Your Business and Your Blog - Interview

Last night I had the pleasure of being a guest on the Profitable Social Media Show hosted by Warren Whitlock. The subject was Your Business and Your Blog with a focus on how authors have successfully used blogs to market their books.

I was especially interested to hear the stories from three authors in the last 20 minutes of the show...definitely tune in to learn their strategies for using blogs to leverage their books.

Promoting the show was done very effectively. I've known Warren Whitlock for a few years, both online and having met him a couple of times at BlogWorld Expo. My invitation to be on the show came about after Warren made a comment on something on my Facebook page wall. The comments evolved and he mentioned something about his show and why I hadn't been on it. I replied that I had never received an invitation and promptly got one!

We followed up via private email and Warren asked if I had an article he could post on his Best Seller Authors blog. Even though I was pressed for time, I realized (as you should too when asked) it was a great opportunity to get in front of a new audience so I went through my stash of articles and found one I had written specifically for authors and sent it to Warren for a guest post. 

13 Mistakes Authors Make on Their Blogs

Wow! Got a great response from the guest post. I added a call to action to get my free blogging videos and as a result added a lot of new people to my database. Warren heavily promoted the post on Facebook and twitter; I retweeted and shared his posts, as did many others who follow each of us. This gave both me and Warren additional visibility. Warren even urged his fans to connect with me on LinkedIn and I got several new connections there as well.

What's the point of all this?

To illustrate that visibility and opportunities are created in circuitous ways. You've got to be out there (and for an introvert like me that can be a challenge) at live events, blogging and demonstrating your expertise, connecting on various social sites and the opportunities will show up.

Maybe someone who listened to the show and opted in for my free videos will love what I share and decide to register for a program or attend my live event in Raleigh or hire me to coach them on how to optimize their blog for their business or become an affiliate and promote my products and services or refer me to a colleague or interview me for another show or publication...you never know.

I do know though that if you do not take action and do not participate and do not connect and do not create a lot of content, it will be whole heck of a lot harder to build your business and attract the opportunities you want.

By the way, the show was a lot of fun and I'm happy when the host and the audience are happy!

How can you put these tactics into practice for your business? What can you do this week to expand your reach and create more visibility and opportunities?

Comments

[Denise Wakeman]

The original intention of this post was to share the audio from the radio interview I did with Warren Whitlock. Then I started thinking about how it all came about and that this is a typical example of what can happen when you're blogging and participating on social sites.

And, as a result of my guest post, about 50 new people opted in to my list. Makes a good argument for guest posting, doesn't it?!

[Julius]

I totally agree that participating in events, connecting with people, and providing good content greatly improves your business. In addition to that, the friendship you'd develop from these tasks is priceless.

[Gaye Lindfors]

Your advice is always so helpful, Denise. Thanks for teaching in such a clear way!