FBO: Post When Your Viewers Are Most Receptive

Thursday, November 20th 2008 by Shanel Yang

[For “FBO: Give Help and Get Viewers,” 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.

POST WHEN YOUR VIEWERS ARE MOST RECEPTIVE

A. FOX’S TIP NO. 34 FOR ALL RAINMAKERS

Fox’s Tip No. 34 for how to become a great salesperson, or rainmaker, is the counter-intuitive tip: “Sell on Friday afternoons.” As he explains in his book:

Anytime is a good time to make a sales call on a decision maker. Excellent selling times are before eight o’clock any morning and after three on Friday afternoons. Early-morning sales calls are good for two reasons: (1) there are less, or limited, interruptions, and (2) the customer’s agreement to the unusual hour is a big buy signal.

Friday afternoon is a wonderful time to see customers. There are several compelling reasons for this. The customer is often more relaxed, more forthcoming, less harried, ad less defensive. The customer is already thinking about a weekend at the beach or planting a garden. Some customers feel that if they make a decision on Friday, they can “sleep on it” over the weekend. To some customers, deciding to go ahead with your project provides a sense of accomplishent, gets something off the “to do” list.

If the customer agrees to see you on a Friday afternoon, particularly if she is leaving on vacation, be assured she think you can solve her problem, or she has already decided to buy. This is a high-probability sales call. But don’t be over-confident. Be exceptionally prepared in order to close the order.

And the competition is not seeing customers on Friday afternoons. The other salespeople have started their weekend early. The other salespeople have left the arena, giving the Rainmaker an edge.

B. APPLYING FOX’S TIP NO. 34 TO BLOGGERS

If you want to become an A-list blogger, apply Fox’s Tip No. 34 above to your blogging business by publishing your posts when your viewers are most receptive.

When is that? I’ve been studying my ShortStat figures that show when most of my readers like to visit my blog, and that appears to be, generally, on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays. So, I always try to post my best stuff for a general audience on those days. I’ve also noticed that other personal development blogs tend to post more frequently on these same three days. I don’t know which came first, the chicken (increased blog posts on those days) or the egg (increased blog viewers on those days); but, the pattern seems to be pretty consistent overall.

Now, having said that, if I could only draft enough quality content to post three times a week, I’d spread those out to Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Similarly, if I could only post twice a week, I’d choose Tuesdays and Thursdays. However, I highly recommend posting at least three times a week because more is always better—as long as the content remains high quality. Also, if you can’t post at least twice a week, just understand that your road to success as an eventual A-list blogger will likely take two to three times as long as the rest of us; so, mentally prepare yourself for the much more leisurely and, hence, perhaps more enjoyable “scenic route.” (PCH instead of I-5 for anyone who’s been up and down California!)

I’m not saying, “Don’t do it.” We should all go for it, no matter how long it takes! I’m just saying, “Don’t be discouraged if it takes you 6 -10 years, instead of 3 - 5.”

Assuming you could post quality content, one per day, all seven days of the week, should you do that? Or, should you double up on your posts on high-traffic days (for example, on Mondays and Wednesdays) and skip the weekends because traffic slows dramatically for most bloggers on weekends? Applying Fox’s tip above to blogging would mean choosing to post on weekends. Why? First of all, hardly anyone else is doing it. And, secondly, of the fewer viewers who do choose to view blogs in general, and yours in particular, during weekends (when most other people are enjoying time off work, school, and all the typical worries of the week), these folks are often more in need of, or more interested in, your content than those who wait till they get back to work or school to see what else you have for them. To use Fox’s term, your weekend viewers are exhibiting a strong “buy signal,” which means they are more receptive, all else being equal, than your weekday viewers!

As for the specific hour for each post, I chose 1:00 A.M. PST for consistency’s sake. Also, when I occasionally post two in one day, I can post the second one around noon to let my mostly U.S. readers see both posts during breaks at work or school, just in case they don’t have readily available internet access at home. : )

CONCLUSION

Always be thinking about your viewers and how you can make life easier for them. No matter how you try to mask it, unless you really care about your viewers and your blog, eventually your lack of sincerely will show and you won’t be able to sustain your efforts for years—like you need to—in order to succeed. So, be true!

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

[For “FBO: Don’t Wait Too Long to Get to the Point,” click here.]

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

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