Quality is so much better than quantity

September 9, 2009

It is my personal belief that quality is always better than quantity when it comes to blogging. For new bloggers (or at least new domains if you are an experienced blogger) it can really help to get your blog established if you blog everyday for a at leaast six months and when I mentor people I will encourage them to write anything from 15-30 posts once they know what they niche is before they look at setting up their blog (I recently helped a client with a blog launch which went well and may do more of those) so that their blog isn’t “naked!”

When I first started mentoring back in May 2008 clients would set up their blog and because they are all experts in their field I automatically assumed they would start blogging and love it but many of them struggled to find their blogging pattern and get into a blogging habit. What that taught me is the difference in mindset between those that succeed and those that end up abandoning their blog without really giving it a fair chance (now 17 months later blogging every day would have given them a blog with plenty of content).

Although I believe in blogging regularly and often I still believe in quality over quantity any time – I have never been one to play the numbers games whether it is with writing content or gathering Twitter followers! Quality content, that informs, inspires, entertains, helps out, discusses, debates and generally gets people thinking, reading and maybe even sometimes leaving a comment (hint hint ) is so much better than just a few lines in a blog that helps no one!

With that said I have stopped adding as many blog posts on here as I wouldl like to and that can happen too sometimes. I don’t only blog about blogging (and help others get started/work freelance) but I also work in the personal growth field and am writing a book as well as re-starting running offline events (first one Friday 30th!) so there may be gaps for a little while. In the meantime though there is always the eCourse I have put together which will provide you with inspiration of the mindset needed to run a blog business (planning, list building, goal setting – all the good stuff!) in the meantime.

My regular plan will resume starting Monday now that the house move is complete and my first event is over – and it is a good example of how at times you can stray away from your regular plan if things are changing. Once a plan is set it doesn’t mean it is set in stone and being flexible enough to move away from it is important.

If you have a comment, suggestion, opinion or question about this blog post or you just want to say how it helped you please leave me a comment below.

Virtual Communities and participation

January 20, 2009

in Diane's Words

All communities whether offline or online go through a cycle of participation that will see the network activity peak, slow down, rise again, peak again, slow down again – on and on.

New members who join an online group will go through the same initiation process as a person who walks into an established offline group – they will be expected to go through a period of getting to know the members, contributing to discussions and adding to the community before they will be fully accepted.

This is why advertising a business as a new member of a network really doesn’t work. Yes, virtual communities offer a fantastic opportunity to promote what you do and earn a living but not when you join an established community and immediately begin to advertise what you do in a form of “look at me” behaviour.

Giving is paramount in any situation and it is no different online. Giving to receiving, providing value first, sharing what you know – as a participant of an online forum or network this is essential if you want to make a difference and create an impact.

Participation will also be dictated by the facilities available – a blog on it’s own can provide a primary means of connecting with users and giving them a space to air their opinions. A blog with a forum attached now opens up the possibility for members to contribute by adding their own content (commonly known as user generated content) and a blog with a social network provides a safe space for those who want to read and lurk (all communities have their lurkers who do not want to participate actively but enjoying reading) as well as upload more personal items such as video and photos.

Different types of member participation – a life cycle view

In 2000 Amy Jo Kim proposed a life cycle for members of virtual communities. In this cycle it states that

Members may start off as visitors/lurkers, people who want to take a look at what the community is about.
Once comfortable they will join and are now new members of the community or novices and begin participating in community life.
After a sustained period of contributions they become regulars and if they continue to maintain their current level of participation they become leaders.
Leaders who continue to take an active part in the community move on to become elders.

This life cycle can be applied to any virtual community and it is very common for regulars and leaders to stop contributing for a while before returning – sometimes to their past status and sometimes not.

Another model that highlights the life cycle of a virtual community can be taken from the works of Lave and Wenger who suggest that there are five different model types when it comes to member participation

Peripheral (i.e. Lurker) – This person remains outside the group and is anonymous
Inbound (i.e. Novice) – A new member who has joined and is looking at becoming active in the community
Insider (i.e. Regular) – A regular contributor to a virtual community who will add and take part in discussions as well as join groups.
Boundary (i.e. Leader) – Maintains membership participation, monitors interaction between members and is critical especially at the beginning of a new social network to ensure the virtual snowball effect takes place.
Outbound (i.e. Elder) – A member who has contributed to the group for many years and who will always remain an important member.

There are also members who are ready to move on because the group dynamics have changed, maybe the community has moved in a new direction or has changed the way it operates.

Joining & Non Participation

It is very common for new people to join a network and not take advantage of the services on offer. For some there may be barriers to participating in a social network that makes it difficult for them to join in or time constraints, meaning they join but never get round to coming back and actively taking part.

If you have a small group and the large majority of members find participation difficult this will obviously stunt the growth of your network, and learning aids like video tutorials can make a huge difference.

If participation is an important part of the value system of your organisation then you will want to spend time discovering what causes the lack of participation from each member. The only way to overcome this issue will be to contact each member individually to discover what you can do to help.

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Finding love again using natural attraction month one

April 1, 2009

in Diane's Words

Welcome To The Gold Area

Each month you will find a new tab available at the top. You can click on the self confidence tab (above) to get access to your first month and any other extra resources I include with your membership. Each month for as long as you stay a member a new tab becomes available to you along with all the information I have included.

In month 3 I have a great audio product surprise for you and in month 5 a special gift so watch out for them.

Explode Your Self Confidence

Month One – Click On The Link To Download

Week 1 - What is self confidence and how much of it do you have?

Week 2 - Why Men Find Self confidence attractive

Week 3 - How to improve your confidence – techniques and tools

Week 4 – Maintaining your confidence at all time

Remember to promote the site

I pay you for everyone who signs up for this course so click on theAffiliate tab to get hold of your special link that you can use to send to people. It is important they click on YOUR link to join because it is your specific link which lets me know you sent them here.

No need to sell anything, just act as if you are telling your friends about a great film you watched at the movies that you want them to go see. Or talk to them like you would when you have eaten a fantastic meal and you want to recommend the restaurant.

They will naturally see the changes in you as you go through the course so if anyone asks that’s a natural time to say “I’ll send you a link to it so you can join too”

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10 ways to make 10k online

April 16, 2009

in free ebooks

Jimmy D Brown’s newest free online business building report is called 10 proven ways to to make at least 10k a month from an online business and is available for immediate blogging. Of course blogging is one of those 10 ways!

You can download it here

http://www.inspirationalguidance.com/freeproducts/10ways10k.pdf

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The mindset of a blogger

May 3, 2009

in Blogging

Blog Series : The mindset of a blogger : Part 1

Believe it or not despite being part of the rar-rar human potential movement, you can do it if you believe it crowd when I talk about mindset I am not focusing here on being positive and believing in your ability to achieve.

Is that important? Absolutely and even if you can’t believe that you can achieve I would encourage you to at least not DISBELIVE IT! It really isn’t necessary to believe in yourself (again it really does help if you do) but it is essential that you don’t disbelieve and put yourself down.

Now that’s the rar-rar bit out the way

The mindset I am talking about here is different. Let me start with an example

If you live in a busy city like London or New York and you decide one day to pack up and move to the country there is an adjustment that needs to be made. In the country you probably won’t be able to get instant access to everything you want, the pace of life will be slower and people won’t be in a rush to fulfil your every need. If you are used to getting up and going out for Chinese at 11pm chances are in the country you won’t be able to do that. At 11pm most people will be in bed (or falling out of the pub if you are in London!)

You will need a mindset shift to cope with this change. The way your life was living in the city has completely changed and you will need to learn how to adjust your way of thinking to fit into this new lifestyle.

So it is with running your blog business, you are about to run A BUSINESS and that is the first thing you need to adjust your mindset on. This isn’t a hobby or something you do for fun, (if it is then you really don’t need to read this!) you are looking to earn a full time wage, hopefully in the 5-6 figure income bracket or more and you will need to begin thinking less like a “regular blogger” and more like a business owner.

Here are a few mindset shifts you will need (which of course I will be writing about)
You need to learn how to become the marketer rather than being marketed to all the time – You need to change your mindset from constantly buying to working towards marketing and selling what you are offering. You also need to focus your attention on marketing and having a marketing strategy.

Planning your business – I don’t mean a great big 40 page business plan full of useless numbers that are all guess work. I am talking here about a strategy that covers what you will offer based on the skills you have (or can pay for) and your overall vision for yourself. What your desire is. It is that desire that will keep you going when things become challenging (and it will)
Research. Stop thinking you know what people want and be humble. You really have no clue what I want, need or desire but there are places on the internet where you can find out and based on that research you can then create something that will give me exactly what I need.

Positioning. You need to know where you fit it and how in relation to your competition. I believe in being individual and unique so there is no one like me. No one can do what I do the way I do it, but I do recognise the need to know where I fit in with everyone else offering what I do. Am I cheaper, more expensive? Do I offer more support or give more products away? What is my position in relation to those who offer a similar service? You need to know this. It is an essential marketing key.
Once you know all of that you can go out and attract your idea customer to you and once you have them you need to look at how you can service their needs from cradle to grave (for want of a better expression!) Sometimes it is easy to spend all our time and energy focusing on bringing in new clients when all you really need to do is focus in on the ones we already have and sell them more of what we offer.

Let’s stop and look at a great example of this. Are you familiar with the life strategist Anthony Robbins? If you aren’t you can look him up.

He offers a free book called “Notes from a friend” – or at least when I got myself a copy it was free. If it isn’t anymore it is low cost ($5-7)
After reading that if you love what he has to say you are more likely to buy his book $17-30
His audio programs are next at $67-197
Then you might want to attend his basic weekend training $3-400
From there you go on to his more advanced training until you reach his top quality training sessions in Hawaii at over $10,000 for a weekend course.

One person can go all the way up his product ladder (and many thousands do!) the higher people climb the more people drop off until you have a core group that are at the very top and will book absolutely anything he produces no matter what the price.

Looking after the customers that have and/or will buy from you rather than constantly chasing new ones is an important mindset to develop and I will be going deeper into this area.

A changing global climate

Change is about the only thing we can rely on. Things change, markets change, global economies change. 20 years ago blogging didn’t exist like it does now and selling online was a totally different animal!

In the book Entrepreneurship by David A Kirkby says

“While globalization and the interdependence of markets have been recognized increasingly in recent years, it has also become apparent that we can no longer rely upon ‘they’. Whether ‘they’ are wealthy nations of the world, the state or large firms, we cannot rely on them to provide us with our wealth, our jobs, our homes, our healthcare etc. Increasingly, we are having to rely on ourselves……”
“Within individuals, communities, organizations and societies we need to develop a greater sense of enterprise and self help. We need people who see opportunity, create and build, initiate and achieve”

The internet provides us all with an opportunity to “create and build, initiate and achieve” if we are willing to go through the journey of making it happen. This is not a journey for everyone and many more give up than succeed.

You are now in business and you need to get to grips with all the things it takes to run a successful blog business. I don’t believe for one moment I have all the answers, I can only provide you with the answers that helped me get to where I am on my journey in the hope that they help you too.
And with that said, in part 2 we will take a look at whether this is a journey you are ready to take!

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