139 Business and Blog Improvement Tips from SOBCon08

May 7th, 2008 by Easton Ellsworth

Use these 139 tips to improve your blog and make your business more successful. I wrote them down at the SOBCon08 business blogger conference last week in Chicago.

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UPDATE: I’ve re-categorized some tips for better organization. Added 2 tips as well.

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I’ve broken the tips down into 13 sections:

1. The Big Picture (21 tips)

2. Business Ethics (4 tips)

3. Business Planning (33 tips)

4. Branding/Positioning (2 tips)

5. Market Research (7 tips)

6. Blog Content Improvement (22 tips)

7. Blog Design Improvement (5 tips)

8. Blog Community Improvement (5 tips)

9. Affiliate Sales (3 tips)

10. Business Tracking/Automation (4 tips)

11. Business Promotion (16 tips)

12. Responding to Criticism and Correction (10 tips)

13. Entrepreneurship/Business Growth (7 tips)

Total: 139 tips (and counting; leave a comment below to suggest more)

1. The Big Picture

1.1 Don’t just “blog;” rather, use blogs to enhance your business.

1.2 We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? Stop delaying the amazing things that you were put on this earth to do. Don’t sell the world short. – Wendy Piersall (via Marianne Williamson)

1.3 Explain clearly who you are, what you do and for whom. Be so clear that no one can misunderstand you.

1.4 Write down your personal mission statement – something you could say in 12 words or less if someone held a gun to your head. – Anita Bruzzese

1.5 Make people think. – Chris Garrett

1.6 Be original, unique and honest.

1.7 Trust and value mean more than love and attention.

1.8 Create conversations that nourish communities that provide value and generate revenue.

1.9 Leap and the net will appear. – Christine Kane (via Zen Buddhism)

1.10 Keep the dreamer’s disease. Give and you will receive. – Terry Starbucker (via the New Radicals)

1.11 Let go of total control. Of course you want control over everything about your blog and your business. But you must let go in order for things to grow. – Wendy Piersall

1.12 Before you ask for anything, give something for free. – Wendy Piersall

1.13 Why will your customer buy from you – price? Pride? A relationship? – Liz Strauss
1.14 Don’t try to sell your customers something you think they need. Sell them something they want. If they want it, then they’ll need it. – Liz Strauss
1.15 Make it all about your customers. – Liz Strauss

1.16 You need fiber and sugar. Head and heart. – Liz Strauss

1.17 Being remarkable is great, but it’s not enough. People have to want what you have that’s remarkable. – Liz Strauss

1.18 Your business must have meaning to people. There must be a place for it in their lives. So tell them how it fits in their lives. – Liz Strauss

1.19 Strive to make your business mean something to each customer. – Lorelle VanFossen

1.20 Remember that we often teach best what we most need to learn. – Lorelle VanFossen

1.21 Remember that you may use a blog in your business, but your blog is not your business. – Lorelle VanFossen

2. Business Ethics

2.1 Identify your line in the sand – the point beyond which you refuse to go regardless of the situation. – Anita Bruzzese

2.2 Stand up for truth, no matter the consequence. – Anita Bruzzese

2.3 Write so you can be proud of every story. – Anita Bruzzese

2.4 Remember that reputations are hard to build and easy to destroy. – Anita Bruzzese

3. Business Planning

3.1 Reflect regularly on who you are and where you intend to go.

3.2 What exactly do you want to happen? – David Bullock

3.3 Regularly evaluate your own honesty.

3.4 Regularly face your regrets and resolve to improve.

3.5 Make your service into a product as much as possible. – Brian Clark

3.6 Automate every process as much as possible. – Brian Clark

3.7 Strive to offer products or services that give customers constant value without requiring your constant attention. – Brian Clark

3.8 The word “blog” will evolve and may someday fade. Avoid its overemphasis. – Brian Clark

3.9 Remember that blogging is just one part of what you do to promote and strengthen your business. – Brian Clark

3.10 Think of yourself not just as a blogger, but rather as an entrepreneur who uses blogs as part of your business model. – Brian Clark

3.11 Seek to offer the right product or service for the right target audience at the right price. First, get their attention by doing the right things; second, establish yourself as an authority in your niche; third, accelerate your growth by putting the right workers and systems in place to automate as much as possible for you. – Brian Clark

3.12 Never be shy to explain your business and offer something for sale. People value sincerity and openness. – Brian Clark

3.13 Content is marketing. – Brian Clark

3.14 The best assets bring you money even when you’re not working hard at them daily. – Brian Clark
3.15 Offer independent value with content – the articles need to stand on their own and remain valuable for a long time – Brian Clark
3.16 Utilize headlines and tools – Brian Clark
3.17 Make content that the leaders in niches like yours will love and will love to talk about with their audiences. – Brian Clark

3.18 Don’t outsource thinking to somebody else. You have to come up with the vision. Then get somebody else to implement it or do it for yourself. – Brian Clark

3.19 Content is the new advertising. So, integrate copywriting elements – especially direct response copywriting – into your blogging. – Brian Clark

3.20 Headlines are so crucial. You win or lose by them. People will ignore you unless your headlines are insanely awesome. – Brian Clark

3.21 Hooks are what make your stuff stand out. What you say is important, but how you say it matters most. Not what you sell, but how you sell it. – Brian Clark

3.22 You’re not in a content business – you’re in a business that utilizes content as a marketing strategy. – Brian Clark

3.23 Transform attention into authority via social proof (number and quality of comments, incoming links, high-profile media mentions, etc.). – Brian Clark

3.24 Constantly test different content configurations (e.g. A/B landing page testing).

3.25 Seek to have an asset, not a job.

Money without freedom is hollow. So outsource. Automate processes and form strategic partnerships. Start somewhere. Figure out how you can escape without your business suffering. – Brian Clark

3.26 Start with your core website. Build it up. Then start building around it. – Brian Clark

3.27 Trust, or lack of it, determines the sale. – Brian Clark

3.28 Plan frequently and regularly. – Chris Garrett

3.29  Write down every new idea. – Chris Garrett

3.30 Regularly organize your ideas. – Chris Garrett

3.31 Try to post like 5x/week if possible – 1x/day at least. Really useful stuff of course, but frequent enough that people can use you often. – Chris Garrett

3.32 Do not delay the publication of excellent content just because it is not perfect. – Chris Garrett

3.33 Maintain a detailed editorial calendar. – Chris Garrett

4. Branding/Positioning

4.1 Own a space, not just a channel. Be the go-to person for something, online and offline, in any format. – David Bullock

4.2 Tell people exactly what unique aspects of your product or service make you worth their time and money. – Chris Garrett

5. Market Research

5.1 Who’s going to love what you do? – Lorelle VanFossen

5.2 If there’s no market – if you’re the only one who cares – you’re dead. Period. – David Bullock

5.3 Trying to give people what they don’t want is the quickest way to fail. – Brian Clark

5.4 Get into the right niche fast and stay there long enough to plant yourself firmly. – Brian Clark

5.5 Speak according to the language of your target audience. – David Bullock

5.6 Learn from your audience. – Chris Garrett

5.7 Listen more than you speak. – Chris Garrett

6. Blog Content Improvement

6.1 Your words can have great power. You therefore have a great responsibility to use them carefully. – Anita Bruzzese

6.2 Be fair. Tell both sides of every story. – Anita Bruzzese

6.3 Be trustworthy. Back up your assertions and cite your sources. Admit your biases. Never be lazy when spreading information. – Anita Bruzzese

6.4 Cite sources according to their relevance and value, not according to your personal taste. – Anita Bruzzese

6.5 Constantly offer perspective and background to make your content easier to understand. – Anita Bruzzese

6.6 When you publish inaccurate information, correct it as quickly and visibly as possible. Identify the mistake, explain the truth and apologize. Correct it on your blog and everywhere else on (and off) the Web it may have reached. – Anita Bruzzese

6.7 Don’t write for your 8th grade teacher. Write conversationally. – Liz Strauss

6.8 Don’t tie everything up. Let people take the ball and run with it. – Liz Strauss

6.9 Blog your experience. – Liz Strauss

6.10 Publish content that your target audience will love and spread. – Chris Garrett

6.11 Remember that the amount of content does not directly correlate to its value. 10 words may do more than 10,000, and a single question may do more than a hundred statements. – Chris Garrett

6.12 People like stories. Tell stories that lead them to care about you and trust you. – Chris Garrett

6.13 Break out your creativity. Do something different that is still useful. – Chris Garrett

6.14 Keep a reserve of several evergreen articles to publish in case of need. – Chris Garrett

6.15 You’re only as good as your last post in many people’s minds. – Chris Garrett

6.16 Start with the end point for the post – what do you want to accomplish with it? Why? And then go backwards to write the content, and then lastly, fix the headline up. – Chris Garrett

6.17 Or, start with a great headline and fill it out. – Chris Garrett

6.18 Let your content be an ambassador for what you do. – Chris Garrett

6.19 Make posts visually appealing. Don’t beat around the bush – just say what you mean. – Chris Garrett

6.20 Don’t be perfect. Perfect leaves no room for discussion. Imperfection attracts discussion. – Chris Garrett

6.21 Simplicity means the achievement of maximum effect with minimum means. – Chris Garrett (via Koichi Kawana)

6.22 Tell your story – what you are trying to do – and match it with your customer’s story – what he wants and needs. Your blog content is a bridge between the two. They want to go somewhere. Let your content take them there. Give away some stuff for free. But reserve the best for a price. – David Bullock

7. Blog Design Improvement

7.1 Keep your blog and any feeds or email offerings clean and neat. – Lorelle VanFossen

7.2 Regularly make sure your blog/feed/email offerings appear correctly and work properly for as many people as possible. – Lorelle VanFossen

7.3 Make your email address and phone number as easy to find as possible. – David Bullock

7.4 Display advertising only if it benefits the reader and does not overwhelm or interfere with your blog content. – Lorelle VanFossen

7.5 Pay attention to everything people see – every link, every word, every pixel. – Lorelle VanFossen

8. Blog Community Improvement

8.1 Treat every blog visitor and commenter kindly. – Chris Garrett

8.2 Reward your blog commenters, backlinkers and social media promoters. Give them exclusive access to some content or experience, give them recognition, or even give them something tangible. – Anita Bruzzese

8.3 Thank your fans and commenters. Encourage more conversation. – Chris Garrett

8.4 Always strive to convert conversation into a stronger community. – Chris Garrett

8.5 Ask your blog community members to tell you what they want you to publish and how you can serve them better. – Chris Garrett

9. Affiliate Sales

9.1 Promote affiliate offers to see what the market wants – this is a great way to make revenue, and also a great way to test the waters to see what people really want – just observe and people will tell you what they want – so build trusting relationships, and just listen closely to what people want – ask directly, watch their comments, study what is said on other websites, etc. – Brian Clark

9.2 Disclose affiliations clearly, creatively and without apology. – Brian Clark

9.3 If you own it and love it, endorse it. If not, don’t. If you’ve just heard of something, investigate it. Buy it if you can. If it’s great, promote it. The more you know about a product, the better you’ll be at selling it. – Brian Clark

10. Business Tracking/Automation

10.1 Write each business process step by step. Determine the outcome, set the sequence, run through the process, refine the process. If someone takes over that process, you’ve just automated one piece of your business. – David Bullock

10.2 Make an efficient revenue-generating process that you can easily repeat. – David Bullock

10.3 Pay attention. – David Bullock

10.4 What exact results do you want? Get the tools to track every action by people so you can understand what they’re doing when they visit your website. Track first, then test. – David Bullock

11. Business Promotion

11.1 Constantly nurture and protect your online and offline reputation. – David Bullock

11.2 Talk freely about your achievements and successes if it leads more people to do business with you. – David Bullock

11.3 Think of the Web as the last place to promote your business. Start with people. Start with your customers. – David Bullock

11.4 On your About page, share your details as powerfully as possible. Give customers the story that will resonate with them most strongly. – David Bullock

11.5 Get all the testimonials you can. When someone says something good about your business, ask permission to quote them.. – David Bullock

11.6 Let your customers work for you – they will say nice things about you. Ask them to get you more business. Send an email. Call them. – David Bullock

11.7 People will pay you for what you know that they want access to. – David Bullock

11.8 Go through obstacles or around them. Do it or avoid it, but make decisions. – David Bullock

11.9 How do you talk to businesses? You don’t. You talk to people in businesses. Businesses are full of people. – Chris Brogan

11.10 Give more than you ask. – Chris Brogan

11.11 Get the marketplace right. – Chris Brogan

11.12 People do things for people. – Chris Brogan

11.13 Sell things at the marketplace, not at home. Home is where you should focus on conversations that build trust. – Chris Brogan

11.14 Make people feel that they are part of a special community. – Chris Brogan

11.15 Without trust, community dies. Don’t wreck trust.- Chris Brogan

11.16 Embrace your passionate fans and amplify their voices. – Chris Brogan

12. Responding to Criticism and Correction

12.1 Thank those who correct or criticize you. – Liz Strauss

12.2 Respond to information, not emotion. – Liz Strauss

12.3 People just want to be heard, so saying thank you lets them know you appreciate their input. – Liz Strauss

12.4 No need to work a conversation thread to death. If you have stuff that really adds value, just say it. But is it gonna be worthwhile for somebody to read? – Anita Bruzzese

12.5 Respond to somebody’s points calmly and clearly and when they repeat themselves, just let it be done. When you wanna keep ranting, let it be done. Silence is not a response – that is, if someone doesn’t answer, don’t assume what they might mean. Try to get a response. – Anita Bruzzese

12.6 Be tireless in getting the truth out there. Hold the truth up very high. – Anita Bruzzese

12.7 Respond calmly to attacks, with facts and with the truth. Don’t attack back. – Anita Bruzzese

12.8 When you need to disappear, explain the situation before people get the wrong idea. – Anita Bruzzese

12.9 Delete only those blog comments that insult the conversation via personal attacks or deceit. – Anita Bruzzese

12.10 Make it clear that you will not be held legally liable for destructive comments. – Anita Bruzzese

13. Entrepreneurship/Business Growth

13.1 Remember that you cannot create a successful blog or business without taking risks. – Chris Garrett

13.2 Grow your business a little each day. You’ll never really get “there,” because every time you do, there’s another “there” there. So just focus on constantly improving. – Wendy Piersall

13.3 Define exactly what success means to you for your business. – Wendy Piersall

13.4 Give more of yourself. Not just numbers and time. But more meaning from you. Then things will fall into place. – Wendy Piersall

13.5 A reader, visitor or subscriber who is not interested in buying something is not good for your business. – Brian Clark

13.6 Only consider a model that keeps you in the red for a while if you have the savings or funding to make up for it. – Brian Clark

13.7 Seek to form partnerships with professionals whose strengths match your weaknesses and vice versa. – Brian Clark

To those who organized and attended SOBCon08: Thank you. You wove a beautiful tapestry of lessons, feelings and friendships that I will always clutch close to my heart.

Liz, Terry: I won’t let you down.

Subscribe to Visionary Blogging today so you don’t miss my upcoming article on how to create a successful blog commenting strategy. And so you can be ready for the contest.

3 Questions For You

1. What are you going to do now?

2. What would you add to this list?

3. Will you attend SOBCon09?

Photo by Becky McCray

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