May
02
The Blog Post That Made Me $800 and My Readers $2250
Last week I wrote a post called Let’s Play A Game: What’s Your Home Business? Here’s a quick recap:
I received an email from a regular reader of my blog asking me what I do for my home business. Since I would have thought that was obvious I realized that if people who don’t know what I do, they probably don’t know what you do either.
I made a little list of questions that people could answer on their own blogs, basically interviewing them so their own readers could figure out what they do. (Let’s face it, they’re the ones who already know and like you. You could tell my readers what you do but they don’t know you from a hole in the ground.)
Vindication is a Luscious, Luscious Fruit
I posted that on April 22nd. As of today, 10 days later, three four people have emailed me to let me know they’ve gotten brand spanking new home business clients because of that interview, totalling $1750 $2250 so far. Unless these three four readers totally suck, the odds are pretty good that some of those customers will be repeat customers, and more money will come down the road.
Another little interesting tidbit is that I made $800 from that post. Four businesses came and bought packages. Since most of my clients tend to refer several people, that number will likely triple. When you start adding up the number of people the referrals will refer, the odds are pretty good that I’ll eventually score about five grand worth of work from that post.
So why did this happen? What was it about that post that made people hire me?
When people sat down to write their own answers to these questions — or maybe they just started thinking about them in their head — they realized they didn’t know. They didn’t know what their USP was and they didn’t know what their target demographic was. They’d probably been going along happily thinking they knew, but when it came time to put pen to paper, they came up blank.
Anyway, I promised I’d answer the questions myself, both to prove I’m game and to eliminate the chance of future ‘What DO you do?’ emails. Here goes:
What’s your game? What do you do?
I do two things that are somewhat related. One, I am a micro-business marketing coach. I help businesses with fewer than 5 employees create dynamic marketing campaigns on the cheap. (Yes, I totally just quoted my own About page.)
What does this mean? It means I create marketing campaigns for businesses that are either new or very, very small. Or both. Generally the strategies I work out with my clients are free, although some people start Pay Per Click campaigns or pay for premium press release placement.
I help navigate the insanity that is social media and social networking. I help with search engine optimization. I help you identify your target market and your unique selling proposition, meaning you don’t have to compete with everybody in your industry. We create a micro-industry just for you.
The other thing I do is copywriting. I do advertising copy, sales pages, sales emails, Etsy pages, press releases, the whole shebang. Sometimes people want this as part of a marketing package and sometimes they want it by itself. The by-itself folks usually do this because they know what needs to be done, they just can’t write or sell their way out of a wet paper bag. (EDITED: I don’t do this anymore.)
Why do you do it? Do you love it, or do you just have one of those creepy knacks?
Both of the above. I absolutely adore the sales process. I love the psychology of why people buy. I love the emotions that go on behind the scenes when someone’s considering buying what you have to sell.
It seems I have the creepy knack for predicting this psychological process. I can tell you why Joe from Toledo won’t touch your product no matter what you do and why Annie from Tallahassee will buy it even if you quadruple your price.
Who are your customers? What kind of people would need or want what you offer?
My customers are very small business owners and freelancers. I’m going to repeat that just in case it isn’t clear. VERY small business owners and freelancers. Not medium sized business owners who like my prices. One guy and his wife, one chick and her cat, that kind of thing. That’s it.
Yes, I could work for bigger businesses, and I have. I happen to hate it.
Generally speaking the business owners I work with do most of their business online, but that’s not a requirement or even deliberate. It just happens to be how the business world is going.
What’s your marketing USP? Why should I buy from you instead of the other losers?
Jamie and I run a small business and we know that it’s scary as shit. We know that you don’t have a lot of money but that everyone and their mother is telling you that you need to spend money to make money. You get that there are a lot of things you need, but you also know there’s a lot you don’t need. That’s where we come in.
Bigger marketing firms have very specialized processes in place to meet the needs of the widest possible audience. Many offer a package that will guarantee you a 10-page report on, well, whatever. But you might not want a 10-page report. You might just want to know how to hit the Digg front page. You might just want some sales copy written. You might just want someone to bounce ideas off of. You might need someone to explain to you why your idea doesn’t suck, or even why it does.
Also, we are comparatively very cheap.
We’ve gotten a lot of flak for that and I understand why. If you get ten marketing quotes, even from firms that specialize in small business, we’ll be the cheapest by at least half, probably more. Normally I would recommend you not trust someone like that any further than you could throw them. What are they undercutting to give you that kind of a price?
We’re undercutting time. When you hire us, you get an hour, maybe two, max. Most of what you pay to a normal firm is spent doing the reports and photocopying and billing you for their four staff who spent an hour each attending a useless meeting.
It absolutely crushes me that there are so many amazing people out there working their asses off to run amazing businesses and having to quit because they didn’t do their marketing right and couldn’t afford one of the big guys to do it for them. Really nice and really deserving people are trying so fucking hard to get their ittybiz off the ground so they can finally stay home with their kids or stop commuting three hours a day and they’re failing because they can’t afford decent help.
It makes me violently angry so I figured I’d do something about it.
What’s next for you? What’s the big plan?
We’re doing a small biz guide that we’re going to launch when blog readers reach a certain critical mass. And I’m starting another blog. And I’m probably going to write a trashy romance novel because I’ve always wanted to. Oh, and we’re thinking of moving to England. Any advice anybody has on that would be very helpful. If you’re advice is ‘don’t move to England’ I’d rather not hear it.
***
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I thought THIS was a trashy romance novel!
Naomi,
Wow. Now I know why, when the time is right, I will be calling you (and it will be soon, so much on the go… but close)
Advice on moving to England? Do it. Follow your heart, your intuition. We vacationed in New Zealand based on a feeling I had. We’re not there yet. But we’re working on it.
If someone tells you not to follow your dreams, don’t even wonder why they said that. Don’t waste your time.
-Brett
Hey. Hey, hey. You didn’t wait until WE posted our non-meme answer to your non-meme.
Which is coming next week, because we do have readers who close their monitor and their eyes when they read :)
I have been trying to ansewer your questions and, as I said on my blog when I reposted them, it very scary. Good, but scary.
Your questions are a great way to position a product whatever it is. But, and perhaps this is the subject of another post, even the best marketing / marketing advice can’t help you if your product sucks. You have a great product for a market that needs it. I wish you all the success in the world.
Yeah, I think that post was a great marketing for your own business ^-^, and I’m glad some people are successfully increasing sales by going for it.
You are moving to England? Which part? I’ve never been there myself, but I know a blogger who is moving from there to Australia. . .
One person’s promised land is another’s history. Thus the Universe stays in balance. Very well.
England, wahey! But be warned, London has just elected a new mayor and… well, I probably shouldn’t get into politics here. But all my friends and I are swallowing tears.
Forgetting that for a while, my number one tip for moving to England – here, “pants” means underwear, not trousers. Nobody bothered to tell me until I had embarrassed myself numerous times with people who thought I was just very forthcoming with personal information.
Don’t move to England, move to Scotland. The accents are much more attractive. Or so I’m told…
If you write a trasy romance novel, i will most certainly read it. :)
(I do web dev for equally small businesses, and yes, it *is* scary. Hubby was a consultant before, so it’s a familiar scary. Like life without a net, or in the words of a fave song of the moment “like riding a unicycle on a dental floss tightrope over a wilderness of razor blades”. well, on the bad days anyhow. )
Oh, and if you want to move to England go for it. You can always change your mind.
My grandparents moved from England to Canada in 1956. ;)
“I help you identify your target market and your unique selling proposition, meaning you don’t have to compete with everybody in your industry. We create a micro-industry just for you.”
That, alone, is unbelievably compelling.
Or this: “Ittybiz: We help you discover Your Creepy Knack.”
@ James Hipkin — I will indeed write a post about that. That topic is definitely one I have a lot to say about. :-)
@ James Chartrand — It’s cool. As long as you don’t call it a meme. :-)
@ Jimmy — I didn’t know you weren’t real English! Where are you from?
@ Dave “The First Person on His List Not Named James” Navarro — Thanks dude. I try.
@ Andrea — That’s so cool! My grandparents came in ‘68. They were originally from Ireland and when they left, my grandfather had a necklace custom made for my grandmother with a maple leaf made of rubies and a shamrock made of emeralds that said “Wagons Ho ‘68″. So cute. We’re doing the big 40th anniversary this year — should be pretty crazy.
Love the dental floss thing. :-)
Naomi, I’m from Finland – moved to England four years ago. As a kid I learned English by watching mostly American tv and films, so when I came here, everyone thought I was American due to my yankish accent. I’ve since learned to speak like the Brits, and most people don’t notice that I’m not indigenous. Which is fine by me!
Obviously England’s got its downsides – lots of shoddily built (but nice looking) houses with no proper insulation/heating, plumbing hasn’t been updated since the Victorian era and pork pies should be outlawed. But the list of positives (at least for me) could go on and on and on! So yeah, welcome to England. I make the best lemon cake this side of the Atlantic if you wanna pop round for tea. ;)
Naomi,
How about calling it “issuing a challenge to your readers”?
It just doesn’t draw eyeballs like “Naomi Dunford’s ‘I Never Called It a Meme,’ Meme,” so I said both. :)
IttyBiz: Advice to Make Your Biz IttyAwesome
I am never going to stop thinking of taglines for IttyBiz—scary! I love Dave’s, too.
On moving to England: Go where your VisionPoints. (Hehe. My all-occasion motivator.)
Regards,
Kelly
Naomi- My subscribers went up from that, but cash conversions not yet…hmm. Is there a barter in our future?
@Kelly,
“Go where your VisionPoints”… you know, that’s just totally awesome for this. I know I’ve read it at your blog. But it sums this up perfectly.
Brett,
I’m sneaky that way. Life motto and business tagline rolled into one, don’t ya know. I may be one of the few people who love looking at their own business card, because my mantra is right there (not because I’m narcissistic or anything).
;)
You bring out the emoticons in me, man!
Until later,
Kelly
Kelly,
Sneaky? No. Smart. Emoticons, hmm… like this one?
^^
. .
^
o
-Brett
Brett,
Hurry, get Friar. He loves endless paperwork. You and he can fill out the patent app this afternoon, before the world gets in on the wiggly-Groucho-eyebrows emoticon. Do I get a credit for wishing there was such a thing? Can I say I knew you when, like two weeks ago before you created it?
(My Dad used to do patent apps on occasion, the paperwork drove him insane.)
Later,
Kelly
Kelly,
I was thinking to release it under Creative Commons, sort of like niebu, the wiggly-Groucho-eyebrows emoticon should be free… Friar can still write the licence though!
You’ll be fully credited, of course. And I’m sure when I’m famous, you’ll be famous too.
-Brett
Hahaha!
You can’t patent snarky, impish joy, even as an emoticon. I totally agree.
(If you could, Naomi would have done it already.)
IttyBiz: Snarky, Impish Joy for Your Business
^^
. .
^
o
Don’t move to England! It’s so far away!
Oh, wait. This is the Internet. You are still just a click away.
I keep forgetting that.
Naomi, I love the passion you have for your work. I think that’s what stood out most to me in your post. If I ever decide to start a business, you’ll be one of my first stops.
On moving to England – I agree with most everyone here: follow your heart. I’m a sucker for an English accent, but Scottish trumps English any day. But Ireland – sexy accents AND beautiful scenery – why not move back to the homeland?
You are just so cool. I’m at a transition point to and may need to hire you in a few months as well…depending on what I decide to do when I grow up. :-)
I’m suffering mild blogging amnesia, so I can’t be sure if I’ve already told you this…but you are the coolest blogger I’ve read in a while.
(I debated saying “bestest” or “awesomest” too…because I’m 5…)
I still need to answer the questions and post them, but I’m glad you posted yours! (Yes, I could have read your “about” page, but I only have so long to do stuff before the baby wakes up from her nap, and that’s a click I just never got around to making.)
You’ll probably be hearing from me sometime in the near future, with regard to making your $800 total a bit higher…. (We’re a guy and his wife, so we qualify, right?!?)
Carole
Note: I’ve been reading your blog for a couple of months now, I think, and I just had to tell you: up until a couple of weeks ago, I thought the title was “IttyBitz” — whether I saw it on your page, or on my RSS feeds page, my mind added that “t,” and it still tries to, occasionally. (Itty BIZ makes much more sense….) : )
I wouldn’t recommend England. Food is terrible and the weather is worse. Move to San Francisco. Better food, better weather, and, BTW, lots of technology and stuff.
It would be Ireland for me, for the people and the visuals. But if you’d like to get some adorable little house in the English countryside with daffodils, etc., please get one with a guest room so I can visit.
Whenever I’m in the country I write and write and write. I think city stress makes me a little mental.
Could I suggest the South Coast of England? It’s the best place to be in summer and only 2 hours from London – and you can pop in to my house for a cup of tea!