How to Get Opportunities to Come to You (Part 2)
There is an audio version below.
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Welcome back! If you missed part one, go back and get updated. This has been a great year in my business and can be a great year for yours if you go after the bigger opportunities. What I’m talking about is doable; you can use this blueprint to generate income from your dream.
A lot of the frustration happens when you give into the “busy work” instead of building your audience. Social media is not enough or the best way to build an audience. Social media is limited; you have to pay to reach an audience. Also, people don’t come to social media to make business decisions; it’s mostly personal stuff.
Building a blog, growing a podcast, and building your email list are how you create the foundation to generate a full-time income from your dream. Taking that to the next level is getting featured in major media publications—I gave you a strategy for how to do that last post. Mainstream media/large publications/larger podcasts can leapfrog your business and give you the exposure that brings opportunities to you. I got to give a TEDx Talk because the organizers heard me on Smart Passive Income.
How to Leverage Exposure
The one cool thing about large publications is that they constantly re-share content that does well. I have articles from a year ago that get shared every 30 days because they’re popular. My highest shared post has now been shared over 143,000 times.
I consistently write for five publications. Each week, every one of these publications shares one of my new articles and one older one. My website traffic has been more the first half of this year than all of last year.
Every time your content gets shared again, you receive a new ping of traffic, you get book sales, and you can get new business. This is how my business has grown beyond six figures this year. How can you leverage this? Write articles that get shared. Easier said than done I know, but let me give you a few tips.
Think shorter articles, not longer. On a large publication, articles that are more than 1,000 words don’t get read as much. From what I’ve seen, the sweet spot is 700-900 words. Most sites won’t take articles that are longer than 800 words. Your goal isn’t long form articles; your goal is to give them just enough to want to click back to your website. That’s where you give them the meat and in-depth articles.
Hit on emotions. The technical stuff is great but lacks emotions. The content that tugs at the heartstrings is what people share. Content that’s funny, makes you sad, makes you happy, or that evokes emotions is what goes viral. Keep it simple; don’t try to show how smart you are. People on large publications scan and aren’t interested in something that will confuse them. Plain language and skimmable works best.
Doing the Work
What does it take to make this all work? I made you a video.
We’re at the end of this little series. I hope you got value. If you take nothing away from this, take away that you have to build an audience. Don’t let the busy work distract you. Don’t work on the “thing,” work on building a group of people who are interested in what you have to offer to the world. Let them know what you have for sale and a few will buy. When you get out there in a bigger way, the opportunities come to you.
Audio version:
How are you building your dream?
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P.S. In the Transition Club, I walk you through (step-by-step) how to get these opportunities and give you a plan to transition into online entrepreneurship.
Photo: Flickr/ andlun1
