Coffee Break Blogging

In this episode, David comes back from never, neverland with Episode 14 of The Blog Program.

'Bout. Damn. Time. :)

Actually, this was a decision I made while I was in Las Vegas recently, for the New Media Expo. While I can't remember exactly how many years I've been going there, it has to be at least my FIFTH time attending this conference. And I can tell you...

Never before have I seen so many podcasters.

Not only that, but many of my acquaintances in the business who were not podcasting are now... podcasting. Lewis Howes is now podcasting. Amy Porterfield is now podcasting. Pat Flynn is going to be starting a second DAILY podcast. Jason and Jeremy from Internet Business Mastery are flirting with the idea of a daily show (at least judging from a recent survey they ran).

Listening to Cliff Ravenscraft and John Lee Dumas talk about their podcasting and trends also has me convinced that I'd be an IDIOT not to get regular about my own show.

And, so it is. :)

And, we usher in 2014 with episode #14. A dose of irony, there.

In this episode, I talk about my biggest takeaway from the year 2013. In this one, I talk about:

• What its like having been in this business for 15 years.
• What went WRONG in 2013.
• The moment I had an "aha moment" which brought this lesson to mind.
• How business is like an art form
• How this lesson translates into ALL areas of our lives, including relationships, diets, and all of our goals.

I also start off this episode singing a little bit of Britney Spears. So, there's that. ;)

One of the biggest things which differentiate a successful content marketer from the usual (broke) blogger is that he/she strategically plans their content in advance.

When you plan your content in advance - even for as much as a quarter ahead of time - it allows you to ensure that your content serves a real purpose and isn't simply there to meet a quota self-imposed.

In the last few posts, I have been talking about planning your blog content in advance. But, today, I wanted to "recap" it in a brand new episode of The Blog Program.

In this episode, I talk about editorial calendars, and why you may want to consider pre-planning your blog content for as much as 3 months in advance. In this show, we talk about multiple reasons why strategic planning of your content is far better than "flying by the seat of your pants" (which is what most bloggers do.). We also go over a 6-step process to brainstorm and develop your editorial calendar.

It takes certain tools to run an online business, and there are choices that need to be made.

In this episode of The Blog Program, I get into some of the behind-the-scenes nitty-gritty details of what makes an online business tick.

Specifically, we'll be talking about email marketing, and why after YEARS of working with Aweber, I decided to switch away from it and make the move to Office AutoPilot (aka Ontraport).

This was a pretty big move for me, and one which isn't going to be applicable to everybody in my audience. However, this episode will be a good one for those of you who...

• Are running established online businesses and find yourself getting frustrated with some of the limitations of your current software, and feel you're leaving money on the table because of it. OR...
• You're still fairly new, but are still interested in some of the considerations that go into an online business as it grows.

This episode covers such topics as:

• Why I've been recommending Aweber over Mailchimp for my readers
• 8 different reasons why I decided to switch from Aweber to Office AutoPilot (aka Ontraport)
• What the #1 most important asset of your business is
• Some of the "holes" you may have in your business while using a traditional email marketing service like Mailchimp or Aweber.

I have been talking about Ten Minute Pages lately. It is no mystery that it is something I recommend to much of my readers and listeners.

But, aside from the solution itself, there is also a business behind it.

And around here, that topic interests me. We're all working to build and expand our businesses, and I find that there are usually certain common elements that entrepreneurs master before success comes.

So, I decided to invite Kyle Graham, the creator of Ten Minute Pages, to come on The Blog Program. As of this recording, he was in the middle of his official product launch - which is always a pretty CRAZY experience (anybody who has done one will attest).

In this interview, we go behind the scenes into the growth of a software business online.

This interview covers such topics as:

• What its like being in the middle of a product launch
• The "aha moment" which suddenly lead from years of mediocre performance and client work... to the creation of Ten Minute Pages and really rockin'
• How important picking the right target market really is
• Some of the growing pains of a rapidly growing business - and how Kyle dealt with it.
• The #1 most important skill that you MUST master before you'll achieve rapid growth

Definitely a good conversation.

One thing all blog owners want is TRAFFIC.

It is one of those things that nobody thinks they have enough of. And, for brand new bloggers, it can seem like the hardest thing to get.

In order to get traffic, you have to PROMOTE. But, what exactly do you do?

What do you do to get the word out?

How do you let people know what you're doing?

How do you build leverage?

In this episode, you'll hear about:

• Why you need to stop tweaking your blog.
• What it really means to create "good content".
• Why content creation should represent a minority of your blogging schedule.
• How most bloggers are grossly under-utilizing social media.
• How to alleviate all doubt about what content you need to be writing right now.

... and more. :)

After what SHOCKINGLY turned into a 9-month hiatus, The Blog Program is back! And, David has his tail between his legs, asking for forgiveness. ;-)

Actually, in this episode, I sit down and talk about where my efforts have been for the last many months with Blog Marketing Academy.

Go behind the scenes with me as I talk about some of the projects I have been working on to "clear out the underbrush" from years of business, and put some order into things using SYSTEMS.

In this episode, you'll hear about:

• The real reason why this podcast hasn't come out in over 9 months.
• My conversion from Aweber to Office AutoPilot... and why.
• My thinking behind the "daily videos" (which aren't so daily anymore)
• My switch to the Genesis Framework... and why.
• Why I stopped using Wishlist Member (although I still love it), and switched to something else.
• The BIG bottleneck to my business over the last many months, and what I'm doing to solve it.

I hope you enioy this one. It is long overdue.

When you go online with your blogging, one of your goals is to… get famous.

Now, we might not be talking about celebrity famous. Chances are, we're talking about achieving recognition within your particular niche or field. After all, to earn business online, you need to become known.

Laura Roeder, from LKR Social Media, comes on The Blog Program to discuss the idea of creating fame. Laura discussed the "big idea" which is necessary for creating fame, and how to go about getting out there into your marketplace even when you're starting from scratch.

In this episode, you'll learn about:

• The importance of picking a kind of content to focus on (and how this can save you a lot of needless legwork, too)
• How to arrive at your "big idea" which will separate you from your competition.
• Her recommendation for post frequency
• How do you pitch a guest post do a larger blog (even if you feel like you're a bit of a nobody in comparison)
• How to get interviews (and how Laura got herself onto my show ;) )
• Some of the changes Laura is making to allow her to continue to run her business while traveling for a year

To learn all the details of Laura's strategy for creating fame, check out... Creating Fame (not an affiliate link). You can opt in there for some free video training. You'll also get word from her when she reopens the program (which she does 4 times per year).

Big thanks to Laura for coming on the program.

Oh, and everybody should send her a big congrats, because I found out she got engaged to be married very shortly before this interview. :)

You've likely heard the phrase many times now: "The money is in the list". And, it couldn't be more true. Your email list is the most important asset you have.

So, in this "reverse interview", Srinivas from BlogcastFM interviews me about email marketing and list building. In this 40 minute interview, a number of topics are discussed such as the importance of list building, how to interact with the list, why ebooks are not as effective as list builders, and much more.

In this episode, you'll learn about:

• Why building a list is so important (as if it wasn't obvious) ;)
• Why your email list growth is your most important metric, and FAR out-weights trivial concerns like # of Twitter followers, or even blog comments.
• How I personally raised my email open rates by close to 3X
• My internal thinking for creating the 30 Day Blog Transformation Challenge to build my list
• How (and why) to get your list subscribers to interact with you.
• How to drastically improve your emails to your list by focusing on a single person.
• Why you need a custom confirmation page (and some ideas on what to put on it)
• Ideas for repurposing your content for/from your list
• Why having a big email list isn't exactly the most important thing.
• The important of segmenting (and how), and why you should have a BUNCH of different email lists in your Aweber account

Bloggers often get hung up on the smallest things. Many times, things they probably shouldn't even be doing anyway.

In this episode, I bring on a good friend, Chris Ducker from Virtual Business Lifestyle. Chris is an expert on outsourcing to the Philippines.

We break down all the in's and out's of outsourcing, how it works, what you can have them do, how to find them, what to pay them - etc. You don't have to do everything yourself… and having somebody to help you is much easier than you may have realized.

In this episode, you'll learn about:

• What kinds of things a blogger could have a VA do for them.
• What NOT to have your VA do for you.
• How to avoid pitfalls and growing pains with your first VA.
• How to actually find and hire a VA in the Phillipines.
• How to deal with concerns about whether a full-time person is overkill for you.
• How to go about training your VA on how you want things done.
• Cultural traits of people in the Phillipines, and how it compares to other countries.
• What to pay them.

And this time, we've got a transcript! I want to thank Chris, in fact, for it. He had one of his people do the transcript for me - which I thought was quite fitting, given the topic. :)

In all the talk about themes, plug-ins, retweets and pings, it is easy to lose sight of the TRUE purpose of a blog. And that purpose is COMMUNICATION.

Might seem obvious on the surface, but seeing how a lot of people blog, they don't really get it. In this episode, David breaks down exactly what this means and how it should impact what you do on your blog.

The end result? An audience that actually pays attention to your content and responds to it. And ultimately... buys from you.

In this episode, you'll learn about:

• Why most bloggers don't get ANY reaction from their blog posts.
• Why thinking of your blog like a magazine is a mistake.
• The communication sequence - broken down into components.
• Why acknowledgement is VERY fundamental to your success online.
• Specific tactics in order to "train" your audience to respond.
• What this all has to do with marketing and making sales.

I hope you enjoy this episode. I was a little late on getting it produced.

I encourage you to take the message of this episode to heart. A lot of people dismiss these basics. They think it is "obvious". But, then I see what they go and actually DO on their sites and it is clear that THEY DON'T GET IT. So, this stuff is NOT obvious.