Feb 24th 10
Posted by mike in The Book
We’ve been hinting about the Beyond Blogging Project for some time. We’re really looking forward to starting work on it on March 1st.
The project was conceived thanks to readers of the book, who told us they wanted some way to apply the learning and information from the book to their own businesses. Several talked of some kind of mentor-ship or mastermind program, so that’s what the project is going to be.
There are only going to be 50 places, as it will be very interactive, and we’ve managed to secure lots of help and input for the program from some very special people.
Full details will roll out over the next few days, so get your name onto the list if you think this might be interesting for you. Visit Beyond Blogging Project.
Feb 22nd 10
Posted by Nathan in Blogging
Blogs Aren’t Remarkable
Over the past few days, I’ve been studying dozens of websites in order to see what people are doing and how well they’re doing it.
As I looked through some of the more successful websites, I realized that they were doing something that many of the struggling companies weren’t doing.
Can you guess what it is?
It’s so simple…
They have a blog
Wow, it’s 2010 and there are companies out there that don’t have a blog. Are you kidding me?
Not only does a blog give a wonderful incentive for Google to come by more often, but it gives prospects, clients, and customers a better understanding of what your company does.
These days, I’m finding more and more companies that don’t answer my questions up front. So…I’ll head to their FAQ to see if I can get my questions answered. If that doesn’t work, guess what is next?
That’s right, a blog.
Do yourself a favor and work on your business’ blog today. It doesn’t have to be the best one on the block, but it should at least be on the block.
If you need tips for getting that blog to the next level, then take a look at our book, Beyond Blogging. I think you’ll enjoy what you find.
Jan 21st 10
Posted by mike in The Book
Yesterday was a big day as we officially launched the paperback version of Beyond Blogging. Sadly, I don’t have a copy yet – one of the vagaries of living on a dessert island!
Nathan video’s unwrapping the first ever copy for me, and I’d like to share it with you. Here’s the link: Nathan unwrapping the first copy of Beyond Blogging in paperback
Just click “Add to cart” to get pricing on all the versions of Beyond Blogging.
Jan 7th 10
Posted by mike in Mike's Updates
We’ve been working this week on some of the blog consultancy packages that people elected to buy as part of their purchase of Beyond Blogging. And one issue I’ve seen a few times is quite a common one for bloggers – a lack of brand consistency.
It’s particularly hard for many of us, as we often end up representing or promoting several brands across the web. In my case, I’m generally know as Mike CJ, but I also represent the Mike’s Life brand, then there’s the Beyond Blogging brand, and behind it all I have two companies as well. And I suspect most bloggers face a similar dilemma: Which one is the key brand and how do we promote it across all the various media we use?
You can see this all go wrong in some cases – I know of a blogger (not one of our consultancies) who actually has a different brand and a different name on his blog, his Twitter profile and his Facebook account. It’s just confusing! In fact, I recommended his services to another friend, but used his Twitter name. My friend contacted him via Twitter, and it later turned out they knew each other already via their blogs!
So what’s the solution? I think you have to choose one overall brand, and duplicate that across all media. By all means promote others from it, but stick to the one and people will recognise you wherever you appear. Once you have a good recognition factor for your key brand, then you can work on associating other brands with it, so that they become add-ons associated with the main one. An example of this would be the iPod – it has it’s own logo, it’s own marketing, and everybody knows what an iPod is, but it’s also inextricably linked to the core (!) brand of Apple.
What about you? What are your thoughts on branding?
Jan 2nd 10
Posted by mike in The Book
We had the grand prize draw for your Twitter tweeting contest last night – live on Twitter – where else?
And here are the winners:
Signed copy of Crush it! to @goodnewstouse
Copies of Crush it! to @wordpressvideos @benspark @druplrevolution
Copies of Trust Agents to @goodnewstouse @tellac @druplrevolution
Signed copies of Beyond Blogging to @johnluffa @kimbrianm @unklebonehead @owengreaves
Worpress review plug in to @nikki_s
Beginner’s Guide to Blogging course to @billcobbsuccess @thisisspain @owengreaves
Problogger book to @wpthemetweets @tralucent @engagedmarriage
Twitter Rockstar to @bonnielandau
Gary Vaynerchuk wristband to @topgold
Twitter Manifesto to @maresjohan
Thanks for all your support and help and we hope you’ll enjoy your prizes!
Dec 31st 09
Posted by mike in The Book
Press Release
Beyond Blogging Launches to Internet Frenzy
The Electronic Book Beyond Blogging launched on the 28th of December, creating a massive post-Christmas buzz online.
The book features interviews and case studies with 15 of the world’s most successful bloggers, and then pulls together the learning into a road map for anyone considering entering the world of weblogs.
The subjects of the study command huge on line empires, generating millions in income, with audiences that would put most major newspapers to shame. They include:
Chris Brogan – the social media marketing expert and NYT best selling author
Gary Vaynerchuk – the famous “Wine guy” from Wine Library TV
Chris Guillebeau – Author of The Art of Non Conformity and currently on a quest to visit every country in the world
Penelope Trunk – Founder of Brazen Careerist and infamous Twitter user
Darren Rowse – Australian owner of blogging empire B5 media
Pete Cashmore – Forbes internet celebrity and founder of Mashable
Largely through the support of the featured bloggers, and utilising Twitter extensively, the launch flew around the internet, starting at midnight EST. Within hours the website for the book had reached the front page of Alexa’s “hot sites” listing, and downloads of the book peaked at 20 per minute.
The authors are an unlikely pair. Both bloggers themselves, they “met” online and have yet to have a face to face meeting, although that will change in January when they will attend a show in Las Vegas as part of the book promotion.
Nathan Hangen is currently serving in the US military and has completed a tour of duty in Afghanistan. He’s 31 years old and lives with his young family in North Carolina, where he enjoys training for triathlon and marathon events.
Mike Cliffe-Jones, 47 is an ex pat Brit who lives on the tiny paradise island of Lanzarote, just off the coast of Africa, where he enjoys scuba diving and sailing. His wife is also a full time blogger.
They started their writing journey in the middle of 2008, and set out to write the definitive blogger’s book:
Nathan told us: “We wanted to get the world’s most successful bloggers to help us to write this book, and we succeeded! It wasn’t easy getting their time, but we did it in the end. We’ve been blown away by the reaction and the success we’ve had so far, and I’d like to thank the whole blogging community around the world for their help and support.”
“I knew when we’d finished writing it that we’d created something a little bit special, but I didn’t in my wildest dreams imagine how it would take off straight away. To read things like “Beyond Blogging is probably going to become one of those standard products that everybody in the industry buys” written by Naomi Dunford from Ittybiz.com is just overwhelming” Added Mike.
Beyond Blogging is available exclusively through the website set up to handle sales at www.beyond-blogging.net and is priced at $47
ENDS
Nathan and Mike are available for interviews or more information. Contact details:
Nathan Hangen
(001) 727 386 8626
nhangen@gmail.com
Twitter: @nhangen
Mike Cliffe-Jones
(0034) 600 558 008
mike@mikeslife.org
Twitter: @mikecj
Nov 12th 09
Posted by mike in The Book
Nathan has had a really productive couple of weeks and is getting ahead of me! I’ll catch up!
Reading through the work we have both done this week has allowed me to start to draw some commonalities from our featured and case study bloggers.
They all worked really, really hard for the first couple of years. I know that may seem obvious, but there remains a strong belief that blogging for an online living is all about sitting on the beach while the money rolls in.
That might be possible after a few years, but to successfully launch a blog as a platform to earn money requires serious hard work for a sustained period, and some of the stories of churning out ten or twelve posts in a day, getting up at 4am to work before going to a normal job and simply burning the candle at both ends, have both inspired me and filled me with some awe.
These stories are exceptional, and I can’t wait to share them with you!
Are you on the email list yet? If not put your first name and email address into the box – you’ll get the chance to win some really good prizes and take advantage of some special offers. Do it now!
Oct 24th 09
Posted by Nathan in The Book
I wasn’t going to share this publicly, but I decided to give you a sneak peek of what you can expect when you join the Beyond Blogging pre-order list (sidebar on the right). This is a 20 second clip in which I ask Gary what the defining moment of his business was and when he knew he was going to be a success. Listen to hear his interesting answer.
Oct 14th 09
Posted by mike in The Book
I finished editing the section of the book on Chris Garrett the other day. One overwhelming thing that struck me was that here was a guy who was “in” on the internet back in 1994, when most of us had no idea what it was going to become, and yet he’s maintained his love and passion for the net through all those years.
Chris has interests all over the net, but let me give you a couple of examples of sites he’s involved in that you probably haven’t even heard of! I write for both of them:
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Oct 13th 09
Posted by mike in Mike's Updates
I mentioned we did the Gary Vaynerchuk interview the other evening. I was just listening to it again and I was laughing out loud! Not to the interview, but to the 5 or 6 minutes when Nathan and I were on the conference call before Gary burst onto the line.
You can hear the nerves in our voices. Remember Gary has been interviewed by some of the biggest names in show business, and here we were, waiting for him to come on the line to be interviewed by a couple of rank amateurs. So we babbled away about all sorts of rubbish, just to pass the time! Fancy a laugh? Want to hear it? Nathan needs a few of you to persuade him to post that section of the interview, so get commenting below and he’ll put it up.
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