Tag Archives: List Building

60 Ways to Increase Your Influence Online

Posted on by

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.

3c3b757d57button.gif 60 Ways to Increase Your Influence Online

Read more here:
60 Ways to Increase Your Influence Online

List Laundering 2.0

Posted on by

Feature Product Review:List Laundering 2.0 is a training course developed by Alan Magliocca. This training course is designed and developed in a manner to solve the list building problems of the Internet marketers. Alan Magliocca, with the help of the product, List Laundering 2.0, explains how he created as many as 11,700 subscribers step-by-step within

View post:
List Laundering 2.0

Want More Readers? Try Expanding Your Internet Universe

Posted on by

Ever notice how everyone on the blogs you read seems to agree on everything? We all know that content is king, that transparency is good, that sleazy sales pages are bad. We even seem to know the same people: Brian, Sonia, Naomi , Johnny , Dave N , Chris G . What we forget is that this little galaxy we’re occupying is only a tiny sliver of the universe. And if we want to expand our audience, we need to start boldly going beyond our own safe little corner. I was recently exploring some strange new worlds on the Internet, places I hadn’t ever been before. On this particular journey, I wasn’t looking for content, but for patterns and themes. Here’s what I found: Blog and site designs in the rest of the Internet universe are quite different. We might think that Thesis , Headway, and Frugal themes are everywhere — but they aren’t. Their presentation patterns are different. There are many more implementations of left-column, three-column, and, occasionally, one-column layouts. The way they display banners and advertising is considerably different. Highlighter much? The fake yellow highlighter we make fun of here as being ridiculously old hat is a common, accepted tool to focus attention. There are far, far fewer comments on posts, even on “big” sites, than what you’re used to seeing in our galaxy. The blogs you see on “everyone’s” blogroll simply don’t appear. Their trends and pattern are different. They’re not necessarily worse, and they’re not necessarily better. We’re in a hot, flat, and crowded galaxy We often forget that the Internet is a network of data. Instead, we focus on sites that are just individual nodes in that vast network, and we mistake the part for the whole. We don’t really understand what’s going on, because we don’t have a good mental picture of it. It’s too big to get our heads around. The particular galaxy that we’re in is pretty dense, heavily-populated, and interconnected. We read each other’s stuff, link heavily, and have backchannel conversations. This interconnectedness and density creates a strong gravity well of ideas, patterns, and themes. We’re just one galaxy, though. Some galaxies are as tight as ours and others aren’t. But there’s so much space between us that what we do here hasn’t quite reached them yet, like the light from distant stars that takes millions of years to reach the earth. We’re prone to assume that if we don’t perceive something, it doesn’t exist. Bad assumption. Seeking out new civilizations If you’re reading this, you’re probably a bit more on your game. People who write effective copy that’s SEO-friendly do better both in search engine results and in getting readers engaged. If you’re here reading this, it’s probably because you want to make your site better, and because you know where and how to find good information about that. That makes you different than most inhabitants of the other galaxies. Just remember that what’s known and common here isn’t known and common elsewhere. In other galaxies, there’s no launch fatigue as we know it. There’s no third tribe . (Or first tribe, or second tribe.) Hell, there might not even be a Seth Godin . Forget about “fields of opportunities.” There are whole galaxies of opportunities for you out there. While the particular aesthetic styles might be different, the principles of effective copywriting and SEO are universal. You don’t have to lower your standards just because the new galaxies you’re exploring seem to have less-evolved ideas of what makes a good blog. To put it another way, visiting Rome doesn’t turn you into Caligula. Instead of waiting around for the citizens of other galaxies to come to you, go to them instead. Tips for interstellar explorers Instead of using StumbleUpon in the usual robotic way, actually stop at a promising new website and get engaged. Hang around. See who they’re connected to. Be useful, relevant, and helpful there rather than on your own website or in your usual galaxy. Click through to a commenter’s website, then click an interesting, unfamiliar link there. Repeat that a few times. Follow your curiosity and you’ll probably find yourself in a third- or fourth-degree network from yours. Which pretty much puts you in the land of painted green dancing girls and monsters made from scraps of industrial carpeting. It’s in those networks that you’re going to find your new readers . It’s also in those networks that you can really become next years’ A-lister , because A-lists are all relative to particular social networks. If you’re happy where you are, then, by all means, stay put. Keep farming your own home planet. But if your curiosity and ambition aren’t satisfied with that, consider this: Someone out there in the Internet-universe is struggling with something you learned three years ago. What do they need, where are they, and how can you help them? About the Author: Charlie Gilkey writes about meaningful action, creativity, and entrepreneurship at Productive Flourishing . Follow him on Twitter to get bite-sized slices of mojo.

imagebutton Want More Readers? Try Expanding Your Internet Universe

See the original post here:
Want More Readers? Try Expanding Your Internet Universe

How to Build a Successful Business With a Small Audience

Posted on by

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.

63aa967fa5dience.jpg 150x99 How to Build a Successful Business With a Small Audience

View post:
How to Build a Successful Business With a Small Audience