You never close a stie down. This site still gets a few hits every week, so it means something to keep it up. But for the most part, we’re now moved over to Flat Rate Web Jobs & Patriot Connect.
Patriot Connect: Libertarian and Tea Party Websites & Work
Libertarian & Tea Party Fund-raising Websites are available over at our sister/offspring company “Patriot Connect”.
That site is for any grassroots/netroots/ron paul supporters that want to learn to raise money for the cause of liberty. You can’t take any party money to get our services as there’s some “extra” stuff above and beyond the normal that people are getting.
Small Business Websites: Flat Rate Web Jobs
We’re handling all small business websites through Flat Rate Web jobs. This is where to go if you need a custom web site done in a few days.
Small business blogging can work, if you follow established best practices. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel with every single blog idea that flits across your subconsciousness. You don’t have to be creative.
“If it doesn’t sell, it isn’t creative.” -David Ogilvy
What you have to do is follow what works. Do what we already know what to do and cover your bases beyond that. Meaning this: you know what messages work in your business, they work online and offline. You have to communicate frequently first, and then rrefine your message. People expect instant results, and that’s possible, but not without really top shelf communication.
So, if you’re not getting incredible results from your blog & social media, maybe you’re making one of these mistakes:
- Not having info customers are looking for.
- Not having enough information (show more leg)
- Having information about YOU and not about what the CUSTOMER gets.
- Having no contact/normal & formal business information for the customer.
- Having no social proof that you do a good job (memberships & testimoinals)
- Having old, outdated “coming soon” pages.
- Having too many placeholders
- Having too many different kinds of offers (nobody wants to deal with jacks of all trades, seem like a specialist).
- Having a messy site.
- Not having enough stuff about your company.
- Putting blogs that are all about buying now, without informing the customers.
- Putting posts out there that don’t help people understand more about what your business.
- Not responding to comments.
- Not loving links.
- Not including metadescriptions with every post.
- Not including some post structure.
- Not including a business address on your RSS feed.
- Making customers fill in a form if they want to talk and not giving them control (Really, really arrogant).
- Not mentioning what you sell & why you blog.
- Having 1000 categories with one post each.
- Having six bajilion tags (kill tags)
- Having dates all over the place on your blog.
- Not backing up claims.
- Having too many links.
There are more mistakes you can make, but take heart: it’s easy to do everything right, the path is well lit and easily viewed.
The current 2.0 obsession is personal branding. I respect some of the ideas. Make a name for yourself, do what it takes to be known. Get followers. Be a rockstar freelancer. Be buzzworthy. Be an event. Be a micro celebrity. That’s what folks want. Seem to be successful, fake it till you make it. Total Crap.
It’s mostly crap, unless it’s a means to communicate how you serve people.
Sure, being known is important. I get it. But people are focusing on getting known first. Before they have skills. Before they focus on what they are here to give, how they are here t help. “Know me.” is the entitled cry that people have. Things become about people in lieu of ideas, and the man and the work get muddled up so that an attack on the work is an attack on the man. When we are all about us, then what happens is not good.
My Dream Personal Branding Workshop
Instead of a Personal Branding Workshop on how to dress, how to appear, how to be successful, how to look good, I’d change the focus. I want to be known for helping small businesses. I want to be known as the guy that taught small businesses how to make money from their blogs. So, my workshop would focus on this: what are you giving to others.
My agenda:
- Developing a valuable giveaway to be known for.
- Creating usefulness for the public.
- Networking with other people that are giving value away.
- Putting the focus on the people you want to help.
- Creating a mindset of service, and the skillset to serve.
That’s it. Customer focused. I don’t matter to the customer. What I look like doesn’t matter. If I have a dog doesn’t matter. What matters is who I’m here to help, what I’m giving to you, and how I can be of service to you. Focusing on image first, without the heart of service will get some results. Not nearly the results though, that are yours by focusing on how you can help other people.
Personal Branding Tips That Matter
But if you focus on helping others FIRST, if you focus on making it so that people win from working on you…you get more. That’s what’s making me wealthy. When I switched my service from “what can Chris get” to “what can Chris do to help,” the world radically changed for me. That is making me financially secure faster than any skill I’ve ever acquired. My personal branding statement isn’t about me, it’s about what I do to help.
- Focus on caring first. People smell BS.
- Focus on giving more to others.
- Focus on being of service in every way.
- Focus on what service you give to others.
That’s it. The people that do this with the highest level of authority and skill are all about this simple idea are all about this. So ask: is your message making you a star, your content a star, or what you’re here to give a star? What is more attractive to others, your success, or your service?
Personal Branding For Small Business and soloprenuers has to be about what you’re doing for others. Period. I’ll hit this more often and do some case studies as time permits.
