Most people hate selling. They hate having to sell things to other people, and they hate being sold to. If you're the seller, selling can be a frustrating process of rejection. And if you're the potential buyer, nothing is a bigger turn-off than a blatant sales pitch.
Something really big happened in the past few months. Something so powerful I feel compelled to tell everyone I possibly can. All the stress and uncertainty and fear and worry about what's not getting done that comes along with being self employed was replaced with a deeply fulfilling, almost zen-like sense of accomplishment and belonging.
"Do or do not. There is no try." - Yoda That Yoda was a wise little green dude if you ask me.
Last week I launched the manifesto 18 Months, 2 Blogs, Six Figures. I released the guide for free, with no opt-in or anything required. It's simply a PDF download that is freely available to anyone who stops by.
If you're working to build your blog's audience, you can't afford to waste time writing mediocre posts that don't say anything useful or help your readers out. You have to focus on what works and learn from techniques other successful bloggers have used to create huge followings. I like to say that you have to ruthlessly focus your efforts on those things that work, and stop spending precious time on things that don’t.
Last week we talked about why a unique selling proposition is so important in building a high-traffic website or blog. Today let's make this discussion a little more concrete. Below are 10 websites and blogs with phenomenal USPs.
Hands down, the question I get most from readers is "how do I make my business or website unique?" I've talked to at least 10 of you over the past couple of months about that very topic. In marketing speak, this is known as the unique selling proposition, or USP.
I'm writing this from our apartment in the Mission neighborhood of San Francisco, but the truth is I could be writing it from anywhere in the world. My business and life are location independent. That means I can live and work from anywhere, as long as I have a laptop and an Internet connection.
That's me, riding my dog in the photo over there. I do shit like that sometimes. Maybe you didn't know that, so let me explain. For the past 16 months that I've been blogging here, I have to tell you I've never been fully satisfied with the "voice" I've created for myself. By that, I mean the personality I've conveyed through my words.
Over the past few years, I've talked and worked with lot of smart, talented and motivated entrepreneurs-in-the-making who all get hung up on some variation of the same issue. The problem is usually described like this: "I can't decide what my business should be about. Every topic is already covered by someone else. How can I create something real and unique and not derivative?"