Conrad Hees’ Blog »

Differentiation and The Blogosphere

Posted on January 14th, 2008 by Conrad in Uncategorized

Photograph by pshutterbug

This post will be a little more of a free-flowing stream of thought on a topic that has been heavy on my mind recently, and one that many of my readers (most of whom are beginner bloggers as well) will find interesting.

As some of you may have noticed, I have not posted an article in about 8 days. The reason for this is that I have decided…that I will start a new blog!

I know how funny that sounds, but actually it makes perfect sense to me, and I know that it is the right decision. After spending a lot of time writing and setting up this site, I hate to just shift my focus like this. But the point of me starting a new blog is to get a fresh start with a great concept that I know will catch on really well.

I do plan on keeping conradhees.com active and still posting my personal progress and any articles that I want to write that may be off-topic with my new blog. I plan on posting here about once a week…I really hope that you all will stay with me.

Lessons of a Beginner Blogger

Although I have just started, I did have a few things that I was not happy with concerning this blog. Starting a new blog will help me to quickly take advantage of some of the lessons that I have learned so far, as well as allowing me to correct certain mistakes I have made in the past.

Here are a few of the beginner mistakes that I have made with ConradHees.com, and how I have learned from them:

- I am unhappy with ConradHees.com’s theme. I paid $114 for this simple, average theme, simply because I did not want to put the time and effort into looking for a good, quality, free theme.

I will not say the name of the site or the person from whom I purchased this theme (it is not hard to tell if you want to find out), but I will say that they are fairly prominent in the theme design industry, and I am puzzled as to why. They decided to take advantage of me by charging me an extra $35 for a change that literally took 30 seconds to make, and were disorganized and unprofessional.

I purchased this theme because it looked pretty good compared to other free themes I had seen, and I believed that no really good looking themes were free.

I was wrong. I have since learned that with a little surfing around the web, it is possible to find entire lists of great, free themes. For my new blog, I will get a free theme that looks much better than the one I am currently using.

If you are a new blogger, do not buy an ‘exclusive’ or ‘premium’ theme! Put in some time, and you will definitely find a great, free theme that fits your purposes.

- I did not like blogging under the domain name ConradHees.com. Although I am definitely an advocate for getting your own name as a domain, I also quickly realized that differentiating myself from the literally millions of bloggers who blog under their own names would be difficult.

If you want to have a popular blog one day, writing under your own name is a mistake. There are simply too many other people doing it, and many are mediocre writers. If you want to have a successful blog, think of a good, unique name that is relevant to your topic. That is the only surefire way to differentiate yourself from the get-go.

My new blog will have a pretty cool, unique name that is relevant to my topic. I think that it will work very well and separate me from the pack. I will reveal it soon, once I announce the launch of my new blog in an upcoming post.

- I did not like the diverse nature of the content on this site. Don’t get me wrong, I love all of my articles on here, and I have gotten a great response from them, but the content was not focused enough.

As I describe briefly in My Story, I started off wanting to write about personal development, then wanted to mix it with marketing, then went to marketing only, and now for my new blog, I have picked a specific niche of marketing that I believe is exciting, interesting, and will provide for some very useful, powerful, valuable content.

The point is that in order to have a popular blog that really meets its potential, it is very important to tighten up the focus of the blog, and make sure that you are not trying to cover too many bases.

It has been shown time and again that people gravitate towards content that is very targeted on a specific topic. That is how you gain a passionate audience that keeps coming back for more. Write on too many subjects, and you will have a lot of people who don’t feel particularly strongly about more than one or two posts on your blog, and the result is…no subscribers, and little recurring traffic.

My new blog will be very focused, and I am sure that I will hit a nerve with a very passionate audience when I launch it.

Those are the three main problems that I had with my blog, and the lessons that I learned from having those problems. I know that they are issues that many beginner bloggers go through, and I urge you to quickly resolve them if you are experiencing those same problems.

Final Thoughts (and LinkLove)

I hope that that little breakdown was beneficial for you. I truly hope that everyone here will follow me on my blogging journey and help me get my new blog off to a rockin’ start by visitng and subscribing. Remember, I am not really leaving this site behind, I am simply continuing my posting on another blog.

With all of that said, I thought that I would give you some links to some pretty cool stuff I have found this week on the web. These are all links to some of my new friends I have met recently online, and they are great writers with a lot of cool stuff to say. I hope that you will visit at least one of these sites…I promise they are a good read. Thanks for visiting and leave any comments you may have below!

Here are the links:

My good friend Brad Spencer, SEO extraordinaire’, has started a great new blog on quick, daily SEO tips for the everyman. Check it out here.

The ever-incredible and always remarkable Christine O’Kelly, aka Self Made Chick, is definitely the blog that you should be reading if you aren’t yet.

My friend Hunter Nuttall wrote a great post this week about the readability of blogs…definitely an interesting read.

My friend JEMi has written a great post all about the touchy subject of money and your family and friends; read here to see her suggestions.

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Are You Missing Out On Your Biggest Self-Marketing Opportunity Ever?

Posted on January 06th, 2008 by Conrad in Self-Marketing

Photograph by Jack Dorsey

In our current environment, everyone is looking to get ahead, and everyone is trying to push their own personal brand up to the next level.

Yet many of us (myself included until recently) are letting our most precious and powerful self-marketing tool slip under our noses. We are not taking advantage of one of the most crucial vehicles for self-promotion that we have, and simultaneously putting ourselves at risk to be taken advantage of in the future.

So, have you figured out what I’m talking about yet?

The internet is growing exponentially year after year. Very soon, everyone in all the major, developed countries will be online.

Therefore, does it not make sense that for you, as a person, your greatest self-marketing tool is your own personal domain name?

I’m not talking about just any domain name, I am talking about yourname.com. Do you realize how important it is to own?

If you do, great. I hope that you are action-oriented enough to have bought it already. If you do not realize how important owning your own personal domain name is, then this article will show you exactly why you are taking a major risk with your future if you do not buy it immediately.

Playing with Fire

It had never occurred to me until a few months ago that I should buy www.conradhees.com. It was something that I, just like many others, simply did not think about. But as soon as I realized why it was imperative that I bought it, I logged on and snapped it up immediately.

I am lucky it was still available. Will you be so lucky?

There are many reasons, both good and bad, about why you must buy your name as a domain right now. Some of them are:

GOOD REASONS TO BUY YOUR PERSONAL DOMAIN NAME:

- It is a GREAT self-marketing tool. Your name is your biggest brand. It is the only name that you are stuck with FOR LIFE. Don’t you want to control your personal brand name’s biggest online counterpart?

- You can shape the world’s perception of you. You can use it to put up a blog, a website, or even just a short biography of yourself. Think of it as an online resume’ that the entire world will have instant access to. Don’t you want to control the things that everyone will know about you?

Putting up a personal website will allow you to shape the world’s perception of you by allowing you to display all of your most positive, impressive attributes. This can be a huge advantage for anyone.

- Soon, the number one tool people will use to find out about you will be Googling your name. Prospective employers, business partners, friends, and even enemies: all of these people will be using Google at one time or another to find out information about you. Don’t you want the number one search result ( yourname.com) to give them positive information?

‘BAD’ REASONS TO BUY YOUR PERSONAL DOMAIN NAME:

- If you don’t, someone else will. Have you tried to buy a domain name recently? ALL of the good names are taken, as well as most of the bad ones, too. How long do you think it will be until people start to buy up other peoples’ personal domain names? My bet is that it is already happening.

- If someone does buy yourname.com, how do you feel about buying it from them? Having to buy your own name from someone else? Scary thought, isn’t it? Don’t wait until it happens to you.

- Or worse, what if someone keeps it and uses it for something stupid, vile, or negative? Then, when people Google you, they will really get a good impression, won’t they!?!

-How many other people do you think have your full name? Chances are, there are dozens of people who have the same name as you right now, but there is only one domain name available, with a limited number of extensions. Don’t you want to be the one to own yours?

All of these points are extremely valid, and I could probably list several more. The overwhelming point is: what are you waiting for?

Overcoming Short-Sightedness

Even after reading all of the points I just made about why you should buy your own name as a domain, I know that many of you may be saying to yourself, “It’s not necessary, I’ll never use it.”

My argument for you in that respect is that thinking that you will not use it now is a very short-sighted perspective. You have no idea what you might do in the future, and needing your own name for a domain is a very real possibility. Do you really want to risk one of the negative consequences listed above happening to you, just because you don’t want to pay $7 for a domain name?

You have many years ahead of you, and many things are possible in the future. Buying your own domain name right now could be the most significant investment that you could ever make for yourself, and for your future.

Never trust your judgment about what you may need in the future. The truth is, you simply don’t know. Why take chances?

Get Out That To-Do List……

After writing this, I am fully aware that I may come off as if I am selling domain names on commission for one of the big companies. Maybe I should sell this article as a sales letter, eh?

Seriously, though, the only reason why I am pushing this so hard is because I feel that many people do not understand the severity of the situation. I would not want any of my readers to have to go through the pain of having to pay another person their hard earned money for their own domain name, simply because they were unaware of how important owning theirs really was.

So please, for your own sake, don’t wait. Put getting your own domain name up at the top of your to-do list. I promise that at some point down the line, you’ll be glad you did.

I will leave you with this quote, because it sums up my message perfectly:

“Do it now, because sooner or later, you’ll either be saying, “I wish I had” or “I’m glad I did.”

-Unknown

What do you think about getting your own name as a domain? If you have a comment or story, please add it in the comments section! We’d love to hear from you!

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How to Figure Out Exactly What Your Readers Want You to Write

Posted on January 05th, 2008 by Conrad in Blog Marketing

Photograph by Sandcastlematt

The other day, as I was pondering the mechanics of a really good blog, a question arose in my head that was so fascinating that I could not seem to shake it. The question was:

Is there a formula to figure out exactly what your readers want you to write?

Wouldn’t that be absolutely great? If you could figure out exactly what your readers wanted you to write, you could have hordes of raving fans coming back over and over again, devouring your latest articles and subscribing like crazy, couldn’t you?

Well, I have good news and bad news for you.

After deliberating on the question for quite some time, I determined the answer:

No.

Not quite what you were expecting from such an ambitious title, was it?

Well, I apologize if I mislead you. There is good news, though. Fortunately, while there is no exact formula for figuring out exactly what your readers want you to write about, there are several different factors that we can examine and use to formulate an educated guess about exactly what type of content your typical reader would like to read, as well as what type of article format (how-to, list, case study, etc.) they would like you to put it in. A pretty damn good educated guess, too, I might add.

This article is will outline and explain my tips for using certain factors to determine how to give your readers exactly what they want, time after time.

Read the rest of this entry »

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The 7 Questions Each New Visitor Asks Themselves When Deciding Whether or Not to Subscribe

Posted on January 02nd, 2008 by Conrad in Blog Marketing, Self-Marketing

Photograph by -bast-

Have you ever wondered exactly what thought process a new visitor goes through when deciding whether or not to subscribe to a blog?

As I clicked around the blogosphere recently, looking for a few new sites to add to my feedreader, I noticed a mental pattern showing up that was happening in my mind effortlessly each time I arrived at a new site.

I noticed that as I looked at a new blog, there were several questions that I would ask myself automatically as I pondered whether to subscribe or not. As I became aware of this series of questions, it occurred to me that every other reader was likely asking themselves the same exact things when deciding if they were willing to subscribe to a new blog.

Then, it suddenly came to me: if I can identify exactly what questions a new reader asks themselves when deciding to subscribe, and then give them the ‘answer’ that they want from me, I will be able to convert a much higher percentage of new visitors into subscribers. Then, I naturally wanted to help my readers do the same, so I decided to write a post about it.

The purpose of this post is to help you understand exactly what a new visitor is asking themselves when deciding if they should subscribe to your blog, and how to answer those questions in a way that will help them decide in your favor.

The Burning Question

As bloggers and marketers, almost nothing can be more important to us than figuring out exactly how to get new visitors to commit to a relationship with our blogs.

Since it is free to subscribe to a blog feed, it should be relatively easy to get new subscribers, right?

Wrong.

The truth is that it is not free to subscribe to a new blog feed. In fact, it is far from it.

The reality is that each time we subscribe to a new feed, we are making an investment of our time and attention. And as smart and productive people, we expect a return on our investment.

In the new Attention Age, we are so flooded with information, that we must be more and more discerning about what content we choose to invest our time and attention in.

Therefore, the main question that precedes all others in a potential subscriber’s mind is: Read the rest of this entry »

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Why You’re Nobody Until You Have a Blog

Posted on December 31st, 2007 by Conrad in Blog Marketing, Self-Marketing, Success

Kind of a harsh title, isn’t it?

While of course we all have a lot of value without having to own a blog, the purpose of this article is to show you why no one will be able to see that value until you get with the program and start blogging.

High Expectations

As human beings, we are all governed by certain laws of the mind which limit us in various ways. One of those laws is that once we are conditioned to expect something, especially from ourselves and others, we tend to tune out all those who do not meet those expectations.

Look at it this way. Ten years ago, a cell phone was a luxury item, and very few people had one. Then, as cell phones became more readily available, more and more people began to get them. About five years ago, it was still acceptable to have a house phone line and use that for all of your calls, but the majority of people had cell phones by the early 2000’s.

Now, as 2008 comes upon us, everyone has a cell phone. I know 10 year olds with cell phones. I myself, as well as most of my young friends who are living on their own now, have opted not to even get a house line, and we strictly use our cell phones for our calls.

The point is this: in our current day and age, I think it is safe to say that you are considered a weirdo if you do not own a cell phone.

Isn’t that a strange phenomenon? Something that was considered rare and unnecessary ( and this can be applied to computers, business websites, etc.) only a short time ago, is now considered an absolute must-have for everyone in our culture. Now, we expect everyone to have a cell phone, every business to have a website, and so on……and if you do not have these things, you will be considered out of date, out of touch, and basically, less relevant in our current environment.

How This All Applies to Blogging:

Read the rest of this entry »

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Modeling: How to Speed Up Your Success By 1000% or More

Posted on December 19th, 2007 by Conrad in Productivity, Self-Marketing, Success

Photograph by Ulises Jorge

No, this is not an article on how to quickly become America’s Next Top Model. All of you search-engine visitors hoping for modeling tips, please click ‘Back’ right now.

Now that we have gotten that out of the way, I want to talk to you about the other type of modeling; the type of modeling that can realistically allow you to perform up to or more than 1000% better than you would have without it. Read the rest of this entry »

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The 8 Methods I Used to Lose 35 lbs. In 90 Days

Posted on December 19th, 2007 by Conrad in Fitness and Health

Photograph by shapeshift

For the first 19 years of my life, I never had to worry about my weight. I was always athletic; I liked to swim, play basketball, and participate in other sports. I always had a great physique.

Then, unexpectedly, when I was around 19 years old, everything changed for me. I did not know why at the time ( I later found out that the cheap Chinese food lunches that I had been enjoying five days a week for the entire year had a whopping 1500 calories in them!), but I gradually started getting bigger and bigger, until one day I decided to look at the scale.

I realized that I had gained 45 lbs. in only one year!

In one short year, I had gone from a lean 170 lbs. (I am 6 ft. tall) to a lumpy 215 lbs.!

I have always prided myself on holding high standards, and I could not believe that I had let things get this far. I decided to hit the gym hard. I ended up getting back down to about 180 lbs., but then gained back another 20 lbs.

For the next 3 years, I would go on a rollercoaster ride of weight loss and weight gain (typical for many people). I would usually lose about 20 lbs. over six months, then gain it back over six months, and so on. Finally, in early May of 2007, I decided that I had to get serious about my health and staying in shape. Read the rest of this entry »

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How to Make Others View You In a Positive Light

Posted on December 19th, 2007 by Conrad in Relationships, Self-Marketing

Photograph by Amnemona

We all know the type of people who walk into a room and instantly raise the energy level. They get people talking and laughing, make others smile, and can easily get people to open up. These people are uplifting wherever they go, and always seem to get a great response from others, even people they barely know.

Conversely, we all know a person who can dampen others’ spirits just by being around them. When they enter a room, people clam up, become quiet and defensive, or are scared to speak for fear of criticism or ridicule. These people have few close friends, and are actually avoided by others because of their judgemental, gloomy, or aggressive demeanor.

Oftentimes, these two very opposite types of people are actually not very different at all. The main difference between them is often that the former understands a key rule in self-marketing, and the latter suffers because of ignorance of the same key rule. In this article, I will explain the vital self-marketing principle that I am referring to, and I will outline the three main ways that you can immediately work this law to your advantage in your professional and personal lives. Read the rest of this entry »

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The Top 5 Reasons Why Getting In Shape Is Crucial for Your Career

Posted on December 18th, 2007 by Conrad in Fitness and Health, Self-Marketing

Like it or not, your level of fitness is affecting your career.

Whether in a good way or a bad way, the people who are in charge of your future at your current place of employment are being influenced both subconsciously and consciously by your outward physical appearance. Their opinions of you are being directly impacted by your number one self-marketing tool: your body.

Although I hate to write articles like this because I fear they may come off as being incredibly shallow, the fact remains that one of the main focuses of this blog is self-marketing. I would not being doing my job of informing you how to better succeed in marketing yourself to the world if I didn’t tell you the hard facts about how your physical appearance is crucial to your success in our modern environment.

Trust me: your boss is taking the size of your gut into consideration when he decides whether to promote you or the guy in the next cubicle. Read on to find out just how critical becoming fit is to your professional well-being. Read the rest of this entry »

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Are You a Hard Worker or Just a Busy Worker?

Posted on December 16th, 2007 by Conrad in Productivity

Do you consider yourself to be a hard worker? What is your definition of hard work?

If you are like most people, you would answer with, ”Yes, I work very hard, every day”. I, too, used to consider myself to be a pretty hard worker.

That opinion of myself changed, however, as soon as I began to change my definition of hard work. I took a hard look at how my results were tied in with the different types of work that I performed, and soon learned that what I once qualified as ‘hard’ work, was not much more than ‘busy’ work.

So, what is the difference between hard work and busy work, you ask?

Hard work is work that has a big impact on your results and the level of your productivity. Busy work is simply work that keeps you ‘busy’ and may make you feel as if you are getting somewhere, but does little to affect your all-important results at the end of the day.

Here are a few examples of the characteristics of hard work and busy work, and what you can do to distinguish between the two and achieve a higher level of productivity: Read the rest of this entry »

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