Monthly Archives: September 2016

Are You Effective at Getting PR for Your Blog?

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PR For Your BlogHave you ever thought about getting some PR for your blog? PR stands for public relations, and this is an area most of us were not familiar with before coming online. These days I understand the importance of having my blog seen by as many people as possible, more specifically by my prospects.

You may already be familiar with my Book – Blog – Broadcast model, where we use our blog, books we write and publish, our podcast on iTunes, and our YouTube channel to cross reference who we are and what we have to offer. This is the beginning of providing value before you pitch. The idea is to show rather than tell others about your knowledge and expertise on your topic so they will want to approach you first. It’s similar to a film, where the characters show us who they are from the very first frame, rather than telling us about themselves in dialog.

The majority of the time we will need to go out and seek publicity for our blog rather than sitting back and waiting for it to happen. I was reading a guest post from Andreea Ayers over at Problogger on the topic of “How to Grow Your Audience By Getting PLR for Your Blog” and this is what she says:

After they make their list of, let’s say, 20 media outlets they want to be featured in, they should reach out and provide value, rather than reach out and “pitch” their expertise or blog. Here’s an example of what I did to get media attention when I launched a Pinterest course a few years ago. I created an infographic with 100+ Pinterest board ideas and I reached out to different types of blogs to see if they would be interested in using my infographic as a resource for their blog and to share with their readers. I included the infographic and in my pitch I mentioned that Pinterest is growing in popularity and many of their readers are probably still learning how to use Pinterest, but coming up with Pinterest board ideas is what holds a lot of people back from using it for business.

Instead of telling people she was a Pinterest expert, Andreea showed them how they could use this social site for their own business. This is far more effective, and will build long lasting relationships as well. This spurred interest in her Pinterest training and helped launch her as an expert in this area.

Increasing visibility in order to drive more traffic to your blog can be accomplished in various ways, including hosting a podcast on your topic, being interviewed by others, writing and publishing a book, and getting in front of the people who can best help you to achieve your goals. Andreea adds:

I think that bloggers should be proactive about publicity and cross promotions with other bloggers/companies whose readers are similar to theirs. When I look back at most of my “success stories”, they came as a result of me reaching out to the person who I wanted to connect with, not the other way around. Bloggers should also consider speaking at relevant industry events to build even more credibility for their blog and get in front of audiences in-person. Meeting someone in person or seeing them speak at an event can help to build credibility and a loyal following quickly.

This post is filled with great resources, including a four paragraph template to use when approaching others to get PR for your blog, as well as information on setting up your “About” page and thinking about SEO when adding content to help the media find your site. The bottom line is this: You must be proactive in getting PR for your blog, book, podcast, or anything else you are doing for your business.

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Blog Your Book: A Concept That Works

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Blog Your BookHow and Why to Blog Your Book

There is something you may not know about me. Even though I have now written and published more than a dozen books, co-authored two books, and contributed to many others, writing did not come easily or naturally to me in the beginning. In fact, I actually blogged much of my very first book, Huge Profits with a Tiny List: 50 Ways to use Relationship Marketing to Increase Your Bottom Line. Should you blog your book, too?

My blog to book experience occurred purely by chance. I had created a new giveaway for my Huge Profits Tiny List blog where I included ten ways to make huge profits with a tiny list. I then wrote a detailed blog post for each of these. Then I expanded it to twenty-one ways and wrote the additional posts for them as well. Once I decided to write the book it seemed to make perfect sense to increase it to fifty ways, and then to use these fifty blog posts as the main part of my book. The idea was a good one, my book was published in June of 2010, and I became a bestselling author that summer.

I was just reading a post over at Smart Blogger by author Cathy Presland on this topic of whether or not you should blog your book and why bloggers are in the perfect position to become published authors. Cathy says:

I meet so many people who have been thinking about their books for months, sometimes years. Yet they’re not taking action.

You, on the other hand, are blogging, which means you are writing. And that simple fact gives you three advantages over every other wannabe author.

  1. You have content. Your blog is a library of content you can analyze and reuse. Even if you don’t recycle your posts word for word, you already have a valuable source of ideas. Your content is what defines you as a blogger. Own it.
  2. You have a writing habit. More valuable than your existing content is the writing practice you’re developing. If you have a schedule, a process, and a commitment to your work, writing the book will be much easier.
  3. You have an audience (no matter how small). You have readers, email subscribers, and a social media following. It doesn’t matter whether that’s two people or 2,000. An audience is the key asset that many would-be authors don’t have when they start to write. You, however, have a testing ground — a place to share your work safely, and get feedback.

On top of these advantages, being a blogger also means you have gumption.

Now you may be reading this and thinking that if you are not already blogging on a regular schedule this will not apply to you. To that thinking I say get into the writing habit. I was not a writer until I came online in 2006. When I realized just how important it would be to develop this skill, I got to work every day by writing a two hundred fifty word article to submit to the article directory sites. At this point in my life I can’t not write every day. This skill has changed my life in amazing way. Start blogging, think about the book you’d like to write, and then blog your book over a period of time. You’ll be so glad you did.

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