“Sign Up for CopyBlogger’s Authority Rules Conference Today (closes Tuesday 17th)” plus 1 more

Posted: 15 May 2011 10:04 PM PDT

If you haven’t signed up for Copyblogger’s Authority Rules conference yet, you still can… but only until Tuesday May 17 at 5:00 PM Pacific (U.S.) time.

What’s Authority Rules? You can think of it as an intensive 30-day “boot camp” for your online business. It’s all based on the business model Brian Clark created over at Copyblogger. I’m one of the speakers who Brian has brought on to teach a complete, 360-degree view of his model.

If your business is on track with:

Traffic
Links
SEO
Conversion of readers to paying customers
A sales process that works for you and your customers
Referral and repeat business
A focused social media strategy
Effective use of email marketing
A strong, coherent marketing message

… then you don’t need Authority Rules.

But if you could use some improvement in any one of those areas, the sessions in Authority Rules will get you on track again… and that will easily repay the cost of the conference pass (and your investment of time) many times over.

Here’s where you can go to snag your conference pass.

The conference kicked off this week with some fantastic sessions.

Brian Clark and Sonia Simone gave attendees the “5 As” of accelerating your business, from Attention to Acceleration. The 5As are a 30,000-foot view of your growth plan … because if you don’t know where you’re going, it’s a lot harder to get there!
John Jantsch and Sonia talked about creating a Referral Engine for your business, so you don’t have to just hope for referrals — you can plan for them. John also included templates for his “Perfect Referral” system, and a quick exercise you can do today to become more referable.
Michael Port and Sonia did a deep dive into the foundation of your marketing identity and the four elements you need for social media engagement (you’re probably already doing the first three — adding the fourth will get you the ROI you’ve been looking for).
Lee Odden and Brian talked about the “peanut butter and jelly sandwich” model of SEO, for rankings that won’t fly away the next time Google changes its algorithms. Don’t miss the PDF version of Lee’s slides, including his content marketing checklist so you can get seriously strategic about optimizing the content you’re creating.

You’ll get recordings and transcriptions of all of these – but there is a lot in the next week that you get live access to (including my session).

Next week they’re starting the “Engage” track, which is all about *keeping* all those clicks you get with your attention strategies.

They’ll talking about how to get a handle on your social media strategy with Amber Naslund, real-time marketing and PR with David Meerman Scott, how to infuse your web copy with authority by master copywriter Jeff Sexton, and I’ll be doing a talk with Authority Blogger Chris Garrett (at an Australian-friendly time of day) ;) on making online community a cornerstone of your business.

I’m also doing a session on ‘How to Make Online Community a Cornerstone of Your Business’ which I’m really looking forward to.

Chris Garrett, by the way, also has a fantastic optional coaching program available with the conference if you want to get more individualized attention. I can vouch for the fact that Chris really cares about his coaching clients, and he’ll do everything in his power to get you where you want to be.

Grab your conference pass today so you can start diving into the material, and I hope to see you in a session or two this week! Remember, you need to jump in by Tuesday, May 17 at 5:00 PM Pacific — at that point they’re closing registration.

Post from: ProBlogger Blog Tips

Setting Personal and Professional Boundaries for Your Blog

Posted: 15 May 2011 06:08 AM PDT

This gust post is by Sarah Baron of of Anonymous8.

Boundaries in blogging are more important than you can imagine, because they set the tone for your blogs and for your relationships on and off line.

I never considered the concept of setting personal boundaries on a blog until a guest-blogger asked if he should publish a particular article on my site. His fear was that his story could hurt his wife’s feelings. It was our ensuing discussion that clued me in to how many personal boundaries I had set with my own blog.

Want to know why that sounds weird? Because my blog talks a lot about relationships, physical intimacy, and other “taboo” topics. Somehow we have managed to walk a fine line.

Here are some boundaries you may want to consider for your blog, based on those I’ve set for the creation of my blog.

Personal relationships

I rarely speak in a way that refers specifically to my family or to my friends. This protects their identities and protects the integrity of my relationships with them offline. In addition, I can tell you that my family and friends are not going to want their personal experiences shared with the world in a way that identifies them.

Experiences that we share are often discussed and hidden behind third-person tales. Those relationships are sacred, and I don’t want what I do to hurt them. That is my bottom line.

Be careful what you write about your family, including your mother-in-law. Assume that what you say will be read one day. Those little ones will be teens one day and may not appreciate every one of their embarrassing school moments told to their mother’s 15,000 closest friends.

Language

We choose our language carefully. Using curse words seems to be a strong line. Your basic four-letter words set tone. I do not curse on my site. Do you see a lot of curse words on ProBlogger?

I sum it up this way. Do you want to be the New York Times or the National Inquirer? Don’t get me wrong. There are plenty of profitable tabloids. However, language sets the character of your blog. One is taken more seriously in some circles, and is avoided in others.

I can tell you that if I used curse words, I would lose my more family-focused followers. So that is a conscious decision for me. Curse words set off alarm bells in certain readers just as they attract others.

Tone

To judge or not to judge? That is the question. Here we are referring to people, mostly, and the things they do. ProBlogger is an incredibly positive and reinforcing site. Even when sites review products, it can be done respectfully or harshly and critically. Both approaches have their pros and cons.

When we speak about taboo topics, it is done in a respectful tone without degrading others, and while being open to lots of different perspectives. This philosophy of tone can be applied to just about any subject.

What if you cross a boundary?

If you cross a boundary, admit it. The most powerful blog posts I’ve seen arise when a blogger admits his or her mistakes. Another approach is to set yourself up for making mistakes from the beginning, by laying out expectations on your site. One place to do this is on the Mission page of your site.

Now, it’s time for you to choose your boundaries. You probably already have subconsciously. Make your own set of rules. Make them on the basis that one day, your blog and its contents could be the center of a large group’s dinner discussion that you are attending. The conversation that follows with friends should be interesting because of your work, but not embarrassing…

Do you have any personal rules or boundaries you have successfully made for your site?

Sarah Baron is the creator and founder of Anonymous8, a site which brings smart discussion to taboo topics. She recently released her first book Getting Lucky with the Wife (yes, THAT kind of lucky). She can be found on Twitter as @a8forwomen.

Post from: ProBlogger Blog Tips

Setting Personal and Professional Boundaries for Your Blog