few less critical items. I will start with the foundational pieces:

Uniqueness or Point of Difference

The first thing we need to straighten out is there is an overwhelming sense of “been here before” about the blog.

This is one of the major problems with “doing all the right things” – if you only do what is expected or the “done thing” then why should anyone visit your site? It is just like all the rest. And the rest have been doing it longer and with more to talk about.

So we see

• Make money online content
• Income reports
• “Quit your day job” promises
• “how I make over $3,000 online monthly” ebook

We have seen it all before.

What is fresh? What is new? What will make us take notice?

A unique personality and back story is very important, and he has this going on. But we need more.

You need a hook.

• Be different
• Stand out
• … in a positive and beneficial way

Fill in the blanks in the following statement:

Unlike other _____ blogs, I ________ which means you benefit from ___________

This exercise will make sure you find a point of difference that has a compelling benefit for your audience. It’s not about what you do, what you talk about, it is what they get that they really want and need.

Outcome or Deliverable

Which brings us to the outcome or deliverable.

What is it you show people? What do people get from hanging around your site?

You need to really drill down and define your exact target reader. Who can you most help and who would you most want to work with?

• Do you know the motivating goals of your target audience?
• What is the mission your readers want help with?
• Why would people click through from your guest articles?

The header says “Helping Young Entrepreneurs Change the World” – is that really what your audience wants? Is that a compelling and specific benefit?

How many people can credibly say they are helping people change the world? Chris Guillebeau? TED? Pace and Kyeli?

Big claims need big proof, which brings us to the next point …

Proof

All of the rest might not matter so much if there was strong proof to back up the claims.

Darren and I see messages all the time from people who follow this logic:

• People are making money blogging
• I want to make money blogging
• The big blogs I see making money blogging blog about making money blogging
• So I will start a make money online blog
• … and one day I will make money blogging

Is this familiar?

What is the crucial step they are missing out?

(Ignoring the fact there are a gajillion blogs out there claiming to help you make money online).

Yes, the problem is you are not going to be able to teach others to make money online until you have made some money online!

Look around at the popular blogs that talk about this stuff.

• I started out back in the mid 1990′s blogging in the programming and IT space. I spent 7 years working for top advertising, direct marketing and branding agencies before starting my own consultancy, and twice I ran online advertising networks.
• Brian was in real estate and is an expert copywriter. Jon Morrow, one of the editors at Copyblogger, also started out in Real Estate.
• Darren’s biggest blog is about photography (makes me feel sick that I sold my own photography blog, heh) and before that he had blogs on all kinds of subjects.
• John Chow has been running a tech site since 1998 and has an associated advertising network.
• David Risley also started with tech and computing stuff.
• Yaro started out with Magic the Gathering amongst other things.

Notice a trend? (Apart from the extreme geekiness, that is)

Yup, none of these folks started out with teaching “Make Money Online” … until they had made some money online!

Why Should Someone Learn this from YOU?

It comes down to WIIFM. What’s In It For Me?

There are all these choices and options out there, why should someone choose you?

What have you done that stands out? Something that someone else would want to learn.

I would say in the case of Onibalusi, there is something in the guest blogging – a great deal of workload and visible experience.

Instead though the claim is that you can help people make thousands of dollars a month! The earning reports are actually working against this claim because essentially Onibalusi has a writing job. My definition of job is where you work exclusively for one employer:

This is due to me signing a contract with my current client not to take additional writing job so for my blog to have brought me over 7 clients I think it is a business and I’m qualified to talk about making money online.

If it is true that you have turned work down, and we have no evidence or testimonials, then you have some credibility to show people how to get freelance writing work. This is a good market that tons of people are getting into every day. Perhaps you could negotiate with your current contract to allow some hours per week to work for other clients? Being exclusive to one company is very dangerous, I have been there and got burned by it when we parted company – don’t put all your eggs in one basket.

My point is, teach people what you demonstrably know.

You will get more attention, your credibility will grow, and your income opportunities will open up.

Bottom Line:

The blog looks great and you have done an excellent job of generating a traffic and audience through your guest blogging. Use your actual knowledge and experience as a strength and as a compelling hook, rather than try to come across as something you are not (yet!).

Share your unique point of difference, show how that will benefit your audience towards their goals, and back it up with proof!

What do you think? Was I too harsh? Do you have any other thoughts to share? Please let us know in the comments …

Today I want to help you avoid these problems so you can grow the business you really want.

It starts with getting off the “Tactic Treadmill”, but goes much deeper than that …

The Tactic Treadmill

People follow the buzz in forums and social media and believe they have found a shortcut that is going to make them instant bajillionares. This time.

The problem is the only outcome is to become jaded and have a little less money in the bank.

This “I just need the right tactic” thinking is something I call “Silver Bullet Poisoning” and the symptoms of frustration, the end goal being further from sight, and never sticking to one path might well be familiar to you.

But it doesn’t matter how much you warn people away from chasing tactics, from get-rich-quick schemes, and from following the herd, it is still the most alluring and addictive part of trying to become a successful entrepreneur, and of course at some point tactics are necessary.

So if tactics are necessary, we know there is as much rubbish as good discussed in forums, and we can see where the wrong path could take us, what is the correct approach?

I learned the hard way that there is much more that you need to put in place than loopholes, short cuts and spiffy new tactics if you want to make progress in your business.

What Goes Wrong and How to Avoid it

I first saw these patterns in myself, and then when coaching programmers, and more recently have helped dozens of people when coaching people in online marketing. I see it in my friends in the business, and in friends in other businesses.

• People go into business because they have a tradable skill but end up in so much demand that they practically (or actually) burn out. Rather than work to a scalable strategy they push that skill to the limit and sell every hour they have available, to the point where they are selling hours they never should be selling. Their health and family life suffer, but their business on the face of it looks successful. Until an injury or breakdown occurs. (A clear case of careful what you wish for). They wanted to get away from their horrible boss but end up being much harder to work for than any boss could ever be.
• A money-first mindset can be motivating for people who are competitive and want a “high score”, but it is ultimately unsatisfying for you and your customers as you might skip or overlook details and offer poor customer service in your drive for the next sale. Also, each score has to be higher than the last, otherwise you might feel defeated. It takes some introspection to realise these things are not always zero sum,someone else doesn’t have to lose for you to win. Those “hunter” instincts can be utilised in a healthy and productive way, thankfully.
• Addiction to starting projects can be a symptom of the “ooh shiny”. It gets your engines running and there is a thrill and excitement of planning and scheming. It could be the creative impulse or it could be the need to be open to every opportunity and possibility. We need to remember though we see success not in starting but following through. There are necessary details and effort before you see rewards. You might end up with many started projects but few completed ones if you are not careful. Also remember, you need to take care of your business, which means managing in accordance with your strategy and goals. If your market is aviation should you really be talking about that exciting dog grooming project?

There are more, obviously, and thankfully you can avoid these symptoms by doing things right and in the correct order …

What You Need to be a Complete Success in Business

1. Mindset – Your psychology, your approach, the way you are best motivated, and your self-defeating thoughts all play into how much progress you will make, how easy it will come to you, and how happy you will be. If you get this right then things go much, much more smoothly and you have more fun. When things are wrong and left unchecked you get into real problems. Many of my coaching clients come to me without realising a lot of what is holding them back is self-inflicted. While I am not a therapist, and don’t want to be, this is the first thing we have to put back on course. The good news is though it doesn’t have to be a long drawn out process. Ask yourself honestly what holds you back and how you have been successful in the past. Can you detect patterns? What is your true motivation?
2. Goals – Once you have some mindset work done and you have a handle on your motivation and fears, then you can start setting goals. Here we have avoided a common roadblock I see all the time in my Authority Blogger course and coaching folks – people set their goals first without understanding how they operate and what they really want.  Once they realise their mindset and shift it into a better gear, they wonder why they had their original goals in the first place. Don’t set out to conquer Everest if that’s not what you really want. As I said to one of my new coaching members, be careful what you wish for because you just might get it! You don’t necessarily need to be super formal with your goals but you do need to know where you are heading and other specifics. While you can and should course-correct, you are going to waste a lot of time and energy if you have no direction, or worse, the wrong direction.
3. Strategy – Once you know where you are headed, then you need to decide and apply strategy. People say they have a strategy all the time, but do they really? Can you honestly say you are implementing a strategy? How long would it take to explain it clearly? Is it based on your mindset and goals, or just what is considered the “done thing” in your niche?
4. Environment – A common factor in success and failure is the wrong environment. The more optimised the environment the better chance your mindset is good, you stay on track to your goals, and your strategy can be implemented successfully. This is everything from your work environment, through to your work-life balance, and your place in your market ecosystem (which should be a conscious effort by the way). To give one example, are the people in your network lifting you up or pulling you down?
5. Skills – Now some people might consider tactics the final piece of this puzzle, but when you really look at a whole bunch of people selecting and implementing tactics as I have, you realise that it is not enough to just pick the right tool, you also have to be able to use it. What is brain-numbingly easy for one will be super challenging for someone else. My friends tend to be practical Mr Fix It types and I always feel foolish around them as they quickly mend broken engines and build stuff. Obviously in those contexts I feel a little ashamed, but I have to remind myself there are things I can do in IT that they could not fathom, so it’s not they are better than me, just different. We know this is true, but still if there is a tactic that people are talking about we think we have to do it, regardless of if it fits our style, abilities, strategy or environment. Only at this point in the list can you compare tactics, and only then decide if you want to master it or outsource it to someone more able to get a good result. Tactics are not something you just plug in and watch succeed, choose wisely based on the other decisions, and back them up with learned and practiced skill not half-hearted efforts.

Does this seem like common sense? It might well be, but it is seldom common practice!

Ask yourself if you are really getting the results you wanted or expected. Do you think this is the result of tactical choices or could there be other issues lurking?

You don’t have to work with me or any other coach to make a start on this yourself. Just take an objective look at what you are doing and go back to the first point.

• Do you feel a fraud that might be caught out at any moment?
• Are you resisting selling for fear of putting people off?
• Is there resistance or fear around money?
• Have you been procrastinating?
• .. and so on

Build on these answers and establish your true goals, the strategy that will most efficiently achieve them (while avoiding what you don’t want), the environment that suits those goals and that strategy, and the skills you need to implement, develop or acquire.

If you only focus on the tactics you might end up on a treadmill, working up a sweat but ultimately going nowhere!

Have you experienced any of this? What do you think? Please share in the comments …

We don’t want to go too far the other way either – who wants to be seen as someone who takes, takes and takes?

How can we strike the right balance? What do we need to do in order to be generous but still build a profitable business?

I Was the Free Guy

A few years ago I had a real problem.

My list was growing but I would get hate back in my inbox any time my articles contained a link to an offer.

Essentially I had trained my audience to only expect free stuff from me. All the time.

That is cool … for the audience … but no way to run a business that pays the mortgage.

Now, I did ok. I had regular consulting and coaching work and I had my flagship course, Authority Blogger, so it was not like I was going to cry buckets at those unsubscribes.

Train Your List

What I needed to do was train my list as to what to expect from me.

One of the key things you need to do right now is show that you are in business.

Being generous is not about being a charity or being a doormat.

You are in business. Your time has a value. The stuff you put out has a value. If they don’t like it then be happy they are parting company, let them find someone else who is a better fit.

There is a trade that you are making, your free stuff leads to being given offers. They don’t have to take them but if they want the free stuff they have to accept that offers will be made.

It’s a fair trade and if you do it right then people should be ok.

We might not like to be sold but we do like to buy … if the offer is valuable and relevant.

In theory, everyone should be happy … right?

Don’t Always be Selling

When people get upset though is when the balance swings the other way.

Don’t pound your audience with constant offers.

Value first, then the offer.

You can do that in one article, or over a series of articles, but give people who are not ready to buy a lot of value because they need to be rewarded for paying attention.

Create Content that Leads to a Next Step

Your content can naturally lead to your core offers and your launches as a next step.

Check out the stepping stones diagram in this critique for more about free content that naturally leads to your offers in a non-sleazy way.

Have Core Offers and Flagship Offers

It is much easier if you don’t HAVE to be selling all the time in order to pay the bills.

So have stuff on sale all the time and income streams that don’t need to be pushed hard. Don’t always be obviously launching.

And when you DO launch, launch to the segmented list that is interested in that subject – don’t pound your main audience about something they don’t have an interest in.

Now, clearly, you will always annoy a portion of your audience, this is just a fact of life, but you can limit the damage.

Bottom Line

1. Work out how you help people
2. Determine the target audience who is right for you and who you can get best results for
3. Give content that solves problems and demonstrates your ability to help further
4. Provide relevant offers at the right time
5. Keep building relationships based on mutual respect and generosity

If you are giving everything away then you are going to just burn out, but you must still be generous. It is about being strategically generous, and about attracting the kind of people you can most help and most want to work with.

What is your experience with this? Please share in the comments …

BankNerd.ca is a Canadian website all about the banking industry. This is an interesting critique for me having recently moved to Canada and have a whole raft of banking type stuff to set up.

As you might see from the screengrab above, the site is about everything banking and aims to monetize mainly with advertising.

Now, advertising is the go-to monetization method for bloggers – as with traditional media – but it does mean you have a high traffic bar to reach. That bar is set higher than some other monetization methods. Unsurprisingly, the main thing the site owners want to do is boost their traffic.

So looking at this site critique we need to look at:

1. How can the site generate more traffic (to sell to advertisers)
2. How can the site fund itself

Those are immediate and obvious conclusions, but look deeper. There is a hidden “Step 2″ … can you guess what it is?

Well, anyone who has been through my Authority Blogger program or who has hung around here long enough will know there are three major steps (more, but let’s not get distracted):

1. Attraction – Gaining attention
2. Retention – Holding that attention for the long term and getting people to come back
3. Conversion – Getting the audience to take actions, and important point, spend money

Obviously the site owners want traffic, and they want to monetize, which is step three, but we have to deal with step 2. If you don’t retain your audience then you will knock yourself out trying to attract people all the time while leaking people away.

When the owner contacted me for the critique they mentioned they had reached a growth plateau and traffic had levelled off for a while. This is likely the cause.

What to do when blog traffic plateaus

If your traffic is not growing then you are doing some things well but need work in a couple of areas:

1. Retain your existing audience – It is likely you are replacing people while you are losing them. Build loyalty, stop the leaks. It can appear that your audience is not growing when in fact you are losing people. That loss is hidden by new folks discovering you. It is a strange situation, if your traffic was declining then people feel more urgently about fixing things and come to the conclusion of what to do quickly, with a plateau it often causes analysis paralysis.
2. Go out and grab a new audience – Don’t get me wrong, don’t abandon what has been working, just reach out to new groups. It is likely you have tapped your current traffic sources and need to reach new people who will also think you are awesome. Can you find new communities to hang out it, new blogs to guest post for, people to refer readers and social media followers? Are there twitter chats and offline events to show up at? Search will be a primary driver of traffic for this site but building your own visibility will attract links, and links mean search. More on this later.

Engaging and Retaining Your Existing Blog Audience

Keeping people sticking around is essentially down to creating …

• Perception of value
• Anticipation of future value
• Relationship

All of these things tie into the email sign up forms. You need to hit all three points, but mainly the first two:

Can you show that you have valuable stuff that is relevant to the audience needs and interests? Can you boost the perceived value with an incentive? (video, interviews, exclusive content, a report?).

What are they going to get in the future? Can you spell that out so they know there is cool stuff coming?

A lot of the time when people take an action it is because of an existing relationship that has built trust and a need for reciprocation (a “thank you”). Remind people of all the awesome stuff they already got, remind people of their relationship with you.

Which brings us back to engagement and relationship … you might want to appear more obviously as you on your blog.

It is a lot more difficult to build a connection around a fictitious figure. Not impossible, just harder. Interact and give people a sense of the “you” behind the names.

Personality Means Connections, Connections Mean Traffic

Also, we were talking about traffic from fresh sources – being a named author will help you get more guest posting gigs, which will lead to more traffic, links and authority.

If you can start being a bit more you then the traffic opportunities open up. You can be interviewed, do YouTube videos, interview other experts, reach out to traditional media, do public speaking, and so on. At the very least, it will be easier to generate links.

On the topic of links, make sure your site can only be loaded with the www. or without, not both. Redirect one to the other. Also, you might want to remove dates from your site (visually and in URLs) so that your evergreen content keeps looking evergreen (anything time specific you can manually add a reference to that). It’s strange but even content a couple months old will be dismissed by an audience even if it is still 100% relevant.

Making Money without Advertising

Doing these things will help you reach a new audience and grow your existing audience. All good.

But you have an opportunity to make money right now.

When this blog was launched there were already a bunch of sites out there feeding this audience. I used to work for one of them and I guest posted on the others. There was no way I was going to compete directly so this is a reason why I wanted a smaller, more engaged audience. The other reason is a smaller, more engaged audience is easier to profit from right away. I didn’t have the luxury of waiting until I had 100k visitors!

The way you profit from an engaged audience is you build your authority with them by offering lots of valuable, actionable advice, then you make offers that are relevant to their needs.

Banking and personal finance are ideal for this.

Rather than sell advertising (or in addition), turn the site into a branded affiliate site.

1. Turn category pages into landing pages – Look at the top level navigation on Copyblogger and you will see the content organised into long landing pages with either an opt-in form or offer at the end. These attract links, build relevance, and get people to take action. Very useful for SEO but also very easy to refer people to.
2. Review products with clear, compelling call to actions – Review individual products but also do product round ups. For example “the best canadian credit cards for travel/business/students”. Make it very obvious what people should do next when they get to your reviews. Big, bold buttons work. Show people how to buy through your links! Loan, card, etc affiliates tend to be good payouts – much better than a low traffic site can attract in ads.
3. Attract search traffic to those reviews and landing pages – Guest post and build awareness of your content to get great, deep, specific links. If you rank for key terms then these are highly likely to turn into affiliate commissions.
4. Send offers to your email list – So far we have been talking about affiliate offers, which are great and you are likely making some money with now. If you find an offer that is working, put it in your auto responder. Also, ask what else your audience are buying – maybe you can create something that serves the same need, an information product, consulting?
5. Partner with service providers – Start looking at webinars or teleseminars. Know someone with a killer product or service? Get them on a webinar, grill them for 45 minutes about their expertise, then make a pitch for their product at the end. Another great source of traffic, and profit, AND relationship building!

Summary

Build your authority, relationships and connections and people will be more attracted and more likely to stick around. Also look outside of banner advertising. Your list is a huge asset, it makes your blog sticky and automates sending offers, so get people on your list!

Got any more feedback for BankNerd.ca? Please share in the comments …

For a while I have been thinking of holding meet-ups, workshops, training, that kind of thing. Nothing too formal.

Before I do, though, I need to know if you are interested and where in the world these things need to be

The Melbourne Problogger Workshop was a great success, let’s see if we can do something in your home town!

Please add your details in the form below. Probably best if you enter the closest big city so that we can get a decent sized group in your area.

Why is this?

A little thing called “The Beginner’s Mind”.

When we start learning a topic there are all these questions that we need to answer. Once we have moved forward in our understanding we forget these questions, or even worry if we should cover such things for fear of being patronising.

We don’t always want to appeal to beginners, but we MUST cater to people who have not seen our site before and make them feel welcome. First time beginners are even more important to make feel welcome.

lifeonthebuyside.com, the subject of today’s critique, is a perfect example.

“John Q” (a pen name) has done a great deal very well:

• A good choice of niche with a interested audience and a clear ROI – ROI, or Return On Investment, is not essential to have a successful blog but it sure does help. If people can perceive a clear benefit from reading then they are more likely to invest their time, or even money, with you and companies will be more willing to invest advertising dollars if that is how you want to monetize. When selling a product or consulting then it is even more important that people will imagine the investment being worthwhile. Identifying an eager audience makes attracting attention easier, providing you can put forward a unique hook or take on that niche.
• Memorable name with good tagline – Once you have identified an audience with a clear need, then you need to think up a memorable name and provide a clearly beneficial tagline. Having “Guide to a Career in Investing” tells the reader that they are going to be helped on their way to their big dream mission. Here’s how to create catchy blog names if that is something you are struggling with.
• Premium blog theme with good legibility – If you want your site to be usable, attractive, stable, secure, work well with search engines and look credible, then I recommend always going with a premium theme or custom design from a good designer. Even more so if you want to attract a “professional” (or wannabe professional) audience.
• Signs of credibility – In the about, even though there is not much to go on, some creds are dropped in the form of qualifications. Even a Sitelock button to give the impression of security and trustworthiness. With a pen name, obviously those things could be made up, but we will give benefit of the doubt right now!
• Promoting with Community – Right now the main promotion has been from engaging the community in discussion forums and some guest posting – that has clearly worked but can be taken further.

Now obviously this is a critique so I need to share what should or could be improved, right?

1. Increase engagement – There is little to suggest that the audience is engaged, so that needs to be worked on.
2. Attract beginner readers – The products are guides that would appeal to anyone who wants to become a financial analyst or has interest in the industry, therefore the strategy needs to be to appeal to those people and deliver them the relevant offers when appropriate.
3. Welcome new visitors – At present a new visitor is dropped into the site and expected to know where they are, what they can do, and where to go next. Far better to orient new readers.

Let’s take a look at what I mean …

What are your first impressions?

The site isn’t unattractive but there are certainly things that can be done to make it more welcoming.

• Graphical header? – Images in the header to show rather than tell would be good, both to suggest the topic and make it more visually inviting. Perhaps some iconic “Wallstreet” photography?
• More images in posts – Following the imagery line, a better graphics to text balance?
• What Would Seth Godin Do – Perhaps use the WWSGD plugin to welcome new readers?
• Boost Your About – I realise hiding your true identity might feel important, but other pseudonym authors might have approaches that could work for you. Take Johnny Truant for example, who has a fake name but presents a “real” persona. What is your story? How can people connect more to you as a human being? You can still build relationships and connections even without using your own identity, it is just harder.

Those are small, easy to make tweaks. Now for the big stuff.

Bring Readers Into the Fold with Orientation Content

Your “About” information is a key piece of Orientation Content, but you can do more.

What is Orientation Content? It is content that welcomes a brand new visitor, explains key concepts, and gives the reader a starting point.

• What will they want to know right now? – The about page is an example of something people might want right now, but also it could be a burning question that is on their minds, such as if your site is about Widgets, you might have a piece of content that answers “What is a widget?”. In this case, do you need to have “What is Financial Modelling?”
• What will they need to come back to reference later? – Don’t just think of beginner content as something people consume and discard, good in depth resources and reference material such as glossaries and jargon-busters can become useful years after the visitor firsts discovers them AND get linked and bookmarked over and over. This is one of the reasons Wikipedia does so well in search rankings!
• Where should they start? – What is the first step? Could you have a “Start Here” piece of content?
• Where are they going? – What is the big dream, the end goal, the destination? In my case good portion of my readers want to build a business around their knowledge, ideas and expertise. The dream is around freedom, being helpful, a well-known, liked and trusted expert or advisor. How can you share your vision, or your reader’s vision? What is it really like to work in the money industry?

The key point is you want to grab the visitors attention so they will be drawn into the site rather than click away, and be incentivised to want to stick around.

Promote Engagement to Gain Insights

Interacting in community forums is a brilliant way to understand the prospect you are trying to serve. Don’t stop there though, once you have a group of people who regularly read then you should be able to gain insights there too. Why? Because these are the people you attracted to your site. For whatever reason they connected with you when others didn’t.

• Cross-promote between your community, blog and social media – Drive people from Twitter to your blog, from the forums to your blog and twitter, and from your blog to your social media accounts. This isn’t just about having buttons but about mentioning it as a call to action in posts and your emails (which will be mentioned in a moment).
• Ask for comments – At the end of a post give an open-ended call for comments. If you ask for comments and don’t get them, invite people from the forum and your social media accounts to comment. Email people and ask.
• Get interactive - Starting with comments, move to polls, surveys, maybe a teleseminar or webinar? Show that you want to help and that you have answers to share. (Great for traffic and list building too). You can start putting on Teleseminars and Q&A calls for free using Freeconferencecall.com and other related services.

Build Your Email List

I just mentioned that you could build an email list by putting on expert telephone conference calls, as Q&A, seminars or interview authorities. You can also use a list to build engagement, promote your products, get insights, and so on.

Most important for this discussion though is it might be a great way to deliver orientation content that naturally leads to your paid products.

Consider a sequential email delivered beginners course that gently leads the reader by the hand from absolute zero to being ready to take the next step and book your products? That would mean getting more sales would be a case of getting people onto your list.

Right now the email subscription is a tiny feedburner button. Instead build a prominent email signup box using an autoresponder service such as Aweber.

Bringing it All Together

Here is how it all comes together, from first-time visitor through to helping your prospect or customer in achieving the big goal:

At the bottom we have where the prospect is right now. Due to your community engagement you are already showing empathy and being helpful – that is fantastic, but as you have identified that is difficult to scale. I would not give up hanging out in forums but you might scale back if you need to. Rather than pull back, instead increase your guest posting and partner up with people who have large audiences that match your target market.

Be clear that you understand, have been where they are now, and that you have experience and knowledge that can help. Lead people to sign up to your email list and autoresponder sequence.

This free content will give more clarity, a path to follow, and early results. It pre-sells the next-steps that they have to pay for, but brings them closer to their goal.

All the while you need to remind people of the goal, why they want it, the difference it will make, how their life might look when they achieve it. This is because people need motivation to stay on course and not get discouraged. These things are not easy – we all know how many people give up before they achieve what they set out to do.

Final Thoughts and a Valuable Prize

Lifeonthebuyside.com is a great blog with a lot of potential. I am looking forward to seeing where you go with it. In my view it needs some minor theme tweaks – such as interactive elements and promoting your best stuff (even just putting a best of or most popular in the sidebar) – content that takes the reader on a journey, and actively promoting email subscriptions.

Got some feedback? Here is an incentive

One random commenter with feedback, suggestions or thoughts about lifeonthebuyside.com will win a 30min critique call on the telephone, skype or gotomeeting. If you want me to give you advice about YOUR site or blog, then leave something in the comments right now to help John Q with his

(Competition over, sorry if you missed out!)

Update: Winners!

Random.org served up the result, all that is left to do is announce …

We had so many entries I decided to give away two calls, so ….

Congratulations to Thomas Kristensen and Matthew Bailey!

Or maybe people do buy, but not in the numbers you would like?

I get that, and I hear it a lot. You might have heard me joke that for a while there I was stuck in a loop of being known as a “freebie guy”. Luckily it wasn’t so bad that I left to go herd goats or something, I have always had a little something up my sleeve that was my get out of jail card (will talk about that in a bit), but it was frustrating until I broke through that problem.

No Sales, No Business

The fact is, if you don’t get sales then you are not in business. And you don’t want “just enough”, you need enough strong leads that your business can thrive.

This is true if you are selling your services, offering an ebook or running live events.

We react differently to this notion. Some of us resort to cold-calling, others will pound their lists with offers.

While we don’t want to be that type of person, we do have to first understand what is going to make our audience take notice and take action, and also we need to confidently put offers out there knowing that they are good offers in service of our market.

Sometimes that is easier said than done. Sometimes we think we are doing that, but still our offers land with a dull “thud”.

Authority Marketing

If you have been following me for a while you will know I am big on “Authority”. I don’t mean the type of authority that comes with a big stick, a gun or a badge.

What we are talking about, of course, is the “trusted advisor” type authority, the go-to person in your niche, the person we grow to know, like and respect.

That’s the first advantage that I had over some other players in my markets, even though I started out in the programming and IT geek worlds. We can’t really call computing topics niches because, well, who doesn’t use a computer nowadays, right? But the bits that I got known in, man they were niche. Ultra-nerdy niches of niches. There were not millions of people battling to push hundred dollar bills at you. We couldn’t promise fame and fortune.

But still I made a decent living and I did it without any kind of hard-sell (in fact to begin with the idea that I could sell something hadn’t occurred to me, I had customers coming to me before I had an offer).

It was authority that did it. My audience found me and trusted that I had a solution.

Given the Choice, this is Who We Choose

The next element that made all the difference, and continues to, is the reason why most of us are happy to buy from certain people, and would rather have root canal than buy from others.

Yup, good old “Know, Like and Trust”.

I don’t need to cite any scientific studies here, just observe your own behaviour. In fact, walk up to a used car lot and start checking out the merchandise. Visit enough dealerships and you will soon understand what people do to make the sales process “icky”.

On the other hand, we all know what it is like to “have a guy who does that”, or “know a lady who can help you out”. That’s who we want to be known as. The person other people will happily refer business to over and over.

If I had to rely on my sales skills then I would never still be in business for myself. I am not an entrepreneur by birth, I didn’t sell baseball cards in the playground, and I am not the world’s most confident pitch man. Most of my “sale” happens before the offer is made. People make up their own minds about the solution and my ability to offer it. When I talk about an offer it can therefore be presented as “here’s what I have that would help you, take it or leave it”.

We Don’t Like Being Sold to, But We Like to Buy

If we are looking for a solution, if we believe it will work, we trust the person offering it, and we can see that there is more value to us than the price, then we happily buy.

Heck, looking around my desk, I have so many cool gadgets and doodads, we don’t always need all of the above criteria to happily buy, do we? I am not sure I have any reason for my army of stormtrooper legos other than I think they are very cool

We love to buy stuff, we just don’t like being sold to. Most of us don’t like to make offers in that way either.

That’s why sharing content works. Before we talk about offers we give people ideas, tips, and we share the benefit of our experience. We attract an audience who need what we can offer.

Have you ever listened to a keynote speech and got all pumped and motivated, then found out what the speaker has suggested just didn’t give you the results you hoped for? Or maybe you bought a best-seller and found it page-turning fascinating, but no clearer on what you were meant to do next?

Silver Bullet Poisoning is my name for when your business is harmed by advice or products that look and sound good, but the advice doesn’t work in practice.

The reason I want to talk about this right now is because a handful of my clients have come together with worrying issues or questions that have given me concerns about the current situation in online marketing and social media. Some have been impacted by the recent Google update which has wiped out a lot of site’s traffic, another is switching between different “flavour of the moment” courses, and another is feeling overwhelmed with “all this stuff we are meant to know”.

These are ALL symptoms of Silver Bullet Poisoning!

Originally this was going to be a guest post for Copyblogger but after thinking about it I felt the message might be a tad controversial and I didn’t want the Copyblogger folks catching any heat for my opinions.

The fact is, saying this stuff is not going to make me popular, but I feel like I owe it to you to be honest.

Most of what you are being sold out there on the interwebs and on Amazon is bull hockey with good packaging. At best.

I Have Been There

I have suffered from Silver Bullet Poisoning myself. Back before I turned in my notice at my day job, at the height of frustrating with my role, I was impatiently looking around for anything that would help me escape and generate fast bucks. The techniques I had used before were slow and hard work, and all around me were promises of immediate and easy rivers of cash just waiting to be tapped into.

The key words “slow and hard work” versus “immediate and easy” are probably raising red flags in your mind right now, eh?

Most, of course, didn’t work. One idea seemed to work pretty good .. for a while. I happened across the “Google Cash” technique of sending adwords clicks directly to affiliate offers. Get your clicks down to a low enough price and have enough people purchase then you can make big money. Initially I made some serious and fast coin. I thought I had won the internet. That was until I decided to go away for a long weekend break and leave my campaigns running.

When I returned I found a disaster. It could have been much, much worse. That disaster was an expensive but lucky break.

Rather than open up and see the dozens of sales I was anticipating, instead there were zero sales but a whole bunch of ad clicks. What had appeared to be easy money very nearly turned into a supersonic one-way trip to the poor house.

Maybe slow, hard work wasn’t so bad after all …

Gain Control

The problem with any kind of arbitrage, regardless of if that is adwords to affiliates or SEO to adsense, is you do not control enough to be secure. It is not a business, it is a tactic, and usually a short-lived one at that.

While I do empathize with anyone who has had their income wiped out from losing Google rankings, that is a very good example for why I say you need to create more control.

• If all your traffic is coming from one source, for example Google, then you need to diversify, and I do NOT mean focus on Yahoo!/Bing
• This goes for if you are relying on one JV partner, one guest posting gig, and so on.
• The same with revenue. If all of your profit comes from one source, then you need to diversify income streams.

You do not have to rip off the band aid, but you do need to move to a more scalable and stable structure. If you are using Adsense for income, sell sponsor ads. If you have a bunch of ads then any single ad buyer can not close your income down. After sponsor ads, build up your affiliate income, and so on.

Build Assets

Real control comes from creating assets.

Your first priority needs to be your email list. This is “attention on tap”. Rather than rely on traffic from Google and repeat visitors, build up a loyal list of people who know, like and trust you.

After your list then you need your own product.

I know some people feel like that is too much like hard work when as a super affiliate you can simply send emails and get paid. The problem is, I have seen too many friends send hundreds of sales only for the merchant to turn around and not pay. Why this happens is complicated and variable, but the outcome is the same. Zero dollars income, regardless of how much you have going out in expenses.

Long-term businesses are built on systems and revenue-producing assets.

Click here to see my approach to rapidly creating your own assets, products that your audience will thank you for offering.

Yes, there are other kinds of assets, your network would be one example, but combine assets plus control and you have something you can rely on.

Learn from People Who Do

So if you can’t always trust what you are told, what can you do?

1. Trust but verify.
2. Listen to people who are achieving your goals.

If something seems like too good to be true, it usually is. That said, some things are still compelling without that whiff of BS we are getting so good at detecting. That is when you should ask around, do a small test, look into the testimonials and case studies.

Most of all though is #2 – don’t take business advice from someone who has never had to sell.

You might think “but this person is famous, they are a key note speaker, best seller, winner of awards, and did I say famous?”. That’s great, but if that person makes all their income from speaking and doesn’t do any actual selling, and your goal is not directly connected to being a best selling-author or professional speaker, how is their advice relevant to your business?

There are best-selling authors, speakers, bloggers, and forum loud mouths who DO walk their talk, but not all

Find people who are ahead of you on your path, rather than follow great sounding advice that has not been tested against reality and has zero relevance to your situation.

Sell

Finally, if you want to make money you are going to have to sell at some point. Mostly in terms of product and services, but also you have to sell the benefits of joining your email list, sell your ideas and sell yourself. Any time you hold back from making an offer or putting yourself forward is an opportunity lost. The more reluctant you are, the less successful you will be.

You might not like it, but you have to do it.

Look at me. I am shy and introverted. I have still some serious hang ups about money. But I have a family to support, a business to run, and partners who rely on me to hold my end of a bargain up. What kind of person would I be to let all those people down because of some discomfort? Especially when I know those products and services help people?

But still you will see advice saying “Don’t charge money, information should be free”, “incentivising email subscriptions is evil”, “three column blog layouts are for spammers”, “you already tweeted that this week – SPAMMER”, “Yuk, there was a dollar sign in that blog post, capitalist!”, and so on, and so on.

You see that link above that goes to Make More Progress? I will get around a dozen unsubscribes calling me horrible names because of that. Usually said by people who live in their parent’s basement, are broke and simultaneously an expert on what I “should” do, or have a full time government funded day job, heh. Apparently offering a product for sale makes me the worst kind of scum imaginable. I am ok with that, I would rather those folks not subscribe.

We can’t let the critics, the negative types, the anti-business* folks hold us down.

* Why do anti-business people reading a business blog? Baffles me.

Your Thoughts?

Agree? Disagree? I would love to know your opinions, experiences and thoughts, please share in the comments …

Today I want to give you some ideas for how you can attract clients and fill your coaching practice using blogging and content marketing. If you would like some background on why I believe coaching is a fantastic service to offer in your business, check out the previous article.

First Big Mistake

Before we get into the approach I suggest you try, I want to share the first big mistake I see my own coaching clients and some friends make.

If you want to learn how to sell any product or service, don’t just look at the sales letters of your competitors.

The fact is, while there are some things you can learn by looking at sales copy, you need to look elsewhere to learn the strategy.

Looking at offers to learn how to sell your service is like looking at empty plates in a restaurant to learn how to be a chef.

Your competitors are NOT getting sales just because they have a better sales page than you do! The offer is the END POINT, not the whole cause of the sales they make. In fact, in my case, many of my clients don’t even read the sales letter, they just hunt out the price and the order button.

So if it is not all about the copywriting, how DO you get more customers to buy?

Be Known for Something

Coaching tends to be a bigger ticket item than many people are used to selling. It could be that you have, up to now, only sold $20, $50 ebooks. A lot of what goes into getting that ebook sale will be the same as your coaching, but the problem is while people will be more likely to make an impulse purchase on small ticket items, a coaching package is going to be a bigger commitment.

Attracting clients to you, getting them to know, like and trust you, is vital when the price is high and the personal interaction is such a deep part of what you offer. I call this approach “Authority Blogging”, you build a blog that grows your authority. It attracts your prospects, and establishes a relationship. The Copyblogger folks use a similar approach they call “Content Marketing” – you attract and maintain attention via compelling information.

You don’t have to use my approach, just make sure you build your profile and reputation as the person who provides a solution.

• Determine your ideal prospect and client.
• Be highly visible where those people hang out and look for solutions.
• Provide content that speaks to their wants, problems, challenges.
• Invite them to stick around to get more great stuff from you. People usually need to see a solution multiple times before they buy in. (Build your list sooner rather than later).
• Make timely, compelling offers that speak to the results they want.

Launches and Pre-Sell

In most cases people go from trying to craft the perfect sales page to thinking a “launch” is the silver bullet.

You might want to occasionally launch, in fact I just did a low-key launch of my group coaching and sold out in around 9 minutes, it is very satisfying! Coaching has some elements that make for powerful launches, most notably

• Scarcity – You must limit how many coaching clients you take on at once, therefore there is built in scarcity
• Urgency – If you are doing group coaching then you need to start on a certain date and time.

That said, while launches are a powerful tool, but it would be crazy if you were launching your coaching all the time. You would soon burn out your audience with coaching launch fatigue.

Instead you can pre-sell by creating content around the problem, by building your social proof, discussing case studies, and by constantly reminding your audience of your coaching service as a solution.

Want an example? You are reading one.

Trust and Proof

The more proof you can provide, the greater the trust will be.

Your best proof will be getting results. That is even more true when your prospect has already gotten results from you.

If you can create results from your free content then they will trust that your paid content is going to deliver fantastic results.

Maybe get your prospect to consume and take action on free content, then take a low ticket offer and get results from that, before taking the full coaching?

In my case people start with my blog and free ebooks, they might buy the Problogger book or one of my lower priced courses such as Make More Progress, and they progress from there. Some hear me speak at events and approach me afterwards. Others are looking for a coach and discover me via many different channels. In all cases they get to experience some of what I offer that reassures my client they are making the right choice.

If you don’t currently have any easy to take up lower ticket offers, consider creating something carved out of your current solutions. Carve-outs or the MVP approach are terrific ways to create focused offers that build customer trust and loyalty,  plus they give you another profitable income stream.

Drive Towards a Result

This brings us to the next point, another place people go horribly wrong.

People care less about what you do than what you do for them. Don’t sell what you do, sell the outcome or result!

Build up the value that you offer, make it very real in your prospects imagination, that way they will focus on what they get rather than what you charge.

Yes, things like your process, the certifications and who you trained with can lend credibility, but they are not the only reason people will want to buy from you. We want to invest in getting a certain reward, achieving a goal, or fixing a problem. The person who understands our challenge and proves they can get us where we want to be will get our money.

Get Testimonials and Case Studies

The more you can show rather than tell, the more convincing you will be. We are not going to trust you right away, but we will be more persuaded when we see people just like us got results with you.

Even more compelling is when a friend of ours tells us that you helped them. Encourage referrals as much as you can. Testimonials and case studies are fantastic, but they are even more convincing when delivered in person as a response to your enquiry. Word of mouth is the most effective advertising there is.

• Give the best customer experience you can.
• When someone praises your service, ask for the testimonial.
• Keep notes on the results your clients achieve. Ask for permission to share.
• Praise your client’s progress, don’t take all the credit!
• Reward referrals, with thanks or even gifts.
• Create an affiliate program.

Summary

Coaching is not a commodity that you can sell just by putting up an offer with a great price. You need to establish yourself as the credible solution to a particular need, you need to build trust and a relationship. Work on attracting your prospects via content that speaks to their needs and also positions yourself as the person to contact, then build on that relationship before making an offer.

The good news is, while not quite as glamorous and easy as we might be lead to believe, once I cracked how to go about creating and launching information products I did see the benefits almost immediately. This made my many, many mistakes easier to put up with! If you are considering starting your own ebook, video course or other type of information product, then expect the reality to be quite different from the “turn the interwebs into your personal ATM machine” type snake oil, but not as challenging as you might think.

Let’s first talk about the bad news, we should start by clearing up some of the unhelpful myths and the hype.

Four Big Myths of Information Product Creation

1. MYTH: “Information products are easy”. TRUTH: Most people never finish their product – Do you have a half completed ebook sat on your hard disk? Have you started yet? Out of the many people I have spoken to about creating information products, the vast majority have good intentions but little progress. The bigger the project they have in mind the less likely they are to complete. Shipping something is much rarer than most of us would expect.
2. MYTH: “Build it and they will come”. TRUTH: Most people create something nobody wants – Out of the people who do create something, the next hurdle is getting people to buy it. The instant success that flies off the shelves is more dream than reality for most. While it is possible to create a market if you have the time and marketing budget, I find it much easier to serve a ready-made audience.
3. MYTH: “Easy money”. TRUTH: Manage your income expectations – The big internet marketing gurus have million dollar sales days, you will probably not. If you are just starting out and have no authority, if your list is small or zero, don’t expect a huge launch, or even a small windfall. Also, don’t think “One big product and I am made for life” because while there are people who have super successful products that they can live off, most people can not build the Lamborghini, Learjet, seven figure lifestyle business you might be lead to dream about.
4. MYTH: “Affiliates will sell for you”. TRUTH: Most affiliates will ignore you – If you have no authority and your existing sales figures are not impressive, don’t expect to attract big affiliates. The problem with a lot of the advice out there is the answer to low sales is to make up the slack with affiliates, which does work, but it’s not a given. Think from the affiliate perspective, they have lots of options for what to promote to their precious list, why will they promote YOUR product, something from an unknown quantity, a product YOU can’t even get to people to buy?

OK, that’s the doom and gloom section out of the way!

If you are not totally turned off information products at this point, here is the good news part.

Information products can and do provide a significant and recurring income that builds over time. Plus the more practice you put into it, the better you get, and the better your results.

Each of the challenges outlined above do have solutions but there are no silver bullets and they all take effort. More effort than most people consider putting in. This is actually good news for anyone who has it within them to apply a little focus and time!

Here are my suggestions:

1. Getting Unstuck

When I surveyed my customers, the biggest challenge facing them was getting stuff done. That is why I created Make More Progress as a combination of productivity and info product training. I realised most of the procrastination was coming from people trying to create these huge, daunting projects. It reminded me of my own stuck feelings when I was creating the first version of Authority Blogger back in 2007.

Ambition is good, but giving yourself too much to do can halt your momentum and make you feel bad about your lack of progress. Instead you need to streamline.

2. Sell Something People Actually Want

The first step in creating something that will actually sell is getting to know your target market. You might believe you are your target market, but that is dangerous thinking. You might be right, or disastrously wrong. Instead of creating a solution looking for a problem, investigate what your audience really wants, then test the market.

3. Create Once, Sell Repeatedly

Part of the joy of my rapid product creation process mentioned above is that each time you create a new product, regardless of how well it sells at launch, you have an asset that can bring you an income forever. Want a pay rise? Create another, related product, or sell more of the original!

How much can you make? Obviously the real answer is “It depends”, but you are very much in control of most of the variables. Let’s illustrate with some math.

In the chart above I am making the assumption that you can get 50 visitors per day to visit an offer for a $50 product with a comparatively poorly converting sales page.

(Conversion rate means the percentage of people who visit and go away versus buy. 1% would mean one out of every 100 visitors becomes a customer)

These are not ambitious numbers, in fact if you have read this blog for a while then they are well within your reach. If you put in the effort to have simple, basic foundations in place of course.

People in the business would regard 5% as a pretty reasonable conversion target, so 1% is not putting the bar high. My original sales page for Authority Blogger converted at 12% and that was when I had a lot less practice to now. Can you get traffic to your offer? Well if you are active in social media, hang out in your niche community, have a blog and an email list then you ought to be able to generate greater than 50 clicks through to an offer per day. If you have more authority and visibility then you can obviously drive much more traffic.

Regardless of where you are right now, we can see that if we can get just 50 people to visit our offer per day, and we can get 1% of those people to buy, then we can make approximately $25 per day or $750 per month. Improve the traffic to 100 visitors per day, or the sales page to improve the conversions from 1% to 2% and we can double that. What if you could improve the visitors and conversions at the same time? We could make $100 per day or $3,000 per month. So over a year, everything staying equal (that is, you can’t tweak your conversion rate or traffic up by even a small amount), that one product could be bringing in between $9,000 and $36,000 per year.

This, remember, is from one product. We haven’t even gotten into the more advanced stuff like cross-sells, up-sells, sales sequences …

4. The Truth About Affiliates

I won’t go over everything I already wrote in my article all about attracting affiliates and JVs, suffice to say if you want to attract affiliates, first you need to get some sales figures to share or build your authority, or both. People should not be expected to promote an unknown, and that goes for you and your product. If however you have some respect in your niche or some compelling results, then people will start to open up to you. Rather than say “Hey, please promote this” you can say “This is working really well for me and the people who already promoted”. The best place to start with gathering affiliates is your own customers, and they are the people who will start building your bank of case studies to take to the larger affiliates.

Bottom Line

Well done for getting this far, I know it was a fair bit to get through. If you feel inspired then the main thing to do now is to get started.

If you have an information product inside of you ready to get out then get moving. Nothing will happen until you do something about it.

Have I missed any myths? Anything confusing that you need me to explain? Are you ready to get creating your information product? Please share your thoughts and experiences in the comments …

Talking of being getting started with your information products … I want to tell you about my latest course …

Make More Progress: Kick Procrastination in the Face and Become a Rapid Product Creator.

Increase your productivity without any rigid organisation systems that cause even more work, rapidly create and launch information products in record time, and get more done with less effort.

Go ahead and click here right now to find out more!