by Ryan Biddulph | Blogging |
This is a guest post by Ryan Biddulph. He shares smart blogging tips at Blogging From Paradise.
I have unfollowed 1000s of people over the past few days.
Why?
I am doubling down on tip #3. I do not follow the news. But my social media streams became news sources; allegedly. Attempting to find helpful content amid this wave of news wasted too much of my time for me to tolerate. Spending less time on social media lets me spend more time blogging and guest posting.
Being a professional blogger requires you to follow three basic tips for a sustained period of time.
1: Spend Most Energy and Time
on Your Blog and Buddy Blogs
Spend most of your time and energy on your self-hosted blog and on buddy self-hosted blogs.
Create on your owned real estate. Create on real estate owned by your blogging buddies.
You do not own social media or likely, forums. But you do own your blog. Ditto for blogging buddies of yours who own their blogs. Creating and connecting through owned blogs ensures whatever happens with:
- Google
- Facebook
- Twitter
- LinkedIn
- forums
your business will thrive, grow and expand exponentially over the long haul. Blogs are your business hub, the content engine driving increasing traffic and profits, 24-7, 365, if you spend 1000s of hours generously creating and connecting on real estate you own and owned by your buddies.
2: Sell through Trusted Digital Storefronts
Jeff Bezos is the wealthiest person in history. Doesn’t it make sense to capitalize on his:
- business genius?
- elite digital storefront?
- massive, loyal audience?
versus the nightmarish headache of trying to set up a shopping cart on your blog? Pay a prosperity tax by allowing Amazon to collect their decent-sized commissions. Allow Bezos’ billions of dollars worth of:
- infrastructure
- support
- staff expertise
to handle all the backend stuff while you sell and profit as Amazon takes a cut. No brainer.
Sell through any trusted digital platform to leverage by using the power of the platform network, staff and overall branding. Think long and hard about setting up a shopping cart to buy through your blog unless you have a massive, targeted audience.
Even then, be prepared to invest substantial money and time in coordinating development for the endeavor. What happens when your digital storefront crashes? Unlike Amazon with their army of developers, your one-man-band may be sleeping. Ouch.
3: Spend Little Time on Social Media
Spend little time on social media because other people own those platforms.
See social media as a tool to share value, to build bonds and to tap into your targeted audience with light usage.
Every extra hour you spend on social is an hour you could use to create content for:
- your blog
- your brand
- your business
Pop in to engage on social for a few times daily. Time your sessions in minutes, not hours. See social media as a secondary or tertiary channel through which to share value and to forge bonds with people who love your blog. Make your blog home base to build a rock solid business.
Conclusion
Most bloggers never go pro because they do the exact opposite of tips #1 and #3. Bloggers usually spend way too little time on their blog and way too much time on social media and forums.
Turn around these trends. Publish helpful content frequently. Engage a little bit on social media to strengthen bonds but do the majority of work through your blog and through buddies’ blogs.
Have posture. Build your blogging business like a pro.
by Ryan Biddulph | Blogging, Guest Posts |
This is a guest post by Ryan Biddulph. He shares smart blogging tips at Blogging From Paradise.
Or what you do “allow” to disturb your blogging campaign?
Observe elections. Pay close attention to politics. Assess the news headlines. How about trivial family matters? What – or who – do you allow to disturb your blogging campaign? What triggers agitation in you leading to you shirking your blogging duties?
I am hardly a blogging cyborg. I feel agitated in moments. Some rare peeks at news headlines on Twitter annoy me here and there. But I choose to blog versus detouring to focus my attention and energy on:
- politics
- elections
- news headlines
- trivial family stuff
- any stuff other than blogging
Even though I am no mindless blogging robot I have it in my power to choose to blog versus choosing to follow the news or to opine about the elections. I prefer blogging, fun and freedom over everything else. I appear to be like clockwork because I value blogging, fun and freedom over everything else in terms of potential disturbances, distractions and attention black holes.
Nobody “gets” distracted because bloggers have a free will.
Bloggers choose what bloggers decide to do. But most bloggers blog for fear-based drivers like money or popularity. Fear-based drivers influence you to backburner blogging at a moment’s notice; news, politics, elections, family matters and other events take precedence over blogging because you value each more than you value blogging for money and/or fame.
No thing disturbs you although the appearance seems real. You choose to give your attention and energy to people or events based on what you value. Humans who value blogging more than virtually all else in terms of distractions blog no matter what.
People who blog for fun, freedom and fulfillment value blogging over everything else. Note; I do not suggest valuing blogging over your family, of course.
Never make blogging some god or sole focal point of your life. But do blog generously, persistently and consistently no matter what because committing fully to blogging allows blogging to commit fully to you.
Blogging gives you what you give blogging.
But giving blogging your all feels uncomfortable in moments because the common disturbances of politics, news, elections and small family issues feel too enticing, too tempting and too irresistible to turn down. Why? Suffering from the fear of missing out scares you into putting blogging on the backburner in favor of giving your attention and energy to these disturbances.
Bloggers whose minds seem dominated by fear allow fear-illusion to poison and weaken their mind. Weak-minded bloggers – or bloggers suffering through a weak-minded moment – seem disturbed by everything.
How do you commit to blogging in the appearance of politically chaotic times, wild elections, manipulative news headlines and seeming family drama?
Take control of your mind to become aware of fears triggered by disturbances.
I suggest spending 30-60 minutes or more daily managing your energy to expand your awareness.
I meditate, do Kriya yoga, do yin yoga and power walk to:
- expand my awareness
- see my mind as it really is
- observe, face, feel and release my fears
- develop the habit of maintaining serenity, calm and poise amid the
appearance of disturbances.
Blogging – and life – becomes easier if you take control of your mind, face your fears and dissolve illusory disturbances because you get the blogging job done and walk around the minefield of chaos crippling weaker minded individuals whose minds seem dominated by fear.
See through the illusion of disturbances to commit fully to your blogging campaign.
by Ryan Biddulph | Blogging, Guest Posts |
This is a guest post by Ryan Biddulph. He shares smart blogging tips at Blogging From Paradise.
The old me absolutely believed I needed positive reviews to become a successful blogger.
Think for one moment the dangerous precedent I set for myself. I believed I could only succeed if people posted positive, public reviews after reading my eBooks, listening to my audio books and receiving my coaching services. What happens if you deeply believe you cannot succeed on your own blogging steam? You do not succeed on your own blogging steam. Even worse; you base your blogging confidence, clarity and ability to sell on the opinions of other human beings.
Yet a high percentage of bloggers still teach that you need to get positive reviews, glowing endorsements or dazzling testimonials from either influencers or happy customers in order to build a thriving business. Why? Parrot-speak. One top blogger explains how you need positive reviews to succeed online. Followers profess how you need positive reviews to prosper. The cycle continues until a blogger like me tells you how obsessing over scoring positive reviews damages your blogging campaign.
Some people only buy stuff or hire people based on positive reviews. Many people buy stuff or hire people based on needing the product or service. If I see something I need I simply buy it without scanning reviews because I could care less about people’s opinions; I have clarity enough to purchase what I need. Knowing this, many humans buy what they need based on their need and not based on feedback from other human beings.
Customers and clients often grow to trust you through your valuable, free content.
Do any of my long time readers need to see a positive eBook review to buy one of my eBooks? No. Why? My long time readers know my:
- style
- delivery
- presentation
- worth
and simply buy what I offer because my loyal readers trust me and trust my content. People buy from trusted people. People hire trusted people. My blog, guest posts, videos and podcasts earn me credibility in the eyes of loyal readers who purchase my stuff without giving thought to positive reviews.
I covered a few reasons why people buy your stuff or hire you without scanning reviews. Humans do not need to be convinced or swayed to purchase something needed because people already bought in the moment they needed that thing.
But on a deeper level, the most damaging aspect of obsessing over gaining positive reviews is the belief that you are only:
- worthy
- skilled
- good at what you do
- credible
based on someone’s positive opinion of your work posted in a public setting.
How far will you go as a blogger if you believe you need positive praise in order to sell something? Not too far. What happens when you receive no positive reviews for a valued eBook or service? You automatically de-value something valuable, helpful, beneficial and inspiring. A high percentage of bloggers quit promoting genuinely helpful products and services because they believe the lack of positive reviews suggests a low quality offering which leads to scant sales. If the blogger simply got clear on selling the offering more people would buy it without the product receiving a single positive review.
Positive reviewers are simply big fans eager enough to speak up in a public setting.
For every positive reviewer fan, 10 to 20 or more lurkers buy your stuff, boost your profits and grow your bottom line without you ever knowing who they are or what they think about your work.
Every highly successful, confident, pro blogger believes deeply in themselves over the opinions of other people. Why would you need vetting if you believe in yourself? Why would anyone believe in you unless you believed in yourself? Basing your worth and the worth of your products and services on the opinion of an influencer or a lower profile reader is foolish because their opinion is none of your business. Making matters worse, believing that you need positive reviews to sell something adds layers of work, limiting beliefs and energetic anchors to your blogging campaign.
My name and skills speak for themselves.
Why would I need someone else to publicly review my blog, eBooks or services favorably before I could possibly generate a sale? Who needs positive reviews to buy something? Skeptics. I sell to people already onboard, not skeptics, because I do not convince, manipulate or influence through public opinion. Here is my content, eBooks and courses. Take ’em or leave ’em.
I deeply appreciate my loving readers and their positive reviews but never base my confidence, clarity and ability to sell anything on another human being’s opinion. Negative reviews trigger deep doubts in people pleasers. Negative reviews lower sales in the minds of bloggers who fear negative reviews lower sales. As you believe, it is so.
Negative and positive reviews do not stir clear, confident, skilled bloggers because clarity, confidence, posture and skills drive sales, not another human being publicly saying you are clear, confident, skilled and posturing.
You never need positive reviews to sell anything if you are clear, confident, skilled and armed with a loyal tribe because their endorsement comes in the form of purchases and/or hires.
Build your tribe to generate a built-in source of return customers and clients who pay little if any attention to positive reviews. Trusting members of your blogging community do not need to be told what they already know; you are credible, trustworthy and skilled.
by Ryan Biddulph | Blogging, Guest Posts |
This is a guest post by Ryan Biddulph. He shares smart blogging tips at Blogging From Paradise.
Freedom has been my prime intent for much of my 10 year blogging career.
I lost my way at times.
But I eventually observed the error of my ways and changed course.
I had to adopt the quality of having blogging posture to live a life of freedom through blogging by making freeing but sometimes highly uncomfortable decisions.
Examples include:
- saying “no” to opportunities eating into my freedom, including time and energy intensive coaching and freelance work
- keeping all interactions online genuine, warm but brief
- opening solely passive income streams
- building my day around personal development first then blogging second
- completely ignoring anyone online non-resonant with my values and core intent
I felt quite scared to make these decisions initially because I feared:
- being criticized for being rude, short, curt or not responding to all messages, chats or comments
- letting go active income streams
- building my business solely on passive income streams
- not putting in enough blogging work since I devoted 3-4 hours to personal development daily
but my love of freedom became stronger than these fears.
Pier Guard Job
I became disgusted working 6 days weeks and more than enough 16 to 18 hour days as a pier guard some 15 years ago. Trading time for money equated to trading my life just to cover the bills and to save a few extra bucks. I feel grateful because this employee experience gave me contrast leading into my professional blogging career. Gaining clarity influenced me to schedule a decent chunk of my entrepreneurial day:
- enjoying travel activities with my wife Kelli
- meditating
- doing Kriya yoga
- doing yin yoga
- sleeping and napping
Re-read the prior bullet points. Even established, pro bloggers sometimes email me inquiring into how I engineered a life of fun, freedom and travel as a pro blogger who circles the globe. Some pros attach themselves to unfailing internet connections, home offices and environments of order, precision and comfort. Meanwhile, many of these folks envy my digital nomad life of circling the globe, internet connections of varying quality, different home offices and regular schedule, routine and time zone changes. I am largely free. Many pros – and a majority of amateurs – are bound.
How do I do it?
I developed posture to live a life of freedom. I never intended to be held captive by an internet connection, client base, home office, blogging routine or NYC Eastern time zone because I observed how such attachments bind, confine and flat out hold most bloggers captive. I put in my time online then get the heck offline to enjoy circling the globe, napping, working on my mindset and spending time with my wife.
Freedom Appears Different to All Bloggers
Some bloggers feel absolutely free rendering service to clients through freelancing or coaching. Follow that path if it feels freeing, fun and fulfilling to you.
But beware when your heart tells you:
“I need to start releasing clients to enjoy a few more hours offline daily. I also need to downsize my client base to enjoy a 1 week vacation without worrying about the 15 hour days I need to put in to keep up with my freelancing or coaching demand the following week.”
At this point, opening more passive income channels or simply tightening your belt by cutting costs are two clear options. I prefer opening passive income channels like:
- writing and self-publishing eBooks
- converting the eBooks to audio books and paperbacks
- creating online courses
- engaging in affiliate marketing
to expand my freedom by not trading time for money.
I still work-blog quite a bit daily but always on my terms. Minus the rare interview I accept I simply never use my alarm, nor do I always remember the day of the week. Time is less of an object to me every day because I chose to do everything blogging-wise to promote my freedom.
Do you need to make the same blanket decision?
by Anne Peterson | Blogging |
A book review of Who Not How by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy.
This is a guest post contribution by Anne Peterson. Anne is a poet, speaker, and published author of 16 books, including a children’s books, poetry books, two memoirs.
I love to write. But sometimes writers find we put books out there, but people are not breaking down doors to buy our books. Okay, most of the time. But this book I’ve recently devoured will change all that. I’ve found out I’ve been asking the wrong question when it comes to wanting to succeed with my goal of getting my books before as many eyes as possible. Could it be that you have been asking the wrong question, too?
I’ve been asking How do I do this?
Instead of Who can help me with this?
Dan Sullivan and Benjamin Hardy’s book, Who Not How is not just a good read, although that’s true as well. It is a revolutionary idea. It gets us to look at things differently.
“By asking this new and better question, you’ll start to make immediate progress toward even your biggest goals. You’ll have access to someone else’s time, knowledge, connections, and capability. You’ll stop being limited by yourself.”
That last paragraph is enough to chew on for quite a while. But before you misunderstand, and think you’ll be looking for what you can get from others, that’s not true at all. It’s a mutual arrangement that you’ll make. A win/win for sure. Peppered throughout the book are wonderful quotes from people we’ve all heard about. Like this one from Zig Ziglar.
“You can have everything in life you want, if you
will just help other people get what they want.”
It doesn’t mean we do everything they need, but instead, through our resources we create something even more wonderful than we would have created by ourselves.
Over and over Hardy doesn’t just tell us what we should do,
but explains step by step how to do it.
And even though I learned I was asking the wrong question, I felt free to admit I’ve been doing it wrong and I didn’t feel shamed at all. Perhaps because there was transparency by the author. He admitted it was something he needed to learn himself.
For so long, I have been comparing myself with others and getting frustrated wondering why things weren’t working out for me. It even got to the point that I had trouble being excited for fellow writers, as one by one, doors seemed to be opening for them. When was it my turn? Foolishly, I felt like I could not do anything to change that. After reading this book, I learned my thinking was faulty. This book made the playing field level, and coached me into seeing what I need to do about my life.
Another real plus for this book is that it doesn’t deal with one aspect of our lives alone, but all the pieces that make up the whole. It can help us in regards to our relationships, our finances, our fitness and even more areas.
I love stories. I think most writers do.
This book is full of them.
Stories about collaborations and how the two parties took the best of what they had and combined it to make an even better product. If you’ve ever thought of collaborating with someone you’ll find practical advice in this book.
Can I just tell you that I found this book highly motivational?
The fact that Benjamin Hardy benefited from his findings wasn’t enough for him. He had to take that motivation he felt and share in each and every page written.
I didn’t feel alone in this.
You could imagine if we were to share our goals and visions, he would be in the audience cheering us on.
While this book applies to many areas of our lives it was also a book that dared and encouraged us, to think huge. Almost as if anything we could imagine could be done. The bigger the better!
And then there were even more examples of those who practiced these principles and came out with flying colors.
When I first started writing
I remember I was a returning student.
I loved learning and being in class. It was different than in earlier years when attending was expected. When I’d get an assignment for any type of paper, I had to show self restraint and not get too excited. And getting feedback satisfied something deep inside of me. Being a returning student the gap in age between me and my instructors was small. Their encouragement fueled me making me want to soar.
Two of my instructors hosted poetry parties for me when they read my work. And in one of those parties eight women purchased one of my poems. A poem that later got me into a company back in 1996 that I still write for. When I read in Who Not How that one of the first steps is to articulate what it is you want to do. To write it out and then speak it. I immediately remembered doing just that. And the results they talked about in the book were the ones I experienced.
For me, this book was a wake up call. Somewhere along the line, I started realizing that I was doing something wrong. And it’s true. Because I was doing it all, but not very well. In his book, Hardy states instead of us doing everything and getting exhausted, we should concentrate on the things we love to do and find a person to do those things that we hate. Doesn’t that make you excited?
If that’s not enough…
Hardy states that there are people out there who would love to help in the areas we struggle with.
This was a book I will read again and again. I know my tendency is to try something then revert back to picking up the whole project myself.
“If you always do what you’ve always done, you always get what you’ve always got.”
Albert Einstein
The choice is ours. Will you stay on the treadmill? As for me, I’m getting off.
Get your copy of Who Not How today.
And watch the landscape of your life begin to change.
by Ryan Biddulph | Blogging, Guest Posts |
This is a guest post by Ryan Biddulph. He shares smart blogging tips at Blogging From Paradise.
Bloggers sometimes take it easy if business seems slow.
I take the opposite approach.
I help more people for free through more channels if blogging business seems slow for a short stretch. Why? Helping more people for free through more channels allows me to help more people for pay.
Helping people for free increases your skills, exposure and credibility. Skilled bloggers with great exposure and strong credibility profit handsomely over the long haul.
Guard against the backwards-thinking mistake of pulling back on helping people for free through:
- blogging
- guest posting
- promoting other bloggers on your blog and through social media.
Is Your Blogging Business Slow?
Blogging business seems slow because you have not helped enough people for free for a sustained period of time.
What do I mean by helping people for free? Creating content for free and building connections by freely helping fellow bloggers and asking for nothing in return both form the foundation of building a thriving blogging business. Imagine writing and publishing 1 blog post and 1 guest post daily for the next month. 30 days down the road you will have increased your:
- skills
- exposure
- credibility
by writing and publishing 30 blog posts and 30 guest posts. Writing 60 posts polishes your writing skills. Appearing in 60 more spots boosts your exposure. Being skilled and seen fortifies your credibly. Guess what happens when more people see your blog and trust your skills? Expect to see an increase in blogging business because skilled, credible bloggers with solid exposure profit through their blog.
As a rule, bloggers who struggle to build a thriving business hold back. Struggling bloggers publish one blog post, promote the blog post through a few channels then sit around and wait for business to grow over the following 1-2 months. Gaining sufficient skills, exposure and credibility is quite difficult for most bloggers who publish a post every 1-2 months.
Prospering bloggers generously help people
without holding back.
I have observed a number of highly successful bloggers who created and published blog posts and guest posts for years before hitting it hit. One millionaire blogger has published almost daily for the past 15 years, between himself and his guest bloggers. He admits he’d still be blogging 15 years later even if he had not made a penny because he blogs mainly for fun versus blogging mainly for money.
Another millionaire blogger published 2-3 valuable posts daily while building friendships with people who handled syndication at major business publications. He basically worked for free for quite a long time before his valuable content and business connections helped him become a millionaire through blogging.
Blogging business seems slow
not because of any specific cycle.
Blogging business seems slow because you have not created enough free content and made enough influential blogging buddies to increase your skills, exposure and credibility to thriving professional levels consistent with seeing ever-expanding blogging business success. After being incredibly generous for 1000’s of hours you will reach a tipping point where your blogging income increases consistently. Being seen as a credible blogger in a high number of spots allows you to profit handsomely over the long haul.
But prepare yourself to put in the time over 5-10 years of your life to reach a level of ever increasing blogging returns from a business perspective. Overnight success does not exist. Do not hold back after creating and connecting generously for a few months. Never be stingy. Highly successful, powerful bloggers can afford to be stingy but these folks continue to help people freely because being generous is in their DNA.
Give freely.
Receive easily.
Accelerate your blogging business growth by generously creating and connecting.
