The Dangers of Using Contributing Authors on Your Blog

Using contributing authors on your blog is a sure way of easing the burden from you in terms of the time it takes to research, write and post your blog but, there are a few major pitfalls that you’ll want to avoid so that you still control your blog and not your contributors.

What actually prompted me to write this post was the fact that I’d received an email from Feedblitz this morning showing that I’d updated my blog and so I was a little shocked knowing that I did nothing on it over the weekend. 

After I calmed down and realised that no one had hacked into my site, I was semi okay with the posts but on closer inspection, I saw red!

Here’s what happened …

I submitted my blog to a service that allowed people to automatically post unique content to my blog on a regular basis.  And, since it wasn’t compulsory to keep my blog in the system, I gave it a try.  First off, I didn’t even get confirmation that my blog had been accepted into the system which is why I thought I’d been hacked when I received an email from Feedblitz indicating that I’d updated my blog.

My real contentions with this system which, you may have recognised has remained nameless, are these:

Too Many Promotions

Of the four blog posts that appeared on my blog, every single one of them was an obvious promotion of someone elses product.  Do I object to using promotions on your blog?  No, but where possible, I like to stick to a ratio of 4 or 5 to 1, meaning that if I do promote someone elses products it’s only after I’ve given you some solid ”how to” information that you can use and which, won’t cost you a penny.

Duplicate Promotions

There is only one thing worse than too many promotions … having duplicate promotions on the same day!  One contributing author wrote two blogs posts about the same promotion (albeit both articles had a different spin) and, both articles were posted to my blog on the same day.   

Crappy Promotions 

Whilst not a word wildly accepted in my British culture as coming from a Christian lady, a) I know it’s wildly accpeted in the US from whence comes most of my readers and b) I can’t think of a better word that describes what I want to say here. :-) 

One promotion was for a free report that consisted of one page (about six small paragraphs), in the form of a sales letter and, which told you NOTHING about what you might find inside the actual product being offered, except for the fact that the creator makes almost half a million dollars per year using this method and, that it was about listbuilding.

I mean … come on!  I’m used to meaty reports or [tag-tec]teleseminars[/tag-tec] and webinars where guys promoting their products give you the meat and the potatoes, making you want more of what you’ve just been hearing.  The report was so poor, that I had to conclude that the final product couldn’t be any good either and so that post had to go.

I did love the promotion about [tag-tec]Dan Kennedy’s[/tag-tec] product though but I personally want to check it out myself and then I may do a blog post on it thereafter since I have a policy that I do not promote products I have not personally reviewed or used … Period! 

I admit that part of me felt relieved that my blog was being updated so frequently, but I had to ask the question, “at what cost?” 

Consequently, I have removed all four blog postings from trishjones.com and from now on, I will stick to writing the posts myself or, get some articles written for me that I can inject with my own personality and my own views before I post them to my blog.

If you do allow other bloggers to contribute articles to your blog, I would only do so on the basis that you vet the posts before they are submitted and, I would personally insist that they provide your readers with good quality information they can use.

Apologies to those of you who had received the [tag-tec]Feedblitz[/tag-tec] update today, clicked on the links only to find an empty page.  I’m sure I’ll get your vote of confidence that you want quality information, not quantity selling.

To Your Online Success,

 

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Joint Ventures - The Easiest List Building Strategy, Bar None!

Okay, others will tell you that buying lists is the easiest way to build a list, but I will tell you from experience, it’s headache and, it’s wasted money.

Sure some of the top Internet Marketer’s used this strategy in days gone by, but if you try to import these names into Aweber, 1Shopping Cart or any of the other online subscription databases there will be trouble and from experience, these lists are unresponsive.  In other words, they’re likely to buy nothing from you and they could even report you for spamming them!

So what if you are about to launch a product and you don’t
have a list and want to generate some cash fast.

I was personally in this situation last year. 

I set up a membership site showing people how to set up and sell their products and services with their blog and whilst I did have a list, it wasn’t very big so, I decided I had to make the best choice that would a) get people to my site fast and b) build my list in the process …

[tag-tec]Joint Venture Marketing[/tag-tec]!

I had heard Internet Marketers talking about Joint Ventures and how great it was for co creating or promoting a new or relaunched product, but you know what I thought … 

Who would want to partner with me?  And why would any of the top Internet Marketers want to promote my product to their list anyway?

WRONG QUESTIONS!

The question I should have been asking was “how can I get [tag-tec]joint venture[/tag-tec] partners to work with me.”

And, thanks to Marc Goldman, Shawn Casey and Marlon Sanders who explained in laymans terms (simple enough for me to understand!) that partnering with even the best online marketer began only with “knowing how to approach a prospective joint venture partner,” I soon lost that fear of approaching people to become an affiliate or [tag-tec]Joint Venture[/tag-tec] parther on the grounds that I wasn’t good enough.

After all, I believed in my product and so the question I had to ask is “why wouldn’t they want to promote my program.”

To cut a long story short, it was Christmas 2007 and I wanted to promote my new site and generate some extra cash.  I didn’t have much time to create YouTube videos, podcasts, articles, web PR (though I did use this very powerful method too) and so I contacted three potential Joint Venture partners and asked them whether they would be willing to promote my new membership site as an affiliate.

Just to give an example of one success, I sent an email about 2:00am in the morning to one of the top Internet Marketers online (I live in the UK for those of you who may not be aware) and I woke up the next morning to all these emails that read … “you have a new subscriber …” 

You have no idea what confidence that gave me, but in that day alone, and from just one joint venture letter that I sent out and one short email giving some information about my product, I raised around $800 (about £400 UK pounds). 

Not too shabby in my view considering this prospect had no idea the email was coming and, barely knew me.

If you want to learn how to do successful joint ventures though, I’m really not the person to learn from! :-)  I only did what I was instructed to do!  But, if you want to learn for FREE from the guy who started the buzz around [tag-tec]joint venture marketing[/tag-tec], then I highly recommend that head on over [tag-tec]Joint Venture[/tag-tec] University and let Marc Goldman tell you how you can get access to his [tag-tec]joint venture success[/tag-tec] secrets and like I said .. it’s free although there is an upgrade option IF you want to take advantage of Marc’s offer.

Don’t turn your nose up at this free content though, just because it’s free.  There is no skimping on content in the free members area and there certainly is enough in there for you to replicate what I did just a few months back.

When you’ve signed up for your free account, come back and report to me … really.  I want your feedback on what you think about the content at [tag-tec]Joint Venture[/tag-tec] University.

To Your Online Success,

 

Look After Your Long-Term Customers

I’m sure you’ve heard it said that acquiring a new [tag-tec]customer cost[/tag-tec] more than selling another product or service to an existing customer right?

Well, I want to share with you my little experience with purchasing a new mobile phone last weekend and, help you not to make the same mistake!

Basically, I have been a faithful customer with Orange in the UK for about 15 years now and during this period I had three mobile phones with them including my mums and my husbands.  

Anyway, in the last month or so, my mobile phone contract ended and I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do so I didn’t hurry to upgrade.  But, last Saturday, I decided it was time for an upgrade and, in terms of personality types, I’m the Socializer or the Sunshine Yellow if you’ve done Insights … basically, we like gadgets and once we’ve made a decision to have a new one, there is no time like the present!

So, I call Orange and ask about upgrading to a Blackberry since I want email on the go … not sure this is a good idea yet though.  But I’m told by the sales person that the upgrade would cost me £30 (which I really don’t mind paying) and I would remain on my current contract of 700 minutes and some. 

Now, I know I can talk - afterall, I am “The Socializer” but not even I need 700 minutes!  

And you’ve got to understand guys, after being with the same company for almost 15 years, I really was reluctant to leave so I decided to take a trip down town - as we say in the UK - and take a look at my options.

My little girl and I walked into the Orange shop in the Galleries in Bristol and there was one customer browsing but the shop was dead and the two sales guys were standing around chatting, paying me little attention and didn’t even ask if I needed help.  So, I browsed around the shop for a while and after a few minutes left, unnoticed by the two chatting sales guys.

We walked into the 3G mobile store where we were greeted with a happy sales team who soon came to my aid and helped me make an informative decision to purchase a new mobile phone from them.

Now, I will tell you this … Mrs Gadget person here, did her homework online before she left home so I knew what I was looking for … Blackberry or the Nokia X-Series from Three.  And, ”hey” I can hear you saying, “why didn’t you get an iPhone?”  Simple really … only one mobile network offers the iphone in the UK at the moment and, I didn’t want to have to romance with them for 18 months!

So, to cut a long story short, purchased my phone and called Orange the next day to ask them to start the process of switching my old number to my new network so I could cancel the contract.

The salesperson immediately said, “you’ve been with us a very long time, why are you leaving?”  So, I gave him the story, told him how much I was paying for my new service, to which he responded … “we would have given you a Blackberry handset free of charge, 400 minutes, unlimted landline calls, 100 text messages, etc, etc, etc for £15 per month.” 

You know when you get that sunk feeling that you’ve been “had” ….

I didn’t!!

Nope, Orange had their chance and they blew it! 

They waited until I shopped for a better deal and then told me that as a longstanding [tag-tec]customer[/tag-tec], they would have given me royal treatment!  They should have offered me this package the minute I picked up the telephone the first time to ask about an upgrade.  In fact, only weeks earlier, they sent me a voice mail to say “congratulations, we have checked your moblile phone usage and you’re on the right package.” 

“Lies!”

I hardly used 300 minutes per month for the past few months since my friend moved back to Nigeria.

The truth is though, I love my new phone and so far, the 3G network has been good but the message I really want to get across here is that …

… it really isn’t worth playing games with your long-term customers. 

It isn’t just my custom Orange have lost, but who do you think I’m going to be recommending when people ask questions about which mobile phone network to use?  And, if you consider that I pay £35 per month for the priviledge of having a mobile phone, over 15 years that’s £6300 … not dollars, pounds!!  Doesn’t sound a lot of money but how many other customers did Orange lose on Saturday because of the their tardy [tag-tec]customer service[/tag-tec]?

Now, there’s something to think about.

Until next time, good sales.