- attracting readers
- getting comments
- writing better content
- having cleaner designs
- increasing subscribers
- finding post ideas
- staying the course

Social media and marketing have become so ubiquitous, that one of the things we rarely think about is the way in which we approach publishing and how that feeds back into our self esteem and brand. If you feel well conditioned and ready for a rush of activity, good for you. If instead, you feel that you are in a race that never ends, you may need to take inventory of why that is. It could be that:

You’re overextended – too much distance in too many terrains

When your creativity is being scattered over too many sites, even if you consider yourself remarkably creative, your concentration suffers. So does your writing. In addition, your brand will become diluted.

It works just like it works with products and services. You need to pick a focus, a home base site, and develop that well. If you have multiple sites, you may want to pull back some of that work and put it on your main site.

Being overextended also means being tired and tired people’s nerves fray more easily. That is when you are likely to make a bad judgment call, or react to a comment instead of responding. That’s when things rip apart.

You are getting tired of the language of social media – too crowded

The words “conversation” “anything 2.0 or social media” even “blog” are being rendered less valuable by their mass appropriation. There’s just a lot of it out there, and some folks are busy pounding the terminology flat. The general solution here is to start looking past those words as your central point of reference.

Chances are your brand and business are much more than those terms. You need to get past them and focus on where you are going next, vs. where you are now. Words are very powerful and they can change how you think about what you do – and help others do the same.

Do you need to broaden your horizons, change your pace? Maybe you need to get out of the race altogether.

You may just not enjoy what you are doing anymore – you need rest

If you’re having a hard time coming up with fresh ideas regularly and just do not look forward to writing, you may suffer from burn out. It colors everything you do. Even when you’re writing well, you’re not appreciating your own success.

It’s a sign that it’s time for a change.

Blogging is also changing – bursts of activity scattered in more places

Discussion is migrating elsewhere. A lot of the smart people are migrating to things like Friendfeed — which is an important service — Facebook, and all the other stuff like Twitter and Plurk.

You might be able to restrict your availability on these outside discussions, driving conversation back to your site. Or maybe participating in off-site stuff increases your influence and drives the site. No one knows how that will play, yet.

It may be that you have to shift your expectations of a good post or a good week at your blog. It’s a time of flux in this area — it’s tough to say now. Maybe you’ll know in a year you’ll see what evolves in this area. The technology is still changing, too.

In the future, discussion may become very portable — very decentralized. But there will be software hooks back into websites. So you’ll comment where you wish, but the comments will get hooked wherever the publisher wants them.

Friendfeed, for instance, could be hooked to your site. When people comment on FF, the discussion is a sort of trackback. Friendfeed-like services may become social networks that get anchored where you want them. All hooked together. It will be easy when it’s ready. You’ll add a widget: done.

Content will propagate through these tools, eventually. Nets on top of nets. Communities will become more like flash mobs as these tools get adopted. More like butterflies, actually. People will see a bright flower, visit, and move on. They’ll be back.

Like any activity, business can be approached with a view to the long haul or in a very focused, and temporary manner. Are you in it for the long run, or is this just a sprint to your next destination? Are you a marathon blogger or a sprinter? There is no right or wrong, just make sure it is what you want.

If you’d like to find more time to share your ideas with others and attract a greater number of readers, you need to become more productive. You can start with five easy steps.

1. Put your bookmarks on de.licio.us. In fact, dump everything you might need later into de.licio.us. Not only can you search your links much faster than using your browser’s built in tools, your bookmarks will be available anywhere you go.

2. Find an RSS reader or web-based service you like, load the sites you visit regularly, and get familiar with the interface. This is the single most effective think you can do to optimize your online productivity. You’ll spend less time loading sites and hunting for data — and more sorting what you need. Hint: Google Reader.

3. Unsubscribe. It’s easy to get caught up in the noise of Web 2.0. Do you really need pokes and superpokes on Facebook? Did you just blow an hour of daylight on Twitter? Dump it. Decide what’s important, and stick with it.

4. Get your projects organized. One great way is Basecamp — a no-nonsense planning and management system suitable for personal or group use. Set goals, share files and information, whiteboard — in short, make it happen. There’s a free version suitable for single projects. The Basic plan is $24/month, and is as much project management as most small businesses will ever need.

5. Many hands make the job easier — or at least give you a living knowledge-base. So network — but be smart about which one you choose. Facebook has a huge user base, but may offer more distractions that your personal productivity allows. If you’re building a professional network, consider LinkedIn. It is more focused on business and you will find that members are open to helping you with marketing questions.

These are just five tools. What are some of your favorites?

Christiane Amanpour thinks that “there are some situations that one simply cannot be neutral about. Objectivity does not mean treating all sides equally. It means giving each side a hearing.” Herein lies the first lesson in running a publication for bloggers – it is about being balanced in recognizing differing points of view.

Another journalist I have tremendous respect for, John Timpane of the Editorial Board at The Philadelphia Inquirer – former Shakespearian English teacher and poet – calls it skepticism. This means requiring the official reality to explain itself. Not to be confused with another sentiment, which is often overused: cynicism. A cynic is not open to discovery, he is set in his ways. A skeptic, on the other hand, is open to receiving. In other words, they are listening while exercising critical thinking.

Now that you are listening, you can pass the biggest test.

The Biggest Test

The biggest test you can take after you honor the proper grammar and form is that of the attribution. Being objective means being honest with yourself, and with the other – both sides. Can you do that?

Then you are well on your way. All the other things – finding news, analyzing it, doing background and fact checks, even finding a sponsor or an ad network for your publication is easier.

The hardest part is always that of objectivity. Asking, even requiring reality to explain itself is harder than it seems. Yet the rewards are oh so much greater. With the recent news of Ars Technica being bought by Conde’ Nast we learned a very important piece of information: the community that forms around an online publication can be a powerful story.

Compelling at the tune of millions of dollars. The content is key to forming that, of course, as is the integrity and passion of the reporting – with objectivity. What side of the conversation are you not giving a hearing to?

The next day, he happened to cross paths with the young lady again, this time they exchanged words.

“Good morning, how are you today?”

“Perfect,” she said.

As she left the room accompanied by her parents, he called out to her “Have a perfect day!”

“I will,” she replied, as if it were the easiest, most obvious choice she could make.

I paraphrased the opening of Roz and Ben Zander, The Art of Possibility. The book, is about turning life’s obstacles into possibilities. It is also about marketing – what is becoming the future of marketing.

Lesson # 1 – It’s All Invented

A person looking to start a blog on social media today may feel overwhelmed. There are so many blogs on social media, one for every flavor, literally. She may think: it’s hopeless, I could never break through. No one will read yet another blog on social media.

Another person may take stock of the situation and think: this is fantastic, there are so many people writing about social media that I will find an instant community. Then I can specialize in social media for engineers, or for lawyers, or for plumbers. Take your pick. In other words, she sees opportunity galore.

Whenever you are faced with an issue that seems to be a problem, use this simple advice. Remember that it’s all invented. Then you will have the opportunity to dismantle your own assumptions that prevent you from seeing possibilities. Instead, think how else can I look at things? What other choices does that give me?

Lesson #2 – Stop Measuring Everything

When you go down the route of constantly checking how many readers, comments, and page views you have, you find yourself stuck with thoughts and actions that reflect survival and scarcity, comparison and competition, attachment and anxiety. You stop the creative flow in favor of the judgement and evaluation. There is a place for goal setting and tracking towards your objectives.

Yet, when you constantly box yourself inside what others have established as success metrics, you forego your potential, where you could grow. Ask yourself: how are my thoughts and actions, in this moment, a reflection of the measurement world?

Over the long haul, you are more likely to create abundance in your business and life by having the attitude that there are always new readers, there are many more customers out there to engage with. When you express your skill with passion and joy, people will be attracted to you – and when your life does not depend on hitting the jackpot all the time, you will be more open to connections, which in turn create success.

Lesson #3 – Be a Contribution

When you stop obsessing constantly about progress, you lift the veil on contribution. What is it that you bring to the table that nobody else does? What project, form and shape can your ideas take? Any that you decide. The issue with best practices and following standard advice, is that everyone ends up looking and sounding the same.

Nothing could be further from your truth – you are capable of contributing and you can let anyone contribute to your success. If you let your ambition drive you, then anyone who does not think like you, who is not on your side or is on the same list with you, is a competitor.

With the thought of contribution, everything changes. All of a sudden, you can learn from anyone and be a teacher to anyone – even the most experienced blogger. How much you can make and where you stand in the business ecosystem do not disappear. Yet, it’s your attitude that changes, from how can I win, to how can I serve. Watch all sorts of good things happening to you because of that.
__________

Bottom line, no matter where you stand in the conventional totem pole, remember that it’s all invented, when you stop measuring all the time, you start thinking about projects as potential you can fulfill. You can make a difference, even if sometimes you may not fully appreciate how and why.

You may be in tune with your readers on a consistent basis and have plenty of content ideas. Yet, every blue moon, we all hit a dry spell. What do you do then to find ideas for posts? More importantly, how do you know that those ideas are valuable to the readership you are working on attracting?

The answer may lie in the questions – and can find plenty of them about a wide range of topics on LinkedIn. If you already have a professional profile on LinkedIn, you can go in and look under “answers” in the main navigation bar and select “answer questions”. Then scroll down the questions and find one or two that speak to your knowledge and experience. Pick one question and develop an answer-post.

Once you’re done with writing, select the payoff from your post – the place in it where you actually give the answer – and post it as a reply to that question. Then link your published post at the bottom of it for those readers who want to know more about your thought process, and how you got to the answer. Let’s look at two examples.

Craig Peters inquires about Conversational Marketing:

I believe this will be THE buzzphrase of 2008, but like other buzzwords — “viral” in particular — it’s open to gross misinterpretation and misuse.

So: What do you believe “conversational marketing” to be? Is behavioral targeting (which was a huge component of a conversational marketing discussion here at ad:tech yesterday) part of conversational marketing? (I would argue no.) How do other tactics you’re using fit in to “conversational marketing” as you see it?

The Cluetrain Manifesto said it a decade ago in a pithy way: “markets are conversations.” Mainstream agencies and marketers are starting to awaken to this notion.

What, in your view, constitutes “conversational marketing”?

And now look at the answer from Eric Holter with a couple of links to his newsletter, where he has covered the topic in more depth. Let’s say you blog about conversational marketing – helping flesh out an answer would start getting you noticed by people who seek that kind of expertise – on LinkedIn and at your blog.

Another good question from Chris Kieff on How Your Choose an Internet Marketing Consultant:

How do you choose an Internet Marketing consultant?

What are the 3 top factors you would use in hiring an outside Internet Marketing consultant?

Some ideas:
Referral from a trusted source.
Examples of work.
Worked with before.
Referral from LinkedIn or other network.
Proposal contents.
References.
Like their haircut.

You can see how the question is already good fodder for a list post. Ian Lurie responds with a pretty good set of questions, in turn. Eugene Rembor numbers qualities.

This technique may help you especially when you new to blogging and are looking to have a number of solid posts right off the gate. LinkedIn may be just what you need to get content ideas and a general flavor for the type of discussion that would ensue. Would you link to someone’s LinkedIn profile in your post? I would, and I have. Although they might not be able to find the link as we do with blog entries via Technorati, they may have set up Google alerts for their name or the name of their business. In that case they would find your post and may choose to join the conversation there.

New media is about linking and increasingly we are interlinking among different tools. To reach out to the business community, make LinkedIn part of your content strategy.

Give your posts the green light by leveraging the craft of brilliant headlines and advertising. Learn from some of the most persuasive and groundbreaking advertising copy, and make it yours.

“Look for it! Wait for it! See it! It is coming” P.T. Barnum

They called him the Shakespeare of advertising. When you read lines like:

“Don’t miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!”

“Limited edition collector’s item at an unbelievable low special discount price”

“Going out of business, last and final liquidation closeout sale! All items must go! We’re closing our doors forever!”

You are reading pure Barnum. His style was to translate the everyday situation into a commercial via popular (or vulgar) language. It’s a skill. Words like “jumbo” are his. He single-handedly manufactured hype.

If you’re a self-promoter, Barnum blazed the trail for you. He understood one fundamental principle of advertising – and that is how important it is to gather a crowd. And he sold the exotic: the circus!

“Magic Lies in Pretty Teeth – Remove that Film” Claude Hopkins

This is the guy who understood that the goal of the advertiser is to get to the path of desire – today we call this positioning. Blame research and analytical psychology on him. One thing is for sure – he took his audience seriously.

Hopkins established the reason why you buy a product. And it has very little to do with the product itself and everything to do with what you think the product will do for you. Never compare your blog or post to that of another writer.

“People are like sheep.” he said “They cannot judge values, nor can you and I. We judge things largely by others’ impressions, by popular favor. We go with the crowd.” And indeed the most effective thing in advertising is the trend of the crowd.

How did he move people to buy? Look at that headline. Hopkins staked a claim that was obvious – you can rub just about anything on your teeth and get a sense of cleanliness. We all have a membrane on our teeth, and if you roll your tongue over them, you can feel it. That claim sold millions in Pepsodent.

“Magic lies in pretty teeth” is the precursor of “for skin you love to touch”. Akin to saying that blogging will improve your sex life. The power of magic. What magic promise is in your titles?

“How can you make two months’ salary last forever?” N. W. Ayer

I bet you know what this ad headline is selling. How would you like to write a title like that? This was the brilliant campaign started by Ayer for De Beers. The ads did their job. they intercepted and reformatted desire.

And they did not talk specifics. They just went directly to how the product would make the person it is bought for feel. Now take a look at your headline, how can you make it timeless, aspirational, and still keep it simple?
“A diamond last forever” – will your headline?

“Does she… or doesn’t she?” Foote, Cone & Belding

Maybe she’s born with it… maybe it’s marketing. Two generations, same kind of attraction. Instilling the doubt as in the famous Miss Clairol’s campaign is an old technique. It dates back to the ‘50s. If you think this is sort of cheesy, remember that the campaign propelled sales 413% higher in six years.

The secret lies in not revealing everything with the headline. In fact, if you look at the examples I listed here, they all contain powerful hooks that will prompt you to consider the product.

What kinds of headlines light you up? Have some fun and share your best headlines. Better yet, let’s craft some here together using this material as inspiration. For a limited time only! Come on in and let’s do some marketing magic.

Experience implies being affected by what you meet with – it could be a happening, an event, or an adventure. It definitely has to do with perception. These are not terms usually associated with business; they are however the quickest path to making your blog content sticky and keeping people returning to it.

You give something more when you provide an experience – it starts with a core, unifying idea. Maybe you are thinking – wait a moment, I do not have a product, or a service, this is a way to showcase my writing skills, or the way I think. Language too is an experience. Words are not mere semantic twists. Words are funny things – they can change everything.

So go take a look at your blog and think about the plot it conjures:

- Is it clear?
- What’s the difference?
- What’s the point?
- Do yo have a point of view?
- Are you selling a certain something? A lifestyle, a specific idea, for example.
- Do readers know what the story is?

When you are delivering a blog brand experience, people can’t wait to read the next episode. You will know because the quality of your discussion changes dramatically from merely following some advice, to delivering a story worthy of time and attention. Today’s marketers are contending with grabbing these scarce resources. You have the ability to win them over.

Experience takes a mere “it works” to “it leaves an indelible memory” and makes a satisfied reader into a member of a club, a fan. Can you think of a couple of examples of blogs that deliver a full brand experience?

What do you do when your well known brand doesn’t match with your business?

He cited Wendy Piersall’s eMom brands as a good example of an online brand that started as a blog and is now expanding into a full media publication for both moms and dads.

Rebranding or repositioning efforts can also be a move to package your site for a sale. Rob May of BusinessPundit.com did just that this past February. While May developed the voice and style of BusinessPundit.com, the site was well positioned to continue to appeal to readers in search of business news and information. The site lives on sans May.

While rebranding efforts online include potentially the redirect of a domain name to a new one or an expansion of the original brand, in addition to your readers, what you would like to transfer is the equity of your current brand into the new one.

Readers and business prospect will be more flexible than search engines in following your brand to a new place. They will do that because they follow you – in other words, your name is associated with the blog’s brand. That is a strength and it can be a weakness if you are working towards selling.

Brand Equity Can be Transferred

Equity means that you built a reservoir of characteristics and experiences that are identified with your brand. When the brand you own is one and the same with your name or person, you may need to work towards disassociating yourself from the brand before you can sell it.

Lorelle VanFossen wrote about the experience Aaron Brazell had when he put his blog for sale. One of the points she made was that the blogger counts. As more and more bloggers will look at selling their online properties and work:

The issue of separating the blogger from the blog will be a huge hindrance, but I think the value of the blogger and the blog may meld in an interesting way as more bloggers consider selling their blogs.

The plan is simple, develop a voice for the brand and begin to tone down the blogger’s personality – yours. This is exactly the opposite that you did when you built your blog. In the beginning it was probably all about you and developing a voice. Part of doing that today is also cross-networking your blog on Twitter and Facebook, for example. The more known you became, the better read the blog – because of you.

Do the opposite now. Build a stream on Twitter for your brand that is separate from you. If you have been using the brand’s name as your own, like in the case of Aaron with Technosailor, start a stream for Aaron and begin using Technosailor for the brand. Think it cannot be done? There are many memes on Twitter started by people with streams who developed a separate persona for a niche message.

What if I Use My Name?

If you use your name and have an eye on an exit strategy that culminates with a sale, what you need to do is find a name for that publication. Then you can begin to build equity into the brand by borrowing from your own. Here’s how you do it.

You begin by always associating your name with the blog name everywhere. Sooner or later, readers will begin to see you as one and the same. Then you start using your name a little less, making the blog/brand name more prominent while still using your voice.

Once you see that you are making headway with the new brand, you can complete the transferring of equity into that brand by working on making that voice separate from yours as I outlined above. The brand that can stand on its own and be seen as an asset with an established readership – metrics, please – and earning potential for a buyer, will be much more appetizing. At that point it will be neutral enough to appeal to someone else.

You Could Start by Developing Just the Brand

There is always the option to develop the brand as a publication with its own voice from the beginning. In this case you may be seen as the editor and not linked too closely with the posts. You plan it this way and play it detached for the very reason that you have an eye on transferring the asset in a sale.

Of course, even companies often start with the founder’s name and manage to be sold profitably and continue under a different leadership. In some cases it takes a long time – think about Ford – and many layers in the organization to make that happen.

I have a pretty good idea that online everything tends to move much faster – including the rate at which people may experience burn out. If an exit strategy is what you have in mind, you do want to think about making the arrangements to position your brand for it well before that critical moment. The value of your asset depends on it.

We are more comfortable hiring someone who engaged with us actively. While weak links in networking do help a great deal, direct recommendations and referrals come more readily after some interaction. In that, content in the way you think and articulate your expertise is still king – in the posts and in the comments.

In some cases, building credibility with other bloggers through thoughtful comments can help you launch your social media activities with a bang. People already know about you and your content. This of course works best when you’re willing to give away some ideas for the good of others.

There are 7 types of conversational marketing comments that matter:

Responding to a question in the post. This is pretty obvious, I know. It is however, the easiest way to participate by showing you are listening and are willing to give away information. Have you noticed also how responding to questions is becoming prominent in your LinkedIn Profile?

Adding a thought provoking question of your own. You are showing that you have considered the information provided and are willing to build on the idea by sharing your experience. I’ve seen lots of smart questions asked on Twitter, too — either to begin or extend a conversation that is then captured in a blog post. This is an example of integrated marketing in social media.

Making an open ended statement as additional thought. This is one of the best known forms of solicitation for further thinking and discussion. It works so well because it gives the other party(ies) the opportunity to add more information as you broaden the scope.

Pointing to other resources. Let’s face it, we don’t all have a full research department at out beck and call. When you offer knowledge to others, you not only look good, you build a reservoir of good will in the process.

Extending the conversation to other applications. This will definitely raise your profile with the blogger and all the other readers. And it may establish you as a knowledgeable source. Show them how something could be employed elsewhere. You may raise the question of why give away so many ideas. Trust me, the money is in the implementation. Ideas are free – or they want to be.

Providing an example as a case study. This will highlight the possibility of an interview as part of a subsequent post at that blog. You are establishing yourself as a domain expert in a particular field or for a topic.

Offering to co-author a subsequent post on a topic. It’s a more direct way to go from comment to a blog’s main real estate – the post – without saying you’d like to take over. This is especially useful if you don’t already have a blog of your own but have been very active and generous in the comments to other blogs.

I categorized them as conversational marketing because they show a degree of high involvement and can lead to establishing and deepening a relationship. What other types of comments worked for you?

In this age of conversational marketing, responding to comments helps you show your readers that you are listening and participating. That’s important especially if you are in the service business. The action of referring to the content readers share with you and addressing any further questions will set you apart. It shows your commitment.

As well, it will buy you additional permission to engage with your readers and tell them about the work you do. That is no small feat in an increasingly crowded marketplace where doing what you say you do counts more every day.

I’m sure you’ve noticed that many blog posts often gather the “great post” and “‘atta boy/girl” in the comments. That is when you are fortunate enough to get comments to your posts. If you are leaving comments like those in other blogs, I encourage you to reconsider. You may be depriving yourself of opportunities to develop relationships – and relationships are key in conversational marketing.

The main reasons why comments are by and large left out of a full social media marketing strategy are:

- being time starved. Social media and the wealth of projects these activities can generate are filling your days. That is good. There is only so much time you can dedicate to writing at other people’s bogs. You need to care for your own.

- testing the waters. When you don’t know someone, you are inclined to stay general in what you say. You are not familiar with who else is reading and commenting and are still getting to know the author. Will they respond? Bottom line: is this going to be a waste of time?

- being afraid of not sounding knowledgeable. The more popular the blogger, the easier it is for a new blogger to feel intimidated. After all, they are successful because they know so much more, right? Actually some of the kindest and most unassuming people I met are the folks who’ve succeeded beyond imagination.

There is also the issue of negative comments, which others have addressed extensively here. Let’s focus for a moment on the reasons I listed here and any other that you might have. Leave me a comment to begin the conversation on why it is a good idea to have a comments strategy.

Next post, we will talk about the tactical part.

The Bond movies contain all the elements of a good story: the good guy, the bad guys, protocol, honor, transgressions, the rescue(s), the romance(s). Yes, many possibilities, and all quite imaginative, some less credible than others, but certainly made believable for the purposes of our hero saving the day.

What draws us to 007 is the action, the fantasy and the sense of belief, all rolled into one long story parsed out in episodes that have kept us interested over time. A lot is going on behind the scenes to make it work. You can apply those principles to your blog, too.

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Always deliver on expectations. This means deliver on the greater story plot of your blog. If you positioned the blog as a resource for copywriters, each individual post will address a piece of that promise. Just like Bond always delivered to his audience, make sure that you can tie the frames in your story with a neat bow. For example series of posts can become a subplot in your overall treatment of the subject matter. If you announce it, follow through.

Be effective while you are efficient. Establish a set of goals to achieve and design a clear path or process to get there. Bond always accomplished his missions because he stayed focused on what he wants and sets out to do. And he does that in under two hours.

Mix it up, be resourceful. While you can achieve the best results by staying anchored to your topic, there are many variations on the core you can pursue. Bond always used a vehicle, a car, and it came with ever different features. In one of my recent posts I talked about using other tools like video and audio to present the information in different ways.

Be worldly. Where does the situation you are presenting fits in your readers’ context?It’s a good idea to research your topics so you can see who has written about them and support your statements with data and facts. Commander Bond excels in situational awareness, having knowledge of the context and what is at stake. He is often selected for his expertise.

Don’t forget to seduce. The overall impression of your blog is what keep readers coming back and wins you subscribers. Seduction is about giving something of value, and sometimes giving just enough to keep readers coming back for more. Bond has presence, wit, intelligence, and knows what he wants. He is extremely good at growing on you over time. You should, too.

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Yes, Bond gets a lot of help from Q, the nerdy scientist who provides him with highly souped up vehicles and high tech tools. We’d like to think that in the real world of competence-based competition, the true champion is Q. The tools still remain a behind the scenes support. What matters out in the social media world is still your brand, the effect it creates in people’s mind.

Remember, you want to make sure the effect is shaken, not stirred.

How do you face that empty screen, the blank digital canvas that stares back at you? Day in, day out looking to come up with post ideas. You power up the computer, open your program, look at the white space and what do you see? I would like to suggest that what you see is possibility. Make creativity a habit. Choreographer Twyla Tharp has made a career of it. You can, too.

Forget your “but’s”, “maybe’s”, and all the other defeatist thoughts — it doesn’t take extraordinary talent to be creative. It takes discipline. Set daily routines for yourself, and transform what you thought was just a stroke of genius, the spark of a rare moment into a habit — your creative habit.

It takes work, and it takes commitment. When you decide to blog for money it takes healthier doses of both — do a reality check with Darren Rowse and ProBlogger. The good news is that it is possible for you, too. If you are willing to loosen up a little.

To be creative, you need to know how to prepare to be creative. It’s about much more than quality of presentation, it’s about being able to bridge between what you see in your mind and what you present to the world — skill is how you build that bridge. And you build your skill with practice.

- Immerse yourself completely in what you are doing. No multitasking, no background music, no distractions from what is in your mind. All of those activities are mere crutches that delay your moment of truth — when you start typing and the words flow onto the page. Listen to what your mind is saying.

- Discover what is the one tool that feeds your creativity. Then find a way to make it portable. For a writer it may be a pen and a pad of paper to be able to jot notes. I type my posts, but I like to jot down notes anywhere I am to capture moments of inspiration.

- Reveal yourself. In other words, learn to understand your patterns, sources of inspiration, what makes your writing work. The real secret of creativity is to go back and remember. Use your memories to rediscover new ways to talk about topics.

- Start a creative box with your notes, images, and all the sensory information you need to store your ideas for when you’re ready to retrieve them to tell a story. We tend to do that in rapid fire format, it doesn’t have to be that way. Sometimes a topic becomes much better with the passing of time. The box is your preparation.

- Improvise and see what happens. I wrote some of my best posts on the spur of the moment. Let your inhibitions go and just write. Want to know my secret? When I start feeling the tingling in my belly, the thought of being a little scared, I am certain I’m on to something. Trust your gut, it’s an excellent guide. If you never dare write it, you’ll never know.

- Build a bridge to the next day. Never completely finish everything you have on your plate. You may notice that your moment of peak energy is just after you have written a killer post. Start another one, begin outlining the idea before you leave it for the next day. You will be glad you did, as it will be provide a launching pad for generating more material when you start working the following day. it’s a jump start. I try to work at least two days ahead of myself so I have time to edit, tighten, research, insert that inspiring phrase.

- Find your very own validation squad. This is a group of people that does not have an agenda and you know will be candid with you. Seek their counsel, test drive ideas with them. Sometimes all we need is for our idea to be heard to tackle it.

Confidence is a trait that can be earned and needs to be refreshed constantly. Make blogging your creative habit and your will uncover limitless opportunities to generate content and have fun with it.

Different people respond to and interact with different stimuli — that’s why it’s a good idea to consider having visuals, words, audio, and video interspersed. Given the lower cost of entry, and that the average person now has more computing power than they will probably be able to exploit fully, it has become easier to be a multimedia production studio in house, on your blog.

The five things you should do to keep pace in 2008 are:

Videoblog. With the advent of services like Seesmic, Hictu, Ustream and VlogCentral where you can upload straight from webcams — and virtually all new computers equipped with cameras and editing tools like iMovie and FinalCut Profor Macs and Movie Maker for Windows, v/blogging is finally ready for the masses. How will you execute — like Twitter, but with pictures? Or a more structured approach?

Moblog. Say what you will about iPhone: its competitors are clearly scrambling to catch up, particularly with iPhone’s web interface. We’re not just talking about producing mobile-friendly content (though there are some great plugins for this) — now you can actually blog on the go with Utterz. It’s very promising: cellphone as blogging platform. See Mashable’s review.

Start a group blog. No need to do new writing — there are a new generation of aggregating plugins for things like WordPress which can help you start your very own LifeRemix. Find like-minded bloggers and build a new theme site, automatically reposting from your home site. Develop your own targeted portal — see for example the one Steve Woodruff developed for a group of us at Pageflakes; Conversation Agent is under the social media tab. This is particularly useful to niche and influence bloggers.

Diversify. Start a newsletter, the audience is very different from those who come to blogs, and you can recycle your evergreen material. In September, Lorelle wrote a series of posts here on converting from newsletter to blog. You could do the reverse. Use an ethical rich email provider. Or start a “new” blog by adding a new content section in a sub-domain. Why not add a digital photography section, or something else related, but capable of standing on its own?

The jury is still out on Twitter. Perhaps it’s a great tool. Perhaps it’s a time vacuum, destroying the chance that comments could be made on your site. Instead, people who talk to you there, may never come back to comment on your blog. They are already with you in their minds. But if you’re not exploring it, you should do so, and vow to put the Twitter down and step away from it, just like you did with your CrackBerry, every so often.

Blogging is changing, and for the better. It is adapting to the types of personalities of many diverse people and cultures. Try these five things out, that’s the best way to see if they work for you and your style.

1. Write something fresh, unique, and useful in a human voice — this is as true of your business web site as it is of your blog. You ask time and attention of your readers and visitors, make sure they are both well spent on learning about topics and opinions they cannot find anywhere else. As more companies and businesses start considering blogs as tools to begin online conversations, it is important to remember that along with information that readers find valuable, voice plays a large role in stickiness. Make it personal and human — it is on both counts.

2. Become a trusted source of news and informed opinions — there has been a lot of discussion around the definition and meaning of expert. Personally, I prefer to become a trusted advisor, and so should you. The Internet is a great place to find information on every conceivable thing. You can run searches on virtually any topic and find dozens and dozens of entries. This is good, yet it can also overwhelm. When you act as an informed and reliable source, your experience and expertise also come through.

3. Are a good member of the community — highlight the great content that other people create, become active on other blogs and sites with comments, guest posts, interviews and volunteering advice off line. Blogging can be a solitary activity, especially when you aim to create original content. Get out there and help others and you will find more inspiration to bring what you know to the surface.

4. Show that you can be trusted and that you care — every contract that lasts is based upon trust and care. All it needs is a hand shake and a nod. If you think back at the people you most admire and respect, they are probably the ones you never doubted for a moment. Not everything is up for grabs, relationships are complex. Some things are not blog material, don’t think they should be just because you are there when they happen. Ask permission first, and provide a sanctuary where a face to face encounter is off limits. We are human after all, not everything is and should be for public consumption.

5. Put the work in — the best way to succeed is to be in it for the long term. Why would you expect time and attention from others if you haven’t put them in yourself? People often ask me how I landed a guest blogger gig at FastCompany.com, for example. I started developing off line conversations with the magazine readers seven years ago and offered free monthly events with thought leaders, CEOs and prominent businesses to a group that has grown to include more than 500 members.

6. Get the word out — this may seem a bit simplistic, yet I am surprised at how many people overlook the step. Register your blog or site URL with the search engines. Google, Yahoo, and DMOZ.org. Use a description that captures your niche market and topic — the more specific, the better in helping you stand out. If you are judicious and have asked permission first, it is good to spread the news to friends and colleagues. Remember that while it may be promotion that gets the word out, it is solid and useful content that keeps people coming back for more.

7. Listen to your customers — yes, you may think about them as readers, yet the people who happen upon your site are customers. Learn from them by engaging in the conversation when they comment. A good way to do this is user surveys. Cheap, too. Those are perfect opportunities to listen and adapt to your customers needs and wants. Granted, they visit because you already provide what is appealing and interesting to them. Yet the best way to develop relationships is to listen to what others draw from your content.

8. Think creatively — while it’s good to be a reliable and steady source of a consistent type of content, every so often it’s also great to shake things up a little. Using a different perspective, inviting a guest blogger, or recalibrating your brand (and focus) are all signs that you are putting the effort and care in what you offer.

9. Project the right image — make sure your layout, sidebars and links are all aligned with the purpose and meaning you are trying to convey with your content. Design means business, not only colors, lines and photographs. Choose the appropriate illustrations and shots, those that complement and complete your message.

10. Remain grateful and thankful for the connections you make — each comment, each email and message is a gift, take them as such. Never, ever take your customers for granted. Take the time to acknowledge people and find new ways to be of service to them.

Too often, we look to the latest social media tool or viral marketing technique to grow our blogs. In the end, however, nothing matters unless you are hitting the basics. Blogging still comes down to authenticity, consistency, and interaction with your readers. If you are looking to expand your reach in 2008, this should be your first New Year’s resolution.

You probably heard about or participated in a Tupperware party in your neighborhood at some point — this is the quintessential American compliance setting, according to psychologist Robert Cialdini in his popular book “The Psychology of Influence”. The dynamics of a Tupperware party in fact make use of many methods of influence. Let’s take a look:

- Reciprocity — the event’s kick off includes many games at which participants win small prizes. If you don’t win a prize, you get to pick from a grab bag. Transfer this to marketing your blog and you have the idea of giving before the buying begins. There are many ways to give value up front in form of eBooks, papers, tips, links and resources that your readers will find useful.

- Commitment — each participant is invited to share about uses and benefits of the Tupperware he already owns. Inserting smart inquiries in your well crafted posts allows your readers to describe how helpful your material has been to them so that others can see it. These are what marketers call testimonials. You’ve seen them probably as quotes extolling the virtues of a product or service complete with name, title and company of the satisfied customer.

- Social proof — once the buying begins, each purchase goes to reinforce the act of buying for others. We like to have what people similar to us have; it must be good if others are buying. The hardest action is always the first one, the one that kicks off things — think about auctions too. Once someone indicates they like something, others come forward. It’s the same for a shop, a restaurant or a cafe’ — you like to see people in there having a good time. Number of commenters and number of readers make a positive impression and provide social proof for your blog.

Yet by far the most powerful dynamic you can tap into is the liking rule. In Tupperware parties you have a person who acts as the demonstrator. As entertaining and persuasive as that person is, the actual selling is done by the host — she is your neighbor, someone you know and like. The arrangement has her get a cut of the evening’s sales — and everyone knows that.

It works even when customers are totally aware of the pressure they are subjected to because of the liking and friendship. These numbers date back to the early nineties, but you may be astounded to learn that these parties generated sales in excess of $2.5 million per day at that time.

What are the factors that cause a person to like another person? How can you put the liking rule to work for you?

Attractiveness — this of course applies to people. In blogging it applies to layout and design. Social scientists call it the “halo effect”. A halo effect occurs when one positive characteristic of a person dominates the way that person is viewed by others. A professionally looking design and layout can introduce an overall positive impression of the site. According to research, visitors will automatically assign favorable traits like intelligence, honesty, and kindness to attractive individuals. to be sure, we make those judgments without being aware that we do.

Similarity — we like people who are similar to us. Whether we talk about opinions, personality traits, background, or life-style. You may have noticed it at parties, groups of similarly thinking individuals hang together. They do so also online. One of the groups with the highest level of affinity I have seen so far is bloggers who write about social media. It may be because the topic attracts gregarious people or perhaps it is the nature of the subject that makes people that way. Marketers are also quite expansive with each other.

Compliments — do I need to say more? Have you said “I like you” to anyone lately? it really works because we are suckers for flattery. Well, it needs to sound genuine, but in general we want to believe praise and like those who provide it.

Contact and cooperation — we are more favorable towards the things we have contact with. One of the reasons why making comments on other blogs and interacting with people on Twitter, for example, works is because we become accustomed to seeing their avatar and reading their style and they ours. As for cooperation, think about guest posts, agreeing to moderate someone’s discussion or publicizing their work.

Conditioning and association — being connected and associated with good news or good things influences how people feel about you. Spending time with the right group of writers and thinkers will elevate your skills and influence your decisions and learning positively. Think also about a popular topic. If you can time it right, you may be quite opportunistic and ride the wave with the movers and shakers of the blogosphere by writing about it and publicizing it in the appropriate venues. You will then be seen as associating your smarts with theirs.

One word of caution, do not exploit these techniques. They need to be tempered by authenticity and candor or else they will stop working and turn on you, just like a medicine taken one time too many. The best way to influence others is to maintain a gentle hold on the influence you exercise on yourself.

The first step in identifying your brand foundations is a journey of discovery at the heart of what you’re about. Who you are, what you do, your philosophy of life and how you behave in relationships. There is another important component to branding — and that is differentiation. So while your brand needs to express what lies inside you, it is also important that it holds into account what is around you.

Take for example the circle of your colleagues, other people who write about similar topics to yours, and the greater context of online publishing. What makes yours different? Are your posts branded with your unique style? Let’s see if you recognize these bloggers from their writing (you will need to comment to get the key, which I will insert at the end of the day).

Let’s take a look:

I love blogging. Its a fantastic online publishing medium that has an almost-zero barrier to entry. That is to say you can be up and blogging, literally, within 5 minutes. There are pre-fab blogging platforms today that are robust and give you many tools that even a few years ago, required some paying for, and even then, weren’t free. Not so today.

Today, the beauty is that anyone can be a publisher.

The downside? Its that anyone can become a publisher.

I’m making it really easy for you. What about this one?

I realized that I blogged best when I served my muse, my instincts for good blog content. Not the wishes of someone else telling me what I should blog about. Not my wishes to please my readers, blogging about something that I’m forcing myself to blog about. I blog best when I blog to support my spirit, not undermine it.

One last shot at identifying a blogger:

What does your audience need to know, enjoy reading about, collect and bookmark? Can your categories be benefit-led? Do you have the space for longer, more descriptive category names or does your template restrict you to single words? Is there a potential to get some search engine keyword fairy dust sprinkled over your category list? After all your sidebar links appear on every page of your blog ….

I chose these paragraphs because they illustrate how important branding is. Yes, the beauty is that everyone can blog so you can get started quickly and easily. The opportunity cost is if you overlook differentiation. As the second blogger states, you need to serve your muse, not be a copy of someone else, or write about things that feel unnatural to you.

Brand you should come through from everything on the screen — how you arrange the layout, if you allow comments, what content buckets you build on the side. These are all clues to your readers and contribute to forming a picture in their mind. Remember that they hold one piece of the picture in theirs so be the host you’d want them to experience.

This is the third side to the brand triangle — your readers and people who do business with you contribute to the perception of you in the marketplace. You will need to make sure that all of the experiences they have with you are the most meaningful and relevant to them. Whatever that means with respect to how you develop brand you.

Every respectable brand manager spends some time doing research. Once you have devised an overall message (your elevator speech) and business design, it is advisable to test it in the field. The good news is that you can do that on a small budget through your blog. Ask your readers, and observe what your readers do through tracking traffic patterns as well as their comments and links.

You should be able to distill a fine tuned strategy and direction from all the information gathered in these processes. Being yourself has never been easier — there is always room for tuning up, opportunity to stir in the right direction, and a need for plenty of energy. Be your own brand navigator and you are in the driver seat.

Now that I got your attention, I can take the tongue off my cheek where it was firmly planted, and share with you eight easy tips to market your blog so that people can find the goodness you provide.

1. Seek out yourself — choose and attract the audience that is most like you. Unless you are one of those people who can adapt instantly to any other kind of person, you will find more comfortable building rapport and conversations with people who are like you. They will find it easy to identify with your material, enjoy reading it, and spread it to others. This also means being able to “see” yourself in others — find the common ground and the basis for a relationship by seeking out the other instead of pushing yourself upon them. You’ve heard the expression like-minded, this is where it comes in.

2. Use speed to your advantage — the tortoise’s win was a fluke. Do it intelligently and in a way that contributes to your brand. You must be constantly alert to opportunities to make a contribution that is timely. If you’re alert to what topics and news are changing or coming and sense their imminence, you can capitalize on them. One minute too late and you are left alone at what was a busy intersection just a little while ago. Sometimes this is luck, most of the time it’s the ability to be prepared to talk about something at the right time. Do your research and be poised to pounce.

3. Tell people how good you are — be a master of clarity. Communicating clearly is the essence of creating the impression of competence, skill, and mastery. Great branding and marketing is the simplest articulation of what is at the core of a company’s offering. Your ability to explain what you blog about, rather than actually reading what you write, is what most influences another’s impression of your skill. The expert is the person who most clearly communicates their expertise. Communication is not a skill, it is THE skill.

4. Be incomplete — know how to or who but don’t let those deter you from allowing your readers to complete your thoughts. Yes, one of the hallmarks of extraordinary experience is completeness. Yet, having all the answers may deprive your readers from their role or a role in your blog. You cannot be an expert at everything, even with diligent research, yet if you’re diligent at developing relationships, your readers will know when to jump in and help you out.

5. Be grateful — use the magic words: thank you. Don’t move to the next post before demonstrating true appreciation for your readers. Wait a moment, is this a marketing technique? Yes, indeed it is. One of the most powerful introductions in lead generation for existing customers is the acknowledgment and appreciation of their business. There are other ways to show your gratitude — reach out by email to inquire how someone is doing, welcome new visitors who leave a comment to your site (to this day, I am still amazed at how few do it, despite the advice), address people by name.

6. Radiate passion about what you do — technique barely matters, I can give you an easy formula for marketing your blog. There are techniques and processes that you can put in place to plot a course and assess ways to increase readership steadily and mathematically. No breakthroughs will come from those. Express a commitment to better and you will attract what you radiate — these will allow you to leapfrog.

7. Make your readers feel important — it is their most basic need and the truest form of connection. You know it yourself, you love to hang out with someone who cares about you and places you ahead of themselves. Contribute to their success, give them the red carpet treatment, make it about them… it is.

8. Inspire — the emotional connection is above and beyond experience. It’s about standing for something meaningful that touches your readers on an emotional level. Find out what interests and inspires your readers and provide motivation and encouragement. Use your influence to make things happen for them.

If I took my own advice, I would also be very honest with you and tell you that what really made me a better writer and marketer has been practice and involvement. Putting skin in the game is what makes me a strong brand, different from anyone else.

Do as a company would do to grow its business – market it. In this post, I am taking the advice Geoff Livingston gives companies on social media in his upcoming book Now is Gone (see companion blog with case studies) and using it for you. Traditional businesses and corporate America may not do social media very well — many do know how to do marketing that works.

Geoff has taken the time to adapt his advice on social media and blogging so it fits within the practices and processes of businesses. Here, we’ll take a look at what you can borrow from business practices that sell to market your blog.

Start with the underlying attitude – it’s worth repeating it even to me
(from the introduction by Brian Solis)

Listening is marketing
Participation is marketing
Media is marketing
Conversations are marketing

When you talk about how making comments on other blogs and opening up comments on yours are good ideas to get more traffic, you are practicing marketing – listening, participating, having conversations – in a medium that is perfect for it in its simplicity.

Are you New Media Ready?

You may have seen a meme circulating called media snacking – it stated from a provocative question Forrester’s Jeremiah Owyang asks – Do we respect media snackers? Snackers are folks who consume small bits of information, data or entertainment when, where, and how they want. Are you using several components of the new social media mix effectively? Do an audit:

1. Post on blog, check
2. Twitter to my followers about topic with link, check
3. Conversation with my friends on Facebook after posting link, check

You get the idea. Remember that in traditional marketing, all of the components of a program work in concert, that’s why they call it a campaign. To be new media ready you also need to understand – really internalize – that to be successful you need to commit time and resources to this, and embrace transparency in full.

What Tool is Best for Your?

The answer may not be just a blog. The fist thing you need to find out is where your target audience is – where are your buyers? Where do people hire your skill set? Then build value for them. For example, if you are graduating and looking for your first job in brand strategy, build a blog where you create brand strategy for the companies you’d like to work at. Link to their sites and campaigns offering additional thoughts for consideration in your posts – in other words, be the person you’d like to become. In one sentence, build value for the community of people you’d want to attract.

How do you Promote it?

Use community relations programs – participate, create tag-based blogosphere buzz, engage with social networks, do a blogger outreach, become a thought leader in your field of expertise on Twitter.

If it makes sense for your business, engage in traditional media relations as well. Trackbacks also work on blogs at BusinessWeek and other online publications – they will be most effective when they are targeted to the content of the post, just like with other blogs by your peers. Remember that traditional media is also learning how to blog, so anything you can share with them and help them out will make them come back for more.

Think Liquid

This is the best chapter in a book that is extremely useful even for someone like me who has done plenty of marketing and has experienced social media first hand. The reality is you could be doing a lot of these things already, yet feel that you are not succeeding. We have increasingly diverse and changing marketing environments, the blogosphere and many social networks are reaching saturation points, etc.

All of these realities have always been true for businesses as well. Yet, there are marketing plans that elevate companies’ products and services to great brands. The secret is in finding the right marketing mix for your content and execute it with discipline, flexibility, honesty, and intelligence.

In the blogosphere and on Twitter however, he is a hero. Followed by many, envied by a few, and for all the good reasons –- a new media maven he is. Thanks to his entrepreneurial spirit and formidable skills with a camera, he is now potentially sitting on the future of media –- and people like him, a lot. We tend to buy from people we like, that is extremely good news for Jim.

The other good news is that Jim has talent and a skill that is becoming increasingly a hot commodity online – he can shoot a very good video. He’s found a way to monetize his efforts with The Crafty Nation, one of the many portals he is planning in the future. If you wish to learn more about that venture, come over to my blog after reading this.

Blogging and launching online businesses successfully require the ability to tell a story and a keen eye for what will work for viewers. Jim knows quite a bit about capturing eyeballs from his day job. If you follow him on Twitter, you will see that he understands the value of feet on the ground. That is what social media and self-publishing are all about. There is also another ingredient needed, one we talk about in the close of this post.

The potential for building a successful business is enormous. Especially on the basis of redirected talent and keen observation of the dynamics of this new conversation with the marketplace. It’s a way to go direct with your offering, name, venture, and capture a slice of the business. How did Jim do that?

1. Jim started a blog declaring his intention – Verge New Media, the intersection of old and new media. Then, because he spends a lot of time on the road, he integrated that with a Twitter account, which allows him to post shorter, impromptu messages about what he’s doing. At the writing of this post, he has 1,125 people following him. We follow him because he posts about stuff you don’t see in the news. That’s the intersection and the allure. What skill could you leverage today to set your blog apart while borrowing the credibility built around that skill? What’s your business secret sauce? Find a way to put it out there.

2. Jim’s business cards say – powerful content for the empowered consumer. Slightly more targeted than his blog, which he started in May 2007. Go ahead and Google his name, it comes up second. Want to know why? He’s managed to get attention by stating he was not going to talk about what operational security allows the NBC travel pool to know before a trip. By showing he’s an empowered employee and a judicious one, he is providing excellent examples of how to deliver powerful content. How can you be a living example of what you’d like people to buy?

3. He delivers great personal experiences. Take a look at his video of the sausage factory of old media TV news coverage (second to last, scrolling down). The narrative is pure Jim – he’s soft spoken, lively, and has a great sense of timing and humor. For another example of his skill check out his entry for the Network2 contest on Blip.tv. I bet you’ll never watch the news the same way now that’s you’ve seen it from behind the camera. And that is the third point exactly. Can you find a way to be accessible and professional at the same time — likeable and valued?

Jim’s advice if your plan is to make a business of social media:

- First plan your business; write a business plan.
- Surround yourself with a board of advisers.
- Incorporate yourself and
- Be serious about it; make the commitment.

What other suggestions would you share with fellow social media mavens on launching a successful online business?

–Taigi

Everybody loves autumn: the smells, the crispness, and the end of summer’s heat. People complain about winter and summer, but nobody seems to mind the coming of fall.

And there’s a lesson in that for bloggers. What is it people enjoy so much about autumn? How could these things apply to the way we manage our blogs?

I’ve raked up a few ideas for your consideration. Like a basketful of colorful leaves, perhaps one or two might stir your imagination:

People love autumn’s bluster. While you needn’t become like one of those loudmouth radio talk show hosts, when is the last time you showed a little bluster on your site? By this, I mean opinion. As bloggers, it’s our natural inclination to be liked, and for our writing to be appreciated. This sometimes leads to writing what we think our leaders want to hear. When is the last time you wrote something you really wanted to say?

Autumn is a time of harvest. Lorelle has done a wonderful job pointing out the importance of our archives. What better time than fall to bring out a few of the year’s best posts? It’s a great way to pick up some old conversations, or start a few new ones. You might consider writing a new introduction or branding it as a “Best Of” in some way. Check the original article’s comments. Is there anything great from a regular reader? Drop them a note and see if they’d like to make a fresh comment. If it’s been a while, you can resubmit the article to your favorite social bookmarking sites under its new file name.

Autumn is a season of change. With all the vacations, holidays, and outdoor activities of summer, it’s easy to let your blog coast a bit. Fall is an excellent time to freshen up. Add some color in the form of fresh graphics or perhaps even a new template. Prune your blogroll. Plant a few sidebar perennials. Most readers couldn’t care less what sort of software or back-end changes you make to your site, but they certainly notice when you spruce things up in the layout and design. This sort of change communicates an active site — and that translates to more active readers.

Now it’s your turn. What other attributes of autumn might be applied to a website? There are upcoming holidays, get-togethers with friends, a chill in the air … well, you take it from here. Best idea in comments wins a freshly brewed cup of warm cider the next time you’re in Philadelphia …

We all have different needs, aspirations and talents so the meaning of success differs for each one of us. If you’re like most people, you’re reading this post because you want to discover the secrets of success. Well, a little bit of research will uncover what skills and strategies worked for others. The real trick is to make those work for you and your blog.

As with everything in life, we get out of it what we put in – it will be no surprise to you to find out that it takes determination and hard work. And there is definitely an ultimate secret sauce, the ingredient that you must have above all — you. We’ll come back to that in a moment. So what are the seven secrets of successful bloggers?

Secret 1. Highly successful bloggers seek out a mentor or advocate at each step of their development. Someone who can guide them through the growth spurts they will undergo. Nothing new here, successful people have done this for years. The great advantage that blogs afford is that the person you pick does not need to be someone who takes you by the hand through it. All you need to do in some cases is read their material and interact with their audience.

Secret 2. Highly successful bloggers know how to increase their visibility. Whether that is by putting themselves at the crossroads of a popular and highly trafficked blog written by a mentor, or choosing thoughtful and insightful comments on other blogs, the important teaching in this is to pick a strategy that fits your brand. My personal blog is Conversation Agent so engaging in conversations with readers of my blog and in other blogs is part of my modus operandi (MO) and brand. What is yours?

Secret 3. Highly successful bloggers know how to develop an effective network. Maybe this is intuitive, it is definitely important. The blogosphere is a very large community with pockets of interest – what I jokingly call my neck of the ‘sphere. Who’s in yours? Do you read people who help you stretch and think differently? Are you part of a group of self publishers who will support each other on topic development, lending expertise, or even being keen on helping you gain exposure on good stories and events?

Secret 4. Highly successful bloggers have learned to communicate effectively. Read it again, as it may not be as easy as it seems. The meaning of communication is the response it elicits, not the intention. The word communication has the Latin root in communicatio as well as in commercium – it means exchange between people. If you’re curious about my definition of conversation and its parts, you will find more information here.

Secret 5. Highly successful bloggers can balance blogging with life. Especially in the early days, when we crave recognition and readership, it is easy to sign up to guest blog somewhere else, or try and write every single day, maybe even multiple posts per day. Before you accept filling in for someone else, or writing that extra post, think about what’s involved. Consider how much time it will take you and if it will fulfill your interests and needs at that stage. It’s also important to build life experiences into your routine. You will take a much-deserved brake, and fill with new ideas while you play.

Secret 6. Highly successful bloggers know when to take smart risks. Once you feel comfortable with a regular flow of publishing and blog optimization, it’s time to take some small risks to stretch a little and grow. What have you been dying to try and never got around to? There is another very important reason why doing this is a smart idea – it’s something that has not been done, that’s why it’s a risk. Maybe it’s a way of looking at a story from a different angle – I’ve done a couple of those and let me tell you, the adrenaline until that first comment is rushing like crazy. Or it could be breaking a story, broaching a new topic — you name it.

Secret 7. Highly successful bloggers understand the dynamics of the online environment. When you combine visibility, effective networks, and mentors, you have a lot of help in learning the dynamics of the online environment in which you publish. It’s also important to understand your own abilities, interests and limitations within those dynamics. You may think about having a thick skin in some cases – if you stay out there long enough and have opinions you are bound to find someone who will differ from you and make their voice heard. So you need a strategy that you are comfortable with ahead of time. What steps are you going to take to prepare? Chances are your gut will tell you when you’re about to publish something that may raise questions – how you address negative comments should be part of your consideration as you flesh out the topic of the post.

Whenever possible, set the pace. You decide if you’re ready to tackle these activities and which ones speak most to you. The secret sauce it’s not the ingredients as much as the sauce itself – you.

Remember to practice so you can improve what you wish to work on, perform to your best, persevere through setbacks and low energy moments and, most importantly be patient with yourself and any situation where you have no control over the outcome.

The words and statements you choose to define you and what you offer in that first encounter may determine if there will be further opportunities to talk. This is what a marketing conversation is all about – saying enough that captures your focus and the end result you deliver without getting too bogged down into details that may not be important to the other person.

In our last conversation, we talked about the components of your brand essence. Today we’re putting theory to practice. The content of this exercise is based upon work with Gerry Lantz, founder, Stories That Work (watch the video here). Let’s take out a pen and a pad of paper and write down three things about you:

1. What do you stand for? Your focus.
2. What end results do you deliver? Your offer.
3. What words are more natural to describe you? Your experience.

This is a good start. Now go back and take a look at it and consider if your list is unique to you or could be describing someone else just as easily. Modify as appropriate. I know, it’s not easy thinking about yourself as a product and service. Yet that is exactly how you need to approach this exercise.

For each of those characteristics, you will then write a brief story that illustrates it. When you reread notice if there are words you can isolate as original, that say this could only be you. When I talk about my Italian heritage, for example, you know that not too many other marketers and communicators would fit precisely that description. Actually, I often just say I was “made in Italy,” which is an even more memorable statement.

Now that you’ve defined who you are, let’s decide what you mean to others. To do that, you will write down three statements that define:

1. What you value.
2. Your character.
3. What you care about.

These will help you in describing what others see and experience with you. As you go through the exercise, consider that the experience is a key component of your brand. It will be remembered far beyond what you said and what you did — investing extra time in getting feedback and validating if your three statements are communicated clearly will pay off big returns.

Hold on to your notes and practice composing a natural sounding statement in your own words. Next time you meet someone new, especially at a networking event, you will have the opportunity to engage in a marketing conversation. Remember to apply your story to the other person by targeting the circumstance that brings you together in the introduction.

Then talk about their problem, not your process. I am amazed at how many experienced sales people keep forgetting this crucial point. Once the conversation is well under way, you may follow with the results needed, which go to your biggest benefit, one that can be verified.

At this stage you will introduce the value you provide to deliver your results, your differentiating point or what advertising agencies call the unique selling proposition (USP). Then it’s story time; no need to launch in elaborate monologues, the operating work here is brief. Think mini as in conserving time and attention for all.

The most important part of the marketing conversation is saved for last – action. Once you exchange cards, you have the opportunity to offer a follow up by promising to share an article, link, make an introduction, or a subsequent call to meet and keep the new contact and conversation going.

Marketing conversations are succinct articulations of your brand essence. Through them you express your values and voice as well as how you relate to readers, potential clients who may seek to use your services and advice, and the larger community in the blogosphere.

If your goal for marketing conversations is deeper connections, you may be interested in practicing the art by reading a new series at Conversation Agent I called connection kata.

And the best articulation of your brand expresses your essence – the values and voice, as well as how you express that in relationship to readers, potential clients/prospects and the community/blogosphere at large. To break through the pack, you need to discover your brand story, express it at every touch point, and manage it over time.

There are volumes and terrific blogs written about developing a personal brand. The ideas and material at the roots of this post come from work I have done with consultant and brand expert Gerry Lantz, founder of Stories That Work. For an in depth interview (and bonus podcasts) with Gerry, you may link here.

The difference between a generic and a branded statement will mean the jump in quality from one of many to one and only. The good news is that blogs are places where we are already seeing very specific and memorable qualities – in layouts, language, and behavior or way of interacting. In this sense, your blog is more of a 3D medium – use it as such.

Your brand has a story:

It offers an experience along with the product or service you may be offering as an extension of the online presence. That means the sum total of impressions you make and leave on others.

There are values associated with that user experience. Those grow as internalized by your audience and serve the purpose of expressing what the experience means to them.

The story takes on human qualities as users develop their relationship with it, or what it represents to them.

In other words, talk normally.

That would seem like an obvious statement until you dig a bit deeper and consider that all of the opportunities others have to deal with you, to touch and be touched by your story are what I define talk.

For this reason, you will need to dig deeper to:

Shine a light on the specific characteristics that make you a different experience. Are you using language and expressions that are common among your peers or are you finding ways to articulate what you’re about differently? When pressed, what would you say about yourself?

Think of the traits, skills, results, and values that make you stand out. Make a list, keep pushing until you get to what you feel is your core.

Show your human traits. What are your distinguishing traits? Think in terms of reliability, integrity, ability to solve problems, resilience, etc. Brands can make cars sound human so they can appeal to people. For example, I drive a Toyota Camry, that’s because I see myself as reliable. Are you practical? That would be reflected in the brands you purchase and use. The same is true with people as brands.

Recently a colleague told me, “Look, I was in the Air Force, I see the world of operations as leadership, fast decision making, and superb execution. To me that is what work is all about. We figure out what our customers need, how we can get there, and we go do it the best way we can.”

Your essence is the sum total of what you stand for. It goes beyond the perceived benefits of dealing with you and your skills and talent (features). It’s the beginning of a marketing conversation – not to be confused with conversational marketing.

So let’s spend some time in the comments here to talk about you and your brand essence and next post we will take it home by discussing what a marketing conversation is all about.

1. Make innovation part of your creative habit; put aside some time every day for “what if” thinking.

At work I keep a couple of poster-size pictures that show two angles of the main square or piazza grande (literally, big square) of my hometown in Italy, Modena. They provide a nice visual that transports me to a new, open space where I can think more freely about the matters at hand. When I look at things differently from that view point, the mind gets a welcome boost of energy and perspective. Ideas then start flooding in. Sometimes those images simply provide a brief pause in my day; the happy place I go to, if you will. Then, I am ready to rejoin the challenge at hand from a fresh start.

Think about what would make you step outside your usual ways and stretch. There are many other methods and sources of inspiration that work. Two of my favorites are the book The Creative Habit by choreographer and dancer Twyla Tharp and the full deck of products to stimulate creativity and innovation by my friend Roger von Oech. Roger blogs at Creative Think, check him out.

2. Reward the hard questions. When a reader challenges your thinking, take that as an opportunity to address their questions, make sure they know they’re heard. You get respect when you give it.

If you have been reading my blog, Conversation Agent, you probably noticed that the real action happens in the comments section. When people take the time to come in and visit, I make sure they feel welcome and they have a good experience. No matter what the conversation I started with the post, the idea is to be of service to the needs of my readers.

Often we launch on such great discussions that I elevate comments to posts to further our learning together and give others the chance to jump in on a hot topic.

When someone challenges my thinking I consider that a rare compliment and gift. If everyone thought the same, we would never stretch and grow. I’ve had a few instances of early critical approach that benefited me tremendously – and resulted in friendships as well.

3. Work on the quality of your writing constantly. Practice, practice, and then practice some more. It’s also a good idea to read a lot. Read the classics; read good writing.

I cannot stress this point enough. Whatever your style, a well written post is a post that leaves a good impression. Check your grammar, spelling, and logic. And find ways to hone your skill over time. Ideally, you are writing about a topic that you enjoy learning about so you read a lot of related material.

My technique, given that I write in a second language, is to keep notebooks everywhere and take copious notes. Whenever I read a book that contains an expression I love, I write it down. Do you find quotes that inspire you? Write them down. There is something to be said for the act of putting pen to paper – it involves much more than one of your senses and its impression will last longer.

As for the reading diet – the more diverse, the better; classics, fiction, poetry are all useful sources of good and solid lessons in language and imagination. Try it.

4. Think design as container of experience. How can you have a visual impact? How can you communicate your value through design?

This may not be literal. Consider the whole impression of your blog as design of experience. Is the information easy to find? Is the layout well organized and intuitive? Are you highlighting the content and sections that matter the most to you?

Take for example the redesign of The Blog Herald. Doesn’t it look like there is so much more to it now? It’s cleaner, with a good balance of white space and not too many colors. That’s what I’m talking about; it works for this stage in the publication’s brand. My compliments go to Brian Gardner for the work.

5. Be transparent and trustworthy. Conduct a personal audit regularly to keep yourself honest.

Your gut will be a good ally for this exercise. If you think about it, we know instinctively when we do something right… and conversely when something we do is not so good. It’s alright to ask for direct feedback from others. Just make sure you and they understand that you are ready to take it and they should feel free to give it, constructively.

The other piece is being able to match back to your focus and mission. Are you doing what you set out to do? Is your blog still in step with your intent as declared to your readers? Maybe you’ve changed direction as you found yourself gravitating towards a subset of your original topic. Or maybe you have broadened your scope. In either case, it’s good to recognize that and follow through with your new direction.

Now let’s bring it home:

Innovate to stay fresh
Learn actively from the interaction
Work on quality
Present a compelling space
Be transparent and trustworthy

In other words, execute, execute, execute.

Strong brands form the basis for a genuine connection with the communities and networks they operate in. For people to let you get up close enough to touch them in some ways, for them to remember you, for them to give you permission to fill their inbox and RSS reader, they need to respect what you write about and who you are.

So how do we get that respect? I recently took another look at a list I made for myself based upon Kevin Roberts’ Lovemarks – the Future Beyond Brands. What applies to the best brands, can work for you, too.

Getting respect demands that you:

Perform, perform, perform – respect grows out of performance at each and every interaction. You may think of performance in athletic terms as in being at the top of your game. Performance is honed with practice. Write a lot, experiment with the styles that feel comfortable to you. Request feedback from people you admire and take it to heart. Temper that by taking some of the advice with a grain of salt because you want to…

Pursue innovation – we expect it of others and we should hold ourselves to the same standard of continuous improvement. My definition of innovation is looking at things with new eyes. You know what it feels like when you think about a topic for a post and see a new angle that no one else has covered. What is innovation to you? To me innovation also requires that we…

Commit to total commitment – this is not a play on words. It really means going whole hot, being completely for it. The blogosphere is very active and very opinionated, I’m sure you’ve noticed. People will judge you at every interaction, every post – a bad experience means people are not coming back. At the same time, you want to…

Make it easy – for people to stick with you, what you’re about needs to be apparent. Also, don’t make it difficult for readers to find you. I am amazed at the number of blogs I read where I cannot find an email address to contact the author. This brings me to the next suggestion…

Don’t hide – some of you may smirk at all the memes that make the rounds. “I am way too busy being important to participate” some have declared. That’s fine, it may work for them. Consider this: people can respect you only if they know who you are. Would you prefer it was others to tell your story? I say you should…

Jealously guard your reputation – All the interactions and experiences of you contribute to building your reputation. Do you get back to people when you say you would? Do you deliver on your promises? When you do that you…

Get in the lead and stay there – there’s lots of talk about leadership here, leadership there. What does it mean to be out front? Think about it. It can be uncomfortable and risky. There is a lot of responsibility and visibility associated with being a leader. The more notoriety and fame, the harder the fall – so you always want to…

Tell the truth – be open. If you don’t know something, say so. We can’t be all experts at everything. Admit mistakes. The worst thing you can do is cover up, people find out. Cite your sources, share the credit. This all goes to build your reputation, which can then give you back in premium defense if things ever get tricky. You assure that they won’t if you…

Nurture integrity – if we look up a definition of integrity this means basing your actions on an internally consistent framework of principles. It is based on your acting on a core set of principles that are the foundation of your character. Remember you have character, you build reputation. What is your definition of integrity? To me it also means you…

Accept responsibility – Yes, we understand that we need to act responsibly and stand behind what we write. I’m thinking more broadly. Is our voice and contribution going to more clutter, dissonance, and noise or is it going to make the world a better place for everyone? How would we do that? Create self-esteem, wealth, prosperity, jobs, choices, etc. And once you’ve built all that…

Never pull back on service – that is the place where a mere transaction becomes a relationship, the first moment of truth. Think of your readers as customers. Even if no money ever changes hands, they are giving you a valuable resource – time. Make sure their time is well spent. If they didn’t find what they were looking for, that’s a reason to find out what that was. This is how you blog and ideas are evolved. This is how you grow. To help readers find what the need…

Deliver great design – this is the attention economy 101 principle: design rules. How do we design a great experience? Pininfarina designer Jason Castriota, best known for his Ferrari exteriors, said “The difference between beautiful and ugly often comes down to one millimeter.” For design to deliver a great experience it has to be aesthetically stimulating and functionally effective. Don’t just act different, be different. Take a look at your blog. How can you customize your template to fit your brand? To me design is to experience like impact is to value. It matters a great deal. And…

Don’t underestimate value – people will give you respect only when they perceive that the value they are getting from you is higher than their cost in attention, time, energy, etc. Value is not something that fits a boilerplate measurement. I read some blogs because they help me challenge my thinking. That’s the value those authors represent to me. What’s your readers’ return on involvement? Ultimately, to get respect, you need to…

Deserve trust – the blogosphere, online forums, chat groups are all environment in which it may seem easy for people to trust each other. The talk is generally up front and open. Your readers want to trust you and that means that they will want you to remain consistent and true to the ideas and aspirations you share with them. Walk the talk. You don’t’ want to…

Never, ever fail the reliability test – this builds on everything else we’ve said here. Because so many of us are now publishing, sharing ideas and best practices, teaching what we know, expectations have risen. Posts need to make sense at the first paragraph, the design needs to complement the content, we are always online looking at what everyone else is doing. You get the idea – if content is queen, reliability is king.

No respect. No Love. No connection. Next post we’ll talk about five ways to get respect.

Meanwhile there were some questions built in the flow to consider:

Do you deliver on your promises?
What does it mean to you to be out front?
What is your definition of integrity?
How do we design a great experience?