Is Guest Writing A Good Way To Market Your Business?

July 31, 2008

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Some people market their business by guest writing for other blogs. I haven’t done this myself yet. But, I’ve spoken to others who guest posted on blogs. Some say it wasn’t really worth it, while others have received huge benefits.

The people who seem to have had the most success are the ones who have guest posted on several blogs in a relatively short period of time. Two that come to mind are Skellie and Tim Brownson.

Skellie’s blog became a success overnight and I’m guessing her brilliant guest posts helped a lot. And I don’t know whether Tim is seeing a return on his investment yet. But I’m guessing he will eventually. He’s written some excellent guest posts, including this one: Are You A Manager Or A Leader?

If I was planning to do a guest posting campaign myself, I think I’d:

1) Study the blog carefully and read at least a dozen posts.

2) Read through the comments section on the blog, to get an idea of what type of post the readers enjoyed most.

3) Contact the blog owner, with a brief outline of the post I was going to write.

4) Put as much effort into the post as I would put into writing my own blog. And I’d edit it carefully.

5) If my guest post was turned down, I’d ask what needed to be changed and I’d offer to rewrite it.

6) If it still wasn’t good enough, I wouldn’t get upset about the rejection. Bloggers take their sites seriously - if they don’t feel that something is right for their readers, it’s far better to risk offending one writer, than it is to turn off their entire blog readership.

Have you guest posted before? Did you find it beneficial? Would you do it again? If someone sent you a badly written guest post for your blog - what would you do?

Posted by cathlawson | Filed Under Marketing | 24 Comments

Lack Of Anticipation - A Huge Business Mistake

July 30, 2008

When I announced that I’d sank a business, I promised I would share some of my mistakes. Lack of anticipation was a huge one.

Dig Deep - Then Dig Some More

When we launched our plumbing business, I anticipated a drop in the housing market. And I figured this wouldn’t matter to us, as we were mostly targeting domestic customers, not house builders. This was a huge mistake. I didn’t dig deep enough. Can you anticipate what might happen if there was a decline in your market? Think about it carefully. Don’t just look at the obvious, as I did.

What Would Your Competitors Do?

If you’re thinking about starting a small business, you need to be smarter than I was. You need to think about what may happen if there is a decline in your industry. But you also need to think about what your competitors would do in that situation and aim to do something different and better yourself. Put yourself in the shoes of your competitors. What do you think they may do if there was a decline in your industry?

Thinking You’re Different And Better Is Not Enough

I was foolish. I thought we were different and better. Not only were we happy to tackle the small jobs other plumbers wouldn’t touch, we could do it at lightening speed. And of course, we had to charge premium prices, to enable us to offer this service 24 hours a day.

Other plumbing firms were busy doing larger, more lucrative jobs on building sites. So it didn’t occur to me what might happen when folk stopped building and the lucrative work dried up.

Of course some of those businesses did go bust. But others did what most of us would do. They went after what work they could get - the small jobs - the type of work we were doing. What would you do if your competitors expanded into your niche and began to undercut your prices? Is there something you could offer that would be virtually impossible for your competition to offer?

What About Customer Loyalty?

When there’s a credit crunch, people spend less money. And no matter how much they love your service - when there’s heaps of people out there available to do it for them - at a much lower rate, they’re inclined to forget all about loyalty. What can you do to encourage customer loyalty if there’s a credit crunch? Could you offer special incentives to your existing customers? Is there anything else you could do?

Can’t You Just Undercut Everyone Else?

I’m not a huge fan of undercutting to get business. And it’s impossible to pay wages and other overheads when you’re competing against folk who are working on their own and not paying taxes, insurance etc. What could you do to compete when competitors are cutting their prices, without cutting your own? What message can you use to ensure that potential customers don’t just want the lowest price. How can you get that message to potential customers?

Think about the industry you’re in, or thinking of going into. Who are your competitors? What do you think they might do in an economic downturn? What could you do that is different to what they’re doing? How could you protect yourself?

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Posted by cathlawson | Filed Under Misc | 12 Comments

Time Off

July 29, 2008

Over the next couple of weeks, I won’t have access to the Internet often. But I’ve pre-written some posts. So please don’t be offended if I don’t respond to comments quickly.

What do you when you don’t have access to the Internet? Do you pre-write posts? Do you still enable comments, or do you switch comments off?

Posted by cathlawson | Filed Under Misc | 18 Comments

Make The Business Of Influence Work For You

July 28, 2008

The power of mass influence never ceases to amaze me. Some people will do absolutely anything if everyone else seems to be doing it.

Check out this video on Barbara Ling’s blog and discover how many people were easily persuaded to sign a petition to ban water.

So Just How Easy It To Influence Thousands Of People?

50,456,002 people voted for George Bush in the 2000 Presidential Election.
Millions of people signed up to Hotmail.
Amway has recruited enough people to make their owners multi-millionaires.
Facebook has around 75 million members.

As Ari Herzog explains in this article, a major part of friendship is the desire to know what the other person is doing. This goes a long way toward explaining why social networking is so popular. But it doesn’t explain how so many people were persuaded to join Amway, or Avon etc. So, I’m guessing there must be other factors involved too.

Why do you think people are so easily influenced by what others are saying and doing? How could you use this to your advantage in business? Please discuss your thoughts and ideas in the comments section.

Image Credit: Snap

Posted by cathlawson | Filed Under Marketing | 17 Comments