Many bloggers have started to veer away from the ad-based monetization model. Good choice, unless you’re looking for a very steep uphill battle for enough eyeballs to even just pay your cell phone bill.
So, in the search for income, now many are are producing their own products or pitching their “consulting” services. I put that word in quotes for a reason. Why?
Because I have no fucking clue why I’d want to hire 95% of these people for any reason whatsoever.
And it’s their own damn fault.
It’s not that they’re offering something totally outside of my needs like fish tank setups or nude cow milking.
It’s that they haven’t given me a single solitary reason whatsoever why they’re good at it – other than their word, it seems.
To me (and to most) there’s a very big difference between merely saying what you can do and actually doing it.
Show. Me. Something. Anything. Please. For Fuck Sakes.
You can get as many Twitter followers as you want. You can get as many blog readers & list subscribers as you want.
You can get as many people to RT & share your posts as you want.You can get as many “testimonials” as you want.
(notice how I put that word in quotes as well because many are unreliable blather)
But if you can’t show me an example, or two, or three of the exact service you’re pitching to me right now, you know, solid and tangible references to the work you’ve actually done in this field – then I will assume you’re completely full of shit.
Because you probably are.
How do I choose a logo designer? I look at their client’s logos.
How do I choose a house painter? I look at the houses they’ve done.
How do I choose someone for nude cow milking? I look at the teats.
Social media has been an extraordinary tool to connect customers to businesses and showcase the great, high-quality people offering their talents to the public. But it has also become a virus by clouding the goals of those entering this 21st century space with their own business endeavors in any niche.
Sure, word-of-mouth is the most powerful marketing tool… but back in the day, it was difficult to fake this in any effective way. Yet with these new technologies & connectivity, it’s becoming easier and easier to artificially produce buzz about your product or services. And I’m not talking about automation, fake accounts or spam.
Where your success depends much on being “talked about”, your popularity will serve up the perception to many that you do indeed know what you’re talking about – even if it’s just having real human interactions online and sharing links up the wazoo. Does this mean you’re qualified, though?
Maybe you are. Maybe you aren’t. Yet the unwitting majority might not be able to see the difference through all the smoke.
So make it clear. Stop talking about what you could do for others… and do it for others!
Stop trying to convince everyone that you can milk a cow bare-ass in under 12 seconds… and bottle a few gallons.
Does the inherent nature of what makes social media tick blind many of us into spending way too much energy developing social proof without doing anything to produce actual proof?