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You’ll Never Know Unless You Ask Posted: 16 Jul 2008 02:57 PM CDT Growing up I was a very shy little guy. I was so shy that I rarely put myself out there in situations that I was unfamiliar with and never asked other people for favors unless I was either in desperate need or very familiar with the other person. I remember my mum telling me on numerous occassions when I was too shy to ask people things - ‘you’ll never know unless you ask’. It struck me today that while I’m still pretty shy that I wouldn’t be where I am today if I’d not overcome my inability to put myself ‘out there’ and had I not learned to ‘ask’ others for help. The reason it struck me today is that I’d emailed a couple of well known photographers asking them if they’d be interested in writing a guest post for me at Digital Photography School. I’d never had any contact with them before and they had no knowledge of me or my site. A couple of hours later I had two of the three replying back saying yes (the other said no). My natural inclination when thinking about these photographers is to avoid contact them. I don’t want to put them out I don’t want to risk the feeling of rejection of them saying no I don’t want to look foolish in front of these people who are famous in their niche. My list of reasons NOT to contact them could be long - I’m good at making excuses for myself - however over the last 5 years of blogging I’ve discovered that stepping outside of my comfort zone is something that more often than not pays off - both for me and the person that I step towards. A few examples come to mind: Emailing my hero Seth Godin and asking for an interview (and another time suggesting a a post he might like to link to) - both times he responded in the affirmative Emailing national and international mainstream media outlets with ideas for stories that they could write that would feature me - this has paid off numerous times. Emailing blog designers and asking for help with my blog’s design (I did this in the early days of my blogging and Rachel from Cre8d did some wonderful work for me very reasonably). Sending countless links to countless bloggers (many of them so called ‘A-listers’) when I thought the links related to their content and having them link up Again the list could go on. Of course for every ’success’ I’ve had like these I could tell you stories of rejection. Seth said no to writing a foreword for my book (understandably), countless bloggers ignored my emails, media outlets did stories on the topics I suggested without featuring me…. the list could go on! The key to what I’ve learned is the same thing that my mum taught me as a shy little guy - ‘you’ll never really know unless you ask.’ When you ask things of other people the chances are good that they’ll come back with a no - but you’ll never really know until you ask - and the thing is that when you do ask you are a step closer to them saying yes than if you’d not asked at all. The Key to Asking is Win Win Interactions This post might make it sound like I never do any work for myself and am constantly living off the generosity of others - but this isn’t the case. The key that I’ve found with ‘getting’ things off other bloggers is to ‘give’ them something in return. Win/Win interactions are key. If you can find a way that doing you a favor helps the other person as much or more than it helps you then everyone comes away a winner. So in asking the photographers if they’d be interested in guest posting for DPS today I made it clear that it’d be very helpful for me but that it’d also bring them exposure to their own projects as the site was being widely read. While not everyone can offer lots of exposure - I guess the key is to find some way that you can help the person that you’re asking a favor from so that they benefit in some way. For example - instead of sending someone a generic email asking if they’d link to you - why not send them a high quality guest post that they can’t resist posting? Share This

Do Your Visitor Numbers Look Like This? Posted: 16 Jul 2008 09:01 AM CDT “Darren, I have been blogging for 6 months and have tried to build traffic through social media, networking and buying reviews. I have attached a screen capture of the last 2 months of traffic (above) where you will see I have some good days in traffic, but it always flat lines days later. The spikes all come from social bookmarking campaigns, links from other blogs or paid reviews - but my normal days of traffic are no higher than months ago. Help!?” The above excerpt came from an email from a ProBlogger reader recently who is faced with a problem that many bloggers struggle with. It’s literally a roller coaster ride - both in terms of traffic numbers but also emotions as you watch with hope your traffic rising on a good day only to see it flatline the next. Like the blogger above mentions (he wished to remain anonymous) the spikes in traffic can come from any number of sources including: a post being featured on a social bookmarking site a paid review on another blog organic links from other sites being mentioned in mainstream media a seasonal burst of traffic from search engines Tomorrow I’m going to write a post that gives 20 practical tips on how to combat this spike/flatline trend but today I want to start with one ‘lesson’ for those of you who have traffic charts like the one above. It’s a lesson that our blogging friend above has already learnt. Getting a Spike in Traffic is only Half the Strategy If there's only one thing that I'd like to get across in this post it is that we need stop seeing the sudden burst in traffic as the ultimate goal and to start seeing it as a stepping stone to sustained blog growth. This is a lesson that some bloggers never seem to learn - so recognizing the problem is actually a breakthrough. I know the temptation to see the spike as the end result and have fallen for that temptation myself on numerous occasions - however to pop open the champagne to celebrate your good fortune at this point is to miss an incredible opportunity - the opportunity of recruiting a percentage of the readers coming into your blog as regular readers. How to Build a Sticky Blog With our first lesson in mind tomorrow I want to move us forward by looking at the concept of making our blogs ’sticky’. The word ’sticky’ might be a strange one to associate with a blog but it’s a good one because it describes the idea of making readers ’stick’ to your blog beyond their first visit. It’s all about making spikes in traffic have a lasting impact rather than give cause for momentary celebration. I hope you’ll join me tomorrow when I propose 20 techniques for building a sticky blog. Subscribe here to get the next post. Share This

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