Blogging Tips

Seven years ago I was paid to drive around and give away muffins. I learned something from that experience – and it was more than just the fact blueberry are the most popular kind.

The lessons learned in those years have actually helped me build quite a profitable network – one which sends referrals on a regular basis and enabled the launch of a blog with more than 2,000 unique visitors on its very first day. By the way, a little birdie told me ComHacker.org is coming back – hint, hint.

In my Time-Strapped Blogger’s Guide to Self-Promotion, I alluded to a little something I call “information currency” and its power to harness crowds. If you’re not comfortable with the buddy-buddy networking strategy, information currency is an awesome and effective alternative. However, there is definitely a trick to being a great information broker – and to be an efficient one, you really need a rabbit in your hat.

The Stake-Out

First you need to figure out who you’re targeting and what they want. The easiest way is to discover the most valuable interest most of your prospects have in common. Whether the group type would fetch the most results doesn’t matter. In the end, the value of the information directly translates into how much they favor you, and therefore how much time they are willing to spend on your behalf.

The value of the interest is purely subjective. In other words, it doesn’t matter what you paid to get it or how much time it took. What matters is whether it benefits them, and by how much.

That was the easy part when I delivered muffins. I was building a referral network for the financial industry, so the kind of information which would benefit accountants, lawyers, Realtors, and mortgage brokers was pretty cut and dry.

Each type of business got a different packet of information each week. Accountants received information on how to build an accounting business. Lawyers got stuff for building a law firm. Some things were universal – like management skills and buying media. Basically I provided news and tips which directly helped them to grow their business.

So have a sit-down chat with the shoes of your target type. What kind of information could they use to make their life better? Once you have that answer, it’s time to get it for them and set up a simple delivery system.

Fetch!

There are a million different ways to get the right kind of information you need right when you need it. I set up a Google search alert on the keywords with an RSS feed right into my Google Reader. From there I stuff the feeds into folders for specific sub-types.

However, this kind of networking works best if the information you provide isn’t already on your prospects’ reading list. Also keep in mind that if you always send information from the same named source, your prospects will get the bright idea they should read that source – effectively eliminating it from your information arsenal.

So… be confusing and unpredictable. Look for the underground resources nobody knows about. Then set it up to be automatically delivered to your RSS reader, ready and waiting for judgment day.

Comic Timing

Most importantly the information has to be fresh and timely. Whether it’s a useful recent news article or evergreen tips, they have to need it right then in order to make the most impact. Keep an eye on your Twitter stream and various social network status updates to make sure you’re not missing an opportunity to network. You can also use search.twitter.com to further expand your firing range.

For your regular contacts, a newsletter is easiest, but it’s often too formal and unfocused. Regular email works best. Set up a “canned” message in Gmail (my favorite productivity tool is Google, can you tell?) with a simple one-liner opening and a spot to paste your link. Something like “Hi – I’m not sure if you’ve seen this yet, but I thought it could be useful to you” does the job quite well.

Try to be pretty regular with your outreach. Once a week seems to be the best schedule – just exactly far enough apart so it doesn’t make a huge time impact, but also close enough together so you’re not forgotten. You don’t have to get in touch with everyone every single week, but at least set aside some time on one particular day so you can spread the love pretty evenly.

That said, I’ll see ya next week – same time, same place