My latest column is up for you at Entrepreneur Magazine:

When Blogging Advice is Bad for Business Owners

Read the column and let us know what things have held you back from using a blog more effectively for your business. What are some of your wins? Who do you learn from to use a business blog more effectively?

Enjoy!

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Something has been bothering me for quite a while now. I’ve quietly watched entrepreneurs fall prey to the BS advice from off-line marketing “pros” and Internet Marketing “gurus.” But now, the same type of garbage is being pushed by New Media proselytizers too. I may not have all the answers. But I know that here and now, you and I can put a stop to it all.

Look, let’s face it. If you’re looking to use New Media to market it can feel like you’re Dorothy sucked up in a twister and dropped in Oz. And once you land in this majestic world of New Media Oz, how do you make heads or tails out of this fantasy land of reported fame and fortune? And what’s your yellow brick road?

Witches, flying monkeys, a yellow brick road… we’ve got it all

On the outskirts of Oz, the self-appointed elite of the mainstream media and Madison Avenue thumb their noses at New Media. Tucked away in their cold castles of incestuous iniquity they gaze into their crystal balls of packaged propaganda and pronounce New Media a fantasy land populated by “horny teenagers and political pundits.”

We know the New Media marketplace is much more than that. But it does have its share of pitfalls and traps.

For instance, when we were completing research for our book ‘Secrets of Online Persuasion’ we found many well-meaning fans of New Media misleading entrepreneurs who wanted to market with New Media.

Much of that misinformation comes from two camps within New Media itself. I like to think of them as the Wicked Witches of the East and West.

The Wicked Witches of the East

The Wicked Witches from the East should be easy for you to crush as an entrepreneur. These are the people who think “fame” equals profit. And just like in the movie Wizard of Oz Dorothy’s house crushes the Wicked Witch of the East; your house should crush these witches as you land in New Media Oz.

As a matter of fact, this group is so laughable that South Park did a full episode poking fun at the new breed of “Internet Stars” who think by getting hundreds of thousands of views they’ll get rich. Sadly this is a rabbit trail that many entrepreneurs get lured down.

This quick 3-minute mashup shows their skit that’s spot-on with the dollar value of what many people consider “New Media stars.” They spoof on many of the “stars” that have gone viral or gotten media accolades. (Warning: as usual for South Park, this is NOT kid friendly.)

Fact #1: fame does NOT equal profit (especially when marketing with New Media.

OK… we all know the movie storyline. “Ding dong, the witch is dead.” But just when you think things are fine, along comes another witch. And we’ve got the same thing here in New Media Oz.

Enter – the Wicked Witches of the West

This group is much more dangerous for business owners, especially start-ups. This group of witches is made up of Social Media evangelists who think they run a business just because they use a communication channel.

Like the winged monkeys from the Land of Oz these evangelists swoop down in fanatical devotion to “Social Media” proselytizing newcomers into the religion of “transparency” and “conversation.”

Like their Madison Avenue and Internet Marketing guru counterparts, they’re careful to capitalize on a kernel of relative truth. They leverage the hype and pomp of their brethren in the Eastern coven and talk up “famous” examples as “proof” of the power of New Media.

Beware the coven of blog, social media, or any other New Media evangelist who doesn’t have a business other than the content they push out.

“Thought leadership” is fine. But as an entrepreneur, as a business owner, as anyone who wants to make real money marketing with New Media — make sure what you’re consuming is coming from someone who has a successful (that means profitable) business under his or her belt.

It doesn’t matter if that business is online or off-line. The business owner’s mindset is what’s most important. It’s what will help insure that what you hear from them is focused on profit, not fluff.

Far too many voices in New Media cry out from caverns of “creativity.” But they’re witches barely making it from paycheck to paycheck.

Fact #2: never take advice on how to make money from someone driving a Festiva.

All I can say is guard yourself against the dangerous spells that witches in both these covens cast. The cacophony of Web 2.0 evangelists who parrot each other in endless loops of “openness” are equally as dangerous to your profitable success as closed-minded old media warlords.

The yellow brick road of profit

In the Wizard of Oz, Dorothy wanted desperately to get home to Kansas. As soon as she landed in Oz, that’s all she thought about.

It’s the same in New Media Oz, except that the “home” you want to get to is one of profit. And honestly, we’re different than Dorothy because we don’t mind visiting Oz on a regular basis. It’s fun and profitable… but only if you have the yellow brick road to keep you on track.

Here in New Media Oz, that yellow pathway to success is based on one very simple concept:

New Media, the internet, radio… heck, any media is nothing more than a communication channel. And a channel is just a conduit through which content, attention, and connection flow.

Too many people buy into the dream of riches through “internet marketing,” or the mistaken belief that “links” and “attention” through New Media will automatically bring riches. They look to turn a channel into a money source in and of itself.

Links, attention, and conversations may be the supposed “currencies” of the New Media Marketplace. But “links and attention won’t pay the mortgage” as Tim Bourquin pointed out.

What DOES make you money is what sits on both ends of that channel

Your Tribe on one end. And the products/services that will make their life better on the other. How good you are at developing and executing a strategy to use a channel to emotionally connect with your Tribe is what determines how much money you’ll make.

The bottom line is that New Media is just that – a channel of communication. It’s not magic, it’s not going to “save the world” from impending doom, and it’s NOT going to make you money if you don’t have the right strategy.

Yes, New Media is a channel that allows a level of interaction that Web 1.0 and old mass media cannot compete with. For that reason, it’s a channel that’s changing the way you do business whether you’ve stepped into New Media Oz yet or not. Its impact is so powerful that it’s changing the rules of business online and off-line.

Remember that New Media is simply a two-way communication channel. Put your focus on using it to attract, connect with, and convert a crowd of raving fans that rally around you, your brand and the solutions you provide.

Help pave the yellow brick road

If I’ve missed anything, add to the story here and help clarify that yellow brick road for fellow entrepreneurs looking to market with New Media.

What’s your opinion, position, or profitable comment?

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“Don’t go into blogging to make a living,” says HDNet chairman Mark Cuban. Philip Kaplan from the online advertising firm AdBrite cautions that “only 3 percent of active sites make more than $1,000 a month from advertising.”

These are two quotes from the NY Times article “So You Want to Be Blogging Star” by Paul Boutin. Quotes obviously meant to entice bloggers into sharing some buzz love. (No love for the NY Times here. Just buzzing for your benefit. )

Don’t expect to get rich blogging

That’s the message right up front in the article.

I say; “No Duh” to that.

If you’re counting on getting rich from ads on your blog, you’ve got an uphill battle on icy ground. AlGore’s got a better chance of getting hit by a rogue iceberg than a blogger making six-figures from ads.

The real profit pulling power of blogging is stardom

Boutin does get it partially right when he says “…amassing a large audience is the goal.” (Though I think that was part of a statement meant more as a backhanded critique than a word of advice.)

“Large” is not necessary to create a nice cash flow. But becoming a star in your niche to attract and gather a tribe of raving fans is a requirement.

A strong personal brand and passion for your niche teamed is what makes a blog a powerful New Media marketing tool. That’s what will build trust, rapport, and reputation equity. Once you have those things, it’s a relatively straight forward process to turn those assets into profit.

Some good points

The article does share some good points, especially for New Media marketers just starting out with a blog.

Some of the better points are:

• Write about what you want to write about, in your own voice
• Fit blogging into the holes in your schedule
• Just post it already!
• Keep a regular rhythm
• Give credit where credit is due
• Place, plug and promote yourself

Book-ended by back stabbing

Ahh… but alas, Boutin bookends the good with a snide implication that blogging is am “unhealthy obsession.”

Maybe for those without a plan that’s true. But if your goal is stardom in your niche — obsession is not only healthy, it’s profitable too.

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Want to feel a surging rush of free traffic to your blog? Then you must check this out now!

Deb and I are still in San Francisco, we’re actually headed over for a personal tour of the Googleplex right now. But after hearing about this new service to increase traffic to your blog for free, i just had to get this out to you.

Get a rush of serious traffic without any tricks, underhanded tactics, or any extra work at all.

Get your free blog traffic boost here.

If you market with New Media — then you MUST have this.

Grab it now while membership is still FREE!

Update: This was a widget called Blog Rush. It was discontinued by it’s owners. Sorry, but this sort of stuff happens.  We’ll be on the lookout for new traffic generators.

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OK, from all the feedback we’ve gotten from subscribers and clients — the new site name Tribal Seduction is a hit! And so is the focus on identifying, tracking, gathering, and profiting from Tribes within the New Media Marketplace.

Yet some people have been asking why we decided to not just take up the same topic over at Advanced Business Blogging. Well, to be perfectly honest, one big reason is that we feel the site has run it’s course.

The short story is that it just didn’t meet our long term strategy for helping business owners, marketers, and sales professionals like you really master the New Media Marketplace.

More specifically though, there are MAJOR advancements we wanted to make for you like:

1. Every week some of the videos, podcasts, and posts here at Tribal Seduction will be part of our next book. We needed a site where members of the TS Tribe could actually be part of the book.

2. We have a team of weekly guest contributors (all experts in areas of mass persuasion) lined up for Tribal Seduction. Plus regular contributors as well, “knights of the round table” you might say. Advanced Business Blogging was too closely brand associated with Deb and I personally.

3. Advanced Business Blogging was way too restrictive of a site name. Sure there are many people interested in learning about blogging for business. But our coaching, consulting, and speaking engagements over the last 18-months have all been focused on helping business people develop complete “Mortar and New Media Marketing strategies.”

The response to that unique blending of persuasion with technology has been very well received. If we’re going to help as many business people as we want, the entire Web experience needed to be upgraded.

4. We want to expand on the New Media Marketing Matrix we reveal in the popular Pushbutton Persuasion course. That exposition would be ‘lost’ on Advanced Business Blogging.

5. Our research and work with offline businesses and politicians has shown that there is an unbelievable potential for using New Media channels as a way to capitalize on the Tribal Marketplace. The ability to gather, serve, and seduce Tribes of hungry people is where the true wealth and power is. Tribes, Tribal Seduction, and the role of courtier must be the focus.

6. A lot of the hype you hear about blogs, podcasts, and social networks really needs to be dragged into the light of reality. Helping business people profitably bask in this light would be hindered by a name like “Advanced Business Blogging.” It would seem hypocritical to expose the facts about blogging dangerous to business people there. Plus, the very people we are helping might likely be turned off by such a site name.

7. Blogging (by technical terms) for business, no matter how “advanced,” seems like a lot of work to business people. With the release of our New Media Marketing system, BLOG i360, we needed a new platform to show how well it compliments Tribal Seduction strategies. After all — it’s the ONLY Web site that works FOR you!

Associating BLOG i360 with Advanced Business Blogging would be like trying to associate a Gulfstream 550 with a lawn-mower-engine powered Prius. Both will get you across the country. But the Gulfstream does it in style. And it gets you to your destination in a tiny fraction of the time that the Prius could ever hope to achieve.

I could go on, but you get the idea.

Bottom line is this…

If you are migrating over from Advanced Business Blogging, you’re going to feel right at home. You may feel a little stretched at first with some of the strategies covered here. But you’ll settle in quickly.

If you’re just being introduced to our team and these powerful strategies, joining the TS Tribe will bring you up to speed real quick!

In both cases — you are going to be simply blown away by the advantage you gain over your competitors.

With each new article, podcast, and video you’ll agree that this Web site is one of the most innovative and ground breaking expositions of online influence, persuasion, and seduction of the masses you will ever see!

From simple, practical, hands-on coaching; to strategic analysis and guidance — it all starts full speed next week!

John Paul Micek is a co-founder of the international business coaching company RPM Success Group ® Inc. He and his partner Deborah are authors of the hit book Secrets Of Online Persuasion and creators of the ONLY Web site that works FOR you; BLOG i360™. You can reach J.P. at [krazycapitalist@gmail.com]

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