Your Blog is a Business, Do You Have to Be a Salesperson?

Posted on October 28, 2008 by @Stephen

Do not be like this guy

Many people started blogging as a hobby, in the traditional sense of the online journal. In the last couple of years, however, blogging has become an industry with legions of entrepreneurs telling you how to make money online. The number one means of making money online? Sell something.

But what if you don’t know how to sell? Or like to sell? Can your blog be a business if you are not out there selling?

Yes it can.

How to blog your business without being a salesperson

Going online and trying to sell something can be a demoralizing experience. There is a lot of competition out there in every market and every niche. The secret to being a success in your online business is to focus on your potential customers, rather than on your products. Communicate with your possible purchasers and build a relationship.

It is much easier to build trust with your pool of customers than it is to expect them to find your product or service and give them a sales pitch, or jam them into a squeeze page. Providing value to your readers, getting involved in their communities, and building relationships should be your core business model.

6 Steps to Providing Value

Instead of studying books on sales techniques, I’d like to recommend that you turn your attention to a series of other skills that will make your business much more powerful and successful:

Learn how to position yourself and your business
Learn how to promote yourself and your business
Learn how to interact with your community
Learn how to make effective presentations
Learn how to engage your audience
Learn how to connect with your potential customers

Over the next few weeks we will discuss the steps that you can take to develop these skills and take your blog and your business to the next level. Our goals?

Empower our audience to get involved
Engage our audience with useful content
Enlist our audience to spread the word and grow our business

What is your potential customer looking for?

This is your homework assignment for the week: Think about your business and the product or service that you provide (or are considering providing).

How does your blog deliver value to that customer or market?

Does your blog make it obvious what actions to take to get that result?

Next week we will discuss how to position your blog to take advantage of this value.

Creating Conversations and Relationships Using LinkedIn

Posted on October 21, 2008 by @Stephen

“What is LinkedIn good for when you are not looking for a job?”
The short answer is: a lot!

The long answer is found in this list of articles in a group writing project started by Brandon Hull of SalesTeamTools. I found this list some time ago and definitely suggest checking it out: 100+ Smart Ways to Use LinkedIn (from the LinkedIntelligence blog). There are many useful ideas from actual LinkedIn users.

Business Development / Marketing / Sales
- A Tool to Help with Reference Selling – Dave Stein
- Getting More Than Just Answers – Diane K. Danielson
- How to Use LinkedIn to Build Your Business – Liz Ryan (via The Virtual Handshake blog)
- Market Your Company on LinkedIn – Gordon Choi
- Using LinkedIn for Market Research – Loren Baker / Jason Calacanis
- Secrets LinkedIn Can Tell You About Your Customers – Matt Asay
- Using LinkedIn to Make the Sale – Al Chase (excerpt from The Virtual Handshake)
- Warm Calling via LinkedIn – Alex Iskold
Career Management / Personal Branding / Resumes
- Becoming a Recognized Subject Matter Expert on LinkedIn – Barbara Rozgonyi
- Brush Up Your Resume – CarlenLea
- Enhance Your Resume with LinkedIn Testimonials – Harry Joiner
- LinkedIn and Career Management – Jason Alba
- LinkedIn as Resume 2.0 – Scott Sehlhorst
- Your Reputation: Create a Permalink – Todd Defren
Job Search
- Best Practices for a LinkedIn Job Search – Konstantin Guericke (via Dave Taylor)
- How Do I Use LinkedIn to Find a Job? – Dave Taylor
- How to Use LinkedIn to Find a New Position – Eric Mariacher
- How to Find a Job Using LinkedIn – Liz Ryan (via Dave Taylor)
- LinkedIn and Your Job Search – Alison Doyle
- Following Up on Inside Connections at Potential Employers – Scott Allen
- Searching the Hidden Job Market for Opportunities – Debra Feldman
- Using LinkedIn to Prepare for Your Job Interview – Darlene McDaniel
Recruiting
- Companies Use LinkedIn to Find Top Talent – Desire Athow
Growing Your Network
- Grow Your Network While You Don’t Need It – Eric Mariacher
- Growing Your Network Online – Kathie Thomas
- LinkedIn as Cult Builder – Matthew Reinbold
Keeping in Touch
- Borrowing the Expertise of Others – Eric Eggertson
Meeting Face-to-Face
- Breaking the Ice at a Meeting with LinkedIn – Pete Johnson
- Using LinkedIn to Fill Out Your Business Trip – Scott Allen
- Using LinkedIn for Travel – Marc Freedman
- Connecting with People in Your Network When Traveling – Stewart Rogers
Organizing and Extending Groups
- Using LinkedIn to Create a Granfalloon – F. John Reinke
- Pros and Cons of LinkedIn for Alumni Groups – Andrew Shaindlin
Miscellaneous
- Introducting Your Network to Each Other – Scott Allen
- Using LinkedIn to Find Celebrity Guests – Stan Relihan
- Unpredictable Benefits of LinkedIn – Nathan Gilliatt
- LinkedIn a Box – Brendon Connelly
Specific Jobs / Industries
- 10 Ways Journalists Can Use LinkedIn – Penelope Trunk
- LinkedIn for Startup Entrepreneurs: 5 Reasons to Join – Dharmesh Shah
- Five Ways IT Managers Can Get More Out of LinkedIn – Shane Schick
- Five Ways Authors Can Profit from LinkedIn – Mahesh Grossman
Lists
- How to Change the World: Ten Ways to Use LinkedIn – Guy Kawasaki
- 20 Ways to Use LinkedIn Productively – Web Worker Daily
- Making Your LinkedIn Business Network Pay Dividends – Tatsuya Nakagawa & Peter Paul Roosen
- Top Reasons to Use LinkedIn – Various, compiled by Chris Pirillo

(List compiled by Brandon Hull)

People talking, people connecting

More than an Online Resume

As you can see, Linked in is much more than just a futuristic resume, it is a tool for connecting. Here are three more things that I to do with LinkedIn:

Focus on connecting. Whenever I get a business card from someone I enter them into my Highrise HQ account, then search for that person on LinkedIn right away. Because I have their email, I can send them an invitation to connect.
Increase your visibility. Don’t add people to your network and then forget about them. While everyone you meet may not be a “business” contact, they may be a referrer. How will you know? Use the Question and Answer function on LinkedIn. Also, make sure your public profile is complete. I like to recommend people in my network, I also ask them to recommend me. Every time I do one of these activities, LinkedIn posts updates online and in weekly updates to everyone in my network.
Make LinkedIn your homepage. Whenever I open my browser, I can immediately review my “LinkedIn Home Page” which shows what others in my network are doing and who they’re connecting with. I also check every 2-3 days to see “Who’s Viewed My Profile.” Just as you can use web statistics to see who is looking at your website, you can also see who’s been checking out your profile.

For a real-world example, I recently used the Question and Answer feature for doing some research on a post about working from home. This is something that I have been struggling with for some time now and it occurred to me that I had a large base of people that I know that have been working from home for years. Who better to ask for tips?

I asked a question, and a lot of people answered! In fact, many more than I expected. I consider myself blessed to have so many contacts that are so engaged and willing to help. One of those that chimed in with an answer was Grant Griffiths from Home Office Warrior, who graciously offered to host the collection of tips as a post on his blog. Click on through to see this amazing list of tips for working at home.

Karen Putz Shares Her World

Posted on October 2, 2008 by @Stephen

Good day SOBConners! Karen here. I’m helping out on a fundraiser that is part of the Mom Blogs challenge– can you help me spread the word? We’re raising money for schools in the Chicago area as well as deaf projects:

Join us for the Chicago Moms Blog Donors Choose Challenge!

Over at Chicago Mom’s Blog and their sister sites, we are rising up to the worldwide 2008 DonorsChoose.org Bloggers Challenge to help thousands of kids in high-need public schools. Last year during the 2007 Blogger Challenge, internet history was made in one short month: more than 100 bloggers raised $420,000 for school projects on DonorsChoose.org. This year, we’re aiming to make internet history again.

DonorsChoose.org is the brainchild of Charles Best and a group of teachers from the Bronx. Charles, a science teacher, was frustrated at the lack of materials in the classrooms. He saw how the students were affected by not having adequate materials to teach and work with. He set up DonorsChoose.org to pair donors with educational projects all over the world. The beauty of DonorsChoose.org is that donors have complete control over which projects they choose to donate to.

Since I have a heart for deaf and hard of hearing children, I took a look at the projects that focus on those kids: Projects featuring deaf and hard of hearing children. I also found projects covering students in special education. And for Chicago Moms, there are many projects covering Chicago Public Schools and the surrounding suburbs.

This fundraiser is so profound, that Fortune magazine has an article covering this month-long philanthropy effort: It Takes a Blogosphere.

The Chicago Moms Blog and our sister sites aim to kick some serious butt (some of us have to pause and wipe a butt) and raise the most money for several school projects for the Moms Blogs Challenge. We invite our readers to join us in raising the most money. Turn your couch upside down and find some change. Encourage your kids to donate some of their allowance. Grab a bunch of moms in your neighborhood and join together to select a project to fund. And if you have a rich uncle, ask him to cut a check– and make a difference.

For the month of October 2008, click on the Chicago Moms Help Public Schools button in the top left corner and send your contribution on its way! Watch as the competition heats up as we work together to raise funds.