Would you like to make money from your blog through sales, use your online presence as a platform for speaking, or become a thought leader in your field?
If so, you must put something into practice.
Okay, genius, what is this choice ingredient you speak of?
It’s stone, cold simple really. You need to help people.
Ah, but Craig, that sounds so easy and who are you to tell me what to do? You’ve been at this for, oh about eight months.
Truth that. But I’m taking a different approach to all this. I’m using my over 20 years of experience in branding and marketing to help.
The blogging part?
Well, I’m treating IT as a journey WE are taking together. So what say you? You on board?
Great. So back to my question. How will you help people?
I often write about the importance of crafting a business plan, but this post is about one thing and one thing only.
And that is?
Finding what I call your Sweet Spot. How are you going to help the good citizens in our little blogtopia?
What specific problems will you be solving?
This is the most important component of your blogging blueprint, really.
Before I started blogging I wrote out a short, sweet business plan and guess what the most important part of said plan was?
You got it. “How can I help?”
And here’s what I came up with:
I’m just a regular guy who has been an introvert and disengaged for most of my life. I finally changed and want to help you get over your fears, embrace uncertainty and discomfort, and in the process become happier and more creative. To break free from constraints and do things you only dreamed about doing.
I want to show my excitement with blogging and help others embrace this fantastic and truly liberating domain.
I’ll also write about social media, creativity and marketing, to help small business people, fellow bloggers and individuals not only break out of routine, but be more creative. Motivation infused with some old school marketing and branding advice.
Yikes!
What a mouthful, eh? But that was my FIRST draft, so please cut me a break. K?
I want to explain that THIS is a journey and since I wrote my blueprint last September I’ve sliced, diced and refined. Chopped, hacked and whittled said plan down to it’s bare essence.
Why? Because I want to help, but I also aim to get as specific as possible so it makes perfect branding sense and resonates with the crowd I truly want to help.
Most people don’t craft a business plan for blogging and those who do, don’t often refine it. Mine is always a work in progress.
So if you draft an outline for online success you’re a step ahead, but remember this Sweet Spot is the most important part of the plan.
So, let’s refine this together, shall we?
To get to specific needs, you need to drill down to the core. Find and deliver what your potential audience is begging for and not getting.
And here’s what I started thinking during my process.
What unique problem am I solving? And how can I turn that into an opportunity and make this blog a destination people seek out for help and advice?
This process of discovery led me to find that creativity and motivation are a match made in heaven, like bacon and mayo.
Let’s call it Branding With A Push.
I would say a few people in this realm could utilize branding advice with some no-nonsense motivation.
And why not apply the same principals I’ve used for years here, in our little blogging promised land?
My new and improved Sweet Spot is a blend, but it describes precisely what I plan to do with my blog:
I will help people break out of routine (based on my life experiences and how I’ve helped myself)
And help them create a great online presence (Leveraging my over 20 years in branding and marketing)
Oh, and then motivate them to make it work, ’cause everyone needs a good kick in the pants sometimes, even me.
Enough about me. How can you bring it?
After all, this is all about finding a set of problems YOU can answer in your own special way.
Issues that must be clarified, decoded or explained more effectively.
Find a complex problem, figure out how to help and convey your message loud and clear.
Back it up with real-world experience, deliver it effectively and you’ve discovered your sweet spot.
Then simply “bring it” like nobody’s business.
You could just as easily make a scientific wild ass guess, but that will get you nowhere fast. So why not put in the work, find your own special something and deliver it like there’s no tomorrow?
And think about the advantages small businesses have right now.
What are you good at? What can you do better then anyone else? What are your life experiences? How can you inject your personality into the equation to make it oh, so unique?
Now combine that incomparable blend with the problem or issues you’re addressing and you might just be on to something. Don’t try to be everything to everybody.
Find out what people are begging for, then craft it, own it and deliver it like no one else can. That’s your Sweet Spot and you can thank me in the morning.
by Craig McBreen
http://socialmouths.com/blog/
If so, you must put something into practice.
Okay, genius, what is this choice ingredient you speak of?
It’s stone, cold simple really. You need to help people.
Ah, but Craig, that sounds so easy and who are you to tell me what to do? You’ve been at this for, oh about eight months.
Truth that. But I’m taking a different approach to all this. I’m using my over 20 years of experience in branding and marketing to help.
The blogging part?
Well, I’m treating IT as a journey WE are taking together. So what say you? You on board?
Great. So back to my question. How will you help people?
I often write about the importance of crafting a business plan, but this post is about one thing and one thing only.
And that is?
Finding what I call your Sweet Spot. How are you going to help the good citizens in our little blogtopia?
What specific problems will you be solving?
This is the most important component of your blogging blueprint, really.
Before I started blogging I wrote out a short, sweet business plan and guess what the most important part of said plan was?
You got it. “How can I help?”
And here’s what I came up with:
I’m just a regular guy who has been an introvert and disengaged for most of my life. I finally changed and want to help you get over your fears, embrace uncertainty and discomfort, and in the process become happier and more creative. To break free from constraints and do things you only dreamed about doing.
I want to show my excitement with blogging and help others embrace this fantastic and truly liberating domain.
I’ll also write about social media, creativity and marketing, to help small business people, fellow bloggers and individuals not only break out of routine, but be more creative. Motivation infused with some old school marketing and branding advice.
Yikes!
What a mouthful, eh? But that was my FIRST draft, so please cut me a break. K?
I want to explain that THIS is a journey and since I wrote my blueprint last September I’ve sliced, diced and refined. Chopped, hacked and whittled said plan down to it’s bare essence.
Why? Because I want to help, but I also aim to get as specific as possible so it makes perfect branding sense and resonates with the crowd I truly want to help.
Most people don’t craft a business plan for blogging and those who do, don’t often refine it. Mine is always a work in progress.
So if you draft an outline for online success you’re a step ahead, but remember this Sweet Spot is the most important part of the plan.
So, let’s refine this together, shall we?
To get to specific needs, you need to drill down to the core. Find and deliver what your potential audience is begging for and not getting.
And here’s what I started thinking during my process.
What unique problem am I solving? And how can I turn that into an opportunity and make this blog a destination people seek out for help and advice?
This process of discovery led me to find that creativity and motivation are a match made in heaven, like bacon and mayo.
Let’s call it Branding With A Push.
I would say a few people in this realm could utilize branding advice with some no-nonsense motivation.
And why not apply the same principals I’ve used for years here, in our little blogging promised land?
My new and improved Sweet Spot is a blend, but it describes precisely what I plan to do with my blog:
I will help people break out of routine (based on my life experiences and how I’ve helped myself)
And help them create a great online presence (Leveraging my over 20 years in branding and marketing)
Oh, and then motivate them to make it work, ’cause everyone needs a good kick in the pants sometimes, even me.
Enough about me. How can you bring it?
After all, this is all about finding a set of problems YOU can answer in your own special way.
Issues that must be clarified, decoded or explained more effectively.
Find a complex problem, figure out how to help and convey your message loud and clear.
Back it up with real-world experience, deliver it effectively and you’ve discovered your sweet spot.
Then simply “bring it” like nobody’s business.
You could just as easily make a scientific wild ass guess, but that will get you nowhere fast. So why not put in the work, find your own special something and deliver it like there’s no tomorrow?
And think about the advantages small businesses have right now.
What are you good at? What can you do better then anyone else? What are your life experiences? How can you inject your personality into the equation to make it oh, so unique?
Now combine that incomparable blend with the problem or issues you’re addressing and you might just be on to something. Don’t try to be everything to everybody.
Find out what people are begging for, then craft it, own it and deliver it like no one else can. That’s your Sweet Spot and you can thank me in the morning.
by Craig McBreen
http://socialmouths.com/blog/
Δεν υπάρχουν σχόλια:
Δημοσίευση σχολίου