The interview
1. You have started a personal blog on Posterous. What was the motivation behind this change?
Um… because I wanted a personal blog. 
When Darren Rowse started his, it got me thinking that maybe some of my readers might be interested in what I might share about topics other than blogging and internet business marketing. But I didn’t want to spend any real time or effort on it. I wanted it to be something simple and easy to use. Posterous is effortless to use. It’s a phenomenal service. I’ve written about separating from my wife, posted videos of upcoming movies I want to see, and some quasi-philosophical bullshit ramblings on life.
2. You have released a couple of information products targeting bloggers. Do you have any other products in the pipeline?
Yes, but I can’t tell you what they are. You’ll just have to wait. 
3. You review a number of products on your blog. Do you have any tips for bloggers who want their products reviewed?
I’m too busy making my own products to review others very much, although I’ve tried to do one or two a month. There are far too many opportunities to keep up with, it seems. So if a you want to get your own information product reviewed, you should find potential reviewers whose blog and audience is similar or the same as your own. If you already have a relationship with the blogger, so much the better, but an email out of the blue can work. Tell the potential reviewer why you think it will benefit them to review your information product. In most cases, offering to send the reviewer a free copy of the product will sweeten the deal.
4. You offer consulting via phone and I must say, you are awesome at delivering complex information in an easy to understand manner. Do you have any tips for people offering phone consulting?
I think the biggest one is that you have to have a worthy offer that meets a need and is worth paying for. You have to do something that works well as phone consulting. Heart surgery, for example, would not be a good choice for phone consulting. You have to be able to make a solid case for yourself to prospects and clearly state your value and what you can accomplish for people.
You need to be articulate about your subject, and explain things so your clients understand you. What you say has to actually help your clients. You’re not just making small talk. You have to be able to read people over the phone by listening to their words and their tone of voice for cues to their needs. Sometimes you have to be firm with people. I told one client that what she needed to do was all the stuff I told her last time to do, which she still hadn’t done.
You have to have the right set-up. I use Skype with CallGraph software to record calls or I use FreeConference.com teleconferencing service, which also has call recording. Making recordings of the calls available to clients is a value-add to my service. Phone consulting doesn’t do much good if what is said is forgotten. I use simple PayPal buy buttons on my blog so clients can purchase consulting time in advance.
You need to understand what your expertise is worth and charge accordingly. The time and experience of an expert is valuable. If you’re running a business from which you expect to make your living, you need to charge enough to actually make a living.
You need to ask clients for testimonials and use them to allow others to sell for you. It takes a bit of confidence to do this, but without testimonials, how is anyone going to know you’re any good? Just because you have good blog and sound like an expert when you write a post doesn’t mean you have what it takes to help others get past their problems and improve their situation. That’s a totally different set of skills from whatever you’re an expert in.
5. You have recently quit your job. Will this affect the future for Remarkablogger?
I hope so, since the future of Remarkablogger is the reason why I quit my job! I have much more time to devote to activities that build my reputation, get clients, and get paid. You’re pretty hobbled when you can only work a few hours a night and on weekends.
6. You have said you are going to use the Headway theme. Will this improve SEO or usability?
Headway has excellent built-in SEO, and does things no other premium theme can do regarding SEO (plus all the things other themes do). Usability will be tremendous, because Headway has a layout editor built into it that essentially lets you design your blog visually. Headway completely slashes design times. You don’t have to any CSS or programming to do it. If you do have these skills, you can create custom CSS and other code.
If you want to watch demo videos of Headway, you can see them here: http://tinyurl.com/makeheadway .
7. You are very active on twitter. How has this affected your business?
What I do, and the effectiveness with which I do it, would not be possible without social media. Twitter just happens to be my service of choice, the one I like the best. The new friends, opportunities, clients, and sales which have come through Twitter have been amazing. If you’re going to kick ass, you need two legs. Blogging is one leg and social media is the other.
8. Finally, what tips would you have for new bloggers?
- Get off of Blogger or WordPress.com and get your own blog on your own domain. Everyone regrets not doing this sooner, so learn from that.
- Throw as much of your personality as you can into your writing.
- Give your audience stuff that will make them look good to their friends if they spread it around.
- Help others as much as you can and don’t expect anything back (it will come back to you anyways).
- Spend some time at my blog, Remarkablogger, and subscribe if you find my content helpful.
My thoughts:
- I was really interested when Michael started his blog. I’d been friends with him on twitter for some time and was glad to get to know more about him. It was around this time that I started to think about hiring him for consulting. Its easier to trust once you see their personal side. Its easier to fork out large sums of money when you trust someone.
- Many bloggers say this. Talking about products too soon can be detrimental to your brand. I’ve had others, including good friends, keep their work a secret. Personally though, I just ask so I can budget ahead.
- These were fascinating tips. I’ve yet to launch a product and have bought most of the product I’ve reviewed. But getting a review copy definitely sweetens the deal.
- These were fabulous tips and shows why Michael is so darn awesome.
- This is something that really intrigued me. I’ve been unemployed due to severe anxiety and am now seeking job training as part of my recovery. I’m actually working towards turning my blogging and social media work into my full time job. This is made a lot easier by being able to commit large amounts of time to my projects each day.
- I’ve checked out a lot of wordpress themes in my time – including several premium ones. Headway does seem to be awesome in how easy it is to customize. I can’t wait to see what Michael does with it.
- I love this quote. Now I am even more inspired to explore the other ‘leg’ of social media.
- His tips here are, as usual, create. I have many friends that are procrastinating on the first one, which is getting their site off blogger or wordpress.com . I struggled with self hosting for the first few months, but it is definitely a learning curve worth taking.