7 Productivity Tips for Bloggers

The post 7 Productivity Tips for Bloggers appeared first on ProBlogger.

This post is based on episode 40 of the ProBlogger podcast.

Are you using your time productively?

Chances are you’ve set yourself some goals as to what you’d like your blogging to be. But reaching that point is going to take time. And the less productive you are with the time you have, the longer it will take to reach those goals.

So this week I’m sharing seven tips I’ve developed over the years that have helped me become more productive.

But first, I want to talk a little about why I needed them.

Showing some personality

For those of you who know about the Myers-Briggs Type Indicators, I’m INFP. That means I’m introverted, intuitive, feeling and perceptive. And while being perceptive has its advantages, it can also be a disadvantage when you need to get stuff done.

Like a lot of ‘perceivers’, I like flexibility and spontaneity. I don’t always need to know what’s happening next. In fact, some of my best work has come from being flexible and spontaneous.

But it also means I can spend a lot of my time jumping from thing to another and not getting much done if I’m not careful. And that why I came up with these seven steps to get me back in track. Starting with…

1. Analyze how you spend your time now

During one of ProBlogger events, blogger and presenter Nicole Avery suggested using a tool called RescueTime. It’s a tool that looks at the applications you use, the websites you visit, etc. and measures how much time you spend on each. It then sorts the information into various categories and shows you the results.

I decided to give it a shot. And after running it on my computer for a week, I discovered I was spending 44% of my time on social media.

Now as a blogger I have an excuse for spending time on social media. I use Facebook quite a bit to drive traffic to my blogs, and to build a community with my readers. But even I could see I was spending far more time on social media than I should have been.

It also told me I was spending 15% of my time in my email account. And so together they were chewing up more than half of my time.

Of course, some people might have a perfectly legitimate reason for spending most of their time on social media, surfing the web or watching YouTube videos. It all comes down to your goals, which is why the next step is so important.

2. Compare how you spend your time to your goals

You might not think me spending 15% of my time is a big deal. After all, isn’t part of blogging about asking questions and increasing your knowledge? Yes, it is. But I wasn’t asking any questions. I was answering them. And while responding to people and helping them solve their problems is important (particularly as a blogger), doing it through emails really wasn’t the best way to spend my time.

And it was the same with social media. I was spending most of my time answering questions and interacting with my readers. Again, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. But one of my goals is to create content that helps make the world a better place. And the more time I spent on social media, the less time I had to create that content.

After looking at how I was spending my time, and comparing it how I needed to spend my time to achieve my goals, I took the next step which was to…

3. Come up with a schedule that works for you

Here’s the first schedule I came up (using Google Calendar) for my ‘ideal’ week.

My schedule starts at 8.00 am, and finishes around 8.30 pm. And as you can see, it includes:

• time with my family at the start and end of each day
• an hour every lunchtime where I can eat and go for a walk (an important part of staying healthy)
• time for creating (first drafts in the mornings, edits and revisions in the afternoons)
• dedicated time to spend on social media (that’s nowhere near 44%).

This schedule immediately made me more productive because I no longer wake up thinking, What will I do today? A quick look at my schedule is all it takes for me to know exactly what I’ll be doing.

I even set up alarms on my phone when I first started using it to help me remember when to move on to the next task.

Admittedly my schedule has changed a little over the years. These days it has a little more ‘white space’ like this one does on Monday where I don’t schedule anything and can be more spontaneous about what I do.

4. Develop workflows, systems and routines

You may have noticed the red strip near the bottom of each column labelled ‘Promote’. That’s where I schedule Facebook and Twitter posts for the following day. I identify posts in my archive that I want to promote, create graphics for them to put on social media, and then schedule them all.

It means I can maintain a presence on social media without having to be on Facebook and Twitter all the time.

And I do it every night of the week.

The first episode of the ProBlogger podcast was my first attempt at podcasting. I had no idea how to record, edit or upload a podcast. I didn’t even have a blog to host it on. But I knew the only way I’d get it done was to do some research and then develop a workflow.

And here’s what I came up with.

Breaking it up into a series of steps made the process seem far less overwhelming. It also helped me master the skills I needed to create a podcast. I quickly go to the point where I didn’t need the list anymore because I’d mastered the skills.

It also helped me become more productive. Going through the checklist, I soon realized I could work on some tasks at the same time.

And when it came time to outsource, I could quickly see what tasks I could hand over to someone else. For example, at around episode 15 I brought someone in to edit the podcast and create the show notes because it was something I didn’t need to do myself.

5. Try to automate as much as possible

Remember that ‘Promote’ strip I talked about earlier? Well, that’s one of the areas where I’ve started using automation. Using an online tool such as CoSchedule I can schedule Facebook and Twitter posts in advance. In fact, the workflow for creating this post includes scheduling five Twitter posts and four Facebook posts.

But I don’t schedule all of my posts. Those green ‘Social’ strips in my schedule are when I spend time on Facebook and Twitter interacting with my audience.

6. Try to delegate what you can’t automate

Of course, you can’t automate everything. While artificial intelligence has come a long way, there are some things that should be left to a human.

But that doesn’t mean you need to be that human.

Over the years I’ve delegated various tasks to other people, and I now have a team of around 10 people. Some are writers and editors. Some help us produce our ebooks. Some help produce the podcast. And some do development work and keep our servers running.

Delegating these tasks to other people means I can focus my time on the things I need to do and the things I’m good at.

7. Start with systems and processes, not tools

As soon as you mention the word ‘productivity’, someone is going to talk about tools. In fact, I once sat through a productivity session at a conference where that was pretty much all they talked about.

Don’t get me wrong. I love learning about new to-do lists and new productivity tools. But if you start with the tool rather than your goals and the systems you’ve created to achieve them, the tool can be more of a hindrance than a help.

And the more time you spend researching the latest tools, the less time you have to actually achieve those goals.

I’m a big believer in developing the systems and then finding tools that help you manage them. Here are some of the tools I’m using at the moment. But don’t think that because I use them that you should use them too. It depends on what systems you have in place.

I use a calendar called Fantastical 2. It’s on my computer, my phone and even my watch, which means I always know where I’m supposed to be.

I also use Evernote for all my ideas and most of my writing. I’ve even started interacting with my team on it.

But for most of those interactions I use Slack, as does everyone else in the team. It’s a great way for us all to communicate with each other.

Over to you

I hope you found these seven tips useful. But I know some of you are productivity junkies. So if you have any other tips for being more productive, please share them in the comments.

 

Photo by Caleb Martin on Unsplash

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Face Your Fears and Become a Better Blogger

The post Face Your Fears and Become a Better Blogger appeared first on ProBlogger.

This post is based on episode 54 of the ProBlogger podcast.

This week I want to talk about fear. Not about eliminating it or ignoring it, but rather about recognising, harnessing and overcoming it so you can use it to your advantage.

Whether you’re a blogger, podcaster, live streamer or social media user, chances are fear has held you back at some point. Here are some of the most common fears I’ve heard over the years:

• “What if nobody reads it?”
• “What if I hurt someone with what I write?”
• “What if I don’t write as well as I think I do?”
• “What if people laugh?”
• “What if I say something stupid?”
• “What if I reveal too much about myself?”
• “What if I fail?”
• “What if I’m wasting my time?”
• “What if people steal my content?”
• “What if I run out of things to say?”
• “What if I make a promise I can’t keep?”
• “What if I get attacked or stalked?”
• “What if my product doesn’t sell?”
• “What if I get criticized for trying to make money from my blog?”

And I’m sure you could add a few of your own to the list.

When you put yourself and your thoughts out there for other people to read, watch and listen to, it’s natural to fear how those people might respond.

And believe me, you’re not alone.

I’ve faced many of these fears myself, not only with my blogging but also with the ProBlogger events we’ve run over the years. We invest hundreds of thousands of dollars into those events, and these fears ran through my head every time:

• What if no one shows up?
• What if no one buys a ticket?
• What if our speakers don’t arrive?

Fear can be useful

Fear can be very useful. It helped keep early man alive rather than being eaten by sabre-tooth tigers. And even today it stops us from doing things that could endanger our lives (or at least make us think twice about doing them).

But it can also stop us from doing things that aren’t so life threatening, and may even be good for us in the long run.

Fear is a signal that we need to pay attention. But we shouldn’t let it overwhelm us to the point where we’re too scared to do anything. Instead we should evaluate exactly what’s at stake and react accordingly.

I once tweeted, “Don’t let fear stop you from starting. Let it motivate you to finish”. Sometimes you need to push past your fear and almost ignore it. For me it’s often when I start a new project, although it can also be a motivating factor at other times.

I’ve learned that when people ask me to do things I need to push my fears aside (or at least to a point in the future) and just do them. Saying “Yes” rather than giving in to my fears and saying “No” has opened up all kinds of opportunities for me.

And when I need to face those fears I pushed aside, they become my motivation to do the best job I can possibly do.

Think of fear as a sign

At one of our ProBlogger events I said, “Fear is a sign that something important is to happen”. And I think that’s a really important principle to follow.

All the important things that have happened in my life so far have been accompanied by fear:

• when I proposed to Vanessa
• when my kids were born
• when I bought a house
• when I started blogging
• when I hired my first team member
• when I launched my first ebook
• when I accepted my first speaking engagement
• when I wrote the ProBlogger book
• when I started podcasting.

That’s why I think of fear as a signal that something important is about to happen, which can make it seem almost like a good thing.

Pay attention to the things you often have fears about, and try to think of them as signs rather than being overwhelmed by them.

Three questions to ask

Of course, seeing fear as a sign rather than being overwhelmed by it is easier said than done. So here are three questions I suggest you ask yourself whenever you feel overwhelmed by a particular fear.

1. “What’s the worst thing that could happen?”

This question is all about getting perspective, and trying to bring your fears into some sort of reality. By asking this question, you’ll realize the worst thing that could really happen really isn’t that bad.

When my son started in a new basketball team he was worried that he’d look stupid in front of his teammates.

“What’s the worst thing that could happen?” I asked.

As he went through various scenarios of bad things that could happen, he realized that none of them were bad after all.

2. “How would I recover if the worst thing did happen?”

This is an important question to ask, especially if the worst thing that could happen is quite bad.

For one of our ProBlogger events, my big fear was that our three international speakers wouldn’t be able to make it because of a weather delay or something. And running an event where your three main speakers don’t come is a pretty bad thing.

So I asked myself how I’d recover if they couldn’t make it, and started making some contingency plans, such as:

• running other sessions instead
• getting our international speakers to connect via Skype
• making it up to the attendees in some other way.

None of these solutions were perfect. But they did make the ‘worst thing that could happen’ seem a little less catastrophic.

Of course, sometimes the worst thing that could happen is so bad that you could never recover and will need to either change what you’re doing or not do it at all.

3. “What’s the best thing that could happen?”

This final question makes you stop focusing on the worst-case scenario (which we all tend to do) and think about the best-case scenario. Because what actually happens most of the time lies somewhere between these two extremes.

Focusing on the best possible outcome can give you the courage to take a step forward. You may not achieve it, but chances are you’ll get closer to it than the worst possible outcome you’ve been fearing all this time.

Fear is a good thing

I want to finish up by saying you shouldn’t be trying to smash your fear or eliminate it from your life. Fear is important, and not something you should push aside completely. You may need to give it a bit of a shove from time to time, but you should always pay attention to it. It’s a sign that something important is going to happen.

Whenever you face an important, life-changing event you’re going to feel a little wobbly. But as a friend once said to my wife, “Even wobbly courage is still courage.” You don’t need to eliminate fear. You just need to get enough courage to move forward.

And remember that courage is actually borne out of fear. If you’re not scared, you can’t be brave. So focus on getting that little bit of wobbly courage up and taking a step forward despite the fear you’re feeling.

Over to you

I’d love to hear your feedback on this topic, because I certainly don’t have all the answers. I still struggle with fear from time to time. Feel free to share your stories and advice in the comments.

 

Photo by Alistair Dent on Unsplash

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13 Tips for Building Authority and Influence

The post 13 Tips for Building Authority and Influence appeared first on ProBlogger.

This blog post is based on episode 235 of the ProBlogger podcast.

Starting a new blog can be a bit of an uphill battle. You need to create lots of content, and then use that content to bring traffic to your site.

But what’s even tougher is building authority and influence in your niche. After all, why would people believe you’re an authority in your niche when you’ve barely talked about it?

Sure, you may know a lot about your chosen niche. But talking about how much you know and what you’ve achieved doesn’t seem to cut it anymore. These days anyone can call themselves an expert, and so people expect more than just self-promotion and a list of achievements .

Which is why I’d like to share 13 tips for building and influence through your blogging.

1. Share everything you know

There’s no doubting that to be an authority in your niche you need to know something about it. And obviously the more you know, the more influential you can become. But rather than keeping it all to yourself, you should share what you know with your audience.

Not only will it prove that you really do know what you’re talking about, it will also help you come across as someone who is honest, likeable, and that your readers can trust.

Of course, that means you should never pretend to have knowledge that you don’t actually have. But you should never need to pretend you know more than you do, because my second tip is to…

2. Don’t be afraid to talk about what you don’t know

How do you react when you see someone calling themselves an expert or a guru on a particular topic? Chances are you roll your eyes and think, Yeah. Right.

The reality is that no-one knows everything about their topic. And it’s quite okay to let your readers know there are areas that you’re still learning about.

If you’ve been reading ProBlogger for a while then you’ll know I’m not the most technical blogger in the world. I’ll often tell people that I can’t answer their question because I don’t know the answer, and then try to find out from someone who does.

You might think it’s the last thing you should do when trying to be seen as an authority. But admitting you don’t know everything makes you more ‘human’, and it can help you build a deeper connection with your audience.

3. Learn in public

If you want to become an authority in your niche then should always be trying to learn as much as you can about it. But rather than keeping your learning journey a secret, why not share the journey with your readers so they can learn with you? Chances are they came to your blog to learn the same thing, so why wait until the very end to reveal what you learned?

Learning together will help you form stronger relationships with your audience. They may even even be able to fill in some of your knowledge gaps and help you learn faster.

And don’t be afraid to do it in case you take a wrong turn or make a mistake. Mistakes are a part of learning, and your readers will be able to relate to your situation, which again strengthens the relationship.

4. Use case studies of yourself and others

There’s a big difference between telling people what you know and showing people what you know. And a great way to show them is through case studies.

When I started ProBlogger, I’d occasionally do case studies on how I’d improve someone else’s blog. It was just me telling people what I’d do to improve their blog, but always in a positive way. It wasn’t a critique, but rather a list of suggestions and constructive things.

People started asking me to coach them. But instead of coaching them one-on-one in private, I wrote up little critiques and posted them (with the blog owner’s permission, of course). The posts became very popular, but also showed that I knew what I was talking about. And being able to demonstrate what you know indirectly can be a very powerful thing.

5. Show vulnerability

Just as none of know everything about a topic, none of us are perfect either. Which is perhaps why we get so cynical about people who call themselves experts. Even if they do know a great deal about their chosen topic, they can come across as being so ‘perfect’ that no-one can relate to them.

People want to connect with people, not robots.

So don’t be afraid to get a bit personal in your blog posts. You don’t have to reveal every minute detail about your life, or share every thought that pops into your head. But revealing a little bit about yourself and showing some vulnerability can be a great way to connect with you audience .

6. Share your transformations and conversions

Let’s say you want to hire a personal trainer. Who would you rather hire: someone who has been fit their entire lives and never struggled with their health, or someone who has struggled with nutrition and exercise over the years but has now reached a point where they’re healthy?

My guess is you’d rather hire the person who has struggled. Why? Because they’re more likely to understand the struggles you’re going through help you get past them.

So don’t be afraid to tell stories about how things used to be and how much better they are now. We like to hear these stories, because it makes us believe we can make similar changes in our blogging and our live as a whole.

7. Have a positive, optimistic and constructive outlook

Some influencers seem to take great delight in busting myths and tearing people down. But I’d much rather hear from someone who spends most (if not all) of their time presenting solutions, solving problems, and pointing the way forward.

That’s not to say you can’t get negative on your blog. Sometimes being negative, critiquing something and busting myths can help you build you authority. But the last thing you want is to become known as a negative person. It may bring you traffic, but it won’t help you become an authority.

8. Give to others before asking them to give to you

Yes, there’s a time to ask people to help you out, whether it’s by buying your product/service or some other way. But you need to give them something in return.

Except it needs to be the other way around: you need to give them a lot of value so they will buy from you in return.

Of course, you don’t want to be giving away all your knowledge away for free. But you should be generous, and give your readers great content they can use to improve their lives. In doing so they will come to like and trust you, and so when you do ask them to help you they won’t think twice.

9. Be reliable

When people see you as an authority, they may come to depend on you for your knowledge and advice.

Don’t disappoint them.

If you say you’ll be posting every week, then make sure you do.

If you tell them they’ll be receiving a newsletter every week, make sure you create one every week.

 

If you’re going to send an email newsletter every week, send that email newsletter every week. Do everything you can to show up. Not to say that you can’t take a break but forecast that break. Tell people the reason why you’re taking that break.

It’s reliability. It’s being there for your reader and them feeling like you’re consistent and you’re going to continue to show up and you’re going to have their back. This builds credibility. When people know that you deliver a podcast every week or that you deliver articles every week and you deliver that newsletter, they begin to show up expecting that you’d be there as well. Be reliable in that way.

10. Keep your messages clear and simple

Did you notice how clearly and simply I said that? Keep your messaging clear and simple. Authority isn’t built upon making yourself look smart and lording your intelligence over those who follow you. Authority comes when you make your audience feel smart, when you facilitate them making discoveries, when their knowledge grows because of you. Again, let me think about this. It’s not about you looking smart, it’s about you making your readers feel smart.

I love the quote from a guy called Adam Grant. He said, “Good communicators make themselves look smart. Great communicators make their audience feel smart.” Really important distinction there. The old school way of building authority is about look at me, look at all the things that I know, look at all the things that I can say, look at all the big words that I can use. That might make you look good but influence, trust is built upon people feeling that they are benefiting from the relationship and that they are getting smarter as a result of you.

This needs to shine through in your content, the way you write your content. I’ve read a number of articles recently that talk about how to best communicate is actually write at a low level. They write at an 8th grade level rather than a university level. Actually writing in a way that your readers can understand the words, they don’t need to go away and look up words in dictionaries, they don’t need to guess the jargon you used – actually writing in a very clear way that makes your readers feel like they can understand what you’re saying is actually so powerful in building authority and credibility as well. It needs to shine through in the content that you use but also in the way you promote yourself as well. Don’t just make yourself look smart, make your readers look smart. Bring them into that in many ways that you can.

11. Use your influence for the benefit of those you influence

There are too many word influences in there but think about this. A lot of influencers use their influence to benefit them. “I want to be influential.” “Why do you want to be influential?” “I want to be influential because it’s going to get me a car, it’s going to get me a holiday, it’s going to get me money. It’s going to get me all this stuff. I’m going to get a lot out of being influential.” The reality is that that’s only going to get you so far.

Great influencers use their influence for the benefit of other people. Use your influence for the benefit of other people. I see a lot of people trying to build authority and influence because of how their influence and authority will improve their lives. But I’m struck by the fact that many of the great influencers that I’ve met live very simply. They use their influence to benefit others.

What can you do that’s going to improve the situation of your readers and make the world a better place in some way? I actually ask that question from time to time. You will discover ways to use your influence, as small as it may be, to benefit other people. Obviously, you can write content that’s going to solve your readers’ problems but what more could you do? What more could you do for your readers?

For example, as I think about this for ProBlogger, what can I do to benefit you as an audience? One of the things that we’ve been realizing over the last year or so is that yeah, we can teach you how to blog but one of the needs that we see a lot of bloggers having is they want more traffic, particularly new bloggers. As you start your blog, you’ve got no traffic. One of the things we realized as we were doing this Start a Blog course that we launched recently is that we can actually help our students to get their first traffic.

This is why we started International Start a Blog Day, which happened yesterday as I record this. We actually promoted the 103 blogs that started as a result of our course because we realized we could not only help these bloggers to start their blogs but we can actually give them a little bit of traffic. We’ve been promoting these blogs. I had an email this morning from someone who said, “Wow, I had 100 readers yesterday. I never thought I’d get 100 readers on the first day of my blog.” What could you do that could help your readers to have their dreams come true? What could you do to help your readers’ dreams come true? Don’t just use your influence to make your dreams come true. Find creative ways to make your readers’ dreams come true as well.

12. Show your audience that you know, like and trust them

The quote by Bob Burg, “People do business with those that they know, like, and trust.” This is a very well-known quote. I believe it. People will want to do business with you when they know, like, and trust you. One of the ways that you speed up people knowing, liking, and trusting you is to actually do those things to them as well. I think this quote is a two-way thing. Don’t just try and be known, don’t just try and be liked, don’t just try and be trusted but actually display that you know your audience, that you like your audience, and that you trust your audience. Let’s just break that down a little bit.

Do you know your audience? The more you know your audience, the better position you’re in to build authority with them. Do your research on who is reading your blog. Who are they? Their demographics. What are their needs? What are their dreams? When you know these things, you’re in a much better position to serve them and as a result they’re going to begin to realize that you actually know who they are. One of the best things that I get is emails from time to time from people saying, “I feel like that podcast was for me.” That is because I’ve spent a lot of time trying to understand who is my audience. I create content based upon knowing who they are having met many of them at our conferences and our events but also talking to them on Facebook lives and those types of things as well. The more you get to know your audience and show them that you know who they are, the more they’re going to want to know, like, and trust you as well. Know your audience. Know, like, and trust.

Like your audience. Show warmth to your audience. Show your audience that you actually like them. Make your audience feel they are charismatic. A lot of bloggers they want to be charismatic themselves. Actually make your audience feel like you know them but you also like them. Spend time with them. Get on Facebook live and answer their questions. Hang out with them. Some of the most popular Facebook lives that I’ve done have been the ones where I’ve sat with a beer on a Friday afternoon and I’ve just said, “Let’s hang out.” We just chatted back and forth. We’ve asked questions of each other. We’ve hung out, we’ve had fun. Those are the types of things that, actually as I look back over the year, I’ve built relationships with my audience the most. Hang out with them. Show them that you like them.

Lastly, show them that you trust them. This comes down to this vulnerability that I was talking about before. When you share something of yourself, you’re showing your audience that you trust them. By me sharing that I’ve got three boys and me sharing that I’ve just been on holidays and me sharing some of the mistakes that I’ve made and some of the insecurities that I have, that shows that I trust you as my audience. I wouldn’t share that type of stuff if I didn’t have some trust of you, if I didn’t like you. Don’t just try and be known, be liked, and be trusted. The way that you actually do that is to know who you’re speaking to, to like them and to show that you like them, and to trust them – very important.

13. Understand that it takes time

The last thing I’ll say about building influence and trust and authority is that it takes time. Most of the people that I see as influencers and authoritative type people and people that I see having credibility in the topics that they talk about, as I think about it and as reflecting on this week, they’ve all been around for a while. I’ve been following them for a while. It didn’t happen overnight.

I look at someone like Chris Guillebeau. He’s been blogging for years, probably for a decade or so now. He’s someone that gradually over time I’ve come to know, like, and trust. He’s someone that overtime I’ve began to see has authority on certain areas. It’s because he’s done all of the things that I’ve just talked about. He’s been vulnerable, he’s put himself out there, he’s kept his messaging clear, he’s shown up, he’s delivered on his promises. All of these things I’ve just talked about, he’s done them but he’s done them time and time and time again over the years. It’s the accumulation of that that makes me think, “Yeah, he’s credible. I can trust him. He’s an authority.” That is key.

I know that’s a little bit disheartening for those who just finished our Start a Blog course and you just started. But it’s the accumulation of the little things that you do over time that are going to lead to people knowing, liking, and trusting you, and people seeing you as an authority. It doesn’t happen overnight. It’s the accumulation of these things. It’s the longevity of you doing these things overtime that’s really going to count the most. Yes you can build little bits of influence early on but it’s going to exponentially grow the longer you show up and the more consistent you are with these things over time as well.

I really hope that has been helpful to you. I hope it’s been clear and simple enough. As I thought through, I’m very aware that different people grow their authority and influence in different ways.

Photo by Chris Barbalis on Unsplash

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The Best Way to Brand Your Blog

The post The Best Way to Brand <em>Your</em> Blog appeared first on ProBlogger.

This post is based on episode 206 of the ProBlogger podcast.

So you’re about to start a new blog. It might be first, or it might be one you’re setting up to try something new. And you’re just about to buy the domain name for it.

But now you’re hesitating, because you still haven’t decided whether your new blog should have a personal brand or a business brand.

Sound familiar?

Even if you already have the domain name, you may still be wondering which way to go. Just because you have a business-related URL doesn’t mean you can’t give it a personal brand, and vice versa.

So this week I want to talk about some of your options when it comes to branding so you can decide the best way to brand your blog.

Getting personal

Let’s start with the personal brand. This is where everything is about the blogger. The URL is often their name (or a variation of it), and the content is pretty much focused on whatever they’re thinking or doing.

Here are some of the benefits of using a personal brand for your blog.

1. It gives you more flexibility

If you started blogging about bird photography, and now want to talk about parenting instead (or as well), a personal brand gives you the freedom to do it.

2. It’s a great way to sell yourself

If one of your goals is to become a professional speaker, writer, artist, consultant, coach or whatever, creating a personal brand is perfect because for each of these professions you are basically selling yourself.

3. It helps you become known as an authority

If you want to be seen as an expert, authority or thought leader in your niche, having a personally branded blog that includes your face, your ideas and your appearances on podcasts and in videos will certainly help.

4. It helps you connect with your audience

People do business with those that they know, like, and trust. And having a personally branded blog gives you the opportunity to make a personal connection, especially if you incorporate mediums such as podcasts and live video.

So why doesn’t everyone brand their blogs this way? Well, there are also some drawbacks.

1. It doesn’t explain what your blog is about

Most people who see our problogger.com domain name will immediately assume it has something to do with blogging. But if I’d used darrenrowse.com instead, they probably wouldn’t have a clue unless they either knew me personally or visited the site. Using your personal name as the URL makes it harder for people to associate your name with what you blog about.

2. It makes your business harder to sell

Creating a brand that’s all about you will make it far more difficult to sell your blog later on. The new owners will want a blog they can start using straight away instead of having to try and de-personalise it first. If I’d set up ProBlogger with darrenrowse.com as the URL I doubt I’d ever be able to sell it – especially if someone else already owned the problogger.com URL.

3. It makes it harder to scale your blog

If you create a blog that’s all about you, then your audience will expect all the content to come from you. After all, how can anyone else write about what you’re thinking or feeling? So you will either have to keep writing all the content yourself, or face the possible backlash when you start bringing in other writers.

4. It puts the spotlight on you

Being the centre of attention can be great. But it also means that if anything goes wrong, you will be the person everyone points the finger at. You will need to fix the problem and take the blame. And depending on what happened, that could be hard to deal with.

Down to business

Now let’s talk about business brands. This is where everything is about the company and/or the product or service. The URL is usually the name of the company, product or service, and the content focuses on what the company does or sells.

Here are some of the benefits of using a business brand for your blog.

1. It makes your business easier to scale

People generally understand that businesses usually have more than one person working at them. That means you can expand your blog by bringing in other content creators without upsetting your audience. You can make them part of the team, or use them as guest bloggers.

2. It makes your business easier to sell

Having a blog that isn’t tied to a particular person will make it a lot more attractive to potential buyers. They know they’ll be able to start using it pretty much straight away without having to make too many changes. They may even be able to use the same contributors you were using.

3. It explains what your blog is about

When people see the names of my blogs (ProBlogger and Digital Photography School), they immediately get an idea of what they are about and who they are for. (It can also improve your SEO ranging slightly.)

4. It can keep you out of the spotlight

While ProBlogger is technically a business brand, I tend to feature on it quite heavily. My photo is on the home page, and I create a lot of the content. But on Digital Photography I don’t have much of a presence at all, and can keep out of the spotlight.

Of course, there are also some drawbacks to setting your blog up with a business brand.

1. It makes it harder for you to pivot

If you’ve branded your blog around a particular niche, it will be hard for you to narrow/broaden/change that niche down the track. You may have to completely rebrand your blog, or start a second one.

2. It can make it harder to connect with your readers

A lot of readers who come to Digital Photography School assume we have an actual school they can attend. They don’t expect there to be human beings on the site who will help them learn about photography. Having a personal brand makes it easier to connect with your readers.

The best of both worlds

There’s nothing stopping you from creating a business brand that’s quite personal. That’s what I’ve done with ProBlogger. While it is a business brand I’ve made it quite personal, which helps me make personal connections with my readers.

Of course, that does mean that if I’m away from it for a little while people start asking, “Where’s Darren?” But it also allows me to bring other voices onto the blog. We have many posts written by other people, and there’s very little pushback as long as their content is good.

What will you choose?

I hope this post has helped you decide how you might brand your blog, whether it’s your first one, your next one, or a redesign of the one you’ve got.

So what have you decided? Let us know in the comments.

 

Photo by Fachry Zella Devandra on Unsplash

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The Secret to Writing Effective Sales Copy

The post The Secret to Writing Effective Sales Copy appeared first on ProBlogger.

This post is based on episode 105 of the ProBlogger podcast.

This week I want to talk about writing sales copy.

Now chances are you’d much rather write a blog post than try and sell something. You may have even become a blogger so you can avoid writing sales copy.

But it’s an important skill to have, especially if you plan on monetizing your blog by selling products or services. And I’m going to talk through a little exercise that will get you in the right frame of mind for writing it.

Selling without the sleaze

If the idea of selling makes you feel sleazy, you’re not alone. At one point I worked in sales at an office supplies store, and that job made me feel sleazy too. I felt uncomfortable about manipulating people into buying something they may not need, or even want.

Selling is something I’ve always struggled with, even as a full-time blogger. Fortunately, as a blogger I got to hear Ed Dale talk at a SuperFastBusiness conference. And in his presentation Ed said something that really resonated with me. He said, “Selling shouldn’t be about trying to manipulate people into buying something that they don’t really need. Selling should be about pain relief and gain creation”.

Pains and gains

Okay, let’s get into the exercise. It should only take you about five minutes, and all you’ll need is paper and pen (or keyboard and computer if you’d rather type than write).

Now, here’s the first part of the exercise: Think of your readers, and for the next two minutes write down as many of their pains, problems, fears, needs, etc. as you can think of that relate to your product or service.

They might be deep pains. They might be little pains. They might be pains that are justified. They might be pains that are a little bit selfish. They could be tangible, or something more personal. It might be something like, “I don’t know how to do something and that’s painful”. Or it might be something more personal like, “I feel lonely,” or “I feel like a failure”. It doesn’t matter. Just write it down.

Hopefully you now have a long list of your readers’ pains. Now it’s time to repeat the exercise, only this time you’ll be writing down all the things your readers want to gain.

What results do they want? What outcomes do they want? What dreams do they have? What do they want? What gains are they looking for that your product or service could provide? Again, just write them all down without censoring yourself.

Now it’s time to write your sales copy, using the pains and gains you’ve written down to ‘sell’ your product or service. Because instead of telling your readers what it can do, you’ll now be able to tell them how it can ease their pain and give them what they want to gain.

Chalk and cheese

Two days after the conference I was back at my desk, finishing off a sales email for an ebook we were promoting on Digital Photography School. (The person who normally wrote our sales emails had finished up just before the conference.) I started writing the email before the conference, but I was getting bogged down with writing all about the products features and price. So left it until after I’d come back from the conference.

And I’m so glad I did.

I set the timer on my iPhone, and spent the next two minutes writing down as many of my readers’ pains relating to the ebook that I could think of. Then I started the timer again, and wrote down all the gains I could think of.

In the end I had about 25 pains and gains written down. I then highlighted the top pains and gains in each list, and circled a few I felt this particular ebook could help relieve or provide.

And then I started to write. Only this time I didn’t write about why the product was good. I didn’t write about its features or its price. I didn’t even write about the offer. Instead I wrote about the pain I knew they felt, and the dreams I knew they had. And then I introduced them to the product I knew would help fill the gap between those pains and gains.

I looked at what I’d written, and compared it to my previous attempt. It was like chalk and cheese. My first draft was about the product, while the second was all about my reader. In my first draft I was trying to convince people to buy something. But in the second I was offering a solution to something I knew my readers were already looking for.

Those five minutes I spent brainstorming my readers’ pains and gains changed not only the email itself, but also the energy I wrote it with.

Later that week we did a two-email campaign about the same product. This time I wrote about a couple of different pains that I knew this product would solve. The email converted really well. But I also got emails from my readers thanking me for selling them the ebook. And having people thanking you for convincing them to buy your product is a dream come true.

Beyond the sales pitch

This exercise has really helped me write better sales copy. And I’m sure it will do the same for you. But it can be useful in other ways as well.

It can help you decide what product or service to offer in the first place. Think of the pain your readers would like relief from, and the things they’d like to have or achieve. Could you come up with a product or service that could give them what they want?

If you’re thinking of starting a new blog, or refining your niche, think about what you could write about that would ease their pain or fulfil their desires. You could even use this exercise to come up with new topics or categories for your current blog.

And if you’re thinking of creating an opt-in to encourage people to sign up for your newsletter, this could be the perfect way to decide what you should offer as an incentive.

Set your timers

Whether you’re selling a product or service, coming up with ideas for one, or just figuring out what might interest your readers, I encourage you to give this exercise a try. It could be the best way you’ve ever spent five minutes of your time.

 

Photo by Justin Lim on Unsplash

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How to Structure Your Blog Posts with Subheadings

The post How to Structure Your Blog Posts with Subheadings appeared first on ProBlogger.

This post is based on episode 132 of the ProBlogger podcast.

I’m willing to bet that every blog post you’ve ever written has a main heading at the top. (If you use WordPress, it’s usually the title.)

But how many of them have subheadings?

Even if you’ve never used them before, chances are you know what they are (especially if you’re a regular ProBlogger reader). They’re those ‘mini titles’ you see in posts that are formatted a little differently to the rest of the text. They might be a different colour, in a larger font, or even in a completely different font.

Good for the reader

Now not every post needs subheadings. For short posts (such as the kind Seth Godin writes on his blog), you probably don’t need them because the reader will be done reading in a matter of minutes. But if your posts are longer than 500 words or so, adding subheadings can make them easier to read. Here’s why.

1. They break up the text

Nothing is more intimidating to a reader than seeing a solid wall of text. You almost brace yourself when you get to it, because you know it’s going to be a hard slog getting through it all.

We need breaks in the text to take a mental breather. And subheadings are a perfect way to create those breaks.

2. They add extra white space

White space can also make text more appealing, especially from a reading perspective. And most subheadings include space above and below, which can help add white space to your post.

3. They act as signposts within the text

As much as we’d like people to read every word we’ve written from start to finish, most readers will skim through your post looking for the information they want. And well-written subheadings can help them easily find that information.

4. They give your post a strong structure

As well as acting like signposts, subheadings can act as a roadmap for the reader. By looking at your subheadings they can see where you’re going with your post, and how the various points you’re making connect to each other and the topic as a whole. The last thing you want if them to be scratching their heads wondering where you’re taking them.

Good for the writer, too

So far we’ve been talking about how subheadings make things better for the reader. But they can also help you write your posts in the first place.

If you plan your posts (something I’m a big fan of doing), using subheadings can help you structure them correctly. If you want to make four points (which you may have written as dot points in your plan), then creating a subheading for each one will help you put them in the most logical order. They will also help you link each point and create nice segues from one to the next.

And you’ll know exactly what to write about for each one because the subheading tells you what information you need to include.

You can also use subheadings to add extra SEO keywords related to what you’re writing about. Just make sure your subheadings still make sense when you’re done.

Some examples

Okay, let’s look at some examples of subheadings in blog posts.

A simple structure

Here’s a snippet from Charles Crawford’s post, 7 Simple Ideas for Mailing List Opt-Ins. As you probably gathered from the title, he talks about seven ideas. And each one has its own subheading, which makes it easy for the reader to find a particular idea that piques their interest.

And as it’s a list post, he’s also numbered each idea.

This is actually a great way to make sure you’re fulfilling your promise to your reader. If his post only included five ideas the reader might feel cheated. By numbering them sequentially, he can quickly make sure he has included all seven ideas.

A more complicated structure

This kind of structure will for work for the majority of blog posts. But there’s nothing stopping you from using multiple levels of subheadings if it will make your information clearer to understand.

Here’s Laney Galligan’s post, The 4 Rs That Show a Brand Your Blog is Influential. And like the previous example, it’s a list post. But at the end of each section Laney has added another subheading where she lists various related items.

But as you can see, the second subheading (‘Reach Metrics’) doesn’t have a number and is in a smaller font than her main subheading above it. This lets the reader know it’s additional information related to ‘Reach’.

How to create subheadings in your posts

So how do you create subheadings when you’re writing your blog posts?

If you’re using WordPress, simply select the heading text and then use the pulldown menu to change it from ‘Paragraph’ to ‘Heading 1’ (for a subheading), ‘Heading 2’ (for a sub-subheading), and so on.

And if you’re writing your posts in Microsoft Word and then bringing them into WordPress, you can use the corresponding Word styles do do the same thing.

 

Are you going to start using subheadings in your future posts? Are you going to go back and add some to your older posts? Let us know in the comments.

Photo by Ан Нет on Unsplash

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