You have probably noticed the explosion in blogging over the last couple of years. You may also be thinking about starting a blog and wondering “what can I bring to blogging?” I feel the answer is you and your unique life perspective on the topics you chose to write about.

It’s all about you. Yes, you will be blogging for your audience but you will be doing so from the perspective that is uniquely you. One value of a blog is the life experience that is brought to each post by the blogger. No two people experience the same event in the exact same way. For example, there is a reason FoxNews Channel and talk radio have become so popular. They present the “news” from an entirely different perspective than the rest of the mainstream media. Should you not like their perspective, that’s OK, tune them out and watch the other guys.

Tell your story. Some days many blogs (including this one) end up blogging about the same topic. There are no coincidences and since most bloggers work at least a day or two ahead it’s likely the topic is resonating with lots of folks. The idea is to bring your perspective to the topic. The life you have lived gives you a unique ability to add analysis and commentary to a topic that no one else can duplicate. Almost anyone can report a story with proper training and decent writing skills. You, on the other hand, can tell your story and share how the topic impacts you.

For example, when I’m blogging about marketing I do so from the perspective of a small company not a fortune 100 company. For some of you that’s exactly how you want to hear about marketing and that’s great. For others, you work for or with the big guys and maybe my perspective doesn’t resonate with you. That’s OK as well, I can’t write for everyone so I try and write for me first. By that I mean I write the posts as reminders to myself that can I can come back and reference later.

How about you? Do you read blogs for the unique perspective the blogger brings to the topic?

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1. What’s the Right Amount of Blogging?
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Authors Note: The original title was “You’re Doing It Wrong” but then my friend Mark Fairbanks provided some unsolicited advice to change the title to the one you see above.

I’m guessing that well meaning critics have shared the dreaded “You’re Doing It Wrong” with you at one time or another in your life. Me too, and my new pat answer is pretty simple (it’s at the end of the post if you would like to read ahead).

Unsolicited advice. Problem number one with the above scenario is that the advice was not asked for. If you’re one of those individuals dishing out unsolicited advice (and I’m guilty of this too) please stop and ask yourself what your personal motivation for doing so is. We are all human and have egos, so hearing “You’re doing it wrong” can be tough to take when you’re walking down a new path. I find that when I’m guilty of this behavior, I’m usually pointing out the things in my own behavior and character I like least.

Delivery of the advice. A friend recently shared unsolicited advice about not calling any customer my “best,” #1 or #2 customer. First, it was great advice. Second, she asked if she could share some thoughts on a conversation I was involved in that she had observed on Twitter. She told me MAYBE “You’re doing it wrong.” There is a world of difference in how she delivered this valuable yet unsolicited advice and those that come right out and tell you how to do it “their way.” See the difference?

Really know the person. Unsolicited advice is great when it comes from people inside your circle of trust who know you and understand the direction your life and business are headed. When my wife offers unsolicited advice, I’m good with that. She knows me, has my best interest at heart and she knows I trust her. You may want to think before offering advice to someone who does not fit those criteria. That or master delivery skills like the friend I mentioned in the previous paragraph.

Instead of offering the advice. Next time you feel the urge to offer some unsolicited advice to someone “a few rings out” in your circle of trust maybe try this. Ask what you could work onto to make your own life and that of your family better with those five or ten minutes. It’s always nice to have your own house in order before throwing stones at the glass one next door.

The irony of it all. Yes, I see the irony of a post on unsolicited advice about telling people you’re doing it wrong. Go ahead and laugh or perhaps consider this advice. It’s not unsolicited you came here of your own free will to read what I had to say today and thank you for that.

My pat answer. “Thanks for caring about and trusting me enough to offer up this advice. I just want to double check and make sure you think your own house is in order before I start accepting advice from you.” Nasty, maybe? The more I write and speak publicly the more I understand the posts by those ahead of me on the success continuum about dealing with criticism.

Your turn, any advice on offering up unsolicited advice? The comments are yours for the taking my friends have some fun with this one.

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Sometimes giving a free sample of your work away now, results in more business in the future. The tricky part is recognizing the opportunities worth pursuing with this strategy.

The ice cream shop. Yesterday being a hot Summer afternoon my wife and I stopped by the ice cream shop to end our day. They had a new flavor and it looked good. They gave me a free sample on one of those little spoons. It was delicious and I went with that flavor (in a chocolate dipped waffle cone). Admittedly, I was in line to buy ice cream so it was unlikely I’d leave without making a purchase but nonetheless that free sample was free with no assurance they would sell me more.

I had a deal slipping away. The deal was all but done and finance pulled the plug until next quarter. These things happen. In my experience, however, it dramatically lowers the potential of ultimately closing the business. I worked together with my future client to install a free sample version of our product complete with some of my time. Now, two things happen. First, together we can prove to management the financial return on investment we know exists. Second, we will write a white paper. The white paper will then be presented at future industry events. Everyone wins.

What can you give away? I’m not speaking of blog posts and things like that. Many of us already gladly give these away. Something of more value. I have a friend who does human SEO work and is darn good at it. If business is a tad slow, perhaps she could offer to do a free sample evaluation that demonstrates to the potential client how valuable human SEO is over automated systems. In exchange, the client writes a blog post highlighting the benefits. She could then point to the post as social proof that her assertion is true.

Business is a value exchange. Ultimately, most of your business needs to be the exchange of your goods and services for money. There are, however, other items of value you can ask for in exchange. A blog post by a third party (with the appropriate disclaimer that the service was provided for free) is an excellent selling tool going forward. Depending on the web-site involved the advertising value of the post could be will into the thousands of dollars.

Do you have any value exchange stories to share? Do you think the above approach makes sense?

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When preparing to speak, choose talking points that focus the dialog around the audience point of view and will resonate with them. Here is how I prepared for the opportunity to speak for the Milwaukee Likemind group about using your blog as a homebase for all on-line activity.

Topic selection. When Jeff Larch contacted me with only two weeks until the meeting date I knew we would need to work together to pick a topic I was currently focused on. I’m currently putting lots of effort into improving my company and personal web-sites(blogs) as homebases for the ColorMetrix and Jim Raffel brands. Blogs as a homebase also gets lots of play as a topic on the A-list blogs these days so it seemed to Jeff and I the topic would result in audience engagement.

It really is all about them. I can talk in front of a mirror or video camera anytime. Doing this will actually improve your delivery skills if that is the kind of thing you want to work on improving. When I get in front of an audience, however, it all changes. Now, it’s time to share knowledge and shorten learning curves for the attendees if you can. You’ll know if you achieved audience engagement by the liveliness of the question and answer session that follows most presentations. Seems to me lots of good questions means you achieved the it’s all about them goal.

Q & A time is the payoff. If you’ve really done your job well, you will learn as much as the audience from the questions and answer session. The questions will tell you two things for sure. First, what topic areas did you get the group thinking about. Second, perhaps you’ll want to cover that area in more depth next time you get to speak. I’ve watched the Q&A section of the video a few times and am planning to watch it more. I’ve pulled some topic ideas from it and learned a few things myself.

If you’ve got a spare 45 minutes… The video above is the entire Linkmind presentation. Even if you only get the chance to watch a short portion your feedback in the comments for this post would be greatly appreciated.

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Just because a project feels stalled and is not ready on the schedule you thought it would be is no reason to quit. Keep working on the project in little bits and pieces whenever you can.

Big important work takes time. Stop rushing yourself, unless it’s client sponsored work you are being paid for, that’s different. You need to maintain a sense of urgency but not the “it has to be done tomorrow” type of urgency. Forward progress is what matters.

An Example. I’m working on an eBook for ColorMetrix. The eBook gets worked on in little bits and pieces. Just yesterday I had a spare hour on a flight, after completing a few blog posts. I was about to open a book and start reading when I remembered the eBook. I spent an hour working on the introduction and cleaning up a few of the chapters. The eBook is that much closer to being done.

Your Projects. Which of your projects could get moved along just a little bit with twenty minutes or a half hour of work? It does not need to be a writing project. Maybe it’s the surprise party you are planning for your spouse. It’s only going to happen by putting the time in.

Time Shifting. Maybe DVR your favorite TV show this week and put an hour in on that project. Then, on Saturday morning watch the show in 40 minutes by skipping the commercials. Just like that you have another 20 minutes.

Your time is precious. The older I get the more I realize the value of 15 or 20 minutes spent doing something productive. This post was completed in about 15 minutes on a flight home. You and only you are going to find the time for your projects. Only your self motivation to keep working on it will find the project finished and shipped.

What kind of time shifting techniques do you use to get the work done? Please share your thoughts in the comments if you have a few moments.

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/vpickering

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Today I experienced first hand customer service that is the exact opposite of the attitude I discussed in my Small Business 101: Yes I Can! post from a few days ago. In the course of a couple hours I heard more about how the problem couldn’t be solved than how it could be.

It started simply enough. My business partner (who just moved) and I work from our homes. There is a telecommunications service we both utilize and I was simply trying to get the bills consolidated and an address on one of them corrected (an address correction had already been faxed in months ago).

Call #1 – automated system attendant Hell. After navigating my way through a maze of verbal responses I was finally connected with an individual in the billing department. I explained my needs and was promptly told only sales can consolidate accounts. OK, transfer me to sales please. Nope, not that simple. He needs to check who the account manager for both accounts and make sure it was the same person. Then, he gives me the persons name and phone number and says I need to hang up and call him back. Huh? I say, you both work for the same company right? Anyway…..

Call #2 – salespersons voicemail. I leave a detailed voicemail with all the information including account numbers, addresses, etc. After waiting about an hour I am becoming frustrated because this just does not seem like that complex of a problem. I should have been able to solve it on-line or with a single customer service touchpoint not the BS cycle I now sense I am in. I also have dealt with this salesperson before and know his followup is not so hot for customer service issues and lightening fast when there is a new sale involved.

The bright spot in the whole thing. I jumped on Twitter and pinged the customer service account for the telecom giant involved. Almost instant response. They asked me to email the details of the problem. I did and they informed me that the email was forwarded to various people in the organization including my salesperson.

Call #3 – salesperson returns call. Then, magically at 5:02pm the salesperson miraculously has time to call back. I’m unfortunately away from the phone but he leaves enough of a message to indicate that he can’t combine the accounts because they have different names on them. Huh? I have both bills in front of me and the company name is on both. My name is simply a c/o on one of them. I return the call but alas it’s after 5pm so he’s gone now (I called back within 1 minute).

Call #4 – automated system attendant Hell (again). I get a fairly nice gentleman who’s throat I jump down (yes, I blow my top sometimes) and he is patient enough to understand my frustration (I got the idea I’m not the first pissed off person he’s talked with today). I suggest I need a supervisor and he arranges that. It takes so long I hang up. The supervisor actually calls me back and this impressed me somewhat as a flagrant act of customer service.

The culture. It’s clear to me as I talk to the supervisor that this is just the way it is in the giant telecom company. No single touchpoint can solve a complicated problem like a change of address and consolidating two accounts (catch the sarcasm? I hope so). I explain that I heard a whole lot of “No, I can’t do that” over the course of two plus hours and almost no “Yes, I can!” He says I won’t offer any excuses but I will take care of the problem now.

The resolution. There is none as of now. The supervisor took all the information necessary and promised to dig into it first thing in the morning when all the resources are available. He suggested it could take as long as forty eight hours to get all the appropriate departments involved. No, I’m not making any of this up.

There’s a lesson in here for companies of all sizes. Employ KISS (Keep It Simple Smarty-pants) in your customer service model. Imagine how this blog post would look had the first person I talked with been empowered to solve the problems I had. Or better yet had there been an on-line system to manage my own account. It’s amazing what I can do on-line with my account at Sprint.com (not the telecom we are talking about).

I don’t know about you but if anything like this happens in my business I’ll look at the situation as an opportunity to improve my customer service. What’s your take?

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What follows is a guest post by Randy Murray. I enjoy having his blog in my RSS feed every since our mutual Twitter friend Debbie Kipp introduced us.

Publishing a blog is in interesting venture. It is, for most intents and purposes, a virtually free press. It’s a remarkable opportunity for anyone who has something to say.

Just about a year ago I started a fresh blog after having sporadically published another for several years. The new one, First Today, Then Tomorrow was my attempt at working through my professional and life transition from being employee and corporate citizen to becoming independent and free. I set off with the promise of publishing every weekday, five days a week. I had no idea what that really meant in terms of the work of writing and publishing when I started.

In addition to my blog, my business is writing. I write for clients and spend a good chunk of every day working with words. In the first few weeks of my new blogging venture I’d sit down each morning, test the wind, and write what popped into my head. It was fun and carefree. But as time went on it became clear that I couldn’t keep up the pace of publishing every weekday in that fashion. On top of that, I am fortunate to have good friend and talented editor who stepped up to partner with me and review and edit everything before I published it. I noticed an immediate jump in the quality of my work, not just from simple corrections, but thorough the knowledge that I had a keenly intelligent reader who would test my ideas.

I really enjoy the work, the collaboration. But Penny, my friend and editor, quickly raised a white flag. Writing, editing, and publishing all on the same day is tough stuff, the work of daily newspapers. So I made a commitment to work in advance. And that commitment went from working a few days in advance to trying to work a full week ahead. I’ve found that there are many benefits to this approach.

Here’s what blogging in advance does for me:

• Blogging in advance lets me free up my schedule for work and other uses of my time. I can write several pieces at a time, or just a single post, when I have time available. That gives me time and energy to work for clients or on other projects. That might be difficult if I had to kick out a new post every day and ask Penny to stop what she was doing for an immediate edit.

• I can develop themes. My first step isn’t just to write what I want to say in one post, but what I’ll be saying for an entire week. I don’t have to connect every post, but I do find at times that I can give an idea the space and attention it deserves and work it through over a series of days. Doing that in advance lets me smoothly and naturally develop the entire series.

• I can use the momentum and creative blasts to churn our several posts at a time. I often find that I can sit down and write several posts at once. It’s thrilling and a very productive way for me to work.

And most importantly for me:

• I have time to reconsider, reread, and revise. Everything I write gets three different readers (two of whom are me). You’d be surprised how many times I reject my own work and start over again after a second or third reading. Here’s my process:

1. I write the first draft and let it sit, typically for one day.
2. I read the draft with a fresh eye. A day later, I’m a different person from the one who wrote it and I can more coolly consider the work.
3. I pass the revised draft to Penny. She’s a tough and highly qualified editor. And as I said, she’s doing more than just checking spelling and grammar – she’s testing my ideas and the quality of my writing.
4. The draft comes back with her recommended revisions and I read it and revise as necessary.

This might seem like a lot of work, but I find that it’s a rewarding process. I’m proud of what I produce and I can confidently stand behind my work. And the payoffs have been huge. Over this past year I’ve seen readership of my blog grow significantly, sometimes with surprisingly high spikes. And my work on the blog has resulted in business and opportunities.

I can’t claim that the same thing will happen for you if you follow my handy four-step process, but I do believe that if you work in this fashion, you’ll produce better quality work. At the very least, pause before you publish, breath a little. Read what you’ve written. And if you can, find someone you trust to read and comment on your work before you release it to the world.

Yes, anyone can blog. But very few can write. If you take the writing seriously, you’ll find that you can express yourself in a more effective fashion. And that’s why you’re blogging, isn’t it?

Time to let Randy know how much you enjoyed his post by leaving comments here and heading over to his blog to check out more of his great work. Also, If you are interested in guest posting, please let me know.

Randy Murray is a writer and marketing consultant who specializes in white papers, web content, and ghost blogging. You can read his thoughts on technology, writing, and productivity, among other topics, five days a week at First Today, Then Tomorrow

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Seth Godin took the picture accompanying this post. These are some of the folks I attended the Linchpin Meetup(link to Seth’s post where the picture came from) with.

Meet-Meme Linchpin Card Set photo by Seth Godin

I knew one of them before Twitter. Now, in this picture of the Meet-MeMe autographed card set Cindi sent to Seth I am surrounded by people I can’t imagine not knowing. The relationships (business and personal because I draw no distinctions anymore) I have developed because of meetings and connections on Twitter are truly priceless.

But Jim I don’t understand Twitter. It’s OK, really. You don’t have to believe me. You don’t even have to try Twitter or try it again. The purpose of this post is to let you know that as business tools go, it has changed me and the way I do business with people more than any other single tool. If another tool was to come close, it would be my first cell phone (that actually was called a bag phone) which allowed me to more easily do business while away from the office. Remember when you thought you would never want or need a cell phone?

A business case. Take a look at #TwitterWorks – The Book. My friends Joe Sorge, Phil Gerbyshak and Scott Baitinger wrote this book together. It’s the story of how Twitter has driven the success of two restaurant businesses in Milwaukee where I live. Buy yourself a copy and save six or so months of learning. I did most of what Joe did at the same time he did it, so I’m here to tell you it works.

It works in the B2B space? Damn Straight it does. I have a voice I didn’t have twelve months ago. I have connections to people who have connections to people I’d have never reached (this is the power of the retweet). I am reaching people at the highest levels in my industry. (I interviewed the Chief Marketing Officer of Kodak for my company blog). This is all so new but I’m here to tell you as a successful small business person that to not be engaging on Twitter right here, right now is a huge mistake.

So, believers here is where I need your help. Please leave a comment with your personal Twitter success story. Also, if you aren’t already following me @raffel please do!

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WordPerfect had the best software tech support ever and they gave it away for free. Please don’t do that, the second part anyway. Be the best and charge for it on an ongoing basis.

Recurring revenue will sustain you through good times and bad. I can say this because it has worked for me. Several years ago, as we prepared to release an upgrade to our flagship software product, we accidently built a business process to collect support revenue. Our customers kept telling us how good our tech support was so we decided to put it to the test and start charging an annual fee.

Recurring revenue streams are a two way street. The only way a customer pays a recurring fee for any length of time is if you continue to deliver value. Not only must you maintain the high standards the customer signed up for but you must also keep raising the bar on yourself. Sounds crazy at first but if you continue to offer more you can eventually charge more or create tiers of membership for those willing to pay for more.

Design your product/service with recurring revenue in mind. When it came time to create our second product line we made it a subscription only model. This turns out to be win-win for both the customer and us, because we must continue to improve the product and deliver more and better features each year or they will switch to a competitor. It also allows us to charge less up front knowing we will have a recurring revenue stream for years.

Do you see ways you can add recurring revenue to your business model? It’s easier than you think. Let’s all share some ideas in the comments and grow some businesses!

Make sure to check back each day this week for more Small Business 101 tips. Better yet sign up to receive my posts via RSS or email each day.

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dan4th

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Small Business 101. In sixteen years running a small business I have picked up some business techniques I sometimes take for granted. This week I am sharing some of my favorite techniques to help you if you are launching or thinking about launching a business.

Nothing will kill a small business faster than being paid in 90 days when you expect to be paid in 30. These are the techniques I use to minimize my time spent chasing the money.

Chasing money takes time. Often people overlook the time wasted chasing money. In one case I ended up logging more hours getting paid than I had actually spent on the project. The objective of this post is to provide you with techniques to ensure you are seldom, if ever are chasing the money. Instead, you can spend the time producing and shipping great art.

1. Request a deposit. Most business you do will be with other small businesses. Asking for a deposit equal to half the project value is a must for two reasons. First, in most cases this will cover your out of pocket costs for travel and any materials you need to purchase for the project. Second, if they can write a check for half now it’s pretty likely you won’t have trouble collecting upon completion and can save the time and expense of running a credit report.

The deposit should be accompanied by a signed copy of your proposal. The proposal in turn should contain language clearly stating when the balance is due. Spend a few bucks with a lawyer to make sure this part is right. I’ve only had to take one client to small claims court but the proper language on that proposal had the case settled before we ever saw a judge.

2. Accept credit cards. This has become so easy, even for a start-up, that there is no reason to not accept credit cards. Paypal, Google Checkout and even QuickBooks (aff link with up to 20% savings and free shipping) have quick and easy set-up procedures so you can be paid right now. You are paid almost instantly and with virtually no paperwork. For small items like an hour of work or a tech support agreement this is perfect. Imagine notification of credit card orders flowing to your inbox 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Set-up a business process that makes it easy for this to happen. Pre-payment equals no chasing the money later.

3. Extend terms but only when you must. Yes, I have customers who pay in 60 or 90 days but I knew this before doing business with them. There are many services to perform business credit checks for you and when the project is big enough, it’s well worth the time and money involved in the process. Also, by knowing they pay in 60 days I don’t even start pestering for payment until then. I will send them a statement after 30 days and follow that up with a phone call. The idea here is to confirm they have the invoice and it’s scheduled for payment.

4. Dial for dollars monthly. When you have extended terms set aside one morning a month to follow-up on all the outstanding invoices. Help yourself by requesting accounts payable contact info on the proposal that you got a signed copy of before starting work. Now, when it’s time to contact them, you will have valid email addresses, fax number, phone numbers and most importantly the name of the accounts payable manager. Don’t start work without this information. It’s not really chasing money if you know who to contact and it only takes one call or email a month.

While some of these tips and techniques may seem pretty basic, together they save me hours each month that I can devote to finding new customers and generating new revenue.

Make sure to check back each day this week for more Small Business 101 tips. Better yet sign up to receive my posts via RSS or email each day.

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/adriarichards

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