Beginner Blogger

Forget about trying to make money online, putting in banner ads, google AdSense and what have you and trying to make a quick buck. It’s the wrong way to go about it. Make relationships and build trust. I want to tell you a story I had recently that involved a fine wine shop and a $100 voucher.

Usually I buy my wine from the large liquor warehouse down the road. It’s close and the cheapest so why go anywhere else? The $100 voucher I had however, could only be used at the ‘Fine Wine’ shop which was a lot further away and prices aren’t always the cheapest. But I had no choice in the matter I had $100 voucher to use there so there I went!

Make Yourself Known – Help Out

So I walked into the the small wine shop, there was wine EVERYWHERE. Very well organised. It wasn’t long until someone came up to me and was happy to help if I had any questions. He wasn’t in my face or anything, just a simple ‘can I help you with anything’. I told him that I didn’t know a great deal about wine and was looking for a summery type of red (it’s summer here in Australia). To cut a long story short, he was just really helpful, taught me a few things about wine I didn’t know about, introduced me to rare wines that were very affordable and even took the price down on the grand total as I had amounted to $102 or something like that, so he took it down to $100 neat which my voucher covered. Just a small act like that and the fact that he was really helpful meant so much to me. He now has me as a return visitor in me.

I compare this to the liquor warehouse chains where there is no customer service like we experienced at the small wine shop. It’s like being in a store filled with robot workers. No-one goes out of their way to help, the people at the counters are in a zombie-like state. There just isn’t any personality or engagement. The only reason you go there is because it’s cheap. But buying ‘cheap’ isn’t exactly a nice feeling either.

The Best Part

The best part about this story is where it originated. The wine voucher was a gift from my work mates. The gift came from the relationship that had been built from my time of working there. They knew I was into wine because I’d told them through the many conversations we’d all had in the past. Usually the birthday person would just get a credit voucher that they could use anywhere with no personality behind it. But the fact that they bought me the wine voucher shows that my relationship with my former colleagues had value.

How Can We Apply This To Our Sites

When you get people coming into your site (or wine store) – make them as welcome as possible. Sure enough they’ve probably come from a reliable source (my work mates recommended the Fine Wine shop) for a specific purpose (to buy wine). Make sure your content (wine) is fantastic. Use your expertise to help new readers (customers) as much as possible (wine selection, teaching about various types of wines). Give them more than they will expect (learned about new wines, slashed prices, customer care). Engage with them afterwards (business card).

Deliver care and engagement to your visitors and the people you have just met online. Give them a reason to trust you. I feel so much better now buying wine from the Fine Wine shop than the local liquor warehouse even though the Fine Wine shop is a bit further away and a bit more expensive.

So don’t be too warped worrying about making money through your blog.  Worry about making relationships online and care for people enough that they’ll go out of their way to come back to you. Give them kindness, helpfulness, genuineness, value and trust and you’re in for a great ride.

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Merry Christmas!

I just wanted to wish you all a very safe and happy Christmas! I hope you’re relaxing, spending time with the family and getting ready for a big 2010. I know I am!

Free Giveaway

It’s not much and I’m sure most of you have Google Wave already but I am going to give away 10 Google Wave invites. I think this will be a big thing in 2010 along with the help of 3rd party applications to go along with it. So if you’d like an invite just leave a comment below and I’ll send the invite to the email you leave in the comment form.

Prize Giveaway

In addition I’m putting up for grabs a 125×125 ad spot on my blog for 2 weeks which can link to your blog.  If you don’t have a banner for your blog I will create one for you! To qualify for entry all you have to do is subscribe to my email list below or already be on my emailing list. I will draw the winner at 12PM Brisbane, Australia time, Monday 28th December (GMT+10).

Sign up to Beginner Blogger Newsletter

So what did you get for Christmas? What was a great gift that you got for someone else? How are you celebrating Christmas?

Whatever it is you’re doing and wherever you are – I hope you’re having a great day

Merry Christmas!

Sarge | BeginnerBlogger.com

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I want you to answer these questions:

• What is it you want to DO with your blog in the next 7 days?
• Do you already have all the resources like ebooks, RSS feeds, reference material online or offline required with the information in them for what you want to DO?

OK, I may be stabbing myself in the foot here and the many hundreds and most likely thousands of bloggers/marketers out there but if you answered YES to my last question then it’s time to shut the door and stop subscribing to blogs, email lists, RSS feeds, ebooks etc that are no longer providing you with VALUE.

If you answered YES to the previous question then you do not need to be aimlessly browsing around the internet and continually reading new RSS feeds if you already have all the information you require at your disposal. Personally I have hundreds of Ebooks that I’m yet to read. As I’m sure many of you have done, you’ve signed up to email lists and continue to get email from them that may no longer add value and which are potentially wasting your time.

Spring Clean

I recommend you stay current with the email lists that you have either formed great relationships with the authors themselves or they are providing great value that isn’t causing a problem with your ‘information overload’. But it’s time to unsubscribe, stop reading pointless emails and take action on the information you have at your disposal.

Will you miss out on valuable information if you do this? Sure maybe, but the reason that unsubscribing and stopping reading all RSS feeds is because you may already have enough information at your disposal.

You may get to a stage where you don’t know what else to do with your blog. You may be stuck in a bit of a rut where you’re not gaining anymore traffic or sales and you seem ’stuck’. THIS is when we should be gathering more information to create new ideas with. Once we have the IDEAS from the INFORMATION we gather from various sources, then it’s time to stop gathering more information and start TAKING ACTION.

Take Action

When I get to a stage where I don’t know what to do with my blog or other online ventures I will go out and read other blogs, sign up to email lists etc to get some inspiration and get more ideas. But right now it’s time to TAKE ACTION on all the information I ALREADY have at my disposal. And you should do the same. Achieve your goals and stop wasting time with all this information overload.

Again – It’s time to take action on all the information you ALREADY have at your disposal.

I’ll leave you with these final questions:

How many hours this week did you put towards working on your blog this week?

Out of that time you put towards working on your blog, how many hours this week did you REALLY spend on tasks for your blog and actually getting stuff done?

Maybe it’s time to do a bit of a spring clean (perfect time of the year, right?) and remove some of that information overload.

How do you deal with the information overload that is the internet?

If you enjoyed this post you may also enjoy:

How To Keep Yourself Under Pressure and Perform With Your Blog?

OMFG Just Stick To Your Goals!!

Why Being PERFECT Is Hurting You And Your Blog

Popularity: 15% [?]

This is a guest blog post by Nicholas Cardot from Site Sketch 101 Having just resigned from full-time work myself I understand that running a successful blog while working full-time can be hard work. Nick shares his experiences…

Blogging can be a difficult task.  In fact, those who tell you that you can compete with the top bloggers in the blogosphere without having to work very hard are sadly mistaken.  It takes hard work.  It takes a lot of writing.  It takes dedication to provide amazing content to your readers in every article.

And truth be told, most people aren’t full-time bloggers.  We don’t all have the luxury of enjoying a full-time income from our blogging efforts.  We have to work and sometimes that means long hours.

I currently serve as an Infantryman in the United States Army.  I work an average of 60 or more hours every week and I maintain an amazing blog (in my opinion) called Site Sketch 101.  It’s not always easy to balance them both, but it’s fun and it can be done.

Let me share with you some of the things that I do to help me write, design, interact and work a job.

1.  Always carry a pen and paper with you.

You never know where you’re going to be when you think of any idea that you can use as the topic of an article and with your time limited you can’t afford to forget it.  If you think of an idea, write it down right away.

2. Schedule time to work on your blog.

I don’t usually sleep in very late on Saturday morning.  I get up, get a glass of milk, and I get to work writing my articles for the coming work.  I use the ideas that I came up with throughout the week and I put them into articles.

3.  Don’t get overwhelmed.

If you feel like you’re too stressed out then take a break.  I blog because it’s a way for me to relax.  I enjoy it.  I love interacting with my readers.  I love helping people grow and develop their skills.  I love writing and expressing myself.  I have fun doing it.  Find a way to make it fun.  Enjoy what you do.  And when necessary, take breaks.

It is possible to operate an amazing blog and work a full-time job.  Don’t think that your limited by your situation.  You’re not.  You can accomplish amazing things.

But don’t stop learning and growing.  Those of us who work full-time have a major disadvantage.  We have less time to learn and develop ourselves as bloggers than those without jobs.  But that is no excuse.  Let’s continually strive to be the best that we can be.

Nick uses his blog Site Sketch 101 to express his passion for helping people learn how to blog with awesome content, brilliant designs and commanding influence.

If you enjoyed this blog post you may also enjoy:

How To Keep Yourself Under Pressure and Perform With Your Blog?

OMFG Just Stick To Your Goals!!

Why Being PERFECT Is Hurting You And Your Blog

Popularity: 7% [?]

I resigned from full-time employment last week. The desire to work on some personal projects (this site is one of them) create a better lifestyle for myself and to continue my studies and practice in blogging, online marketing and social media outweighed being employed full-time any longer.

Blogs are a solo venture most of the time and with all this time and freedom now within my hands it can sometimes be hard to keep myself under pressure and get things done 100% of the time like most jobs where you work under someone barking instructions at you.

So the question begs – How do you keep yourself under pressure and perform with your blog?

In the corporate 9-5 world there was always pressure applied. It wasn’t intense, but it was there. You have to show up on time and you couldn’t just not do any work. If you did poorly or under-performed based on your expectations you would run the risk of being warned or potentially being fired.

This doesn’t happen when you run a blog. You rule, you’re the boss. So how do you keep yourself under pressure and motivated so you get that feeling of ‘this must get done’?

Here are my top ways of keeping myself under pressure and performing:

1. Setting myself goals

Every month I set myself end of month goals. This lays out a clear plan of exactly what needs to get done for the month. No second guessing, it’s there black and white – I just have to DO it!

2. The fear of being a sloth

I can remember when I was studying at university a few years ago – as soon as holidays came around I would pretty much hibernate till uni started again. Maybe it was a lack of interests or I was partying too much but I never really did anything constructive during the breaks.

I can’t afford to do that now – I’ve given myself a year to make something happen since leaving my job and give myself the lifestyle I desire. If I don’t do ANYTHING during this time I will have just wasted a whole year and have a massive gap in my resume with nothing to prove when, and if, I need to go back in search for another corporate 9-5 job ‘working for the man’.

My body is still in 9-5 mode so I’m still getting up at 6.30am automatically, even without my alarm. I’ve decided I’m going to keep getting up early and not sleep in just because I don’t HAVE to be anywhere. That’s not entirely true though – I have many things I want to get done and sleeping in and wasting the day away isn’t going to help. As soon as I get 7-8 hours sleep I get up and start my working day!

3. Proving to others I can do this

Maybe it’s a bad trait of mine, but I like proving others wrong when they doubt me. It’s improving but I don’t think many people, especially the older folk (my parents for example) really understand blogging, its potential and power it currently has and will have in the future. It’s already proven that blogs make the best websites in terms of SEO and rank higher in google than say a company website.

Not only that, blogs are being referred to as ‘new media’ where TV, newspapers etc are being referred to as ‘old media’ and blogs will be the main place where everyone will get their news (linking from social media resources like facebook and twitter).

In my situation it’s also hard to let others know what I’m doing. I usually just say ‘online marketing’ just to simplify things but even that gets funny looks. Maybe I should say ‘I’m becoming a teacher and writer’ might sound more impressive.

It doesn’t bother me what others THINK of me, but I look forward to be able to show others what I have done with my time when they have been thinking I’m doing nothing and have been ‘chilling out’. Which isn’t the case at all

4. Not letting readers down

I’ve got a following now, people actually visit my blog and some wonder what’s going on when I haven’t posted for a while. I don’t want to let these people down by not posting for a long period of time. I want to help others, not let them down so this is a big driving force for me.

5. I need to eat

I’ve left work in search for a better lifestyle and to pursue a career online. If I don’t work at it, and work HARD in order to make a bit of money to get by – I won’t be able eat and I will have to go back in search for another full time job which right now I really don’t want to do. I left work to pursue a lifestyle change and an online career and that’s what I’m going to do. No-one is going to stop me!

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I realise a lot of my motivation factors have to do with my current situation of being unemployed now – however, blogging is still a solo mission where you work for yourself. You need to motivate and sometimes get yourself under pressure in order to perform.

So how do you keep yourself under pressure in the blogging world to make sure you get things done?

Are you currently working ‘for the man’?

How much time do you get to spend on your blog?

Write them in the comments below – I would love to know and I’m sure others would too

If you enjoyed this post you may also enjoy:

OMFG Just Stick To Your Goals!!

Why Being PERFECT Is Hurting You And Your Blog

Batching for Bloggers

Popularity: 22% [?]

Seriously!

It is way too easy to get sidetracked on the internet these days. I’m writing this in the heat of the moment with a bit of passion because I just wasted an hour not achieving my goals. It’s not often I get quite a bit of time to myself so I want to share with you what just happened in as much detail as I can…

Ok so I’ve got a WHOLE Sunday to myself. I had just written out a to do list on a piece of pen and paper, these are my GOALS for today in priority order – heck I’ll even take a picture of it – you’ll notice that none of them are checked off yet and (as I write this) it’s 2:09PM here on a Sunday afternoon.

Ok so what happened: I went into google reader because I know there was a blog post by Darren Rowse that I had starred about backing up your blog (my no1 task on my list). This is something I haven’t done yet for my blog so I think it’s time I started backing my database up otherwise I will probably be a bit upset if I lost it all.

Of course I go into google reader and I find 80+ unread blog posts there just wanting to be read. Instead of going up to search box in my starred items and typing in ‘wordpress backup’ or words to that effect to find the article I’m after, I started going through all my unread items, which led to going to blog posts, which led to clicking off links to other blog posts or websites and so on and so on. I did this for a whole hour!

The internet is called the web for a reason – everything is connected by links in the form of a web (metaphor). You could go to endless websites without even touching your keyboard and just keep clicking on links all day.

Writing this blog post was NOT on my list for today either but it’s on my goals list for the month so I thought I’d kill two birds with one stone. Vent and achieve a goal! But I’m still upset that I’ve wasted this hour. I really want to achieve my goals.

So please do me a favour – stick to your goals!  I feel if I can avoid the distraction, that is – don’t do anything unless they’re contributing to completing my goals – I feel I can get everything on my list done today.

When is the last time you actually got everything on your to-do list done? I honestly can’t remember. Maybe I make my lists too big?

I’m getting my list done today if it kills me. No more distractions! Email, Twitter, Google Reader, Facebook – all turned OFF!

Here are some more motivating posts for you, don’t read them though – finish your to-do list now!

Why Being PERFECT Is Hurting You And Your Blog

How I Got 1000 TARGETED Twitter Followers In 30 Days

Batching for Bloggers

Popularity: 19% [?]

I have been seeing and receiving a lot of messages lately from people saying they really want to blog. Which is fantastic, but why haven’t they started their blog yet I wonder? I believe they are suffering from perfectionism. They are preventing from starting a blog because they want it to be absolutely perfect. Don’t get me wrong, I am guilty of this too and I am starting to realise now that no-one or no blog is ‘perfect’ by definition.

Definition of ‘Perfect’

Dictionary.com definition of Perfect

conforming absolutely to the description or definition of an ideal type.

Everyone has different ‘definitions’ of what a blogger/successful blogger is, so it’s impossible to create a ‘perfect’ blog. YOU should be the only person that really defines what blogging is and what it means to you.

For those people that want to blog but haven’t yet – instead of saying ‘I want my blog to be PERFECT’ say ‘I want my blog to be LIVE TODAY‘. The difference? Being perfect isn’t taking any action that can be evaluated by your readers – which is the most important aspect of your blog. If you didn’t want anyone to read your blog you should be writing in your own personal diary offline or privately online so no-one else can read it.

Make mistakes – it’s a GOOD thing

You won’t learn anything and you won’t grow as a blogger if you try and build a perfect blog from the get-go. The only thing you will learn is that you’ve wasted an opportunity take your blog live weeks/months/years ago and you could have built a really successful blog by now. I say years because I had the idea of beginnerblogger.com over 2 years ago but never took action. I myself was suffering from perfectionism. I can just imagine if I had have started my blog 2 years ago how successful it could have been now.

Blogging is extremely affordable, so affordable that it’s actually free. So what’s stopping you? You will learn more from your mistakes and grow over time if you take action now than waiting around and trying to perfect your idea. If you sit back trying to perfect everything, plan everything out then launch your blog and it doesn’t go to your perfect plan. What happens then? Oh dear, your perfect blog wasn’t perfect after all was it?

The point I’m trying to make is that no blog is ‘perfect’. There are blogs out there that are very successful in what they do, but they’re certainly not ‘perfect’. There will be areas in everyones blog that needs work. That’s all part of the fun process of blogging – finding out what you can do to improve your blog so it is growing the way you and your readers like.

Take Action TODAY

If you take just one thing out of this post it is to Take action on your blog TODAY don’t wait until tomorrow, it will be too late. Planning for a perfect blog will hurt you in the long run. So press that big red button and take action NOW!

If you enjoyed this post you may also enjoy the following:

1. The Easy Way to Set Up a Blog Using WordPress (should have a blog set up for FREE in 10minutes)
2. Blog Progress – Volume 1 (things I did in my first month of blogging)
3. How to Submit Your Site to Google
4. Pilot Post (my first blog post!)

Popularity: 7% [?]