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
Is it Your Idea?
Every business needs sales. They need someone who will buy whatever it is they produce or whatever service they provide. And if you want to successfully take your idea to $$$$s, you need to find someone who can sell your product or service or you need to sell it 
yourself.
Different ways of getting $$$$s
- Promotion or as many people describe it marketing. Unless you promote your idea by some form of advertising, article, direct contact or flag waving, no one will know you exist. This includes blogging (all forms), article writing, interviews and any other form of getting the word out to the wider world. And if no one sells your product or service, if no one talks about your product or service, NO $$$$s will be made.
- Get others to promote or sell your product or service. This is what the big guys do. Coke Cola sells to retailers, restaurants and other outlets their product and those places then on-sell to the consumer. Sony, Sanyo, Toyota and all the major manufacturers have thousands of sales people around the world selling their product to the end user. MLM and network marketing companies get lots of people to buy into their program and sell it to others. Franchise operations get others to sell their wares according to their manual.
What can you count on?
One of the many challenges for every business owner is to convince others to sell their product too, as well or instead of their own.
If you look at someone who offers you affiliate programs, a franchise, a PLR what you are looking at is a business owner who wants a sales man. And unless you sell their program neither one of you can make money. The difference though is that they may have “hundreds or thousands of you” in the market and a few are keen to sell their product for them.
You can only count on yourself but if sales is a weak area for you then you need to find people to sell for you. And recognize that the incentive for them to do it has to be good otherwise, why should they.
And why will they sell your product? Because they know people who need your product. They know people who will buy and if they are not willing to buy, they will find another product. They want an easy job of selling.
BUT – does what does that mean for your idea?
If you are selling other people’s ideas, you are NOT selling your own.
Yes you can make dollars but are those dollars certain. What happens if the company goes out of business? What happens if for some reason they stop paying you? What happens if suddenly negative press means prospects stop buying.
Think for a moment of instances, you know either personally or anecdotally, when payment or sales dropped because of some external reason.
Your idea works when you prepare, plan and execute a strategy.
Your plan may be to sell someone else s product or service and if it is that is good. If you are creating your own eBook, information pack or course or service then you need to understand that SOMEONE needs to sell it.
- Someone needs to do the promotion, the follow-up and get the money in and deliver. They need to set performance criteria.
- Someone needs to talk to people and convince them that they wants your idea and get them to part with the $$$$s. They need to know what to say, how to represent you and how to collect the money
- Someone needs to write articles, blogs, website, promotional materials and then someone needs to follow-up. And all of this comes with lots of performance criteria and measurability.
Having the idea without the strategy, key performance indicators, the prospects, and the sales channel (which includes delivery) will never ever, ever result in you earning $$$$s.
If you need help with the strategy, the systems or the promotion, remember that is our area of experience and you can sign up for the webinars, forum or mentoring to help you turn your ideas into $$$$s.
To your success
Roberta Budvietas
Funds, Trust and Angels
Angel funding schemes, crowd sourcing conventional loans and shares are a few ways to raise money that will help you take your ideas to $$$$s. But what do you know about community funding schemes? Are they an avenue when the bank turns you down?
The Dragon’s Den
In several countries a television program called the Dragon’s Den was created to help product designers and service operators find funding. The contestants pitched their idea to five rich successful business people who then decided either to invest in the business or not. The investment always meant a shareholding in the company and the dragon’s often took on a powerful position as a director and mentor to the business.
Many contestants failed to gain any funding for several reasons. These included:
Dragons’ Den (Photo credit: dullhunk)
- They wanted funding to support themselves while they developed the product
- They refused to give up control of their business to the dragon’s for the investment
- They had no real plan to develop the market for the product.
Yes it was a program for entertainment but what it also did was point out that if you wanted investment in your business, you needed to be prepared to work you butt off for nothing, you needed an understanding of the market needs for your product and you needed to have a plan to for what the money would be used for and the return on investment as a result.
And remember that the investment is returned with interest as agreed at the time of the signing of the documents.
Angel Fund Loan Schemes
Angel investors are usually affluent individuals who put capital into a start up business. Sometimes they take ownership equity or some other debt instrument.
There is usually some form of accountability for the business owner borrowing the money and the angel or the collective investing often have some performance accountability until the debt is repaid or forgiven due to the business failing.
This results when there is a collective effort of individuals who network to support the efforts of other people. Crowd funding is often used to support causes as well as start up businesses or development of some free product (software or inventions).
Recently crowd funding has been achieved by selling small amounts of equity in a business to many investors. This has resulted in legislation on the administration and accountability for this investment in many countries.
Money, Trust and Accountability
Whatever the source of the funds are for the business to start or grow, the common theme is preparation and plans.
- There must be a purpose for the money that benefits the prospective clients and the community.
- The person receiving the money must be prepared to report back on what is happening with the money
- Each side (lender and borrower) trusts that the money will be used as stated and will be returned with some form of interest (real or social)
- Records must be kept and available for reporting back as requested.
Whatever form of funding a business receives, it makes a difference.
It can help people who have never been accountable before to take responsibility.
It can increase the self esteem of the borrower because someone else believes in them and their ability to carry out the plan
It makes a difference in a community because the community takes on the responsibility for giving a helping hand to others in the community to increase their independence and ability to earn an income for themselves by their efforts.
Often the amount of money is small but the trust in handing out the funds is a blessing that only an angel can give. It touches the pocket and the soul, the mind and the heart.
Do you have any angel stories in your life? Please share them in the comments and if you believe we need more angels to help business, share this story and ask others what they need and what they would give.
To your growth
- Roberta Budvietas
Seasonality and Doing Business
seasonality (Photo credit: murcoil)
Do you and your business suffer from seasonality?
Seasonality is a challenge for many businesses. It affects their cashflow, their ability to forecast and worse, the decisions and well being of managers and owners.
Some Examples of Seasonality
The farmer plants his crops, often borrowing money to buy the seed and fertilizers, hire equipment and workers against a crop that will come in three, four, five or six months later. What do they do if the crops fail or the weather devastates a crop?
Colleges enroll students at one or two times of the year. The students pay upfront and then the college must use that money wisely over the entire year so that they have the money to pay their bills and payroll and maintain the facilities. And what happens if they have unusual expenses or less (or more) enrollment than expected?
Christmas specialty stores start selling their main wares in about September with best part of their sales coming in December. What do they do after the post-Christmas sales?
Holiday camps, resorts and venues operate 12 months of the year but are often only open for 8 weeks in a year? How do they manage to pay their bills all year round?
Ski fields open when the first real snowfall happens. But what happens when there is no snow or only ice? Yes the snow making machines help but are they the answer to seasonality? And what happens when one year has a six week season and the next an eight week season and the next a four week season and then a twelve week season. What does that do to staffing and other resources?
The less obvious seasonality challenges
Seasonality affects every business in some way. The examples above are obvious examples but what about the following examples:
- Slow down for holidays when business to business trading can cease for up to three months in parts of the world.
- Changes in time, money and resources at budget time.
- Staffing issues when unemployment is low and finding good people is a challenge.
- Finding and outfitting premises when there are few properties available.
- An unexpected disaster or demand that affects the business operation.
- Planning for change and the circumstances of that change are different than expected as happened with the global financial crisis.
Dealing with Seasonality
Since all business experience some seasonality, they need to do the following to manage their seasonality:
- Manage cashflow, always keep a reserve for the unexpected.
- Make decisions quickly to take advantage of opportunities but do a risk management analysis of what happens if it fails.
- Have good insurance cover for business disasters and keep it current and relevant.
- Have a good support team to discuss ideas with, coaches, mentors or masterminds.
- Remember that this too shall pass and if you have to change than change is required. And business is always about responding to change: changing needs, changing conditions, changing products, changing expectations and changing conditions.
- The man who fails to adapt will be out of business quickly
In the comment box, share how seasonality affects you and what you have in place to support the seasonality of your business.
To your future success
- Roberta Budvietas
Skyfall, Duty and Your business
An Aston Martin DB5 as seen in Goldfinger. Expensive items are often part of a glamorous lifestyle. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
No one cares about your business except you but if you fail to do your duty to care about your prospects, clients and customers, you will lose your business.
Have you seen the latest James Bond movie, Skyfall? The movie pits duty and loyalty against technology and greed to show the audience that there still is a place for old fashioned values and service.
What is Service?
Listening to an audio tape in Teaching Sells this morning, Sonia Simone reminded me that unless our business helps people achieve what they want and makes a difference for them, our prospects are unlikely to buy from us. Our clients and prospects do not care about us. So service is about taking care of the needs and wants of others and making a difference for them.
- Service is not servitude.
- Service is not enslavement.
- Service is genuinely offering another person the fulfillment of their desire within the scope of your offering.
BUT
Business is about exchange of service. You get something and you give something.
I meet Your need or want but you meet mine too. The exchange keeps the whole thing working. Without the exchange NOTHING works.
What is the duty of a business?
James Bond never does things in a conventional manner. He is never obedient. He never does what is expected but he understands that his duty as an 007 is to protect the realm and so he does whatever he believes is right to eliminate the bad guys, He does his best every time. He never regrets. And he keeps his word. He never assumes only calculates the odds and looks at the patterns and trends. And he never takes anything personally. And that means he rarely if ever doubts himself and his ability to serve Queen and country.
But…
James also knows that the people giving the orders are not always right. He knows that he often has different information than his bosses and he weighs up the information given with his experience and strives to achieve the objective. He responds to the situation.
In business, you need to respond to the situation.
The recipe for business success involves a pinch of responsiveness, a smidgen of anticipation and a healthy dose of preparedness and flexibility. Mix together with keeping your word, doing your best, assuming nothing and taking nothing personally and remember that regret is unprofessional (according to M) and even when things fail to go according to your plan, you will sleep well and enjoy life.
What next for your business?
2013 is days away. But your future starts today.
- Your future is about doing duty and serving clients, making a difference in their lives.
- Your business will survive because you meet the needs of your clients and make a difference to them.
- Your business will thrive and prosper because you offer something that makes a difference to your clients lives.
- Your future is about doing your best, being impeccable with your word and continually learning, adapting and moving forward.
Roberta Budvietas
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Guest Blogging with Jon Morrow
