by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
Have you noticed that blogs are popping up online everywhere? Yes, blogging is the phenomenon of the age. You just need to know how to profit from it. These suggestions will help.
1) Be clear on your objective.
The people who are successful with blogging, that is the people who are making money from it, all are very clear on what they are writing their blog to accomplish. If you’re writing a business blog your objective is crystal clear: you blog to profit and for no other reason.
Too many (particularly new) blogsters have mixed objectives. Sure, they want to make money but, perhaps even more (and dangerously) they write to get their share of the limelight.
Don’t make that mistake.
When you’re in business your blog exists for one reason and one reason only: to put money in your pocket, as quickly and substantially as possible.
2) Never forget the deal you have with your readers.
People who run successful (that is to say money-making) blogs never lose sight of the implicit deal they have with their readers, viz.
Publisher: I will email you information of value and consequence. I shall also send you (in the same issue) ad copy for your earnest and honest consideration.
Reader: So long as you email me superior copy, I shall do two important things: I will read this copy, and I shall also (at least ) glance at your ads.
This is the basis for a mutually satisfactory relationship.
3) Understand your role as a publisher.
Publishers become publishers for two major reasons: because they have something important to say and want to influence the world AND to make money. Thus in every issue you must offer superior content…and prospect-centered ad copy. The key here is keeping this equation balanced.
If you run nothing but superior content, your readers may be delighted… but you’ll make no money and, in short order, give up the enterprise.
If you run nothing but (or even too many) ads, your reader will immediately get bored…and punish you not just by trashing your current issue but trashing all future issues without even a glance.
Publishing, then, is all about balance.
4) Study the great publishers and their empire-building methods and procedures.
The minute you have a blog, you have become a publisher… and the minute you become a publisher you become a card-carrying member of the greatest professional association on earth: publishering. Now you are part of a grand tradition. Make it a point to understand what that means by studying the great practitioners of your business. This includes people like Gutenberg and his Bible (1455)… Canadian Lord Beaverbrook who seized English newspapers the better to manipulate ministries and imperial politics and his tenacious rival Viscount Rothermere… and the great publishing families of America whose names alone remind us of what publishers can do to generate wealth for themselves while shaping the course of a great nation starting with William Randolph Hearst…
The Taylors of Boston… the McCormicks of Chicago… the Chandlers of Los Angeles…. and their counterparts in every significant city on earth.
You, you!, are now one of their number, and I can tell you this about such people, they were all, to a person,
* big thinkers
* people who meant to shape events, not just witness them
* determined to have their point of view not just seen but dominant.
The small, the trivial, the inconsequential and insignificant had absolutely no place in their publications or their lives. These are the people, your professional ancestors, it behooves us all to study and emulate.
These were people of amazing, irrepressible energies and imaginations. They didn’t moan and groan about their “work”, the time it took, the sacrifices they had to make to do it. They were grateful for the opportunity to create vehicles of wealth and influence, thrilled to get up each and every day and set about their work, stamping the world with their mark… and eager, too.
Is this how you approach the business of your blog? If it isn’t, re-examine your reasons for creating and publishing a blog and once you have done so absorb these home truths about the business:
* Say something significant in every issue. We all want to “make a difference” with our lives. When you’re a with-it publisher, this is easy to do. Make it clear that yours is a blog designed to make this a better world; there is no higher calling than that.
* Always ask your readers to respond. “Bribe” them, if necessary, to do so… offer them something of value that induces them to respond quickly and meaningfully. Such people become your best customers.
* Publish to a schedule. The best way to blog is daily. If you aspire to significance and substantial rewards no other schedule should even be considered.
* Talk directly, frankly to your readers. Be for them what every great publisher must be: a candid, direct, honest to a fault advocate of humane and progressive change. Publishing, you see, is never merely about transmitting information; it is about seizing minds and changing lives… about throwing down gauntlets and taking up causes… and always informing, motivating, energizing, enthusing and transforming.
Make today the day you rethink and recreate your blog.
The most stimulating game on earth is influencing others and so shaping the world you want. This is the gift all (good) blog publishers get… but you get it if and only if you focus on providing people with blog posts of interest, significance, and value. Nothing less can or should be set before the most important people in your business life: your blog readers.
From now on, focus each day on what you want to share with them; what you know that can change and improve their lives… and how you will present it to them for maximum impact and long-lasting effect. They must see you for what you are: their great and valued friend and counselor, operating through and touching their lives in your blog.
When you are producing a blog of value and influence, your entire outlook on life shifts; no problem is too big, too oppressive, over powering: problems are merely challenges which you can help your readers surmount and conquer, one step at a time.
You see, publishing, all publishing, is about the business of improving lives. That is what publishers do; that is what you as a publisher must do… with your ever-improving and life-transforming blog the vehicle to hand. Do this and the golden benefits of blogging, not least the systematic and continuing improvement of lives, will all be yours.
