25 Things You Can Learn From Christine O'Kelly

1) Do Your Own Experiments

Christine included this in her article about how she grew her blog to 800 subscribers in 12 weeks.

Constantly try new ideas and document how they worked or didn’t work. If you tried something new to get a client and it worked really well, write about it! If you tried 5 new internet marketing ideas for your clients and 1 of them worked and 4 of them failed - that makes for very informative reading. Combine your list of experiences into a list format with your personal commentary and the results can be amazing! This popular post by Kim Roach at Zany Pixel of 100 Link Building Strategies she has tried, woven together by personal commentary, is one that I’ve Stumbled, Dugg, Sphunn, linked to, bookmarked and passed along to colleagues.

This is something that people rarely do, because they are unwilling to invest the time or money into doing experiments. However, as Christine described, these can often make for really powerful posts. It is something that I'll definitely be trying.

2) Conduct Interviews:

Later in the post, she said

One of the best ways to create authoritative content on topics that you may not be an authority on, are to conduct interviews with people who have been successful in the area you want to write about. Be sure to ask questions that you are burning to know the answers to - readers are probably wondering the same thing.

This has been something that has worked really well for me, and my peers. It also adds a level of credibility when you do a professional interview of someone that is quite influential.

3. Turn your personal experience into solutions for others

Christine wrote about this further in her post about how she made $2952 with her ebook on freelancing.

Instead of asking yourself, “what can I write about in order to sell an e-book,” ask yourself, “what have I learned through trial and error that could save other people a lot of time and heartache if only they knew what I know now?”

People love reading about the personal experience of others. If you can turn this into a solution, you may create something that reaches and touches a lot of people. I learnt a lot of things during my recovery from an anxiety disorder. I wouldn't turn this into an information product, but will definitely be doing guest blog posts detailing solutions that helped me recover.

4. Play to win.

Christine expanded on this in her post about how she tripled her business leads in 8 weeks

If you are truly committed to ‘winning’ (whatever that means to you) ask yourself at least once during the day - “Are the actions I’m taking indicative of someone who is playing to win, or playing not to lose?” Playing to win typically requires building strategic relationships with others. Keep your eyes open for people you think your skills would be a good match for and contact them with ideas. If you’re a blogger and receive such comments, be open minded to them.

I've accidentally built a lot of strategic partners - and you'll see the result of this in the coming weeks. However I didn't go into these relationships with 'playing to win' mindset. I went in asking myself how could I help them.

5. Package your services.

Chrsitine discussed this in her post about how she multiplied her profits by packaging her services. She said that you should  package your services – ask yourself can you 'Offer A Full Service Solution Rather than a Piece of a Solution.'

Obviously, this depends on your business and the type of services you offer. This has definitely helped me clarify what I want to offer with my consulting services, and how I can expand that into a larger package.

6. Define your Target Audience and Speak to Them

Christine included this tip as one of 5 ways to ensure that your blog is serving its purpose

It SEEMS that most people who read blogs ARE bloggers. However, if your getting natural search engine rankings, there are probably people reading your blog that AREN’T bloggers, but they may be “invisible” because they are less likely to comment.

I have defined my target audience and have focused on creating content that speaks to them. This hasn't necessarily improved the comments on site, but I am getting a lot of feedback off site.

7. Do business with other bloggers

Christine identified purchases as being one of the four currencies of the blogosphere

Not all bloggers also offer products and services, but most bloggers are entrepreneurs that have something to offer. If they don’t they may be running sponsor ads for things you need on their site and depend on helping those sponsors generate revenue so that they will renew their ad space.

I've done a lot of business with other bloggers. Most of this has been just buying and referring their products. This has led to me getting a lot of referrals and review copies as a result. Its been amazing, but people really do appreciate the support.

8. Make Yourself Accountable

Christine discussed this in her post about time management tricks

If I only do client work each day, then I really don’t have anything to contribute to this blog. This was one of the main reasons why I forced myself to take action on the PPC ad today. The act of writing this blog hold me accountable for making progress on these businesses.

I made myself accountable by publicly announcing the date of this blog launch. As I type, I have less than 40 hours before launch and have 20 posts left to write. I wouldn't have gotten this far though if I didn't have that date to stick to.

8. Be humble

Christine expanded on this further in her post detailing how she made $100'000 by spending 25 minutes and $0 on marketing.

If you are going to allow someone to rebrand your product or service, who cares if the end user knows they are getting your product from you. I’m not worried about building a brand. I don’t have the desire or the resources to build a powerful brand – that takes a lot of time and money. I just want to continue living in Palm Springs and earning a comfortable income. I don’t mind one bit if someone else takes the credit for what I’ve done.

I try to be humble, and thankful, in my dealings with friends and bloggers. I find they really respond to it.

10. Work Smarter at Marketing, Not Harder

LAter in the post, she said

My second word of advice is WORK SMARTER AT MARKETING, NOT HARDER. I am very accustomed to paying $0 for advertising and I refuse to spend a lot of money on it. In my last post, I mentioned that I had tried PPC for the first time. This was a little experiment in which I spend $25 over 2 days. My ad resulted in one lead but then the lead wrote back to say that he found out they already had a service like this.

This can be hard to do and can rely on a lot of trial and error. I'll be researching ways to work smarter at marketing and will report on them in future posts.

11. Pay the big money to consult with the experts.

Christine wrote about this further in her post taking you behind the scenes of a new business launch

Seek out experts in respective industries for their consultation. The knowledge you receive can easily save you more money than it would cost to hire them as a consultant. Many professionals will offer consulting at no cost if you also hire them for their professional services.

I highly recommend this. Some people charge a lot - but they are definitely worth it. I recommend Dave Navarro and Naomi Dunford, even though I haven't yet hired them.

12. Contributing to Industry Knowledge

Christine included this as one of nine ways to drastically increase your perceived value

Contributing truly valuable resources works in any industry or niche. Whether that means sharing valuable information that has helped you achieve your goals, processes that make your life easier, or WordPress plugins.

Skelliwag, a blogger who has quickly risen to blogger rock-star status and earned more than 2000 subscribers, recently wrote a wonderful post about this very same phenomenon.

This is a concept I will be working on over the coming months. I'll be releasing a number of free ebooks and courses teaching people certain social media strategies that have worked well for me and my clients. I'll be researching this more and would appreciate any recommendations of posts, books or people in the comment section.

13.  Make a Name For Yourself in Niche Social Communities

Later in the post

Within this programmer’s niche, there is a social networking community that ‘ranks’ developers in the industry. Ranking is determined by number of votes. And while there are roughly 1000 developers on this list with one or two votes each, he is ranked among the top 100 with a nice handful of votes.

This works just as well on the larger social networking sites like twitter. The important thing is to focus on a community of people within the larger sites. For me, it is local small businesses and fellow bloggers.

14. Be Sold On The Product You’re Selling

Christine wrote about this in her article about how she sold millions of dollars of intangible products in a highly competitive market

At the insurance company, I was convinced that I was selling the best product on the market. If I wasn’t absolutely convinced of this, I’m sure that I wouldn’t have done very well in sales. This piece of the puzzle is more important than it may initially seem.

I never recommend a product that I don't believe in. There are some products that I wouldn't have bought, but I say this in the post and clarify why it wasn't suited for me.

15. Make Benefits Personal

Later in the post, she said

You’ve probably heard about the distinction between features and benefits. But benefits need to be taken to a more personal, tailored level in order to be really effective. Many times, the buyer cannot make the connection between a generic benefit and the way in which they could apply that benefit to their life. Because of this, you need to do it for them.

I remember one night, I woke up and bought an information product at 3am. The sales page had made the benefits so personal that I felt like I had to have it. That product is the main reason I started this blog.

16. There’s Never a ‘Right’ Time

Christine expanded on this in her post about how she gave away everything and ended up with more.

In order to grow, I needed to expand my team. I wanted someone who was just as vested in the success of the business as I was – a 50/50 business partner. I also needed to build a writing team and stop doing all of the work myself. That meant that where I was earning 100% of profits, I would now be earning 25%. That meant that my income was going to instantly be cut by 75% and we would need to get four times as much business just so that I could get back to ground zero.

Right now, I'm stressed. I'm broke, under a lot of pressure and still recovering from a really severe case of anxiety. However, I realized early on that there is never a right time and decided to just go with it. My goal is to learn as much as possible from the mistakes I know I'll make.

17. Pretend you are launching tomorrow

Christine wrote about this in her post about how she stopped listening to experts and started marking money.

Put yourself to this challenge - no matter where you are in the game, imagine that you launched your online business tomorrow and you got an order. What would you need to deliver on that order? THAT is what you need to work on to pull the trigger. Everything else is just busywork that can be filled in later. Instead of spending time doing tasks that solve HOW you are going to get the business (that will come) spend time doing tasks that solve WHAT you need to do to deliver.

This is what I've been doing for the past month. It places an enormous amount of pressure on you, but it forces you to take action. The only problem I found is that I've identified and found what I need to do to deliver but, er, haven't set up the sales pages yet.

18. Don’t Assume That The Information Is Already Out There

Christine expanded on this in her post about how she ditched her job and never had to go crawling back

I’ve been looking around online and finding lots of forum postings where people are asking questions about how to start a freelancing business, but no real solid answers that someone could actually take and run with. I’ve found an article on how to start a freelancing business on About.com, but it is so generalized, I don’t see how anyone could really pull any actionable information from it!

I often assume that the information for most things is online. In many cases, its true. Often, what the articles or products are missing are actionable steps or additional advice. You can take advantage of this.

19. What Is So Obvious To You That Might Be Incredibly Valuable To Others?

Later in the post, she said

Because this strategy I had created for myself had become second nature to me, I didn’t really think much about it. But starting this blog made me realize just how far I had come from those early days and that there are people out there right now who are in the very same position that I was in. The information in this book are all of the things that I learned along the way that weren’t apparent to me when I first started my freelance career. I struggled for months trying to earn any semblance of a decent living before I really “got it.” If I would have found some resource that would have saved me all of that grief, I would have gladly taken it.

I was told this by a couple of famous authors. I was unsure how I could offer social media advice to others because networking online and setting up blogs are things I find very easily. Since I've been attending tweetups, I've had lots of requests for help because people have been confused by social media. I'm now adjusting my strategy to provide resources (paid and free) on things that are second nature to me.

20. Target less prospects.

Christine expanded on this in her interview on Rock Your Day

So another thing that I’m doing for some of my other businesses is to identify a handful of prospects and putting my marketing dollars and energy into building those relationships as opposed to spending those same resources trying to target every possible potential customer through mass marketing.

This is what I have done with my blog launch. Instead of trying to target more people, I limited the group of people who I wanted to help promote it. Now, this is somewhat different to what Christine is talking about but the concept is still the same. Focus on spending your time targeting fewer people.

21. Find your passion

Christine talked about this further in her interview on Yes To Me

If you are not happy with your enterprise, it is not worth bothering to build the business. It is about passion. At the same time, it is not only about passion – it is a business, so it must be profitable. When you clear these two criteria, then it is up to you how far you want to take it. I respect the owner of a closely held micro business just as much as the owner of a multi billion dollar public corporation.

I've found my passion. Its enabled me to work so hard that I've nearly made myself physically sick. Its what keeps me working through the hard days when I feel like I'm a failure. I know I can be doing this for years to come. Could you say the same about your business?

22. Don't have an affiliate program for your product

Christine doesn't have an affiliate program for her ebook. This may have resulted in less sales but it also means that those who promote it do so because they really believe in it. I bought and reviewed it. I still highly recommend it. I'll be following up on this strategy.

23. Recommend products without including an affiliate link.

I have done this a couple of times. I even review products for other peoples blogs without any financial compensation. It shows that you have enough faith in the product and can build trust. People often respect this, and people will thank you for the exposure.

24. Link to your business

Christine included this one of the main navigation links. It meant that people could easily find what other projects she is working on, and could choose to support her if they wished.

25. Do a public challenge

Christine did this and reported it in The Results of the $20,000 Passive Income Challenge. It gave her a lot of exposure and social proof, as well as helping her change her business structure to earn the additional income.