BlogAsReligion » Blog Religion 101

The 3 Step Process for Inspiring an Evangelist

Baz — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 16:00:26 +0000

She ran up to me on the crowded Manhattan street corner, took my hand and pressed it to her heart and said…

I’d follow you to the ends of the earth.

Then I woke up.

Yes, Catherine Zeta-Jones was only a passing dream, but it got me thinking…

What does it take to get someone to follow you online?

Then it hit me.

As suddenly as Catherine Zeta-Jones vanished from my REM cycle, I knew the formula for getting people to follow you online and rapidly become an enthusiastic evangelist for your cause!

And it’s as old as the Internet itself…and referred to by some as Attversumption.

Step 1: Attraction

That’s right. You’ve got to be attractive.

No, not Catherine Zeta-Jones attractive, but content attractive. Your content has to draw readers into your blog. And by content, I mean everything from blog design and blog theme to creative headlines and the scanable nature of your posts.

Attraction involves the visual component of your blog but also your personality. How you present yourself online goes a long way toward pulling people into your message.

Yes, message is also important.

You’ve got to have a compelling message that hooks your readers. And that’s the element in…

Step 2: Conversion

Your message can’t be something that everybody and their sister is talking about. It’s got to be unique in some way. Beyond uniqueness, a reader’s conversion to your message, your way of thinking about things, has to have what I call a Get-Me Factor.

What’s a Get-Me Factor? It’s that heart-felt realization we experience when we make a solid connection with a concept, a person, or an emotion. The Get-Me Factor isn’t something you can predict. Everyone’s different and everyone has different Get-Me Factors that work for them.

But once they experience the Get-Me Factor, their hooked! And then they take the third step….

Step 3: Consumption

Consumption is the third step your reader must take to become your enthusiastic follower. Consumption occurs when there is an exchange between you and your reader.

Don’t you mean a monetary exchange? No. The exchange doesn’t have to be a sale. The exchange can be a reader’s decision to follow you on Twitter, subscribe to your email newsletter, or your RSS feed.

If you sell your own products or consulting services, then the exchange may occur there as well. But really, consumption involves the reader/customer taking action.

Summing Up

It doesn’t take a miracle to inspire people to follow you. If you’ve got a positive message and an engaging way of sharing it, that’s half the battle. Putting it into the proper structure is the other half.

Sure, it takes time, dedication, and some sweat. But that’s life. Taking the time to work on attraction, conversion, and consumption are the first steps any blogger should take to inspire more evangelists.

What do you think?

Why not post a comment below and tell me if you think I’m on track or off.

Mark and Andy -
This email is not meant to be antagonistic. I do have some strong feelings to convey and, as you can each understand, the fluid nature of our positions within the company these days -and the lack of clarity around them coming from management- is a melting pot for such feelings. I’d not be able to say this in person, so this email is a way of getting it out and on the table. I hope we can talk about it tomorrow or sometime soon without a flurry of email exchanges.

I heard from Mary that Corinne to being looked at to become the Manager of the proposal team. I want to go on record as opposing this idea.

If we want to improve the proposal team, we need someone of Karen Reynolds’ professional stature. I know her salary demand was more than Granite could ever justify, however Corinne isn’t the answer. To that point, I’m no longer sure of the question. I don’t see what Corrine can bring to Watsonville other than a complete lack of experience with the Groups that Mary and I have spent two years cultivating relationships with; the Groups who already know how we work and with whom we’ve established a high degree of trust.

This move may not be your idea at all. If that’s the case, just listen to what I have to say and maybe it can help educate someone else down the road.

Here’s how I see things…pardon the baseball metaphor, but I think it works.

We want the proposal team to be better managed and motivated so as to perform at a higher level on a consistent basis. To do this, you’ll need to play hardball. That means doing one of two things. 1) Empower your ‘existing proposal managers’ to manage the proposal process or, 2) Hire a Big League Manager.

If you’re considering the latter, don’t bring in a Coach from the farm team if you want your existing players to remain productive.

A Big League Manager inspires their players in several ways.

1. They have experience. They’ve played the game; they’ve won the big ones and lost them too. They know the game from every level having been there. They understand the nature of each position on the field and make decisions accordingly.

2. They manage through coaching and encouragement and through team building, not from their higher box on the Org Chart or from their higher pay grade. (Interestingly enough, in baseball, the players often make way more than the managers.) Like in baseball, a proposal team wins because they’re a team, not because of who the manager is. Unless the manager is capable of pooling resources and talent, the Team won’t win.

3. They have their Team’s back. A solid team knows that their Manager will support them to management in a heartbeat. The Manager won’t downplay the Team’s ability or make excuses. They jump and help. They find training resources; they do what they can to improve each player’s ability to perform.They also work just as hard as the players.

Here are your existing players:

Mary – a seasoned proposal manager who understands how to run the show. She builds consensus and works well with outside firms and inside employees. Even though her title is Proposal Writer (a complete misnomer) she’s a Proposal Manager. She’s very skilled in marketing, design and layout of materials, and has good instincts when it comes to seeing what an owner is really saying through the convoluted language of the RFP. She’s been a team Manager before and I’d work for Mary in a heartbeat. In many ways, I already do…by taking her advice and learning from her example. She’s not someone Granite should risk losing. I fear that is closer than you may realize.

Barry – a writer with experience in running profitable business units before his life with Granite. You’ve probably never even seen my resume, but I ran several independent educational business units with great success. The last had a team of 50 people reporting to me. I turned around the business unit that was profitable by $400K in one fiscal year to being profitable by $1.2 million in the 12 months after I took over. How? By managing like a Big League Manager (see above). Where Mary is the visionary with insight, I’m the organizational overseer. I managed to take the vacuum left after Doug died and turn it into a functioning proposal group. I’ve been here since the beginning of this effort.

I’m sure I don’t have to remind anyone that I’ve worked with some awful managers here at Granite and suffered when the company looked the other way. I’ve won more work for this company than Doug Salem did. At this point, I do not want to see what is working now sacrificed for the sake of someone new who already has the title ‘Manager’ already in place, i.e., Corinne. Also, remember that the last Proposal Manager the Central region hired didn’t work out too well.

My point is this: You’ve got a very talented Team already in place to assist Groups 2 and 3. Neither Mary (I don’t believe) or I (for certain) are willing to move to another location. If that proves to be our undoing based on how the org chart fleshes out, there is nothing we can do and my points are moot. But we both have proven management experience and are already embedded with Groups 2 and 3. Bringing in someone to manage and grow the team you already have, if that’s the goal, will take someone of higher caliber than who you might be considering. Simply filling an open position on an org chart isn’t going to make things better nor improve our win rate. Someone, somewhere should be thinking about this.

Finally, any good manager knows the group development cycle: Groups go through four generally accepted cycles before they coalesce into a high performance team. Forming, Storming, Norming, and finally Performing. The LPG was just getting through Norming and poised to begin their final phase of high performance when the reorg was announced essentially destroying the team and halting the process of development. I’d hate to see the same thing happen to the Proposal Team. It may already have and my insight might be limited due to to not knowing what’s being decided behind closed doors. If that’s the case, disregard the above.

Open to talk at your convenience,
Barry

The Da Vinci Code’s Safe Haven Clause Applied To Consulting

Baz — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 15:35:10 +0000

A few years ago I heard a story about a blogger who yearned for greater notoriety and thousands of RSS readers.

He toiled day and night and after about a year or so, his RSS readers numbered in the thousands. He was sought after by big name blogs for interviews and his days were spent making the rounds to all the big events in the blogosphere.

The paradox is, of course, how his time was consumed by his notoriety.

The Paradox of Consulting

This example is similar to what happens when you front-load your business with consulting. While consulting is usually a necessary component of most small businesses, it can quickly consume all your time.

Consulting is a time eater. It’s also represents a self-imposed income limit because if you’re not consulting, you’re not earning.

Consulting limits your income because there are only so many hours per week you can work and bill that time to clients. Let’s say your consulting rate is $75 per hour. If you’re lucky enough to bill 10 hours per day for 5 days each week.

A quick sum reveals a maximum income of $3,750. At first glance, that’s nothing to sneeze at. But a closer look reveals the truth.

The Consultant’s Snare

Not many people can bill for 50 hours per week. Depending on your industry, consultants average about 20 billable hours per week. There is easily 10 hours per week lost to general office work, marketing, preparation, etc. Include out of town travel or daily commuting and your time pool shrinks further.

Billing 20 hours per week knocks your income (pre-tax) to $1,500. Still, a good income in many circles…you need to ask yourself this question.

Is this the maximum I wish to make for the rest of my life?

The Safe Haven Clause

In Dan Brown’s novel-turned-film, The Da Vinci Code, protagonist Prof. Robert Langdon is being pursued by unknown enemies and find himself in danger of capture in the vault of a Swiss Bank in Paris.

The Banker tells him that his is one of the oldest accounts on file and includes a safe haven clause…in effect…a clause in the fine print guaranteeing him a safe escape should the very situation presenting itself ever arise.

Langdon and his French police cohort escape from the bank in thesafe haven of an armored transport car.

Consulting’s Safe Haven

The solution to the consultant’s problem of being time-poor and idea-rich is diversification of her business structure. Here at BlogAsReligion, we refer to this as the Holy Trinity.

Besides consulting, which is necessary and useful because it keeps us sharp and hones the skill required for operating a blog-religion in our field, training and leverage are the forms of diversification to consider.

Recall that the Holy Trinity of Blog-Religions includes consulting, training and leverage.

By supplementing your consulting with training (really just group consulting), you leverage your time and a dramatic rise in income results.

Let’s say you hold a training session and charge each person $75 to attend. 10 people enroll in your training session and pay in advance. For the same amount of time you will spend conducting your training session, you’ve managed to multiply your consulting income ten-fold.

You’ve earned $1,500 for a 2-hour workshop as opposed to the $150 you would have earned consulting at your $75 per hour rate with a single client.

While training sessions take time to prepare, once the initial organization is complete the workshop is self-contained for repeat sessions for as long as you are able to attract clients to fill the seats.

With the availablity of free conference calling vendors, having your clients attend a training session via phone from their home or office is easier than ever.

What About You?

Is your consulting consuming your schedule? How have you dealt with this paradox?

If you enjoyed this post, please post of comment and let us know how you’ve dealt with the limitation of consulting or how you feel about the ‘safe haven’ that training affords.

I look forward to your comments.

The 5 Not-So-Secret Ingredients for Thriving Blog-Religions

Baz — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 06:00:53 +0000

Religions thrive on structure.

I’m not talking about rituals, though they can be important markers for a blog-religion.

I’m talking about the underlying infrastructure that all religions possess; the rock foundation upon which the faithful depend.

Yes, religions grok structure.

Successful blogs do, too.

Think about it..the structural elements (I know…I said ‘secret ingredients’ in the headline…so, we’ll go with that) that most religions rely on for their success are also found inside successful blogs.

The 5 Not-So-Secret Ingredients for a Thriving Blog-Religion:

An engaging leader
A core philosophy that attracts attention
Loyal followers
A meeting place
A sense of community

Take away any of these ingredients and you no longer have a religion. You simply have a..well..you don’t have much at all…maybe a recipe for failure?

After all, what good is a meeting place without a community? What good are loyal followers if there isn’t an engaging leader to organize things? No, the not-so-secret-ingredients are definitely required for both religions and blogs.

“Form ever follows function“

Louis Sullivan, America’s first modern architect and mentor of Frank Lloyd Wright, is credited with this quote:

“It is the pervading law of all things organic, and inorganic, of all things physical and metaphysical, of all things human and all things super-human, of all true manifestations of the head, of the heart, of the soul, that the life is recognizable in its expression, that form ever follows function. This is the law.”

Form does indeed follow function. If form follows function, the form a building takes on should fulfill it’s intended function.

A hospital should be designed with patient care in mind, not the doctors.
A gym should be designed with it’s users in mind, not designed around the fitness equipment.
A church should be designed with the parishioners in mind.
A blog should be designed with the readers/client/customer in mind, not the blogger.

Let’s take that a step further

Blogs should be designed (design includes the framework, mechanics, structure) so that readers/clients/customers gain the ultimate benefit.

In order to bring that ultimate benefit to your readers, you’ve got to build something more than just a blog. You need to build an online presence that creates community, that engages followers, that provides the structure necessary to convert to your core philosophy.

Here are 3 steps you can take now to get started building your blog-religion.

1. Define your core beliefs. What does your blog stand for? What problem does it help your readers solve? What’s the one-thing, the core idea around which your blog coalesces? Explore it. Know it. Write about it.

2. Craft your conversion story. Tell the story that includes why and how readers should adopt your core philosophy. What has your core philosophy done for you? What will it do me me? Tell them what will happen if they don’t convert!

3. Evangelize the world. Go forth and spread the gospel according to you! Do this in guest posts, in blog posts, in speaking engagements, in your email newsletter. Leave a trail back to your blog wherever you go.

Bonus Step

4. Join a community of like-minded bloggers where you can find support and advice. You might even consider The Upper Room Community Forum!

The Charismatic Leader: Expert or Friend?

Baz — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 18:00:37 +0000

Let’s play some word association, shall we?

I say “Expert.” You say: ___________?

I say “Friend.” You say: ___________?

Here’s how I completed this exercise.

Expert: Authority

Friend: Trust

What’s the point?

I was reading Mark Silver’s Heart of Business Blog this morning. (Check it out here.) In this post on the expert v. friend role of the the blogger/business owner, he says the following:

“When someone is hurting, it’s easy to go into “expert” mode to try to fix them, because *you* are uncomfortable with their struggle. It’s never fun to watch a client struggle to get a business going when their home is at risk of foreclosure, or to struggle with illness when their life is on the line.

When you find [the] acceptance in your heart for their situation, then you won’t be using your expert status to create distance from their pain. And they will trust you more.”

Does it have to be ‘either or?’

When free associating earlier, my responses, at first, seemed separate - disjointed; as if the expert and the friend are two separate entities. But a true leader can be both expert and friend as Mark suggests.

I think Mark’s point is well intentioned. It’s also accurate when we think of the charismatic leader of a blog-religion.

Leaders need to be able to inspire followers, but there must be some substance, some inspirational quality within the leader in order for followers to, well…follow.

Leaders aren’t just self-appointed (are you listening, Mr. Limbaugh?), they’re developed over time. The development often takes years and usually occurs well before anyone decides, “Hey, I think I’ll follow you!”

Leaders of blog-religions should be, in order to be truly effective, both expert and friend.

Mark’s post talks about how to blend the two roles in your responses to readers and in writing your articles and blog posts.

“Expert mode” is just that – a mode. It tends to create distance between you and your followers. Being an expert is something entirely different. It’s the state where you always have the welfare of your follower in mind.

Perhaps it’s why gurus, experts, mentors and leaders of all kinds get a bad rap every once in a while. Perhaps they post first, and think later. Better to switch that around, don’t ya think?

Have a different opinion? Think I’m all wet? Please share your comment below!

Blog Religion Case Study – Entrepreneurs-Journey.com

Baz — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 14:00:36 +0000

Yaro Starak is one of the most influential bloggers out on the scene today. For a few years now, he’s been dominating the blog how-to market with his Entrepreneur’s-Journey.com site.

Yaro’s posts and thorough and loaded with gems of advice and recommendations for up and coming bloggers. He built his business on perseverance, testing and soaking up as much knowledge as he could along the way.

Blog-Religion Markers for Entrepreneurs-Journey.com

Authority of Leadership: There’s little doubt Yaro is King of EJ – his personality is evident and visible on every page of the blog. He uses an assortment of technologies to make it easy for you to get to know him: audio, steaming video, content and pictures. There are some sub-factors that make Yaro the charismatic leader of his blog-religion. In fact, Yaro and Daren Rowse of ProBlogger.net have these in common:

Teaching - Yaro’s manner and voice in both audio and video content posts are reassuring to the listener no matter what level of blogger they are. His posts offer clear guidance on how new and advance bloggers can accomplish their blogging goals.
Focused - Yaro’s post cover a variety of topics; from Internet marketing product reviews to overviews of technologies he uses to make money online.
Balanced – Yaro’s a blogger that I can identify with -and did- immediately. He believes in a balanced approach to his blog-religion like I talk about in this post.

Community: The main metrics for the Community characteristic for a blog-religion are related to numbers of readers and comments. EJs feed is read by over 53,000 readers That’s a lot of regular followers. It’s a ‘mega-church’ type community similar to ProBlogger.net! The comments often number in the mid to high double digits. Yaro differs from many blogs in that he doesn’t overtly push social media outlets like Twitter, though he’s active there as well.

The Holy Book: Yaro’s bible is titled, Blog Profits Blueprint and it’s free to download -a unique approach to such a hefty value. (I’ve read it and recommend it to you.) This is no freebie download typical of most incentive-based eBooks. No way, this is a solid 60+ pages of material he should probably be charging for. Here’s a peek at what’s inside.

Guiding Principles – The book offers guiding principles that direct the aspiring blogger. It clearly defines the playing field for professional blogging, offers clear warnings on recognizing common pitfalls and how to realistically assess your blogging progress.
How To’s – He clearly lays out a number of actionable instructions that every blogger should follow if they want to create a following of like-minded followers.
Resource Rich – it’s packed with names of resources and clearly defined steps to follow in order to gain the maximum benefit from each one.

Education & Training: Yaro’s nailed this element of a blog-religion in his Blog Mastermind coaching course. This is a 6-month eCourse with PDFs, audio and video downloads and some of the best blog marketing advice available. The content is unsurpassed and since it’s Yaro at the helm, students learn and apply and benefit. (I know because I’m a member of BlogMastermind!)

Levels of Membership – Yaro’s built a strong conversion process into his blog-religion that promotes the next level of training. His Blog Mastermind has built in levels of membership and does his Become A Blogger video training course with Gideon Shalwick.

What’s missing from the Entrepreneurs-Journey Religion?

Not a lot! Really only one minor issue keeps EJ from being a full-blown religion.

Definition of Niche-Specific Terminology:

As I said above, this is a minor issue and most likely due to the rather large target audience EJ focuses on. One function of a blog-religion’s holy book is that it defines niche-specific terminology. Blog Profits Blueprint is a very valuable overview of the entire blogging for money process. However it fails to define a niche-specific terminology. This isn’t a flaw in the book by any means, it just doesn’t meet the sub-factor standard for defining niche-specific terminology.

Summary

Entrepreneurs-Journey.com is a solid business blog that adheres very closely to the blog-religion model. It’s got something for every level of follower and the information contained within its ‘church’ delivers solid value to its attendees. As one of the students in Yaro’s Blog Mastermind, I’m a full-blown evangelist as you can see from the sidebar ads for his programs as well as the one below.

What About You?

Care to agree or disagree with my assessment? Are there factors I’ve overlooked in reference to Entrepreneurs-Journey.com? I’d love to hear from you. All comments are welcome.

Your Blog’s Bible – 3 Reasons for Having One

Baz — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 20:29:51 +0000

For Christians, it’s the Bible.

For Jews, it’s their Torah. For Muslims, the Koran; Taoists, the Tao Te Ching. It’s their source of comfort, their tangible talisman linking them to the greater good.

It their ultimate resource

All popular religions have one. It serves as the ultimate resource for their followers. A place to turn for answers or at least the promise of answers.

Many popular blog-religions have a Bible. ProBlogger.net has “ProBlogger: Secret To Blogging Your Way To a Six Figure Income”; ZenHabits has “The Power of Less”; Psychotactics has “The Brain Audit;” Entrepreneur’s Journey has “Blog Profits Blueprint” (and it’s totally free)!

3 Reasons Why Your Blog Religion Needs a Bible

There are several reasons why your blog-religion needs a Bible. Let’s explore a few, shall we?

1. Bibles establish rules and principles

All religions have rules. Some are good (do not steal, do not lie, etc.), some are just pain silly (you must eat fish on Friday or not eat a pulled-pork sandwich or a BLT at any time – when both are so doggone yummy). However, rules play an important part in your blog-religion. Rules govern your followers’ rules of engagement with you, with each other and in life outside the blog. The principles your bible establishes are guidelines. They light the path for your followers to walk.

2. Bibles clarify terminology

Most definitive texts, even sacred ones, speak a distinctive language. They define or clarify a terminology all their own. In Mark Silver’s Unveiling the Heart of Your Business, he establishes several terms that are his own: the First, Second and Third Journeys in marketing for example. Nowhere else will you find this terminology. Mark’s book not only establishes terminology, but he uses it to take the reader to a new level of understanding about the marketing process.

3. Bibles put your religion on the map

Who ever followed a ‘religion’ that didn’t have some sort of definitive text? Without one, a religion is nothing. Followers and believers need something to hang on to, read, print.

And this brings up another point; your bible doesn’t have to be 300 pages to qualify as a definitive text. The Brain Audit started out as only 16 pages of text. Think you could write 16 pages of text?

Where do you begin with writing your Bible?

We’ll save that for the next post.

Podcast Player:

The Holy Trinity of Blog Religions

Baz — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 14:00:43 +0000

OK, while Carrie Ann Moss might be my idea of a futuristic goddess, she’s not part of the Holy Trinity I’m talking about.

What I’m talking about forms the crucial foundations for truly successful blog-religions.

In this post, we’ll examine the three elements every blog-religion must incorporate into it’s structure in order to attract followers, convert them into believers and ultimately produce an army of evangelists.

The Holy Trinity form a strategy. But the strategy, when put into practice, is expressed in three different forms of business that can skyrocket your income and your satisfaction with your blogging business.

These include…

Consulting – time spent working with clients in a one-on-one fashion.
Training – time spent working with groups of clients in a training session.
Leverage - selling products you’ve created or those created by others (usually through an affiliate program).

Let’s look at these individually.

Consulting - Anytime you call a friend, you’re consulting. Meeting a friend for coffee later in the week? That, too, is consulting. Many businesses are constructed on this foundational element alone.

When I’m seen by my dentist, dermatologist or chiropractor, I’m spending time with an expert who’s consulting with me. I’m paying him or her a fee in exchange for their time and experiential knowledge.

That’s the definition of consulting; when you’re paying someone a fee in exchange for their time. Hopefully, you gain your money’s worth.

Bloggers consult also – although it’s more commonly referred to as ‘coaching’ in today’s vernacular.

Examples of blog consultants are Chris Garrett and Michael Martine among others. Both coach clients on how to create and sustain a blog, increase your traffic, increase your social media awareness, etc. While I’m a subscriber to both blogs and I’ve communicated with both of these fine gentlemen -and have a more friendly relationship with Chris via his Authority Blogging Forum- I haven’t been a paid client of their consulting model.

What if your blog is not focused on blogging? What then? Consulting comes down to trading your time and talent for money, plain and simple.

Your consulting model is going to be different. If you’re in the coaching business, coaching per hour, per day, per month is your one-one-one consulting.

If you’re in some other field, your consulting model is simply going to be trading your specific expertise for money with those who want it.

The Consulting Problem – There is a downside to consulting. If you fill all your billable hours with consulting, you’ll likely not have time to expand your business or take a holiday or vacation without your income stream ceasing.

The exception to this is a monthly retainer paid by clients for your time as agreed upon in advance. If you operate in this consulting model, you’re more likely to be able to take time off.

But there is another issue with the all-consulting model: Limited income

If you fill your week with billable client hours, the only way you’ll raise your income level is to raise your fees. This might result in client attrition. For most consultant, raising their fees is a delicate dance.

You can solve this problem by adopting the second element on the Holy Trinity of Blog Religions…

Training – I once attended a Welcome New Patients Open House held by a chiropractor. The open house consisted of him making a presentation to new patients about his practice, his approach to chiropractic health maintenance and the role the patient plays in the process.

The chief benefit of doing this? He was able to give the presentation once and have multiple attendees gain the benefit of his expertise.

Training allows you to give your presentation, slide show, tele-class, etc., to multiple parties at the same time. Think of training as group consulting. Each member of the group is paying you a fee and you’re giving out the information one time only.

Think of training as one-on-many consulting. You are still providing your expertise in exchange for money, but if 10 people attend your training session you’ve multiplied your income ten-fold.

The Problem with Training – It takes time to construct a good training model. But it can be done very easily.

Training doesn’t have to require a room or physical attendance at a seminar (although, you can charge a lot more if you do). It can be as simple as a group call on a free conference service that you record.

The positive benefits of holding training sessions in that you multiply your income without filling your week with consulting hours. That doesn’t mean you can still consult, but it does mean you might want to decrease your consulting hours to make room for training.

Training also further establishes your leadership role in your blog-religion. It reinforces your perception as an expert in your field. It also generously floods you with material to leverage into products.

Consulting and training make a good mix, but there is a third element that will really help sustain your blog-religion.

Leverage – The third element of the Holy Trinity is leveraging your training sessions, books, eBooks, seminar videos, or products authored by others that you promote through an affiliate relationship.

I use leverage on this site: I sell two books I created and recommend the products others have created (see the sidebar) through an affiliate relationship.

Leverage offers you freedom from the time-for-cash income trap because your blog can sell these products for you 24-7.

Total automation of selling your product online – making your offer, collecting money and getting paid, and delivering the product to your customer – all are possible without much work from you.

Successful Blog Religions are Built on the Holy Trinity – David Allen of Getting Things Done, Stephen Covey of The Seven Habits, Sean D’Souza of Psychotactics, Mark Silver of Heart of Business: All use the three elements of the Holy Trinity of Blog Religions. Even traditional businesses like Harley-Davidson and Elvis Presley Enterprises use the Holy Trinity.

Where to Get Started

Consulting - Begin to look at why your readers seek out your blog or business. What it is exactly that you’re giving them. Could you perform this as a one-on-one service? Many readers would love to hire a expert to do what they lack the confidence or time themselves.

Training – Evaluate your consulting model for ways you could present this information to a small group and earn your consulting fee time 10! There may be other areas of your business that you’ve wanted to bring to your clients but lacked the time. Training represents a great way to introduce a new service.

Leverage – Recording one of your audio training calls is the easiest way to produce your first product. Hold the training session, record the call and offer it as a product on your blog. Of course there are many more steps involved, but can you see how doable this is?

Getting the Holy Trinity of Blog Religions working for you take a bit of time, but the benefits are incredible:

More free time in your schedule.
The potential for diversity in income streams.
More money.
Freedom from the time-for-cash income trap.

What About You?

How do you see the Holy Trinity fitting into your business? Do you already diversify your income streams in ways that fit this model? Please leave your comments below and share with us your success or your questions.

Why Blog-Religions Shatter the Traffic Myth

Baz — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 04:35:34 +0000

A common myth about blogging is that you need massive amounts of traffic and RSS readers to realize any significant return on investment.

More visitors, more money, right?

If you have a thousand hits per day to your blog, you’re bound to benefit. That’s the conventional wisdom and it’s true in most cases.

But what happens to your blog income when traffic dies? Ah, that’s the unfortunate side of traditional blogging.

Crowds. Who need’s em?

Name a popular religion, say Islam or Hinduism and the image of huge crowds making a pilgrimage to a holy shrine comes to mind. Perhaps you think of the massive throngs that jostle against one another like swelling ocean tides in St. Peter’s Square when the Pope celebrates Mass?

Maybe the image of the huge crowds that descend on the Hajj, the largest annual pilgrimage in the world (pictured here) comes to mind.

Believers make up the crowd

Believers -devotees of the religion’s central message make up the throng. They willingly travel great distances to pay homage to a deity or other object worthy of their devotion. They endure hardships, life-risking peril and time away from loved ones in order to fulfill their mission.

Wouldn’t it be great if your blog inspired such devotion and dedication? Imagine it; crowds of people making the virtual pilgrimage to your blog and joining your religion. It is possible?

Not if you run a store

If you’re relying solely on Google Adsense or other forms of direct advertising monetization to create blog income, you’re most likely caught in the traffic trap; an endless quest for more people to visit your site in hoping a good number of them will click on one of your ads.

If you sell products, your own or affiliate products, you’re still dependent on traffic for sales.

When monetization is linked to numbers of visitors, your blog is more like a store. And one only needs to look around the world right now to see how stores are suffering in time of economic downturn.

Stores don’t inspire legions of followers. Stores don’t hold a customer’s dedication and devotion. Only religions do that.

Religions offer escape from the traffic trap

Blog religions differ from their blog-store counterparts in numerous ways, but the most important way they differ has to do with numbers of visitors. Sure, it’s nice to see thousand of RSS subscribers in your FeedBurner chiclet, but it’s not the most accurate metric for a blog-religion’s success.

Blog religions, by definition, have a different structure. Inherent in the structure are multiple monetization modes in which the blog can realize income. The metrics for a blog religion are also multiple.

Blog religions build loyal followings by diversifying their offerings to take advantage of both high and low traffic states.

Here are some examples to consider:

One-on-one coaching (consulting)- low traffic requirement
Tele-classes (training) – moderate traffic requirement
leverage product sales – low to moderate traffic requirement
Advertising option – high traffic requirement

These examples illustrate how even low traffic blogs can generate income.

Blog traffic doesn’t have to define your income

Don’t get me wrong, traffic is a GOOD THING! But your blog model and the success it brings you shouldn’t be dependent solely on the amount of traffic it receives.

By structuring your blog business like a religion, you can enjoy and good income even when traffic is minimal. We’ll look at how to do this in the next post.

What about you?

Does the success of your blog depend only on traffic? What ways do you use to diversify your blog income that doesn’t depend on high traffic volumes? Care to share?

What’s Your Blog-Religion’s Leadership Style?

Baz — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 00:54:41 +0000

Much has been made recently here in the US about the change in personal style that’s occurred with the inauguration of President Barack Obama.

Whereas George W. Bush operated in a more formal mode -insisting on a coat and tie in the oval office and even locking Secretary of State Colin Powell out of the Cabinet Room when Powell showed up 3 minutes late to a meeting- President Obama operates in a less formal manner.

Obama often is seen in a shirt and tie, allows for late arrivals at meetings, and doesn’t have to have a script in front of him when facing the cameras.

Aloha Zen Some have called Obama’s style more of an ‘Aloha Zen.’ I liked that term as soon as I read it. And it brought to mind some thoughts about blogging. (How’s that for a segue?) Is your blog written in a more formal style making it more like Dubya? Or is it less formal and more Obama-like?

Is there a definitive style that’s best? In a word, no. It depends on a few factors:

Your target audience - If you’re writing a finance blog for MBAs at Ivy League firms on the East Coast, a formal style is probably best for your audience. If your blog is about iPods or the latest Macs and your readers are Silicon Valley Mac purists, I’m guessing a formal style probably won’t work that well. Shed the tie and roll up your sleeves and get jiggy wit’ it!
Your own personality - Just as each President adopted the style that best suited his personality, so too, should you adopt the blog style that best suits your personality. I tend to be less formal as a rule because that’s my personality. I abhor wearing a tie (hated every minute I had to wear one as a college Dean and President). I much prefer ‘Baz’ than Barry and humor over a lack thereof.

Is your blog written in a certain style?

Does it support the overall theme of your religion? Are you more formal or somewhat less? If you’d like to leave a comment about what works best for your blog, I’d love to hear from you.

How the ‘Religion’ Model Works for a Blog

Baz — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 14:00:11 +0000

In the last post, I wrote about -not only the the central message of this blog- how you should think of your blog like a religion.

Click here to read the original post.

Today I want to show you some of the basic architecture for taking that idea a bit further.

Below is a simple diagram of what most will recognize as a church, temple, meeting hall, any term works.

Let’s look at who makes up your blog-religion.

Back Row Readers On the back row of your church, sit the unconverted -those who have yet to hear your blog’s central message.

They are casual readers of your blog – the kind of one-time visitors we all get from time to time. But they remain unconverted and haven’t invested themselves in the blog.

New Converts The first conversion occurs when they subscribe to your blog feed via RSS or email or they subscribe to your newsletter.

At this point, they are believers in your opt-in offer if not your central message. They may be lukewarm, but they have a pulse and they voluntarily became a part of your blog-church. (Hallelujah)

Faithful Followers The second conversion happens when they decide to purchase a product or service via your recommendation.It’s much more than just a purchase or a commission from an affiliate link. It means they trust you. That is huge!

At this point, your new converts have taken an important step forward in their new-found faith – they become faithful followers – those that look forward to each new post and eagerly await a new service or product.

Zealous Evangelists Finally, a third conversion takes place when they invest their total thinking (around your niche) in your blog religion. They believe in your blog’s central message so much that they begin to mention it outside the ‘church.’

Maybe they refer others to your blog or write a post about your blog on theirs. Whatever they’re doing, these Zealous Evangelists are doing it voluntarily and (at least at first) without any other motivation save their trust and belief in your central message.

You, the Guru?

As we stated in the original post, every successful blog is like a religion in that there is a charismatic figure spearheading the effort of the organization.

Steve Job fulfills that role for Apple, Inc. Until recently, Bill Gates was the ‘soul’ of Microsoft; Warren Buffet – Berkshire Hathaway; Barack Obama – the free world; Rush Limbaugh (you know, the comedian) - the conservative political right in the US; Richard Branson – Virgin Atlantic, etc.

Because it’s your blog and your message, you’re the de facto Guru of your blog-religion. My mentor Yaro Starak is the life-force and personality behind Entrepreneurs-Journey.com and Blog Mastermind. Developing your blog’s personality is essential in leading your followers. That too, is another lengthy future post.

Final Thoughts

Give some thought to how your blog’s central message is like the guiding philosophy behind a religion. Unless your blog has dedicated followers (who believe in who and what they’re following) it will go the way of the Druids on Salisbury Plain.

Give some thought to adapting your blog to the religion model and if you have questions or comments, I’d love to hear them.