Do you know who E Brian Rose is? He’s a keynote speaker, businessman, and author of the book Millionaire Within. He’s also the guy who founded JVZoo.
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I didn’t know that until a week ago when I came upon a story about him on Huffington Post. In the story, he talks about how he was able to get a lot of buzz about the company via social media. In essence he created a storm. I’m almost hesitant to talk about him or his company because I’m still getting tons of spam emails every day from unknown people who are still spreading his business’ name all over the place.
Anyway, he’s known for one particular quote: “You don’t get famous by being the best in your field. Fame comes by being the best marketer in your field.” And he followed me on Twitter.
I’m not close to being the best marketer in my field… any of them. I’ve been working for 10 years on getting my name out there, hoping to be recognized as one of the best in… well, whatever. I want to be known as a top 50 “whatever” in more than one field. I’m already on one list as a top 50 leadership blogger for Mitch’s Blog, which is pretty cool. However, that’s the only leadership list I’m on; I want more.
I’m not on any blogging lists. I know that some of that has to do with the fact that I haven’t really marketed myself or this blog all that well. Some of it is that I haven’t made a lot of money blogging, and that’s a major criteria. I would say that some of it has to do with the fact that this blog isn’t ranked higher than it is, but when this blog was ranked really high I still never made any blogging lists.
In the last year, once I started my marketing push on Twitter, I started garnering a lot more attention there. I was being added to lots of lists and having a lot of my content shared. That was pretty cool… but no lists. I’ve been added to lists for social media, finance, health care as well as leadership… but only the one list to date.
What’s the deal about being on lists? Back in 2010 I wrote a series of posts on the topic of influence. I wrote that “influence is the power to make an effect of some kind.” I talked about how influence allows you the opportunity to also make more money, which in pretty influential in and of itself. I did a video on the topic also:
https://youtu.be/mH02Z4OQxng
Remember the first post of the year being on the topic of focus? My #5 point was to “figure out what I consider is really important, and spend more time on that.” I’m of the opinion that one of the things that would help me a great deal is to become more of a name on people’s lips, as well as in their minds. I don’t want to sit in the shadows if you will; I want to be famous! 🙂
What are the issues? Let’s name them:
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1. My name is also the name of someone else who was famous.
One would think that a drummer who hadn’t done anything in decades and is now deceased would dwindle a bit in notoriety. Nope; he’s still killing me in search engines, no matter what I do. At least I’m in the top 25… right at #25, and only because of my Google Plus page. Throw that out and I’m at #40. I ain’t got nothin’ on Holly Jahangiri, who corners the market with her name. lol
2. I’m not great at marketing.
That’s not exactly true. I’m not comfortable with it. I’m getting good at Twitter but everywhere else… nope, not working all that well, although last week one of my videos, the one comparing Time Warner and Verizon FiOS, finally hit 10,000 views; that’s incredible! However, other than another video I did fussing about Verizon, I haven’t had another video on that channel hit 500 views, not even the one my friend Scott probably didn’t see talking about my background. I do have 3 videos on my business channel that have more than a thousand views, with 6 of the 7 being health care related. It’s a start right?
3. Blog writing is a background process.
I’ve said that I have over 5,000 articles online, which is true. The other side of that is my name isn’t on a lot of them. My name is in a lot of other places though, including one I’d totally forgotten about and really need to slap myself on because I never remembered it to go back & comment on it, from 2011. I have to thank Arlee Bird for the opportunity; what a moron I was for missing it!
4. I rarely ask anyone to share my content.
You know what? I wrote all that other stuff to get to this one. Do you know the last time I asked anyone to share my blog posts? Turns out it was November 2010; are you kidding me? Do you know the last time I asked anyone to share my videos? Never!
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You know that thing above, #2, where I talked about not being great at marketing? Sometimes we have this assumption that people are going to do something just because we’ve put it out.
I used to assume that if people stopped by to read articles on my blogs that they would all comment; learned that one wasn’t true quickly. Last week’s post about lots of blog content has almost thrown out another belief I had that might not be true.
Do you know a guy on YouTube who calls his channel Daym Drops? He does food reviews from his car; yup, you got that right. He’s also very popular and has gotten so big that he’s been on Rachael Ray’s TV show, had his own TV show in 2014, and recently was mentioned on CNN; how’s that for growth? I mention him because at the end of every video he does he asked people to comment on his video, either like or dislike, and to share his videos. He’s not alone in doing this either.
As much as we hate marketing, if we want to get anywhere in this world it’s going to take marketing. You want a better job; market yourself. You want a raise; market yourself. You want to start your own business selling either services or products; market yourself. You want to be better known… you get the point.
For my main career, I need to do some things I’ve not been comfortable with. For my “secondary” businesses, I need to do the same thing. On this front though, a big part of it involves asking you, the reader, the content sharer, the potential “100 true fan” if you wouldn’t mind sharing some of my content here and there if you read it and agree with it. I’m not even going to ask you to comment on it, although I really wish you would.
By this time next year, I want to appear on some top 50 blogging lists. It’s one of the things I’m going to focus on; I think it’s really that important. If not this year then the next; hey, why not me right?
There you go; I’ve asked. Now let’s see if it takes me another 5 years to ask again. 😉
Hey Mitch,
It’s understandable that how much a blogger with almost 10 years of experience have to become fame in the society.
It’s not that much simple but I just love your perseverance.
I’m pretty sure that you are on top 50 among the bloggers who post articles very often. 🙂
Anyway, Good luck to you and waiting to see you on top 50 of anything.
Thanks Thyrone. I figure that I have to put it out there into the universe to have a shot at getting there… I’m not afraid 🙂
Thanks for sharing…! That’s a nice and brutally interesting article for blogger.
Honestly, I’ve been blogging since 2009 but I never expect to be listed on that….
You know..? I’m the same to you…, I ain’t great at marketing my blog and myself. Moreover, I’m a negligent blogger…
I’m sure, this article is helpful to me. I feel like motivated to be better..
I think that I may not plan to list this year, but the other years..
Thanks..
I wish you good luck on the venture Kimsea. Heck, who says we can’t all end up being considered as top 50 bloggers? 😉
Reckon you have to change your name Mitch. At least I appear about 6 times in the first page of Google. Hows that for fame 😀
As for sharing posts, man, I always ask people to share my stuff at the end of my posts, and do they. Nope. Reckon they’re just not good enough my man.
Never mind Mitch, you keep slugging mate because I don’t know anyone more determined than you.
As for me, I reckon I’ll get famous when I win the lottery 😉
Hey, after myself and my wife I was pulling for you to win 🙂 Actually, you ask people to share your joke posts, but I don’t see you asking them to share your other post… like your latest one. You also didn’t ask anyone to share your Powerball post, although I think I shared that one. Just sayin’… (cough)
OK, let me rephrase that, I only ask people to share posts that I feel was worth sharing. Like my joke posts and my Hot Babes posts 😉
Yeah, that’s what I thought you’d say. lol
Fame favors the — wait, that’s fortune. Oh, well. I’m out of ideas. LOL I’m not surprised your Verizon vid hit 10K: it’s proof that SEO is all about what people are looking for.
Good luck getting into the top 50 lists!
Cheers,
Mitch
Thanks Mitch. You’re right, I guess that is what SEO is all about… it’s still strange though.
You’ve got so much going on that it’s no wonder you forgot to respond on the guest post you did on my blog. And actually you did leave one comment in that thread.
I understand the dilemma of names in common with others. That’s why I opted for the silly pseudonym “Arlee Bird” instead of my real name and variations thereof because there are thousands of others sharing my birth name and they can be found in a Google search as famous musicians, authors, educators, and others as well as notorious criminals.
Influence requires time, effort, diligence, persistence, and a bit of happenstance. It’s a full time job. I don’t even have a regular “go to the workplace” type of job and still I can’t find enough time in my days to work at influence and marketing and such. But I’m not organized like I should be I guess.
You’re doing a great job in my view. Keep up that great work, Mitch.
Arlee
Thanks Arlee. I think I just left that comment the other day… unless I’m going totally bonkers & missed my own comment there. lol Still, I feel bad because you know I like responding back to people. I don’t have a regular job either yet I’m always running out of time… especially these days with having to shovel snow and such. Still, it’s another commitment I’m making to myself for 2016.
There was an earlier comment that you left at the time of the post and that’s the one to which I refer.
I’ve got dishes and housework and such, but thankfully no snow to shovel. Be careful! You know what they say about heart attacks and shoveling snow.
Only heavy wet snow, and only if you try pushing too much at once. I shovel often so I keep it pretty low… except the other day when it dropped 5 inches on us overnight.
I wiss, you will be surely. As you have mentioned about a same name drummer guy, I searched up with your name “Mitch Mitchell” and I found that drummer is really famous than you. But in my mind you are the person who takes their time to publish the solid, digestible, honest opnions and contents to produce valuable knowledge and thoughts among peoples. So as for me you are in the list of top 10. I hope and belief you can/will. So good luck with your aim of being a fame blogger.
Thanks Uttam. Yeah, he’s hard to beat but I have my niches here and there where I outshine him. Still, I want to start showing up on top 25 & top 50 blogger lists, so I’m making my push this year. 🙂
Okay, you are right about not asking people to comment and consequently not getting many. I was surprised to see my name on your top commenters list post that you did. And I left what, six comments last year?
Actually Rasheed, if you read that post I said y’all were the people who left at least 10 comments on the blog. Man, I write all these words that no one reads… and then I forget to ask people to like and share… lol
Well Mitch, if you haven’t really marketed myself then how do you expect to be mentioned everywhere!
I know you said you aren’t that comfortable with it but you have to get outside your comfort zone if you intend to get anywhere online. Sounds to me like this is going to have to be an area you’re going to have to excel in. Study it, do it and you’ll do great.
I know there are a lot of things you don’t like doing online. I think you have to take a step back, reevaluate everything and then take the best course of action. 10 years is a LONG time to still be at the same place. You just have to get out of your own way my friend.
I have faith in you and I also know that if you want this bad enough you’ll do it. No more excuses!
Go get em Mitch!
~Adrienne
P.S. Oh and I share your content…
Adrienne, 2016 is going to be the year. Actually, I did start last year via Twitter and somewhat on LinkedIn. This year I’m stepping up LinkedIn by being more direct instead of just posting articles, and Twitter… well, it is what it is. There will always be aspects of marketing that I’m going to hate, and you’re not far behind me on that one as neither of us use popups on our sites.
It’s all going to depend on if I can keep up my focus, which I talked about in my first post of the year. So far, when I’ve been able to focus I’ve done some interesting things, a few outside of my norm. That’s going to be the most important thing overall… well, that and hopefully getting more sleep, the part that’s failing so far. But I never give up.
And thanks for sharing; we both share each other’s stuff! 😉