FBO: Go Where Your Biggest Viewers Hang Out

Sunday, September 21st 2008 by Shanel Yang

[For “FBO: Do Your Homework and Study for Tests,” click here.]

This part of the “FBO” or “For Bloggers Only” series is actually NOT JUST for bloggers, but FOR ALL entrepreneurs, employees, and nonprofit organizations seeking to raise funds to support their goals.

If you want millions of viewers, readers, customers, clients, members, etc., then you’ll want to follow along as we go through, one by one, the rainmaking secrets provided by Jeffrey J. Fox in his book How to Become a Rainmaker: The Rules for Getting and Keeping Customers and Clients.

GO WHERE YOUR BIGGEST VIEWERS HANG OUT

A. FOX’S TIP NO. 5 FOR ALL RAINMAKERS

Fox’s Tip No. 5 for how to become a great salesperson, or rainmaker, is the pithy catch-phrase: “Fish where the big fish are.” As he explains in his book:

When asked “What is the most important thing you need when you go fishing?” most people say “bait,” “pole,” “hooks,” and “beer.” Those are important, but the most important thing needed is fish! You can have the best boat on the prettiest lake with awesome tackle, but if there are no fish, you will go home empty-handed. If, however, you have only a raggedy old net but a little pond teeming with fish, your chances of a catch are much greater.

Where you cast your line is crucial to catching fish. This is also true for selling. Rainmakers fish where the big fish are. Rainmakers talk to customers who are familiar with their product, or who already use the product, or who have a high probability of using the product. Don’t waste your time trying to convince dairy farmers to buy horseshoes. And don’t waste your time selling hospital beds to hotels.

Big companies in an industry are generally better prospects than small companies in the same industry. Successful customers are generally better prospects than struggling customers. Customers who want your product are better targets than customers who need your product. (Customers who need your product may not know it. They must be educated, persuaded. This takes time and money. Customers who want your product are partially sold before they see you.)

To a Rainmaker, the big sale is the trophy fish on the wall.

B. APPLYING FOX’S TIP NO. 5 TO BLOGGERS

If you want to become an A-list blogger, apply Fox’s Tip No. 5 above to your blogging business by asking yourself, “Where do all my biggest viewers hang out?” Then, when you figure that out, go there and introduce yourself. Look around. Learn what you can about what they like, don’t like, and what they’re like. All part of doing your homework and studying for the “tests” for a money-making blog!

What is the most important thing you need when you start a blog? A cool-looking web design? It helps, but it’s not necessary. E.g., see Steve Pavlina’s blog. A catchy “dot-com” name? That certainly doesn’t hurt. But, again, “StevePavlina.com” doesn’t exactly roll off your tongue. Great content? Well, yes, to keep any traffic, you definitely need great content! But, if you simply filled up your blog with awesome content and waited for traffic to slowly find their way to your blog through Google, Yahoo, and other searches, they certainly would—after a year or two—and ultimately by word of mouth. However, you can speed up that entire process with the blogger’s equivalent of “fishing where the big fish are.”

1. Who Are Your “Big Fish?”

To “fish where the big fish are,” you at first need to know who your “big fish” are. As Fox explained, “Rainmakers talk to customers who are familiar with their product, or who already use the product, or who have a high probability of using the product.” As a blogger, what is your “product” that you want everyone to “use?”

Your content. You want millions of people on the internet to view or read your content. And, you want them to come back, again and again, becoming loyal viewers of your blog—because, if they do that, you will have enough traffic to quit your day job and work full time on your blog from home or anywhere in the world. Or, if your blog really takes off, you could sell it for a tidy sum and retire early.

If your blog is about personal development and how to achieve success and happiness in life (like mine is), then your “product” is self help advice. Who is your “customer?” People interested in personal development, success, and happiness.

In this example, your “big fish” are the millions of internet users, mostly in the U.S., who are familiar with self help blogs, or who already read self help blogs, or who have a high probability of reading your self help blog if they only knew about it.

2. Where Do Your “Big Fish” Hang Out?

Where can you find the people who are familiar with your type of blog, or who already view/read your type of blog, or who have a high probability of viewing/reading your blog? Remember, Fox said, “Where you cast your line is crucial to catching fish. This is also true for selling.” And, it’s equally true for blogging.

As Fox further explained, “Don’t waste your time trying to convince dairy farmers to buy horseshoes. And don’t waste your time selling hospital beds to hotels.” To continue with our example, no use trying to attract folks who are not interested in personal development to your personal development blog because, even if you do get them to show up, they won’t stay for long. And, they won’t tell others about it.

So, if you have a personal development blog, you need to focus only on people who want to read personal development blogs. Where do you think such people hang out? At personal development blogs, of course! Find the most popular blogs on the net that are similar to your blog, and that’s exactly where your “big fish” will be!

3. How to “Fish” for Your “Big Fish.”

Now that you know who your “big fish” are and where they hang out, how do you “fish” for them there, or make them come to your blog (where you have all that great content waiting for them so they will become loyal viewers of your blog, too)?

There are many strategies that problogging experts recommend for growing traffic on your blog. Here are the three ways that I have found most helpful for my blog. But, there are many other methods, such as, blog carnivals, social networks, and paid advertising, that may work equally well—or better!—for you. It really depends on your personality, your type of blog, and your level of dedication to whatever strategies you do select in order to make them result in more traffic for you.

a. Comments

Do you ever read the comments left behind by other viewers after you’ve just read a blog post to find out what others thought about it? Of course you do! It’s kind of like graffiti on bathroom walls: You’re already there, so you might as well see what other people hoped was important, funny, or witty enough to broadcast to total strangers—all the better if it’s related to something you just read. If you’re really interested in the topic, or maybe merely curious or bored, you might read many more than just two or three, but you typically read at least the first two or three.

So do most people. Which is why if you are one of the first three readers to leave a comment on a hugely popular personal development blog that allows comments, such as Dumb Little Man, Zen Habits, or Stepcase Lifehack, then most of the millions of readers who make up their monster traffic will also read your comments.

Now, how can you take this situation and turn it your best advantage? This is how:

(1) Great Blog Content: No matter how many viewers you attract to your blog, they won’t return unless you have great content on your blog. We’ve all been lured into a new restaurant or store by a fabulous discount offer or flashy ad campaign only to never go back because we got a good look at the place and discovered we didn’t really like it. Without great content on your blog, all of your time, money, and effort to attract new viewers to your blog will never translate into high traffic.

(2) Comment Early and Often: As already mentioned, most people read the first three comments if they bothered to read the post at all. So, sign up for all the RSS feeds to all the blogs where your “big fish” hang out and be vigilant for their latest posts. As soon as you see any of their new posts, that’s your cue to take immediate action. Even if a lot of other bloggers/readers/viewers already beat you to it by leaving quite a few of their own comments, it’s still worth leaving yours anyway if you feel strongly about the post and have something useful to share.

(3) Great Content in Comment: Here is where most bloggers go wrong. When leaving a comment on someone else’s blog in order to attract traffic to your own, you must provide something of value for the future readers of that post. Otherwise, they won’t be interested in finding out more about you or your blog. What is something of value? Additional information, insights, or experiences regarding that post topic that many of the readers are likely to appreciate. Or providing the type of response specifically requested by the author of that post, as they often do.

(4) Relevant Links to Posts—Yours and Others: One way to be helpful to the readers of other blogs where you want to leave comments is to provide links to your own blog posts if you have any that are relevant to that particular blog topic. Even if you don’t have any relevant posts on your own blog yet (which you should be working on getting plenty of if you want to create a similar blog), you can still provide links to other resources on the internet that might be of interest to them.

(5) If You Can’t Say Something Nice, Don’t Comment: We all feel like saying something negative, maybe an honest disagreement or some constructive criticism. We mean well. But, the time and place are not on other people’s blogs. At least not if you want to attract new viewers from the devoted viewership of those blogs.

b. Guest Posts

Many problogging experts recommend writing guest posts for the bigger blogs where your “big fish” like to hang out. This can be a very effective way to “fish” for them but only if your guest post: (1) is the type of post that those viewers already like; (2) is a very well-written, well-organized, and well-presented post; and (3) is actually indicative of much more of the same on your own post. If you can meet all of those conditions, guest posting on bigger but similar blogs is an excellent way to increase traffic to your blog. If not, just commenting on those blogs is much easier.

c. Observe, Absorb, and Create

As you read the posts and comments on these bigger but similar blogs to yours, observe and absorb all that you can from them. Try to figure out: (1) the types of topics that seem to be the most popular there; (2) the kinds of comments the viewers tend to leave and why; and (3) what you can do with all of that information to create and hopefully improve the content of your own blog.

CONCLUSION

Remember, these methods are only recommendations to grow your traffic faster. At least 50% of your time should still be dedicated to creating great content for your blog. As is true of everything in life, starting and running a successful business is a constant balancing act. Do your homework and always continue to learn as you go.

If you would like your own copy of Rainmaker someday, here’s what it looks like.

[For “FBO: Show Your Viewers the Money!,” click here.]

[For entire “FBO” or “For Bloggers Only” series, click here.]

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