Making it Big: Selling Books, Growing Blogs or Saving the World

"I don't want to do small things," she told me.

My daughter was curled up by my side. I held her close.

"You'll do big things," I told her. "I have no doubts about that."

She continued to talk very passionately. She has big visions. She wants to make a difference in the world, in a big way. Not everyone has such aspirations, I explained. She has an entrepreneurial spirit. It's a certain kind of gift.

"But there's a saying," I continued. "It's called paying your dues. There are some exceptions, but most people have to go through the process of doing smaller things in smaller venues before they get the privilege to lead the way in bigger things."

Reading Heath & Heath today, I was reminded of this conversation with my daughter. The authors discuss the issue of Credibility and give an example of a company that wanted a big client in a new market.

How did they get the client? By first having another big client in a market where they'd already earned credibility. How did they get that first big client? I have no idea. But I'm willing to bet they paid their dues.

It's a bit of a dance, this reaching for the next thing. Reach too far too fast and no one is going to pay attention to you. Don't reach at all and... no one is going to pay attention to you.

But one thing is sure, whether you are trying to sell your book, or grow your blog, or save the world, you've got to start by taking small steps in the desired direction. That's what I'm telling my daughter anyway. If she saves the world somehow someday, you'll remember she started small, with the sharing of her dream.

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Over at HighCallingBlogs we're reading and discussing Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die. Want to join us? :)

Staircase photo, by L.L. Barkat.

There's a Branch in My Tea Cup (Or, How to Get Someone to Read Your Blog Posts)

Did you know you can eat trees?

I'm not talking about a gourmet dish of stir-fried hemlock. More like pieces of trees. You probably knew that if you are, say, a cinnamon lover. I did too.

Except I didn't know I could eat pieces of trees that sit in my own back yard...

forsythia (for breakfast)

white pine (for tea time)

If you were tempted to click through to see how to eat a back yard tree, you may have just experienced a bout of curiosity piqued by what Heath & Heath call a "knowledge gap." Or, basically, you clicked through because you knew you didn't know, and it made you want to know.

Using knowledge gaps is one way to make a message stickier (besides adding pine sap, which I can attest is very, very sticky). It causes a person to want to find answers, and the extra effort they expend in doing so helps the final message stick.

The simplest tool for creating knowledge gaps is the question. So the next time you want to write a sticky blog post, just add an opening question. And see who stays for a little bloggy tea.


Pine Needle Tea photo, by L.L. Barkat.

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Over at HighCallingBlogs we're reading and discussing Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die. Want to join us? :) Also, feel free to leave your link here...

31 Days to Build a Better Blog: Leave Comments on Other Blogs

Day 20, and I'm supposed to leave comments on other blogs.

Today I am going to be obedient.

Really.

No, REALLY.

See?

I already left comments on other blogs...

First, I visited Marcus...




Then I visited Glynn...




After that, I stopped by Tweetspeak...




Laura had a really cool post...




Then I ran out of Post It notes. Too bad, I was on such a roll. :)





RELATED POSTS
LL's Day 1: Bambi in the Database, Day 2: The Dalai Lama Effect, Day 3: Darren Rowse, Please Link to Me, Day 4: Oprah, I Wanna Be Like You, Day 5: Email a Blog Reader, Day 6: Shakespeare and Company's Top 24 Blog Tips, Day 7: How Do I Love Thee, Let Me Link the Ways, Day 8: Entertaining Aliens, Day 9: Meet Me at the Mother Ship, Day 10: My Dog Ate Darren Rowse's Google Alerts, Day 11: Hey, Darren, It's My Turn, Day 12: Darren Gets on the Scale,, Day 13: I Will Not Be Swayed by Sales on Boxer Shorts, Day 14: Update a Key Page, Day 15: Honk if You Like, I Prefer Cake, Day 16: Buy a Velvet Couch, Day 17: Pretend Your Blog is a Barbie, Day 18: Gesundheit! Day 19: Maureen, Hope You Don't Mind
ProBlogger's Day 20: Leave Comments on Other Blogs
Paul's 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Project


Would you like to follow Bambi's efforts at better blogging? Here's a button, if you like :)

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Commenting on Blogs photos by L.L. Barkat.

31 Days to Build a Better Blog: Maureen, Hope You Don't Mind

Day 19, and I'm supposed to express an opinion. I don't know. This might be a little beyond me.

Take this 31DBB Project, for instance. I think I might be suffering from what he talks about when he says, "Expressing opinions on your blog is like adding seasoning to food. Without it your blog could end up being quite bland and blend into the crowd." Seriously, without expressing an opinion, the way I have been doing throughout this Project, my blog blends right in with other blogs, don't you think?

Today, we must rectify this situation.

(Sorry, Maureen, I know how much you enjoy it when I'm bland, but he is trying to change my ways. Listen, I have a few hankies left over from yesterday, to dry your tears, so everything's going to be okay.)

Anyway. It is time to get opinionated!

Here goes.

I am going to express an opinion.

It's going to be strong, so watch out.

Here is what I think about the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Project. (Maureen, hold on, I didn't even say anything yet. It's okay. I promise. I know this is going to be strong, but I think you'll like it.)

Okay.

The 31DBB is very easy and nice.

Phew!

I am so glad I got that off my chest. Wow. I feel the spice!

Twelve more days of this kind of searing commentary, and I will be on the blogosphere MAP! And you? You were here when it all began. I promise, I'll remember you. (Maureen, tissue?)

RELATED POSTS
LL's Day 1: Bambi in the Database, Day 2: The Dalai Lama Effect, Day 3: Darren Rowse, Please Link to Me, Day 4: Oprah, I Wanna Be Like You, Day 5: Email a Blog Reader, Day 6: Shakespeare and Company's Top 24 Blog Tips, Day 7: How Do I Love Thee, Let Me Link the Ways, Day 8: Entertaining Aliens, Day 9: Meet Me at the Mother Ship, Day 10: My Dog Ate Darren Rowse's Google Alerts, Day 11: Hey, Darren, It's My Turn, Day 12: Darren Gets on the Scale,, Day 13: I Will Not Be Swayed by Sales on Boxer Shorts, Day 14: Update a Key Page, Day 15: Honk if You Like, I Prefer Cake, Day 16: Buy a Velvet Couch, Day 17: Pretend Your Blog is a Barbie, Day 18: Gesundheit!
ProBlogger's Day 19: Write an Opinion Post on Your Blog
Paul's 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Project

COMING TOMORROW
I'm Leaving a Comment on Your Blog, a companion to ProBlogger's Day 20: Leave Comments on Other Blogs.


Would you like to follow Bambi's efforts at better blogging? Here's a button, if you like :)

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Gesundheit Blog photo by L.L. Barkat.

31 Days to Build a Better Blog: Entertaining Aliens

I like to think of the Search Engines as aliens. After all, we call them "bots," "web crawlers," "web spiders" and other terms of alien endearment.

Okay, that is not quite fair. Maybe Search Engines are one up on the food chain from aliens. Some of them, early on, were named after comic books. Seriously. Archie (not so named) was followed by Jughead and Veronica (so named).

Still, today, we're afraid that Google will take over the world, maybe landing its alien ship on the White House before the final Apocalypse. Tell me you have never once considered that possibility. It could happen. The word Google sounds vaguely like the word ogle which has definite connections to the word peer, which, if you think about it is not so far off from the word spy.

I'm telling you. Google is Invasion of the Body Snatchers. (Remember, the pods drifted through space! Google is part of cyberspace! The evidence is all there.)

But I want you to put that aside and think of today's task in nicer terms. Part of your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to Entertain Aliens. Which, translated, means, be nice to the Search Engines by InterLinking Your Old Blog Posts.

If you don't like the idea of being nice to aliens, then pretend you are mounting your own guerilla force within the alien infrastructure. Doing so provides...

1. Usefulness to Readers (they can't get enough of you)

2. SEO (a.k.a. Search Engine Optimization, otherwise known as the world can't get enough of you)

3. Increased Page Views (like I said before, readers can't get enough of you)

If you will kindly notice, I have been in boot camp since the beginning of the 31 Days Project, because I have been interlinking to each of my 31 Days Project previous posts.

Okay, I did not do that on Day 1. This is a sign of interlinking humility. Or the fact that it was the first post. Or just plain laziness. Because I'm not looking back. I will do that on Day 32, when I interlink in one final apocalyptic attempt to take over the 31 Day Project Google World.

(Meet me at the Mother Ship. Bring your links. No ray guns allowed.)

RELATED POSTS
LL's Day 1: Bambi in the Database, Day 2: The Dalai Lama Effect, Day 3: Darren Rowse, Please Link to Me, Day 4: Oprah, I Wanna Be Like You, Day 5: Email a Blog Reader, Day 6: Shakespeare and Company's Top 24 Blog Tips, Day 7: How Do I Love Thee, Let Me Link the Ways
ProBlogger's Day 7: InterLink Your Old Blog Posts
Paul's 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Project

COMING TOMORROW
Meet Me at the Mother Ship, a companion to ProBlogger's Join a Forum and Start Participating.


Would you like to follow Bambi's efforts at better blogging? Here's a button, if you like :)

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Increase Your Blog Traffic: Top 5 Book Rec's

"He's a great writer. Smart. He should have a wider blog reach. Any ideas?"

This is the kind of question I've been asked many times over.

I often write long emails in response. Because increasing blog traffic isn't simple.

Okay, it's not hard either, for the blogger who is evocative, funny, or some kind of "expert." Still, there are principles and fascinating case studies and techniques and... you get the idea.

To save me from long emails, what I really need is a post to point to that says, "Here are my top five book recommendations that will answer your question. I promise if you read these books you will increase your blog traffic. If not exponentially, at least respectably."

Thus, this post. When I was a wee little blogger (and in many ways I still am! :), these were the books I read that changed everything for me. All right, one is a book I'm reading RIGHT NOW, because... well, I'm still interested in new ideas on the subject.

Here goes, without much explanation...

1. Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers. This is the very first blogging book I ever read, right before I started a blog. It helped convince me that blogging was the way to go. It's a great foundational resource. Lots of tips.

2. Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations. Cool ideas and case studies about being part of groups. Which every blogger really needs to be (unless the blogger has no interest in increasing blog traffic).

3. And Then There's This: How Stories Live and Die in Viral Culture. Fascinating stories about stories and web experiments that have gone viral. It'll spark your creativity. At least that's what it did for me.

4. Viral Loop: From Facebook to Twitter, How Today's Smartest Businesses Grow Themselves. What Penenberg did to promote this book is as good as the book itself. Really.

5. Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust. A lot of this is just good business sense, framed for the web. Still worth a read. (Okay, and favorite advice from the book: promote others 12 times as much as you do yourself.)

Curious... have you read any of these? What do you think? Any others you'd recommend, so I'd have to change the title of this post to the top 6 or 7 or... ?


Trust Agents photo, by L.L. Barkat.

Help Me Tweet You

The post got 1200+ views. Almost 200 came through Twitter.

That's significant.

Which means it wouldn't hurt to make oneself more tweetable. Here's my new tool of choice: Tweetmeme.

Okay, load it up and help me tweet you. I am SO waiting to click that cool little button and send some traffic your way.

(To load Tweetmeme for Blogger, go here To load Tweetmeme for Wordpress, go here) Note that the new Blogger Layouts template seems to be problematic when trying to get Tweetmeme's generated code. I've written to Tweetmeme and will post their answer here, if they provide one.


Rain in the Pine picture by L.L. Barkat.