Nothing good comes easy. You can be the most talented writer, actor, welder, speaker, or negotiator, but if nobody notices, you won’t win or maximize your potential.
The Yakezie Writing Contest is constructed so that it attracts the most dedicated applicants. Some find the contest from scholarship sites such as Fast Web. From there, they’ve got to figure out how the whole thing works, write a relevant essay, and cross their fingers that their work is chosen as a finalist. Others apply because they’ve been following the Yakezie Network for the past several years and understand about our cause to support our reader’s educational endeavors.
Being a finalist is only the first step to winning. The hardest part is seeing who can promote their work the best to achieve the highest number of votes. Remember, the best work doesn’t always win! You will be able to see lots of voters voting on only one finalist, and none of the rest. That is self promotion at work.
Here are four easy points to remember:
1) Make an effort.
2) Produce good work.
3) Promote your good work.
4) Win by producing more good work.
WHERE THINGS GO WRONG
There are two things I see most frequently from people who do not win.
1) They do not even try.
2) They feel that once they’ve produced, their work will speak for themselves.
Not Trying
If you do not even try, you will certainly never win. The lack of self-confidence is extremely detrimental to winning. If you don’t believe in yourself, it becomes very evident and others will stop believing in you. Take my not very attractive friend Vincent for example. Vincent knows he’s not good looking and constantly kids to us about his patchy hair and pot belly. Despite Vincent’s lack of looks, he is very charming and has a tremendous amount of confidence. Whenever we go out, he talks to at least five women and almost always gets to know one woman in a more intimate setting. Vincent tries because has has to try. He’s also not afraid of being embarrassed at that is why he wins.
I made all sorts of excuses why I didn’t start Financial Samurai in 2003 e.g. too busy, traveled too much, business school, etc. The reality is, I didn’t know how to start and didn’t have the self-confidence to try. If I did, my site would be almost 10 years old and have much more traffic. In the three years since starting FS, it’s soon to be arrivederci day job and hello absolute freedom!
Overconfident
People who produce good work have a quixotic belief that others will recognize their work and make it a success. I have no doubt many people will benefit from my book on how to quit your job and make a small fortune in the process. Unless you plan to work in the same job for the rest of your life, there will be a backstop, and quitting is not the answer! That said, I’m also confident the hundreds of hours spent writing, editing, and formatting the book in a substantive and entertaining manner will not be sufficient to sell itself. As a result, I’ve got to leverage my platform at Financial Samurai, do rounds of interviews, guest post on relevant sites, and build topics of conversation around my book in order for it to get noticed.
There are thousands of books out there written by people who’ve spent their lifetimes honing their writing skills. My goal is to get the best product out there possible to compete. Quality control for my book is vital, which is why at the time of this post, my team and I have gone through over 30 revisions. It’s why the book was over 40,000 words long and we cut it down to 37,000 words to make the content as impactful as possible. The platform has already been built. The quality of writing needs to be high to be taken seriously.
MANAGED SELF-PROMOTION
Nobody likes someone who endlessly toots their own horn. I hated highlighting what I did when I first started working because I was naive to think other people would notice my efforts is this very busy world, and I felt people would shoot me down. Over time, I witnessed those who self-promoted the best (not the most) were the ones who got promoted and paid. Instead of shunning self-promotion, I tried to figure out a way better way to get noticed.
Here some suggestions:
* Bring others along for the ride. Whenever I highlight my accomplishments, I make sure to highlight the people who are instrumental to the process. By highlighting other people’s achievements, I show that I am a team player. If I am the leader of the project or the account manager, it doesn’t even need to be said what I did.
* Create synergies. Promoting your product goes a lot farther when you can show the person who you seek help from how your product can also help them. For example, I plan to write guest posts on relevant sites that focus on escaping the 9-to-5, early retirement, and becoming an entrepreneur. The select sites will get well-written content as well as the ability to earn affiliate income if they so choose. I will then leverage my platform at Financial Samurai to highlight my work on their sites. The cross-fertilization of platforms is an incredible value proposition.
* Be suggestive, but not directive. Take the tricky world of affiliate marketing for example. Affiliate marketing is a learned skill. The ability to write content which is suggestive, but not directive is key to developing sustainable affiliate revenue. I encourage people to write a story around the affiliate content to make the product relevant. A review of product X is fine, however it lacks relevancy and entertainment value.
* Provide value and more value. You can’t be a one trick pony. It’s important to demonstrate over and over again that you can provide a high quality product. If someone buys your product, but returns only to find your subsequent product has gone downhill, you will lose your customer. I used to love Air Jordans. The style was fashion forward and the leather grains were amazing. Nike found a way to make huge money by tapping the nostalgia of middle-aged men by coming out with their Air Jordan Retros in recent years. I bought versions 3-5 for $150 a pair and was going to continue collecting when I noticed the leather quality turned from to plastic! As a result, I’m no longer a buyer.
* Show that you are in it for the long run. Nobody is going to promote someone who they think is planning on leaving for another opportunity in another year. Nobody is going to be a loyal fan of your site if they see an erratic frequency of posts and feel you’re about to burn out and shutdown. I plan to run Financial Samurai for years to come given I plan on leaving my job. I also plan on writing several books down the road. As a result, readership continues to grow.
* Ask for help. Unless you have never helped someone out before, you are most certainly encouraged to ask others for help. Asking someone out of the blue with no contest will likely not go well. However, you’ll be surprised to discover how much people are willing to help you if you just ask. I can’t wait to help out those who’ve helped me.
* Highlight a value proposition. In the post, “How To Build A Diversified Portfolio For Cheap,” I highlight Motif Investing’s true value proposition. I don’t just share how Motif Investing is a nice product, I dig in deep, build a $10,000 portfolio and show why Motif Investing can really help investors. As a result, the post has done great in terms of search and conversions.
CONCLUSION
Skillful self-promotion doesn’t come naturally. But in order to win, learning how to self-promote is a must. The world is way too busy to notice your good work. Once you’ve done something you’re proud of, the real work begins!
Photo: Alaskan Pig Race at Alameda County Fair, SD.
Regards,
Sam
I enjoyed this post as it is very important for new bloggers to really grasp how self promotion will help their site. I have to work on writing suggestive posts as you mentioned, it is one area I feel I could improve.
I’ve gone into a tailspin seeing my work go ignored by all the big sites and people of influence while it seems that everyone else with less quality work is all over the place!
Actually, I’m just kidding but that’s the kind of attitude I read into some people lately. Kind of like the woe is me, I put my stuff out there but no one is paying any attention sob stories. That and shameless over-promotion tend to rub me the wrong way.
A great example is Twitter. There are a lot of social media experts who advise tweeting the latest news or post at least 4 times a day, so that the people on different schedules or timezones will be made aware of it. It can go awry if done improperly, like if you keep tweeting the same exact message over and over again, or if you do it too many times.
And also approaching someone out of the blue without any introduction or warning is a huge turn-off. If you want to ask someone for assistance in promoting whatever it is you are trying to promote, send them an email introducing yourself and explaining the value of what you do first. Then move on to why you would like them to mention or promote you in or whatever other reason you had for contacting them. It would also be helpful if you would explain why you chose them in particular, and make it a real reason, not just “because they have a million followers or fans”. Make a real connection.
Personally, my method of promotion is to just be me. If I’m myself and accessible and friendly that’s promoting my brand since I am my brand to a large degree. The biggest thing I’ve learned is that it’s not always about you or your brand, but about what value you can provide to your potential customers (readers in the case of writers). But inundating them with the same repetitive messages or just being in their faces at all times in general is a sure-fire way to lose.
Sam–I don’t know that how much a person can walk away from their job with would be a determining factor in how much they would pay. I think the lessons themselves are the value proposition in this case. In traditional stores I’ve seen people readily pay $24.99 for books on that order in the finance section, as have I, if that helps any.
Ahhh, The Twitter! I’ve really tried to cut down on the Twitter over the past 3 months. I just three times a day and try and batch my responses and such. I don’t want Twitter to dominate my time.
Also, there is an incessant amount of over tweeting of one’s stuff that starts to really grate. I don’t like to feel upset to that simple solution is to stop searching.
If someone was able to make me $50,000 by quitting my job I would happily give them $5,000!
Twitter can be a time sucker, that’s for sure. I try to make sure to have a few days where I don’t use it obsessively, but sometimes conversations can get so engrossing. That’s why having a 2nd monitor is great, so in those instances, I can still get other stuff done.
If you were working with someone directly to get them started on their own & in a position to quit their job with $50k, then $5,000 would be a very easy bill to pass off.
Sounds good. Consulting is definitely a natural extension of any product online. I’ve got to be careful because I only have so many hours in the day, and the client list is starting to back up.
Sam, As someone who is “sick of synergies” and think it’s an overused concept, I gotta give it to you here…. it definitely fits in well with the article. Your main points are a great rubrick for anyone wanting to improve their self promotion skills (doesn’t that include everyone?).
Barb, why are you sick of synergies? There are so many things that are able to be bundled together that produce a much greater outcome.
Great topic! I agree with your point, but it certainly isn’t easy to hear.
for me it has been establishing and honing relationships over time, giving, giving, giving – building of social capital if you will. when time comes, i can cash out bit by bit. sometimes by asking and sometimes without as people take notice.
for example, i was featured in Pat Flynn’s Smart Passive Income podcast. subsequent to that, he tweeted my post about my largest Adsense earnings check – without me asking.
as for the book, I would need to know a teaser of how (more detail) to determine if it’s something I want and want to pay for. can you share more detail?
One thing is for certain, creating a product is much easier than marketing the product…at least it holds true for me. :-)
Interesting perspective Romeo. I guess with a product, all it takes is willing oneself to create. As for marketing the product, it’s the same thing, but different in terms of willing someone else to purchase the product.
I’m a big advocate of persistance in thewriting world; especially self-promotion. You don’t always win someone over on the first shot. Your marketing plan might not be right the first go-round. You have to be willing to accept failure, move on, and sometimes come back.
Agreed! This is exactly why I’m re-positioning my book, How We Prevent Wealth: A Personal Finance Reflection. I originally figured that the internet would sell the book, but there is a huge barrier to internet purchases…the lost of impulse buying because of multiple “click throughs.” Additionally, promotion via the Internet relies primarily on people 1) searching for what you are selling and 2) taking the time to read the information that promotes the product. Furthermore, it’s easy to tell oneself “no,” as opposed to telling someone else “no”, if they’re in your face with a charming smile and a semi-persistent attitude. This is why I have to start promoting my book “on the streets” as well as in the massive world of the Internet.
Another huge barrier that I noticed is the lack of being a “starving artist.” I’m dogmatic that someone who has to depend on their product’s sales in order to eat will sell far more product than someone who has stable income that covers the bills and savings.
That being said, the ebook/book or any product model depends on all of the stuff that Yakezie wrote about in this post.
I wish I had some dynamite tips to share, but I’m still relatively new to the blog and self-promotion game. A lot of people struggle with the “not even try” part, and the solution there is obvious. But being over-confident and thinking the work will speak for itself – that is trickier. We all want to be proud of our accomplishments and want others to be as well.
I think part of the art to this game is (as you said) getting others involved. Whether its literally writing about other people or writing with the goal of giving something to others, I think the end result is the same. When people feel as though they’ve got a resource that will either teach them or entertain them, then you’re promoting yourself.
This is an excellent post that comes at the right time. Sometime you have to put it down and come back though. Reinvent if you will. Rodney Dangerfield was a flop for years and reinvented himself and became one of the biggest comedians of all times.
I know what it feels like to be so overwhelmed by something or unsure of how to do things that I end up doing nothing. However, I’ve become a lot better over the last few years at taking chances and doing a lot of research and trying, trying, trying. Sometimes I feel frustrated that I’m so slow, but as long as I’m learning I keep plowing through.
Marketing is definitely a big hurdle for a lot of entrepreneurs. I like your note about mentions of influential people and being a team player. It can feel weird promoting ourselves, especially at first, and I agree it is a delicate art!
There is a delicate art to marketing. As mentioned above, Twitter is a great example of how ppl can get on your nerves. IE. auto DMs when someone follows us to tell them to like you on FB etc.
Twitter definitely gets on my nerves after the 3rd or 4th retweet by the same person of the same thing. Hence, I’ve tried to minimize my time on Twitter b/c I cherish my nerves!
I think you can charge $100 for a valuable book but not much more than that unless there are coaching conversation sessions included.
I was thinking something like that, but for me personally, I would never spend more than $50 on a book unless it came with tons of add ons. I’ve gone ahead and launched my book, How To Engineer Your Layoff: Make A Small Fortune By Saying Goodbye for $38. I think it’s a fair price. We shall see!
NICE! Can’t wait to hear how it goes.
Once an avid fan of the social network, I have cut down to rarely using Twitter at all. I have refocused my efforts to the BlogFrog, adding a free community on Thriftability.com, and interacting on BlogFrog on a daily basis. I am targeting the ‘Mommy Blogger’ crowd to drive traffic to my site, which is a good fit all around. My personal opinion is that Twitter has become saturated, and I think that a lot of time and energy is wasted there through brief status updates – and not all of them even get read. Relationship building is key to building a solid readership, and there isn’t enough relationship building on Twitter to pay off.
As an aside, I would pay $38 for your ebook – but I “know” you and the awesome work you do via Financial Samurai and Yakezie. Same goes for someone like Crystal at BFS… I will pay for knowledge and advice from a trusted source.
Good points here, Sam!
Sam, this is a killer post. I agree that self promotion walks a fine line but it’s important to find and do it.
The story about Vincent hit me the most because it’s true. Confidence in yourself, real confidence, goes a LONG way. If you’re confident people have that nagging comment in their head, “What’s that guy got going on that he’s feeling so good about?” It helps in business and personal life stuff!