Promotion is a dirty word in conversation among many a freelancer friend, the way we don't really like to talk about bowel movements. Especially when it's been real slow or harder than usual...to promote...promotion is considered necessary but icky and not the sort of thing one brings up at the dinner table. So, like dropping the kids off at the pool or spending a penny, I've given it a cute little name and now we're going to talk about it. Everybody poops, and everybody needs to Feed the PROMOnster. (If you want to skip the ego-petting and cut to the chase, scroll down to the end of this blog to THE LIST and get it tattooed to your chest. In reverse, so you can read it in a mirror...or upside-down, so you can stare down your navel at it.)
Before we begin, you need to get over yourself. So, here's what you need to have in mind before you go out and self-promote on the world wide interweb of death. Something I like to call...
Ego 101 and Blogging: You, the Boastful Braggart
(This is a blog, by the way. It was free to set up. If you're ready to go whole-hog, and you oughta as soon as you can, Consumer-Rankings.com has this list of cheap hosts for your once and future website: http://www.consumer-rankings.com/hosting/)
Let's get the elephant in the room out of the way first: It's considered a social taboo to brag. Ralph Waldo Emerson puts it plainly:
"The mark of the man of the world is absence of pretension. He does not make a speech; he takes a low business-tone, avoids all brag, is nobody, dresses plainly, promises not at all, performs much, speaks in monosyllables, hugs his fact. He calls his employment by its lowest name, and so takes from evil tongues their sharpest weapon." This is from Culture, The Conduct of Life
Before we begin, you need to get over yourself. So, here's what you need to have in mind before you go out and self-promote on the world wide interweb of death. Something I like to call...
Ego 101 and Blogging: You, the Boastful Braggart
(This is a blog, by the way. It was free to set up. If you're ready to go whole-hog, and you oughta as soon as you can, Consumer-Rankings.com has this list of cheap hosts for your once and future website: http://www.consumer-rankings.com/hosting/)
Let's get the elephant in the room out of the way first: It's considered a social taboo to brag. Ralph Waldo Emerson puts it plainly:
"The mark of the man of the world is absence of pretension. He does not make a speech; he takes a low business-tone, avoids all brag, is nobody, dresses plainly, promises not at all, performs much, speaks in monosyllables, hugs his fact. He calls his employment by its lowest name, and so takes from evil tongues their sharpest weapon." This is from Culture, The Conduct of Life
Now, he was referring to the Big Fat Loud American Businessman Way that was so prevalent in his day (1803-1882) when, like today, there were more "confidence men" than products. And unfortunately for us, common sense is not very common, and so traditions of politeness have lost much of their history. They're often acted on "because that's how it is" and with no further thought, for no better reason. I call on Mr. Emmerson's continued works to shed light on the beneficial bragging habits of a NOT-so-common budding creative-type, who is only fat because he affords nothing but mac'n'cheese, and who is not yet a prideful beet-nosed blusterer.
"Society is a joint-stock company, in which the members agree, for the better securing of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater. The virtue in most request is conformity. Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves not realities and creators, but names and customs." from Self-Reliance
I could go on and on quoting Mr. Emmerson. And I might in future blogs. He's the guy who suggested Henry David Thoreau try keeping a journal, for heaven's sake. But suffice it to say, he follows with "Be a nonconformist." So, it ain't braggin' if it's true! Talk about your work with pride, the kind of pride a toddler has for his finger paintings, or a college grad has for her diploma, a pride that is well-earned. Don't get down on your pride, it is a healthy thing. You're conqueror of conformity! Small business and art are building blocks of a future society. So with that as your podium, shout the good news to the world. Biblical Pride, the kind that gets you into some level of Dante's Inferno, is false pride. There will always be naysayers. Ignore them. Especially the ones sitting on your shoulder, whispering evil doubts with their pointy little tongues.
On to the meat and potatoes.
This is THE LIST. It's 99% transcribed from the appendix of CRUSH IT by Gary Vaynerchuk and it is your new social networking bible. Read it daily, twice on Sundays, and do what it says. If you have any trouble, go back to the item you were last doing well with, and start over from there. I've edited out tiny bit, and put in my two cents using [brackets].
Hope this helps, champs! And if you have new and improved tips to add, feel free to post them in a comment below!
"Society is a joint-stock company, in which the members agree, for the better securing of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater. The virtue in most request is conformity. Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves not realities and creators, but names and customs." from Self-Reliance
I could go on and on quoting Mr. Emmerson. And I might in future blogs. He's the guy who suggested Henry David Thoreau try keeping a journal, for heaven's sake. But suffice it to say, he follows with "Be a nonconformist." So, it ain't braggin' if it's true! Talk about your work with pride, the kind of pride a toddler has for his finger paintings, or a college grad has for her diploma, a pride that is well-earned. Don't get down on your pride, it is a healthy thing. You're conqueror of conformity! Small business and art are building blocks of a future society. So with that as your podium, shout the good news to the world. Biblical Pride, the kind that gets you into some level of Dante's Inferno, is false pride. There will always be naysayers. Ignore them. Especially the ones sitting on your shoulder, whispering evil doubts with their pointy little tongues.
On to the meat and potatoes.
This is THE LIST. It's 99% transcribed from the appendix of CRUSH IT by Gary Vaynerchuk and it is your new social networking bible. Read it daily, twice on Sundays, and do what it says. If you have any trouble, go back to the item you were last doing well with, and start over from there. I've edited out tiny bit, and put in my two cents using [brackets].
1. Identify your passion.
2. Make sure you can think of at least fifty blog topics.
[Don't shirk, do the homework. Write them down, add to them often.]
3. Answer the following questions:
- Am I sure my passion is what I think it is?
- Can I talk about it better than anyone else?
2. Make sure you can think of at least fifty blog topics.
[Don't shirk, do the homework. Write them down, add to them often.]
3. Answer the following questions:
- Am I sure my passion is what I think it is?
- Can I talk about it better than anyone else?
[Don't get into semantics with this one. Don't dither on "well, what's 'better' mean?" If you can and do go on and on about it to the chagrin of your friends, romantic interest and neighbors, that's good enough.]
4. Name your personal brand. You don't have to refer to it anywhere in your content but you should have a clear idea of what it is.
4. Name your personal brand. You don't have to refer to it anywhere in your content but you should have a clear idea of what it is.
[It's a Know Thyself moment. Are you the Crazy Cake Lady? Are you Master of Mouse Traps? I picked dorkdesign as a general catch-all in college, it stuck for better or worse. I have my alter egos for each passion and various pen-names, but the first step is to identify your MAIN PASSION and give it a name that you'll use on the net. The more you use that name, the stronger it gets.]
5. Buy your user name .com
5. Buy your user name .com
[https://www.register.com/ is a good place to start...think Your-Passion-Here.com]
6. Choose your medium: video, audio, written word.
6. Choose your medium: video, audio, written word.
[Or illustration/animation! Or all 4! Several artists use comic strips as their sole blog medium.]
7. Start a blog account.
7. Start a blog account.
[There's Blogspot, Wordpress, Tumblr, iWeb for Macs...check out this informative comparison http://the-bob-blog.blogspot.com/2010/02/blogger-vs-iweb-vs-wordpress-vs-tumblr.html]
8. Hire a designer.
8. Hire a designer.
[If you are a designer, consider outsourcing anyway. Should be doing the menial labor that somebody else could do for less? You'd be surprised how much time you save, and that's time you can use to make more money.]
9. Include a Facebook connect link, call-to-action buttons, share functions and a button that invites people to do business with you in a prominent place on your blog.
9. Include a Facebook connect link, call-to-action buttons, share functions and a button that invites people to do business with you in a prominent place on your blog.
[What's a call to action button? Very good question. http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/10/13/call-to-action-buttons-examples-and-best-practices/]
10. Create a Facebook fan page.
10. Create a Facebook fan page.
[In addition to your personal page, this one is good for keeping friends and fans straight. You should have a zillion fans. You should have a few friends. The separate fan page allows you to differentiate between the job of selling yourself and the job of telling your mom you're still eating three square meals.]
11. Sign up for ping.fm or tubemogul and select all of the platforms to which you want to distribute your content. Choosing twitter and facebook is imperative; the others you can select according to your needs and preference.
11. Sign up for ping.fm or tubemogul and select all of the platforms to which you want to distribute your content. Choosing twitter and facebook is imperative; the others you can select according to your needs and preference.
12. Post your content.
[In case it needs to be said: POST REGULARLY! Give yourself a deadline and stick to it. Don't lag longer than a month between posts. If it takes too long to put together content, you're either making your life unnecessarily difficult by biting off more than you can chew or lollygagging around too much. A blog post is not a resume for getting in to Heaven. It's just a well-formed thought on a specific subject. Heck, it can be an expanded Tweet. I have a file of potential fillers I come across when browsing: quotes, references to other relevant blogs that I follow who ideally ALSO follow me--keep it in the family--and online places and people that inform and reinforce my work. This blog, for instance, is inspired/expanded from this list, which I stole from a book to send to a friend in need.]
[In case it needs to be said: POST REGULARLY! Give yourself a deadline and stick to it. Don't lag longer than a month between posts. If it takes too long to put together content, you're either making your life unnecessarily difficult by biting off more than you can chew or lollygagging around too much. A blog post is not a resume for getting in to Heaven. It's just a well-formed thought on a specific subject. Heck, it can be an expanded Tweet. I have a file of potential fillers I come across when browsing: quotes, references to other relevant blogs that I follow who ideally ALSO follow me--keep it in the family--and online places and people that inform and reinforce my work. This blog, for instance, is inspired/expanded from this list, which I stole from a book to send to a friend in need.]
13. Start creating community by leaving comments on other people's blogs and forums and replying to comments to your own comment.
[Do NOT overlook this as the primary way of getting attention, now that you've got
[Do NOT overlook this as the primary way of getting attention, now that you've got
something to look at. As sordid as you think it may be, play the social butterfly and rub lots and lots of elbows. Eventually you'll build a network of pros and buddies that you actually don't mind talking to. Until then: show up, nod and smile.]
14. Use twitter search to find as many people as possible talking about your topic, and communicate with them.
14. Use twitter search to find as many people as possible talking about your topic, and communicate with them.
[Nod and smile, nod and smile.]
15. Use blogsearch.google.com to find more blogs that are relevant to your subject.
15. Use blogsearch.google.com to find more blogs that are relevant to your subject.
[Follow them, link to them, reference them, talk to them publicly and privately.]
16. Join as many active Facebook fan pages and groups relating to your blog topic as possible.
16. Join as many active Facebook fan pages and groups relating to your blog topic as possible.
[Via your fan page, not your personal page, remember.]
17. Repeat steps 12-16 over and over and over and over.
17. Repeat steps 12-16 over and over and over and over.
18. Do it again.
19. And again.
19. And again.
20. When you feel your personal brand has gained sufficient attention and stickiness, start reaching out to advertisers and begin monetizing.
[There are more and more options for this, blogspot and google have cute little buttons that start you on your way to getting advertisers without any pain at all.]
21. Enjoy the ride.
21. Enjoy the ride.
Hope this helps, champs! And if you have new and improved tips to add, feel free to post them in a comment below!
1 comment:
Right on! I love the back and forth you get from blogs, I definitely got something out of this. Well played and well written.
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