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Two Conferences for Serious Online Marketers

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In addition to our keynote at BlogWorld this month , I’ll be speaking at two other conferences this fall. If you’re serious about building your business with online content, search marketing, and social media, you’ll want to seriously consider attending one or both. 1. BlueGlass Florida – November 2-3, 2010 BlueGlass Internet Marketing Conferences feature the top social media and search marketing industry experts to give you the best in topics, trends, strategies and networking possibilities. The event is produced by BlueGlass Interactive , the powerhouse combination of several top SEO and online marketing firms (including my friends Chris Winfield, Loren Baker, and Greg Boser, plus search and viral marketing ninjas Dave Snyder and Brent Csutoras). I’ll be speaking on a panel that kicks off the conference called Online PR – The Art of Getting Your Business Talked About along with Peter Shankman and Lisa Buyer . The entire line-up of speakers is fantastic. Important! If you’d like to save 15% off the conference fee, use copy15 when you register. Hope to see you in Fort Lauderdale. Register for BlueGlass Florida here . 2. PubCon Las Vegas – November 8-11, 2010 PubCon Las Vegas is legendary as a gathering point for serious webmasters to learn, network, and drink themselves silly. Even if you skip the drinking part, PubCon provides some of the best education about online marketing you’ll find at a conference. This year, I’ll be doing a keynote panel along with New Marketing Labs president Chris Brogan , social media firm UnMarketing president Scott Stratten , and Sevans Strategy founder Sarah Evans . Can one stage hold all that ego? You’ll have to show up to find out. And you’ll save 20% when you use this code to register online – cb-5671220 . Register for PubCon Las Vegas here . About the Author : Brian Clark is founder of Copyblogger and CEO of Copyblogger Media. Get more from Brian on Twitter .

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Is Your Headline Good or Bad? Give it the Breath Test

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Bloggers have been asking the question “ Do long or short headlines work better ?” for a long time. But the answer to the riddle of how to create a headline that pulls in readers doesn’t necessarily lie in subtracting or adding one more word. There’s not a mysterious formula or arcane copywriter’s trick. The answer is much simpler than that. The best way to get a headline that works is by using the breath test. Try saying this headline aloud: How To Recognize Six Difficult Telltale Signs Of Disinterest And Lack Of Motivation In Your Student And Customer Ran out of breath, didn’t you? And even if you didn’t quite run out of breath, you had a hard time getting through the whole thing. You’ll also find that you struggle to recall the contents of that headline. Because if you can’t say it in one breath, you can’t hear it in one breath, either. When your headline can’t be easily said aloud in a single breath, your message gets garbled. Look at some of the most enduring headlines ever: How to Win Friends and Influence People Do You Make these Mistakes in English? They Laughed when I Sat Down at the Piano. But when I Started to Play … That last one was a mouthful, wasn’t it? No matter how you try, it’s hard to say: “They laughed when I sat down at the piano. But when I started to play … ” in one breath. So what’s going on here? How come this headline works when it clearly fails the breath test? It’s called punctuation. If you have a long headline, all you have to do is punctuate to indicate that there’s a pause there. You’re ending one thought and beginning another. How you punctuate it is totally up to you. You could use parentheses. Or an em dash. Or a comma. The original headline used a period, making it two separate sentences. But that headline could also be punctuated like this: They Laughed when I Sat Down at the Piano (But when I Started to Play…) They Laughed when I Sat Down at the Piano — But when I Started to Play … They Laughed when I Sat Down at the Piano, but when I Started to Play … Punctuation exists to give a mental pause between thoughts. When you have that pause built into your headline, a reader can read it as if it were two sentences. So even though it looks like one big sentence, it’s really two. Next time you’ve written a great headline and you’re wondering if it’s too long, just do the breath test. If it fails, add some punctuation. If it still fails, dump the headline and start again. You should never compromise when writing headlines . If your reader can’t process your headline in a single breath, they can’t process it in their heads, either — which will render a perfectly good headline perfectly useless. About the Author: Sean D’Souza offers a great free article on ‘Why Headlines Fail’ when you subscribe to his Psychotactics Newsletter . Be sure to check out his blog , too.

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60 Ways to Increase Your Influence Online

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Recently, my company brought together 60 of the web’s brightest minds to speak about influence for 60 seconds each. Yep. 60 speakers, 60 minutes total. Who came to the party? Well, Copyblogger’s own beloved Brian Clark, and his humorous underlord, Johnny B. Truant, to start. We also heard from Guy Kawasaki, Gary Vaynerchuk, Robert Scoble, MarketingSherpa’s Anne Holland, MarketingProfs’ Ann Handley, David Meerman Scott, and many others. We called it The Influencer Project , and billed it as “the shortest marketing conference ever.” The venerable HubSpot was our sponsor. Word got around. We learned a lot, which we’ll be sharing as a case study later down the road. But for now, I wanted to share with my fellow Copyblogger enthusiasts and Third Tribe mavens the “one thing” each speaker shared that we at ThoughtLead found unique and essential to building digital influence. Now, without any further ado, here they are, in order of appearance: #1. David Meerman Scott. “Stop talking about your products and services. People don’t care about products and services; they care about themselves.” -@dmscott #2. Anne Holland. “Improve the buttons on your landing page. Can you make your button bigger?” -@anneholland55 #3. Mike Volpe. “We share lots of things that most companies would keep internal. By sharing both the good and the bad, you build digital influence.” -@mvolpe #4. Michael Port. “ Consistency . Consistency demonstrates commitment. You’re going to earn trust because you’re consistent.” -@michaelport #5. Liz Strauss. “Know where you’re going — because who would want to follow you if you don’t know where you’re going?” -@lizstrauss #6. Robert Scoble. “Follow better people. The better your inbound is, the better your output will be. And your output is what people follow.” -@scobleizer #7. Carol Roth. “Align yourself with outstanding strategic partners.” -@CarolJSRoth #8. Scott Porad. “Make connections with people online, and then go and meet them in person in the real world, offline.” -@scottporad #9. Joe Pulizzi. “Create content that stands for something: what I call Higher Purpose Content Marketing .” -@juntajoe #10. Laurel Touby. “Each month, on the first day of the month, assign yourself 3 digital trends you’ve been hearing about and do a test drive.” -@laureltouby #11. Hugh MacLeod . “We use other people’s stuff or other people’s content to socialize. And your stuff’s either a social object or it’s not.” -@gapingvoid #12. Chris Guillebeau . “Avoid incestuous blogging. Instead of sticking to one niche, think bigger: what social circles are related to yours?” -@chrisguillebeau #13. Laura Roeder . “Just start talking to people! Don’t worry about what to tweet, just start responding.” -@lkr #14. Michael Margolis. “People either identify and connect with your story or they don’t. Have a story that’s worth telling.” -@getstoried #15. Dave Navarro . “Find people who have your audience already and co-create products with them.” -@rockyourday #16. Loren Feldman. “Either be super-fake and make believe you’re friendly to everybody, or be completely honest.” -@1938media #17. Ann Handley. “Ground your content in who you are. Don’t be afraid to have a point of view. But also give it wings to soar freely and be shared.” -@marketingprofs #18. Jim Kukral. “Facebook advertising: you can run ads on profiles of people that work just within certain organizations!” -@jimkukral #19. Joselin Mane. “As soon as you meet someone, introduce that individual to someone else you know.” -@joselinmane #20. John Jantsch. “Get very good at filtering and aggregating content. Deliver it to people at the right time, the right size, the right amount.” -@ducttape #21. Marshall Kirkpatrick. “Be early in the news cycle on any conversation of general interest. Detect early voices out in the wilderness.” -@marshallk #22. Shama Kabani. “Create [video] content around your area of expertise and then distribute, distribute with gusto!” -@shama #23. Terry Starbucker. “The only way to build influence is to go out and try and get it yourself, and to overcome that fear of doing so.” -@starbucker #24. Johnny B. Truant . “Defy convention where it’s appropriate. Only a few people dare to step outside. And people take notice of that.” -@johnnybtruant #25. Jason Falls. “Share good content consistently. That’s how I’ve done it.” -@jasonfalls #26. Robbin Phillips. “It is not about digital. It’s about people. It’s about passion conversations, not product conversations.” -@robbinphillips #27. Yaro Starak. “Learn how to talk more about other people. If you’re looking to influence a certain thought leader, talk about them.” -@yarostarak #28. Michael Stelzner . “Set up a fan page on Facebook. Make a welcome tab with a video on it, and ask a poll question.” -@mike_stelzner #29. Erica OGrady. “Make people around you more successful than you are.” -@ericaogrady #30. Gary Vaynerchuk. “Talk about things you know. The reason Wine Library TV worked was because I knew what I was talking about.” -@garyvee #31. Nathan Hangen . “Don’t worry about getting attention from other people. Make something worth talking about.” -@nhangen #32. Danielle LaPorte. “Get yourself properly interviewed. Either hire a writer, or get yourself in front of a camera with a friend.” -@daniellelaporte #33. Guy Kawasaki. “Repeat your tweets. I repeat them every eight hours.” -@guykawasaki #34. David Bullock. “Move offline. Sometimes your market is not online. Use another media—television, radio, speaking events.” -@davidbullock #35. Vanessa Fox. “A lot of people attract [visitors] from search. They’ve missed that big second step: solving their problems .” -@vanessafox #36. Lewis Howes. “Find one specific niche and master that niche.” -@lewishowes #37. Valeria Maltoni. “Do a weekly chat on Twitter. I’m a business strategist, so we use the principle of kaizen to help people at #kaizenblog.” -@ConversationAge #38. Sergio Balegno. “Invest more time mapping a strategy for not just using social media, but for integrating social media with other tactics.” -@sergiobalegno #39. Hank Wasiak. “Get rid of conventional views of influence. It should be about our influence — from my influence to our influence.” -@hankwasiak #40. Mitch Joel. “Get active in other people’s communities. Get out of your own head and get into other people’s spaces.” -@mitchjoel #41. Tamsen McMahon. “Building digital influence is about ‘digital dimensionality.’ Show as many sides of yourself or your business as you can.” -@tamadear #42. Justin Levy. “Listen to the conversations around you. See how different networks interact, because not every network’s the same.” -@justinlevy #43. Chris Garrett . “What you’re looking for is a long-term relationship. You don’t want to gain influence and lose influence.” -@chrisgarrett #44. Cathy Brooks. “Think about the authenticity and consistency of your voice across your entire online and offline presence.” -@cathybrooks #45. Todd Defren. “To change your world, start by trying to change the world. What is it that you feel passionate enough about to shake things up?” -@tdefren #46. Brian Clark . “Learn to be a storyteller . Narrative — it’s what makes us human. Big media does it great. You have to as well.” -@copyblogger #47. Scott Belsky. “Share your ideas liberally. Accountability and letting people know what you’re up to can make all the difference.” -@scottbelsky #48. Wendy Piersall. “You have to put your business model before pursuing fame. Whatever you do online, make sure that it adds to your bottom line.” -@emom #49. Mark Silver . “Many people are afraid to speak; if you speak for them, they will be listening.” -@markheartofbiz #50. Dan Schawbel. “Go further down the long tail and choose a much smaller niche to focus on. Be the personal finance expert for Minnesota.” -@danschawbel #51. Shashi Bellamkonda. “Find out from your customers which social networks they are using, and be there for them at the moment they need you.” -@shashib #52. Gretchen Rubin. “Self-expression is the new entertainment. Get people talking. I had success just asking, ‘What’s your comfort food?’” -@gretchenrubin #53. Muhammad Saleem . “Give as much as you can give. Too often we’re too focused on what we want to accomplish.” -@msaleem #54. Aaron Kahlow. “Think about social media not as its own strategy, but a strategy to enhance your existing marketing and business goals.” -@aaronkahlow #55. Alexandra Levit. “Target between five and ten individuals who you admire, whose work you’ve followed, and gradually start getting to know them.” -@alevit #56. Steve Woodruff. “Identify gifted up-and-comers. By coming alongside them and becoming an advocate, you end up creating an advocate for life.” -@swoodruff #57. David Siteman Garland. “Start the media arm of your company, whether it’s a special show, or a podcast, or an online magazine.” -@therisetothetop #58. Amber Naslund. “Online influence is a slow burn. It’s something that’s grown by having quality one-on-one conversations over time.” -@ambercadabra #59. Julien Smith. “Get someone else to take a look at what you have that you maybe take for granted and gives you an advantage over other people.” -@julien #60. Brian Solis. “How do you become a thought leader? It starts with *being* a thought leader and then connecting the dots back to you.” -@briansolis So there you have it: 60 of the most successful digital influencers, all sharing their thoughts on how you can increase your own digital influence. Of course, each one is tweetable — what’s the point of wisdom if it can’t be shared? (Kudos to Chris Brogan for the original inspiration of “ tweetable advice .”) And if you want to join the conversation on influence, just include #influencer in your tweets. You’ll find a community of people waiting to interact with you. And now, my friends, I ask you: which is your favorite tweet, and why? And how can you implement it in your business, starting today? Let’s have some fun in the comments. Sam Rosen is the big-time, Daddy Warbucks CEO of ThoughtLead , a digital influence agency that helps brands use the web to spread important ideas, and the co-creator of the Influencer Project — the shortest marketing conference ever.

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It’s the Simplicity, Stupid

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I’m a cartoonist. This is my tenth year blogging. My work has been mentioned in big media including Wall St. Journal , Financial Times , New York Times , and The Guardian . It’s been mentioned in bestselling books like Groundswell and Tribes . And it’s been mentioned on thousands of blogs, including many of the big, A-Lister ones. That’s all well and good, I suppose. We artist types can use all the PR we can get. But looking back, it occurs to me that none of that “hot PR media action” has moved my business forward nearly as quickly or effectively as this one simple thing: My newsletter subscribers telling their friends about my newsletter, and suggesting that they sign up. No, really, that’s it. That is the money shot. When that happens, my business grows, end of story. More traditional media PR … well, that can work, sometimes. You never know. The results are always foggy at best, and it’s always a lot of voraciously time-consuming, pain-in-the-ass work to make something happen. And even then, it may not actually increase sales . I know getting mentioned in huge media outlets is sexy and all, but seriously, hear me out. I’ve been at this for a while. Traditional PR works, when it works. Most of the time though, it doesn’t. Same with traditional advertising. But my list telling their friends — that never fails. Ever. Make it easy Another thing I’ve learned the hard way is: I cannot make my subscriber list tell their friends about the newsletter, no matter how hard I try to apply my Jedi mind tricks. All I can do is make it easy for them to share . All I can do is make it as friction-free as possible. So this is what I did to achieve that: I created a simple link on the bottom of the newsletter. Hello from Hugh: Please share this link with your friends. If their friends get the link and click on it, the page has a personal message from me. Hello! One of your friends sent you the link to this page, and so here you are. Welcome! My name is Hugh. I’m a cartoonist. I have a newsletter, “ Hugh’s Daily Cartoon ,” which I send out five mornings a week. A wee chuckle in your inbox, to start your day off on the right foot (so to speak). I hope you will subscribe. That’s it. Nothing fancy. Nothing complicated. Just a short and sincere message from me. I also threw in a few cartoons, just to give them something fun to read, other than my sales pitch. A recommendation from a friend carries more weight than a hundred media recommendations. It’s the simplicity, stupid If my subscribers aren’t telling their friends, I’m doing something wrong, end of story. If I’m not making it as easy and friction-free as possible to get my list to tell their friends, I’m doing something wrong. You read Copyblogger, you’re a member of The Third Tribe , and you probably read a bunch of other savvy marketing folks. Great! They have a lot of killer stuff worth knowing about. Tons of it. But just for a minute, forget all that and let me ask you two simple questions: Is your list telling their friends about you? I mean, really telling them? Have you made it as easy and friction-free as humanly possible for your list to tell their friends? Until you can honestly say “Yes” to both questions, you have a severe marketing problem that no cutting-edge marketing theory — Copyblogger’s or anyone else’s — will ever solve. About the Author: Hugh MacLeod is a cartoonist who blogs over at gapingvoid.com. He makes his living by selling fine art prints , doing Cube Grenade commissioned art work and sending out daily cartoons on Hugh’s Daily Frickin’ Newsletter.

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How to Build a Successful Business With a Small Audience

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More subscribers. More traffic. More followers. It’s easy to get caught up in the race for more. More is better, right? We all want our businesses and blogs to grow. But not all growth is ideal or even beneficial. Sometimes blind growth can be harmful. More contacts and more eyeballs doesn’t always mean better eyeballs . Would you rather have 1,000 people’s eyes completely glued to everything you do, or 100,000 with an attention span rivaling a fruit fly on amphetamines? More traffic isn’t always better either. New traffic is great, but if 99% leave without subscribing or taking some kind of desired action, does it really matter? Wouldn’t you rather have a few new followers join you every day as lifelong customers, than a few thousand who window-shop and quickly move on? How big is “big enough?” Have you thought about this? Incredible size easily leads to overwhelm of too many good ideas . I’m sure there are quite a few “big people” out there who wish their businesses were smaller and simpler. It’s not that growth is bad Growth is natural. If your product or service is first-rate, if your content is terrific, if you spend lots of time building quality relationships, and if you learn to effectively promote yourself, you’re going to grow. But we could always do more. We hit one milestone number and immediately we start wishing for the next. We have this idea that in order to be successful we need to be as big as possible. So is that really true? I don’t think so. Charlie Gilkey has a blog of just over 3,000 subscribers. And with this relatively “small” following, he has had no problem carving out a niche for himself helping creative entrepreneurs launch and develop their products. He regularly partners with peers who have five times or more the size of audience he has. Adam Baker runs another profitable, agile business with a few thousand subscribers. He’s managed to stay lean enough to travel the world with his family while he runs his business. Yusuf Clack has built a successful business by targeting a small niche and speaking to them in a way that no one else has. He doesn’t have a huge online following. But he has a passionate one. These are just a few of the many people out there who are doing quite well with a relatively small but highly engaged audience. How exactly do you make this work? Instead of playing for numbers, you play for depth. Think knock-out punches instead of a torrent of annoying fly-swatting jabs. Okay, maybe that’s a bad analogy, you don’t make friends by hitting them in the face. How about if I just tell you a few ways to deepen your reach? Do less, better. It’s much easier to make an impression when you focus on doing a few key things incredibly well. Become known for helping people by doing something amazing. Create high-value products and services. If your product price range is under $20, you’ll have to move a ton of inventory. But if you focus on valuable, higher-priced products (like awesome consulting or private training) you won’t need as many clients. Make more intimate connections. You can create a deeper connection with someone in a five-minute phone call than you can in five months of twitter conversation. The more you can connect on the phone and in person, the better, and the more likely you’ll create relationships that go beyond the surface level. Build a referral based business. When your focus is on people (not just numbers), more people will want to refer you to their friends and peers. This means you need to offer excellent customer service and you need to always exceed expectations. Also, if you have a service or product that complements someone else’s, it will be a natural fit for them to refer their people to you. Make yourself accessible. So many people create unnecessary distance between themselves and the people they help. They have filters, gate keepers, and barriers to communication. One benefit of staying small is it’s much easier to engage with your audience. Show that you’re someone who really cares and wants to help. The more you do that, the greater depth of connections you will build. The more you focus on depth, the more you realize that breadth is only relevant to a point. If you become obsessed with growth for its own sake, it can be hard to keep perspective. Sometimes being small is just fine. Sometimes, in fact, it’s fantastic. About the Author : Jonathan Mead is a martial artist and self development writer. He just released a guide called The Dojo that helps you get amazing things done before most people finish breakfast.

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How to Build a Successful Business With a Small Audience