I’ve said it myself more than once. When we started blogging it was looked at as a hobby. This fact, coupled with the newness of the blogosphere from this perspective (the blogging side) allowed us to make a number of mistakes. Years later, I am scratching my head wondering what I was thinking.

Some things I am happy to say I avoided just out of sheer vanity and stubbornness on my part, but a lot of those common mistakes that people talk about making, I made, too.

photo credit: Mab879

Blogspot/Blogger vs. WordPress: The Website Conundrum
Before Blogger and the blog craze you could apply this to Geocities or Freewebs vs. a standard website and/or domain name. If you’re looking to pimp your services or you want people to take you seriously then you need to ask yourself how it looks to have a URL like http://jennifersbiscuits.blogspot.com. Assuming you are selling biscuits (or whatever it is you might be doing with your biscuits) a .com is always going to be the more business savvy choice.

A Blogspot/Geocities free web option always seems to say…”I thought I would try this out before I invest any money.” This also means that on some level you A. Do not believe it’s going to work in the long term and B. Do not think you have the skills to make it work. People tend to think that setting up on a free site is easy because they can use canned templates and do not have to handle things that they are not familiar with (like buying domain names and handling back end website issues), but what they do not realize is that on the off-chance their website/business/blog does pick up, they will want to move to something more specific to them and that offers them more control. This move will be the biggest pain they will ever experience from a business sense.

photo credit: austrini

Free Template vs. Professional
Back when I was writing articles for Real Estate agents I would write quite a bit about curb appeal. For those that are not familiar with the term, it’s when you look at the outside of a home and it appears to look so good that you can’t help but want to see the inside of it. There is such a thing as curb appeal for websites, too. If your website is messy, unorganized, lacks focus, and has irritating graphics or poor colors then people won’t want to look any further than the first page. They won’t read your articles or learn about your business because your site design will scare them off. In general, the average person makes up their mind whether to stay or leave a website within seconds. Obviously, these are not seconds spent reading the entire page. No. They are seconds spent looking at your design. This is why a professional design is so important. If you have basic design skills yourself that’s fine, but if you don’t you should highly consider hiring someone that does.

I think of free templates kind of like subdivisions. I choose not to live in a classic representation of a subdivision because it’s unnerving to me that all of the homes look identical. I prefer individuality. More importantly, people that use free templates run the risk of other people in their niche using that same template. This might not seem like a big deal, but if a person ends up at your site second they have a better chance of leaving just on the basis that they think your site is one they’ve already visited.

photo credit: gettattoo

Never Fear Monetization
There seem to be two kinds of website owners. The kind that have 100 ads all over their site from the jump just proving the intended point of their website and the kind that don’t have any ads because the main goal is to provide information and insight into something the website owner loves. Eventually, this second group tends to get with the program, they do put up some ads and their sites begin to make some money. Of course, it’s money they could have been making from the beginning.

Some things to understand about monetization. 1. If you’re offering a valuable service, whether it’s conversation, entertainment, or free articles, people will put up with the fact that you have ads as long as they are not interfering with their ability to enjoy your content. 2. There are plenty of ways to monetize without having flashing pop-up ads jump out at your visitors faces. 3. Loyal visitors will click your ads or buy products that you recommend because they know that if they help your website succeed then you will be able to continue with the upkeep of your site.

Slow & Steady Wins the Race
Burn out won’t do you any good. When you start a site, it’s so easy to have the mentality that you need to get a massive amount of posts on that site. However, what you offer on a consistent basis is what your readers are going to expect you to offer. If you write 100 articles or you post 100 articles in a day and that lasts for say, two weeks, then your readers are going to expect to see that frequency in the future. However, writing a ton of articles every day is going to burn you out eventually and your posting frequency will dwindle considerably. Instead, decide what you can logically offer for a long time to come and begin with that. If you think you can post twice a day for as long as you need to then go with that. It may not seem like a lot, but it will add up. Furthermore, if that is what your readers know you will offer they won’t complain. It’s better to have two quality articles a day than 30 subpar articles in place of the two.

I am proud to say that the only mistake I made here was not understanding how to properly monetize a site (a topic we will get into later) and posting so much at one point that I wanted a month long vacation sooner than I should have had one.

So, what mistakes did you make that you wish you could have corrected with the wisdom that you have now?

Technorati Tags: Mistakes, Business, Blog, Internet Marketing, Blogspot, Blogger, WordPress, Template Design, Monetization

We had proven success at what we were doing to help real estate agents. Getting them to understand these results did not happen overnight was the hard part. It takes time and patience to build an internet mecca, but we’d done it for more than one real estate agent. Perhaps that is what kept them listening. Regardless, I grew tired of their Me-centric attitudes and in my frustration I wrote an article listing EVERYTHING I felt agents were doing wrong. After writing it, as this was before my blogging days, I submitted the article to a free article site, which let business people use it if they gave me credit and linked to my website. Then, I subsequently forgot about it.

Imagine my surprise when a few months later, I came across my article on a realtor’s site. There, in big, bold letters was my name. A Google search revealed my article had exploded across the web. Four, five, SIX or more pages of my article littered Google. From time to time I do a search for the article. To this day, a few websites are still using it, and with good reason.

Here is the article in it’s original form:

Real Estate Marketing for the “YOU” Generation
By Dominick Evans

Are you working in the real estate industry? Are you a real estate agent, mortgage consultant, builder, real estate broker, appraiser, construction
worker, etc?

The Internet is the wave of the future. You can no longer sell homes without at least some sort of internet presence.

According to Harris Polls…over 70% of people in the world use the Internet.

The Internet is the most trusted source for purchases and this includes houses. Chances are…you already have some sort of Internet presence on the web. You may have gone with a real estate web site design company for your design. You may think your design is ok. Is it really?

That is the first thing prospective clients see when they click on a link to your web site. If they do not like the design then they leave. The web site design company may even make templates that you can use. However, did you know that you aren’t the only one using the same exact template?

I have visited enough real estate sites to realize that these companies are making a lot of money by cloning your site. People that are buying homes are not going to want to see a clone site. In fact, many may not even realize it is a clone site. They click on your link and leave as soon as they see the
design, not even realizing that your site is different.

These sites contain the same articles, same look, same design, etc. They are based on image marketing. Image marketing isn’t going to fly on the Internet.

It just doesn’t work anymore.

You are probably wondering what image marketing is. In the early 1980s, real estate agents realized how successful image marketing was. Back then they used catchy slogans (such as #1 in Sales), told you everything they had that other agents didn’t, and used images (including their faces), to win you over
so you’d choose them as your agent.

Since the 1980s people have become wiser. They no longer care what you have, what your credentials are, or that you are “#1 in Sales”. Did you know nearly every agent in your area claims to be #1 in Sales? How do you know? You can’t track other agents sales since they all work on commission.

So what can you do? Stop using the words “ME ME ME” and start using the word “YOU!”

Let them know exactly what you have to offer them. List what you can do for them. There are numerous ways to do this without compromising your job and your commission.

Offer Them FREE Informative Articles

Did you know that I went to a real estate agent’s site and they wanted me to put in my phone number and email just so I could read their free article? Doesn’t this seem a little odd to you? I don’t even have to mention the kind of spam I received once I did put in my email. I was contacted daily with statistics (that seemed to be made up), information, and a bunch of updates on the agent’s web site progression. I don’t care how many sales he had in August. I just wanted to read his article on Moving when you Have Pets.

This is the number one way to LOSE clients, not gain them. No one wants to be nagged incessantly to buy or sell a home. Buying and selling a home is one of the BIGGEST processes a person will go through. They can lose or gain money in the end, and choosing the wrong agent isn’t something they want to do.

So, don’t let them choose the wrong agent. Offer them buyer, seller, investment, and even FSBO articles. Why FSBOs? If you are so willing to offer information on how a client can sell a home on their own then you really must care about your clients. You won’t be getting anything in return for FSBO articles…or will you?

Did you know that over 90% of home sellers that start out as FSBOs end up going with an agent? They do not get results, don’t understand the processwell enough, or it simply is too much work for them to handle. They may not have the time to put in to selling the home on their own. When choosing an agent they are going to remember the person who was so willing to help them out, by offering advice and information. They are going to remember you!

Give Them In-Depth Information on the Area you Serve

Did you know that one of the biggest complaints home buyers have is not enough information on the cities, towns, and communities in your area? You need to do more than just list a link to the URL for each community page. Have a history, demographics (such as income level, number of residents), school information, and businesses listed about each city and town you serve. You may even want to include pictures, small maps, and anything else you can
think of to make the page really stand out.

You are offering something very few real estate agents even consider offering. The prospective clients will have a much better understanding of the area, and can decide where they want to move, and what they can afford.

Community pages usually list hospitals, businesses, restaurants, sporting facilities, and recreational opportunities for your area. You may even want to list important community events such as festivals, fairs, and holiday celebrations. This will definitely be helpful to current residents and prospective residents.

Your time and effort will pay off in the end. The buyer is going to want to go with the person that offers the most information on the area they are moving. Why not let this person be you?

Offer Free Calculators

If you are a mortgage consultant, why not offer free calculators on your site so your clients can see what kind of loan they may be eligible to receive? The calculators may have different requirements and can give them a basis to go off of before they contact you to assist them through the mortgage process.

Blogs and Forums

You may want to have your own web blog and forums on your site. The search engines place these two things very high if there is content on them that is relevant to your site topic. You can write articles or post other real estate articles on your blog. Forums not only give you a place to post articles, they also give you a visible way to interact with clients (prospective and current) in a public setting. You can answer questions and it is a very humanizing thing. You will become less elusive. Prospective clients will not just see you as a ‘guy/girl on a website’. They will start to see you as a well-informed, caring individual.

Once they realize that you are in fact a human (much like they are!) and not just a concept in their mind they are going to be more willing to trust you with the sale of their home, their mortgage, and/or choose you to build their home.

Team up with a Local Group

People looking to buy a home are more likely to work with a team (or network) than a solitary individual. If you are an agent, you probably work with the same inspector, appraiser, or loan specialist. Why not become a team? You can refer clients to one another and create a network of clients. You also get your name out there because you aren’t the only one working for you…your team is promoting your business, as well.

There are many other things you can do, in order to increase your visibility on the Internet and increase your profits. You just need to remember that the client always comes first. When you do this, you are sure to win over clients every time!

(This article can be replicated so long as a link back to my site is added, and proper credit is given. Thanks in advance.)

The reason why I am sharing this story and article is because what I wrote some years back is not only still true for real estate agents today, it is true for internet marketing and other forms of business. As much as you love your blog or business, if you have a “Me” complex then you are setting yourself up to fail. You need to adopt the “It’s about you” concept with your audience. Without them, your business/blog has no chance of succeeding. You need them as much as they need you and what you have to offer them.

If you are writing articles, why are you doing it? Sure, you want to make money, that’s only natural, but don’t you want to provide a service to those who read the article, as well? People who visit blogs and websites with articles do so to find a benefit for themselves in these articles/blog posts. If they find the value, they will keep coming back. Essentially, if you scratch their back, they will scratch yours. Not everyone is going to like your articles or benefit from them, but those that do are worth their weight in gold. Essentially, you are saying to them, that you care about them. It isn’t “me me me”, it’s “you you you”. You want every reader you have to feel like they are the most important person reading it; that you wrote it just for them.

In this generation where we are obsessed with the latest gadgets and consumers are looking out for themselves, it is the consumers who have the Me-complex. We are all guilty of it. When I go to a site, I want to know what you can do for me. There is no room for businesses to have Me complexes themselves. With competition in nearly every field making its way onto the internet, your number one question for clients needs to be, “What can I do for you?” Without it, your company is bound to get lost in the shuffle.

So, with that, I humbly request, “What can I do for you?”

Technorati Tags: Internet Marketing, Business, Me Complex, Audience, Real Estate, Marketing, You, Generation, Help

photo credit: Jase The Bass

In order to emphasize these life lessons you can learn, I will use some quotes and expand from there.

Adrian: Why do you wanna fight?
Rocky: Because I can’t sing or dance.

Sure, this is more of a comical moment, but there is some seriousness to it. Why do you want to do what you do? Is it because you have no choice or because whether circumstances led you to it or not, you have passion for what you are doing? If you’re doing it because you have to do it then the “eye of the tiger” most likely is not there and you will only get so far in your chosen or pre-determined career.

Rocky: It really don’t matter if I lose this fight. It really don’t matter if this guy opens my head, either. ‘Cause all I wanna do is go the distance… if I can go that distance, you see, and that bell rings and I’m still standin’, I’m gonna know for the first time in my life, see, that I weren’t just another bum from the neighborhood.

If you aren’t willing to go the distance in whatever it is you choose to do then you shouldn’t bother getting in the ring. Whether you have something to prove to yourself or someone else doesn’t particularly matter. What does matter is the hunger you have for what you are doing. Every major business decision and many of the seemingly minor ones need to be considered with this in mind because those that are not willing to risk something never really gain anything.

Rocky Balboa: Come on Paulie, we’re about to serve the special.
Paulie: Italian food made by Mexicans ain’t that special.

I know, I know. What can I say? Paulie is and always has been inadvertently kind of racist, but that’s not the major point. The point is do not represent yourself in one way and prove to be something else, because like Paulie says, you’ll be proving that you “ain’t that special.” You’ve worked your ass off building a site, a brand, and a reputation and that’s great, but you need to be honest about who you are and what you have to offer. Crying out “Social Media Expert” and “Top Blogger in ______ Category” is kind of like being that real estate agent that is “#1 in Sales.” Pre-made titles don’t impress anyone except those that are not smart enough to do their research and even those people will learn the truth to your claims (positive or negative) eventually.

Rocky Balboa: The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It is a very mean and nasty place It will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me or nobody is going to hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard you hit, it is about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward, how much can you take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done!

I don’t even feel like I need to add anything here. Look, think of life in terms of sandbox play. Every now and then a bully is going to come and kick some sand in your eye. Your option is going to be to wipe out the sand and get back to building your castle or sit there and cry, which will only make the sand thing worse. What are you going to do? Life isn’t going to stop needing to be lived just because someone or something is trying to push you down. You have to keep fighting, keep striving for more, and if you fall you need to brush off your ass and hit harder once you’re back up and standing!

Marie: It doesn’t matter how this looks to other people. If this is something you gotta do, then you do it. Fighters fight.

Fighters fight. Winners win. These two groups have something undeniable in common. 1. They are not afraid to take some punches and 2. They are willing to risk what they need to gain what they want/need. At the end of the day, if you know you’re heading toward your ultimate goal and you know you are doing what’s right for you then fuck everyone else. I know, it’s not PC to say that, but no one is running your business but you. If you are doing something you’re proud of and it works then keep doing what you’re doing…for you. In the end, it’s going to be your happiness and pride in your business that keeps it alive or puts it to bed.

Martin: The only kind of respect that matters is self-respect.

This one is only half true. It certainly matters to some extent what people think of you and how much respect they have for you. However, at the end of the day you are going to bed with yourself (and maybe someone else if you’re lucky) and it’s you that you have to live with first. If you can’t look yourself in the mirror and be proud of the person you see, then nothing that anyone else thinks of you is going to matter. You have to love yourself. You need to think you’re great and you deserve success. You need to be passionate about your feelings for yourself and your business. Anything else, just won’t do.

Rocky Balboa: Nothing is real if you don’t believe in who you are!

This kind of goes along with what has been said above. Success only means so much if you don’t feel like you’re worthy of what you have and what you have earned. Furthermore, if you don’t believe you can succeed, how far do you think you will get in your business? You have to be honest about who you are and what you want and own it. There is only one you! Be proud of all that you can offer and make something out of your business (and your life) that will leave a legacy that you’re proud to leave.

Apollo: We always have to be in the middle of the action ’cause we’re the warriors. And without some challenge, without some damn war to fight then the warriors might as well be dead.

Deep down, we all have a little warrior in us. The thrill of the fight is what drives many of us to succeed. There is nothing as satisfying as working those late nights, crunching those numbers, putting those pencils to the grind and then seeing the success that we have created. Sure, the work seems hard and sometimes it seems tedious, but when you look back, you have to admit that it felt good to build what you were building. The challenge of a new day with new experiences is what gets many people out of bed in the morning. The same can be said in business. The ones that do the best challenge themselves. Don’t go soft. If you’ve met your goal then make a new one. Make a harder one and don’t stop until you reach it!

Duke: You’re gonna have to go through hell, worse than any nightmare you’ve ever dreamed. But when it’s over, I know you’ll be the one standing. You know what you have to do. Do it.

Whether you are an Internet Marketer, a Blogger, or in some other business you are going to face some challenges and have to fight some battles. There are going to be moments when you question whether what you’re doing is even worth it. This is especially the case for bloggers. 99% of you won’t make the cost of your blog. That in itself is a daunting thought. It’s up to you to decide if you’re going to be one of the 99% or one of the 1% though. If you make the decision to succeed and you put in the time to do it, at the end, you will be the one standing. Sure, it’s going to take hard work, perseverance and a hell of a lot of patience (mixed with just a touch of good luck), but it can be done.

Rocky: There’s a lot I could say about this man, but I don’t know if it matters now. I guess what matters is what he stood for, what he lived for, and what he died for. You always did everything the way you wanted it. And I didn’t understand that, but now I understand. I’ll never forget you, Apollo. You’re the best.”

When you are living your life think of what Rocky is saying here. When you are forming your business, attempt to do the same. What matters in life is what you stand for. What matters is what you live for. Show people who you are. Don’t be afraid of the vulnerability involved in doing so and don’t be tempted to hold anything back. If you are not comfortable dying the way you are now then you need to change the things that people do not need to remember about you. Live like every second is your last breath and you will die knowing that you stood for something.

Technorati Tags: Rocky Balboa, Lessons Learned, Life Lessons, Movie, Series, Adrian, Business, Internet Marketing, Blogging