What did you sell today?
It’s easy to feel like you did a lot because you plowed through a wall of unread and unanswered email, spent hours going through your feeds and social media streams looking for awesome content to curate for your ideal customer and spent hours wearing out your keyboard as you banged out a blog post worthy of the gods.
But…
Did you sell anything, today?
Did you at least do something that directly leads to bigger numbers at the bottom line?
- Create information products to augment your coaching/consulting
- Create coaching/consulting packages to augment your information products
- Seek out referrals from existing customers
- Check with existing customers to see if they need anything new or have feedback so you can improve a product of yours (and then make those improvements and reissue/relaunch)
- Improve your conversion rate on specific pages of your site
- Make an offer somewhere (Twitter is great for this: I sell a lot of ebooks by simply remembering to tweet about the book)
- Increase the frequency of your offers (don’t be afraid to amp it up a bit)
So…
Why are you still sitting there not selling anything? Get going! 
Will that service translate anything? It would have been cool if at the end Panda eye had replied “None of your fucking business you curly-eared bastard!” Or is that just me?
You can sleep well at night, my friend, knowing that it’s just you.
As far as I know, it doesn’t translate. But if it did, the mistakes would be epically funny.
Crap, that sounds like me. I’ve just started blogging, and thank goodness, I generate quite a bit of revenue in my niche market – outside of the blogosphere. But I’m still trying to figured out how to monetize my blog/use it to drive traffic/reach a bigger audience. So…while I sold a lot today (really…a lot)….it had nothing to do with my blog (which was indeed a big time drain).
I’m going to write more about this later, but many people already have a decent pipeline or get their customers through referrals or other means. So what is the blog then for? It’s a means to reinforce and strengthen and make warm prospects even hotter.
HA! Love that video! I actually did sell stuff today which is great but it does take a lot of blogging and facebooking and tweeting sometimes. I also love the part where they say we drive a miniscule amount of traffic to our sites and all pretend it works. My primary traffic still comes from search engines and my e-mail list. Great suggestions Michael on how to improve your bottom line!
Yup, most of my clients come from search. However, my number-one ranking for my keyword is due to blog content containing backlinks, so there is that labor-intensive long-term aspect to it. But I don’t need to spend all day doing that instead of working client projects or creating products to sell.
Gasp! You’ve been peeping in my office today, haven’t you?
Yes, I’ve done a lot of work, but so far not one sale.
Consider me kicked in the pants! Ouch!
Thanks.
“Gasp! You’ve been peeping in my office today, haven’t you?”
I get that a lot, and it’s a sign I really understand my people and can help them. I make it my business to try and get inside your head. However, I use my powers for good, not evil. When your own customers start saying similar things in your blog posts and emails, you’ll know you’re on the right track, too.
Yep ya got me too. I’ve been lagging behind on the production front. Ducks in a row, perfection, self doubt, they all come into play on rotation. Knowing about human behaviour doesn’t make me any less subject to the fall out from it.
Thanks for the reminder to stop pissing around and just get on with it.
I know, right? I can recall quitting smoking a million times and all along as I still smoked I knew I needed to quit. We do that with everything! Seeing it for what it is is just the beginning.
Ohhhhhhh, I love these text-to-video clips. How is it that robotic monotone can be so freaking sarcastic?!? LOLs and gigglesnorts all around.
Also, you’re making a good point, Michael. I always wonder about the balance between not tweeting my book and over-tweeting it. If I over-tweet, I can’t help but imagine my followers gagging at the self-promo. I don’t want to edge into annoying spam territory. Do you have a recommendation as to how many times per week an indie author should tweet her book?
Ha! Me too. Also, it’s not so much that you have to tweet your existing book over and over again, but maybe make mention of the one you’re writing now. William Gibson is one of my favorite writers and he would publish little snippets and teasers from his work in progress on his blog, which of course he also tweets out to his followers. He’s very careful not to give too much and cause the wind to go out of the sails. Maybe you can take a page from that.
I love that idea — and I’ve considered it before! What’s stopping me is exactly that question, though: How much can I share without giving it all away? (OH, that applies to so many situations in life!) ; )
By the way, I’ve been following Scalzi’s blog and enjoying muchly. Not just his blogging/writing style, but also the way he shares personal-life stuff in addition to writerly stuff. I’ve been taking a page out of his blog and tweaking my own a little as a result.
And whaddaya know? I’m enjoying my own blog more. So thanks for the recommendation, Michael. : )
And I see what you mean about tweeting mentions of WiPs. It’s not so much about advertising the book itself as it is establishing my brand as an author. Yes?
The more invested someone is in something while it’s being created, the more they will want to have it when it’s done.
Michael, i truly like your little video, “So, what did you sell today?” Nothing, but I am continuing to be hopeful. We share a couple of commonalities Michael, we blog, and we sell, or you sell, and I attempt. I am not in the business to sell eformation, I don’t have enough information to sell a book, not likely. The only thing I think I have enough expertise about is tying knots, maybe I could write an ebook about how I do that and make my work what I do. Can’t for the life of me see anyone paying me for it. What I want and need to know is how to convince people they need my art on their office or bedroom walls! i do however write poetry, and thought once about trying to sell my ability to write on a suggested subject matter. What think you of that idea?
Well if there’s one thing that really never makes any money, it’s poetry. Art, however, can do quite well. Check out http://lateralaction.com for many good posts related to that. Also http://gapingvoid.com and http://johntunger.com.
I haven’t sold anything today. Actually I haven’t sold anything period. Im new to the world of earning a living on the internet. Great advice Michael but it doesn’t apply to me as yet
And it never will if you don’t take steps to create something and get it out there. Start sooner, rather than later. Practice makes perfect.
This post was great, agreed. And Chris if you don’t mind my saying so…I think it applies to (and may even have been intended for) someone in your situation.
Start by laying out what information, tools, steps, and time it will take for you to make your first offer (for product or service). Get the balls rolling and gears turning.
You might not have customers yet…but there’s only one way to get’em…to offer them something.
Good luck and think big!
Yeah, what she said.
Guilty.
Now I’m leaving your commenting system to go sell something today.
There ya go.
[...] On subjective Experience and Universal Truths. Spin Sucks – Creating Editorial Calendars Remarkablogger – The Most Important Question Socialmouths – Who are you writing for? Peter Shankman – Twitter power & Free [...]
Im wondering, do you use a mixture of techniques from your blog, say email captures, affiliates networks or focus on one stream of income? And do you find most of your traffic to be organic?
I run a consulting business, which I supplement with affiliate sales and information products. The blog, email and social media are how I market. Clients come via search, reading the blog and referrals.