Writing on the Web from Patsi Krakoff, The Blog Squad

Can You Be Nice AND Sell the Sh*t Out of Your Stuff?

A smart biz mentor once told me that success is in the 1% nuances. He said the difference between someone selling and making money online and someone doing all the work and NOT making money is in the details, those little tweaks to your email and web copy content marketing.

If you're like me, you don't want to come across like an internet marketing sleeze-bag and hype yourself up so bad you're embarrassed to read your own stuff. Especially if you're selling your own writing or services. There's something funny about selling yourself.

I just had a sale on my article and e-newsletters subscriptions and boy, did it start out slow. Happily, it ended with a bang of new orders. So I had a chance to analyze my own marketing efforts. Here's what I found.

Business Blog Writing: Just Ask The Blog Squad

On Tuesday, December 30, 2008, at 4 p.m. ET, you can get your questions answered in an "open mic" type call with Denise and I, The Blog Squad. Ask and it shall be answered.

At least, we'll do our best. And it doesn't have to be only about blog writing; we'll cover questions on business blog design, which widgets or plug ins to use, comments, getting subscribers, getting results. And we'll answer questions about how to use new social networking tools like Facebook and Twitter, too.

So much has happened in 2008:

• Business blogs continue to be the #1 way to attract web traffic
• Facebook and Twitter have exploded as marketing tools
• Video is easier than ever to create and use on the Web
• New ways of marketing are being defined: Content, relationship, personality & conversational marketing tactics emerge

We'll look at these emerging trends and answer your questions about how you can stay ahead of the curve in 2009.

Denise and I decided to make this call completely open and free to anyone who wants to show up. You don't even need to register. Simply go to www.asktheblogsquad.com for call in information or you can participate for free on that page at the appointed day and time.

What do you want to know? What mysteries of business blogging or social media tools do you want revealed?

We'll cover everything from the 4E's of content marketing, to the CODA blogging essentials (Content, Outreach, Design, and Action). Plus, we'll tell you about our Better Business Blog Learning system and our newly revised Build a Better Blog ebook (www.buildabetterblogsystem.com).

What do you want to know?

4 Steps to Creating Massive Online Visibility

Can your ideal clients easily find you when they go online to search for solutions to their challenges? Are you hard to find? Or do people tell you "You're everywhere on the Web!"

It's not difficult to create massive visibility on the Internet. It's free or low-fee. It's relatively easy, few tech skills required. (I know what I'm talking about cuz I'm a recovering techno-twit who was unheard of less than 4 years ago.)

I'm not a genius or a smooth-talking networking virtuoso. I haven't had large sums of cash to spend, nor do I understand how things work on the Web. Blogs, social sites, email marketing, autoresponders and digital downloads all work without me knowing how.

True, I did team up with a great partner (Denise Wakeman, co-founder of The Blog Squad) who's savvy and sometimes has to explain things to me ;-). But here're the things we do that many of our peers don't bother doing (or at least not consistently):

Are You Visible? Are You Massively Visible Online?

What’s your online visibility strategy?

Whoops, you say, you don’t have one? Didn’t know you even needed one?

Think about it: Many of your ideal clients go online every day, and some have problems that only you can solve …but sadly, most of them can’t find you. 

With more than 1 billion people connected to the Internet, you can bet a few of them are ideal clients for your business.

There were 61 billion searches done last month alone on the Web. Some of them were for your services…

Can they find you?

Denise and I know how hard it is to get new clients when you’re invisible.We'd like to teach you how to reverse the client chase...

Social Media Simplified: A Web 2.0 Workshop for Business Owners

I'm hittin' the road again. I'm joining Denise on the podium, this time we're speaking at Tom Antion's Fusion event. If you're in L.A., come join us! (Info here: www.theblogsquad.net/fusion)

I'd like to say this is our last biz trip for the year, but no, something special just came up and we'll be appearing at a TV studio filming on Social Media Simplified, Monday October 27, 2008 in Ventura, California. That's just north of LA, so if you're in the greater Los Angeles area, please join us.

If you want to understand what's going on with the Web and how you can take advantage of easy, free tools to grow your business, I urge you to attend this all-day workshop event. You'll hear six well-known experts in Social Media on blogs, Facebook, Twitter and other interactive and free tools for business.

Social Media Simplified: A Web 2.0 Master Class for Small Business Owners and Non-Profit Organizations

You'll hear and see Mari Smith, Deb Micek, Linda Taylor, Nancy Marmalejo and yours truly The Blog Squad:

Meet The Blog Squad in Los Angeles, next week

We - The Blog Squad - would love to meet you in Los Angeles next week at two events where we'll be speaking about how to accelerate the growth of your business.

Take a look at these two stellar events and take action. Register for one or both and we'll see you there.

Our presentations are specifically about how to use blogs and social media to gain massive visibility on the Web so you can attract more leads, more prospects, and make the money you deserve, doing what you love.

Tom Antion's Fusion
A 3-Day Event Focusing on Internet Marketing,
Professional Speaking and Success Principles

October 17 - 19 in Los Angeles
http://www.theblogsquad.net/fusion

The Blog Squad is featured on Friday, October 17 speaking on...

Branding and Blogging: The "New" Success Secret for Attracting More Clients and More Money

Other speakers include:

Tom Antion
Alex Mandossian
Jeff Herring
James Malinchak
Mike Stewart
Brendon Burchard
Dr. Jeff Hockings

This is going to be an amazing event where you'll learn more usable tools to accelerate the growth of your business than anything you've done so far!

Bring a friend and split the registration fee.
 
Check it out and you'll also get access to 5.5 hours of free training via mp3 or streaming online.

How to Get More Out of Your Blog & Online Marketing

Wednesday, September 3
1 p.m. ET (10 a.m. PT)

How to Get the Best Out of Your Blog
Monthly class for members of
The Master Business Building Club
(Join for a free trial membership to attend)

The Blog Squad's talking about blog design and essential elements you must have on your blog to make sure you get the results you want.

This one hour program includes 30 minutes of Q&A so you get your questions answered.

If you're not a member yet, check out the Master Business Building Club now. You get a free 30-day trail PLUS over $900 in bonuses.

The team of experts on the faculty is truly impressive.

Sign up for your free trial membership and attend our class on Wednesday

Speak Your Way to Wealth: Success Tips from Top Speakers

Denise and I had an amazing experience at the 3-day Speak Your Way to Wealth event in Manhattan Beach. Arvee Robinson and Lee Pound were delightful hosts and well-organized.

One of the most important reasons for going to in-person events is to connect with people and find out more about what people really need in the way of Internet marketing for small businesses.

This crowd was not as computer-savvy as some, with only one fourth of them already blogging. Almost all were in service businesses, and were passionate about helping others. Many were aspiring speakers.

Since Denise and I are being called upon to speak more often at such events, we stayed throughout the 3 days to observe and learn from the line up of accomplished speakers.

Here are some notes I took:

Mark Victor Hansen: When you get up on the platform to speak, Mark says to get physical with your audience. He does this by asking them to touch their temples and say things like, "Hmmm, that's interesting."

He says to get vulnerable with your audience (which is why it is so typical for a speaker to start off by telling the audience they once were bankrupt, addicted to drugs, etc.).

Writing Survey Questions: 3 Things to Ask

You need to survey your readers to find out what they want, what they need, and what their biggest challenges are. This is crucial information you need to know before promoting any event or teleseminar or informational product.

When we promoted our Law of Action 2.0 mentoring program, we used a survey to help us define what people wanted to learn the most when it comes to marketing their business online. We wanted to keep the survey short so people didn't have to spend time filling out irrelevant information. We included 3 items:

1. One broad question with 10 choices where they were asked to rate degree of severity on a scale
2. One open ended question where they could write in anything they chose
3. One demographic question to define the number of years using Internet marketing

Writing survey questions can be tricky. There's a reason most graduate schools require you to take a year of statistics. Unless you understand the pitfalls of surveys, you risk getting answers that tell you nothing. Keep it simple and make your questions as clear and neutral as possible.

Is Your Blog Working for You? How Can You Tell?

One of the mysteries of the universe may be measuring the exact return on investment for your business blog. You can spend a lot of time writing, tweaking, doing outreach in the Blogosphere, and still wonder what it all means.

Sure, you've got traffic stats. But what do they all mean? If you're not using a blog to generate ad revenues, then sales are indirect. Indirect is hard to measure with any certainty.

The most important questions to ask are these:

• “Does my blog do a good job for getting my business found online?”
• "When people find my blog online, do they stay to read and do they subscribe to come back?”
• "Will readers grow to know, like and trust me from reading my posts?”
• “Does my blog make it easy for people to interact with me and use my services?”

Denise and I have invited Chris Baggott, an expert in measuring and tracking blog success for an interview. Won't you join us? It's free but you'll need to register to get the call in number.

Get the Results You Want: How to track, measure and adjust your blog