Enlightened Marketing & Online Strategy Blog

It’s taken me two full years of “real” blogging (1.5 years of which were pretty much time wasted) and 1.5 years of professional web designing and online strategy consulting to finally come to a real understanding of the purpose and power of blogging for your business.

Today, I reveal it to you… :)

Guess what? I’m living my purpose, and I’ve never had more fun, or made a more powerful impact in the lives of people I work with. My stand-alone consulting is taking off, and I’m focusing far less on web design.

Bottom-line is this: forget about providing “useful content” – 100,000 people are using that same strategy every day, and it’s WEAK. You have to be a marketing NINJA if you want your business to blow up, and cut through the noise online. You have to create an aura of relevance, social proof and perceived social status.

The best and easiest way to do that is through ALLIANCES with people who you admire, people in your niche, people who rock. Online.

Capiche?

Every single blogger posted here falls under that description. If we haven’t built an alliance yet, it’s only because of my own self-perceived limitations up to this time. Do you have the same fear of putting yourself out there sometimes? Get over it.

Are you 100% committed to what you’re doing (and what you’re doing is helping other people)? You need to get past your fears, fulfill your mission, and go kick some ass already. I assure you that e v e r y s i n g l e o n e of these leaders linked here are worth your time to read, follow, and get to know.

Warning: this is going to be one of those annoying posts that link to a s***load of articles. Just click on the ones that interest you, related to the primary problems you’re trying to solve right now for your business.

p.s. there are no affiliate links here.

Oh, are there a lot of problems to solve for your business? My guess is they have A LOT to do with time management and cash-flow. Start by creating a to-do list system that actually works.

I recently adapted Leo’s “Kill Your TO-DO List” approach with a weekly entrepreneurial time-management strategy I learned and adapted from Danielle LaPorte. I’ve never been happier.

OK — the main point is this. I spent 1.5 years being all gingery about my blogging, and reading thousands of articles on the subject, and 99% of it all is USELESS information. I don’t care if you do the same thing, focus everything on learning, or implementing a blog profits blueprint like Yaro’s. But truth be told, unless you’re focusing on building status, and developing TIGHT relationships, you’re probably going to be wasting your time.

The number one truth is that the benefits of blogging go primarily to the blogger, and don’t relate NEARLY as much to the content that’s being served. The whole point of blogging is to elevate your perceived social standing, and be able to play on the same field as the bigwigs, the bestselling authors, and the people who’ve been working their asses off to live their dream.

That’s why comments are important, right?

Guess what, (and I learned this painfully early) the overwhelming majority of your commenters don’t comment just because they care, or because they feel moved by what you say (small percentage). Commenters make comments to raise their exposure, their status and their profile, and get traffic to their sites.

Back in 2008 when Leo still allowed commenting on Zen Habits, I remember this kinda quirky and controversial kid, Clay Collins, who used to comment like every single frickn day on Leo’s blogs. It was kind of annoying, but effective. Got my attention anyway. Guess what? A year or so later, Clay expertly parlayed his status in the personal development world into a 6-figure internet-marketing training program and virtual business, primarily through the relationships he leveraged with a handful of partners who at his level or above in perceived social status. Oh, and through the relationships with his community he developed through his blog, and leveraged through masterful status positioning.

[UPDATE: Lesson from this section is don't waste energy on random occasional comments, integrate commenting into your overall positioning, networking and alliance-building strategy.]

Don’t waste your time reading blogging for business advice: (like my own)

Catch a fire and just do it.

Let’s not waste time in constructing any more valuable blog-writing advice – it’s all useless, if you don’t have a strategy in place that rests in your own solid foundation in WHO you are, WHY you’re here, and WHAT you’re doing to support your mission. And of course WHO YOUR SERVING.

SO, assuming you have that info, you should be on fire, you should be making shit happen — most importantly, you should be BUILDING ALLIANCES — why aren’t you continually going out and building alliances with people who are in your circle of interest, friends and associates you’ve worked with in the past, and players in the field you respect that are already ahead of you…?

…Is it fear?

I’ll say it again: Get over it.

Here are a few more resources to help you with that:

Ok, you want a step-by-step to “Networking with the A-listers?”

Read and Download Dave Navarro’s 7 steps for networking with a-listers fast

Start with getting a strong foundation of who you are, and what you offer online, move to the people you know, then move to the people you respect who are up-and-coming, and don’t burn your bridges by being an A-hole, or asking for stuff, without actually being cool, and developing relationships.

You want some more reasons for blogging at ground zero?

Talk to Sarah Joy, she understands: 7 Reasons to feature your content on your home page

You want to read the only post you’ll need on social media strategy for the rest of 2010?

Read Glenn Allsop’s Social Media Supremacy: 10 Experts Reveal Their Strategies

You want to forge a stronger connection between your spirit and your wallet?

Read Mark Silver’s amazing new (free) guidebook: “Backwards/Forwards”

You want to know why I’m writing this article?

Read about Melissa Gorzelanczyk’s 80 Day Project.

I started mine this week. For me, it’s all about highly effective and productive creative expression (and, yeah, getting amazing things done).

I could go on forever, but I do have work that’s waiting to get done (and people waiting to speak with me). Today is supposed to be my all-out with the clients day. As Chris Guillebeau would say: from time to time, it’s good to Question Everything.

My little magic secret

OK, you made it thus far, do you want to know the magic secret I discovered that changed everything for me, and created the foundation for me to go out and do some serious butt-kicking for my business and my dreams?

Focus EVERYTHING you do on GIVING, instead of TAKING. That’s it. Life-changing.

Start by living – breathing – feeling generosity pouring from your spirit, along with admiration, compassion, love, and abundance – for everyone you appreciate, admire, respect adore, in your life, online, in your social circles, in everything you do. That’s it. OK?

So please, just go out there and do it, stand out, and “be somebody” — be gloriously, amazingly, out-standingly YOU (the best, and most remarkable of you, tho, K?).

“Everything is judged by its appearance; what is unseen counts for nothing. Never let yourself get lost in the crowd, then, or buried in oblivion. Stand out. Be conspicuous, at all cost. Make yourself a magnet of attention by appearing larger, more colorful, more mysterious, than the bland and timid masses.”

- Thanks, Future Buzz (from “48 Laws of Power.”)

You know what else?

1: If you were signed up to my private email list, you would have gotten a lot of this information before anyone else.

2: If you share this post with your friends I will notice, and I will appreciate it! :)

3: Thanks for being here, and thanks for all you do – believe me, it IS noticed.

PHOTO by John Curly