“Blog Business Model 1: Land Public Speaking Gigs Through Your Blog” plus 1 more

Blog Business Model 1: Land Public Speaking Gigs Through Your Blog

Posted: 25 Jun 2012 01:06 PM PDT

This is the first post in our series on Blog Business Models.

Marcus Sheridan runs The Sales Lion blog, where he explores the marketing approach he’s used to build a successful business. But his blog has helped Marcus springboard very successfully into the public speaking circuit.

Marcus Sheridan of The Sales Lion

Marcus has told us his story before, in the post From Small-time Blogger to Professional Paid Speaker: My Journey. Here, he talks about how the blog supports that business in a little more detail.

Marcus, what was it that drew you to blogging in the first instance?

Since 2001, I've owned an inground swimming pool company that installs pools throughout Virginia and Maryland. Things grew nicely until 2008 when the housing marketing collapsed, ruining many pool companies and forcing us to figure out a way to continue to survive despite so few potential clients.

During this time of struggle I stumbled upon a company called HubSpot and learned about inbound marketing, and decided to embrace blogging as a means of generating more traffic, leads, and sales through our company website.

Because of our willingness to be incredibly transparent and informative about all things swimming pools, the site's popularity quickly exploded and it became the go-to source for the inground pool industry. It also saved our business because although it really didn't cost us much at all to do, it sold us many, many pools.

With so much success in the swimming pool industry, I decided to teach others about what I had achieved, and these teachings became what is today TheSalesLion.com, a blog that has made its mark as one of the premier inbound and content marketing focused blogs on the web.

The blog supports your business as a public speaker. Did you develop the blog with the intention that it would support your speaking work?

I knew I'd never get the type of speaking gigs I wanted unless I had a platform to build my overall brand awareness and influence. With The Sales Lion, I accomplished just that as it allowed me to express my thoughts in all their forms. Because people saw I had a unique approach to things, I started getting more and more invitations to speak.

Forcing myself to write about all things marketing, sales, business, and personal development has allowed me to refine my message. It has also embedded these teachings into my brain in such a way that I can now speak for hours upon hours about business and marketing without notes. Such is the power of blogging if we go about it the right way.

So the strength with which the blog supports you as a speaker is no happy accident, then.

Make no mistake about it: my blog strategy is intentional. I want companies to see I can come in and speak to their organizations and assist them in their content marketing efforts. I want conferences to see that I'm wildly opinionated, thought provoking, and unafraid to say what's on my mind—with a whole lot of passion mixed in.

you make it sound so easy! Do you face many hurdles in using your blog to build your business as a speaker?

I think the biggest challenge is continuing to plant the seeds while you're reaping the harvest.

In other words, striking the balance between producing new content on my blog and continuing to network while I also need to be helping my actual, paying clients. One will help sales later, while the other will help my cashflow right now. I think this is a balance we all struggle with, though.

True. So what’s the secret sauce that’s helped you get your blog business to where it is today?

I make people feel good when they stop by and leave a comment, because I care and I'm grateful.
I'm opinionated and not just regurgitating what everyone else is saying.
I'm dang good at storytelling.
I teach/write in such a way that anyone can understand what I'm saying. In other words, my goal isn't to try to impress myself or sound intelligent.
I haven't let off the gas in three years.

That’s quite the list! But how do you define your unique selling proposition?

I don't try to be all things to all people. And I'm certainly not afraid to have some guts when necessary and put myself in the line of fire if I feel something needs to be said.

Also, I know my shtick. I'm one of the best in the world at content marketing—not Facebook, or Twitter, or Linkedin—etc.

Well, speaking of online tools, which ones do you rely on most in your blog business?

As I mentioned, I love HubSpot for their lead tracking and behavior software. Like everyone else, I use WordPress and my theme is Thesis. I also have a virtual assistant who helps edit my stuff and offers needed support.

So what words of advice would you tell a blogger who wanted to get into public speaking, using their blog as the platform?

Answer every single question in your field. Be the wiki of whatever it is you do.
Be bold and gutsy.
Make your readers feel good about themselves.
Stand up to the "big boys" when necessary.
Be great at networking.

Great advice! Finally, Marcus, what does the future hold for you, your blog, and your business?

That’s a tough question, because stuff is changing at an incredible rate. But I see my brand growing, along with my speaking schedule. I plan on being one of the best keynote and business speakers in the world and feel I'm well on my way to reaching that goal.

I'll always have a blog, no matter what, because I simply have to express myself and put my thoughts to pen. That's just who I am. And I plan on smiling for the entire journey.

Thanks to Marcus for sharing his thoughts with us. To find out more about Marcus’s business model, visit his site at The Sales Lion and read his story in From Small-time Blogger to Professional Paid Speaker: My Journey.

Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger

Blog Business Model 1: Land Public Speaking Gigs Through Your Blog

Five Blog Business Models That’ll Make You Money

Posted: 25 Jun 2012 07:01 AM PDT

One of the great things about the blogosphere is innovation, and the fact that there is an almost unlimited number of ways you can make money blogging.

One glance around the web shows such variety in terms of the way bloggers approach their audiences and provide them with value.

Image courtesy of stock.xchng user danzo08

The thing is, all that choice can be overwhelming. Those looking to being monetizing their blogs can be put off by the profusion of choices. Those who are thinking of extending their current monetization strategies can often fall back on tried and tested—but not necessarily optimal—methods simply because it’s so difficult to navigate the information around new ones.

So this week, we’re going to look at some of the more common blogging business models in depth.

The five six blog business models

Starting today, six pro bloggers will explain the ins and outs of the business model they’re successfully using to monetize their blogs.

Their insights will give you valuable ideas about how different business models might work with your own blog, niche, and audience.

Here are the business models we’ll cover—and the individuals who’ll share their experiences with us. Each day I’ll be updating this list with the link to the current days’ post, so you can bookmark this post to access them all:

Landing public speaking gigs through your blog, with Marcus Sheridan of The Sales Lion
Selling your print book through your blog, with Kevin Cullis of MacStartup
Selling electronic products, with me, focusing on dPS
Affiliate marketing, with Anshul Dayal of Nichesense
Selling training and courses, with Jules Clancy of The Stone Soup.

Update: we’ve just received a bonus post for the series:

Selling consulting services, with Ash Ambirge of The Middle Finger Project.

I’ll also be supplementing these articles and interviews with resource lists for further research for those interested in finding out more about that business model.

I hope you’ll find this advice useful, and that it inspires you to look at your blog’s money-making potential in a fresh light.

Before we begin, let us know if you’re already monetizing your blog, and how. Share your strategies with us in the comments.

Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger

Five Blog Business Models That’ll Make You Money

The One Iron Law of Blogging - DailyBlogTips

The One Iron Law of Blogging

Posted: 25 Jun 2012 06:15 AM PDT

When it comes down to it, if you want to build a popular blog, there are very few “rules” to follow.

Really, there is only one rule.

That’s the “Iron Law of Blogging”, and it can’t be broken, otherwise you’ll end up with a deserted collection of information that you meekly call a “blog”.

Today, you’re going to find out what that rule is, and how you can abide by it… while still adding you.

The Iron Law

This "iron law" is cold, hard, and unforgiving – ignore it, and you will fail.

So what is it?

I think this quote from Marc Andreesen, a venture capitalist and founder of Netscape states it well:

Market matters most; neither a stellar team nor fantastic product will redeem a bad market. Markets that don't exist don't care how smart you are.

Or, in other words…

Your blog's success is completely dependent on people actually wanting to read what you write about.

If there just isn’t enough people in your market, that’s the end of the line right there: it doesn’t matter how good of a writer you are, and it doesn’t matter how amazing your content is.

Henneke Duistermaat calls this the Sin Of Originality in his guest post on Jon Morrow’s blog, and I think it’s an apt title for what I hold as the “Iron Law”.

He continues with this great metaphor:

You write, and write, and write, and nobody pays you any attention, not because your writing is bad, necessarily, but because there is a lack of demand. Yes, your content is great, but there just aren't that many people interested in reading about it.

Essentially, you've created the world's greatest asparagus restaurant. Maybe you have one or two regulars who are asparagus freaks, but the rest of the world would rather go get some pizza. So, your restaurant (or blog) is empty.

The truth: the originality and creativity that you can bring to a topic will only serve to aid you if the audience is ALREADY THERE.

Just take a look at a blogger like Mars Dorian.

He uses comics and amazingly done illustrations to discuss business and life advice from a really unique perspective.

The thing is, as original as his blog content is, he’s still in a market that people want to read about.

If he had started a blog about extreme ironing (before you even ask, yes, that’s real), he could have somehow made his comics twice as good and it still wouldn’t matter: there wouldn’t be a large enough people interested in his topic to get on board and appreciate his creativity.

When to “Niche it Down”

The thing that gets most people tripped up is that lots of marketers tell them to “niche it down” in order to succeed.

The thing that many people miss here is that this subset that you’ve chosen needs to have two things:

It needs to be apart of a much more popular broad genre
It needs to be suitable to run a blog about

Let’s take a look at an example…

I run a blog called Sophistefunk, which is about electronic music.

Even though that’s a specific niche, it’s part of a much larger niche in “music”.

Additionally, I knew the audience was there for this sub-niche of mine.

How?

There were already a few competitors.

You may think competition is a bad thing, but competition actually helps you solve your biggest blog (and business!) problem: finding out if people want your offer.

Restaurants are one of the toughest ‘brick-and-mortar’ businesses to get into, but at least we all know that restaurants in general are needed; people like to go out and eat.

However, before we can just go out and start any ol’ restaurant, we have to make sure the demand is there for the creativity we’re about to add: we know restaurants are popular, but that doesn’t mean that an asparagus restaurant is going to do well.

For bloggers, this begs the question: how can you tell?

For starters, I recommend you read this post by Jon Morrow on the 21 Warning Signs that You Chose the Wrong Blog Topic.

He recommends checking for things like the following:

Other blogs! (specifically, other popular blogs in your niche. If there isn’t any, that is a bad sign…)
Books written about your topic, search for them on Amazon
Advertisers (are there things to sell for your topic?)
Are there any large publications (magazines, newsletters, etc.) on the topic?

If you find a “wide open field”, you may be on the road less traveled… but it may be less traveled for a reason.

The other thing you need to consider is does your topic make for a good blog?

Not every audience building endeavor (or online business in general) has focus around a blog (although blogs benefit nearly all businesses)

The internet is a great place to create audiences in other ways, like the top YouTubers have done.

Blogs are great because they can serve as a “litmus test” before developing a full product.

What you need to consider though, is would people be interested in reading about whatever your topic is in blog form.

Plenty of people enjoying hang-gliding, but do you know any hang-gliding blogs specifically?

Probably not, but you might know a few “adventure” type blogs, which include stories of hang-gliding trips in exotic locals.

The point in all that rambling: make sure you don’t get too laser focused, and that you don’t pick a topic that will have a limited reach.

Take a look at the topics that are already doing well (more “competition” means more people that can link to you!) and try to find a way to insert you into your unique selling proposition.

Feel free to put your spin on things, but don’t ruin your chances by trying to break the iron law of blogging.

Over To You…

So, now that you’ve made it to the end, I’ve got 3 things for you to do…

Tell me what the “broad” topic of your blog is.
Tell me about your unique spin on that topic: how are you going to own it by standing out?
Since you took the time to read my content, you also might enjoy my very awesome and very free e-Book on conversion psychology.

Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you in the comments!

Gregory Ciotti is the founder of Sparring Mind and a regular DailyBlogTips columnist. Download his free e-Book on ‘conversion psychology’.

Original Post: The One Iron Law of Blogging

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