Are you looking for a supervisor or manager? Should you be promoting or hiring? The simple answer is; It depends on who is on staff right now.

If the best reason you can come up to promote someone is their long service or good performance in their current job. You are probably better off hiring from the outside.

Before you promote, you need to consider the impact. Promoting from within as a rule and used as a reward will eventually result in everyone reaching their Highest Level of Incompetence . Performance in a current position gives little indication of performance in another, and it says nothing about leadership abilities.

Plan Early For Success

1. Identify Leadership Potential.

Constantly evaluate your employees to find the personality types who are natural leaders. Look at how they approach problems, how others view them. Are they “Go to” people for problem solving. Do they have their peers respect and liking? Are they helping others succeed already? Constantly keep an eye on the employees to see who is moving in that direction naturally.

2. Project Management

Once you have found potential candidates for promotion. Give them projects to manage, start simple, and increase the length, scope, and complexity every time they are successful.

Give them plenty of support while doing it, you are a mentor to these people and they will need support. This will groom leadership qualities and you will end up with a promotable employee when the time comes.

If you throw someone into a leadership position without training, you will be paying for their lack of experience as they learn on the job. Or worse – when they fail and damage your company in the process.

Prepare for Hire

If you are unable to find a promotable employee, or maybe you are too small to even have one. Begin early to canvas your surroundings, look at your friends and their friends to find potential future employees able to take on supervisory positions early. You can save a lot of money in head hunters’ fees by starting early and identifying as many candidates as possible. Taking your time also allows you to identify the best person for the job. Not the one that is most fun at parties.

Having a clear policy of hiring the best person - whether that is from the outside or not - is also the best way to reduce agitation among your staff for not getting promoted. When your common policy is to promote from within without question, you automatically place an expectation of this being the norm.

Understand How Your Own Position is changing

1. Hand Off

When you grow, and hire workers, supervisors, and managers to take over certain tasks, the most common problem for small business owners is the inability to delegate. It is extremely hard to hand off something that you’ve been doing yourself in the past. You must however be prepared to release the formal power that goes along with a position or you are hog-tying them from the start.

The result is that most will end up micromanaging the organization. This has rarely any benefits and more often causes bad relations with employees. Which inevitably translates to poor performance.

2. Why Did You Hire to Begin With?

You are hiring or promoting because you are unable to do the work yourself. This means that if you maintain all the formal power, you are forcing the new managers to wait for you at every turn. Waiting for you to do the job you were too busy to do to being with will only slow down the process further.

Micromanagement of this kind is the most common reason that small business owners are overworked and quickly lose ground when they grow. You have to hire / promote and train the person to do the job. And then trust them to do it.

3. Control and Correct

When there is a problem, be certain that you correct it, but do this with the mentality of a mentor, not a drill sergeant. If you have the skills, pass them along so that the problem will not repeat itself. Taking over and doing it yourself will not solve anything in the long run. No one knows everything about their new position, and they certainly do not know exactly how you want it done unless you teach them.

However, just because you’ve always done it one way, doesn’t make it the best way. If you hired or promoted a qualified person, chances are that they will come up with improvements over time. Don’t shut that process down.

Process improvement comes from those that work with the task, rarely their supervisors.

Promoting Practices That Can Kill You

1. Promotion is Not A Natural Progression

Just because someone has the longest work history, does not translate to being the best suited to manage. This could mean that the person is actually happy in their current role. Be very careful before removing someone from a job they are good at and putting them in a spot that they are completely unsuited for. Some people are not leaders.

2. Hiring Promises Are Part of the Problem

Companies often promise “rapid advancement” which is completely detrimental. This places an expectation of promotion on the table and you will have to live up to it or lose an employee.

3. We Always Promote From Within

This is common and completely asinine at the same time. Think of top level executives in large corporations, they move from industry to industry with little problem. Why? Because leadership is not about the product or service, it’s about the people you manage.

A supervisor will with each step up take one step away from product specific problems. It’s better to hire a good supervisor from the outside, than to promote a bad one from the inside just because they know the product. 

4. You Might Lose Them if You Don’t Promote

Then let them go! The damage of losing a low level employee is merely an annoyance when compared to the disaster a bad supervisor can create. Instead of losing one persons productivity, you are stifling the entire team by promoting someone unsuited.

5. He / She is the only one you like

If you have less than stellar relations with the rest of the employees, and you are about to promote the only one you like among them. You just lit the fuse to a potentially very big explosion. If you don’t “like” many of your employees, chances are they don’t like you either. We’ll get to that later, but for now, know that the person you do like is probably not well liked among his or her peers.

Be very careful in promoting a person that is poorly liked by his or her peers. A supervisor is not every ones friend, but promoting someone that is already an “enemy” is going to sour relations between employees and supervisor as well as towards the company. Remember that a supervisor is not only there to enforce your policy, they are there to get the best performance out of the team. Being poorly liked and seen as the "bosses pet" is not a good platform to stand on when your job is to lead and motivate.

6. Kissing Your Rosy …. Is Not A Leadership Quality

You want a supervisor that is independently thinking about the best for the business. Not someone who will constantly nod and kiss your derriere. Supervisors have direct contact with areas that you no longer will. When something in their world changes, they have to be able to stand up and say so, even when it means disagreeing with you.

Avoid ipromoting yes people, it’s great for your ego, and a horrible business decision.

Preparation is Key

Like every other aspect of business, You need to consider growth early on and plan accordingly. Don’t make the mistake of letting your success run away from you, forcing you to grow faster than you can control, which in turn will inevitably make you promote the wrong person.

If you don’t plan for success early, the success won’t last long.

Whenever I buy something that says "batteries sold separately." I calmly dream that this will be the store redeeming my basic faith in a company’s ability to seize the most self-evident opportunity for customer service.

(I’m starting to think I am a hopeless idealist.)

1. If you are selling an item. TEST it before you let the customer walk out with it. Take out a pair of batteries. Put them in and make sure everything works.

It really doesn’t matter that the item is made by Widget Industries in Upper Mongolia. YOU sold it, and the customer will be angry with YOU when it doesn’t work.

2 . (This is where companies make fools of themselves) Turn off the object and put it back in the box before closing the sale. But LEAVE THE BATTERIES.

Yes, I said it! Save your key rings, forget about the complimentary Frisbee. Take the unusually smart step of actually making sure that the item will work when they get home without the customer needing to buy batteries.

In fact, if I come home with an object without batteries, but a complimentary branding Frisbee, I’m probably going to be even more fuming than if I didn’t get the Frisbee at all. At that second I am going to wonder what moron came up with that idea instead of just giving me a pair of bloody AA’s! Now I’m both angry that I have to go back out and get batteries, and convinced that your establishment is owned and operated by a cretin. Not the customer experience you should be shooting for.

Giving It Away Increase Sales

The amazing thing is that your sale of batteries has a great chance of increasing too. Why? Because if you don’t have a policy of testing each item, your sales clerks are going to forget to remind the customer they will need batteries x amount of times out of a hundred.

If clerks test everything as a policy, they won’t forget as often and that will improve sales of batteries as well. And here is the kicker, the customer probably has other things that need batteries, so even though you just gave them batteries for the item they purchased, they will often end up buying them for other items.

It All Goes In the Plus Column

If the item you are selling is $2.49 with a profit margin of 30 cents. This is admittedly not a great idea. But if you are holding a profit margin anywhere over $3 per item, you can’t really lose by doing this.

AA batteries are about 7 cents if you buy in bulk. You are paying more for those fancy brochures used to staple the receipt to in case the product doesn’t work. Now you will have to deal with less customer returns as well, which also saves you money and bad will. (See the math here?)

If you have a profit margin that is high, Say $70. You will have to convert 1 sale in every 250 to a returning customer or a referral for it to break even.

I guarantee you will be head and shoulders above the competition that are still standing there like misers, taking them back out of the gadget before asking you if you would like to buy batteries. To me, that is not just a missed opportunity of customer service. It’s downright counterproductive and borderline rude.

I can also promise you that the statement "I’m going to leave these in here, if you would like to buy extra batteries, this item takes Double A’s" will do more for your customer satisfaction than a Frisbee ever will.

I am convinced that being religious, in combination with being a smoker is a great combination for business success. Now, before the atheists and puritans out there have a coronary, - I don’t believe its about the religion, or the tobacco.

Perspective

What I’m talking about is the need to get a break and some fresh perspective. I remember reading a study in the late 90’s that smokers were more productive than non smokers. Why? Because they took the 5 minute break for a cigarette every so often, giving them a chance to clear their head and stop staring at the same problem for too long. Those that didn’t smoke tended to keep working, although they appeared to be more productive they actually only were the first two hours of the day. Although the actual facts can - and have - been debated until the cows come home. I am a firm believer in the concept.

The same goes for religious people. Many entrepreneurs will slowly let work cut into their free time. Soon they are working day and night, 7 days a week.  While the religious person will hopefully take their holy day off and attend a service. The religion isn’t really the issue; it’s the break from work. Socializing with friends and family, and actually having a little time to recharge the batteries in between is what matters here.

Working too much and not letting yourself take a break and actually enjoy life and the people around you will not work for long. Overworking is an all too common problem among entrepreneurs in general.

Although I can’t recommend smoking, I do recommend taking short breaks throughout the day. The religious concept of keeping a day a week where you don’t work is as brilliant as it is old.

Don’t want to take up smoking, or go to a service? Join a Charity!

Working with charities produces much the same result. Think of how many times you’ve heard successful people talking about how important it is to give back to the community. As much as it is socially responsible and a good thing to do, it also gives you a break from the daily grind, and you get to do something that makes you feel great about yourself and your surroundings. And feeling great is the first step to being great.

Entrepreneurship Is a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Your business needs you, but it needs you at your peak performance. Once you are burned out, you are not much good to it, yourself, or those that love you. Find what recharges your batteries, and make sure you always keep time aside for it. Unless you pace yourself, you probably won’t last long enough to see things really bear fruit.

Clear Your Head and Get More Done

Once you break the constant working habit, you will begin to be more productive. The breaks will get your thoughts organized, your motivation recharged and you will look forward to the work you need to do.  A little time off will actually allow you to do more with less time.

Smart v. Hard

You became an Entrepreneur for many reasons, and one of them was probably to get more time for the things you love. This is not about working Smart v. Hard, no matter how smart you are, an entrepreneur will almost always work hard.

Work a little less, and you’ll be able to work both harder and smarter.

—

Getting Your News Out There

The most time consuming part of press release marketing is to build a media list. This is why the companies that distribute press releases charge so much to do it. They have built extensive databases with every possible piece of information they might need. You are not paying for the service as much as you are for the use of their database.

Building your media list requires a lot of legwork on your part to find, classify, and target your contacts.

Start with the publications you already know. Your local media, the papers and magazines you already read, the channels you watch. Use the knowledge you already have to find your targets.

When you have completed the list of your known outlets, it’s time to broaden your horizons.
The internet is full of directories; it’s the perfect place to start to find media outlets that fit your idea of what you would like to spread yourself to.

Media Directories

US Newspapers - http://www.usnpl.com/
Yahoo Media Directory - http://dir.yahoo.com/News_and_Media/
News link - http://www.newslink.org/
Refdesk - http://www.refdesk.com/paper.html

Create a Database

As you identify the publications you want. Add them to a database of some sort. A basic Excel Spreadsheet or a simple Access Database works well for a job like this. Even your email address book can be used.

______________________________________________________________

You can download a Basic Spreadsheet here
______________________________________________________________

Target the Right Journalist

Once you have a publication, the most important step you can do to improve your chances is to target the right journalist. It’s far better to send a press release to a journalist that normally writes about your topic than to send it through the “catch all” emails and fax numbers.

Go to the publications website; see if they publish an online version. If you are lucky, this will also include the e-mail to the author of the article. This is the goldmine. You get the name of the author that has shown an interest in your topic area, and a direct channel to their inbox.

– Warning –

Try not to cause unnecessary work

If you intend to send the email to more than one writer at the same publication; Do NOT send separate emails. Send it to all of them in the CC Field. So that they can clearly see who else got it. You don’t want two people from the same publication working on the same story. That will happen once, and the next time they won’t touch it again since they wasted time before.

Fax

Some publications want you to fax them the release. If this is the case, find out what the fax is for the journalist you want to target. If that is not possible, Make sure that you attention it to the person you want. Faxes arrive by the truckload to a major publication. And if you don’t target someone, you risk getting lost in the shuffle of things.

Create a corporate list

Often overlooked, you can make a lot of progress if you build a list with companies you want to associate yourself with, potential advertisers, existing and prospect partners, Industry Leaders etc. It is never a bad idea to include these in your list.

Follow Up

Once you’ve sent your release. Try to follow up with those that you sent it to through a phone call, it does wonders to be picked up if you call them, and ask if they got it, if you can send them anything else. or answer any questions. Again, if you do a little of their work for them, they’ll reward you for it in the long run.

If you have a large list, Make sure that you follow up with the most important ones, as well as the ones that you already have a relationship with. Always nurture your press contacts, they are worth every ounce of effort.

Free Press Release Services

You should also consider news aggregate services like the free press release services, as well as posting your press release onto places like Digg, Reddit, Propeller etc.

Here are two free news release services that function as aggregates. and news people do read them. So you definately want to post your release here too since it does increase your chances with no cost and barely any effort.

Free-Press-Release – http://www.free-press-release.com/
Open PR - http://www.openpr.com/

Condition the Journalists

To maximize your chances, you need to condition the people that pick up your press release. If you follow the basic guidelines, you will give them max benefit for minimum work. This conditions them to look for you again when they need something to publish.

You want to become their "go-to" resource when they need something, you can only do that by providing the best possible release - with easy access followup and supporting information. Do that, and you’ll be rewarded.

——

Press Release Marketing if done right, is one of the most powerful, low-cost marketing channels. Don’t miss out on the business you can generate from it.

Good Luck!

___________________________________________________

Previous Articles on this topic

How to Create a Media Kit
How to Write a Press Release

Have you bundled yourself so tight you can’t move?

Once upon a time…… I worked with a company that provided contracted services. The services were spanning many areas, and of course came in different bundles.

I was tasked with finding the "custom" contracts, those not conforming to any of the standard bundles, so that they could be standardized. Something that many companies try to do to simplify both the billing and being able to provide the service they agreed on. Up until this point, it was nothing strange to me.

When i worked on it, i quickly realized that almost all of the "weird" contracts as they were called, had been sold by one of the senior staff. These contracts were highly customized in both services provided and pricing. This of course was interesting, but what was more interesting than that, was that the company had an almost 100% retention rate of these customers.

After crunching the numbers, it also became very clear that the profit margin on those contracts were on average 7$ over the standard packages. Even after taking the "hassle" of customized billing and keeping track of what services to provide into consideration.

The Senior member had tapped several majorly important resources at once. The customer got a personal relationship which let them buy exactly what they needed. And in the process, the company:

A) Made more money
B) Kept the customers longer, (making even more money.)
C) Made the customer happy
(which i’ve harped on enough already as the only way to get good referrals.)

Simplified Billing be Damned

These wierd contracts were exactly what every customer should have been offered, Customized to perfection, the senior staff member had by "breaking the rules" shown that it was the best option available.

But as always, the "cutting costs" aspect of simplified billing and contract management was what the corporate head office could more easily measure, and therefore wanted. So that was what they got. The profitability and retention went down as could be expected.

The savings of "simplified billing" ended up costing them more than hiring an extra Accounts Recievable staffer would have cost them.

And lets not forget that they had a very powerful accounting and billing package that if used correctly would have made it a non issue to begin with.

Lessons Learned
What i learned from this staff member was that unless you are completely unable to customize, there is no reason not to. It’s simply better to sell them what they want. They are willing to pay a slight premium on the services they do get, if you allow them to cut out the ones they don’t want.

Thougts on Selling Services

-Services, should never be sold as a fixed package unless they are interdependent.

- if they are interdependent, they shouldn’t be listed as two separate items to begin with.

- Bundles are great, some customer likes the no hassle approach, and the rest can use them as a base from where to start. But to not allow customization is the same as saying "Your wants and needs are not important."

For Gods Sake, Don’t Listen to Me!

Every time you sell a custom contract that adds or subtracts a service from one of your bundles, You are being given Free Product Development . Your customer is helping you improve your bundles and packages with no other consideration than you listening to them.

Consultants like me charge big money to give you the same information that your customer just gave you for free.

So by all means, please ignore this opportunity, and call me instead, I’ll be happy to listen to your customers for you, (and bill you accordingly.)

—

Satisfied customers are your best sales force, but are you paying attention to the ones that are doing the work for you?

Next time you get a clear referral, don’t miss a beat in contacting the person who gave it. Make sure that you thank them for the business. If at all possible, reward them somehow, give them a discount, a gift card, take them out to lunch. Whatever you do. never let a referral go unnoticed.

If you notice and appreciate the business they send you, they’ll do it again.

Major sales teams almost always have bonus programs, are you rewarding your “sales force?”

Press Releases are extremely powerful marketing and branding tools. They are almost zero cost, and becoming a news item carries a credibility that paid advertising can never achieve.

But unless your press releases are actually picked up, they have very little effect, apart from being a useful resource for fleshing out your media kit like i mentioned in that article.

You need to write the press release in a way that will appeal to your target audience. The problem, is that your target audience now is the press, and they are not likely to succumb to sales pitches and hype.In fact, they are highly allergic to it.

It’s time to bring out the Journalist in you, and write news.

Mind your Format

A well written press release should follow a standard format, this is not the time to be creative. You will do better if you appeal to the familiar when a reporter picks up your release and looks at it. Don’t make them think and wonder about where you are.

Here is an example of a standard format that works well.

Breakdown

1. Top - Logo or company name

Don’t forget to be clear about who you are. This is a great way to be noticed on an overcrowded desk for instance.

2. Contact Information

Make sure that the person you put here is the best one for answering questions. And that they will be available. I’ve seen far too many CEO’s demanding that they be put as the contact on Press Releases only to miss being picked up because they didn’t have time to answer their phones.

3. Date It

Make sure you put the date on it. News are perishable, so the release date is almost as important as the actual news.

5. For Immediate Release

Theoretically, you could put a future release date here, I don’t suggest it though because it will get lost in the shuffle before you get to that date. Better to write the text in the press release so that it includes an eventual future date instead. Don’t make it complicated on anyone by asking them to read it now, and publish it next week. Not to mention that your news might get “leaked” before you want them to.

Headline

This is your moment to shine, don’t give them a bad headline. If you normally write for the Web, be extra careful. Web headlines don’t normally work well in traditional media.

A good headline is clear, conversational, and attention getting. Don’t give away the lead in, or the ending of an article if you can avoid it. There are plenty of good resources for writing headlines, but the best you can find is the people around you. Write five or ten versions, and ask people what they like best.

Avoid trying to be sensational if the story isn’t. That’s just going to annoy both the reporter, and probably the reader if it gets picked up as is.

Don’t try to plug yourself in the headline. It’s cheap, cheesy and never flies. No matter how much you think it would be great to have your company in the headline, just remember that it’s better to be picked up at all. And chances are that if you try to sell yourself with cheesy copy. You’ll never get that far.Your best bet is to go and read as many news paper headlines as you can find and learn that way.

Headlines are normally written in all caps in press releases.

Subheading

The Subheading is where you get a chance to sell the story, you should give a little more flesh here, but still keep it so that you don’t give away everything, Clarify the background but keep the real story for the body.

Example

Here is an example using a post i wrote a while back.

———-

Bad Headline and Subheading

AMAZING BLOG ADVOCATES FOUR DAY WORKWEEK

The Weakest link, a fresh new marketing blog has determined that companies should let their employees work longer days and get three day weekends to save on transportation costs.

———-

No reporter worth his salt will pick this up, its clearly a promotional stunt, it’s self-promoting and cheesy and it doesn’t work. Ever!

———-

Better Headline and Subheading

GAS PRICES WARRANT THREE DAY WEEKEND

Employers are forced to consider new scheduling solutions to offset rising travel costs

——

This is better because it has a headline that states the topic, and still raises why questions, the subheading is better because it answers the question, but still leaves a lot to be said.

Lead In Paragraph

The lead in paragraph is the most important part of writing you do here. It has to be interesting, informative, and well written if you are to have any chance at all. I can only suggest reading a lot of articles to get the feel for how this is normally done.

The capturing Lead is the difference between journalistic writing and a school report. It is the baited hook that will grab the readers attention.

It should answer most if not all of the who, what, when, where, why, how. Answer no less than three of those. If you don’t get that part right, you are leaving too many holes in the story, and it becomes hard for a publication to pick up without a lot of extra work.

Body

The body of the press release covers all the supporting facts. This is where you can mention your company more specifically. But do not fall to the temptation to push a sales pitch in here. The reporter has no interest whatsoever in helping you make money. And even less to paint you out to be better than you are. So as soon as they smell that particular rat on your press release. It normally goes into the circular archive.

Give the reasons and rationality. Include the supporting evidence and round off with a quote or two. The quotes are very important, most news stories will have at least one if you read through a paper. Get them one right away and you just took that hassle of their table. less work for them, equals more chances of getting picked up.

The Closing Paragraph

The closing paragraph is a place where you can make conclusions. Remember that in News writing, it is perfectly acceptable to end a story with a question. One thing i’ve noticed is that a pondorous statement works really well. A thought as to what this might be, or a prediction as to what may come because of this. A great place to learn this is to listen to the evening news. They almost always close with a cliffhanger of that kind.

Boilerplate

This is an old term meaning text that gets reused over and over. You can simply use the same text about your company in ever press release. Remember to write it in third person, and avoid the standard buzz words. Amazing, Unique, Pioneering, etc. Reporters are bad targets for hype.

Suffice to say - Never BS a BS artist.

Call to action

After the three hashes ### (which marks the end of the press release.) Insert a short paragraph with contact information and a call to action, you can invite them to schedule interviews, Get copies of research for verification etc. make this running text, give them a quick easy way to get what they need to publish it.

This is by far the best way to better your chances. A reporter on a time-crunch will look at a press release and consider what needs to be done before it can hit the press. If you have made those steps easy for them. Your press release will have a greater chance of making it.

Keep it Short

I’ve written and released well over 1000 press releases. And i have never seen one that was more than two pages get picked up. Single page releases get published almost five times as often as two page ones.

Long stories are written by reporters, they work on those for a long time. Press releases published “as is” are almost always fillers. So if you make it too long, there will be nowhere to fit it. If they want a long story on your company, they will do the work to flesh out the release you wrote on one page themselves.

Some thoughts to remember

- Read big reporters in big papers. These guys can write stories, its what they do. Unless you are a star reporter for the NY Times or Washington Post, don’t miss the opportunity to study those who are.

- Write from the journalists perspective - Third person only (unless you are quoting of course.)

- Put the sales pitch away - Reporters aren’t stupid, and they’ll be happy to give you the number to their advertising salesmen if that’s what you want printed.

- Is this interesting? important? most of all, is it newsworthy? Double check everything with the “So What” question. If it isn’t interesting enough to pass that simple point, don’t put it in there.

- Lose the ego, If you are too busy to answer the phone, you are not the person that should be listed as the contact person. You are dealing with people on tight deadlines. Don’t make them wait for information. It’s better to have the receptionist listed, - and get published- than to have your own name in the trashcan.

The Marketers Trick

- Add a little extra white space between paragraphs.

A long time ago, i worked in a news room. And i saw that the stories that got filed close to deadline often had handwritten notes in between paragraphs and in the margin.

It’s simple really when you think about it. When you are running out of time, you will grab what you can finish quickly. Not something where you have to go on an archaeological expedition for your notes. Work with them here and give them something to write on. You’ll see that it works to your advantage.

Good Luck with your writing. In the next article I’ll show you how to distribute your press releases.

——

Don’t forget to Subscribe, It is free, and you will get future updates delivered to your RSS reader or email.

Can You Do ONE PERCENT Better?

Slow and steady wins the race, but this is a little mental trick to achieve that faster than you think.

It’s the one percent rule. It works because compounding that 1% makes it incredibly powerful. The one percent mindset breaks down those major goals into very manageable concepts.

Each time you do something, do it with the intention of making it one percent better.

-        Writing a post, make it one percent better than your best post

-        Make it one percent better Keyword targeted

-        Increase your subscriptions with one percent

-        Make your comments on other blogs 1% better, giving you 1% more visitors

-        Make 1% better comments in forums

-        Participate 1% more in Social Media

So how effective is this?
Compounding daily over a year. 1% turns into 3854%

Applied on several levels, that compounding will impact every other level as well, resulting in some pretty serious numbers.

Let’s do the math on this

Start with your best day. On this day let’s assume you made a great post that got you:

200 total hits
2 new RSS subscribers
1 Trackback link

If you work every day on being one percent better, you will have 7,540 NEW readers on your post this time next year. That’s over 7000 NEW readers in that one day one year from today.

Total unique visitors in that one year… hold on. 740,000+

Say that you convert +1% of your new readers into RSS subscriptions every day. Which means that your subscriptions go up 1% (Win some-Lose some)
(My conversion rate is 3.4% so this is actually aiming low.)

That’s a total of 7584 new subscribers in a year.

You will have amassed about 3600 links in that year to your blog.

Now apply that to the value of your blog in terms of:

Pricing for advertising.
Number of clicks you are getting on your ads,
Total value of your blog

And you will see that in a year, your blog could be earning a decent income.

Is This Really Possible?

Well you are reading the proof. This blog has been online now exactly 85 days, and the numbers I am seeing are proving the theory. On average, my stats are up 1.1% per day. Yesterday was the first day my Alexa ranking went under 100,000 (62,215) to be exact. Yes it’s a spike, the average fluctuates. But the average increase holds true.

I’ve had horrific days too, when i couldn’t figure out what the…. happened. It’s all part of the daily grind of running a business

I am convinced that the determined, focused, and driven can make a living doing this. Use the tips and tricks I’ve given in the previous Blogpreneur Posts, and you should be able to make a very decent living without doubt. Just remember that it won’t be tomorrow.

You’ll have great days, and not so great ones. But the sooner you pick your start date, and plot the one percent rule on a chart, the sooner you will be able to focus on what really matters.  - Steady improvement.

Go out there and get your 1% today

If you are intending to market your business to - or through - media channels, your best friend will be a well designed Media kit.

Media kits (also called Press Kits) help interested parties to find key information about you, your company and your products right when they need it. The easier this information is to obtain, and use, the better your chances are of getting it picked up.
Getting free publicity is never a bad thing.

A Media Kit is Useful For:

1. Spreading the word
Press kits act as a marketing tool to reporters of all kinds. Whether the person is producing materials for a blog or a major newspaper, a well designed press kit will get their attention. If you create a press kit that can get a reporters attention, you will be rewarded with increased exposure. Then it’s up to you to convert that exposure to whatever goal you are pursuing.

2. Attracting Advertisers
A press kit will give a potential advertiser access to the information they are looking for to make a decision. Having the right information in there tells them that you are the sign post they are looking for. Transparency, sells advertising. Don’t skimp on facts and figures.

3. Projecting Authority
Press kits are bragging posts. You can add things here that my may not want to publish in your own publication. How many are referencing you, what is being said about you. Things that might go against the normal rules of modesty can and SHOULD be in a press kit. Projecting authority is the key to bridging into new areas. If you write great blog posts, you might get asked to comment on a TV show. But you have to be able to show why you are the person they want.

Appeal to their Laziness

Remember, you are dealing with people looking for something. If they are looking for something to publish, chances are that they are on a deadline. Make it complete, interesting and do as much of their work for them as you can. You’ll see your press kit appear in places you never thought of. The stressed writer will gladly take well written text from press kits and republish it instead of missing a deadline.

People are inherently lazy; write text in third person that can be reused unaltered. if it gets republished, the sentence "We are a company who builds…" will have to be rewritten. Writing in third person appeals to the laziness inherent in most people. (And to the stressed journalist even more.)

What to Include

A press kit is comprised of three basic elements. (Static, Images, Dynamic)

1. Static Information
Facts about the company, things that don’t change or at least stays relatively fixed. This is where you can put all your background information.

Answer the standard battery of questions:
Whom - What - When - Where - Why - How

Write this information in easy to read, friendly, third person voice. DON’T make it read like a vision statement. A mission or vision statement is almost only republished when someone is writing about mission or visions statements.

The Press Release Trick

The static section should include Press-Releases. You should make a press release or two every month. A steady flow of press releases shows activity, which makes you newsworthy on its own. If you have tree releases spanning the last 18 months, you are not looking very active. Appeal to a publisher by telling them you are a business that is worth taking notice of.

You are also telling them that they better move before someone else gets the all important scoop on the next one. News people HATE being scooped, which works to your advantage.

Awards, recognitions, and references

Show them that you are the authority. Any accolade you have received should be noted and if possible shown in the static section. This is a lemming syndrome. If others think you are noteworthy, the person reading your press kit will think so too. If it’s an ego boost to you, put in in there.

2. Images
Remember that images are often a requirement, Logos, as well as pictures of relevant people and events.

Cover the Bases
Remember the lazy aspect. Don’t make them work to publish your image.

Include several versions of logos, banners and images. It is better for you to have several sizes than have your logo cut and butchered or even worse, skipped, because it doesn’t fit. If they can pick one that fits their available space, you don’t risk losing information because they re-sized your full width banner to a thumbnail.

Several formats

Have Black and White images ready. Some images just don’t look good when converted to B/W so it’s better to have done your own work there as well.

Print quality - Which normally is 300 dpi (dots per inch)
Try to include at least two of the following formats: TIFF, GIF, EPS (PDF is becoming more acceptable to most).

Web quality - which normally is 72 dpi
Try to include both JPEG and GIF

List images with a thumbnail and a clear description, and list the file formats available under as download links.

3. Dynamic Information
This is information that appeals to advertisers looking for a website or blog to publish their ads on. Show them everything they want in a simple easy for follow format. And keep it up to date. If possible use things like widgets to show your data in real time.

Hits and visits
How many hits you get on your site per day/week/month. How many customers frequent your location. You can also be even more specific, and tell them Weekday vs. Weekend, Data, I’ve seen that this can swing a publisher that has a specific target audience.

Subscribers
If you have an RSS feed or a mailing list, tell them how many you are reaching. Easiest way to do this is to have a feed widget published that shows your current number of subscriptions. Do not publish that widget however if your readers are low (some say 50, i’d say 100.) It turns away future subscribers to see low RSS Counts. But more on that in another post.

Demographics
Demographics are a huge selling point to advertisers. Get as much info as possible. You can gather information in several ways. A quick sidebar poll for instance is easy to create and a powerful way to get this information. Having it ready for your potential advertiser will increase your sales dramatically.

Display demographic information in charts and numbers. The Visual is a great selling tool.

Previous Advertiser Click through rates
If you’ve had ads before, tell them how many hits they generated.. If you can justify the price you are asking, you’ll get less apprehension from future buyers.

Be specific if you can. Tell them the difference between separate sizes and positions etc

Tell them the Price
If you are selling advertising space, don’t make it a mystery to find out how much. Let them know what you offer, what locations, sizes and prices of each opportunity.

Here is a pricing policy tip, Give them several levels with the second to last made unattractive by the top level.
- Text ad in RSS feed - $79/month
- 120 by 120 Thumbnails in sidebar - $199/month
- Banner $ 299/month
- RSS Feed and Banner $300 per month.

This trick actually increases the sales of the top level. The third option will get no sales, but it makes the top offer look attractive. If you get rid of the "package" top level, less people will buy the $299 banner than would the $300 package. opting for one of the lower levels instead . Always have the "duh" price in there. It might seem silly, but it has proven very effective.

Actual Factual

Don’t subject a publisher to hype. If you make a claim, make it a truthful one. They will not be very pleased with you if they publish something that turns out to be false. These people are spreading your name and increasing your notoriety, don’t make them regret it.

If you sell advertising space based on inflated numbers, you are guilty of false advertising yourself. You sell advertising more if you already have advertising there. So losing advertisers because they didn’t get what they expected will slow down your future sales as well when your ad slots are sitting empty.

Give them everything they need

If you are looking to get noticed, try to have everything that a publisher might want in one easy to access location. This includes the text, images, facts and figures etc. Make this accessible in one single file. A .zip or .rar file is online publishing standard. Again, appeal to their laziness. Give them what they want prepackaged, and ready to go.

They will want a quick fact sheet of information that includes:
- Name of Company and or Publication
- Contact information
- Exact URL
- Submission Deadlines
- Payment and Ordering information

Tell Them the Copyrights

Give clear instructions what they can publish, what they can change. And what they have to either keep as is, or request permission before changing. This is a common concern for someone looking to republish information, and if they can’t get it quick enough. They might skip you for someone that has it clearly listed.

Make it Easy to Find

Don’t hide your press kit in a link under "about" or "contact", give it its own link prominently displayed.
PRESS - PRESS KIT - MEDIA KIT work very well as link names. Whatever you choose, Just make sure that people don’t have to look around to find it. Although many hide it in the footer, if you want to sell ads, your better off putting it in the header.

Don’t Lose Out

A well designed media kit resolves the major problem of time. If it is available when needed, you don’t have to worry about missing an opportunity because you couldn’t take a call or answer an email in time.

A little planning. Some basic preparation, and good old fashioned hard work can turn a blog into a money maker. How much? That is really up to you and your determination.

Some ways are easier than others; some will earn you more money than others. But in the long run, it’s all about building a solid brand and a good base of readers before you will see much return.

1. Advertising Networks
Advertising networks such as AdSense, Adready, etc. is the most common way of monetizing.
It’s Important to realize that most ad networks don’t work very well until you have search engine traffic. People who arrive from other sources don’t click as much as you’d think. However, a few cents can always be made on page impressions alone. Never a bad idea, but not the goldmine its painted out to be.

It’s easy to sign up, it’s easy to implement, and in most cases, it’s problem free. It is however not a great way to make a lot of money unless you have serious amounts of good search engine traffic.

2. Direct Selling Ads
You can sell Ad-Space to companies direct. This is not that hard to do, but it does require you to do a little more work on your own. You also need to monitor the ads, adding and removing as contracts expire. Your price and revenue will depend on both your traffic, and your negotiating skills.

3. E-Books
If you have quality material to sell, then you can write an e-book and sell it through your website. You can also upload e-books for sale to Amazon. The E-book is the most common gateway to serious diversified monetization. It is also a powerful traffic builder if used right.

4. Print Books
If you are a blogger, you might have it in your to write a full book for print.
Print on demand, Google, Amazon and other services have great ways to market print books alongside your own blog. A book has the additional benefit of being a perpetual money earner. Once it’s out there, you can reap the benefits for a very long time.

5. Merchandise
You have a blog? Maybe there is a market for some t-shirts, posters, Coffee Mugs or other ideas. Cafepress has made it very easy to make merchandize with zero cost. You can of course do it the traditional way too. Which gives you better profit per item, but has the problem of finding a manufacturer of your products, stock and shipping.

If you are already producing something, you can of course add a web shop to the blog. But that’s really not about blogging. That’s more a traditional e-business approach.

6. Affiliate Marketing
Some businesses will make you their sales person. Either by just advertising, or by actually doing the sales work for them and earning a commission (see point 7.) This is one of the most popular ways of monetizing, but it has also become a bit of a scourge of the blogging world. Be careful since this can damage your brand.

7. Build your own Amazon (or other) shop
Amazon allows you to advertize a specific product. You can choose the exact ad you want to show. This can allow you to make a product review, and advertise the sale through Amazon. Doing this tastefully can actually be a very good way to earn a living, I’ve seen some very sophisticated applications of this approach.

8. Member Services
Provide a subscription based part of the website that gives access to VIP information, services etc. If you are trying this one, make sure that the value given is worth the investment. Or you will get plenty of bad reviews written about you and your service.

9. Consulting / Coaching
If you are a specialist, or have a business where you can give advice, you can leverage that by giving either online advice or channeling customers to your real world business. This works especially well for Consultants and Personal Coaches, but designers, programmers, and other computer oriented blogs can make good money this way too.

10. Paid Posts
There are plenty of companies out there that will pay you to make a post on your blog. You’ll need some traffic and basic notoriety before this becomes an option. Be careful! You might lose credibility if you do not disclose that you are making a paid post. There are enough bloggers out there that get the same offers as you do. Your readers will know what’s real and whats been paid for sooner or later.

11. Links
Another common offer is to get paid for links from your page. This only becomes viable once you have a decent pagerank, and since this is frowned upon by Google, you might get that pagerank taken away. Not something I’d advice on doing.

12. Sell it
Blogs are being sold all the time, once you have designed your blog and brought it up to speed, there might be a market to sell it. However, building a blog and traffic etc just to sell it rarely is a very effective way to spend your time. If you are a great blogger, that has all the tricks of Traffic building down. Then you might be the person to have this as a goal. Otherwise, time/value is just not there.

Blogging for a living is not as easy as many advertisers out there might want you to believe. But it is possible for those with drive, determination and a firm grasp on the difference between leveraging, and selling their brand name down the tube.

Good Luck!