“Waiter,” Boston Philharmonic Orchestra conductor Ben Zander exclaimed, “I have a perfect life, but I don’t have a knife.” He was having breakfast in a restaurant with a friend at the time. As he uttered those words, he heard a girl nearby giggling. They made eye contact, smiled together, and he went back to his conversation.

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.
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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.

Michael Arrington shares a document sent out by Facebook on how to succeed in viral marketing using Facebook Pages. Maybe that’ll help you boost those poor visitor numbers on your oh so cool blog project?

Facebook’s dead to me, but I can certainly see its uses for marketing people targeting the mainstream crowd. And other areas as well, I’d reckon, although I don’t think that Facebook is the hippest place to be anymore. Then again I’m old, so what do I know?

JC Hutchins has been breaking rules even before he started his blog in an attempt to give away his science fiction novel, 7th Son, which publishers didn’t want, as a free podiobook, one of the first audio books published as a weekly series of podcasts. He has come up with a variety of interesting viral campaigns to promote his book, blog, podcasts, and writings, turning his unpublished book into the most popular podiobook series in history, and becoming a specialist in the true sense of social networking and marketing. His innovative online self-marketing techniques attracted St. Martin’s Press, and his book will finally be published in 2009.

Tapping the creativity of his fan-base, Hutchins is breaking rules again by asking people to become victims and make history.
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Titles and headlines work really hard. Ask any copywriter worth their salt. They need to grab the attention of the casual observer, the passerby, and the multitasker and pull it right onto the page. In a split second, your reader will decide wether to stay or go.

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.

The 24-7 Wall Street blog analyzed what makes a blog valuable and came up with The Twenty-Five Most Valuable Blogs, offering some insights into how to value your own blog.

I’ve written on the topic of selling your blog in Selling Your Blog: What Are Buyers Looking For, Selling Your Blog: What Goes Into the Selling Price, Can You Sell Your Blog?, and How to Buy or Sell a Blog, and my research came up with a list of things buyers look for when considering buying a blog. It’s also a good list of things you should be aware of and doing with your blog to maximize profitability.

However, the biggest challenge in determining how much a blog is worth is putting an economic and investment value on blog elements and marketing techniques. Douglas A. McIntyre admitted the same challenges, saying:
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Jim Kukral, the guy behind Scratchback, among other things, is playing with Twitter. He’s doing Twittermethis, a marketing experiment, and a game where you can win $5 by answering trivia questions sent by its Twitter user. Jim explains:

Want to play? Follow @twittermethis then. And while you’re at it, do follow The Blog Herald on Twitter as well. You can’t win money, but it’s all good fun anyway!

All great brands have one main thing in common – what they promise and what they deliver are aligned. In other words, the experience of the user, reader, or customer is the value-add component. Joseph Pine and James Gilmore first talked about our shift from goods and services to events in The Experience Economy.

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 gives you the right to tell me how to do something? Why should I trust what you have to say about blogging? About politics? About money? About making money with my blog? About fixing cars? About anything? What gives you the right?

As I prepare for the “Biz School of Blogging” program in May at SOBCon, the terms authority blog and authority blogger keeps popping up in the program discussions. Chris Garrett has even helped create the Authority Blogger blog.

The term, authority blogger, was coined a little over a year ago labeling a blogger and their blog as the “authority” on their blog subject, thus making the blogger an expert in their field. Blog branding is the marketing effort to turn your blog into an authority blog through visual and content connections, establishing proof over time of expertise.

Yet, every day I run across bloggers claiming expertise and spewing nonsense – and no one challenges them.

Should they? Should we?
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Blogging is about writing. That is a fact. You can video blog, podcast, and do all kinds of fun things with your blog, but it is the writing that makes or breaks a blog. What you say in the blog posts, descriptions of visual and audio elements, and what words you offer search engines for their indexing to help people find your blog.

However, blogging is not just about the writing, albeit it is a large part. Blogging today is about so much more. Are you ready? Do you know all the things you have to know about blogging before you start blogging? Or after?

Whether you are a new blogger or long time blogger, these are the things you are going to have to learn about in order to blog in today’s world.
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I’m getting ready to speak at three conferences in a row about blogging and WordPress, and something Rachelle Chase said at a conference we spoke at recently keeps popping up in my head. She spoke about techniques for making yourself memorable that she uses when she meets people who can help her with her business and blog.

She contracted with a local artist to create autographed unique artwork in the form of a necklace and travel mirror. Decorated with text from her books and quotes about her books and blog, she sells them on her blog, but also gives them away to journalists and interview subjects as “reminders” of who she is and what she does. They are unusual and memorable, and say a lot about her, her work, and her blog.
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