How to use Blogging to turn Ideas into $$$$s
Blogging helps you turn your ideas into $$$$s.
Blogging is a promotional tools that allows you to tell the story about your idea and still ask for the order. It is usually a subtle form of advertising but more importantly what it offers your reader is the opportunity to connect with you and see you as a person interested in helping them solve their problem.
In a blog, you can tell stories of how your product or service works. You can show video, do podcasts or just provide information that helps build a relationship. But a powerful tool for blogging is learning to Guest Blog. 
Over the last few months, I have been learning the importance of Guest Blogging from Jon Morrow.
Guest blogging can take several forms:
- You can be invited to guest blog. I have been privileged to guest blog with wonderful people like Lynn Brown of Learn It 2 Earn It plus several other Facebook friends.
- This usually means that your friend believes your content will be benefit their readers.
- You can volunteer to write blogs for your friends if your content fits their content and then they invite you to contribute.
- You can join sites that allow you to share unique blogs.
- Ask to guest post. There are dozens of posts on the market that depend on guest posters to post on their blog. Jon Morrow is one of the most successful in teaching how to do this. You can find out more by clicking the link at the side.
- And Jon’s Headline Hacks is a tool I use almost every day when I write blogs, landing pages, sales pages, articles or chapters for a book or a presentation. They are FABULOUS and FREE.
- And Jon’s Headline Hacks is a tool I use almost every day when I write blogs, landing pages, sales pages, articles or chapters for a book or a presentation. They are FABULOUS and FREE.
- Submit posts just as you would articles. While this is strictly not guest blogging, if someone searches Squidoo or Mashable and finds your blog then it has the same effect as a guest post just less directed and focused. You can submit your post to groups and if your headline is good enough or your friends are helping you, they will share your post, comment on your post or just generally help build your credibility. In 2009, I joined a group on Facebook that helped me take the blogs on Get out of Stuck Excel from an Alexa ranking of 5 million to under 1 million. Unfortunately since then, it has gone back up to over 1 million. (But working on that).
Why Guest Blog?
Thousands of blogs are posted EVERY HOUR of the day. Take a look at some of the infographics on Pinterest to see some of the infographics and numbers, especially the content Marketing Explosion Infographic.
This blog’s readership grows every day but blogs like Firepole Marketing, Copyblogger, Problogger or Stepcase Lifehack to mention just a small number grow even more because a blog with thousands of followers has a bigger pool to pull followers from.
“Some Simple Math”
1% of 100 blog readers = 1 new follower
1% of 1000 blog readers = 10 new followers
1% of 10,000 blog readers = 100 followers for your blog.
Learn about Guest Blogging.
Blog on your own website.
Blog on organisational and association websites (but make sure you follow their rules).
TELL the WORLD about how your product or service Helps
Blogging is replacing many different off-line communication tools. Blogging allows you to tell your story and help people LOVE YOU or your product!
Blogging is one of the least expensive ways of testing an idea, promoting your idea and building the fan base to have people FOLLOW and BUY your products or services.
Will you blog today? In the comment box, promote your blog and I promise to comment on your blog link.
Enjoy today
Roberta Budvietas
Create Sizzle to Sell Content
Everyone knows that content is king but…to get anyone to read that content you need create sizzle.
Many years ago, when I worked as a sales representative for an office supplies company, my boss told me to think of all of the products we sold as toilet paper.
“Toilet Paper?” I said as I looked at the shelves of paper and envelopes and the floor space covered with chairs and
Creating Sizzle
desks.
“Yes toilet paper” he emphasised. “Toilet paper is something that everyone uses but few people think about. You only really think about toilet paper when you run out and then you will pay any price for another roll. Price and quality still matter but a person with a high need just wants to solve their problem and the person who can convince them of the solution, sells most.”
The sizzle creates the urgency, the immediate need.
If you see a headline that meets your need or peaks your interest you will look at reading the first paragraph.
And if that content holds your interest, you might read the whole article, blog or web page.
The sizzle is what gets content to sell. Often the name of a web page is part of the sizzle.
Look at this contest on Blog Engage.
What a great sizzle.
Can you just imagine how you can engage?
Engage with whom?
Other bloggers!
Or how about Guest BlogIt? Any idea what this site is about?
Now if you were not a blogger and did not read blogs, these blogs might lack the sizzle to get you to look at their sites. They appeal to bloggers with a need to sell their content and the sizzle of that need attracts those people to visit, engage, sign up, comment, pay money and invest some reading time.
Then we can look at the sizzle of the It’s All a matter of Perspective. If you were looking for a perspective on life, some literary insights or to contact an experienced author you would have a need to contact Holly Jahangiri. And some of the articles she is publishing – the sizzle makes me feel so good.
Headlines like – Tortoise in a Teacup or Feed the Trolls at your own Risk.
And for anyone who wants to find the latest in technology and Entertainment Dragon Blogger has a following that keeps going back because his sizzling headlines have captured the attention of anyone wanting to know the latest gadget or movie. This is a review site not a gossip column. And the sizzle here is for early adopters who want to know what is happening in the world but have no time to search.
Yes content is king but…without the sizzle who would read the content.
Yes content is king but until you promote the sizzle, no one will find you to read the content.
It is a package deal.
Sizzle —- Promote ——-Content ——-Sale (time or money).
How do you create sizzle?
Think of the barbecue – what makes us want the steak or sausages?
The sizzle, the smell and the expectations that result because our taste buds start to salivate from the smell.
Headlines also create sizzle. Words like How to, what if, Amazing, Avoid, The secret, Exposed.
There are several tools to help you.
Emotional Marketing Value Headline Analyzer – this is a great tool to find out the emotional content of your headline. There is still the intellectual, empathetic and spiritual side of the headline but most people feel the sizzle when they read.
Headline Wizard is also great for generating headlines and rather than just analysing the headline actually generates the headline for your product or service.
And from one of my mentors this resources for headlines created by Jon Morrow- 52 Headline Hacks which you can get for FREE!
So does your article sell sizzle?
Does each and every blog sell sizzle?
It starts with sizzle.
And then comes content.
And finally you must PROMOTE.
Contests like this are a wonderful opportunity to promote your blogs. They give you two key ways to promote.
First, you have the opportunity to promote your ability to write as a blogger in the competition.
And second when you sponsor a competition like this, you get backlinks, exposure and an opportunity for many others to find you and subscribe to your products, services and information.
Take a look at several of the remaining sponsors of this competition.
First there is ConversionChamp who offer powerful tips to generate more leads and conversion rates. With their offer of a free Ebook called A Beginner’s Guide to Content Marketing, I hope they follow one of their suggestions and comment on this blog. They certainly understand the importance of sizzle though with their ebook title, don’t you agree?
Next is Thesis Theme Skins. Now I love Thesis. I think that if you want to really get super Search Engine Optimization, you need Thesis. So a web site that sells skins for Thesis is so cool. And what wonderful names for those skins – Chronicl skin for Thesis or Blogskin or Marketer’s Delight. Each name has its own sizzle. Right?
And then there is the Rich Snippets for Reviews selling as part of their service a wonderful plugin for WordPress product and service reviewers. So is you review anything, this would be a great tool to acquire and just think, you bought it because you caught the sizzle.
Look at the sizzle of All Things Pondered. The name is sizzling. Many of us ponder things and this site helps you ponder many areas of finance, leadership and money and…… And they seem to be looking for guest bloggers too. What do you write for others to ponder?
And the last sponsor for the competition – Money Saving Idiot. Now money saving is always of interest except when I am selling but Idiot makes me do anything but sizzle. However, when I read the articles, I see the sizzle value for a number of people. So obviously, I am not the target niche but for the right market, this site is SIZZLING.
And as another manager once told me, about writing the sizzle – “stop thinking I am the buyer, think like the real buyer”.
When you write a blog, find your sizzle to sell your content. Write the content first but always create that sizzle before you promote.
To a sizzling time in the blogosphere
Roberta Budvietas
Dragon Blogger technology blog
Have You got a Product the market wants?
The other day I was listening to Gihan Perera speak about the importance of the Market, the Product and the Marketing. The challenge for a business is to have all three areas working together to give you the opportunity to have success.
What do I measure?
Gihan developed 5 key questions in each of these areas during his free webinar. If you use the questions he recommended and evaluate your business idea against each of these areas, you have an excellent change of launching and building a successful business.
In the Market area, you will evaluate the following:
- Can you clearly identify whose needs you can meet then you have a niche? If there is no niche, you could waste a lot of time looking for potential purchasers.
- Can you identify specific problems in your niche?
- Can you measure how many people have this problem? Is it a problem that your niche knows is a problem?
- Can you calculate how much they would be willing to pay to solve the problem?
- Do you already have a relationship with the people in the niche with the problem?
Next you can evaluate your product or service offering using the following criteria:
- Can your product or service solve the problem you identified?
- Do you have real life experience in solving the problem?
- Can you produce and deliver the service or product as required to meet the demand?
- Does your product or service deliver high gross margins?
- Does solving this problem all you to leverage other products and services you offer?
Then you will look at marketing and what you know about marketing by exploring the following areas:
- Do you have a clear strategy for marketing your products or services and have you tried and tested them?
- Does the strategy you have reach the target market directly with little additional effort?
- Do you have experience with the techniques and tactics to promote your product or service to the desired market?
- Are you passionate about talking about your solution to this market?
- What is the financial burden if you marketing campaign fails to work?
Have you ever thought about these questions?I know I have some work to do on my ideas.
What are you using right now to find products that the market wants? Please share below.
To your business success
Roberta Budvietas
Maven Connect
CommentLUV
Guest Blogging with Jon Morrow
