Business Alone

One of my favorite mentors (even though I have not personally met him) is a gentleman by the name of Seth Godin. He was formerly the Direct Marketing Vice President at Yahoo!

I call him a mentor because I feel his direction and guidance have helped me immensely in my business career. He keeps in contact with his readers through his popular blog found HERE .

Seth is also a prolific writer and a creative genius when it comes to understanding human behavior in the context of online marketing psychology and how companies can be successful as they develop relationships with their customers.

Late in 2005 (December), several PR experts gave presentations at the Utah Information Technology Association's (UITA) gathering that was labeled: "PR Tips from the Trenches."

I was quite interested in the event because of my belief that public relations strategies are:

(1) often ignored by small solo businesses,

(2) assumed to be too expensive or too complicated and out of reach of the "little guy,"

(3) seen by small businesses as exclusively the tools or resources of the large and well-connected companies,

Over the short history of the Internet, there have been many creative and unusual strategies attempted by entrepreneurs to generate income, both as a means to make a living and also to simply add additional streams of income to the owner's business.

The popularity of the blogging craze has given some blog authors an additional stage or venue for their money-making tactics. It was only a matter of time before smart folks realized that anywhere there's traffic on the Internet, there's the opportunity for monetization of those visits.

If you own and operate a blog, you have a number of avenues open to you to pull some income from your effort. As is usually the case, the greater your exposure and traffic, the larger the opportunity will be to make substantial money from the blog.

I'm no expert on the subject because I've only been blogging a short time now (since February 2006 on a blog different than Business Alone).

However, I have been a writer for quite some time and many of the same rules apply to blogging as well.

I have taken the time to do some research on the subject.

Specifically I have been reading about "How to Blog" and trying to follow the instructions of some who have been successful bloggers for quite some time now.

I've also spent a fair amount of time visiting popular blogs, watching what other authors are doing, and trying to follow their lead by seeing and incorporating their techniques into my own blog.

One of the great advantages of being a blog writer (author) and a blog reader (viewer) is the fact that there are few hard and fast rules about what a blog has to look like, say, deliver, and accomplish.

Every blog is a little bit different and unique.

Some actually go way out on a limb and try to be extremely different to the point of overstepping the boundaries of good writing.

Nonetheless, blogs are a form of digital expression and learning.

By their very nature they are personal, custom, and a reflection of the blogger's preferences and wishes.

We've been discussing how to write a blog. I've given six suggestions so far that will help you to be successful and attractive to the readers in your niche.

7. As much as possible, include a title that grabs your reader's attention and forces him to stop and read more.

Some have suggested that the title is 80% responsible for the post being read. Some just skim through titles and short blog excerpts to determine if they want to take the time to read the whole post.

If your title is weak or sounds boring, there is a very good chance the viewer will skip on by to something else. Try to fit key words from your niche into the title if you can.

I got this question for an inquiring young lady that had been following my posts at a previous blog site.

It was really kind of interesting because she didn't leave me a comment on the blog; but rather she sent me an email and asked about several of the style elements I'd incorporated.

She is starting her own blog and I suppose wanted my opinion and wondered what the rhyme and reason was behind my style choices were.

Here are my feelings about the quotation marks around a title of the blog post.

Title preference: quotation marks or not and why?

Before we get to today's post, I want to wish each of our readers a happy 4th of July! Take some time off today and enjoy the celebration with your family - I'm going to do just that since I wrote this post yesterday!

When the Internet was new and online business owners were jumping on the ship right and left, there was often the feeling that all a business owner needed to do to have a business was put up a web site, add a product or two, and the sales would begin to flow.

Yes, I'll remind you once again of that worn out phrase that everyone else quotes to describe this erroneous thinking: "if you build it, they will come."

Online business owners now understand that phrase is a lie.

I did a little experiment myself that proved the point to me in very real terms. Two years ago I set up a little web site with it's own domain name, some content, keywords, etc.

I asked visitors to register at the web site (for free) to get my newsletter with lots of great benefits. I even offered a bonus worth a legitimate $300 merely for signing up and there were no other strings attached.

If, indeed, the Internet is a great information highway with traffic, data, digital goods and services, and communications whizzing back and forth at the speed of light, it would be worth the effort for every business owner to create as many links to that highway as possible.

Think of these links as little roads that feed a tiny portion of this traffic back and forth between your small business and the super highway.

Every business connects itself (or should) to the highway traffic. Some do a great job of it and others don't. Each owner determines for his business, both the number roads leading in and out and the ease with which those roads are found by passers-by that have an interest in this side trip.

No one knows the exact number, of course, but professional marketers generally agree that a strong and powerful headline accounts for 70-80% of the effectiveness of every advertisement.

That's a pretty remarkable statistic when you think about it. A few words at the top of the ad can either make or break the selling power of the entire remaining ad copy.

Why is that true? Well, if you consider that most readers sprint from one headline to the next when they "read" a newspaper you'll understand that the viewer is randomly (or maybe methodically) sorting each entry to find clues that tell him "this might be the type of content I want read more thoroughly."

Headlines are usually bold, easy to locate, and often they are summaries of the content of the ad or article. At a quick glance, it's pretty easy to decide if you want to stay and dig deeper or jump to the next headline.

As we all know, the Internet has spawned a huge new industry of journalists known as "bloggers" who daily write and publish opinions and news in every imaginable niche.

Web logs, or simply "blogs," give the author a public soapbox or microphone from which he/she can express, educate, instruct, inform, sell, comment, advertise, or do just about anything else that can be done on a regular web site.

Some authors of blogs have gathered quite an audience and engaged large crowds of daily viewers. Anytime a captive audience is involved, shrewd business minds come up with ways to monetize the experience.

Entrepreneurs are always thinking and scheming about ways to make a buck. That's what they do, isn't it?

Here's my favorite definition of an entrepreneur: he's a guy that has a one-in-a-million idea, a business plan that shows profitability in year 3, and no money!

Now we are seeing the rise of "blogpreneurs," the authors that are attempting to monetize their daily blogs.

Some are succeeding, to at least a certain degree, and others are finding the road a bit bumpy.

Blogs, like most every other type of Internet web site, gain value, grow, and even thrive when they are heavily viewed.

The more traffic a blog receives, the greater the chances for continued relevance and possible revenue generation.

Of course, money and income don't drive most blogs.

Typically bloggers are content with having their own soapbox to publish their opinions and feelings to the world (or at least those who care to visit.)

Bloggers are also finding that most search engines seem to like blogs. Why?

The owner of a solo digital information business is the perfect candidate for a targeted niche blog authored by the business owner and directed to support and advertise the business and the product.

Remember that the solo business owner is generally an independent, a free spirited thinker, one who prefers to do business alone without the constraints of employees, physical overhead, or management induced policies and rules.

This is exactly the profile of a successful blogger: one that is not shy about forming his own biases and opinions based on his life experiences and then publishing and sharing his knowledge and ideas with other like-minded nichers that hunger for the same type of information.

I have seen a smattering of Internet marketers voicing loud and sometimes passionate opinions that blogs are destroying the Internet. Why?

These blog naysayers suggest that blogs are too ubiquitous, they give every Tom, Dick, and Sally a public platform on which they push a certain agenda, try to sell in a saturated market, and criticize and condemn products they don't like even when their reasons are suspect.

One fellow complained that blogs get into the search results too easily and because of the sheer numbers of blogs (he said "tens of millions") the results are not returning what viewers are looking for.

One of the keys to selling products online is to somehow personalize your approach to the prospect.

Impersonal, sterile, boring sales letters and advertisements aren't attractive and convincing.

They tend to put the prospect to sleep. Unless the prospect is already sold and anxious to buy one particular product, he will not pay much attention to generic and faceless advertising.

On the other hand, have you ever noticed how friendly people attract a crowd?

Their demeanor and friendliness are compelling! They act like magnets for most of us because we like being around upbeat and happy, gregarious people.

If you're a blog author, you've probably contemplated what, why, and how you write.

It seems to me there are several different purposes for publishing a blog and depending upon the purpose you choose, the format and content of your blog will differ significantly from other blogs, even in the same specialized niche.

First, let me say that some blogs I've read seem to have no real purpose. The author might have decided, on the spur of the moment, to start blogging because he wanted to express his opinions to the world. But for what purpose?

How many ways are there for a small business to fail?

Don't try to count them . . . life is too short as it is . . .

I want to talk a bit about one of the dangers of solo Internet business.

I have always preached the message of niche specialization for the solo business owner. I say you should dig down deep and become an expert in a very tightly focused market.

Often a web site privacy policy is overlooked, thrown together in haste, or altogether omitted as the site owner is anxious to move on to more glamorous and creative aspects of developing a business home on the Internet.

Privacy policies are sometimes akin to the "fine print" of most lengthy legal documents - something to be tolerated and considered, but probably there only in the extreme case that the user really cares about such things.

I believe, strongly, that the site's privacy policy is very important and something that can greatly enhance the visitor's sense that the site owner really can be trusted - that he/she really does care about the confidentiality of the visitor's personal information.