If You Blog it, They Will Come. Or will They?

It seemed appropriate to do a tip about blogging
while launching The Speaker Launcher blog.

Many speakers are jumping on the blogging
bandwagon without giving their own marketing
strategy much thought.

You might have heard someone mention blogging
during a workshop or teleclass, does that mean you
should jump right in?

Before you spend the time, energy and money going
down the blog path, here are 6 key ideas that you
absolutely must consider:

Idea #1. Is your website working? One of the main
reasons for having a blog is to drive traffic to
your website and to ultimately book speeches. If
your website is NOT converting visitors into
speech or (at least) product buyers, then it’s not
working.

When your website is not working, more
traffic won’t help! Fix your problem first,
and then start the traffic flow.

Idea #2. Consider the purpose for your blog. Is it
going to be for sharing ideas, or will it be
promotional? The reason why blogs have become
popular is because they are effective marketing
tools (the search engines love them.) But guess
what? That only works if you know what you are
doing and how the technology works!

For instance, one big thing that I learned from my
techno guru was that I should take my keywords
into account when setting up all of my article
categories. (You’ll see what I mean when you
look to the right at the categories of this blog).

Idea #3. What is the content of your blog going to be?
Are you going to provide solid tips and ideas? If
not, I’d question whether or not it’s relevant.

I’ve seen blogs where people are talking about
what they had for lunch and quite frankly, who
cares? Test your blog for the ‘who cares’ factor
and make sure that your content is solid.

Ask yourself the question ‘is this content going
to position me as an expert and get me booked
into more speeches?’

Idea #4. Do you like to write? I have found that
writing keeps me plugged in to my business – the
more I write, the more business comes my way
despite the fact that I’m not an eloquent writer.

However, if you hate to write, then consider
keeping in touch with your clients in ways other
than a blog. Otherwise, it is going to become one
more thing that you procrastinate and beat
yourself up for not doing.

Idea #5. Are you technology challenged? If so,
blogging may be a hassle that you don’t want to
delve into. When you have to rely on other people
for everything you do, you might try to keep it
simple and focus your energy on booking speeches
instead. Not everyone is going to be successful
at every type of business strategy. Some speakers
will use technology to gain more hits on their
websites and book speeches while others will take
other paths like building relationships, giving
great speeches and making phone calls.

Idea #6. All roads should lead to action. Does every
tip or blog entry have a ‘call to action’? If
you want your clients to purchase your products,
then have some of your tips lead to a product. If
you want clients to book you for speeches, then
some tips should lead to a topic or program
outline. Mix it up and make sure that everything
you do has a purpose and a strategy.

Happy Blogging!

ps: What I’m giving you is very basic strategy. For
the technology side of things Tom Antion has a
good CD called How to Start a Blog (Weblog) to
Promote Your Business and Your Agenda, I recommend
that you bone up on blogging BEFORE delving in.
Link to Tom

Welcome Wealthy Speakers!

Thanks for joining me at the Speaker Launcher blog. New articles and tips will be added frequently, so be sure to add this site to your newswire or sign up to be notified when new posts are added.

Enjoy!

Jane Atkinson
Creator, The Wealthy Speaker

WealthySpeaker.com

Who Said Summer is for Vacations?

It hasn’t been all cottage, beach and flip flops
for everyone this summer, check out some of the
exciting things that have been going on:

SPEAKER LAUNCHER CLIENT NEWS:

Warren MacDonald’s Oprah appearance aired again
this week. Warren is a Vancouver based speaker
who lost both legs to a giant boulder in an
Australian climbing accident. Oprah was astonished
to learn that, even without legs, Warren continues
to climb mountains like Kilimanjaro. Warren,
congrats on hitting yet another peak!
Link to Warren

John DiPietro’s new book ‘You Don’t Have to
be Perfect to be Great’ is selling like hotcakes.
Congratulations John on a successful launch.
Link to John

Bob’s Prosen’s new book ‘Kiss Theory Goodbye’ just
hit the bookstores last week and the reviews are
excellent. This is one to watch!
Link to Bob

Former pro baseball player turned speaker Mike
Robbins just signed a book deal with Jossey-
Bass/Wiley for his first book ‘Focus on the Good
Stuff’. Way to go Mike!
Link to Mike

Congrats to Michelle Ray and David Gouthro who
both received their CSP’s (Certified Speaking
Professional) at NSA in Orlando. Great job!
Link to Michelle
Link to David

COLLEAGUE NEWS:

Jon Wee and Owen Morse of The Passing Zone
(juggling entertainers) have made it to the final
of NBC’S AMERICA’S GOT TALENT despite the fact
that David Hasselhoff hates jugglers. The show
airs this Wednesday night. I hope you’ll tune in,
vote, and help them win a million bucks! Go Zone!
Link to Passing Zone

SPEAKER LAUNCHER (JANE) NEWS:

The momentum for The Wealthy Speaker just keeps
building – thank you for your support.
The Wealthy Speaker

This fall, watch for 3 all new articles in
Professional Speaker Magazine, Toastmasters
Magazine and Canada’s Speaking of Impact Magazine.
Plus, I’ve been asked to deliver a breakout at NSA’s
Winter Workshop in Denver in February.
Link to NSA

The Wealthy Speaker Community is under way for
those with memberships and the ideas are flying!
Want to know more about how to join, contact
jane@speakerlauncher.com.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Mark your calendar for Wed. Sept. 27th at 3pm
Eastern. Join Patricia Fripp and myself for a
teleclass ‘How to Turn Your Training Programs into
Profitable Keynotes’. Here are more details
That’s all the good news for now…

Jane Atkinson
President, Speaker Launcher

Speaker Mentors: Snatch the Pebble Grasshopper

Remember that tv show Kung Fu? When the student
was finished learning he was able to snatch the
pebble from the teacher’s hand.

I recently had a client who had grown so much that
he no longer needed my services. In my mind,
that’s great news! Dependency is not the goal.

Knowing when to move on from relationships is
often difficult. But when you do, it helps you
continue your forward momentum.

Question: What relationships in your business
are no longer serving you?

Whether it be a supplier, a mentor, a friendship,
etc., we need to know when to move on.

In order to keep growing and moving forward, we
want to have two ‘mentor type’ relationships in
our business.

1. OUR MENTOR: A person who is further along in
the business than we are. Someone who you respect
and take advice from with confidence. Ideally
this person has achieved many of the goals that
you are looking forward to achieving. They ARE
where you want to BE.

2. OUR MENTEE: Someone who needs our help. If
you are just starting out yourself, then you might
wait a year to develop this relationship. But if
you’ve been around awhile, there is someone out
there who needs you. Open yourself up to seeing
them.

I tend to seek out mentors in specific areas. For
instance, I have an online marketing mentor who I
ask for advice on my web-based businesses. I also
have a writing mentor for when I’m in the throws
of a writing project.

And when I mentor someone else, I typically take
on someone who is outside of the speaking industry
to keep things simple. Usually it’s a small
business owner. When you mentor someone else, it
should be 100% donated time with no intended
benefit for you.

What you create with these relationships is good
what-goes-around-comes-around karma. But knowing
when we have outgrown a relationship is key. Be
willing to allow your relationships to ebb and
flow and you will continue to grow (hey, that
rhymes!)

Happy mentoring!

Jane Atkinson
Creator, The Wealthy Speaker System

http://www.SpeakerLauncher.com

ps: The Wealthy Speaker Community has been
created to help speakers feel less alone in
this business. If you’d like to know how to join,
write to jane@speakerlauncher.com for more
information. Or check out SpeakerLauncher.com
for packages that include membership.