Part 1 of 10: Just say it:

This is the first in a ten part weekly series which will help you to actually earn money and generate traffic from blogging: written in laymen's terms:

Some of the techniques discussed here are simply Guerilla marketing applied to a new media. Other parts of what we will share with you here are important rules of the road that we learned the hard way. You will not be bored, and you will not find things said or done in exactly the same way anywhere else. You will be offered the opportunity, as always, to chime in, to disagree; even chastise when or if it is justified.

The "blogosphere" loves a good debate. We are enthused and enlightened whenever we are actually educated beyond our current knowledge, and we genuinely want your input, especially when you disagree. We seek to be connected with, and to interact with you. We want to learn and grow as a result of the experience. We do not want you to waste our time: so skip to the 'chase" and spare us the boring build-up.

We are not all pompous journalists or self-proclaimed experts with PHDs. We are not as fussy about spelling or grammar as a vocal few English majors and self-proclaimed PR consultants would have you believe. It may not even matter at all who you are or what your credentials are if we like what you have to say. We are just people who want to feel connected and to know what is up. We want to hear what you have to say without anyone editing or censoring it for us. We want the raw stuff.

We are not necessarily great managers, eloquent speakers, or brilliant business people. We do not all wear our egos on our sleeves, and we would rather be entertained by something unique than bored your own personal rendition of the same old regurgitated information that we have heard somewhere else, no matter how qualified you say you are to do the regurgitation.

People try to candy-coat things way too much. They use all kinds of useless adjectives and meaningless words like: actually, really, figuratively speaking, mostly, sometimes, occasionally, ….

Don't be non-committal like that if you want us to keep reading. We have very little time and we are overloaded with information: if you have something to say, just say it. Nobody wants to hear a watered down version of how you feel where you have hedged and ruined the impact of your message to protect someone's feelings.

"Be ye hot or be ye cold, lest I spew you.." Well, you get the idea!

All through history it has been proven over and over again by great men and even completely crazy madmen that people will follow a leader who has the self-assuredness to take a stand, even if he is wrong, and especially if the message contains the truth.

Building a following online is the same as in any area of life; you cannot lead from behind. You cannot mitigate your risk and be popular: you must actually take a stand, and lead.

So lesson number one is to 'just say it'; don't beat around the bush; don't mitigate your risk; don't spare anyone's feelings; just give us the straight 'poop', and we will reward you by wanting to see what you will say next.

I will see you next week: we will be talking about Group Branding and Development, with no further introduction necessary.
Related:

http://www.z57.com/shared/images/znews/2005-06/integrated_marketing.shtml

Israel Rothman is a well known speaker and author on the topic of intentional online reputation management: learn more at SocialMediaSystems.com