Why Do I Blog?
My friend and a brilliant business growth strategist, best-selling author and award-winning speaker, JP Maroney just “Tagged” me on his blog.
When I saw Michel Fortin get tagged a few days ago, I figured my time was coming.
So here it is…
Why Do I Blog?
1. Mo’ Money, Mo’ Money, Mo’ Money!
Initially my motivations for starting a blog were pretty selfish. (Yes… I’m a greedy, money grubbing capitalist and proud of it!) I wanted to expand awareness about my consulting, speaking, copywriting and website evaluation services. Starting a blog was simply another marketing and publicity vehicle to generate leads, clients and revenue.
And looking back… It has fulfilled that “selfish” purpose exceptionally well. I can directly attribute several hundred thousand dollars worth of speaking engagements, usability testing projects, consulting clients and website evaluations to leads generated from this blog.
2. Build Awareness About Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)
The second motivation for starting this blog was to build awareness among online marketers about the critical role conversion rate (and visitor value) optimization plays in successful online selling.
While there were thousands of blogs about Search Engine Optimization (or other traffic building methods), at the time I launched this blog there were NONE dedicated to Conversion Rate Optimization. (And you can still count the “Conversion Blogs” on one hand, two years later.)
So few online marketers really “GET IT” when it comes to conversion. Sure they give lip service to testing, copywriting, usability and build trust. But few (even the ones who should “know better”) actually use all of the parts of the formula in the right combination.
3. Crystallize My Own Thinking
There is something magical about the writing process. It forces you to organize your thoughts and expand on them in new ways. I’ve had countless insights and new ideas pop into my head, simply because I am continually looking for topics to blog about. I doubt I would have ever stumbled upon these insights and ideas if I didn’t publish this blog.
And… The questions, comments and insights my readers give me has lead to a much deeper understanding of what my “market” is interested in, than I could have received from a dozen focus groups, surveys or other traditional market research tools.
4. Networking and Relationship Building
An unexpected side benefit of operating this blog for the past couple years has been the relationships I’ve been able to create with my readers and other bloggers. Last year a post to this blog resulted in Jim Edwards asking me to conduct a series of webinars with him for his outstanding “The Net Reporter” Subscribers Site. These webinars (over 4 hours in total) were recorded and make up the bulk of a product that Jim and I are launching soon.
My blog has allowed me to develop or expand my relationships with other great marketers and mentors such as Michel Fortin, James Brausch and of course JP Maroney (the guy who “tagged” me) just to name a few.
5. Giving, Sharing and Teaching.
Even though my initial reason for stating this blog were “selfish”, I soon discovered that a blog is a wonderful outlet for sharing and teaching.
I’ve always loved sharing and teaching. But with the exception of my (sporadically published) newsletter, most of my sharing and teaching has been from the stage during my speaking engagements or in boardrooms during my workshops and onsite consultations.
Over the past two years I’ve found that sharing my thoughts, insights and even test results on this blog has contributed far more value to my life than simply the “dollars” I can track and measure.
True wealth is measured by the VALUE you contribute to the lives of others.
Why is one person more financially successful than another? In most cases it is because they have figured out a way to create more value for others.
Money is simply a measure of exchanged value. If I produce a product or provide a service that adds more value to your life than the value of the dollars you give me for that product or service, I’ve created more wealth. For BOTH of us!
So I firmly believe the more value I give (for free or fee) the more wealth I will receive.
Nothing brings me more joy and happiness than getting an email from a reader of this blog telling me how something I shared in a blog post or a podcast, gave him the inspiration to test a variable on his website that doubled his conversion rate and allowed him to quit his day job. That’s worth more to me than booking a dozen paid speaking engagements or workshops!
That’s why I blog…
Now for the fun part.
The 5 bloggers I’m personally tagging are:
Popularity: 7% [?]
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February 20th, 2007 at 1:21 pm
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March 16th, 2007 at 10:18 pm
Thanks for explaining what blog memes are in your webinar with Jim Edwards. I blog as phoenix-rising.townhall.com and got tagged about a month ago with a 6 (Weird)Things You Don’t Know About Me. To see what I did about it given my complete surprise, check out http://phoenix-rising.townhall.com/g/16bbfc41-b417-43f1-8df9-982dc0dcefb8&comments=true#comments. Meanwhile, I’ve added your blog to my favorites, and signed up for your newsletter because I’m just starting out with The SSTO (Save for your Seat To Orbit) project and I really need to drive traffic to it (once the opt-in form works in a few days) and get a high conversion rate for my ezine “The View From The Top!”
Thanks again for your explanation of blog memes. I’ll definitely be using them as suggested.