Tiny Business, Mighty Profits » Business Blogging

The Secret To Creating a Steady Stream of Blog Content (and it’s easy)

Russ Henneberry — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 10:47:53 +0000

What have you done for me lately?

This is the question the Internet asks us each day. What have you created lately?

It’s a cryin’ shame but the blog posts that you wrote two weeks ago are likely long forgotten about by the search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing. And long forgotten by the members of your social networks.

Bummer, right?

Q: Why Create More Content? A: Business Blogging Creates Opportunities

Business blogging is an enormously beneficial activity. When done properly, it will:

Increase your traffic from search engines
Increase your traffic from social networking sites
Increase conversion of prospect to customers
Increase up-selling and cross-selling opportunities to current customers
Create partnership opportunities
Increase the chance of your business being covered by mainstream, traditional media
Increase your chances of getting public speaking gigs

Need I go on?

Sounds great right!? But none of this will happen if you don’t create a steady stream of [valuable] blog content. Drats! Why does there always have to be a catch!

OK, How Much Content Do I Need To Create?

The $64,000 question — and, like most things, there is no pat answer to this question.

There are three rules:

More content is better
Good content is better
#1 doesn’t matter if you don’t have #2

You can create gobs and gobs of below average content and it won’t do much for you. You might get more search engine traffic but your site visitors will not be impressed if they arrive to find crappy content.

I like this rule: Set a publication schedule and stick to it. Gradually increase the amount of content you are creating.

If you are in a low competition (from a web point of view) industry, you may be able to get away with creating one piece of content per week.

If you are in a high competition (from a web point of view) industry, you may need to publish every day.

To the discouraged souls: If you aren’t creating ANY content for your website — creating something even once a month will be beneficial. Keep your head up and get started on a steady content creating and publication schedule.

The Secret To Creating Steady Blog Content

There are two main stages to a consistent bloggers workflow:

Stage 1: Idea Generation

From the day you start you blog and every day afterward, you need to be in constant idea generation mode. And, if you are like most business owners, you already are in constant idea generation mode.

This is why your spouse will occasionally say to you —- “You Never Listen To Me” —– because often when people are speaking to you —– you are THINKING about your tiny business. You are a mover and a shaker — your brain has no off-switch.

Write those ideas down and get them into your blog publishing platform as saved drafts. That’s part 1 of the secret.

Check out my blog:

Notice that I have 99 “drafts” — these are just ideas that have not been finished yet.

Each time I log into my WordPress blog, I take all of the ideas that I have had since I last logged in (I keep these in my iPhone, but you could carry a pen and paper if you wanted to) and I type them into my blogging platform.

Then, I hit the “Save Draft” button. I will jot down a few notes about the idea, or I will create an outline. Sometimes I will even type out the first couple of lines.

These “drafts” are gold and this is the secret —- you need to have a bunch of drafts available to choose from when you sit down to “polish and publish.”

Stage 2: Polishing and Publishing

This is the second part to the secret. Notice that I have 2 posts “Scheduled” in the image above. This means that I have the next two days scheduled out. These two posts are finished and ready to publish on the dates and times that I have them set.

Sometimes, I will go on a blogging spree and I will have 10 – 15 posts scheduled out. A blogging spree like this usually ends with an “Oh What A Feeling, Toyota!” leap in the air. It feels great to know that your next 10-15 pieces of content are already completed.

Don’t get discouraged. It is important to be publishing content on a consistent basis, but this 2 part secret will get you well on your way to being a steady blogger.

What are your thoughts about this? What questions do you have about creating a steady stream of blog content? What advice do you have for the rest of us?

[With Infographic] A Non-Profit Content Marketing Strategy

Russ Henneberry — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 09:40:04 +0000

Have you seen my content marketing strategy infographic? If not, click on that link and have a look. Study that infographic and read the article below it carefully.

It contains the secret to life.

Not exactly. But it does illustrate an extremely powerful type of marketing called Content Marketing that allows you to market your business very cheaply and it will make this article much easier to understand.

This article his one of many that I have planned that will contain Content Marketing strategies for different business verticals —- today’s is a not for profit business.

Content Marketing Strategy At The Pulitzer

The Pulitzer is a non-profit business in Saint Louis, MO that presents changing exhibitions and engages in a variety of programming initiatives involving the visual, literary, and performing arts.

And they are not perfect.

They are not doing everything in Internet Marketing perfectly. None of us are.

I can’t even describe some of their Internet Marketing as “good.”

But they are doing a better job than 99% of non-profits that I looked at for a presentation that I have coming up.

I think that what The Pulitzer has done well is one thing —— THEY GOT STARTED. They started a blog along with the Contemporarty Art Museum and they have been updating it regularly with valuable content.

Let’s have a look at their online marketing in this infographic:

The Pulitzer is using Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook and Email to market their non-profit.

Click on some of those links above and have a look at how The Pulitzer engages with their market.

What are your thoughts? Do you have any advice for us about Content Marketing Strategy and/or how it relates a non-profit organization?

How To Be A Good Internet Lover

Russ Henneberry — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 09:00:14 +0000

Chris Brogan says a good rule of thumb is to promote other people’s “stuff” 15 to 1 over your own “stuff.”

Promoting other people’s stuff and generating attention for them is the way we say “I LOVE YOU” on the Internet.

But all Internet Lovers are not created equal. Some lovers have a large “following and others have very little to no “following” online.

If you want to be a good Internet Lover — you need a PULPIT.

You need a following. You need to start creating something worthwhile that garners attention and thus a following of your own.

You should be setting yourself on a course to create a pulpit — and a blog is a great (and cheap) way to get your own pulpit.

Creating good stuff on a blog will give you something to add to the conversations on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.

It will create a following for you — and make you a better Internet Lover.

Have a look at some the ways we say I LOVE YOU on the Internet and you’ll see what I mean:

Write about them and link to them from your blog (and let them know you did it)
Email your “list” and promote them or their products/services
Retweet them
Interview them and place it on your website/blog
Refer someone to them via Twitter, Facebook, Linked In or other social networking site
Reference them in a presentation and put the slides on Prezi, Slideshare, Scribd and on your own blog
Talk about them in some “talking head video” and post it on YouTube and your own blog

All of the above can be done with little or no following — but there is much more LOVE when you have built some attention.

Start building your pulpit today — don’t wait any longer!

After all, LOVE is a powerful thing.

Video, Text and SEO

Russ Henneberry — Thu, 06 May 2010 11:00:24 +0000

HTML text is still king.

Try this — take your mouse and click on this very text you are reading and highlight this sentence. If you can highlight it, Google can read it.

Now, take a look at this video below. What do you suppose Google can read about that? Not a whole heck of a lot is right.

Our job as tiny business owners is to make it as easy as possible for Google to know exactly what we do for a living —- so they can refer us business. If your website is 100% video, your aren’t doing a very good job at that.

There is no question that Google has become better at indexing the contents of video, they are reading the file name, title, tags, category, etc. And videos, especially YouTube videos, rank fairly well for some keywords.

However, take a look at YOUR website — how much HTML text do you have?

I elaborate on this a bit in this video below.

What Has Two Thumbs And Wants Your Attention?

Russ Henneberry — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 12:00:58 +0000

What has two thumbs and wants your attention? Me.

No one knows who you are and no one cares. This is the most dangerous state for your tiny business to be in — a state of obscurity.

Marketers, like me, are constantly trying to figure out how to get the attention of their markets.

Apathy on the part of your market is the #1 killer of tiny businesses.

Building Attention Assets

Attention assets are things that your business owns that drive “buzz” about your products/services.

The traditional method of building an attention asset is to interrupt your market with a relentless barrage of advertising slogans, brand imagery, and jingles until your market submits to your will.

This is expensive.

People are communicating with other people on the web for free. And you can join the conversation — for free.

There is one catch. You can’t do the hard sell thing. At least not until you get to know a prospect.

How To Get Attention Online

You can get attention online by:

Having real conversations with people
- On Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc
- On your blog
- Through Email/ Your email list
- Through telephone/teleseminars
- At in-person networking events/ Public Speaking
Providing value for your customers and prospects
- On Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc
- On your blog
- Through Email/ Your email list
- Through telephone/teleseminars
- At in-person networking events/ Public Speaking
Getting permission from your customers to continue the conversation
- On Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc
- On your blog
- Through Email/ Your email list
- Through telephone/teleseminars
- At in-person networking events/ Public Speaking

That last main bullet point is the most important — the one about permission to continue the conversation. It is the goal we are working for on the web. When someone follows you on Twitter or subscribes to your email list they are giving you permission to market to them and therefore have agreed to give you some attention.

Your Market Can Giveth And Taketh Away

The catch on the web is that people can shut you off — you can’t interrupt them if they don’t want to be interrupted.

They will “unfollow you” on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn
They will stop reading or unsubscribe from your blog
They will unsubscribe or hit the SPAM button on your email
They won’t speak to you on the phone or sign up for your teleseminars
They won’t speak to you or attend your in-person networking events

This is why you can’t just do the “hard sell.”

The CONTENT of your message must be valuable to your market for them to give you the permission to continue the conversation.

They are giving you their attention and you must give them something valuable in return.

Your turn. How do you go about getting attention online? What advice do you have for the rest of us tiny business owners?

Four Major Blogging Income Streams

Russ Henneberry — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 13:00:42 +0000

Show Me The Money!

I write about how creating valuable content on a blog and then broadcasting that content using social media channels, RSS, email marketing, etc will make your tiny business successful.

I see the skepticism in your eyes.

Your thinking – how can “little-old me” make money from writing on a blog or creating video content. It just doesn’t make sense.

Poppycock! (I’ve always wanted to call something “poppycock” — and hey, it’s my blog)

Here are four ways it can be done –

Major Blogging Income Stream 1 – Affiliate Marketing

The facts are these:

You buy and use “stuff”
You like some of this “stuff”
You recommend some of this “stuff” to your network (friends, family, colleagues)

Why shouldn’t you get a commission for recommending this “stuff?”

For example -

I love my Flip Camera. I recommend the Flip to a lot of people and I talk about the use of it in a lot of my blog posts — If you want to buy a Flip Camera click here. If you click on that link it will take you over to Amazon — if you buy the Flip from Amazon — I will make a commission.

And why shouldn’t I? I use the Flip. I like the Flip. You like me. You trust me. In essence, I sold you that Flip based on my recommendation — both Amazon and Flip are happy to pay me a commission.

Now — what are you using in your business from which you could start getting affiliate commissions? There is an affiliate program for almost any product/service you can think of!

Major Blogging Income Stream 2 – Advertising

Ads. The oldest and simplest form of monetization on the web.

Banner ads, Google Adsense, etc.

If you are using a blogging platform like WordPress, putting ads on your blog is as easy as installing a plug-in.

Most ads are pay per click — meaning you get paid when people click on them. You generally need lots of traffic to start making any significant money from ads.

Major Blogging Income Stream 3 – Freelance Services

There simply is no better way to market your Freelance services than writing on a blog.

Remember that as a tiny business owner — you are a risky hire. How do I know that you know what you are talking about? How do I know that you are trustworthy?

You need to establish a relationship with me. You need to display your expertise without me putting any money in.

You don’t have a brand to back you up.

Creating content on a blog will give you the credibility you need to sell your freelance services.

Major Blogging Income Stream 4 – Selling Products

Selling products through blogging can be a huge income stream for you.

If you are selling physical products that need to be shipped you should be writing on a blog with the goal of increasing search engine traffic.

For example -

Jane sells high-end, quality coffee through a retail store. She has recently set up a website where people can order from all over the country.

Hmmm… no orders are coming in. Jane checks her website statistics and finds that no one is visiting her website. Google is sending no traffic.

Why should they? Google already has 1000′s — nay — 100′s of thousands of websites that it trusts more than Jane’s that also sell high-end coffee.

Jane installs a blog on her website and begins writing about topics like:

How to roast coffee
How to brew the perfect cup
Best coffee jokes

She starts asking people to send in a picture of their favorite coffee cup and posts these pictures on her blog.

She starts getting a buzz around her content, people start linking to her blog, people start talking about her stuff on Facebook, Twitter, etc.

People start visiting Jane’s coffee website on a regular basis.

People start buying coffee from Jane.

The second way that you can sell products through your blog is by selling Information Products like eBooks, audio content, video content, membership sites or forums, etc.

If you have something that can truly help your audience, build some content around it and charge for it. Sites like PayPal and Google Checkout in combination with WordPress make this ridiculously easy.

All you really need to figure out is what you will be able to charge for.

For example –

Anthony is a blogger that writes about diabetes. He has diabetes himself and creates great articles about the dangers of diabetes, the lifestyle of a diabetic, etc.

Anthony begins to create a small, loyal following of readers on his blog. These loyal readers are diabetics as well.

Anthony decides to interview all of his loyal followers about the tips and techniques that can be used to make diabetes a more bearable disease to live with.

Anthony packages all of these interviews into a video series and sells his visitors access to the video content via a password protected page on his blog. Anthony uses PayPal to collect payment and an automatic email sends the customer a link and a password to the page.

My Strategy — A Combination Of Income Streams

I am currently monetizing this blog through two of these income streams, although I have used all four of these at different times.

Can you guess which two income streams I am using?

If you said affiliate marketing and freelance services you were correct. I make a full-time living through freelance blog design and marketing services that are generated from my blog. About 10% of my income comes from affiliate sales (mostly hosting — by the way — do you need hosting ) and the rest of my income comes from freelance work that I do.

Information products are certainly something that is on my radar for the very near future and I will certainly be rolling out some paid training sessions very soon.

Blogging is both the most effective and low cost marketing solution for your tiny business — and you can make a full time living by using your blog as to create multiple income streams.

What are your questions/comments about these major blogging income streams?

20 Reasons To Market The New Fashioned Way

Russ Henneberry — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 13:12:36 +0000

Thomas Smith wrote a guide called Successful Advertising in 1885.

In it, he wrote about the subject of MARKETING MESSAGE FREQUENCY:

The first time people look at any given ad, they don’t even see it.
The second time, they don’t notice it.
The third time, they are aware that it is there
The fourth time, they have a fleeting sense that they’ve seen it somewhere before.
The fifth time, they actually read the ad.
The sixth time they thumb their nose at it.
The seventh time, they start to get a little irritated with it.
The eighth time, they start to think, “Here’s that confounded ad again.”
The ninth time, they start to wonder if they’re missing out on something.
The tenth time, they ask their friends and neighbors if they’ve tried it.
The eleventh time, they wonder how the company is paying for all these ads.
The twelfth time, they start to think that it must be a good product.
The thirteenth time, they start to feel the product has value.
The fourteenth time, they start to remember wanting a product exactly like this for a long time.
The fifteenth time, they start to yearn for it because they can’t afford to buy it.
The sixteenth time, they accept the fact that they will buy it sometime in the future.
The seventeenth time, they make a note to buy the product.
The eighteenth time, they curse their poverty for not allowing them to buy this terrific product.
The nineteenth time, they count their money very carefully.
The twentieth time prospects see the ad, they buy what is offering.

While this was written somewhat tongue in cheek, it has a powerful message. You have to place your marketing message in front of your market FREQUENTLY.

Do you think this is old fashioned? Outdated? It isn’t — frequency is still vital to the success of your marketing.

What is old fashioned is the methods of advertising being used by many tiny business owners. Radio, print, direct mail or television ads that are extremely expensive.

Does your tiny business have the money to put your message in front of someone TWENTY times using the newspaper, radio or television?

Try marketing the “New Fashioned Way” — start creating relevant, valuable and consistent content on the web and get PERMISSION from your market to send them these messages —- FREQUENTLY.

Using Content Marketing To Establish Yourself As An Expert

Russ Henneberry — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 04:43:19 +0000

Think about the formidable competitors in your industry. What makes them formidable?

Most likely, it is because they are considered by many to be the foremost authority on whatever products or services they sell. Whether it be shoes, art work or accounting services — we buy from those we believe are EXPERTS in their field.

How, then, can you establish your tiny business as an expert in your industry?

Chances are that you are already an expert in your field and if you are not, I am wondering why you chose to enter the market. This post will discuss the ways in which you can make your expertise known to your market.

Establishing yourself as an expert in your field can be done, over time, through the use of a Content Marketing strategy. Start engaging in the activities below on a consistent basis and watch your authority and your sales grow.

Write and Publish Articles

Text is still the king of all content creation and it is where all Content Marketing strategy should begin. Not only is it the preferred content type by search engines, but text is also widely consumed by nearly every industry.

Text can take many forms, the most important of which should be in the form of written posts on your business blog. You should be creating a consistent stream of valuable text posts on your blog. Your business blog should be the hub of your Content Marketing strategy and should house all of your content including text articles.

Seek Speaking Engagements

When you speak, you are perceived as an expert on the subject matter you are speaking about. It is really that simple. You should be looking for opportunities to get in front of an audience and teach them something about your industry.

When you do so, publish your Powerpoint through a service like Slide Share and embed the slide show on your blog along with some commentary and a video of the presentation. Pick up a cheap and easy digital video camera like The Flip camera. The video, slide show and text blog post you create gives your speaking engagement an infinite life span that will contribute to your perception as an expert.

Run a Podcast

Start a radio show. No — i’m not kidding. Start a radio show about the topics, trends, conferences, gossip, etc. in your industry. Interview vendors, competitors, freelancers and other members of your vertical on your program.

If your industry would lend itself well to an audio podcast, you will find that this will be a major boon to your level of perceived expertise.

All you will need is a decent microphone (less than $100) — I use the Samson CO1U and it does just fine for a beginning podcaster.

Create Online Video

Video is hot, hot, hot. Creating video around topics in your industry is a powerful method for increasing the perception of your expertise.

Creating video is not as difficult as it sounds — you can use the aforementioned Flip Camera or just a cheap web cam to shoot head-shot video. I use the Rocketfish RF-WED2C and it is less than $30. Most laptops and desktops sold today come with a web cam built in.

Upload your video to as many video sharing sites as you can using a service like Tube Mogul and then (of course) embed the video on your blog.

What about you? How do you go about letting your market know that you are an expert in your field and you deserve their business? Leave a comment!

Image credit – Pete Prodoehl

Content Marketing: A Real World Example

Russ Henneberry — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 04:26:22 +0000

This real world example of Content Marketing comes directly from my Tiny Business, Mighty Profits Report that is available on my website for free.

Read through this example carefully and apply the lessons to your own business. How can you implement a Content Marketing strategy the way that Dave has?

An IT professional in the St. Louis area has just started Tiny & Mighty IT Consulting. The owner (we will call him Dave) has recently been laid off from a large firm that specializes in setting up small to mid-sized businesses with turn-key software that will run the entire business. His former employer also sets up computer networks and provides 24/7 IT support.

Dave knows his tiny business cannot be all things to all people. He spent most of his time at his old job setting up networks as an engineer and knows this part of the business like the back of his laptop. ☺ However, he was never involved in the software side of the business. He loves the networking side of the business and has decided that he will concentrate on this part of the industry.

Dave also preferred to work with mid-sized businesses because he found that they had the on-site IT staff to support projects. Dave has made up his mind, he will concentrate on IT consulting for mid-sized businesses in the area of computer networking.

Dave is a smart cookie and after doing some research he decides he will go out and listen to his market on the Internet. He finds dozens of computer forums full of IT staff members from businesses across the country. He finds a meet-up group that comes together at a local Starbucks once a month to discuss geeky networking stuff. He also finds hundreds of IT professionals on Twitter that are constantly bantering about – that’s right – geeky networking stuff. He finds three blogs that have lots of IT professionals leaving comments.

While Dave is ramping up his business, he starts spending a couple of hours per day on these websites. He listens, he lurks. After a couple of weeks of listening to his audience, Dave realizes that one of the most common questions that he hears his market asking is:

“How do I keep my computer network secure?”

Since Dave is quite the expert in this field, he starts leaving valuable and informative comments in blogs, forums and in social media channels whenever he finds these questions.

Then Dave decides to add a blog to his own IT Consulting website. He has no shortage of topics to blog about and will certainly start by addressing some of the concerns that he hears regarding networking security.
He writes blog posts with titles like:

Top 10 Network Security Mistakes And How To Avoid Them
How To Back Up Your Network In-House
A Review of Three Popular Third Party Data Back-Up Companies

Dave notifies the people he has been networking with both on-line and off-line that he has started a blog and that there is good information about network security on it now. He sends it out via Twitter and mentions it over a mocha latte at Starbucks to his meet-up group. He mentions it in blog comments and puts a link to his blog in the forums he has been visiting.

Dave may not realize it but he has begun to implement a powerful marketing strategy — a Content Marketing strategy.

The people that Dave has been conversing with both on and off-line are very appreciative and gain instant respect for Dave’s knowledge in the computer networking space especially in the area of network security.
Dave goes to Best Buy and buys a cheap web cam for $60 and starts shooting video of himself giving 10 minute tutorials about network security; he uploads them to YouTube and puts them on his blog.

He sends out notification to his group of friends that he has begun the video series. Again, he mentions it in the forums, on blogs and through social media. He also tells his meet-up group about it. His network loves the free, helpful information and they love Dave.

Dave sees an opportunity here because he has branded himself as an expert with his group of “followers” in the area of network security. He does a bit of research and determines that he can segment the niche market for his paid services even further by concentrating only on the network security segment of the computer networking market.

Dave keeps producing blog posts and video that is helpful to his audience and the traffic is rolling in on his website. He is getting mentions on other blogs and in forums. Some of his followers hire him and others give him referrals.
Dave loves referrals. They are much easier to sell than cold calls.

After several months of running this strategy Dave starts to get asked to do speaking engagements, guest posts on blogs and occasionally gets quoted in a mainstream newspaper.

Tiny & Mighty IT Consulting is doing well and Dave is able to select the projects he would like to work on and refers the others to colleagues of his as a gesture of goodwill.

Does this sound too good to be true? It isn’t. Your tiny business can achieve mighty profits as well by creating a valuable and trustworthy body of content on the Internet that will brand you and your tiny business as the authority in your industry.

Download the free report Tiny Business, Mighty Profits and read it from end to end to learn the details about this powerful marketing strategy.

8 Ways To Network Online

Russ Henneberry — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:46:09 +0000

The Internet is the ultimate business networking tool. Although I have maintained that there is nothing that can replace face to face networking, there is no debating the fact that strong relationships can be formed using the web.

Each day during lunch and usually a bit in the evenings, I spend time networking online.

Here are some of the activities I have used to create my online network:

Sending Tweets - Twitter isn’t for everybody, but if it is used properly you can make some very productive relationships on Twitter. You simply need to regulate the time you spend on Twitter so that you don’t become an unproductive Twitter addict.
Blog Commentiing - I use an RSS reader to keep all of the blogs that I follow in one place. This allows me to quickly scan my feeds and look for those posts that I find interesting. When I have something to add to these posts, I leave a comment. Honestly, there is no quicker way to a bloggers heart then to leave comments. Hint, Hint.
Facebook Commenting - Communicating with people via Facebook is a bit tricky. The protocol on Facebook is more personal than on any other networking site. Be wary of this and respect the fact that Facebook (for some) is purely for friends and family. However, if used with proper etiquette, you can grow a strong network through Facebook.
Writing About Someone - Do you have a blog yet? If not, set up your blog by using these videos. When you do so, you will open up a whole new world of networking opportunity. You can write about others on your blog and link to their business website with an endorsement.
Connecting On Linked-In – Spend an hour or so a month (or more) doing some networking on Linked In. Recommend others and ask for recommendations as well.
Subscribing To Someone’s Newsletter - Networking is about showing genuine interest in someone else’s work and passions. Subscribing to someone’s email newsletter shows them that you are interested in getting to know their business.
Shooting Out Email – Did you forget about this one? I know a guy who spends a lot of time sending people personalized email. He finds relevant articles, tools and video that people would find useful or entertaining and he emails them to the person. This can be very effective.
Addressing a Specific Problem – I do a lot of listening to the people that I network with. If I hear them expressing a problem that they are having, I will try to address that problem. If I feel like it may be a problem that my entire audience might have, I will address it on this blog and then point the person to the piece of content personally. In fact, the entire section of my site entitled WordPress U was a result of a series of questions I was hearing from my network.

None of these activities can be done for a short period of time and be effective. It takes a consistent approach to see any networking benefit from them. I would recommend picking a couple of these activities, grabbing a cup of coffee and spend an hour or so building your online network.

Image credit: luc legay