Tidbits:

• Ali Luke has announced that she is writing a book for Wiley’s For Dummies series, provisionally titled Publishing e-Books for Dummies. It’s scheduled to come out in September. Read More 
• Pat Flynn shared the details of a small web project he did over a weekend, called Create a Clickable Map. Really interesting post – you can create a business with a weekend of testing. Read more
• Joanna Penn has released an updated version of her Author 2.0 blueprint.
• Thom Chambers has launched his new paid magazine, The Micropublisher. You can get it at a $20 discount for the next two days.
• The magazine Dumbo Feather has started releasing interviews as kindle singles. Check out the first with Alain de Botton

Cool articles:

• How to Gain 2,281 Subscribers—and Increase Traffic by 69%—in 27 Days via Social Triggers. Talks about the strategies he used in his new podcast.
• Ramit Sethi Exposed: How He Earns Millions Blogging
• How David Garland built a community of 100,000 followers in 24 months
• Why The Loooooong Sales Letter Works And Other Surprising Sales Hacks – with Ramit Sethi

Sarah Lacy launches new site

Sarah Lacy (one of my favourite web writers) has just launched Pando Daily. The goal of the site is ‘to be the site-of-record for that startup root-system and everything that springs up from it, cycle-after-cycle.’

I think that this site is brilliant for the startup industry. It’s something I’d like to see replicated in my local digital community, and within my blogging community. I don’t think it is feasible without funding, though.

• Recommended reading: Confessions of a Publisher: “We’re in Amazon’s Sights and They’re Going to Kill Us”

Social Triggers Insider is AMAZING

Derek Halpern is really bringing it with his free masterclass. The content is amazing – it’s the type of stuff you’d pay good money for in a membership site. I’m also digging the transcripts. And, it’s working. He’s on track to get 100’000 page views this month.

On a related note, Glen Allsopp did a case study on how he reached #1 on iTunes with the first episode of his podcast.

Corbett Barr launches ‘How To Start A Blog That Matters‘

Corbett Barr has launched his new course and, trust me, the content is AMAZING. It’s the strategy he’s used to launch his successful blogs, and it’s the same strategies that made me put him on the Problogger list.

The content is mostly focused on launching, or relaunching. It’s awesome if you are focused on either of those things. I was also impressed with how he set up the course and think you guys can learn a lot from it.

There is a great bonus by Scott Dinsmore, if that’s your thing.

Check it out

Ruzuku – the new ‘IT’ platform

Stacy, at Ethical Launch, recently did a review of Ruzuku. It’s really interesting for those that are on the fence about it. I think it’s something to keep an eye on, especially as they incorporate new features

Ali Luke has launched Writers Huddle

Ali has launched a new online community specifically for writers. The price is very reasonable considering her experience. Excited to see where she takes this concept!

Cool articles:

• The Tim Ferriss Effect: Lessons From My Successful Book Launch
• The Art of Non-Conformity » Behind the Scenes of the “Unconventional Guide to Publishing” Launch

I used to have a weekly newsletter called Launch watch. I’d cover all the cool stuff, but growth was slow and the emails were becoming longer and longer.

I decided to offer it as a weekly blog column. That way I can get more feedback and ideas, and can give you some insider goss and trends that I’ve noticed.

If you have any feedback, or know of anything that’s launching over the next week, let me know.

Latest Launches:

You know how I wrote the ‘Blogger to Watch‘ post last week? A couple of people from it are up to some cool stuff.

Jenny Blake launching + relaunching

• is relaunching Make Sh*t happen on Jan 11th.
• has also launched a self paced course titled ‘Design Your life’.

She is using the Ruzuku platform for the latter course. Jen Louden is using it for her Teach now course and she said it feels “feels so delicious and easy.” I just discovered this, so would love any case studies or examples.

Joel Runyon launches manifesto

Another 2012 blogger to watch, Joel Runyon, has released a free slideshare titled ‘Do The Impossible.’ It’s brilliantly designed – if you want hot slides, you should definitely talk to David Crandall. Also,

• If you are going to have gorgeous slides, you should have images available somewhere so that people can pin them. This is the type of stuff that people would put on a motivational board.
• Joel has spoken about releasing his first ‘Impossible’ guide here. It’s about triathlons and seems pretty nifty.

New podcasts!

Glen Allsopp launched his Marketing Podcast, which was able to go up to #1 in just a day. You should definitely check out his podcast page, just to see how he encourages people to leave a review. I also really liked how he provided a transcript. I generally don’t listen to podcasts, but would definiately pay for transcripts.

• Adam Baker, from Man Vs debt, also released a podcast. Episode 1 is called Your Big Why and Defining Your Freedom
  
• Brian Clark is launching a multimedia email newsletter about the business of new media content. Sign up at Entreproducer
• Derek Halpern has launched his free audio masterclass series, Social Triggers Insider

* I don’t think Brian Clarks new project is actually a podcast, but it fit with the others.

New product for potential publishers!

Chris Guillebeau has teamed up with David Fugate called ‘The Unconventional Guide to Publishing‘. I’ve had a look at it and it’s really nifty, but it’s definitely for those who want to publish traditionally.

There’ll be three pricing tiers starting at $58. The higher pricing tier cost $97, and it’s worth noting that Danielle laportes product on creating a book plan is just $53 more. Worth comparing the two.

I also think this is the first time Chris is using his custom affiliate system. May be worth keeping an eye on!

Other launches:

• Benny Lewis has released his video course Speak from Day 1; which teaches you how to become fluent in a new language in 3 months
• Joanna Penn has teamed up with Roz Morris to create a course on marketing your novel. It’s just $99
• Danielle Laporte is having a pay what you can day. It’s only available for the Spark Kit (It’s being retired), and to those who purchase her book
• Tara Gentile has launched Email Marketing Kickstart: 30 Days to Passionate, Profitable Communication. (See the problogger testimonial in the sidebar? That’s from my post. Booyah!
• John Falchetto has stopped blogging as Expat Life Coach and has undergone a rebrand. Check it out.
• Scott Dinsmore released his Goal Setting and Action Workbook. It’s pretty cool.
• The team from An Inspiring Venture have launched Startup Training School. It has an impressive team, but it’s more about creating a typical digital business rather then a startup.

Launch Gossip:

• How He Did It: Lewis Howes Reveals Exactly How His Latest Product Generated $400,000 in Sales in One Month
•  10,000 Sales Later: Lessons Learned from Selling Evernote Essentials
• Codecademy’s CodeYear Attracts 100,000 Aspiring Programmers In 48 Hours
• You can learn how sasha Greif designed CodeYear in an hour
• What Louis C.K Can Teach Us About Selling Digital Content

Links on Entreprenership + startups

• How to Survive Your First Year As An Entrepreneur
• No, You Can’t Pick My Brain. It Costs Too Much
• Should Startups Focus on Profitability or Not?
• Stop whining and start hiring remote workers
• 10 Secrets of Building an Authority Website Interesting story about a site that sold site for 200k
• Would Anyone Pay to Read Your Blog? Interview With Andrew Warner
• How to Create a Million-Dollar Business This Weekend (Examples: AppSumo, Mint, Chihuahuas) 
• Hiring a journalist can help with content marketing

Self publishing gossip:

• The Five Hot Revenue Streams for Publishers in 2012
• The 99-Cent Debate: How Do We Value Our Writing?
• Self-Publishing And Ebook Predictions For 2012 With Steven Lewis From Taleist
• Selling An Ebook? Three Golden Rules To Follow
• Is Indie the New Black?
• Product Creation: Ebooks And Beyond In The Kindle Age
• FutureBook Conference Report: Takeaways for writers
• Six eBook Formatting Tools

 New Books:

• Sean Platt and David Wright have just released Episode 7 of Yesterday’s Gone. This is the second season of their serialized fiction project, and the first season was really addictive. I interview him about the last season here. It’s also interesting to note that Matt Gartland is editing
• Jonathan Fields recently linked to the new book Shake The World, which looks pretty interesting. The subtitled it “It’s Not About Finding a Job, It’s About Creating a Life.” I’m intrigued, so let me know if you’ve read it.
• I found a cool kickstarted project called Designer Founders: stories by designers of tech startups

I also finished reading Brilliant, Cocky, Crazy by Sarah Lacy. A must read if you’re interesting in startups in emerging or chaotic markets.

Over to you:

This is just the stuff that got on my radar – the stuff I found personally interesting. Let me know if there are any type of launches you’d like to see here. Also feel free to email me or comment if there’s anything you’d like featured.

This year, it’s different.

As with every year, a lot of crap happened. There was a period of time when I’d laugh whenever I got bad news, because I thought that things couldn’t get anymore stressful.

Early in 2011, I realized that this was a year for personal growth and was content to put work stuff on the backburner. I dealt with situations as they arose. I cried when things fell apart and made huge changes in how I approached my life.

In this post, I’m going to talk about some of the major stuff that’s happened this year. I’m hoping to return to regular blogging now that things have settled down.

The boyfriend

My boyfriend and I are nearing our first year anniversary. My boyfriend. Huh. I never thought I’d be capable of having a relationship.

See, I struggle a lot when it comes to people. I didn’t think I could ever handle a relationship. Being someones partner means letting them see you at your most vulnerable. My partner has:

• Watched me cry a lot when work stuff got on top of me. He knew far more about some work stuff then he should have.
• Endured conversations where I’m somewhat incoherent
• Shared my bed. I have a thing about beds. When you’re asleep, you have no control over how people perceive you. I’ve gotten so good at handling anxiety because I control how I react to stuff. With Glenn, I don’t care.

It took a while to get used to being in a relationship, especially as I felt guilty about him getting caught up in my crazy. There were a lot of conversations because I didn’t know what I was doing. Glenn was fantastic throughout the whole process and helped me realize that each relationship is different and requires venturing into the unknown. There are no rules on how people interact and relate to each other.Learning that allowed me to chill out. I treat the relationship similar to how I treated the friendship. We hang out and talk geek, and help each other track down the best comic-related items.

The only difference is now, we are casually planning a future together. We’ll probably be buying a house over the next year using the money he inherited. It will be *his* house, but I’ll be part of the life he creates there. We’re talking about what we’ll do if we’re still together in a couple of years, but aren’t making any commitments.

I never thought that being in a relationship could be this simple or so… enriching. I really believe he is one of the reasons I’ve been able to cope so well this year.

I will be writing more about this relationship in the future. I find it so fascinating.

The business

Business. What business?

I stopped blogging early on in the year. I stopped the Blog Networking Tips newsletter because I felt it wasn’t good enough. I’ve chopped and changed everything so much.

Business wise, this year was hell. Most of you guys are aware that I was caught up in the Salty Droid drama. Everything surrounding my ex-boss and his business partner has caused a great deal of stress. It felt like I was put in an awkward situation and didn’t know what to do. This isn’t anyones fault. There is no guidebook for how to handle a lot of stuff and people were just reacting to situations. I believe that stepping back was the best thing I could have done, considering how things played out.

The year wasn’t wasted, though. I launched a couple of projects, and did a lot of consulting behind the scenes. I learned a lot and will go into 2012 with a solid business plan, one that would be a lot more enriching then what I had planned to do this year. I’ll be creating a paid newsletter about that particular transition. Yes, I know that they are everywhere. I’m creating this moreso for myself.

Currently, I’m on income support payments from Centrelink. I’m getting support from a Job Network. When I talked them through my condition, they recommended that I get put in the some classification I was in when I had just had a nervous breakdown. This is kinda demeaning, as I am so much better now. It made me feel defeated, but I realized that these classifications are only there so that people can get the support that they need. I may rock at this social media and community management stuff, but I will need support to enter the traditional workforce.

Ironically, I start getting a lot of interest in my work in the same week that I apply to centrelink. I have a job interview tomorrow and am talking with a few people about helping them. I got a random freelance gig.

I’m not sure where things will go from here. I’m going to see how the next month pans out. I know I’m going to actively seek work, as I believe that I need more industry experience. I’m also interested in returning to study. I feel like my career, and life, has so much potential now and that there are so many opportunities. I just have to choose what I want.

The house

I moved this year. Erg, what a stressbomb.

It took 3 months get me into the new house. Everything kept going wrong. People got extremely ill, and cars broke down. I spent a good 8 weeks without most of my clothes and books. I’d put a lot of work projects on hold during this time so it was rather frustrating.

I love my new house. It was totally worth the effort to get here.

It’s in an upmarket suburb. I never thought of myself as a suburb snob, but now I see why people pay extra to live in a nice area. I come from a poorer suburb and used to defend it vigerously. I originally wanted to buy there.Most of the people are okay. The main issue was with the buses. You would get some scummy people on the buses. They would have public fights and talk about drugs. I’m pretty relaxed when it comes to stuff, but I often felt uncomfortable. My new suburb doesn’t have that.

It’s an older suburb. It’s very green and relaxed. It has the feel of a small township. I feel a lot calmer since living here.

It is a huge block. There are possums here, and cockatoos flying overhead. I can see the community garden next door from my window.

When my nephew visits, I show him the apples and pears that are forming. We look at the bugs and dig for worms in the veggie patch.

Kyo is now an outside cat. I used to keep her inside because I was afraid that she would die if let outside. BJ was an outside cat before I got him, so I didn’t try to control that. I tried to control her. She loves it outside.

I’m really happy here and am finally able to settle into work. Well… when I’m not outside gardening or playing with the cats. I’m really, really happy.

—

There are two months until the end of 2011. It has been a tumultuous year – one that has brought challenges that I didn’t think I’d face. I know there are going to be more challenges over the coming months and into early next year. It will be a while before I get back on my feet.

But guess what?

I’ve had shit blow up. I’ve been placed under a lot of pressure and have had my finances fall apart. Anxiety is fear of the unknown. This year so many things happened that I couldn’t have predicted, and I responded the best way I could.

I’m happy with how I handled this year. I’ve grown up a lot and am quite proud of the person I’m becoming. I’m starting to stop defining myself by my mental illness and defining myself by what I do.

Whats up for you guys?

He’s one of just 131 kakapo left in the wild and is one of the ways the Department of Conservation get the word out about their work, and the recovery project. In this post, I’ll share with you what you can learn from this fascinating case study.

~ The obligatory backstory ~

That video went live in October, 2009, and promptly went viral. It had Stephen fry providing witty comments and hilarious angles of Sirocco doing his thing.

A few months later, he was officially recognized as a conservation ambassador and dubbed ‘The Spokesbird.’ They built a brand around The Spokesbird concept which included a minisite and Twitter presence.

I’m a bit of a birdwatching and conservation geek so I really enjoyed following Sirocco on various social media accounts. I quickly realized that this is how people (or birds) should be using social media. I love reading his updates. I know they are from a person and the bird is simply a persona – similar to Gus at Haul – but I don’t care. Sirocco, and the recovery project, has made me feel compelled to take action and share the story with my community.

Here’s what they did right:

They saw an opportunity and took it.

It would have been easy to do nothing based on the viral success of the video. The video in itself is enough to generate interest. Opportunities such as this rarely present itself. I discovered the kakapo species via the above video, as did many.

They created a compelling personality

A subject like this can easily be dry. They leveraged the perceived cheekiness and incorporated it into their presence. Most comments being with the BOOM or ‘Skraaark’ birdcall. He often talks about his own handsomeness and plays on the incident in the above video. People have fun engaging with him. I giggle every time he replies personally.

They are experimenting with other online tools

This can bring in a new generation of fans, and is similar to what Lady Gaga did when she released her new album. There is a game called Smallworlds where users can support the Kakapo by purchasing a Sirocco Kakapo wearable.  I don’t know what that means, but I saw a lot of response via the fan page. It also meant that people found their own way to promote the cause via the game, such as this effort.

How it has affected me

I am the ideal fan/follower. I’m heavily interested in the what Sirocco talks about and it has made me want to do the following:

• I want to buy books and documentaries so I can learn more about the kakapo
• I am so disappointed that I can’t go to NZ next month to see a kakapo up close. That probably would have injected 1k into the NZ economy.
• I’m very interested in volunteering, if I could work out the logistics
• I’ll share a lot of the information he shares with my tribe, because he has sparked that passion.

I do a lot of work in social media and I’ve only felt this way about two brands in the last few months. (The other is this comic store in Melbourne, but that’s another blog post.)

Over to you

Do you have a favourite brand on social media? I’d love to hear about stories similar to this. I’d also be interested in hearing about similar ways social media has been used to promote conservation issues.

Yesterday I hit 1000 visitors/month. Not bad for something I squeeze in between other projects. In this post, I’m going to share the background.

I used to work for a launch coach.

Not any launch coach – the Launch Coach. We’d come to an arrangement where I was going to work full time as part of his business. One of the initiatives we were going to work on was a concept called Launch Watch.

I’d helped set up interviews for his Lessons Learned series and they’d proven popular. I was discovering more stories then we could feasibly cover on his blog. We were going to focus on the top launches and create a destination where people would go to first when they wanted someone to cover their launch.

Thom Chambers had just launched In Treehouses and I wanted to use a similar model. Dave argued that it would take too long – some launches are over within a week. I agreed and so we decided to use custom post types, and link to the content as part of his weekly newsletter.

At Blogworld, this plan still looked like it was going ahead. Shortly after, stuff blew up and I ceased working for Dave. I had permission to use this concept but didn’t want to step on any toes, so shelved the idea.

I toyed with reviving it for 6 months

During the next 6 months or so, I hid online. I hate drama and didn’t like the fact that I was caught up in one, so tried to draw as little attention to myself as possible. A lot of my friends were coming up to me with their latest launches and initiatives but I had nowhere I could talk about them.

I didn’t want this site, JadeCraven.com, to be a collection of all that is awesome. I’d been evolving and knew this site would eventually extend beyond the business.

The goal was set. I was going to create Launch Watch… eventually.

I kinda didn’t want to launch it.

I procrastinated. The .com was taken, so I spent a while trying to come up with a new name. I had no idea what format it was going to be. I didn’t know if people would respond to it, or what type of content would resonate.

I launched it on a whim because it was the only way it would get out there. Slowly, it grew. My friends would email me with ideas about monetization, occasionally. We’d work together to cover their launch and help people in the best way possible. I was glad I procrastinated, but it meant I was very behind with my plans.

I still don’t know what I’m doing.

This is the fascinating, brilliant and inspiring thing. I am flying blind with this concept. I know it is serving a need, so I continue to do it. I got a lot of initial feedback from people saying that they loved the concept, but got very few ideas about what they specifically needed.

I love it.

I’m pushing the edges of content curation and testing an idea in the field. I did this before with digital magazines and it is so professionally satisfying.

The coming months will see experimentations with static pages listed in the sidebar, product reviews, guest contributers and launch analysis.

What I’ve learned so far:

• Monetization will be best via the back channels. I’m making $1-200 in affiliate income so far, but it’s not worth the amount of time put into it.
• This is a news site. Too much personality can be distracting. This means I have to work harder to justify my statements.
• My microsites were a flop. I’m taking most of them down and shifting the content to Launch Watch.

Your thoughts?

I’d love to know what you think of the Launch Watch concept, and whether you have any ideas or suggestions. I think it has the potential to really take off.

Many people assume that when their online brand takes off, they’re set. That instant popularity will bring instant riches and everything will fall into place.

The reality is more like the flywheel, which is described below.

“Picture a huge, heavy flywheel. It’s a massive, metal disk mounted horizontally on an axle. It’s about 100 feet in diameter, 10 feet thick, and it weighs about 25 tons. That flywheel is your company. Your job is to get that flywheel to move as fast as possible, because momentum — mass times velocity — is what will generate superior economic results over time.

Right now, the flywheel is at a standstill. To get it moving, you make a tremendous effort. You push with all of your might, and finally, you get the flywheel to inch forward. After two or three days of sustained effort, you get the flywheel to complete one entire turn. You keep pushing, and the flywheel begins to move a bit faster. It takes a lot of work, but at last the flywheel makes a second rotation. You keep pushing steadily. It makes three turns, four turns, five, six. With each turn, it moves faster, and then — at some point, you can’t say exactly when — you break through. The momentum of the heavy wheel kicks in your favor. It spins faster and faster, with its own weight propelling it. You aren’t pushing any harder, but the flywheel is accelerating, its momentum building, its speed increasing.”

Jim Collins, Author, Good to Great

Reaching that crucial tipping point is just the start of your transition to successful business owner. You’ve overcome the main hurdle, but you have to keep pushing that flywheel to reach that certain level of momentum.

During the early stages, you’ll have to work hard to match your previous successes. They start to get easier. Eventually, you’ll reach a point where the momentum is continuing with very little effort on your behalf.

This is what businesses owners should be striving for. It’s not as sexy as internet fame, but internet fame doesn’t pay the bills.

I prefer to create posts that recommend people according to a common theme. I believe that this is one of the best methods to create a post that goes truly viral. It is the people in the list that are compelled to take action. This compounds the effect of those who share it because it’s useful.

The Hook

Readers are smart. They know a linkbait post when they see it. You need to provide more value than the list itself. You need a content hook to make the readers stick around and share the post.

As Allison Boyer said in her book “Out of Thin Air,”

Basically, you want to either write something that requires so much research that other people haven’t done it themselves or write something totally original that can’t be found elsewhere online.

That something is the hook.

Finding the content hook

Your content hook depends on the type of people you are featuring. You need a unique perspective – an angle that no-one else has considered. Sometimes, this can be the untapped talent. It can be based on gender or a shared experience. This doesn’t have to be something difficult. It just has to be a common thread that somehow links all the people. This thread can be loose – later, I’ll talk about how you can segment the people into further categories to make it even more useful.

The other type of ‘hook’ is the number. My current goal is to focus on the number fifty when listing people because not many people are able to make that effort. Exceeding that, however, is a surefire way to stand out. Just look at Kristi Hines post about 125 Fearless Female Bloggers.

Where to find people:

Many who create a list post just collect a list of the top people in the particular niche. This is often a transparent attempt at linkbait and is unlikely to be shared. People generally like the hidden success stories; the people who generally aren’t talked about or are at a different tier of success.

It can be hard work finding those people. In this section, I’ll be sharing some of my secret methods.

Forums.

As I discussed in the previous module, forums are one of my favourite forms of listening posts. You can tell who the natural leaders are.

You have two choices here. You can approach these leaders and ask them who they are keeping an eye on. This lessens the amount of time you have to spend filtering information. Or, you can include those leaders. The latter requires the most work but can result in a more compelling list. However, not everyone is a member of private communities.

I especially like scouring for interesting people in paid communities. There is a barrier set up so that only the most committed join. I’ve joined multiple paid forums but only use a select few as a form of listening post.

In the comment section

You can see the standouts in your own comment section. These people are easy to find. The harder ones are the people that out in the comment sections of other peoples blogs.

Doing this has two benefits:

• You are featuring people from other people’s communities. They can bring their audience to view your post
• You may be able to build a relationship with the person mentioned and tap their brain on other people to monitor in their community

This can be harder to do but can be a solid way of finding untapped talent.

Via Email

I used to keep my posts a secret. I would share them with a couple of people but would only hint towards the type of project I’m doing. Now I’m slightly more open.

I have a select group of friends that I trust for feedback on these sorts of posts. Often, I’ll email them an early selection of the people I want to include. They’ll provide their honest feedback. This can be useful as it means the list isn’t filtered towards my biases. You need to find trustworthy friends.

See who is guest posting

The people that are guest posting are often those who have the extra drive to succeed. They are the ones that are putting themselves out there.

Look at Scott McIntyre. He was a frequent guest posting at Liz Strauss’ blog before he even launched Vivid Ways. He has been able to build his profile rapidly based on his networking efforts prior to the launch. Those who discovered him early on would have gotten a lot of credibility.

I’ll be discussing further listening posts in that guide.

Factors that may influence a decision:

Once you find the people, you have to decide whether or not including them is a good decision again. By adding them to a list you are endorsing their work. Not all of the readers will be familiar enough with you and your work to seek further opinion.

The following factors, good and bad, will determine a person’s inclusion.

The sneezability

Some people are natural sneezers. They will share the great content. You can leverage this by including them in a list.

There are, however, people who have less altruistic motives. They will sneeze anything that portrays them in a positive light. If you include them then your post has the potential to reach considerably more people.

I only utilize this technique when the post is for a client and there primary motive is to create buzz. This specific breed of sneezer often focuses more on informing people of their own importance rather than providing value for their readership.

How reliable the person is

I have made some recommendations in list posts that I really regret. Some people had no consistency with their work and made me embarrassed to be associated with their name.

I can’t get into specifics however I now do research to see if the person has stability. This ties into the trust factor. I won’t recommend someone that will change their mind and anger the people I send their way.

How nice the person is

Sometimes when I have to make a choice between two people, I will choose the nicest. I want to someone for the kindness they have shown to me or their community.

This ties into reliability. I won’t recommend someone who is going to be a jerk to the people that follow and contact them.

Their humility

A common thread with my inclusions is the personality behind the blog or twitter profile. Humility is important because they often don’t seek out attention. It makes me feel good to help a person get the attention they deserve.

I have the people. Now what?

So. You’ve chosen the relevant people for your list post. This is actually the easy part. Now you have to write a compelling post.

I usually have a three step process when writing about people.

• What are the highlights of their career?
• Why did I put them on the list?
• What potential do I see?

You don’t have to repeat this process however having some kind of framework makes it easier. Having a consistent theme also provides the readers with extra value. It’s best to decide this before writing the post and, if possible, researching the people.

When researching the subjects I try to step away from the conventional research focus which is the about page or something that comes up on the first page of Google. This stuff is useful but is the kind of information that most people can find. You may be being a good filter but you are doing a disservice to the readers by not providing them with the best content.

I prefer to do a deeper search to find the good nuggets of information. This may be:

• Interviews
• Podcast transcripts
• Comments on blogs
• Forum posts
• Articles for print publications

In 30 Bloggers to Watch on Problogger, I linked to previous articles where that person was mentioned as well as linked to any guest posts they had done on that blog. Those that noticed really appreciated the effort.

What else I should mention?

As well as the basic information, you should mention any resources that are relevant to your audience. As well as blog posts and interviews, you can include:

• Free reports
• Information products+
• Videos
• Articles about them, particularly ones that relate to the post itself

What to do after the post goes live:

You’re job isn’t over just because the post goes live. You’ve done the hard part but your work will be in vain unless it attracts the eyeballs.

In most cases, you have the benefit of the blogs social media presence. You can leverage the mailing list, twitter and facebook accounts, and the RSS feed to get some traffic and comments. But how do you get the broader community to talk about the post?

Tell people that they were featured

People can’t talk about the post if they aren’t aware that they are part of it. I’ve had several people unaware that they were listed for several days. It wasn’t until they checked their incoming traffic and noticed the URL,

I use several techniques to let people know that they are featured.

• I let them know before the post goes live. I only do this to my trusted friends and promise to remind them when the post goes live
• Will contact them myself. I only do this with people I know, or that would appreciate the heads up.
• Wait to see if someone else contacts them. If they don’t notice within a couple of hours, I may send a DM. This is a lot funner because the listed person has the element of surprise and is unlikely to assume that they are being manipulated.  Many people are aware of linkbait as a marketing tool and assume that they are only mentioned so that the post will get talked about.

I prefer to take a step back during this process. I’ll continue the conversation but I’ll let other people build the initial discussion.

Reply and engage

People are generally excited to be featured. Really excited. Often, they’ll contact you to say thanks. Sometimes they will even blog about it. Where appropriate, reply. Let people know how genuinely thankful you are for their comments. If they have something negative to say, ask how they would have done it better.

Also, many people are disappointed that you didn’t include enough people of a certain type. This is an understandable position. Rather than attack, ask the person who they would recommend and see if they’d be willing to do their own post. In some cases, this can turn into a meme.

Post high quality content

I’ve had a situation where I did a viral launch post that got a lot of my community discussing it. However, the ensuing posts didn’t target them and the readership quickly dropped off.

There is no point going to the effort to attract an audience if you are just going to waste it. Yes, it can lead to additional sales but you can make considerably more money if you leverage the relationships you’ve built.

What do you do?

My process has led to popular list posts, but I’m always looking at improving skills. How do you make your list posts stand out?

Anyone can be a talker, but there are certain types of people online that will relay your message faster. I’ll teach you the different types of talkers, how they can help you and how you can connect to them.

You can thank me later.

The Curator

The curator is a content marketer that finds the best information and presents it in an easy to understand manner.

Rohit Bhargava called it the next big social media job of the future. He described it as “Someone whose job it is not to create more content, but to make sense of all the content that others are creating. To find the best and most relevant content and bring it forward”

Curation, for the most part, hasn’t become a full time social media job but it has become a vital part of many people’s careers. There are sites like paper.li that curate information however people respond best to content that is which is hand-picked by a curator who focuses on a particular topic.

This can be:

• A list post
• A regular collection of the best articles for that niche (such as Kristi Hines Fetching Friday)
• A twitter list
• A PDF Magazine or newsletter

The information can be presented in many forms – it’s up to how the curator how they share the information. The consistent thing is that there is a focus on quality and that the information is grouped.

Why we need curators:

• People are busy and don’t have time to filter through, and organize, information.
• Curators can make more connections between information as they are exposed to a lot more of it
• Curators allow you to monitor trends across multiple industries easily. This allows you to monitor complimentary niches

Curators are one of the easiest type of talkers to find. Most regularly seek contributions from their community.

• Allison Boyer will ask for posts at the end of her Brilliant Bloggers column at the Blogworld Blog. She’ll also ask via twitter.
• Kristi Hines has the following text below her Fetching Friday posts: “Looking for some link love? Articles featured in the resources come primarily from people I interact with in the comments, and on the social networks. So comment away , and join me on the networks below, and if your article/photo/video catches my eye, it may appear in following Fetching Friday posts.”
• Jonathan Wondrusch asks his readers for their recommendations in his resource posts
• I ask my close friends, and my twitter followers, for recommendations when I’m writing a list post.

If you want to read more about this concept, you can read Rohit Bhargavas follow up post, The Five Models of Content Creation.

The gatekeeper

The gatekeeper is a person that restricts the flow of information. They can work in an official manner, either as a team member or the person that fields the majority of communication to that person, or be a friend that unofficially passes on the best information.

They don’t usually add to the conversation. They have the ear of the influencer that hired them and their biases/opinion may affect how the influencer perceives you.

See, it’s not only the influencer that matters. Gatekeepers also talk privately amongst those in their peer group. Basically, if you piss off a gatekeeper you can really damage your reputation.

We need the gatekeepers to prevent the influencer from being overwhelmed. The alternate is that they will cut off communication channels and that you’ll have to compete against a lot of noise to get attention.

How to get to the gatekeeper:

• Create great content. In Referral Engine, John says that “great content gets you past the gatekeeper”
• Be professional. Some people treat the gatekeeper as second class, especially if they are an employee. If you’re rude to the gatekeeper, you can be pretty sure they will warn their peers, and superiors, about you.
• Make their job easier. Provide all the information they need the first time, and follow up with their responses promptly. Treat them like you would their boss.
• Let them access review copies. When I was a gatekeeper, people who let me access the product beforehand usually got a quicker recommendation
• If they turn you down, ask if they have any recommendations. Sometimes a product may not be a right fit for the blog, but most gatekeepers are really savvy. I used to love recommending other sites as it made me, and my boss, look good.
• Don’t try to be friends unless you actually plan to follow through. I get really annoyed at people that work hard to develop a rapport, and then stop communicating once they’ve got what they want. It’s a gatekeepers job to tell those above them why something is awesome. You’d save so much more time by being friendly, honest and explaining why you want the authority to talk about your thing.

The filter

The filter is someone that goes through the masses of information and finds the hidden gems. They differ from the curator in that they search for one gem, rather than collating multiple resources

The curators are awesome. However, they generally rely on stuff that has been referred to them. The filter has a lot more time to research to ensure that something is high quality. We need them because they are able to put in the time to find the best information that everyone can then benefit from.

• Srinivas Rao finds people with compelling blogs, and filters out the irrelevant information to create highly useful interviews at BlogcastFM
• Ainslie Hunter filters through many courses to find the people who are the best teachers for Courses That Matter
• Jess Van Den finds the best from the craft and creative communities, and highlights them on her blog and twitter account.

How to Connect With a Filter

Connecting with a filter can be difficult. They will get a lot of resources sent to them and won’t have the time to check them all out. Here are the tips that have helped people connect to me:

• You’ll often find that filters have an inner circle made up of talkers. Look at me. My inner circle is Catherine Caine (cheerleader), Jonathan Wondrusch (curator) and Srinivas Rao. If someone in my inner circle is impressed by you, I’ll be willing to invest more time into researching you
• I have friends that are filters within their own communities that I get information from. It sounds complex, but telling them about your new thing may increase the change of the information being sent up to me.
• In most cases, other people will be talking about you or your thing. Linking to what they are saying may help me figure out

See – it’s like networking marketing. Only instead of getting money, the person at the top gets authority and a lot of information. The higher someone gets, the more they rely on a group of their own filters to save them time on research.

Most people try to get attention of the filters at the top, and that is a good strategy. However, they are very busy. It’s unlikely they’ll be unable to do much with the information. Starting at the bottom can result in more people talking about you and more trust as you’ll have a wide range of people recommending you.

You will have to be up front when you approach people. I, like many of my peers, get offended when someone engages me and has an ulterior motive.  We get pitched a lot and like it when you make our job easier and send us a new resource. Remember: focus on the benefits to their audience.

The connector

Theconnector is a social person that has built a reputation from connecting people and products. They are useful because people seek them privately for their opinions on products.

This is my main talking style. Trust me – the industry needs people like this. They can see tiny connected threads that link seemingly unrelated bits of information. If they decide to help you out, they can shave months off your career by connecting you to the right person.

It’s easy to see a connector – especially if they are also a cheerleader. Some of their connections are public, where the blatantly connect people via social media. However most of the connections are done in private, or via recommendation. This is the best way to identify them is to watch the conversation around them or wait until they try to connect you with someone.

Most people wouldn’t peg me as a connector – they only realize this when they are told. The main reasons I get identified as one is:

• When someone mentions my connecting skills in a blog post. This is common with the reflective posts after an event, like BlogWorld, or when someone summarizes their blog’s progression for that year
• When I do a popular list post. Most of the conversation will be about the people on the post, but there is a low level of discussion around the author.
• When I get a specific referral.

How to Find a Connector

The best way to find a connector is to monitor the conversations in that niche. It is time consuming but well worth it. However, connectors get asked for favors a lot. I’d be very careful how you approach them. I’d suggest you:

• Do your niche research. It always annoys me when people ask for help when they haven’t put any effort into helping themselves.
• Ask if they have any recommendations of people you could connect with. Mention your research and ask if there are any complimentary niches or people you haven’t thought of. Show that you respect their time and expertise.
• Connect them with people in your immediate network. Helping them goes a long way

The connector isn’t the best type of talker to try and connect to but if you do it correctly, it can be a very powerful relationship.

The cheerleader

The cheerleader is someone who is very vocal when they find something they love. They will tell everyone. Danielle Laporte is a classic example. When she finds something she loves, you know about it. Everyone knows about it.

We need cheerleaders. We need people who find cool stuff for the sheer fun of it. We need these people to remind us it is that we do what we do. Now, a cheerleader is probably the least effective talker to connect with unless they share traits with another talker profile.

The best way to get the attention of the cheerleader is via organic networking. If you are referred, provide all the information they need to make it easy for them to decide whether to recommend it or not. Be useful, but not pushy. Respect that they have become successful because they are discerning about product quality.

Types of talkers to be wary of

While this guide has focused on the positive talkers, you must remember that not everyone has the tact and credibility required to effectively connect to them. Be very careful that the people you talk to don’t fall into the following categories.

The collector

These talkers focus on building relationships to increase their metrics. They want more followers so that they can leverage the statistics for purely commercial gain. They’ll position themselves as a connector but do very little genuine connecting.

These are the type of people you’ll see in the press. They often have great reach but very little conversion. Many of the collectors I’m friends with are good people – I value their friendships highly. I’ll just be reluctant to refer people to them lest they become just another impersonal statistic.

The suck up

The suck up is someone who will only talk to you for their benefit. They’ll often come out of the woodwork after you’ve accomplished something amazing.

They are fine people to talk to, but it can be time consuming to constantly question their motive. They’ll ask for favors and advice just to connect with you, and brag about their connection with you. They can tarnish your brand if they try to leverage your trust for their gain. It depends on how credible they are.

Like with the collector, they are mostly good people. You just have to be extra careful about being associated with them.

Download the first issue

Technically, I’m still on my break  so let’s just pretend that the blog fairies wrote this post.

Yesterday morning, the annual Problogger ‘Bloggers To Watch‘ post was published. It has been a fascinating 24 hours since, but I’ll save that discussion for when I’m officially back blogging.

Around August last year, I stopped releasing the weekly ‘Blog Networking Tips’ newsletter to focus on paid work. I was burning out and several people recommended that I quietly step back. This did lead to a few complaints and unsubscribers, but most people didn’t mind. One of the things I had struggled with was that I didn’t like the format. It had become another chore rather than something that was genuinely useful.

I realized last year that I didn’t want to be the person that tries to do and be everything. I want to help as many people as possible and I had to step back to let that happen. I decided to create a monthly magazine and incorporate various blog features into it and integrate it with the new site features that I’ll be launching next month.

This edition was rushed to coincide with the release of the Problogger post. I wanted to be able to test my theories with a large audience. There are some bugs, such as minimal proofreading, but is this just an example of what is yet to come.

I’d love your feedback. Also – feel free to send in tips and questions, or even suggest what you’d like to read about. I have a lot more plans but want you guys to be part of the evolution.

Download the first issue