As a blogger, you learn pretty quick how to look at your traffic stats. You see that your traffic goes up the days you write and down the days you don’t. You look at your referring sites regularly to see where all the traffic is coming from and spend more time on the sites that are driving you the most traffic. And hitting the motherload of website traffic is getting to the front page of Digg, Reddit or del.icio.us.

But do your traffic stats mislead you? Is your goal just to get gobs and gobs of traffic to your website?

Maybe it is. If you’re blogging for fun, to make a few bucks on the side or using your blog to sell ad space and affiliate products, it may just be about generating as much traffic as you can.

But if you own a business where you only get paid when you’re clients are buying your service, having tons of traffic may completely mislead you.

Website traffic is great, don’t get me wrong. And it’s certainly an important part of your business strategy on the web. If it wasn’t, I wouldn’t be teaching a teleclass called 220 Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Website.

Yet you want to be careful about evaluating the health of your web marketing by only looking at how many visitors and page views your site is getting. You need to also compare your overall traffic stats with stats on solid lead generation, prospecting, conversion and sales.

You can do this pretty simply by tracking all contacts people make with you through your site in a specific period of time – say, a month. An RSS subscription and a comment is a contact. You could consider those soft leads. A newsletter signup is a firmer lead, because now your visitor has given you something of theirs – so track that. And obviously phone calls, emails and form submissions from your website are solid leads also, so track the number of those each month.

Then, you want to follow through with how each of those interactions develop. Do any of your commenters, for instance, contact you directly about your services? Do they then convert into paying clients? The same goes for your newsletter list, phone calls, email and form submissions – any of the ways that people can contact you directly. Do these generate sales?

If they do, it means your website traffic is serving your business. If not, then you need to make some adjustments as to who you’re targeting in your blog posts. For instance, let’s say you’re a life coach and you’re using your blog to promote your coaching services. Inevitably some of your readers will be other life coaches – that’s actually a good thing. But a good portion of your readers need to be potential clients as well. If you’re only getting other life coaches to read you blog, it’s unlikely you’re going to convert many clients. This means, you’d want to look at how you can adjust your content and your promotional efforts to reach your market, rather than your peers.

Generating huge amounts of traffic can be compared to creating a massive newsletter list. If you have a business, it doesn’t really matter how many people you have on your list. What matters is how many of the people on your list will buy your services.

So, how are you using your blog to promote your business? Is it working? If so, why. And if no, what’s one thing you can change to make it work better?

And maybe the most interesting question of all…are you currently, or have you in the past, been too focused on generating as much traffic as you can without really caring about how it affects your bottom line?

Let’s talk about it.

And if you would like to find more ways to generate traffic – specifically traffic that increase your bottom line, take a look at my upcoming teleclass: 220 Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Website.

(note: image from c0ntr0 on Flickr,  some rights reserved)

Well my friend and fellow blogger, Joanna Young, is back! Where’d she go? Well, first she moved her blog from TypePad to WordPress – a move that I fully support and applaud her for. Then, she took a week off from writing to move into her new home. Can you imagine….not blogging for a whole week? I recently did it a couple of times and it wasn’t that bad – though I did miss writing.

I had the pleasure of meeting Joanna at SOBCon08 in Chicago last May and she’s even more lovely in person than she is on her blog. And what makes meeting her special is that she, and Chris Garrett, hopped a plane across the pond to be with us at SOBCon. And I only had to drive 3 hours from my home outside Ann Arbor.

Anyhow, I just wanted to welcome my friend back and thank her for some of my favorite blog posts. Here’s a few to check out:

• Kiss Excessive Words Goodbye
• 10 Outstanding Definitions Of Powerful Writing
• 7 Questions to Ask Yourself Before You Ask Your Readers Questions: Part V Of Purposeful Questions
  • The entire Purposeful Questions series I loved. Here’s the rest:
  • Part I: How To Ask Purposeful Questions
  • Part II: Creating The Space To Ask Questions
  • Part III: The Purpose That’s Driving Your Question
  • Part IV: Asking Questions For A Change
• Do You Think You Can Tell? Powerful Questions That Wake Us Up
• 27 Secrets To Writing Like Hemingway

When you have a moment, take a stop by. Read some of her latest writings. And drop her a line to say hi and welcome back.

And, oh yeah, remember to grab her feed.

(note: image from Kiwi Mikex on Flickr,  some rights reserved)

They want your stories, your perspectives, your perceptions and your ideas. And in some cases they want your help or they want to learn how to do what you know. Either way, they appreciate the value your blog adds to their life or their business. The value, after all, is why they’re spending their valuable time reading you in the first place.

I was ruminating on this while reading Liz Strauss’ new informational product – an ebook, The Secret to Writing a Successful and Outstanding Blog. In her book, Liz walks you through how to use your blog to create conversation and grow a community. You get insights and suggestions from someone who has close to 70,000 comments on her own blog. I absolutely highly recommend it. And just to be transparent, I did help her a bit on the development and distribution, though I do not receive any royalties from it.

One interesting thing about Liz’s book is that it was created from content she had published on her blog over the past two years. When she came up with the idea to create her informational product, she went back through old posts to use the ones that would fit as content. In all, the core of her ebook is the content from her blog.

Now Liz took the content for her informational product from posts she’d previously written. It worked great for her and if you’ve been writing a while, I’d highly recommend considering developing your own informational products from previously written posts.

Yet, there’s another way to approach using your blog to develop informational products – one that serves product creation and post content at the same time. You can develop and write your info product from new content you post to your blog. With a little planning, it can be simple:

1. First thing is to consider what informational products your audience would be interested in buying. Look at what posts were the most read and most commented on. Also, ask them through polls and short surveys.
2. Outline the major content themes for your informational product. Whether you mindmap or outline, doesn’t matter. Just get down a basic structure for what’s going to be included in your info product. This will help you focus on your info product’s content as well as blog content.
3. Further define your informational product outline. You have the major points, now get specific. What are the individual talking points that your info product will cover? Get as specific and detailed as you can. Layout the entire product so that you can see exactly what needs to be written in order to publish your info product.
4. Create a list of blog post topics. A checklist works fine or just an outline. Either way, translate all the talking points into a list of blog posts you can write. That way, you’ll know exactly what you’ll be writing about in creating your informational product.
5. Create a special category on your blog. Ideally, this category would be invisible, but it doesn’t have to be. Be sure to put all blog posts that you’ll use for your information product in this category. When you’re ready to compile and edit your posts into your info product, it’ll be much easier to find them all.
6. Write. Now that you have your plan, your outline and your post topics, now it’s time to write. In this case, write quality posts. As you write, make sure you’re thinking about how each post will fit into your informational product. Also, don’t feel pressured to make every single one of your next posts for your info product. Write about other things when you’re inspired too. Just remember to return to your info product content.
7. Get feedback. Watch the comment box closely whenever you write content for your informational product. Your readers will give you great insight both into what they’re interested in and how they think about the topic. Utilize this to create a better info product. And don’t be afraid to change your info product based on what you learn from your readers.
8. Compile your content. Once you’ve written all the pieces of content for your informational product on your blog, compile it. Get it from your blog into your favorite word processing or desktop publishing software. Try to put it together in sections as you’ve laid out in your outline.
9. Edit and layout. Now, with your informational product content all compiled, begin editing. Read for content and for flow. And remember to edit for voice. It’s likely you wrote differently on different posts so be sure your voice is consistent. Also, begin laying out how you’re info product will look in structure when finished. You can do this with editing or after – it’s up to you.
10. Proof and correct. Once you’ve finished your edits and your layout, get a few trusted friends and colleagues to read your information product. Get their feedback on flow, content, clarity and value. If there are exercises or to-do lists, ask them if they are easy to understand and clear to follow. Highly consider any corrections that your proofreaders suggest.
11. Decide on your format. Once you have a completed version of your informational product, you need to decide on the format to publish it too. When deciding on format, consider whether your info product will be delivered electronically or by post. If you’ve created a book, PDF works great electronically and bound publishing for sending by post. Audio can be distributed electronically as mp3 or by post on CD. For video, DVDs work great by post while Flash video, MPEG4 or QuickTime work great for electronic delivery.
12. Price and payment. While you can certain go through this process to create free products – which I do recommend, you should also consider creating informational products for sale. That means you have to decide on how much to charge and how you’ll receive payment. There are many ways to decide cost, including comparing to what others are doing. Maybe start with a lower introductory price to get some initial interest and raise the price later. As for payment, PayPal works fine in most cases. They give you a method to collect money and a shopping cart, if you need one. It’s the easiest and cheapest to setup. Otherwise, you’re looking at a shopping cart like 1ShoppingCart and an online merchant account like with Authorize.net.
13. Write your landing page. Once you have your informational product finished, you know the cost and how you’re going to collect payment and manage delivery you have to have a place to put it on your website. Often this means a landing page. While you can find many great resources on how to write a landing page, the basics are that you write customer-focused copy that illustrates how your info product solves their problem. Focus on your info product’s content but do so by highlighting how your info product will benefit the customer. Remember testimonials – which you can first get from your proofers – and endorsements from well-known sources, and a money-back guarantee. And please make the price and the buy buttons easy to find. Last word of advice on landing pages – don’t get bogged down by trying to make it perfect right out of the gate. Write the best you can, publish it and then tweak it later.
14. Market your new informational product. With your informational product completed and your landing page written it’s time to get the word out. But don’t just announce it on your blog – cover pieces of it highlighting, again, the benefits. As your proofers, endorsers and blog friends to do the same. Consider creating an affiliate program around it so people can make a buck promoting it for you. Ask friends to market it to their ezine lists or mention it in your forum. Run a contest with prizes for anyone who buys posts about it. Get it reviewed. Use your social networking contacts to help with the push. Basically, use everything you can think of to get the word out. And don’t forget to publish articles to article banks that focus on specific parts of the content and link to your landing page.
15. Get AND USE feedback. This step is often missed and yet very important to the long-term success of your informational product. You want to encourage people to share with you their experiences with your info product. Ask them for feedback. Send them emails or cards by post that ask them a few specific questions about the product. Even better, get them to a short survey for feedback. And absolutely, without a doubt, continue to get testimonials and endorsements. Then USE THEM on your landing page and in your marketing campaign.

Create great informational products and you’ll have something that you can sell for a long time. That means a stream of passive income. Do this a few times and you’ll have a fleet of info products with the potential of a significant, long-term passive income stream.

By using your blog to develop your informational products, you can serve to needs – writing great blog content that benefits your readers while create an info product that can generate sales and passive income.

Which leads me to the questions: Have you ever considered using your blog to develop an info product – whether with new or previously written content?

If you have, what were some of the barriers you faced and how did you overcome them?

And if not, what stands in the way of you creating and offering your own informational products?

Let’s talk about it.

(note: image from Knilram on Flickr, some rights reserved)

But one thing is similar between almost every client…they somehow see their blog as their business. I’m not sure where this developed exactly, but I see this all over the web as well. Perhaps there’s a misunderstanding between those who have made money blogging and those who want too.

But a blog is not a business. Blogging, in it’s own right, is no more a business than your gasoline is a car. Sure, the car and gasoline are forever linked, even dependent on each other, but you’re not going to step inside a can of gas and make it to the grocery store.

You can think of your blog in similar terms. Your blog is like gasoline in that it can make your business go. And done well, blogging can make your business grow. But you first need a clearly defined business model before you can attach a successful blog to it.

Even for the problogger, your blog is the method that allows you to make an income – in other words, it’s marketing. But your business is about publishing, sell advertising or affiliate programs or being paid for reviews. The blog is simply the way you accomplish your business model.

I bring this up because I see so many people getting it backward. They think the blog is their business. They see the blog as their car. They expect to just get in and have the blog deliver them to their destination. But it doesn’t work that way. You can blog successfully for years and never make any money. You can have tens of thousands of commenters and no clients.

The answer to making money with your blog isn’t about text-link ads, having more ad space or finding the right affiliate programs. It’s not even about converting clients or selling products. All this can certainly make you money, but your chance of success decreases greatly if you don’t have a plan – a business model to follow.

Here’s some simple points to set you in the right direction toward finding your business model:

• Know thy self – What is it you have to offer. With a service or product this is obvious. For the problogger, it’s still necessary as content will drive your success.
• Know thy market – What is it the people who make up your market need? Solve a problem for them and they’ll become a customer. One help…think of your market as a person.
• Know thy vision – Think about where you want your business to go and what you’d like to accomplish with it. Write down your ideas. And be sure to set goals.
• Know thy plan – Your business is like building construction – you have to have a plan. Your plan is the path� you’ll follow toward accomplishing your goals.
• Track thy success – Tracking is way underutilized by small business owners today. As a blogger, tracking traffic is great. But consider tracking conversions and revenue and tweak things to gain more success.

The bullet points above ideally answer four questions – who are you, what do you do, who do you do it for, and how do you do it? When the answers to these questions are clear, you have the foundation for your business. Now, go get your blog to do the marketing for your business.

And that’s what a blog is – a marketing tool; a method for drawing attention to your business. But first you have to know what your business is about. You have to know who you serve and with what. And to be successful, you need to know how to meet the goals you set for business. Blogging can help with all this. But without a clear vision and solid plan, you’ll likely end up like the tens of thousands of bloggers who are writing their fingers off and making pennies.

So if you’re problogging, what’s your business model? And if you’re blogging to convert clients or customers, how are you using your blog to gain revenue?

More importantly, how well is it working? I’d love to chat about it…

(note: image from B Tal on Flickr)

Denise Wakeman of Blog Squad fame asked that question of Chris Garrett. The conversation that grew created a bed of blogging tips. Watching the interview (5 1/2 minutes) Chris makes it pretty clear that a successful blog, like a successful business, is built on planning, focus, clarity and knowing your audience.

Whenever a client or prospective client ever asks me about marketing, I always begin my answer by finding out what they’re clear (and unclear) about in their business. I’ve learned the hard way of the years that you can only market, hence you can only sell, that which you’re clear about. And the greatest clarity I’ve found has come through understanding what problems my prospective clients face.

From the interview…

“If you actually concentrate on the audience and you’re talking to people and actually communicating and you focus on people, then you’re going to attract better attention and you’re going to actually produce something worthwhile. Because it’s all about your audience; it’s all about all about people.

A lot of people think it’s about just broadcasting your thoughts but if those thoughts don’t make meaning to people then you’re going to fail. So you have to give people what they want, how they want it and keep learning and keep promoting.

Another big aspect as people say is content is king. Well, content IS king. But what is a king but a guy in a funny hat? If he hasn’t got an army behind him, if he hasn’t got people saying, “your the king,” then you’ve got nothing – you’re just a guy in a funny hat. So you to make great content but you have to promote it as well.”

Take a watch.

Near the end of the interview Chris talks about the ’so-what’ test. Does your blog stand up to it? What about your business? In other words, are people able to truly care about what you can do for them?

Anyhow, I find Christine’s music full of witty lyrics (free song download) and tons of emotion – like she’s singing from her soul. I’ve only seen her play live twice – once on a rocking boat. And each time at least one of her songs has brought tears to my eyes (no kidding). Spending time with her it’s obvious she’s found an inner peace and a grounded depth that gushes through her personality.

Yeah, I could go on. But let’s leave it at – she’s quite a lovely person and an excellent singer/songwriter. If she’s playing near you, it’s worth a evening to see her play.

Beyond Christine’s music, however, you’ll find a savvy and knowledgeable a niche marketer. She’s learned over the years that she can serve an audience’s needs while maintaining a music career. And like any niche marketer, she’s had to learn how to position herself correctly to reach a market who’s interested in her. In other words, she makes is more possible for people who like her type of music to find her.

At SOBCon08 last weekend, she sat down with Paul O’Flaherty from FuelMyBlog to chat about music, blogging, business and new opportunities for musicians using social media.

From the interview (below): “…blogging for me has enabled my creativity to reach people who wouldn’t in a hundred years go out to a club.”

I’ve posted the interview (less than 15 minutes) below so business owners – musicians and otherwise – can see a successful niche blogger share what she’s learned about social media that’s made her successful. The beauty is I hear a marketer as much as I do a blogger or a musician.

Christine Kane - Broadcast your self LIVE

At SOBCon08, Christine gave away her latest, live 2-CD release titled, Christine Kane: A Friday Night in One Lifetime. It’s great. Includes her ever interesting storytelling between songs. Check it out.

Tons of great stuff came out this video. What did Christine say that you could use in blogging your business? And how can you see applying her experience to your own blog (and business)?

Let’s talk about it.

Amazing that it took a whole blog post to cover the first day of SOBCon08, but it did. Friday was great. The boat ride stellar. And the conversation even better.

Seeing� Lorelle first thing Saturday morning started the day off right. Got a chance to speak with Easton Ellsworth a bit, catching up on family and the like. Truth is I talk to Easton almost weekly. I did get to have breakfast with David Dalka and Phil Gerbyshak. We mostly talked shop – not blogging shop, but business shop – niche marketing and expert positioning. In other words, what problems do you solve for whom.

Business School was the theme of SOBCon08. The idea was born from watching lots of bloggers getting traffic and tons of comments, but making no money. This year’s SOBCon was going to bring business people and bloggers together so that business owners could learn about communities and using social media while bloggers could learn solid business practices.

Anita Bruzzese of 45Things kicked off the morning. She gave a great talk about managing your online reputation. Her advice: Remember “whatever you write has your name on it and you must be willing to stand behind it.” Her talk sparked a great conversation afterward that I was really getting in to. If only more time.

Next up was the Copyblogger himself – Brian Clark. Brian opened with “forget blog. be an entrepreneur rather than a copywriter.” He had me with forget blog.

What Brian did really well was remind us that a blog isn’t in and of itself a business. What we actually do to make money is our business. So he encouraged everyone to consider a business model showing us that a business model is not:

• Your revenue source
• Your traffic strategy
• Your blog

What a business model is, rather:

• The right product or service (for) the right target market (at) the right price.

That sentence above is the key to having a successful business. Brian knows it which is one of the reasons why Copyblogger and Teaching Sells is doing so well. There’s more, of course, but this was the key point that I felt was most important to take away form Brian’s talk.

One note on Mr Clark, somehow he managed to leave Chicago without us having a good chat together. Not sure how he managed that, but he did. That’s all right, I’ll pin him down next time.

After Brian, Lorelle VanFossen led a discussion and exercise to help everyone find the ten words that would describe what you do as a business owner. That was her main point – you have to be able to describe what you do to people who may be interested in language they understand. I’d go a bit further and say that you need to concisely show that you can solve their problems. That’s why the conversation can be so valuable before you get to talking about what you do.

Next came Chris Garrett of chrisg.com fame. Chris and Darren Rowse just released a book called Problogger: Secrets of Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income. Haven’t finished it yet, but from what I’ve read it’s really good. Make sure you get a copy.

Chris’ talk called, More Bang from Your Blog, covered a lot about workflow. He says, “you have to have a work structure” to be successful at blogging (and at business). His workflow consists of Learn / Create / Communicate / Promote. Workflow – both for you blogging and your business – is something I spend a lot of time with clients working on so I couldn’t agree more. There’s so little time, why not make the most from it.

Somewhere in here we had lunch and I spent a nice time talking with Stephen Smith from Productivity in Context and Jared Goralnick from Technotheory. Jared and I shared in great converation around business building, marketing and business growth. Then we mingled a bit chatting with a number of people – most whose names I just can’t remember. Sorry.

Back to the presentations…I next got my socks blown off by David Bullock. Obvious this guy knows what he’s doing when it comes to business development, business growth and metrics. David was one of the business owners who was there to learn about social media. And boy did he get a dose of it. His S.T.A.R.T. Formula is a solid business development model:

• Strategy – what’s the overall story and how does your overall story match the overall story of the marketplace?
• Tactics – planning – how are you going to do what you need to do to grow your business
• Action – doing the plan – you’ve gotta actually do something to make the tactics work for you.
• Results – you’ve gotta know what results you want from your actions and whether or not your site or business can gain those results.
• Tracking – pay attention to what’s going on – most often missed by small business owners. It’s more than just site statistics. It’s knowing what you expect from your marketing, for instance, and being able to measure effectiveness.

David also had what may have been, for me, the most power-packed quote of the whole event: “I want to own a space not own a channel.” He and I talked about this afterward. Be a great conversation piece in the comment box.

Funny thing is that Chris Brogan followed David – which was a perfect blend. Following David’s business-minded presentation, Chris offered an opportunity to for us to think of businesses as being people (sound familiar?). His overall message was to differentiate your community from your marketplace. In community it’s about the people and how you connect with each other. Ultimately it’s about people doing things freely for each other. Marketplace, though, is where you sell things. Chris suggest keeping them separate. How, invite community into your marketplace, just don’t turn your community into the marketplace. Let people have both.

We started running long on time so Liz Strauss’ presentation was cut a bit short. The key element I took from her was, “Know the difference between traffic, readers and customers.” I’d say know who each are, why they’re at your site and how you can meet each of their needs.

Wendy Piersall ended the day with an emotional, spirited and high energy presentation challenging each of us to be great; great as bloggers, great as people, great as business owners. As she says, “what right do you have not too?”

That ended Saturday’s main events. There was still Sunday to go – and don’t forget Saturday night – which I’ll write about later in a piece about selling.

Reading through all this, are you beginning to get the idea that blogging is not, in and of itself, a business? Rather, blogging is a way to interact with your audience, increase your reach and inform about your business. In other words, a blog is a method for marketing.

I see way too many business owners confusing their blog for their business. Perhaps it’s because they put so much time into it – I’m not sure. Yet it’s important to consider that a blog is something that serves an overall business, helping the business reach its goals.

So how is your blog serving� your business? Are you selling products and a landing clients from your blog? If so, what have you done to make yourself successful?

(note: images from bjmccray, ChrisCree & DWakeman on Flickr)

Liz and Terry sure nailed it this year. Not only in concept but in execution. Their goal – create an event where business owners and bloggers come together to learn from each other – both about social media and about running a business. In my opinion, much needed and only scraping the surface of what’s needed around social media. The weekend was great…here’s my experience.

The flight to Chicago on Friday was quick and uneventful. We landed just before a storm rolled in that delayed a number of SOBCon-ers, including Chris Cree and Gorgeous (his name for his wife). I jump on the orange line out of Midway which deposits me, 40 minutes later, a block and a half from my hotel – in a downpour. Cab it or walk…I chose to walk. And when I stepped into Hotel 71 I was drenched.

I get to my room, dry off, unpack and out comes the laptop. I was thinking of a short nap before the afternoon’s festivities, but turns out Chris Garrett was looking for a lunch date. Sonia Simone and I join Chris for a stroll down Michigan Ave, a nice chat and a great lunch lunch at Carmine’s. Thank God the weather cleared up.

Back at the hotel we walk into a cloud of bloggers. Liz, Terry and bunch of old friends from last year’s event. Hugs go all around. I’m overjoyed to meet Joanna Young for the first time. To David Airey: she flew all the way from Scotland.

Lots of faces, new and old. Too many to remember. But I did get a huge hug from my dear friend Wendy Piersall (tell Dave it was great to meet him). Had a great talk with Tammy Lenski – she and I need to do some work together. Then, finally, after months of phone calls and emails, I got to see the communicatrix – Colleen Wainwright in the flesh. She’s shorter than I thought thought she’d be – AND big bags of fun. We spent much of the weekend hanging out. Loved her before, love and adore her after. She’s a friend for life, I think.

Dinner time was approaching so Adam Kayce and I round up a few people for Indian food at Kypher Pass on East Wacker. Pretty nice food. Nothing, though, like Tandoor Fine Indian Cuisine which Adam and I found last year. It’s out in Park Ridge near O’Hare (map) – like Indian food, gotta check it out.

Anyhow, Todd Jordan along with Shashi Bellamkonda & Randy Windsor from Network Solutions joined us. I learned much about Shashi over the weekend. One thing is he loves to take photos. And did you know he was once a chef?

Chicago Cruises and the Chicago Skyline provided the backdrop for our evening. The entertainment…by a hundred bloggers on a boat, Jim Beam (who sponsored the Friday night) and the amazing music of Christine Kane. If you don’t know Christine’s music – you should. But more on that later. Becky McCray has some great shots on Flickr of Chicago at night. As does Wendy.

Had a great walk and chat back to the hotel with Ruth Marie Sylte. We could have stayed up all night talking politics, spirituality and fixing the problems in the Middle East. But sleep called – especially since I missed that nap (thanks ChrisG).

I’ll continue with my in depth report of SOBCon. For now, I’d love to know your SOBCon experience. If you were there, what was one highlight. And if not, what’s one thing you would have liked to have taken away from the event if you could have come?

(note: image from bjmccray on Flickr)

I’ve been set on coming ever since I left Chicago last May. The event in 2007 was great. Lots of great people. Lots of great information. And, of course, lots of of great conversation. But what would I expect from an event that was partially the brainchild of Liz Strauss, Miss Conversation herself (now, that’s my opinion and she would probably deny it even though it’s the truth)?

That’s why I was so excited last fall when Liz and Terry Starbucker started planning for SOBCon08. This year’s theme – Biz School for Blogging. Notice the title closely. It’s not blogging for businesses. Rather, it’s� business school for blogging. In other words, bringing sound business principles into the blogosphere.

This year’s speakers are top-notch. And I can’t wait to see the presentation format – which centers around masterminding. The plan is to bring what’s talked about into a working model to actually use in your business. As I said, pretty sweet, huh?

Check out who’s beginning the conversations:

• Chris Brogan
• Anita Bruzzese
• Dave Bullock
• Brian Clark
• Chris Garrett
• Wendy Piersall
• Terry Starbucker
• Liz Strauss
• Lorelle VanFossen

And, of course, the sweet sounds of Christine Kane.

And, like last year, this year’s event isn’t about the speakers. Rather, it’s about all the people who are there – speakers, attendees, organizers, sponsors – everyone. As we saw last year, everyone had something valuable to add to the conversations during the sessions.

Below is a list of everyone else I could find who’s going to be there. Small, simple, people-focused event. Find some of these folks on Twitter. The rest, just link with below.

• Cliff Atkinson
• Shashi Bellamkonda
• Harry Brooks
• Mark Carter
• Tom Clifford
• Valerie Combs
• Chris Cree
• Lisa Cree
• Thomas Croghan
• Donna Cutting
• David Dalka
• Kevin Dixie
• Tim Draayer
• Andrew Dubber
• Monica Duncan
• Easton Ellsworth
• Kevin Ferrasci O’Malley
• Jonathan Fields
• Sarah Filipiak
• Mary-Lynn Foster
• Annie Galvin Teich
• Brian Gardner
• Jon Gatrell
• Phil Gerbyshak
• Jared Goralnick
• Karen Hanrahan
• Joseph Hauckes
• Vicky Hennegan
• Scot Herrick
• John Hong
• Stephen Hopson
• Robert Hruzek
• Timothy Johnson
• Sara
• Pete Jones
• Todd Jordan
• Bob Kakoliris
• Adam Kayce
• Kristen King
• Jen Knoedl
• Stephen Koernig
• Bryan Kress
• George Krueger
• Amy L
• Tammy Lenski
• James G. Lindberg
• Eli Litscher
• Rick Mahn
• Sim Margolis
• Michael Martine
• Becky McCray
• Maria Meadows
• Cory Miller
• Ann Michael
• Dawud Miracle
• Debra Moorhead
• Matthew Murphy
• Paul O’Flaherty
• Tim Padar
• Jesse Petersen
• Melissa Pierce
• Sandra Ponce de Leon
• J. Erik Potter
• Karen Putz
• Susan R Quandt
• Levy Rivers
• Barbara Rozgonyi
• Jeff Sable
• Sheila Scarborough
• Mary Schmidt
• Derek Semmler
• Maria Sharon
• David Sherbow
• Steve Sherlock
• Brad Shorr
• Louise Silberman
• Sonia Simone-Rossney
• Julien Smith
• Stephen Smith
• Michael Snell
• Derrick Sorles
• Jon Swanson
• Ruth M Sylte
• Windsor Tanner
• Michelle Vandepas
• Colleen Wainwright
• Denise Wakeman
• James D. Walton
• Randy Windsor
• Joanna Young

So are you coming? If so, say, “Hi” in the comment box. And definitely look for me this weekend.

And if you’re not on the list, you’ve gotta ask yourself why – especially if you have a business – blogging or otherwise. Get here. Meet some great people and join some amazing conversations that will help you focus your business online.

What do you have to say?

The answer I give almost always revolves around creating relationships. If you’ve been reading a while, you know one of my favorite statements is people don’t do business with businesses, they do business with people. So relationships become key to business success.

Before the internet, before social media, much of the business world seemed to focus on producing and selling. You’d produce a product or create a service and do everything you could to get people to buy. In other words, marketing was about peddling what you had.

Today, however, and especially with the explosion of social media, the business world is changing. No longer is business just about producing something and selling it. Now, business is more about communication, relationship, community and innovation. And all this is being driven by the conversations happening all over the blogosphere.

As business owners, this means we need to rethink how we go about doing business. We need to consider and engage in the conversation with people who need what we offer. It means we need to be more concerned with customer service – even before the person becomes a customer. It means that what you share in your business is just as important as what you do.

I found this great little video on YouTube that illustrates just that. It was put together by Charles Leadbeater who’s a leading authority on innovation and creativity. Charles’s website says he’s currently involved in research which “focuses on how mass, user driven innovation is reshaping organisations.” If you’re in the UK, you may want to check out Charles book, We Think, The Power of Mass Creativity.

One of the quotes from the video that I found so interesting was this:

Communities don’t just want to make money, they want to socialize and gain recognition for the work they do.

Would you agree?

Take a look at the video. It’s about four minutes long. And at the end, I’d love to hear what you think.

So, are you what you produce or are you what you share? Or both? What are your thoughts?

(note: image from Marcio Ruiz on Flickr)

Well, I’m back. Yeah, I know it’s been a while. But I’ve been pretty hard at work.

You’ll also notice that in my month-long absence, I’ve managed to complete a new design of my blog. My goal was to clear out the clutter so the good stuff would be easier to find.

And while I don’t see this layout as being complete, I felt it was close enough to launch it tonight. What I’d love is your feedback. What do you like and don’t like. What works, what doesn’t. And please, if you run into any bugs, let me know. If you could list the browser and operating system you’re using that would be most helpful.

I’m really excited about the layout changes. I’ve got lots of plans for the coming year – including podcasts and video casts. I’m also working on a customized homepage layout – which I’m in no rush to put up.

In the meantime, I’m going back through old posts making sure formatting is solid as well as adding tags and changing my categories (oh what we know in hindsight). Gonna be a lot of work, and for me it’s worth it. So you’ll see small changes on my site over the next few week.

Now that I’ve gotten this launched, updated from WordPress 2.2 to WordPress 2.5, updated my services pages, restructured my growing business and caught up with my work, I’ll also get back to writing regularly – both here and at emoms.

There’s more, of course, including a new blog my wife and I have been hard at work planning. As well as getting her up to speed on her soon-to-be-announced mom blog (about moms, pregnancy, birth and parenting).

So lots going on. Sorry for the break. Now back to our regularly scheduled program…

And remember, I’d love to hear your feedback.

Think about how often you’ve heard someone say, “why would I want to blog? I don’t care about what someone at for breakfast.”

What’s often missed in statements like this is that blogging isn’t just about sharing your personal life. It’s also about sharing your business.

Unlike a traditional, static website however, a blog – or as I like to call it a personal publishing system – gives you the opportunity to connect directly with other people. People who may be in your target audience. Or peers and others who gain something from reading your posts.

But a blog is more than another medium for connecting with people in your target audience and peers. It also provides a platform to engage in conversation. Those conversations can lead to relationships. And those relationships can lead to increased business.

The key is the relationship. And blogging makes the relationship possible with more people, in more places and at more times than any other platform yet created.

Personally and professionally I’ve created dozens of great relationships with readers, bloggers, business owners and peers that have lead to everything from direct business opportunities to referral business to partnerships. Blogging opened for me opportunities that I just didn’t have with my static website.

Now, through the comment box, through email, through linking, and through many of the social services like StumbleUpon or Facebook, I have the chance to meet interesting people from all over the world. People who share my interests. Some become colleagues or friends. Others become clients. But all have come through social media…through blogging.

Blogging (aka social media) is making my business more visible in more ways than I could have imagined. But how is it serving you? How is your blog selling your business? What works, what hasn’t? And what would you recommend as a ‘have to do’ for new business bloggers?

(note: image from Paul Van Metre on Flickr)

I’ve been thinking about this a lot since David Armano talked about it at SOBCon last year. His basic point was that “blogging is a commodity. Anyone can do it. We are human beings with passions and interests that come out in our blogs—not the other way around. Stop calling yourself a blogger. You are a… (designer, businessperson, marketer, artist, baker, mother, grandfather, etc). Calling ourselves bloggers takes away from what makes us unique.”

I have to say that I agree. I think the term blogger is overused and often misunderstood. When I talk with businesses about blogging, they often, even after all this time, think of journaling. They haven’t fully appreciated the breadth of what the term blogger can mean.

Sure, I still use the term blog or blogger, but only in select company and mostly as a shortcut. But I don’t really think of myself as a blogger anymore. Rather, I think of myself as a publisher. And I think of my blog as a publishing platform; one that lets me focus on content instead of site structure.

Think about it. Isn’t blogging basically writing and publishing? That’s pretty much the basic thing we do on our blogs.

When I explain it to business owners that way, it makes sense. When I drop the word blog and talk about a simple, easy-to-use publishing system for their business, it makes sense. It gets us past the terminology and misperceptions. It unbridles our conversation. I mean, what business owner wouldn’t want to have an inexpensive, simple and ever expanding way to share their business with potential customers? Isn’t that what a blog can be?

Yesterday Darren Rowse postsed a great article on this same topic. The video that accompanied the post I’ve included below and would love to hear your thoughts on it.

Darren made three points in his post which are each relevant for the business and nonbusiness blogger publisher alike.

1. “Your competitors don’t limit themselves, why should you?”
   Ideally, you’re thinking of your blog as a website – because, that’s what it is. So rather than thinking about how your blog stacks up against other blogs, consider how your blog stacks up in your business niche.
2. “Your readers don’t really care what format your site is.”
   Really, people want great content – whether it’s in an article bank, part of an ezine or posts on a blog. From their perspective, it’s less important how that great content is delivered than what that great content shares.
3. “(Properly) positioning yourself for the future.”
   If you look around the so-called blogosphere, you’ll see that blogs are changing. They’re morphing into new structures with new features and functions. For me, the term blogging can get in the way of this evolution, don’t you think?

So what do you think? Do you think of yourself as a blogger? If not, what do you call yourself? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Below I’ve posted Darren’s video from his post yesterday. It’s just under 5 minutes. Give it a watch and join the conversation in the comment box.

He may not have had a computer to share his thoughts, nor the internet to spread them. But he did have a printing press where he printed regular installments of Poor Richard’s Almanack.

Ben Franklin was known to have a sharp and witty mind and a love of things social. He loved to share his thoughts on any number of subjects. He loved to stir the pot…and he loved debate.

Think of any bloggers like that?

So Ben Franklin was a blogger before there was blogging. But don’t just take my word for it. All the evidence can be found in his own words:

“Be civil to all; sociable to many; familiar with few; friend to one; enemy to none.”

Isn’t that how blogging works? You want to be an open door to all, have conversations with those who engage you in the comment box, and become familiar with people who are interested in building relationships. Further, you’ll find a small group who will become like friends. And for all, let none become your enemy. Sound advice for any blogger.

And while Ben Franklin was a bit of hot-headed and stubborn in his time, he nonetheless offers great advice on dealing with the negativity we social media-types sometimes face:

“Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain and most fools do.”

“He that blows the coals in quarrels that he has nothing to do with, has no right to complain if the sparks fly in his face.”

“He that would live in peace and at ease, must not speak all he knows nor judge all he sees.”

He was a staunch proponent of finding what was interesting to himself and others and adding what was valuable to your reader’s lives:

“If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write something worth reading or do things worth the writing.”

And he knew so well that people couldn’t be convinced of anything unless they cared.

“If you would persuade, you must appeal to interest rather than intellect.“

What’s more, he knew that people did not want to be lectured too. Rather, they need to be engaged and included in the conversation:

“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.”

Ben Franklin clearly understood that writing a solid, interesting blog post took research:

“An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.”

…and required time and effort:

“He that can have patience can have what he will.”

“Energy and persistence conquer all things.”

…and that that hard work would eventually pay off:

“Employ thy time well, if thou meanest to get leisure.”

He even had advice for probloggers and those who wish to make money from their blogs; offering sound advice for remaining in balance between making money and keeping readers:

“He that is of the opinion money will do everything may well be suspected of doing everything for money.”

Overall, what Ben Franklin reminds us is that if we have something to share…some perspective that’s uniquely ours to share with the world – do it! And don’t let your fears get in the way:

“Hide not your talents, they for use were made. What’s a sun-dial in the shade?”

But perhaps the best advice of all is the advice that Mr. Franklin offered us for living our lives:

“Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that’s the stuff life is made of.”

Do any of Ben Franklin’s thoughts touch a chord in you about your blogging? How? And how could his advice change the way you look at social media?

Without a doubt we fear writing. But why? I’ve thought about this questions a bunch over the years. But seldom have I considered writing about it until the lovely April Groves left a comment on my post 3 Easy Steps to Creating a Web-based Business yesterday.

In 3 Easy Steps, I (and Matt Cutts) suggested that the second step to creating a successful online business is to start a blog. Why? Because it helps you engage directly with your target audience. It’s also the easiest way to begin driving traffic to your site and, hence, have the opportunity to grow your business. Here’s what April said:

I completely agree…but, I’ll tell you… When I present the blogging idea to people I know, the writing aspect scares most of them to death. I hear “But I can’t write” more times than I can count. My best counsel is for them to try writing the way they talk. It goes right to the heart of authentic. But, if you have other coaching suggestions to this block, I’d be all ears.

So why do we fear writing so much?

What I find most interesting is how the belief that we ‘can’t write’ is completely and utterly made up. At best, it’s something we took away from our junior high or high school education. Really, the idea we can’t write is thrust upon us because it just happens to be the opinion of our teachers. It’s not ours – unless we believe it.
But are they right? And can it change?

No, they’re not right. And yes, it can change.

I was one of those students who couldn’t write – so said my teachers. While I excelled at science and math, I could never write. Or at least that’s what I was told. And when I look back, they may have been right – at the time. But it certainly didn’t help to be told I couldn’t write each time I got a paper back.

And yet I sit here today with hundreds of blog posts – the great majority of which are written well enough that hundreds of people like you have wanted to engage me in conversation. Each of those posts has brought some value to people’s lives, their blogging and their business. And I don’t care whether I follow traditional writing methods. I care about communicating with you. So as long as I can do that, I know, without a doubt, that I can write.

So what’s the difference between what I’m writing today and what I was doing in school – other than a few decades of life experience, focus and a bit more maturity?

I think it’s relaxing and letting go of how I was taught to write. Forget the 5 paragraph model. Forget sentence structure and grammar (for the most part) and just write. Just get the words out from your mind. Let them move through your arms and dance you fingers on the keyboard just like they move up from your throat to create symphony between the tongue, larynx and lips when you speak (okay, so I went a little overboard). The point is – let go, and just write.

And for God’s sake, forget that you were ever told you can’t write. Because you can! With the blog – if you can speak, if you can communicate thoughts and ideas, you can write. And you can certainly blog.

I agree with April – write like you speak. Think about writing as a conversation and write that way. All of us can speak at least well enough to be understood in a conversation. So treat blogging like it’s a conversation. And remember that you, the blogger, get to start each conversation, you get to choose the topic and the way of looking at the topic. Then, invite the world to respond.

People care much more about what you want to communicate, what you want to share and how valuable it is to them then they do having beautiful, flowing prose. If you can write like that (communicatrix, I’m thinking of you), great. But if not, just ‘talk’ with people through your keyboard. They’ll learn far more about who you are, how you see things and how you can help them with their problems.

And that’s what leads to sales.

So what do you think…can you write (you should know the answer by now)? What was the biggest thing that you feel hurt your confidence in your writing? And how did you overcome it? I’d love to hear…and so would the people April talks with.

What’s difficult is getting really clear about who you are, what you do and who you do it for. The problem is, there are tons of approaches for doing this which sometimes leads to confusion. Do I need to write a business plan? What about vision? Etc. The questions are many, but the answer are endless.

Of course, once you’ve answered the questions about your business, you have to ask a whole other series of questions around marketing. What system? What mediums? How best to reach our target audience? Etc. This can lead to even greater confusion, frustration and waste of time and money than the business development quesitons.

This whole process can be really big. That’s why I’m always looking for ways to simplify it. Because, really, developing and growing a business isn’t as hard as we make it. Basically, we need to create a compelling service – one that solves a problem that people need solved. Then, we put our service in front of the people who have the problem. That’s really it.

So it’s really very simple – especially with the internet.

That’s why I was excited when I found Matt Cutts‘ 3-step process to building up a really good site (read: business). Take a watch:

Matt Cutt’s 3-Step Process

1. Create a compelling service – spend the time to create something people can love.
2. Start a blog – get links and engage in conversation.
3. Smart marketing – SEO and have something interesting to say.

Pretty simple, right?

So if I was taking Matt’s 3 steps and putting them in my language, I’d say:

1. Create a service, you love, that solves a problem that needs solving. What are you good at? What do you love? What is the need? Bring these three questions together and you’re on your way.
2. Start a blog – and learn how to use it. First write, and write often. Join in the conversation on other blogs immediately. Learn about linking and link often. And really learn how to use one of the social networking sites. You can get to the others later.
3. Get the word out and be authentic – Matt says if you use WordPress, much of your SEO is handled for you already. I’d say 80%. The other 20% is in the details. So worry less about SEO in the beginning and more about the quality of your content. And have something interesting to say – but say it in your way. Be a real person because it’s people that people want to do business with.

So if it’s this easy, why don’t more of us do it? What gets in the way? And why do we make it so difficult?

What do you think?

(note: image, Joe Walking Up The Steps from hip.kids on Flickr)

So I’m a huge advocate for people who want to begin blogging. As a matter of fact, while I still design and build websites (and blogs), I’m doing far more coaching and consulting with people who want to use their blog to increase their reach and grow their business.

One thing I’m constantly doing is suggesting blogs that new bloggers can read to learn more about blogging. And it’s been my intention for quite some time to create a list of blogs as a resource for new bloggers. These would be blogs and bloggers who I hold in high regard and who I, myself, continue to learn from.

But it looks like my colleague Drew McClellan beat me to the punch. He’s just released his New Blogger’s Toolbox. The Toolbox is a listing of bloggers who many of us consider great resources for learning the art of blogging. And since his list is pretty much the same as the one I’d put together, I thought I’d simply recreate here for you and all the people I speak with about blogging.

Drew also divided his list into useful categories. So here you go:

Chock Full of Practical Tips

• Converstations
• Creating Comments
• Yotophoto
• Daily Blog Tips
• Logic + Emotion
• Business Blog Angel
• ProBlogger
• Perfect Blogger
• Internet Marketing Monitor
• WebWare

Living Lab on Writing Compelling Blog Posts

• CK’s blog
• Priscilla Palmer
• Noah Brier
• I’ve been mugged!
• Electric Venom
• Styles of Blogging
• CopyBlogger
• Copywriting Maven
• Modern B2B Marketing
• Servant of Chaos

How to Build Community

• Viral Garden
• Sparkplugging
• Dawud Miracle
• Robyn McMaster
• Noah Kagan
• Christine Kane
• Come Gather Round
• Create Business Growth

Teach Marketing Tools

• Lonely Marketer
• Drew’s Marketing Minute
• Todd And
• Duct Tape Marketing
• Diva Marketing
• David Meerman Scott
• Small Business Marketing Mavericks
• Russell Davies
• Greg Verdino
• Jason Lonsdale
• Matt Dickman
• MP Daily Fix
• BizSolutionsPlus
• PodPress Forum
• Seth Godin
• CrapHammer
• Blogopreneur
• Hee Haw Marketing
• Conversation Agent
• Note to CMO

Welcome Wagons for Newbies

• Successful & Outstanding Blogs
• Converstations
• The Good Blogs

Contributors to Drew’s Toolbox:

• Robyn McMaster
• C.B. Whittemore
• Lori Magno
• Janet Green
• Joanna Young
• Paul McEnany
• Mario Vellandi
• Richard Cockrum
• Ryan Karpeles
• Liz Strauss
• Lewis Green
• Patrick Schaber
• Gianandrea
  
• Facchini
• Chris Brown
• Spinning Silk Multimedia

Thanks Drew, for putting this list together and making it available to all of us. You know, if you combine this list with my Ultimate WordPress Resource Guide, you’ve got just about everything you need to be a successful blogger.

And, if you have a blog that you think should be included that isn’t, please let me know in the comment box so I can add them and pass them on to Drew.

Also, in the future I’ll be sending lots of people to this page as a resource. So if you have comments on how any of these bloggers have helped you, please include it below…and know you’re helping someone who is learning how to blog.

(note: image Confused from An’veula on Flickr)

We spent the better part of an hour talking about how a blog, when used well, can become a hub for creating buzz about her business. But as we talked, I could sense there was something I wasn’t communicating clearly enough for her to understand.

She was focusing on how her blog would get her in front of so many more people than her static website and how those people would “just convert to clients.”

Of course it doesn’t just work like that. People don’t just become clients for no reason. And just because we’re blogging doesn’t mean our business will grow.

So I asked her to describe how she’d write a blog post to me. She said she’d simply write about what she does, how she helps people and what problems she can solve. She knew from our previous conversations that she wanted to use her blog to build conversation with her readers. And she was clear that she needed to followup with her commenters.

It all sounds pretty good, right? But something was missing for me. Then I asked her what the point of having the conversation in the comment box with her readers. She told me to convert them to clients. So I asked her, “do you see your readers and commenters as prospects?” Her answer was, “Certainly!”

So I asked her, “What about you, your family, your life…are you planning to share any of that through your blog?”

“Why would I,” she responded? “I don’t want them to focus on my life, I want them to do business with me.”

Ah, now my fog was lifted. I knew what she meant – that she wants to use her blog to draw perspective clients that she can then interact with and convert them into clients. But she was unknowingly leaving something out…the relationship.

Sure, there’s lots of ways to market your business using your blog. How I use mine is to build relationships with people. I don’t see you, someone reading my blog, as a reader (though I’ve used the term) nor a prospect. Rather, I see you as a person; someone who has some interest in what I have to say. Hence, I have interest in getting to know who you are. That’s fertile soil for a relationship.

So I share with my client how I’ve found relationships to be the key to growing my business successfully over the years. I’ve learned that when I let the relationship lead the way, the business end of things takes care of itself. I’m not talking about relationships over business. I’m talking about the relationship part of business leading the way.

That’s one way I’ve found conversational blogging to be so powerful. The comment box creates a space for us to have a conversation. Over time, that conversation can lead to a relationship. Some of those relationships can be acquaintances, some friendships, and some business relationships. And each on different levels that grow organically.

When I shared all this with my client (we went over our hour), she got it. Not only did she get it, she was invigorated by the potential to touch people. And while she wasn’t, yet, completely clear how to ‘lead with the relationship,’ she had a sense of how it worked.

So how has blogging helped you create conversations that have led to relationships? What type of relationships have you built? And how have those relationships benefitted your business?�

That’s the question I asked the other day which led to an interesting, and in some cases spirited, conversation. I love that we have the space and freedom to openly share our opinions. And I’m grateful that you feel comfortable enough to be open and honest here, in our comment box.

One statement that was made a few times in our conversation is how your newsletter content shouldn’t be separate from your blog content. So should your newsletter articles be different from your blog content?

This is a question that I get asked often. And my answer has evolved over time. At first I thought, “yes, they should be separate.” But now I feel the opposite. Your newsletter subscribers should be able to find your newsletter content on your blog…AND, before they get your newsletter.

Why?

Let’s think about the purpose of an e-newsletter. While it serves many, the main reasons you have a newsletter is to keep in contact with people who have some interest in your business. In doing so you want to give them valuable articles that can help them, build trust and pitch products and services. In other words, your newsletter is about building a relationship.

Yet a newsletter is quite limited in how it does this. Basically, you send it out and it arrives in subscriber’s inbox. They decide to read it or not. And if they do read it, they decide whether they’re going to select one of your offers. That’s pretty much it. The relationship and trust are built through multiple editions and by giving them great content.

But your newsletter can be so much more in building trust and relationship.

Imagine if your newsletter article was only the beginning of a conversation. With it, you simply kicked off an interesting topic that could be discussed, debated and shared easily. You would gain and your readers would as well. And, the conversation would go much further toward building trust with your subscribers.

Well, isn’t that was a blog does?

So forget exclusive content for your newsletter. Your readers likely don’t care if your content is exclusive or not. What they care about is whether the content adds to their life or their business. And if you help them, they’re going to want to get to know you better. And that’s what your blog can do.

Use your newsletter to direct them to the comment box on your blog. Create conversation…build relationships. Let your newsletter become the beginning of an interactive exchange between you and people who are interested in what you offer.

If you’re doing this already, I’d love to hear your experiences. If not, let’s talk about why? And if you’re opposed to publishing all your newsletter content on your blog, I’d love to hear more. So let’s talk…

Sure, we each blog for different reasons. Some of us want to express our views or write about something we love. Others of us want make a buck or promote our business. And some just want to share their lives with others.

Regardless of why you’re blogging, it’s likely you’re doing so to get attention.

Now, I don’t mean that in a childish, acting out way. I mean that you want to be noticed; that you’re writing to gain an audience. And you want your audience to so something whether they’re just reading and commenting, clicking link ads or answering a survey. So you want attention – you want to be noticed.

But what do you when suddenly no one seems to be paying attention to your blog?�

That’s the question that Liz Strauss asked me our latest one2one conversation.

As a blog and business consultant and coach, I get asked questions like this all the time. After all, the far majority of us blogging are doing so because we have something to share. But it’s hard to share when no one’s listening, right?

So what do you do when no one seems to be listening?

First of all, how do you know no one’s listening? Just about every blog that’s been around more than a couple of months sees some traffic – even it it’s a trickle. So people are listening. Okay, so they may not be listening, or even reading, but that trickle of traffic is finding you.

So you need to set criteria for evaluating whether people are paying attention or not. Doesn’t matter what you decide as the criteria, as long as you have some method to measure it. It could be traffic stats or referrals sources. It could be Technorati ranking or number of feed subscriptions. It could be how many comments you’re getting or how many ad click-throughs. Really, it doesn’t matter what your criteria are. Just be sure that it has meaning to you and it can be measured.

Once you have your criteria, you’ll want to begin measuring it. If you’re focused on comments it should be easy because your blogware (WordPress, Blogger, TypePad, etc) will show you comment stats. If it’s traffic, you’ll want to look at your server stats either through your hosting company or a service like Google Analytics. Technorati, feed subscriptions, and click-through ads will all have ways of measuring your what’s happening.

Why measure? Because it gives you a more objective sense of what’s happening on� your blog. Sometimes what you sense is happening just isn’t accurate. For instance, if you’re blogging for the conversation you’re probably interested in the number of comments your posts get. So if the number of comments goes down, it tells you that something in your writing isn’t helping your readers create conversation. In this case, you’d go back, look at the posts that have few comments and compare it posts that got more comments. What’s commonly different between them? It could be content, style or wording. Find what’s missing and write your next few posts with those elements in place – and measure what happens.

If your traffic’s dropped, look back at your stats and see why. One place to start is with your referrers. Are you getting the same amount of traffic through your referrers? If not, find out why. Compare the headlines from your most popular posts and those that are less popular – see a difference? Also, think back to those higher traffic times and consider what you were doing then that you’re not doing now. Maybe you used to comment more on other blogs and you’re not now. That’s easy to remedy.

In general, you can almost always measure what’s going on with your blog. After you’ve set the criteria that’s important to you, it gives you a place to spend your time. That way you don’t have to be bogged down with the many aspects of your blog – you can focus on the one to two most important parts.

Probably the biggest thing is to remember that blogging is for your readers. So if you can’t figure out why it seems people aren’t paying attention to your blog, ask your readers. As in a post and elicit comments. Maybe even email a number of readers and create a dialogue with them. They know why they read your blog better than you ever will. And if they like you, most will be more than happy to help. So ask.

The key to all this is to see what works for you and your readers and what doesn’t – or at least what works less well. Blogging is a bit of trial and error – even if you know what you’re doing. Even Darren Rowse is still experimenting with Problogger. So be willing to explore things, try things and see how they work.

Which is what leads me to my next question for Liz…

What have you thought would work on your blog that bombed with your readers? And what did you learn from it?

You know, I’m not just asking Liz, but you too. Let’s see if the comment box can carry two conversations – one about what to do when people aren’t paying attention to your blog AND the other around what have you tried that’s bombed with your readers.