Morning!
A few days ago, I wrote Enter a Lightning Bolt – Part 2 of Inceptions Deceptions – the second installment of my spine-tingling reinvention adventures! And I closed with the revelation of my Free Marketing community where every day I give away nifty sites and resources for free.
Free? But wait a sec – that means I don't make any money from it!
So you're probably wondering:
"Gee Barb, why are you even bothering with that?"
Which I'll admit, is a magnificently brilliant question indeed!
To answer it, I have to turn up the reminiscing music, allow you to gently close your eyes and relax your very soul, and take you back, back…back to…..square one.
Or actually, square 1 or square 2 or square 3 or square 4.
Are you there yet? Well? What was that?
You don't know what I MEAN by "square 1"?
Oh yes, silly me!
I meant those dippy square button advertisements you often see on websites in the sidebar.
NOW…is it all coming back?
Think about it! When you first started blogging and thinking about making money online, weren't you told to include square 125×125 advertising do-hickies on your sidebar?
Hmmmm?
I know I sure was! All those nifty neato coolio squareio buttonsio that were available to add….'course, they'd all be associated with affiliate links!
And oh, the money I made! My gosh, it defied description! I think it might have been even MORE (I hope you're sitting down for this) than……$3 a day!
(and the crowd goes wild!)
Crowd? Crowd? You're supposed to go wild….crowd?
Yep. What I said.
See, those affiliate graphics/etc. hardly made me ANY money back then.
And you know why?
Because when I was starting out, my readers had little connection to me…and little reason to spend money on blatant advertising links on me site.
But what happened to me isn't important….What about YOU?
How much money have YOU made from those square thingees on your sidebar?
Which brings me to the point of this post.
If you're NOT a living breathing person, you're not going to engage your reader. Well, okay, that's an idjut thing to say – unless you're a feisty ghost, OBVIOUSLY you ARE both living AND breathing already!
But….tell me now. And be honest, okay?
- Does your audience connect with you?
- Do your words affect your reader?
- When people visit your site, do their emotions get engaged? Do their brains fire up? Have you made a difference in their life?
In other words, have they become part of YOUR community?
See, when people feel like they know you, when people start to anticipate your postings and your conversation and your connections…they become part of YOUR community.
And when they're part of YOUR community, they are far more likely to both buy from you…and check out YOUR affiliate links as well.
In today's day and age of social media connecting, it just make sense, right?
But.
But.
BUT! A big huge opportunity for massively huge frustration now erupts!
Saying you're going to build a community is one thing….actually getting out there and just freakin' DOING it…now that's character-building to the max!
But it's something that honestly…just HAS to be done.
Which I why I started it.
See, it all goes back to the typical bigdog marketing hype of Inception's Deceptions – you're TOLD that all you have to do is add this affiliate link here or slap up that affiliate graphic there…and voila, you'll be rolling in the mooooola stuff yesterday!
And you know what I have to say about that?
It's a profoundly pathetic personalized pipe dream.
Plain and simple.
Because let's face it – it ALL goes back to engaging your future customer.
Let your future buyers become part of your community…and your future profits will grow.
It's that simple.
Actually, now that I think on it….it's NOT that simple. Let me amend the above to:
Let your future buyers investigate your community…and SEE all the magnificent goodies it delivers…and start to anticipate everything you have to share….your profits can't help but grow in the skywards direction.
But.
But.
BUT BUT BUT BUT!
A dazzling opportunity for extreme frustration now arises!
How on earth DO you enable that blog community?
Hmmmm?
Not to fear! I've found the following nifty ideas for you:
- 5 Powerful Blog Plugins That Build Community & Increase Page Views
- 8 Tips for Building Community on Your Blog
- 10 Ways to Build Your Blog Community with Twitter
- Building Community Sites with WordPress: 15 Plugins to Get Started
- How To Build A Community Of Readers Who Want To Do Business With You
- How To Build A Community
- How to Turn Your WordPress Blog Into a Social Network
- It's not rocket science. A retrospect at one year of community building
And that's why I started my own free marketing community.
Who knows…perhaps I'll be able to add a premium component as well! And you can be sure that IF that does indeed happen….my community members will already be well aware of the value they can expect.
And here's something neat – putting together the backend of that community….wow, was that an adventure in enjoyable gnawing off the enamel of my coffee cup! You see, there's a simple reason why – it was because I needed to do some hard-core tweaking of site…..stuff I had never ever done before.
How I pulled THAT off – well! It would take a whole 'nother blog post of itself to do justice to it! So stay tuned to Inception's Deceptions Part IV – you'll love not only what you discover…but also what you'll be able to apply yourself for your own 2011 success.
See you then!
Best wishes,
Barbara Ling
Get Started Here
You’ll love what you learn… Promise!