In 2006 my business partner and I were running an Internet marketing agency called ACS. We were looking for new channels that would not only drive us more clients, but would also create additional revenue streams.
After brainstorming for a while we decided that I should start blogging. Our logic behind starting a blog about Internet marketing was that it would help brand myself as an Internet marketing expert, which would help us bring in more clients.
In addition to that we thought that if we could build a large enough blog about Internet marketing, we could then make additional money by selling ads.
The problems I faced as a newbie blogger
My first blog was called Pronet Advertising, which revolved around Internet marketing. Within the first week of starting the blog, I ran into a few problems:
- I couldn’t write well – I had issues from grammar to spelling (which I still probably have).
- Content – it was easy for me to come up with topics to write on, but it was hard for me to come up with good topics to write on.
- Lack of time – I was running a company and going to college full time, so naturally I wasn’t able to blog frequently or write in depth posts.
After realizing the major roadblocks I was facing, my business partner and I started tackling our problems one by one.
- Lucky for me, my sister is good at correcting grammar and spelling errors, so she decided to correct my blog posts.
- During this time there was a popular blogging community called 9rules that was filled with a ton of great bloggers. So I started reading some of the blogs in the network, which helped me come up with good content ideas.
- Because I didn’t have much time my business partner helped me write a lot of my blog posts during the first few months of my blogging career. Without his help, I would have never came up with catchy headlines and stories like “Got Crunched”.
The traffic-building era
Although I was able to solve a lot of the problems that I faced as a newbie blogger, I ran into a major roadblock.
ACS wasn’t getting more leads through Pronet Advertising.
After digging around and talking with a few other Internet marketing bloggers, I learned that it could take months if not a year before the blog starts producing measurable results.
But, because I was impatient, I naturally started to look for solutions that would reduce the time before I saw measurable results. And the obvious one that stood out at me was to drive more traffic to my blog.
During this time social media sites like Digg, StumbleUpon, and Delicious had millions of eyeballs. So what I started to do is tailor my content so that not only would it provide value to potential customers, but it would also do well on these social sites.
Within a few weeks my content started to reach the homepage of sites like Digg and I was able to drive thousands of visitors to Pronet Advertising. And after I did this a few dozen times the blog started to get noticed and client leads started to increase.
My first big lesson
Pronet Advertising was taking off like a wild fire and the blog started to reach new heights. Within a short period of time thousands of people were reading the blog on a daily basis and Technorati dubbed it as one of the top 100 blogs on the web.
But instead of this helping ACS, it actually started to hurt the agency.
Having a company blog on a separate domain can create brand confusion. What we should have done is added a blog to the ACS site, instead of starting one on a separate domain. This way people wouldn’t see Pronet Advertising and ACS as two separate companies.
And once the blog started to take off I started being classified as an Internet marketing expert. This made it so that people got to know me and my personal brand, but they didn’t get to know my company. And at the end of the day if you create a company that is revolved around an individual’s brand, it will never be worth as much.
Sadly these problems weren’t easily solvable for my business partner and me, which is why we were never able to fully tackle them. We tried things like branding the blog to look like the company website and even mentioned our company throughout the blog. But people were still confused.
My second big lesson
The next big lesson I learned was that more leads doesn’t always mean a good thing for a company. Yes we did want more clients, but we didn’t want to take on companies that could only afford to pay us $100 a month. We were looking for clients that could pay $20,000 a month.
The main reason we were getting bad leads at the time was that my content had shifted to be more tailored for social media users (Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon) instead of potential clients.
To solve this I started to write blog posts that had the full intention of calling out companies so that they would become a client.
For example, a company by the name of Riya (now known as Like.com) was generating a significant amount of buzz throughout the blogosphere. They had raised millions of dollars and people seemed to love them.
What I did was write a blog post about their company. But instead of praising them and talking about how great the company was, I took the approach of pointing out the mistakes they were making.
Now my goal wasn’t to be harmful to Riya or anyone else, but instead my goal was to show Riya and other companies what they shouldn’t be doing.
Within the first few hours of the blog post being published on Pronet Advertising I received a phone call. Munjal Shah, the owner of Riya, wanted to discuss what I had written. Although he wasn’t a fan of how I called out his company, he wanted to hire ACS to fix the things I pointed out.
What I learned from the Riya experience is that you have to really think about what you are writing for. If your goal is to get clients then it is better have one qualified person visit your blog every day then a million random people.
After realizing this I continued to copy what I did with Riya and I blogged about other companies such as Yahoo Answers. Although I got Yahoo’s attention, I wasn’t able to lock them in as a client like I was with Riya.
At the end of the day, it is a numbers game. You won’t be successful all of the time, but as long as you are writing blog posts that are geared around your potential customers, you can be successful.
Leveraging other blogs
Once I realized that calling companies out on a blog was an effective way to gain more clients, I decided to take things one-step further so that I could increase my visibility.
My blog was about Internet marketing so naturally I knew how to get more traffic to blogs. What I decided to do was to reach out to influential bloggers and help them out with their Internet marketing efforts for free.
By doing this I was able to get blogs like TechCrunch to link to my blog on every page of their site to my consulting company (they now link to Quick Sprout). Not only did this help drive more client leads, but it also helped build up ACS’s reputation because we were now working with well-known brands.
In addition to that we always jumped on every PR opportunity that would benefit the company. For example, Jason Calacanis wrote a blog post on how SEO was bullshit, so I challenged him that I could increase his traffic.
And after I increased his traffic, my company started to generate buzz throughout the blogosphere and quite a few web 2.0 companies signed on as clients.
My big realization
Although things were going well with Pronet Advertising, I realized that I wasn’t happy about blogging on Internet marketing. And because I wasn’t happy writing about Internet marketing the content quality started to drastically decrease.
For a while I took a blogging hiatus and did a bit of soul searching. I realized that I enjoyed helping entrepreneurs, so I decided to start a new blog called Quick Sprout.
Quick Sprout never really had the volume of content Pronet Advertising had, but the content quality was much higher. The reason being was that I enjoyed helping entrepreneurs.
Building a community
If you fast-forward a few years later, Quick Sprout is roughly the same size as Pronet Advertising was during its peak, even though I never really leveraged social media sites.
Plus, if you compare the community stats (number of comments), Quick Sprout is 12 times more popular than Pronet Advertising. And for me, this is the most important stat to track because it shows that you care about what I am writing.
What I have learned about blogging through Quick Sprout is that you should write high quality content and the most important thing you need to do if you own a blog is interact with your readers.
Every time someone emails you, you need to respond back. And every time someone comments, you need to reply back.
By caring about your readers you won’t necessarily build the most popular blog on the web, but you will build a loyal following.
And with a loyal following brings many more potential doors for you to open. For example, if I want to monetize Quick Sprout through a means other than ads, I could launch a Quick Sprout entrepreneur-training course.
On the other hand, I could have never done that on Pronet Advertising because I didn’t have a loyal following.
Conclusion
If you are going to blog, do it because you have something you want to share. Don’t just blog for the money, but do it because you have a passion for it.
If you are a passionate blogger you are more likely to create a successful blog, which will lead to many monetization avenues. If you worry about monetizing your blog from day 1, you probably won’t make much money.
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Hey Neil,
Does ACS still only take big time SEO clients $20k+?
I’m a small business and need SEO but don’t have that kind of cash… Please advise?
I don’t take on any SEO clients all together, but if you email me at neil@neilpatel.com I don’t mind giving you some free advice.
We can setup some time to chat.
Neil, thanks for the great post! I think your conclusion is 100% correct and can be applied to any type of business. Entrepreneurs (and bloggers) should focus on things that they are passionate about. Passion is what drives someone to create a quality product/service (or blog) and hopefully the money will follow.
Matthew’s right. I guess it all comes down to doing what you love; blogging about something you’re passionate about creates better content, especially if you dedicate yourself to making it work. There’s more giving of yourself here and although you don’t expect it, it comes back to you tenfold.
I liked the part about how you took on Riya…a creative way of writing geared for your potential customers.
Love the cartoon Neil and thanks for another peek into what drives and makes you.
Great to hear David. Doing what you love becomes much more funner than doing something you don’t Riya was one of the many companies I did that too, but it was a fantastic example. Don’t shoot yourself in the foot trying to mimic my ideas…just test out what works.
People end up focusing on money and then forget about their passion which ironically ends up being their demise.
If you really want to be successful and satisfied in what you are doing you have to do something that you really enjoy. You will not be able to carry on something that you don’t like because at one point you will abandon.
That is very true and you’ll actually be able to see that soon enough after someone is faking it because it lasts only so long. Instead of complicating it for yourself because you think it has profit ability, focus on what you enjoy because you’re the one that will have to look in the mirror every morning.
Passion is also the thing that will keep you going when you are tired and or discouraged. A love for something will keep you going far longer then the pursuit of cash.
Money will come and go…. trust me. As long as you love what you do and it makes you happy is really the only thing you should find of importance.
Hey Neil,
Great post – it’s very insightful to know where you’re coming from and your evolution as a blogger.
What exactly happened to ACS? I read in a Shoemoney post a while back that you sold the business because an SEO agencies are no longer a viable business model. True?
It is a complicated story. I still own the ACS domain, but I don’t own the client list and corporation anymore.
Nothing bad happened… I just didn’t want to do SEO anymore.
Awesome post.
The only problem I seem to be facing is building up a loyal following from the organic traffic that my blog is getting. Most just come, get the info that they were looking for and leave, without even a short thank you note. LOL.
OR, could be that what they read have not been helpful to them at all? That’s my nagging question. In all fairness, from the search queries I see in my stats, I do have what they were searching for. I’m stumped.
Well that’s pretty much the whole point with blogs and websites now… you provide them with free info. You can also sell paid comment… and a small few will bite. That’s how the chain works.
Blogs are usually used to provide info and to promote something. Try to implement some advises from Neil and you will see that people will come again to your blog.
Yes, if you just incorporate some of the basic stuff I teach, you’ll be able to retain more readers which will lead to higher conversions.
Hey there Neil,
I just go through this blog post and all I can say that it is SUPERB. Thanks so much for sharing your beautiful experience in blogging. I do blogging for my Positive Mental Attitude To You and I realize that blogging doesn’t give you money if you don’t treat it like a real business.
And most important thing, most of successful blog is about adding value to people. Not becoming a “salesman that always forcing their customer to buy their product”.
I do believe if we make people rich then we will be richer than they are.
The reality is that you should focus on being able to make an impact on someone and nothing more than that. Anything more is like a bonus.
I’ve always thought that the only people reading Internet market blogs are other Internet marketing people. I target old guys that run service businesses like gutter companies, etc.
The best place to find them is playing golf…
That’s a great idea Ben, offline marketing. You can easily do that by going to conferences or in your example, heading over to the golf course.
hey Neil,
great post. One question though, on the part where you said there are problems doing branding correlation between the Pronet Advertising blog and ACS, did you get it solved ?
I am in the cross road now as I had just started working on consolidating multiple products under a company brand and am not sure if I want to blog to be product centric, company centric or people centric.
Would love to hear your thought out.
thanks
The cross branding didn’t help much. We probably could have even made it clearer, but it wasn’t working out because Pronet Advertising was generating more buzz than ACS.
This caused journalists and bloggers to mention Pronet Advertising more than ACS.
Hey Neil,
Really enjoying this latest series of posts. Keep these up–it’s really interesting to hear your experiences and iterations on ideas.
Thanks Henry! Hope things are going well for you at your new job.
I second that praise. You always come up with original posts. Your blog presents it’s readers with alternative reading material. Keep up the good work.
Your story is truly inspirational, I agree with you, when you say bloggers should blog about subjects they are truly passionate about, because sooner or later your audience will find out the truth, and for all the hard work you have put in you absolutely deserve the best!
People who are blogging out of concepts to ONLY make money will display their true intent sooner than later. Don’t screw it up for yourself and star off with something that works for you.
Yeah, All right. Because you are blogging for money is very hard, it may cause you can not enjoy what you blog, what you share with your reader, only for money in your mind.
When you put money in the mix, everything seems to change… you get what I mean?
Loved it. I am a newbie to the blogging world. But this post gave me quite a clue that from where I should start? But do you think that one’s success can be another success too?
Yes, it definitely can. What I did wasn’t something that’s brand new… in fact, people do it and become successful just like that every single day. It’s a numbers game.
Wow! This was a completely new perspective on things and i’m very grateful i got to read it! I mean i never thought that more leads isnt always a good thing for a company. but it makes sense.
As i just got on board a very cool start-up company but am pretty new to the online marketing world, this article was gold! let’s see how i put it to good use. :>
Thanks a bunch!
The quality of the leads make a huge difference, especially when you’re dealing with a service that’s not really for just the average consumer.
Now that is totally inspiring. Reading through this has indeed made me realise that blogging for money rather than blogging about something that you really love may not bring you so much success. What i love more with your posts is that the last phrase usually stays in the mind. For all the hard work you have put in since the beginning, it makes sense that you have so many people following you.
Yes exactly… and that hard work will show even if you don’t have the results you want quite just yet. Sometimes it pays to be patient, other times it doesn’t. You just need to learn how the system is played.
Yes am gradually learning how the system is played. I am being patient at the time being and will hope that it bears its fruits. BTW thanks for the reply. This is the attitude i appreciate with you. You take the time to reply everyone individually. This shows how everyone has been important towards your success.
Thanks! I think that it’s important for me to take the time to respond to anyone that has taken the time to comment.
This should be in “Blogging for Dummies”! Great Job! How did you create this blog? I really like the designs of all your sites. Who created it?
I have a team that takes care of my design, but the them is THESIS… you should go and check it out.
Yeah, It is the Thesis themes. If you want to do it, may cost money to bought it online.
It’s about $80, but well worth it.
Interesting! So you don’t work for ACS anymore? I just visited your site acsseo.com and it was still up. You mentioned about getting $20,000 /month contracts. What kind of services did you provide for $20,000 a month. I was just wondering how SEO work can add up to $20,000 a month? Great post.
There are many different variable and analytics… other than just the whole SEO part. I still own the domain, but no longer have the clients.
i just start my blog, and it just a month this month, three problem that you give absolutely my problem too.. My grammar i could say ’suck’ and i find it is difficult to have good topic to write all the time, and time since I’m student and currently is my last semester exam everything is so fast.. I can’t afford to spend less time on anything.. but i think for now i doing pretty good to handle all the problem..
this is really good post, thank Neil.
You know what you should do… start reading blogs from other people in your niche. Doing stuff like that should definitely put you into gear.
Neil, This is a fascinating read. You might as well think about “Pursuit of Happyness” part 2
I stumbled upon this blog and have been reading most of the posts. Nice stuff.
That’s fantastic Sridar! Yeah, it can be like “Pursuit of Happyness 2.0″
Great post Neil. The big lesson – the thumb rule of doing what you enjoy applies to blogging too – and will help you choose the subject, the audience or both. I also agree completely about qualified visitors/inquiries – 1 good inquiry is far better than a 1000 low paying inquiries.
Weren’t you a bit concerned about pointing out another company’s mistakes in a public forum? And if one does write such a pointed article, what are the things one needs to be careful of?
Ajoy
Exactly, especially when that 1 good quality lead can be turned into a 20k/month client
I wasn’t concerned, but I was careful with what I posted.
Amazing advice!
So many people seem to be blogging about topics completely unrelated to the services they sell. Now if I can only follow your advice and get away from my hobby blog.
Yea that are and you can easily tell… take a look at the how to make money online gang… 99% are clueless about what they’re talking about.
Great post Neil. Loved getting the back story. For me, the key takeaway is that more leads isn’t necessarily the right goal. I appreciate your perspective. Thanks for writing this.
More leads doesn’t equal success… in fact it can lead to more work because now you’ll have to dig through the dirt to find the gold.
Neil,
This is an excellent post. Some nice pitfalls highlighted and as I go into year 2 of blogging/TV, it is going to be extremely helpful personally and I shared it with my community as well.
-David
I’m glad to hear that David. 2 years of blogging is a very long time. Try skipping out on the TV and focus on personal growth.
Neil,
Thank you for this info. It comes at a great time for me. I’ve been racking my head to start on the right footing with blogging and my business. You mentioned that having two different sites, a business site, and a blog, was confusing to your audience. Why did you start Quick Sprout if you knew it might confuse your clients? Do you no longer have the ACS company?
I am thinking about doing the same thing, but I’ve held off due to the same logic. Any advice? Thank you!
Hitting the RSS button right now
Oh Quick Sprout was just a blog and never a business. My business partner and my goal was to move away from ACS because consulting is never a scalable business.
Quick Sprout is just my personal blog.
Great article Neil! You’re the one who inspired me to blog so I’d like to just say thank you!!
I’m glad to hear you’re doing well AJ. Keep up the hard work!
Neil, Loved the post. Yes it did take me a while to realise that consulting to small biz, (my niche) was not scalable. So I went out and discovered a niche, within the financial services sector, and now I am working hard on scaling and brand building, with a single minded determination
That perfect Don, it’s good to see you’re on the right track.
Its funny, just by chance, I started blogging with an intent other than earning income directly from blogging. I was actually promoting a couple products and a business opportunity, it was a direct sales business that required a continuous stream of new entrepreneurs, much like network marketing. I lost interest but the few results I had gotten with my blog and the insuing interaction with readers was cool. I’m still a long way of, but I stuck with blogging and earn a significant, and consistent income. I totally agree with you when you say, don’t blog if your main motivator is to make money, in fact I’ve shared what I do with others, all they see is the money, so they get started and two weeks later…. they are done.
Thanks for sharing so candidly about your experience blogging!
Oh a quick challenge, as for consulting not being scalable. What if it were? What would that mean?
Thanks!!! Joe @ home business ideas
Unfortunately Joe, most people are in fact like this. That’s why the turn over ratio in the online world is so ridiculously high.
Amazing History! i discovered your blog two days ago in the link that Daniel Scocco posted in the DailyBlogTips… and i love to read you tips, because it’s so practical… Thank you for Sharing!
Thanks bud… my purpose is for me to make it so practical, you can implement it right now.
Is there any reason why you don’t redirect the links and content from pronet to quick sprout? The other site appears dead…
They are two separate blogs that have entirely different content. It wouldn’t make sense for those people to be redirected.
Does it mean that we shouldn’t use 2 different domains for one brand? I mean one for blogging and other for services.
You should choose the type of format where you’re brand name still in the mix. That way you can help embed it into people’s minds.
“To solve this I started to write blog posts that had the full intention of calling out companies so that they would become a client.”
This is something I have been thinking about for over 3 months now. To maybe get a few new clients or maybe get a link from their blog. Good to know it works, now I’ll put it into my action plan for sure
Well stop thinking about it and just go ahead and do it. Don’t expect to just get a few clients out of this… this should be what you do everyday if you want your business to thrive.
Engagement/Loyalty is the factor that my blog suffers from too. Because of the kind of content, people visit my site from search engines looking for a specific info and once done, they leave.
I recently partnered with a blog-community provider called Stribe to see if people would want to network, but the kind of audience to my site does not want to.
It is isn’t a bad thing though. It is similar to books/magazines. You might have subscribed to Readers Digest all along, but would go looking for a book on Java only when you feel the need to..You can monetize off both of them.
You can, but it just comes down to your ability to provide your readers what they want. If you’re giving them a bunch of stuff, obviously your conversion rate will be extremely low. The better the quality and the target audience, the higher the conversion rate.
I’ve been reading your blog for a few months now. Great stuff – keep it coming
btw, why no Disqus comments on your blog ?
Thanks Silver… I’ve considered doing the Disqus, but I’m happy with the setup I have right now. Why fix something if it isn’t broken, you know?
Nice post, wow, my last comment was like one year ago here. Glad i can found your blog again on my feed reader
Wow… Well, I’m glad to have you back Firman. Hopefully you stick around for good now.
Nice Post.
Every newbie will make mistakes when they first start. As long as you learn from your mistakes, there’s no harm in making mistakes.
Also blog or do write about things your passionate about, if not then you will lose interest and hate writing about that topic. Eventually the blog will die out.
I am agree. Everytime to learn from your blogging mistake to change the mind think blogging. Just treated it as a interest and passion what you are like, what you want to do in the future. Make a final decision before you are start it in the right way.
Not only should you treat it as an interest, but you should do whatever you’re passionate about.
Making mistakes are inevitable… just focus on failing forward as fast as you can.
We almost have the same path when I get started with blogging, get paid blogging to be more specific. It draws some kind of personal and financial satisfaction that cannot be easily acquired anywhere else.
It is a great feeling of self accomplishment, I agree.
IMO, blogging is a blend between passion and economics. Do your research to make sure that your passion at least has some commercial value.
If you plan to blog just for the fun of it, sure, just blog anything you want. But if you want to get some dough out of it, be smart about the focus of your blogs.
People think it’s a walk in the park to create a successful blog, but it’s almost a full time job. That’s why it’s so important to write about something you care about.
Neil, read through yor article and stopped at the line “If you are going to blog, do it because you have something you want to share.”
Great line and a great reason for blogging.
I also enjoy it because it has introduced me to Wordpress and all the skills associated with Wordpress. And once you get into Wordpress… there is no turning back.
lol, yes, it’s definitely a great blogging platform for you to use. Also, that should be the only reason you’re blogging… anything else is counter productive.
Neil I agree with you, I don’t think blogging is for everybody, especially people who’s aim is just to make money off it. Blogging is for people who like to blog (like to share). I think you should blog because you love, sooner or later the money will follow.
You should do things for the fun of it… especially when you deal with blogs. Talk about what you love and focus on providing the world with powerful and compelling content.
You know Neil, this is what I like about you. You set an example for all these bloggers. Even though now your blog is now famous, but you still blogging because you love it. You answer comments just like any blog owner who is still trying to make money off his blogs. But you don’t answer the comments for money (because you never really have) You answer the comments because you are a real blogger. For example many blog owners now (who made it big) answer every 10th comment. (they act all busy, and important)
True… If you take the time to leave my comments, I feel that it’s important for me to reply to them.
You have done a great work neil. Hope i can become like you
Thanks bud, I hope you reach the level of success you desire too.
It is always the toughest part to start something. Not only in blogging but in every part of life that we have no experience about yet. So the most important in my opinion is to not give up. Of course there will be some problems and some things will go wrong. But that is the beauty of life that gives us often unexpected things.
Not giving up is exactly what will separate you from the hundreds of thousands of other people that try competing against you. There will definitely be road blocks around the way, but that’s just part of the process.
Write a personal blog is no wonder. This will require any CMS, template, and a few minutes setting. Another thing to create a successful blog with a great community, which will be continuously published an interesting post, and Number of comments will be in the hundreds. How can this be achieved? Written manual in 30 steps based on the translation of articles from well-known blogger Neil Pattelya (http://www.quicksprout.com/),
To start a basic (wordpress) type of blog, you really don’t need to know much about anything. However, if you expect it to go somewhere, it’ll be a good idea for you to learn those systems as it will only save you money in the future.
This was an excellent read. You made several good points, but I was most impressed how you were to gain more traffic by helping other people.
Well it’s kind of like the law of reciprocity… you give a little, you get a little. The best way to become successful is by helping enough other people become successful.
Its all about helping people and giving them something to keep coming back for. I have followed you for quite a while and you have a good heart and a mind for business.
Thanks bud… helping enough people can eventually give a person anything they desire.
And the nice thing about bloging is that you realize that you are helping those who want help (have sought you out), and not trying to convert people to other ways of thinking. Not that there isn’t controversy but trying to help someone who doesn’t want help is where most people get hurt.
Right, you’re not necessarily changing their mind to forcefully think a certain way or anything.
That is so true. Why go after the $100 accounts when you can go after the big daddy accounts. I am trying to go into business with my friend for custimizing php templates. When I talk to him I was like well we can make some money from script installs for $15 a pop. And was like ok I can do about 20 a month and that can form a base to invest into other things..
This is related to your second big lesson. I have a lot to learn but I will get there.
He kept thinking big and wanted to customize big PHP templates where we can make some good commission.
That’s fantastic and I’m sure those little payout add up and they add up fast. Don’t forget to go after repeat and referral business.
Well, you have definately succeeded in writing quality posts. I just stumbled on your blog last night and have read like 15 of your posts so far. I think you bring something to the table that few other blogs do. You speak candidly about your experiences and you offer up specific details which I like. Most other writers regurgitate (spelling?) general business principles. You speak directly from experience. I actually started a Facebook Fan page today for my business because of one of your earlier posts on the importance of doing this. Cheers!
That’s great Jeff! The most important thing for you to do as a new reader is make a commitment to take action on everything you read.
Neil, that was really nice to read your experience here. I also face the trouble to write contents sometimes, it takes me lots of time.
It takes me 5-6 hours sometimes to write 1 of my blog articles. Blogging isn’t easy, but if you do a great job, then you’ll see better and amazing results.
Hey Neil,
The only reason I haven’t started blogging is because I don’t have much to say about this stuff like you do.
You’re experience and knowledge sort of transcend it, and I’m a HORRIBLE writer, which isn’t saying much as I rarely write.
Sincerely,
Jay Jalodomisa
Maybe you should blog about being such a horrible writer and then websites and blogs that you’re studying to become better. Jay, start off with removing that limiting belief of yours… I’m sure your writing is great… just find a topic and stick with it.
Passion is also the thing that will keep you going when you are tired and or discouraged.
Thanks.
Motivation… passion… just doing what you love is what you’ll need to find. Otherwise you’ll just be one miserable person.
This should be in “Blogging for Dummies”! Great Job! How did you create this blog? I really like the designs of all your sites. Who created it
It’s a custom modification of the Thesis Them. This post is like a blogging for dummies if you think about it… well a concise version.
Hi Neil,
I came across your name a few times on Mixergy and finally I stumbled upon your blog. I love your style of writing; especially because it sounds conversational and I can relate to it.
The reason for this comment is simple. I am constantly trying to put my ideas to action. I’ve always been thinking business, so I jump into trying concepts to see how it works. I just tried an idea this weekend and broke even, learning a bunch of things along the way.
My question is this: I want to write about what I am experiencing in my effort to become an entrepreneur. Should I be blogging about it or just writing to myself? I would love to share my experiences but I don’t know if it would be of help to anyone out there..
I think writing about your experience as a up and coming entrepreneur is a great idea. Whether it helps someone or not, at least you’ll be able to take your thoughts and put them in front of you visually. Plus you may also get some feedback from people that may help you… or even build connections with people that may help you out in the future.
“I couldn’t write well” yeah that’s my problem to build blog, i do not how to write very well, in my opinion for build a blog is “just Do it” because nothing to lose for blogging, we can get many experience in blogging, just my 2 cent
Well it’s not just a simple… you need practice and lot’s of it. You’ll make a lot of mistakes when you write, but it’ll help you move forward.
I’ve always thought that the only people reading Internet market blogs are other Internet marketing people. I target old guys that run service businesses like gutter companies, etc.
The best place to find them is playing golf…
That’s fantastic!!! Don’t limit it to just that criteria… I’m sure there are several other sources for you to choose from.
I’ve been reading your blog for a few months now. Great stuff – keep it coming
btw, why no Disqus comments on your blog ?
Thank’s bud, glad you’re enjoying it. I’m a create of habit and love the comment setup I currently have.
This should be in “Blogging for Dummies”! Great Job! How did you create this blog? I really like the designs of all your sites. Who created it?
I have a team of designers that usually work with my various sites. This particular article is like blogging for dummies… the simple version
Neil.. how do you tailor your content for social media like Digg?? Some advice or a post on this would be great.
Go to digg.com and check out the articles that come on the front page… usually “list” formats do well or breaking news. Also, in order to get on the front page, you would probably need to find a powerful user to submit your info.
Of course you have to have your own domain. And important with blog is the content, make sure that the readers benefit from you write up. Passion in writing is also a plus.
Not only is it a plus…it’s the WHOLE THING. If there’s no passion in what you’re writing, consider your content garbage today, tomorrow, or in a few days (eventually). Blog about what you like…not what others like necessarily.
I had a very big mistake when I started to blog 2 years ago. I worried If I could make money from there so that I just followed the other to write some hot trend news and just got nothing. Yet after I changed my mind to write about my hobby, I can drive my revenue rapidly from several ads programs.
For me, just blog what you really like, it will return awesome then. CMIIW.
Yeah….new bloggers get caught it with trying to re-create mainstream media and then eventually figure out that it’s damn near impossible. Be the master of your own domain, not everyone elses.
Blogs are so vital to all companies these days. Without a blog a business can lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in potential revenue over its lifetime which is a crazy amount.
The bad thing is though is that so many businesses are still neglecting the web (although I guess that leaves more potential clients to develop for)
If you’re a company without a blog, you’re making a huge mistake. Having a blog for your company or website will allow you to widen your customer database. Businesses that neglect using the web are really just shooting themselves in the foot by taking so long.
So as part of your blog building process, you were more interested in building traffic via social bookmarking than by optimizing keywords for organic search traffic?
The internet is continuing to evolve. Blogging has developed into a major part of marketing, either for internet business or brick and mortar. I am curious as to whether you feel if the impact of blogging has changed over the past two years. Is it still a relevant as it used to be, or is it getting to be more relevant?
Thanks for your insight.
It will continue to grow… as technology evolves you’ll find it more and more common to see something like a blog almost everywhere. It’s the way we connect …. and now do business.
That’s interesting that you started blogging to generate clients, but didn’t see results until you challenged someone that didn’t believe in SEO. That is pretty awesome and I think I’m going to use that piece of advice for my start up MyFitSolution.com. Thanks Neil.
I blog because I truly enjoy it and I want to grow as a writer. When I was in 10th grade, my English teacher told me that I should go to college for journalism. She said this because of the content that I wrote in my daily journal that she made us write.
I never went to college for journalism but, what she told me has always stuck in my head and gave me the belief that I am a good writer. I am thankful to her for that!
Good for you…. it’s really that and just practice that will help you grow.
You’re the one who inspired me to blog so I’d like to just say thank you Neill!!