The Blog of Lisa Morosky

In response to this post, I’ve decided to work through and write each of the ten blog posts I said I’d rather read. Here is my submission for number three!

Number three on my list of ten blog posts I’d rather read is sharing your own original thoughts on your market. I think I’m going to be an overachiever here and talk about both of the broad markets I’m invested in: blogging and Internet marketing, and personal finance.

So let’s talk about the blogging and Internet marketing market. I guess technically those can be split up into two markets – but I’m going to address them as one. If I had to narrow it down to just one big, over-arching theme for this market, it would be this:

“A little less conversation, a little more action please.” -Elvis Presley

Boy are we good at talking, huh? In this market, we will flap our gums and beat our chests until there’s no tomorrow. But the bottomline is that a very small percentage of people are actually taking action in this market. And it’s easy to point out the ones who are: it’s the ones making money.

Theories and guidelines and rules are great, but at some point you need to get in there and get your hands dirty and start making things happen on your blog and with your blogging business. I think that as bloggers in this market, we are often paralyzed by philosophy, and neglecting action.

What would happen if we all started acting on everything we knew? I think I’d probably start having some sort of blogging superpower – because I know a lot about this market. And it sits in my head getting dusty, most days.

So let’s talk about the personal finance market (aka. the market of SpendLessOnLife.com). If I’m going to be honest – I like this market a heck of a lot more than the other market because if you have the blogging and Internet marketing background, you’re going to excel here. You’re not necessarily surrounded by people who “know your tricks”.

But from my obsessive stalking of personal finance blogs, I’ve noticed these things:

• People are afraid to sell to other people in the personal finance market. For some reason, they think that because a big goal for people is saving money, they won’t purchase their products. Simply not true. If you fulfill a need, people will buy. And there are some personal finance bloggers that are doing just this and killing it.

• There’s a huge focus on saving money, but not necessarily making more of it.

• There are a ton of little niches. And because of that, there’s a ton of opportunity.

It’s an interesting exercise, sitting down and thinking about your blog’s market and evaluating it. Try it sometime.

I’ve always been very into music (of all genres). Growing up, a lot of times I didn’t really know how to express myself or feel things. Music often spoke for me and said what I couldn’t say and helped me feel things with more clarity.

So, you guys get to see a little bit of my musical, emotional side today. Lucky. You.

We’re going to take a trip through R & B land and learn more about blogging, from Ne-Yo. The song in question is “Make It Work”.

Here’s the song (a random video someone put together):

And here are the lyrics of the song.

The part of the song that I think can teach us something (or at least remind us) about blogging, is this part:

“This can only be as good as we both make it. I guess sometimes it’s gonna hurt. We can be as happy as we want to be girl. But we gotta make it work.”

Here’s what I pull out of this for you to take with you in your blogging endeavors:

• Your blog is only ever going to be as good as you make it, and as good as your audience makes it. You have to do your part by providing interesting content, and your audience has to do their part and talk to you. But, here’s the kicker, if you’re not doing your part, the audience won’t be doing theirs. Just like in a relationship.
• And you betcha, sometimes blogging is going to hurt. Whether it’s the comment that cuts you down, or the lack of participation by your readers, sometimes blogging is going to suck. But it’s how you turn this situation around that defines you and defines your blog.
• The sky is the limit with your blog. Want to earn more? The only thing stopping you is you. Want more readers? The only thing stopping you is you.
• But you have to want it. Building up a blog takes so much work (much more than people know). So you have to have the passion and the drive to make it work.

So there’s your obscure blogging advice for the day.

Next time you listen to your favorite song, see if you can extract some tips or advice to share with your readers. It sure makes it more interesting than just listing things.