Archive for December 25th, 2009

This is part of the the book BLOGTASTIC! Growing and Making a Difference Through Blogging. You can read the table of contents and follow the book on this page:

See the table of contents for the book here: BLOGTASTIC project

Previous article: Goldilocks and three blogs

BLOGTASTIC: Your blog’s name matters

Your blog name defines you in some way. You don’t want to get into the wrong “box”. For example, it is hard to write about anything other than Java if the name of your blog is “Java Only” or “Java Unleashed.”

That’s the problem with a trendy blog name. It can be very popular for a while, but over the long-term the value of the name will decay.

Let’s imagine that blogs existed in the 1970’s. You might have started a “Pascal Unleashed” blog, or even a “Disco Forever!” blog. While your blog would have been very popular for a while, its following would decay as those trends faded away. Soon, you’d be left with just a few, dedicated readers. Maybe those niche readers would be enough for you to reach your goal, but maybe you’ll wish that you had chosen a broader name.

Your personal brand will grow over many years. Make sure that your blog’s name can grow with you.

Here are a few examples of blog names that have stood the test of time. You can visit these and see for yourself

* The Successful Blog by Liz Strauss. Liz is all about how to have great conversations on your blog.

* Duct Tape Marketing by John Jantsch. John talks about marketing for small businesses.

* Simplicity by John Maeda. John from MIT is an expert on making things simplicity. He also has a book by the same name.

* Signal vs Noise is a blog by 37Signals where they talk about Usability (how to improve the signal)

* Personal Branding Blog is a blog by Dan Schawbel who is a Gen-Y expert on personal branding.

Think carefully before you pick the name and the associated URL for your blog. Here are two simple steps:

1. Once you decide on a name, ask yourself what will people think when they hear the name of your blog. Is this the response you want? If not, it’s time to revisit the name of the blog.

2. Fast forward your life. Imagine you’re still blogging five years from now. Would the name of the blog reflect your thoughts then?

You can always change the name of the blog. However, it costs to make a name change (be it a company or a person or a blog). You will spend time, dollars, and effort to retain readers.

If you are not happy with your blog’s current name, then don’t wait. Change it today. The longer you operate a blog with a wrong name, then the harder it will be to change it.

If you are a celebrity blogger, then you can name your blog whatever you choose.

People will come to a celebrity blog because it’s your blog. If you are a celebrity in your field, you have already spent years paying the price. Your accomplishments speak for themselves to those who are in-the-know. Celebrities don’t have to worry about getting boxed by their blog’s name.

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Blogging Tip: Details matter

Your blog’s name is just one of the small details in your personal branding strategy. However, it’s an important detail. Pay attention to details on this or any other project. Every strategy and every tactic makes an impact—whether short-term, long-term, or both.

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Rajesh Setty is an entrepreneur, author and speaker based in Silicon Valley. He maintains another blog called Life Beyond Code and tweets as @UpbeatNow

Tagged as: blog name, BLOGTASTIC!, details matter, Rajesh Setty

One of the most important decisions you should ask yourself during the planning process is, “Who is my intended reader?”

Your answer to the question will have a lot of bearing on the overall profitability of your book publishing project as well as help you make faster progress. Your response will influence your book’s title and subtitle, your book’s contents, as well as how you market your book.

More important, by carefully answering the above question, you can not only serve your most target market better, but you might also be able to write a shorter book and get it to press faster!

All readers are not created equal

The market segments you want to sell to in the future should determine the readers your book targets. As every business owner and marketing professional knows, some segments are more profitable, more loyal, and easier to deal with than others.

By identifying your most desired clients as early during the planning process as possible, you tailor your book to your A-list prospect’s needs, rather than “spinning your wheels” with more B-list and C-list prospects.

Thus, start to plan your book by analyzing your firm’s past and current clients. I recommend creating a worksheet similar to the Published & Profitable Reader Identification Worksheet shown at left. Worksheets make it easy for you to answer questions like:

1. What characteristics do my most profitable, A-list, clients have in common?
2. What are their problems and goals?
3. Why is this reader segment important to me?
4. What problems and services do I hope to sell them in the future?
5. What keywords do they use when searching for information online?
6. Who are the experts this market segment trusts?

What your answers will reveal

Your responses to the above questions will help you get started planning a profitable book, one that will open doors of opportunity by attracting qualified prospects and search engine traffic.

Let’s analyze each question and the information your answer will provide:

1. What characteristics do my most profitable, A-list, clients have in common? Your response will help you better understand the readers market segment most likely to turn into profitable long-term clients.
2. What are their problems and goals? By focusing on your most profitable market segment, you can tailor your book’s contents and marketing message to their particular needs. You can “go deep” and better address this market segment’s needs, without diluting your message by attempting to appeal to the needs of every market segment.
3. Why is this reader segment important to me? Your answer will reinforce the reasons for focusing your book to appeal to a few, key, marketing segments. You can state your answer in terms of average cost per sale, frequency of purchase (i.e., cash-flow), the number of referrals they generate, the promptness of their payments, their long-term loyalty, or ease of dealing with them.
4. What problems and services do I hope to sell them in the future? Knowing what you want to sell them in the future helps you identify the content needed for your book. You’ll be able to subtly plant the seeds of future purchases in your book, highlighting areas of your expertise and describing the benefits of taking action with the help of your tools or your qualified assistance.
5. What keywords do they use when searching for information online? Knowing the terms that attract appropriate search engine traffic will help you choose the right title and subtitle for your book as well as the right section titles and chapter titles. Book titles that contain relevant keywords enjoy a great advantage over their more creative, but less SEO-friendly, competition.
6. Who are the experts this market segment trusts? Your answer will help you identify your competition, existing books in your area as well as the blogs and websites that are competing for your ideal client’s attention. Addressing this question now saves you time in the future when you are preparing the “competing books” section of your book proposal.

As you can see above, there are numerous benefits to beginning your author journey by identifying your most desired readers. In addition to doing a better job of serving their needs, by focusing on your ideal prospects, you might be able to write a shorter book. A book that serves “everybody” has to be encyclopedic, but books that target specific markets can focus on just the desired market’s information needs. Thus, a shorter book that can be brought to market faster.

Take action now

Your Reader Identification Worksheet doesn’t have to be fancy. You can create one by simply taking a sheet of paper and dividing it into three equal columns.

• Ÿ  Left-hand column. Label the left-hand column “A-list” or “Most Desired Prospects.”
• Ÿ  Center column. Label this “B- and C-list” or “OK prospects.”
• Ÿ  Right-hand column. Label the remaining column “Least desirable” or “More Trouble Than They’re Worth” prospects.

Then, thinking about your client and customer experiences over the past few years, look for commonalities shared by your best clients and ways they differ from your “just OK” and toxic clients.

The business of books

If all this sounds familiar to your previous experiences preparing business and marketing plans…that’s because books are businesses!

Just as a strong business plan begins with identifying the intended market and their needs, nonfiction books should begin the same way. Books have to be sold–that’s the bottom line. It’s a waste of time to write the perfect book, only to find out after it’s been published that nobody wants it.

So, as you begin your author’s journey, identify your ideal prospects and plan to write the book they want to buy!

Offer

I’ll send the first 10 readers who e-mail me at Roger@Publishedandprofitable.com a copy of the Reader Identification Worksheet shown above. Please mention Reader Identification Worksheet in the subject line

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Roger C. Parker helps business professionals write brand-building, thought-leadership books. He’s written over 30 books, offers writing tools at Published&Profitable, and posts writing tips each weekday. His next book is Title Tweet! 140 Bite-Sized Ideas for Article, Book, and Event Titles.

Tagged as: active garage, book, business writing, contents, profit, profitability, publishing, reader, reader identification worksheet, roger parker, subtitle, title, worksheet, Writing for Business