Controversial Things
Be careful what you post.
I posted something I thought I saw this weekend. It got back to the people I thought I saw do something. They denied it and tried to make me out to be a liar. I didn’t lie, but maybe I didn’t see what I thought I saw the way I saw it.
Nonetheless, me and those people are definitely not friends. Although, I wasn’t a big fan of them before that from another incident.
It resulted in me blocking them from my personal pages as well as my brand pages because I didn’t want to deal with their judgmental attitudes. I’ve even asked them to leave me alone if they see me in public.
I do wish I hadn’t posted the message at all, though.
It was controversial, and it resulted in a stupid argument that really shouldn’t have occurred in the first place.
Lessons learned.
My advice to you: Think about what could happen before you post something that is controversial and could be held against you, your personal brand, or your business.
Almost Missed This One!
I almost missed today’s daily blog post.
I would have to have started over. If I had to start over, it wouldn’t be that big of a deal. Why? Because I’m just doing this for a personal blogging goal, not for business.
Life happens. I have a day job. I have a few side gigs. I’m an avid outdoorsman. I’m busy. So, if it happens, it happens.
But I caught it at the last minute – haha.
Copywriting 101
Copywriting isn’t that difficult.
You don’t have to know a bunch of copywriting formulas to be good at copywriting, either.
Those formulas were really made for people to go by at the beginning, if they needed some kind of inspiration. It’s good to learn them but you don’t have to master every one of them.
My favorite one is simple. It’s called PAS. Problem-Agitate-Solve. You present a PROBLEM, then you AGITATE the consumer to get them emotionally involved, and finally, you provide a SOLUTION which is your call-to-action, usually your selling point.
But you don’t even have to use a formula to make good copy.
You do want to be able to tell a story, though.
Storytelling is your main function with good copy. If you can tell a story, you can hook a reader, and then you can sell something a lot easier.
We all love a good story.
If you’re having problems being a good storyteller, then you need to start listening to more stories.
I always listen to podcasts like The Moth and This American Life. I also listen to Spy Scape and Detective Stories. The more storytelling you expose yourself to, the more storytelling will become an easier task for you.
Listening to stories can definitely make you a better storyteller.
Develop Your Own Product
AdSense pays you pennies. That’s because Google in the middleman and does all the work so they get the bigger cut.
Affiliate ads also pays you pennies, but you get a little extra since you also have to do the work to make a sale.
Instead of earning pennies as a solo digital entrepreneur, you should be earning the big money like other people in your industry.
And you can earn that big money, too.
You just need to invent a product or service and sell it as your own. There is no middleman. There is just you. You get ALL of the money earned.
Doesn’t that sound a lot better than pennies?
But I used a word that seems like a hard task. Inventing. To you, that might seem impossible. But it really isn’t.
You just need to see what products would fit your current target audience based on their needs, wants, and pain points.
Can you make a paid newsletter, an online community, or provide a consulting service as the product? How about a course or a virtual event of some sort?
You don’t have to invent something physical.
Take advantage of digital products that you can make into your own and sell them as products or services. That’s how you invent something for your brand. That’s how you maximize your online profit.
What product or service are you going to sell?
Make sure you put yourself first, too!
It’s okay to put your business first.
It’s okay to put your family first.
But it’s not okay to not put yourself first.
Your wellbeing is important. It’s important to take care of yourself. If you’re not taking care of yourself, then you’re failing your business and you’re failing your family. Your wellbeing is required in order to live up to your success.
Exercise. Meditate. Breathe. Be Happy.
Take time for you time and keep being successful in the process.
Be okay with answering the same question
The best way to be seen as an expert in your niche is to be the go-to person for answering any question related to the niche.
This sounds easy enough, right?
The problem with this though is that people can get easily overwhelmed by answering the same question over and over again. Some people cannot handle it altogether. Sometimes people get rude and hateful over it.
Here’s the thing though. No one is searching for the question. Instead, they’re going to you to ask because they see you as the expert that will help them with anything they need.
And that’s really the way it should be.
If you truly want to be an expert in your niche, then you need to used to answering the same question over and over again.
Instead of crying about doing it, make it something you love to do because you know you’re helping someone who might eventually become a paid customer in some capacity at some point.
You can even create a good answer and copy/paste it if applicable. There is nothing wrong with making answering the same question an easier task.
You just want to make sure you remain positive about answering these same repeated questions because people will notice it if you’re short or negative with them.
Don’t Feed the Trolls
Trolls are everywhere on the internet.
They’re on social media. They’re on forums and chat. They’re in your blog comments. They’re in your contact forms. They’re even in your town.
Trolls are among us and their purpose in life is to disrupt and cause a scene. They feed off reactions, anger, threats, and most of all, they thrive from drama within a community or around a specific individual.
Don’t feed them.
If you can block them, then block them. But make sure you ignore them and don’t respond to them. If you do respond, they win. You end up looking bad. And they have created public drama that could haunt you or keep you upset.
Being upset is a ticket to an early death. Stress kills. These trolls are trying to kill you.
Ignore them and take away their ability to have a voice in your domain.
It’s at that point when you have full control of the situation.
Have you considered a community this year?
Communities for 2025!
An online community is a channel between you and your direct target audience that social media algorithms and search engine ranking rules can’t infiltrate.
A community such as an email list, forum, or other type of self-hosted platform gives you direct access to your audience contact information meaning you don’t have to please an algorithm to get your content in front of their eyes. With a community, you can do this all on your own like it used to be in the good old days.
Communities aren’t really a thing of the past anymore, either.
Whether it’s an email list, an online discussion forum, or both – you should really consider starting a community in 2025, especially as AI takes over these algorithms and search engine optimization ranking systems.
Communities might be the best way for you to reach your customers.
What kind of community are you going to start this year?
Is AI bad?
It can be used for bad.
I think artificial intelligence can be used for exactly what we’ve seen on the Terminator movies if we allow it to become that. It might even be the doom of the entire human race if we let it get that way.
But not because of Terminators.
It’s because we will allow it to replace all the brainstorming actions we do to keep a healthy functioning mind. If we’re no longer using our brains, don’t expect our future generations to be born using their brains. We can’t let it get out of hand like that. That’s when it becomes a de-evolutional-type issue.
But for now, we should know about it. We should learn how to use it. We should also use it to help automate things such as our online projects, hustles, businesses, and brands.
But with that, we should pay close attention to what huma skills it could be replacing. Make sure you don’t lose that skill.
Use AI responsibly.
Take advantage of an ice storm warning
I’m under an ice storm warning right now.
More than a quarter ice of freezing rain and sleet will be falling where I’m at. Mix that with snow and gusty winds. Needless to say, we’re not doing anything away from the house tomorrow. The power might even go out.
It’s fine. I’ve charged up my laptop and have extra power bricks to charge it up even more if I need to.
I’m seizing the opportunity to write blog posts for my blogs and online businesses. I’ll have nothing else to do. This is the perfect opportunity to batch create blogs, social media, and stuff like that.
The message here is the next time you get an *Insert whatever disaster that keeps you home here*, take advantage of it and batch create to make your solo business practices even easier.
Hopefully, the power stays on. It’s going to be single-digit cold at night.
Be safe, folks.