Archive | February, 2021

If you’re new to marketing or don’t yet have a large following, starting your own podcast can be an uphill slog that takes months of work before you start to build real traction.

But being a guest speaker on established podcasts – what I call reverse podcasting – can immediately establish your credibility and send hot prospects to your website.

It doesn’t matter if you have a track record online because your offline experience can work just as well for getting interviewed. Remember that podcasters are always looking for interesting people to interview who bring value to their listeners.

To find out which podcasts might be a good fit for you, choose someone well-known in your niche and then discover what podcasts have had them as a guest. These are the podcasts you want to approach.

Typically, podcasters will want to know what you can offer their listeners in terms of great info. They will also link to your website in their podcast description (great for not just traffic, but also SEO) and place your name in the podcast’s title.

Once you’ve been a guest on numerous podcasts, then it might be time to consider starting your own podcast. And your first guests can be the podcasters who interviewed you since you’ve already established a relationship with them.

A good ‘About Me’ Page doesn’t have to be fancy or complicated. In fact, it just needs to communicate a few key things. And yet people keep making these same 7 mistakes over and over again on their About Pages.

1: Surprise! Your ‘About Me’ Page isn’t about you.

Nope. It’s about the person who visits the page. This is where you tell that person why they should bother with you, or products or your site.

Talk about their problems which you solve. Talk about how you can help them to achieve their goals. Let them know what’s in it for them. And only talk about yourself in the context of how you help your readers.

2: You’re talking too much.

Your About Me Page should be interesting, not mundane; just long enough, but no longer. Write your rough draft for your About Page. Set it aside for a day or two. Come back and remove everything that doesn’t move your prospect closer to knowing you, liking you and trusting you. Then have a friend read it and tell them to point out all the parts where they were losing interest, and either fix or remove those.

3: Your writing is boring.

Borrrrrringgggg. Snooze… Write in your own voice, lose the hype and the jargon, be a little funny and most of all, be your real self and not some drone.

4: You’re using only video.

Sure, video is great for establishing rapport… with those people who like video. But you’ll have visitors who don’t want to have audio blasting for everyone around them to hear, and you’ll have other visitors who don’t want to sit through a 5-minute video.

If you do use video, keep it short and be sure to include text, too.

5: Your picture is AWOL.

Okay, having your photo on your About Page is optional. I know some people like to keep their face on the down-low because, well… trolls. But if you don’t mind having your photo online, then by all means put it on your About Page to give people a better sense of who you are. It will also help them to remember you, too.

6: Your name is missing.

Have you ever been on a website with awesome writing and you wanted to know who is writing this stuff, but the About Page just has some corporate mumbo-jumbo and nobody’s NAME? I have. You need a first name and a last name, so don’t just say, “Bob” because I want to know, Bob WHO?

If your name is too generic, such as John Smith, you might add a middle name to everything you do online to make it easier to find you in the search engines, such as John Vincent Smith. If you don’t want to use your REAL name, that’s okay, too. Many people work under professional pseudonyms. Also, remember to add any professional, relevant credentials you might have.

7: You don’t have an About Page.

If you’ve read this far, then I’m guessing you understand the importance of an About Page, even if you don’t have one yet. If you’re hoping no one has noticed that you don’t have one, well… we have.

And if you’ve given it some totally clever name like, “Guess What?” “The Deets” or “Check This Out” then it would be a great idea to rename it to “About” or “About Me.” Why? Because if I’m looking for the “About Me” page then I’m going to pass right over all those ‘clever’ names and assume you didn’t bother to create an About page.

Million dollar business ideas are everywhere and they don’t even need to be original. If you’ve ever been on Ebay, then you know that once you click on one item, another dozen items will be suggested. And while most are targeted towards you and what you’ve searched for, now and then something odd will pop up. Like Cat Butt Push Pins.

I’m not making this up… It’s a real thing. Intrigued, I clicked on it and found that for about $15 you can buy six plastic push pins (like for a cork board) that are in the shape of six different cat butts; Calico, tabby, black, etc.

Thinking the price was an anomaly, I searched on Ebay and found only one other listing, and that one cost $20. Then I went to Amazon and found I could get their very last set of cat butt push pins sent to me for $17.99.

Walmart, on the other hand, would be glad to sell me a set for just $49. That’s right… $49 for six plastic push pins in the shape of cat’s butts.

I might be in the wrong business…

This isn’t the point of this article but as an aside, here’s a business idea for you: Hire an artist to design 8 cat butt push pins for you, being sure to NOT copy the ones already out there. Find a company – likely in China – who can cheaply manufacture push pins and get an initial run of these made. You don’t even need fancy packaging yet.

Sell them on Ebay, Amazon, Etsy, Mecari and any other website you can think of. Find your best price point where they sell quickly and yet you are making as much profit as possible (Hint: It will be lower than $49 and likely lower than $17.99).

Use your profits to design clever packaging and now get them into stores as well as continuing to sell on Amazon. Okay, that’s one business idea, but it’s not even my point.

Here’s my point – or rather, my two points.

First of all, there are great ideas everywhere, and you don’t even need to be all that original. Clearly there is a market for clever push pins that isn’t being fully satisfied. Who knew? Push pins are the sort of thing we take for granted, but one enterprising person said, “What if? What if I design these in the shape of cats’ butts?”

While his friends were falling on the floor laughing at him, he made a go of it. And without competition, he’s selling these things for a ridiculous price, too. There is room for improvement here in quality, in appearance and in price. Three opportunities in one.

What products do you take for granted that can be improved? If you have no desire to get into physical products, that’s okay. What virtual products need improving, revamping or even inventing?

During the pandemic sites like Zoom and Skype went crazy. But what about people who want to talk online and don’t want to have to think about their appearance or the state of disarray their room might be in? Bingo! Clubhouse was invented – audio chat rooms, no video and no recordings.

Second, when you have a rabid, hungry market, you can sell them the darndest things. People are PASSIONATE about cats and they will literally pay $17.99 for 6 push pins if they are in the shape of cats’ butts.

To put this into perspective, a non-cat-butt-shaped push pin costs a few cents at most, while these cost $3 apiece when bought in a set of 6. That’s not just insane… it’s also a great example of how passions override common sense in purchasing and how you can take advantage of that in the market.