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Building Engagement by Doing What Scares Me…

Posted on January 4, 2013 | In Engagement Strategies Contest

The following post is an entry by one of our spectacular finalists in our Awesome Engagement Strategies Contest. Finalists showcase their ideas, and whoever gets the most traction (i.e. comments and social shares) within five days of publication will be crowned the winner! And commenters can win prizes too, so check out the rules and enjoy the post!

So, I’ve been making money online (here and there) for 5 years now – going on 6.

I started as a freelance writer, decided I didn’t like that. Then I moved into IM, and focused on product creation. While it “worked” to a degree, I never saw the amount of money that I knew I could be making. (Like a car that only gets 5 miles-per-gallon when it should get 30.)

Something was very wrong with my business and I wasn’t sure what. I took a big step back and asked myself if I was really cut out for this entrepreneurship thing . . . The answer was yes. I loved it. I needed it like I need air, food, and my husband. But it wasn’t working the way it should.

I started the search for answers, and in the meantime bought more domains, put up more sites, made my products even better, expanded my topic base. And nothing changed. I knew the money was there to be made, but I also knew I was missing some crucial “thing.”

Then, thanks to a few marketers and bloggers, Danny Iny and his team being some of the most influential, I realized that I had no audience!

There was absolutely no engagement on my part. People weren’t finding me – and how could they? The issue wasn’t with the business plan (for the most part,) the problem lied with me – or the lack of me that there was online.

I was lost in cyberspace, and holy crap I had no idea what to do about it!

Fast forward through reading Danny’s books, being on lots of webinars, redesigning my blog, and overhauling my online image.

Now I actually have an engagement strategy! Go me!

A lot of it revolves around doing things that force me into the open, that make me a little bit (or a lot bit) vulnerable to the world, and making sure I stay unapologetic for being me.

It isn’t perfect, and it isn’t truly finished – but if I said it was perfect you’d know I was lying, and you never finish something like this. Ever. No battle plan survives contact with the enemy, and no engagement strategy ever survives contact with the cynical masses.

But here is my plan for right now…

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Will You Marry Me? (Engagement Strategies That Work!)

Posted on January 3, 2013 | In Engagement Strategies Contest

The following post is an entry by one of our spectacular finalists in our Awesome Engagement Strategies Contest. Finalists showcase their ideas, and whoever gets the most traction (i.e. comments and social shares) within five days of publication will be crowned the winner! And commenters can win prizes too, so check out the rules and enjoy the post!

Do you want to know what the scares people the most?

Nope, it’s not spiders.

Nope, it’s not Freddy Krueger.

And no, it’s not even Donald Trump’s hair. ;-)

The big, hairy monster I speak of is fear itself… fear of rejection, fear of failure, and fear of being utterly, utterly, utterly alone in this world. It’s scary to put yourself out there and commit to the pursuit of a dream.

Whether it’s dating, starting a business, or in my case, starting my humorous blog in order to gauge interest in my writing, the beast I speak of keeps the average Joe from succeeding.

The reality? I had guts, and it paid off. My blog, Everyday Underwear, is more successful than I imagined it would be at this point and I’ve been given opportunities I could never have dreamed up. Still, I would be lying if I didn’t tell you how scared I was when I hit “Publish” that first time…

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Pop Your Brand: How to Start a Radio Podcast to Amp Up Exposure when Things Get Stale

Posted on January 2, 2013 | In Engagement Strategies Contest

The following post is an entry by one of our spectacular finalists in our Awesome Engagement Strategies Contest. Finalists showcase their ideas, and whoever gets the most traction (i.e. comments and social shares) within five days of publication will be crowned the winner! And commenters can win prizes too, so check out the rules and enjoy the post!

You wanted to start an online business to promote your brand right?

You wrote a book, started blogging and thought you were in business. The problem is, you didn’t realize just how hard and time consuming creating a “platform” really is.

You’re a year into this thing and you still haven’t gotten a publisher, your blog sucks, you only have a handful of loyal followers and a few measly comments about your writing…

What’s the deal? Are you missing something?

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Awesome Engagement Strategies Contest Finalists

Posted on January 1, 2013 | In Engagement Strategies Contest

Happy New Year! :-D

I hope that you’ve had a wonderful, relaxing break, and are coming back refreshed, and ready to take on the world!

To kick off the new year with a bang, I’m excited to announce the finalists for the Awesome Engagement Strategies Contest. There were *tons* of great submissions, and choosing finalists wasn’t easy – but did it, and now I’m very happy to present all fifteen bloggers who are going to teach and inspire you this month.

They all worked very hard to write amazing posts about innovative ideas that you can use to create, nurture and enhance audience engagement – something that you know we take very seriously around here!

So read on to learn what’s coming for you this month, and how you can cash in on some of the prize money, too! ;-)

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Pre-Holiday Burnout: When You *Should* Celebrate, but Just Don’t Feel Like It

Posted on December 22, 2012 | In Firepole Marketing Updates

It’s that time of year again.

Everything is winding down for the holidays, and everyone is in a happy, cheerful mood.

This is usually the time to take stock of all the successes that you’ve had, give thanks to those who helped you, and rejoice in your good fortune.

And originally, that’s what this post was going to be – a big “thank you” run down of all the great things that have happened over the past year.

That’s the post I was going to write – but I just don’t feel like it…

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Stop, Pause, Reflect and Stay on Course With Your Business

Posted on December 20, 2012 | In Guest Appearances

“Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson

When I began dabbling in internet businesses eight years ago, I would start with a great idea and plug away at it, not knowing what was keeping me or my business from reaching the next level of success (or the first level of success for that matter).

There are few things more painful than working tirelessly for months or years only to realize that no amount of hustle, networking, or sweat equity will ever improve your business. This realization comes slowly – the realization that it’s not you, or your skill or even your idea that’s the problem – it’s your strategy.

If you’ve been in business for a while, don’t quite rest on your laurels yet – sometimes a similar flaw in underlying business strategy can keep you from getting the success your hard work and ingenuity ought to have earned you.

The over-arching strategies that we employ in our businesses matter from day one, and keep on mattering until the day we close up shop. What’s amazing is how little attention we give our strategy when we’re not in a startup phase. (And sometimes – even when we are!)

Implementing a strong, well-researched strategy, or regular re-evaluation of the one you’re using, is often the difference between hoping your idea works, and knowing your business will be running as long as you’re interested in running it.

As this year draws to a close, it’s a perfect time to sit down with a warm mug of cocoa, and look at where we’ve come from in our businesses, where we want to go, and how we can make sure we’re employing the right strategies to take us there.

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How to Make Your Prices Irrationally Attractive

Posted on December 18, 2012 | In Guest Appearances

What’s the price of your product or service?

Be honest.

Is it $97 like most guru marketers advice?

Or maybe some other amount that ends with a 7? Also, did you spend a fair amount of time figuring out this (presumably) perfect price point?

Now, what if I told you that you may be leaving TONS of money on the table without even realizing it… ?

First of all, I’m not going to try to sell you anything here. This isn’t the beginning of an elaborate sales pitch with a buy button at the end. This is just one simple piece of advice that’s been confirmed by an actual scientific study.

It has also been confirmed by me. ;-)

Back when I was running a web design business (with a friend), the issue of pricing was one of the most difficult ones we had to tackle.

One of the standards in any industry or niche is to showcase a number (usually three) alternative plans that your customer/client can choose from. The traditional way of making this happen is to position your main offer as the middle one.

Now, this works quite fine for everybody. However, what we found out is that you can be just as successful convincing people to pick the top – most expensive – product you have in store, instead of the middle one.

What might that mean for you? Well do a little armchair math with me.

What is the difference between your most expensive product or service, and the one below it?

Now, how many people buy the lower priced item?

Multiply that number by the difference in price, and just look at how much extra money you could be making!

This is something I learned from Dan Ariely (the author of Predictably Irrational), and if you read on, I’ll teach you exactly how it works.

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3 Marketing Reality Checks: Are You Working Under a Delusion?

Posted on December 16, 2012 | In Guest Appearances

Do you want to make money online?

I do.

I know a lot of us do.

It’s the dream of earning good money via passive-income and then just writing and blogging about what you love every single day.

Now, if you were like me, the start of the journey was really good.

The feeling of inspiration was practically overwhelming! I had my idea and I wanted to bring it to the world – and make tons of money while I was at it.

Heck, I even thought the setbacks I would face would be something I could handle confidently and easily.

Does that sound familiar?

You know it will take some hard work, of course. It’s going to be a tough journey. The road ahead always seems a little foggy as you set out with your online business or your blog. You know you’re on the path to worldwide recognition – maybe you can’t see the edges too clearly, but you have confidence that you’ll figure it out, and achieve even your wildest dreams.

It’s too bad dreams are far from reality.

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Insider Secrets: The Money Genius of Danny Iny

Posted on December 14, 2012 | In Guest Appearances

We’d all love to know how he does it.

Danny is in the league of Super-preneurs. He has a successful book, a hugely successful blog, and a business that competitors think is massively bigger than it actually is, due to the amount of engagement that Danny enjoys with his audience… i.e. you! :)

And he doesn’t seem to hold any secrets back. He frequently gives us a transparent view of what’s going on behind the scenes at Firepole Marketing, and how we can use the marketing that works ourselves…

But what if you really understood how his mind works?

What if you too could understand how he comes to the conclusions he does, and what motivates his business behavior?

Do you think you too might be able to enjoy some of the Danny Iny Results Magic too?

Of course you would…

…which is why we thought a POWERFUL follow up to my last article about the different Money Genius profiles would be to look at Danny’s profile and how this relates to how he does things and how you can apply this in YOUR business right now. (Additional help is available at the end of the article too!)

So to this end, what follows are the noteworthy insights and traits of Danny’s money genius profile, compared and contrasted with insights from Danny himself… and get this, the real celebrity element: Danny’s mum! Ruthy is not only proud mum to the Freddy Kruger of Blogging, but she’s also a really lovely person, an insightful parent, as well as a profiling specialist herself!

So – let’s get to it…

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Product Launches that Generate the Big Bucks (They’re Easier Than You Think!)

Posted on December 12, 2012 | In Fireside Chats with Danny Iny

Product launches – it’s a topic that means a lot to just about everyone who’s running a business.

And you know what? There is a *ton* of mis-information out there about product launches – and there’s a pretty good reason for that:

When people are teaching about it they’re usually in the middle of one themselves!

Product launches can seem much, much more complex than they really are, and we’d like to set the record straight. Let it be said, once and for all, that crafting a product launch does not have to be that difficult. In fact, they can be pretty simple once you have understand how to look at them.

So that’s what you’ll find in this podcast; step-by-step instructions on how to plan and execute a product launch for anything you’d want to sell…

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Prospects ignoring you? Here’s how to get them to listen

Posted on December 10, 2012 | In Guest Appearances

Want to know why your business gets overlooked on social media? Why your Twitter account has fewer than 200 followers, your Facebook account only has 30 likes, and you can count your blog’s daily readership on one hand?

The reason is simple.

My dog, Ruby, is usually super-obedient. That is, except when something spooks her. When she’s scared, she enters fight or flight state. She becomes selectively deaf to my commands and goes into over-ride mode.

Whatever I say, she ignores me.

Likewise, most people are in constant “over-ride mode” when it comes to marketing messages. They’re cynical and switched off.

You’re spooking them.

That’s why your business gets overlooked. People have learned to ignore pretty much anything that looks, sounds or smells like it has something to sell.

You’re looking, sounding and smelling selly.

Thirty year’s ago, the average American city dweller was exposed to 2,000 advertising messages every day. Today, that’s more like 5,000. Every year, consumers are hit with nearly 2 million marketing messages.

The average person can hold seven pieces of information in their short-term memory.

No wonder consumers feel bombarded and don’t want to know. Their eyes, ears and minds are overloaded to breaking point.

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Baby Steps to Bigger Plans – Project ABC Update

Posted on December 8, 2012 | In Firepole Marketing Updates

I had a wonderful confirmation moment around mid-November.

I went to an annual Montreal event called Expozine, where regional zine makers and small press book publishers meet to show off and sell their wares. I poked around, talked to some interesting people and discovered that I was basically at a convention for my ideal customers.

Sweet.

It gets better – in one publication I actually found a comic strip expressing the exact pain I’m hoping to alleviate with Paying for Life. The exact one!

Confirmation like that doesn’t happen too often, and I am suitably grateful.

It also inspired me for an idea that I’m still developing – but that I think will be a killer Red Panda offering. I want to hash out the details, test for interest, and run it by Danny – but if all goes well, expect more details in January.

Red Panda content is something like Engagement from Scratch! - a super valuable, free piece of content that people will subscribe for, use, love and share; hopefully coming back to it again and again. A cornerstone of your blog, essentially.

The little moral of this story is to, no matter how frighteningly busy you are, go out in your community once awhile – ten minutes talking to human beings in the flesh can validate days, and weeks of work.

Since my last post, I’ve left around 50 comments on blogs about the web, accumulated about 40 subscribers. I’ve also set up and run several split tests (results still pending) and sent out my first guest post pitches. At this point in the process, as so many of you know, the learning curve is pretty steep.

Here are some things that I’ve learned…

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