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6 Lessons We Can Learn From LEGO

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Business Lessons

Did you know LEGO almost went bankrupt in the early 2000’s? I first learned about the beloved company’s escape from demise a few months ago, and it blew my mind. None of the friends I told knew about it—even many of the hard core LEGO fans.

David C. Robertson’s stunning book Brick by Brick discussed LEGO’s rise to power, but also its near collapse. How does a company go from decades of profits to near bankruptcy? And how does that same company rise back to the top? LEGO’s story is filled with intriguing twists, turns, and lessons that we can learn from. These are some of the lessons you can learn from LEGO:

#1: Be Customer Driven

LEGO was customer driven for most of its existence, that is, until everything went wrong. LEGO knew its targeted audience consisted of children, but innovations were taking those children away from LEGO. Video games were starting to attract a global audience in the 1990’s, and now millions of children play video games. More time for video games, less time for LEGO.

LEGO did a study that confirmed one-third of children were still loyal to the brand. However, LEGO made the mistake of focusing on getting the two-thirds of children to love the brand. The result was a series of dumbed-down LEGO sets that attempted to get everyone else to like LEGO. The hard-core fans disapproved of the change, and many of them stopped buying sets from the brand they once loved. The dumbed-down LEGO sets were massive failures.

A few bad products cost LEGO millions of dollars and the trust of the retail stores. LEGO Star Wars helped out, but once no new Star Wars movies came out, LEGO found itself in a tight situation. Bionicle, the only massively successful LEGO set of its time, was the only thing keeping the company afloat. Some LEGO executives to this day credit Bionicle to the company’s survival.

One reason LEGO made its big turnaround was because LEGO went back to being customer driven. LEGO now focuses on the 33% when it creates most of its products.

#2: Be Willing To Learn From Your Mistakes

As LEGO approached bankruptcy in the early 2000’s, sets were failing left and right. Money was getting drained out of the company. However, the company looked the other way. LEGO only looked at its success with the Star Wars sets but didn’t take the time to learn from mistakes. When one set failed, little to nothing was done to assess the situation. LEGO needed a completely revamped team and leader to make change.

Not only did LEGO have internal problems, but LEGO was not the nice-and-fuzzy company we know today. Now LEGO invites its fans to contribute with their own creations and suggestions. However, LEGO has been historically known as a company that ignored the fans.

When LEGO started to interact with fans to discover what went wrong with the brand, the company had to take the criticism and learn from the mistakes. The company had to deal with the criticisms of adult fans who felt the brand lost its touch. The change faced opposition from many people in LEGO. A policy that ruled the company for decades (just create and don’t pay much attention to customers’ ideas) suddenly got snapped.

The fans allowed LEGO to discover its mistakes, and then the company went to work fixing the mistakes that it created.

#3: Taking The Same Approach Won’t Get A Different Result

As LEGO approached bankruptcy, employees remained happy. Although that may sound like an optimistic approach, it was too optimistic. Employees continued creating Lego sets and testing their imaginations as if the company was still successful.

They tried crazy ideas and drifted away from the basics. The people working for LEGO were in a balloon of happiness, but that balloon had to get popped for the survival of the company. Either someone within the LEGO team would pop the balloon, or the balloon would pop due to LEGO’s demise.

Jørgen Vig Knudstorp was LEGO’s new leader in 2004, the survive or collapse year. When LEGO finally assessed the problem, many people wanted a quick recovery. They wanted to go from a bankrupt company to reclaiming the #1 spot in one year. This was the same approach LEGO always took: How do we go from where we are now to #1? Knudstorp had other plans. Instead of creating a one year plan that took the company from the bottom to the top, he created a one year survival plan.

The survival plan was designed to reassess the company’s products, spending, and profit. The survival plan also redefined the standard for LEGO sets which ultimately brought them back to the golden path.

#4: Don’t Overextend Yourself

In the late 1990’s, LEGO overextended itself in an attempt to catch up with a world dominated by video games. LEGO explored too many different areas at once and worked on too many innovative ideas. The overextension led to most of these ideas, like Project Darwin which was a complete failure.

One idea LEGO came up with was the initially successful MovieMaker set which featured a camera and software that made it possible to create stop motion LEGO animations. The set came with enough mini figures for creating a stop motion LEGO animation. However, LEGO overextended itself with the MovieMaker sets by creating lower priced sets that neither included the camera nor the software. Those sets missed what made the Studio sets special, and as a result, LEGO’s profit from those sets dropped drastically.

It is okay to create new products and come up with innovative ideas. However, if you overextend yourself and try to accomplish too many goals at the same time, you risk not accomplishing any of those goals and falling a few steps back.

#5: Have Strong Communication With Your Team

There are many words necessary to describe the fall of LEGO. Miscommunication is one of them. LEGO expanded its employee base all around the world in hopes of boosting creativity and making a bigger profit. These people created numerous sets, but due to the miscommunication and stubbornness of LEGO headquarters, many of these LEGO sets never saw the light of day.

LEGO also had several miscommunications when it came to digitizing the brick. Miscommunication is one of the reasons it took LEGO so long to grow its presence on the web. When LEGO fixed its communication issues, LEGO sets and ideas could easily reach headquarters and get approval.

As more people from around the world joined the headquarters of LEGO, the stubbornness of HQ slowly diminished. Now LEGO headquarters pays attention to ideas from all around the world—even the ideas from their own customers (The company went to Adam Reed Tucker, a LEGO fan, for the idea and products of the successful LEGO Architecture series).

Strong communication is essential to the success of any team. Work on ways to strengthen the communication between you and your team so there is no confusion. In addition to bad sets, LEGO’s miscommunication prevented the company from creating a strong, sustainable response.

#6: Build Smarter

When LEGO got past the survival stage, it needed a way to reclaim the #1 spot. Doing the same things that allowed LEGO to survive wouldn’t make the cut. Now, LEGO needed to thrive. LEGO looked towards new horizons and relied customer recommendations and their own creative way of thinking to guide them. LEGO eventually created unprecedented LEGO sets that grabbed the imagination of children and gave adult fans a challenging build (remember that they complained about the dumbed-down sets earlier, so they welcomed the challenge).

It’s not just a matter of building. It’s a matter of building smarter. Look into your market and see what your customers want and then build products and write content that they would appreciate.

In Conclusion

LEGO is one of the most beloved companies in the world with a story of rise to near collapse to rise again. We can learn a lot from LEGO’s journey about the company’s history and how we can grow our businesses.

How To Master A Skill Without Paying A Single Penny

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skill mastery

Which new skill have you been trying to learn lately? Whether you want to bake cookies the right way or get more Twitter followers, the web has made it possible for us to learn any skill that we want to learn.

With free information available on YouTube and the countless blogs on the web, we don’t have any excuses. The information is hidden in front of us, but with Google, finding the needle in the haystack isn’t as challenging as it was before.

While it is possible to learn a new skill quicker with the appropriate book or training course, it is possible to learn a new skill for free. I learned everything I know about social media without spending a penny. Now I primarily buy books and training courses about social media to expand upon my knowledge.

When I want to learn a new skill fast, and for the price of zero, I use this process:

 

Step #1: Research

The first step is where Google truly shines, and it also highlights the difference between our current era and life without the internet—a life that is foreign to me (how the heck did people go to the library every day in the winter for their information?).

When I want to learn something new, I will search the appropriate phrase into Google. Right now, I am mastering the art of podcasting free of charge. I will not buy a book or training course until I am already successful with my podcast and ready to expand upon my knowledge.

After I type in the search phrase (in this case, “podcasting tips”), I click on all of the links on the first two pages of Google. Then, I read the articles.

Depending on what you are trying to accomplish, you should also watch five YouTube videos related to the skill that you are trying to master. Several skills require visual learning in addition to reading articles on the web.

 

Step #2: Copy and Paste (Yes You Read That Right)

Who knew that advice we have always shunned can actually help us learn new skills? I have a document on my computer with numerous podcasting tips from the experts. However, I am never going to include the document in one of my books or put it on my blog. I especially wouldn’t claim ownership of the document. That would be plagiarism.

The reason why so many people forget what they learn on the web is because they look at the information once. Although some people unintentionally stumble across the same article twice, most people will only read an article once and only go back when they have forgotten what the article said (but remembered the value).

When I read articles on the web about podcasting, I copy and paste all of the best tips that I didn’t know before into the document. It currently has over 1,000 words and several pictures. Instead of going back to the articles I looked at earlier, I just go back to the document. All of the information is in one place.

I never copy and paste links to actual articles on the web since I don’t want to go back to them. However, I will copy and paste links to YouTube videos and identify the important times of the video down to the seconds.

 

Step #3: Apply

No matter how much knowledge you absorb, you won’t remember it forever (unless you have a perfect memory). You don’t want your knowledge of a particular skill to wither away. The copy and paste technique (yes, I just called it a technique) allows you to remember knowledge. Just look back at the document and you’ll remember.

However, just because you remember knowledge does not mean that knowledge is serving you. If I never started my own podcast show, then the knowledge I obtained about podcasting is meaningless. That knowledge won’t help me reach the next level.

The next step was start my own podcast. Just like anything we start, starting is initially scary, but with practice, we become comfortable. Comfort in your area of expertise allows you to expand upon your knowledge easily produce high value work.

 

Step #4: Write A Blog Post About The Skill

Guess what you’ll be seeing from me in the near future? That’s right, an in-depth blog post all about making a podcast become successful. I will use the document I mentioned earlier for inspiration just as people use articles on the web for inspiration for their blog posts (both approaches lead to the same result).

Obviously, the blog post won’t involve any copying and pasting. Instead, I am going to describe podcasting in my own words based on the information I have obtained and lessons I have learned from analyzing other podcasts.

You can’t say you have mastered a new skill until you can successfully describe the process of mastering that new skill in your own words. Then, at that point, you must consistently practice the skill.

 

Step #5: Shoot A Video About The Skill

The great thing about writing a blog post is that you get to pause and look for information to double-check your facts. If you were having a conversation with someone about your skill, those options don’t exist (they technically do exist, but how awkward would it be to have a long pause or say, “Let me just make sure with a Google search that what I said was right”).

You can put a skill’s mastery into your own words with a blog post, but shooting a comprehensive video about your skill puts you on another level. Now, you can effortlessly talk about your skill. Take a look at the most successful people in any industry and listen to their interviews. Nearly all of them are able to effortlessly talk about mastering a particular skill as if these people started learning the skill since they could walk.

It may take a few videos to effortlessly talk about the skill you are trying to master. Practice will allow you to become better.

 

In Conclusion

The web has eliminated our excuses by providing us with enough information to master any new skill. What skill are you trying to master? Do you think the web has enough information for anyone to master any skill? Sound off in the comments section below.

The 6 Step Strategy To Accomplishing Any Goal

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How To Accomplish Goals

How often do you accomplish your goals? The answer varies from person to person, but each person agrees that they want to accomplish their goals. When asked why they don’t accomplish all of their goals, people often reference distractions from the outside world. However, we all have 24 hours in a day and our fair share of distractions. What allows some people to get their goals accomplished while other people in the same setting have difficulty?

The answer is their approach to goal achievement. The way you approach anything in life determines how efficiently you will perform that activity. A successful approach to goal achievement can be embodied in a six step strategy.

 

Step #1: Identify A Specific Goal

Step #1 may sound like an obvious step, but not everyone identifies a specific goal. Many people have a vague idea of what they want to accomplish, but vague is not specific. Instead of saying you want more blog traffic, ask yourself how many visitors you want to get by the end of the year. Do you want 10,000 blog visitors every month by the end of the year? How about 100,000?

While the specific goal you set for yourself must be realistic, the goals must also require a leap of faith out of the comfort zone. If you think you can possibly accomplish a goal by going all-in, then you most likely chose a realistic goal that will take you out of your comfort zone.

 

Step #2: Make It A Priority

When some people accomplish the first step for one goal, they like to perform the same step several times and create multiple goals. Although it is okay to have multiple goals, each goal takes up time. Think about it this way: 90% of the time, it is easier to accomplish one task in one day than it is to accomplish 20 tasks in one day.

If you have one primary goal that you know is more important than the other goals, then make that goal your priority. You can only have ONE priority, so choose wisely. That ONE priority must get at least 50% of your attention throughout the day.

 

Step #3: Plan Out Your Approach

The next step is to plan out your approach. How are you going to accomplish your priority, and how will you respond to the distractions around you? This summer could have easily been stressful for me because (as always) I wanted to do so much but knew I had a limited amount of time. I wanted to finish writing one book early so I could market it and create an advanced training course unlike anything I have launched before.

The stress quickly evaporated when I created a plan that brought to full clarity what I was trying to accomplish with my two products. I also created a list of all of the things that distracted me from my main priorities (they were not my priorities at the same time. When I finished the book, I moved onto the training course). Once I created the list, I devised several solutions which made it possible for me to achieve my goals in the summer.

Planning out my approach saved me from stress because I removed the fog around me. I discovered how I would accomplish my priorities by the end of the summer. The days of guessing were over.

 

Step #4: Implement That Plan

Step #4 also sounds like an obvious step, but the ease of implementation depends on what your plan is. If your plan is highly detailed, then you have a better idea of what you must do every day. It took me almost an hour to craft my plan for the summer, and the plan barely took up an entire page in my notebook. Regardless, I gained more clarity than ever before which made implementing the plan easier.

 

Step #5: Make Changes Along The Way

Just because you set a course of action for yourself does not mean you can’t digress from that course of action. If you find a better opportunity or think of a better product idea, it is entirely okay to shift your focus or make some room for other things in your plan.

However, I heed one warning. Don’t get attracted to shiny objects. It is easy to look at a new trend and think, “Well, if I get involved in that trend and really work on it, then sure enough I am going to make it big.” The problem with this thinking is that most people don’t make it big by following one trend. Even worse, this thinking results in trend chasers—people who constantly go back and forth between trends without establishing an authority on any niche.

It is important to make changes along the way, but you must also ask yourself how these changes affect you, your plan, and your brand.

 

Step #6: Keep Your Eyes On The Prize As You Do The Work

I always keep my eyes on the main prize. When I wrote my book, I always thought about it reaching the hands/tablets of thousands of people around the world. When I did videos for my training course, I always thought about it becoming a massive success.

Why does keeping your eyes on the main prize help you accomplish your plan? The vision gives you more motivation and allows you to realize what you are chasing after. Each time you implement a part of your plan, you are getting closer to that big prize. Let the joy of obtaining the big prize empower you as you accomplish your goals.

 

In Conclusion

Accomplishing your goals requires a plan and an effective strategy. Once your accomplish your goals with a plan and an effective strategy, replicate the entire process for your future goals so goal achievement becomes a habit.

Which steps of goal achievement have you been implementing? Which steps do you plan on making a part of your goal achievement? Which step do you think is the most important? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

11 Super-Powered Methods To Get More Engagement For Your Blog Posts

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Blog Post Engagement Picture
Let’s get it started!

Remember when engagement didn’t matter? That’s a trick question. Getting more engagement for our blog posts has always mattered, but with content piling up fast on the web, people have more places to go as they rapidly go from one blog post to the other.

With millions of blog posts getting published every day, it has become difficult for us to keep track. How long do you think it will take you to read all of the content that gets published on the web today? If you are extremely lucky, you might survive to tell the story to your great-great grandchildren.

Content has dominated the web, but not all content gets remembered. You may go on a blog after this one and forget the name of that blog a few days later. It happens to me as well.

How do you go about being remembered? The answer is to create engaging content. If your content engages with the reader, that reader will want to read more of your content, and it’s only a matter of time before they come back to your blog every day.

With engagement established as the main way of getting people to remember your content and to come back for more, here are some methods you can use to get more engagement from your blog posts.

 

#1: Use Shorter Sentences

I recently learned about this tip from Jeff Bullas. In case you don’t know, Jeff is a digital marketing expert with over 300,000 Twitter followers and a blog that gets over 4 million views every year. To sum it up, he’s crushing it.

I decided to submit a guest post request to him, and he liked the idea. However, instead of simply saying that he liked the idea, he offered me some guidelines. One of them was to write shorter sentences. That makes sense. The longer your sentences are, the harder it is for your readers to understand them. If it takes a reader too long to understand certain sentences, that reader will ditch your content for someone else’s content.

Writing shorter sentences makes your content easier to read. Easy readability encourages people to stick around. When readers stick around, engagement increases.

 

#2: Utilize More Pictures

Another tip Jeff gave me was to use pictures throughout my blog posts. This tip has been more difficult for me to implement on this blog, but I implement it for other guest posts that I write. Using more pictures also serves to make your content easier to read and understand.

If your pictures highlight key points from your blog post or show your visitors how to do something, then those pictures are helpful for your readers and you as the blogger since your readers stick around.

 

#3: Ask Questions Throughout Your Blog Post

How do you normally start a conversation with someone? Maybe “How was your day?” or “What’s up?” Maybe you say something else when starting a conversation.

Most conversations start with a question, and once a conversation starts, it lasts. Regardless of whether that conversation lasts for 10 minutes or 10 seconds, the conversation starts with a question. Asking questions throughout your blog posts allows a mini conversation to take place as your visitors read the blog post.

 

#4: Utilize Jokes When Appropriate

We remember the funniest jokes we hear and events that involve us. Each time we think of a funny moment, we tend to laugh and think about that moment for a while. If you read something funny, you are bound to remember it every once in a while and then remember what you were reading at that moment.

Your blog visitors are no different. If they stumble across something funny, they will remember it. That is why you must utilize jokes within your blog posts when appropriate to make your visitors laugh. Your visitors will then continue reading your blog posts and taking in the value—but they will also be on the search for another hidden joke. The more humor you include in your writing, the more your visitors will remember you.

 

#5: Start Your Blog Post Off With An Irresistible Headline

The headline is the make or break point of a blog. A good headline entices visitors to stick around and read your content. A bad headline will do the exact opposite.

The best way to master the headline is by looking at blog posts on other blogs related to your niche. Look at their headlines and see which ones grab your attention. Also observe the headlines of the most popular blog posts related to your niche.

 

#6: Take The Conversation To Social Media

Some people will find one of your blog posts on social media and visit your blog that way. Having conversations with these people on social media is a precursor for having a conversation in the blog post’s comments section.

Social media conversations will also allow you to build relationships. Having a series of conversations on social media with the same people will entice those same people to constantly visit your blog and engage with the content. Some of these people will have a deeper appreciation for what you do with each interaction. That appreciation will translate to more engagement for your blog posts.

 

#7: Go Where Your Audience Goes

What a classic! But still important. In the real world, going where your audience goes means networking at events. The digital world is a different story. In the digital world, you can know where your audience goes by looking at what they share on social media. Look for common sharing patterns, and those patterns will let you know where your audience goes.

Knowing where your audience goes makes it easier for you to keep in touch with them. Do all of the people in your audience like a blog related to yours? You can comment on several blog posts so people who engage with that blog will remember who you are (and probably go to your blog). If the blogger allows, you can also write guest posts on that blog so your old and new readers get to see your content.

Find where your audience goes and then make yourself a big part of that community. You will attract more people to your blog and learn more about the people who make up your audience at the same time.

 

#8: Respond To Comments

Want your visitors to know you better? Respond to their comments. When you take the time to respond, you make the visitor a part of a conversation that can build into a strong relationship. Every friendship, business connection, and relationship starts with an introduction where people greet one another. Those types of relationships can start by you responding to a visitor’s comment.

 

#9: Give Your Most Loyal Visitors Some Control Over Your Next Topic 

One way to boost engagement for your content and build loyalty at the same time is to give your visitors more control over your content. Simply ask your visitors what they want your next blog post to be, and then write the blog post that most of the people in your audience vote for. You can either create a poll with a few choices or allow people to comment with any idea they want you to write about.

The great thing about this strategy is that you get your audience involved (they help to choose what you write) and you can get out of writer’s block at the same time (you can potentially have dozens of new blog post ideas right in front of you). It’s a win-win, and that type of bond will encourage your visitors to return to your blog and engage with the content more than before.

 

#10: Have A Conclusion

The conclusion is a way to briefly summarize your blog post while asking a series of questions to entice discussion in the comments section. A conclusion is essential to every blog post, and most conclusions are only a few sentences. After you are done reading the final tip, take a look at the conclusion I used for this blog post as a guide.

 

#11: Blog Consistently

The key to getting engagement on your blog is to get returning visitors who remember your content and appreciate what you do. The visitors who appreciate what you do are the ones who will engage with your content the most.

By writing blog posts at a consistent rate, your most loyal visitors will know when to come back for new content. Each time your visitors read through your new content, that is another chance to have those visitors engage with your blog.

 

In Conclusion

Getting your visitors to engage with your blog posts will boost the chances of those visitors returning to your blog and eventually buying your products. Most of the engagement your blog posts will generate comes down to the written content, but there are some outside factors that also determine how much engagement your blog posts get.

How much engagement do your blog posts get? Do you have any additional tips for getting more engagement? Which of these tips was your favorite? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

Three Lessons I Learned From Creating Three Twitter Accounts

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Create Multiple Twitter Accounts Picture
Three are harder to manage than one, but other than that…

A little bit of me wonders how this was even possible. I almost always have something to do for my brand. Whether I am writing a blog post or editing a video for one of my training courses, I usually end up with a full plate.

Then I decided to see what I could add to that full plate without it breaking. After I surpassed 200,000 Twitter followers on my main account, one new Twitter account was born and another Twitter account was revived.

I tried creating multiple Twitter accounts a few years ago and seeing how that would work out. The full plate couldn’t hold the load and shattered into several pieces, but regardless, here I was giving it a second try. Maybe it was the stubbornness of an entrepreneur speaking to me. Maybe it was the hope that my full plate bulked up at that point.

It turns out my plate did bulk up. I found the ability to manage all three of my Twitter accounts and do all of the activities that I do each day. In just one month after the experiment, my two accounts combined had 3,000 Twitter followers. The best part is that the accounts continue to grow and have an impact on my brand.

While I saw my Twitter audience grow because of this new experiment, I also learned some lessons along the way that impacted me from an entrepreneurial standpoint. These are the lessons that I learned:

 

Always Look For A Quicker, Better Way To Get The Same Things Done

The main reason I couldn’t manage multiple accounts the first time was because I had to constantly log into and out of each of the Twitter accounts and apply the same process for various tools that I use to grow my audience. I saw it as nonsense and believed that if I wanted to manage multiple Twitter accounts, I would have to hire people.

When I made my second approach, I looked for easier ways to get the same things done. One of the biggest problems I experienced was constantly logging into and out of the accounts, so I needed one platform that would allow me to use all of the accounts at the same time without logging into and out of each one. HootSuite became that platform. I always used it for scheduling tweets, but I didn’t use its dashboard and other capabilities as much.

I also knew that constantly tweeting for all of my accounts would be a challenge. One of the most significant differences between the first attempt and the second attempt was HootSuite Pro, and in particular, the bulk scheduler. The bulk scheduler allows me to schedule a day’s worth of tweets in just six clicks. It takes me longer to schedule my tweets since I have to schedule tweets for multiple accounts, but the difference isn’t dramatic. It takes 10 minutes to schedule my tweets for multiple accounts instead of five minutes for one account.

Bulk scheduling all of my tweets only takes 10 minutes. If I were to manually schedule my tweets, it would easily take four hours to schedule a day’s worth of tweets. This one strategy allows me to save almost 30 hours of my time every week.

 

How I Have Applied This Lesson Elsewhere

Ever since I learned this lesson, I have been creating more rubrics for sending emails. One of the problems I come across with sending dozens of emails is the time commitment. Whether for an interview or a guest blogging opportunity, it takes time to craft a unique email each time. Now, I use a rubric that acts as my go-to email that I send to people. An email rubric looks like this:

Hello {Name},

My name is Marc Guberti and {appropriate credentials}. I was wondering if you needed a {something I know very well} expert on your next podcast episode.

{Closing}

I haven’t used this rubric for any of my emails. This was just an off-the-cuff rubric to demonstrate what I mean. If I send an email asking to be on someone’s podcast, it would be easier for me to use a rubric like this since I know what I am going to write in advance. The rubric allows me to email more people and develop meaningful relationships in a time effective manner.

 

Mastery Before Expansion

When I first tried managing multiple Twitter accounts, my strategy was not as sophisticated as it is now. I was gaining anywhere from 20-40 daily Twitter followers on my main account, and it took me a long time to gain all of those followers for one account.

When I first implemented this strategy, I did not fully understand what I was doing. I waited until I got 200,000 Twitter followers before I gave it a second go. At that point, growing my Twitter audience was much easier, so now that I knew what I was doing, expanding made more sense.

Many people insist on creating social media accounts on every social network known to mankind, but this is not an effective practice for social media domination. Each social network has its own learning curve similarly to each language. If you focus on learning one language, you could master that language in a few years. If you try to learn 10 languages at the same time, it would be more difficult to master each of those languages in a few years. Social networks work in the same way.

However, once you master one social network, it becomes increasingly easier to master other social networks. Once you know what you are doing on one social network, it is okay to then expand into another social network, or create a second account on the same social network.

 

How I Have Applied This Lesson Elsewhere

I used to release numerous products every month, but I started to realize that just because I was creating more products did not mean I was accumulating more revenue. Regardless of how many products I created, the same products were bringing in most of my sales. Creating numerous products every month wasn’t dramatically changing my results. The solution was to create fewer products, and in exchange, make them more in-depth—the same strategy I followed for my blog (I went from writing two short blog posts every day to writing three lengthy, in-depth blog posts every week).

Now that I don’t spend as much time creating products with rapidly approaching deadlines, I have found more time to promote my blog by writing guest posts and taking a closer look at my social media strategy. This blog does get hundreds of thousands of visitors every year, but more traffic never hurts 🙂

 

Always Experiment

Creating all of these Twitter accounts was an experiment. I wanted to see what results it would bring for my brand and if I could actually manage several Twitter accounts. I was not sure what to expect, but in the end, I got a good result.

The key to mastering something is to always experiment with it, and no matter how successful you become in a certain area, there is always room for experimentation. If you stick with something long enough, you will master all of the basics. Mastering all of the basics allows you to grow, but once you master the basics, next-level growth requires mastery of advanced techniques. While some advanced techniques are buried deep within training courses or books, discovering other advanced techniques requires exploring unchartered territory.

Creating multiple Twitter accounts and using them to grow your brand isn’t exactly an unchartered practice. Mashable and The Huffington Post do it well. However, few experts talk about creating multiple Twitter accounts and using those accounts to promote your brand. There was only one way for me to discover whether creating multiple Twitter accounts would have a positive impact on my brand. Actually getting started.

 

How I Have Applied This Lesson Elsewhere

I can’t possibly discuss all of the experiments I have conducted for my brand for the pure reason that I can’t remember them all. I must have conducted hundreds of different experiments to determine what leads to more blog traffic, how one goes about getting more Twitter followers and engagement, how the length of a YouTube video affects engagement, and other experiments.

I always experimented with my brand before creating my other Twitter accounts, but now that I have more time available to promote my blog, I am doing more experimenting. I have been experimenting with guest posts and more podcast interview requests with great success. I look forward to see where all of my experimentations take me in part because I know that all of my experimentations will lead me to other experimentations. The experimenting never stops.

 

In Conclusion

Creating multiple Twitter accounts is a highly advanced technique that you should only attempt once you have mastered the platform. After a rough go the first time, I was excited but anxious to try it again. Part of the anxiety was telling everyone that one of my new accounts would get 10,000 Twitter followers by the end of the year (it’s making steady progress), but the biggest reason I felt anxious was because it was new.

We like to keep things the way they are, but where’s the fun in stagnancy? I decided to give it a try, and if I had to do it again, I wouldn’t turn back.

What are your thoughts about creating multiple Twitter accounts? Are you at that stage yet or do you believe you need more time? Which lesson was your favorite? What lessons have you learned throughout your journey? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

The Guest Blogging Formula To Success

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Guest Blogging Picture
Guest blogging isn’t dead. It’s actually growing.

Guest blogging ain’t a joke. It’s actually a big deal. Ever since I began blogging, I wrote several guest posts here and there. Now, I am on a guest blogging frenzy. Writing on the right guest blogs can potentially skyrocket your growth and put your content in front of millions of new visitors. How do you reach that point? Here’s how:

 

Build Credibility

The owners of guest blogs want skilled bloggers to write guest posts for them. Popularity is another factor, but you must prove that you have skill. This is why most people with guest blogs will ask for the links to some of your past work before giving you the green light.

They also want to know that you are an expert in your niche. This is where credibility comes in. 90% of the time, the person with 10,000 Facebook likes knows more about Facebook than the person with 100 Facebook likes. You want to boost your credibility in the areas of your brand that you envision yourself writing guest posts about. If you envision yourself writing guest posts about getting more Facebook likes, then keep on getting more Facebook likes yourself. The more you have, the more people will listen to your guest blogging inquiry.

Even when you are deep into the guest blogging strategy, and you have become successful with it, you must still strive to build your credibility. One great thing about credibility is that there is no maximum to how much credibility someone can have.

 

Create The Golden List

One of the biggest mistakes bloggers make is assuming that as they boost their credibility, the top people in their niches will find them. As I continued growing my Twitter audience, people did contact me and ask me to write guest posts. I agreed and saw more traffic come in.

However, I was not getting guest post requests from the top bloggers who were getting millions of annual blog visitors. Very recently, I had a desire to land my content on several top blogs that were getting millions of annual blog visitors. I wanted my content to reach out to more people so it could empower more people and potentially lead more people to my blog.

I came up with a revolutionary idea that I never used before. I created the Golden List—a list of 100 top influencers in my niche. I wasn’t even sure about who accepted guest posts and who didn’t. I just wrote names down, and towards the end, it became extremely difficult for me to think of influencers in my niche because I already wrote down the names of people I heard of before.

With the Golden List in front of me, I had the names of 100 top experts within my niche. I then went to each of their blogs to see who accepted guest posts and then made my pitches.

 

Pitch The Right Way

I knew that since these influencers are popular, they probably get dozens (hundreds?) of daily emails filled with pitches for guest posts. If you are getting hundreds of emails every day, you’ll pay more attention to the people who stand out, and you may delete some emails after reading the first 1-3 sentences. If you want an idea of what this process is like, put up a legit query on HARO.

So I knew that I immediately had to stand out right from the beginning. But not only did I have to stand out, I also had to stand out for the right area of my niche. If I want to write a guest post about Twitter, here is how I start my pitch:

“My name is Marc Guberti and I am a 17 year old digital marketing expert with over 200,000 Twitter followers.”

This sentence is deja vu for me. I must have started dozens of emails with that one sentence in one week. In one sentence, I let the blogger know about my age (which is rare for my niche) and my Twitter audience size which establishes my Twitter expertise. I mention that I have over 200,000 Twitter followers in nearly every pitch I send, and if I want to write a guest post about Pinterest, then I will mention that I also have 20,000 Pinterest followers.

And that’s just the first sentence. Here’s how the typical pitch goes from start to finish:

“Hello {Name of Blogger},

My name is Marc Guberti and I am a 17 year old digital marketing expert with over 200,000 Twitter followers.

My idea for a guest post is {name of guest post}.

Here are the methods/key points I would discuss

{List methods/key points and write 1-2 sentences explaining how you would discuss each method}

Please let me know your thoughts on the idea.

{Closing}

The email is concise and to the point. I am not doing anything to gain brownie points. I am simply stating what I would do if I was given the opportunity to write a guest post.

One important thing to know is that when I send an email like this, I have not written the guest post yet. I only start writing the guest post when the blogger contacts me and says that he/she likes the idea. If the blogger doesn’t like the idea, then I can come back with another idea when I am ready.

 

Before The Pitch

Want to ensure that your guest post idea gets accepted? Take a look at several pages of blog posts on the blogger’s blog. Look at the titles of blog posts to see common trends, but also look for what’s missing. I came across one digital marketing blog that didn’t publish a blog post about Pinterest for over a week.

I saw my opening, and in the first sentence of my pitch, I mentioned that I have 20,000 Pinterest followers. I then came up with a guest post idea and followed my rubric. Less than two weeks after I sent the initial email, that guest post was published on a blog that gets millions of annual blog visitors.

It’s not enough to know what niche a blog is in. You also have to know what type of content has been published there before so you put yourself in a better position to publish a unique piece of content. If I ever opened this blog to guest blogging, I wouldn’t want a guest post idea strongly related or identical to a topic I recently wrote about. You have to make a pitch that suggests a completely different topic from the ones that have been discussed, but the guest post you suggest must be related to the blog’s niche.

 

My Results

For a long time, the only authority blog I wrote for often was Business2Community. This guest blog taught me the potential of getting traffic by writing guest posts. However, I largely abandoned guest blogging to write longer, more in-depth blog posts on this blog.

When I went back to guest blogging, I implemented this formula. In the first day of implementing this formula, three bloggers wanted me to write a guest post for their blogs, and I landed an interview. Part of my quick success was that many of the people I contacted responded in a few hours, but I have seen long-term success for this strategy. My content is reaching thousands of new people who I am only able to reach because of my guest posts.

 

In Conclusion

Guest blogging is anything but dead, but not every guest blogging opportunity is created equal. Some of your guest blogs will generate more traffic back to your blog than others, but as you get better at writing guest posts and contacting other bloggers, you will become comfortable with writing numerous guest posts.

Writing more guest posts and getting them published on high authority blogs will expand your reach and allow you to tap into a new audience.

Do you write guest posts? Who have you written for? How many guest posts have you written? What is your tip for guest blogging success? Please share your thoughts and advice below.