Blogcast FM

How to Become a YouTube Rockstar with James Wedmore

Srinivas Rao — Wed, 16 May 2012 10:00:42 +0000

James Wedmore is a rockstar in the world of online video. He’s hands down the most knowledgeable person we’ve brought to to BlogcastFM to talk about YouTube. So if you have been on the fence about video, this interview will probably convince you to take the leap.

Here are some highlights from our chat:

How James Translated His Experience as a Bartender Into A Business
The Power of Consistency and Persistence
How Relationships with Influential People Can Increase Your Momentum
Finding Out What Your Core Strengths Are – And Identifying Your True Asset
The Power of Collaborating with Other People to Grow Your Business
Why You Need to Incorporate Systems Into Your Business
The Importance of Being Remarkable with Your Videos
The 3 Main Reasons People Avoid Video – And How to Overcome Them
Several Different Types of Videos that You Can Create
The Reason Video Has More Lasting Power than Other Social Media Efforts
Why Planning Your Video Marketing Efforts Will Make Them More Effective
The Power of Doing a Video Series
A Step-by-Step Guide to Optimizing Your Video
How to Incorporate a Call to Action Into Your Videos

James Wedmore is the founder of Video Traffic Academy and Reel Marketing Insider where he shares his insights and strategies on Video, Youtube and other effective online marketing strategies that help you grow your business. You can follow him on twitter @jameswedmore.

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One of our goals for 2012 is to become a top 100 show in iTunes. We can get there with your help and it will enable us to improve the how and bring on even bigger guests. So if you can, we’d be really grateful if you write us a review in iTunes.

The Return of BlogcastFM’s Very First Guest, Josh Hanagarne

Srinivas Rao — Mon, 14 May 2012 10:00:08 +0000

Today, I’m excited to bring you guys a very special episode of BlogcastFM. Josh Hanagarne was the first blogger to ever appear on my Interviews with up and coming bloggers series. A few months back, I saw that he had sold his first book and knew it would be a perfect time to bring him back on the show (his first interview in this space was back in 2010) to hear about what he’s been up to.

Here are some highlights from our most recent chat:

How Josh Was Contacted by Seth Godin After Blogging for a Few Months
The Multiple Rejections that Were Involved in Josh’s Book Deal
Why Some Simple SEO Tweaks Can Dramatically Increase Your Traffic
Leveraging Speaking Opportunities to Get Word of Mouth Marketing
Why Experimentation is Essential to the Growth of Your Blog
How Josh Got an Extremely High Advance from His Publisher
An Incredible Compliment that Came from the Head of the Publishing Company
Some Key Insights to Developing Your Voice as a Writer
How Josh Made $30,000 in Revenue from His Blog

Josh Hanagarne blogs over at World’s Strongest Librarian. He is an aspiring strongman, bookish nerd, twitchy guy with Tourette’s Syndrome, devoted family man, tearer of phonebooks, and humble librarian. Josh is a tall, thin paradox wrapped in thick glasses. You can follow him on twitter @joshhanagarne.

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Tipping Points and Building 100 Dollar Startups with Chris Guillebeau

Srinivas Rao — Wed, 09 May 2012 10:00:35 +0000

Chris Guillebeau is no stranger to success. He’s accomplished more in three years than most people do in a lifetime. A mission to embrace non-conformity has turned into a world of opportunities for Chris including book deals, visiting every country in the world, and success as an entrepreneur.

Here are some highlights from our chat:

Identifying Your Convergence Point to Tie Together All Your Interests
Why You Need to Find an Overarching Theme that Enables You to Cover Multiple Topics
The Difference Between People Who Achieve Massive Amounts of Success and Those Who Don’t
The Power of Persistence and Consistency in All Your Efforts
Why Connecting with Your Readers in Real Life Helps You to Hone Your Message
The Key Turning Points that Really Catapulted Chris’ Success to the Next Level
Why Consistent Growth is More Important than Major Growth
A Look Into the Unconventional Book Tour
The Small Army Strategy for Connecting with Readers
How to Divide Your Time Effectively by Using the Five Daily Actions
The Difference Between Writing a Book and a Blog Post
The Power and Impact of Writing a Manifesto
How to Leverage a Conversation with Your Readers to Create Products
Why the Launch of a Book is Like a Hollywood Blockbuster
The Stories of People with Successful $100 Startups
The Key Mistakes that People Make

Some people and resources mentioned in this episode include:

Chris Gillebeau writes, travels, and helps people take over the world. His site hosts The Art of Non-Conformity blog and the diary of his travel adventures in 150 countries and counting. You can follow him on twitter @chrisguillebeau.

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How Jessica Swift Evolved from an E-Course to a Published Book

Srinivas Rao — Mon, 07 May 2012 10:00:21 +0000

By now most of you know that guests from the handmade community tend to be some of our listener favorites. So after our interview with Mayi Carles, I went to her and asked her to send me a list of the handmade super stars that we haven’t had as guests on our show. At the top of that list was Jessica Swift who I’m thrilled to have as a guest on our show today.

Here are some highlights from our chat:

Why Blogspot is a Great Tool for Dabbling in Your Interests
The Key Mistakes that Jessica Made Along Her Journey
The Importance of Having a Plan for Your Blogging Journey
How to Figure Out Your Business Identity
The Phases in Every Single Blogger’s Evolution
Why Little Moments Add Up Over Time
The Reason You Shouldn’t Look at Too Many Other Successful Bloggers
Why Jessica Doesn’t Use Her Blog to Make Money
Why You Can’t Wait for Inspiration to Strike to Get Things Done
How Jessica and Michelle Started with an E-course that Eventually Turned into a Published Book
What it Takes to Find the Right People to Collaborate With
Infusing Personality into Your Marketing
How the Book Writing Process Differs from the Blogging Process

Some resources mentioned in this episode include:

Jessica Swift is a rain boot renegade, full-time artist and pattern designer, and maker of colorful things that make people happy. She design things that make people exquisitely happy – like paintings, prints, necklaces, and rainboots — for starters. You can follow her on twitter @jessicagswift.

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An Uninterview with 2010 BlogWorld Keynote Speaker Scott Stratten

Srinivas Rao — Thu, 03 May 2012 10:00:08 +0000

Originally published on August 2, 2010. Republished as a BlogcastFM Classic on May 3, 2012.

Note: This post is being highlighted as part of BlogWorld’s Speaker Appreciation Week, October 3-7, 2011. Don’t forget to check out the full list of BlogWorld LA’s 2011 speakers - and yes, Srini and Sid are *both* on it.

I want to let you guys know that if there is one interview that you listen to in its entirety from start to finish, this should be it. As you’ll hear in this interview, we’re starting a new series called the Netsetter Intrerviews based on the 50 Netsetters You Should Know About. Scott Stratten from UnMarketing is this year’s keynote speaker for Blogworld and at this time last year nobody knew who he was. If that doesn’t convince you that there’s a ton of value in this interview, here’s just a few of the highlights:

How and Why He Used Twitter for a Long Time Before Ever Starting a Blog
Some of the Most Interesting and Effective Strategies on Using Twitter
The Importance of Picking One Platform and Building a Following on That
How His Very First Blog Post Got 10,000 Readers
Why You Should Only Post When You Have Something to Say
Why He Tweeted 10,000 Times Before Ever Doing Any Self-Promotion
How Twitter Makes Live Events Much More Meaningful
The Problem with Focusing Your Relationships on the A-list
The Importance of Invoking Emotion
What Goes into Viral Videos for Brands and Individuals
How to Get Your Public Speaking Start
How He Used Twitter to Setup an Entire Book Tour
A Free E-book BuildYourFollowing.com

Scott Stratten is the president of UnMarketing. Between being ranked one of the top influencers in the world on Twitter and getting over 60 million views of client videos, he’s spent way too much time online. You can follow him on twitter @unmarketing.

If you haven’t already, check out the schedule for Blogworld to see if you might want to attend. You’ll get to hear Scott speak, and meet Sid and Srini (haven’t heard back yet if our speaking proposals were accepted, but you’ll be the first to know if we are!)

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Lisa Bedford On Tremendous Opportunities for Mom Bloggers

Srinivas Rao — Wed, 02 May 2012 10:00:48 +0000

As many of you know, one of the areas that we’ve been lacking when it comes to guests on our show is mom bloggers. Fortunately, many of our followers on twitter and the people in our circles on Google+ came to the rescue with a list of some absolutely fantastic potential guests. The very first of those recommendations was Lisa Bedford from The Survival Mom.

Here are just a few of the highlights from our conversation:

Why You Have to Find Something You Want to Write About Frequently
How to Build Your Writing Skills to Develop a Voice
Why You Need to Focus on What You Do Best
The Influx of Opportunities That Are Available in Mom Blogging
Why You Need to Speak From a Place of Authority in Your Writing
How to Leverage the Local Media to Get Attention for Your Blog
Why A Book Deal Is Just One Piece of Your Blogging Puzzle
The Role of Relationship Marketing in the Ability to Publish Your Book
Why You Should Put Together a Press Kit for Your Blog
Integrating All the Moving Parts of Your Blog for Stickiness

Some people and resources mentioned in this episode include:

The Tim Ferris Effect
The Glenn Beck Show

Lisa Bedford is a mother of two spectacular homeschooled children and wife to a busy, self-employed husband. She loves Mexican food, a slightly messy house, her big ole white Tahoe, blogging and reading good spy thrillers. You can follow her on twitter @TheSurvivalMom.

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How Danielle LaPorte is Setting the World on Fire

Srinivas Rao — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 10:00:29 +0000

Danielle LaPorte is really an icon of success in the world of blogging and business. She sets a standard with everything she does that really causes people to push their limits. She’s inspiring, pragmatic, and has always been one of my favorite guests to have on our show. So I was thrilled to have an opportunity to bring her back.

Here are some of the highlights from our conversation:

How to Explain What You Do in a Way that Makes You Feel Alive
The Key Things that Distinguish Highly Successful People from Others
A Look at How Danielle Changed Her Brand from White Hot Truth to Danielle LaPorte
How The Firestarter Sessions Evolved from a Workshop to a Book
Why the Definition of Success is Different for People
How Possibility Thinking Generates Amazing Results
Why Relationships Are Fundamental to Accomplishing Anything Big
A Very Interesting Look into How Danielle Structured Her Client Relationships
The Role that Your Gut Instinct Plays in Everything You Do
How the Intention of Your Content Shapes the Quality of It
The Key to Turning Your Free Work into Paid Work
The Strategic Intentions Behind The Firestarter Session Marketing Plan
Why Traditional and Print Media Didn’t Play a Role In This Book
The Power of Being Public with Your Goal

Some people and resources mentioned in this episode include:

Danielle LaPorte thinks feminine power and progressive commerce are revolutionary forces. She also believes in the creative power of pleasure. Danielle talks about authenticity, creativity and meaningful work, and shares her experiences from ashrams to raising venture capital. You can follow her on twitter @DanielleLaPorte.

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How April Bowles Olin Sold Out Her First Coaching Program

Srinivas Rao — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 10:00:44 +0000

You might remember April from one of our BlogcastFM classics about how we helped her take her blog from 20 to 800 page views in one day. Since many of you had asked what she was up to now, I thought it was about time we brought her back to give us an update on her story.

Here are some highlights from our most recent chat:

Different Tactics for Marketing Products and Services
Why Your Decision on How to Monetize Should Be Based on What You Enjoy Most
How April Turned Hate Mail Into One of Her most Successful Email Newsletters
Why One-On-One Conversations with Individuals Are Incredibly Valuable
How April Turned Her Videos Into Her Most Popular Posts
The Keys to Collaborating with Other Bloggers on Product Launches
Why You Have to Maintain a High Standard When It Comes to Publishing Content
How to Infuse Personality Into Your Content

Some people and resources mentioned in this episode include:

April Bowles Olin loves to learn and experiment with business concepts and then teach them in a simple way so they’re easy to understand and easy to put into practice. You can follow her on twitter @blacksburgbelle.

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No Bullsh*t Social Media with Jason Falls

Srinivas Rao — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 10:00:55 +0000

In the world of social media, Jason Falls is more or less a household name. His blog, Social Media Explorer, has been wildly successful and in this we get into to the details of No Bullsh*t Social Media.

Here are just a few of the highlights from our chat:

A Look at the the Very Early Days of Blogging
How Jason Took a Newspaper Column and Published it Online
The Ad Agency Work that Accidentally Led Jason into Social Media
The Key to Successfully Building a Business Blog
Why Attending Conferences and Meeting People in Person Makes a World of Difference
How to Create an Influencer Marketing Campaign for Your Personal Brand
How to Actively Participate in the Communities of Highly Influential People
Why It’s Good to Take an Opposing Viewpoint in Order to Create Buzz
What Separates the Good Blogs from the Average Ones
An Interesting Story About a Guy Who Makes a Fortune with an Email Newsletter
How to Refine Your Speaking Skills
The Promotion and Marketing Plan for the Book
The Difference Between Blog Content and Book Content
How to Leverage a Book to Generate Residual Income

Some people and resources mentioned in this episode include:

150 Followers is All You Need
Todd Defren
Chris Brogan
Brian Solis
Rand Fishkin
Danny Sullivan

Jason Falls is one of the leading thinkers, consultants, strategists and educators in the emerging world of social media marketing. He thinks a lot and shares it; he also claims that sometimes it’s even useful. You can follow him on twitter @JasonFalls.

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This Week in Blogging Episode 7

Srinivas Rao — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 23:42:20 +0000

This Week in Blogging Episode 7

If you haven’t been keeping up with all our projects here at the empire then you may not know about the the new show that we launched in conjunction with Amy Schmittauer (aka @schmittastic) from Savvy Sexxy Social. We’ve been plugging it mainly on our Youtube channel, but I figured it was time that we brought it over to our home base.

Here are some of the highlights

Blog to book deal is cool. But blog to TV show is a whole other level
Advertising on Facebook? Listen to what Amy has to say about it
Looking for a Mom Blogger to Watch. Check out Poshbrood

The Three Mega Niches of Online Marketing

Srinivas Rao — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 10:00:11 +0000

Originally published July 12, 2010. Republished as a BlogcastFM Classic on April 19, 2012.

I want to give you guys fair warning that this interview with Yaro is a bit longer than the typical interview we’ve done, but that’s because he packed it with so much valuable information that it could probably stand on its own as a product. Some of you may or may not know that I was an alumni of Yaro’s Blog Mastermind Program and BlogcastFM is truly a by-product of all the things I’ve learned from him. I truly consider him a mentor and was honored to get a chance to chat with him. I’ve included an affiliate link below to the Blog Mastermind Program and I encourage you to at least go and look around his site since he has some great freebies.

Here are a few of the highlights from our chat:

How a Website About Magic: The Gathering Served as Yaro’s Education
Yaro’s First Proof-Reading Business
The Smartest Thing You Can Do for Your Blog
How to Pick The Right Market and Leverage Your Strengths
The Importance and Power of Credibility
The Benefits of Long-Term Blogging
The Significant Advantages of Saturated Markets and Market Segmentation
Why Blogging Fundamentals Don’t Change
Why You Shouldn’t Be In a Hurry for Blogging Success
The Most Powerful Traffic Technique for Blogs
The Blogging Snowball
The Compounding Rule of Blogging
The 3 Mega Niches of Online Business
How Yaro Makes Thousands of Dollars off Single Blog Posts

Yaro Starak is a professional blogger who runs Entrepreneurs Journey,a website aimed at those interested in Entrepreneurship, Internet Marketing, Selling Information Online, Blogging and Personal Development. You can follow him on twitter @yarostarak.

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How Jim Kukral Makes Money Through Self Publishing

Srinivas Rao — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 10:00:31 +0000

Jim Kukral has become a poster child for successfully self publishing books over the last year. In this interview, Jim revealed some amazing insights about the publishing process and the opportunities that become available when you self publish your books.

Here are some highlights from our chat:

How Blogging Has Evolved Over the Last 12 Years
The Biggest Things that You Have to Do if You’ve Just Started
Why Your Email List is One of the Most Important Assets
The Keys to Successfully Making Money Via Your Email List
The Two Reasons that People Come to the Internet
How an Entrepreneur Became a Millionaire from His Love for Video Games
Why Trust is Essential to Successfully Selling Affiliate Products
An Amazing Story About a Successful Shoe Blogger
Key Ideas that Allow You to Monetize a Blog
How to Repurpose Content
Why Jim Has Shifted All His Book Writing to Self Publishing
How Self Publishing Opens Up a World of Unexpected Opportunities

Jim Kukral is a best-selling author and web business consultant. In that role, he has helped small businesses and large companies like FedEx, Sherwin Williams, Ernst & Young and Progressive Auto Insurance. You can follow him on twitter @JimKukral.

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Achieving Outstanding Blogging Success with the Right Topic

Srinivas Rao — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 10:00:43 +0000

Greg Ciotti is new to the blogosphere as a guy who blogs about blogging. But he’s been around longer than I realized. When I discovered Greg’s blog I was intrigued to learn that most of his blogging success had not come from Sparring Mind, but from a blog that was about electronic music. I’ve found his blog to be one of the most valuable resources in my RSS reader since I started reading it. So, I decided to interview him.

Here are some highlights from our chat:

Why There are Massive Untapped Audiences Outside of the Blogging/Making Money Online Niche
How the Blogging Knowledge Base Can Be Really Powerful in Other Niches
The Key Questions to Selecting a Good Topic for Your Blog
Multiple Examples of Massive Blogs that Are Not About Blogging
Why You Have to Really Narrow Down Your Topic
The Secrets Behind How Greg Grew a MASSIVE Facebook Fan Base
Why Networking with Early Stage Bloggers is So Valuable
The Importance of Setting Up a Dummy Blog to Play With
How to Dramatically Improve Your Blog Design With Some Simple Tweaks
Some Very Simple Tweaks to Improve Your Newsletter

Some people and resources mentioned during this episode include:

Liquid Salt Magazine
LilWayne HQ
Robb Sutton
Headway Themes
Greg’s Tutorial Design
Zen Habits

Greg Ciotti writes about actionable and practicable content marketing strategies that are backed with actual evidence. He’s not your typical blogger – he likes to blog about topics other than blogging and marketing, too. You can follow him on twitter @GregoryCiotti.

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Matt Frazier Discusses Creating Physical Products to Monetize Your Blog

Srinivas Rao — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 10:00:51 +0000

Originally published October 29, 2010. Republished as a BlogcastFM Classic on April 12, 2012.

Many of you have been asking us to diversify the guests we bring on here at BlogcastFM and we’re making an effort to do that. If you have guests that you’d like to hear from that might be in a niche we haven’t covered, please let us know. Often we just don’t know about those bloggers because they are not on our reading list, but that doesn’t mean we wouldn’t love to have them as guests. At the recommendation of many of you on twitter, I decided to interview Matt Frazier from NoMeatAthlete.

Here are some of the highlights from our chat:

How Matt Got Over 30 Comments on His Very First Blog Post
How He Monetized by Selling T-shirts with His Domain Name at Marathons
Why Making Your Goals and/or Changes Public Provides Incentive and Motivation
Why Emailing 20 of Your Closest Friends Could Have a Profound Impact
The Importance and Power of Building an Emotional Connection with Your Audience
How to Create a Physical Product that Causes People to Type Your Domain Name into a Search Engine
How Third Tribe has Impacted Matt’s Ability to Grow his Blog
How Matt Reached over 1000 Subscribers before ever writing a Guest Post
The Importance of A Powerful Headline
How to monetize Your Most Popular Search Based Post or Individual Blog Posts
Why You Should Get to Know Bloggers Outside Your Niche

Matt Frazier’s running breakthrough came when he realized he could run faster and farther with a vegetarian diet. On his blog, No Meat Athlete, he shares clean-fuel recipes and running insights gained as he trains for his first 50-mile ultramarathon. You can follow him on twitter @nomeatathlete.

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Carol Tice’s Journey from Blog to Book Deal

Srinivas Rao — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 10:00:48 +0000

Carol Tice is an extremely successful freelance writer – and she’s been at it for a long time. I was really happy to bring her back to BlogcastFM (check out her first interview) to talk about her new book. She is writing about how some of the most well-known companies today got off the ground.

Here are some of the highlights from our chat:

The Difference Between Writing a Blog Post and Writing a Book
Some Amazing LinkedIn Tips to Help You Get More Freelance Work
The Key Things that Differentiate Successful Freelancers from the Ones Who Aren’t
Lessons from Offline Business that You Can Apply to Online Business
Why You Need to Start Going to Events Outside of Your Industry
One Simple Thing that Will Dramatically Improve Every Blog Post You Write
An In-Depth Look Into the Publication and Writing Process of Carol’s New Book, How They Started
The Insane Focus Required to Be an Entrepreneur
The Role of Your Audience Size in Getting a Book Deal

Some of the people and resources mentioned in this episode include:

Pete Savage
Steve Slaunwhite
International Freelancers Academy

Carol Tice is a fun-loving, experienced freelance writer, journalist, and copywriter. Her blog is recognized as one of the Top 10 Blogs for Writers 2011. She is also Den Mother of The Freelance Writers Den. Be sure to check out her new book How They Started: How 30 Good Ideas Became Great Companies. You can follow her on twitter @TiceWrites.

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How to Create Awesome Interviews with David Garland

Srinivas Rao — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 10:00:59 +0000

David Siteman Garland is somebody I’ve always admired because he produces an absolutely kick ass interview-based show where he interviews really amazing people (sounds familiar, huh?). We had him here on BlogcastFM in the earliest days of our show and he’s done quite a bit since then.

Here are some highlights from our chat:

How to Discover the Mission Behind What You’re Doing
The Three Phrases Test for Infusing Your Personality into Your Brand
How to Develop a Unique Voice by Emulating Somebody Else
Why You can’t Appeal to Everybody if You Want to Be Successful
How to Deal with Critics and Haters
The Keys to Developing a System for Cultivating Raving Fans
Why You Should Develop a Marketing Check-List for Every Piece of Content You Produce
The Three Best Ways to Monetize a Show
Some Killer Insights on How to Find a Sponsor for Your Blog
Why David Experimented with the Types of Interviews He Did with His Blog
How David’s Interviews Resulted in a Book Deal with Wiley
The Marketing Mistakes that David Made with His Book
The Launch of David’s Product, How to Create Awesome Interviews
Why There is Plenty of Room for an Interview-Based Show

Some people and resources mentioned in this episode include:

Ali Brown
Tucker Max
Dan Schawbel
Tim Conley
Bill Gueritin

David Garland is the creator and host of The Rise To The Top, an entrepreneur, emcee, host, author, entertainer, and fitness model/spokesperson. His latest product, How to Create Awesome Interviews, offers training to help you create your own interview-based web show. You can follow him on twitter @TheRiseToTheTop.

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The Power of Unpopular with Erika Napoletano

Srinivas Rao — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 10:00:12 +0000

Erika Napoletano has one of the most original voices in the blogosphere. If you haven’t spent any time at her blog, Redhead Writing, I HIGHLY recommend you check it out. It’s witty, intelligent and insightful. In this interview Erika walks us through her journey from blog to not just one, but two book deals.

Here are some highlights from our chat:

Why Erika Took a 66% Paycut so She Could Do Work She Loves
How to Find Your Voice as a Writer
Why Erika Combined Her Business and Personal Blog
A Key Insight on Catering to the Needs of Your Audience
Why Knowing Yourself is Essential to Creating a Personal Brand
Why the Middle of The Road is Where You Get Killed
How Disagreements Cause New Conversations
A Blog Comment Policy that Creates an Amazing Community
The Difference Between Unlikeable and Unpopular
A Touching Story of How Her Book, Unpopular, Came to Be
The Marketing and Promotion Behind Erika’s Book
How to Make Your Self-Published Book Stand Out

Erika Napoletano is the Head Redhead at RHW Media. Her blog consistently strives to say what others won’t and don’t about marketing, social media, business integrity and life in general. She’s the author of two books, a columnist for Entrepreneur Magazine, was recently named by the Denver Post as one of Colorado’s top Twitter Personalities and received the 5280 Magazine Top of the Town 2011 Reader’s Choice award for Best Twitter Personality. You can follow her on twitter @RedheadWriting.

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LOOK Magazine – April 2012

David Crandall — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 02:04:59 +0000

In this month’s issue of LOOK Magazine, we expand on the platform a bit.

We still have articles from people you know and respect like Crystal Street, Mayi Carles, and Anne-Sophi Reinhardt. But we’re also including what will be a regular comic strip from Mars Dorian, a sneak peek into the life of our Private Community, and even highlighted people whose words caught our attention this past month.

Make sure to download your copy of this month’s LOOK Magazine and check it out for yourself.

Start download

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How They Grew to 100,000 Monthly Readers in a Year

Srinivas Rao — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 10:00:23 +0000

In this interview, I caught up with Ryan Nicodemus and Josh Millburn. They took their blog The Minimalists to over 100,000 readers in just under a year. In this interview you’ll get to hear about how they did it.

Here are some highlights from our chat:

What it Takes to Leave Your Day Job and Start a Business
How to Incorporate Minimalism into Your Life without Selling Everything You Own
One Simple Idea that Will Dramatically Improve Your Writing
How They Have Made 4,000-Word Blog Posts Incredibly Popular
Why You Need to be Incredibly Disciplined About Your Writing Process
The Role that Relationship Marketing Played in Guest Posts
How Josh and Ryan Successfully Published a Book
Why Josh and Ryan Did a Book Tour for Their Book

Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus write essays about minimalism and living a meaningful life with less stuff for more than 100,000 monthly readers. You can follow them on twitter @joshuamillburn and @ryan_nicodemus.

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Creating the #1 Marketing Podcast in iTunes with Derek Halpern

Srinivas Rao — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 10:00:27 +0000

Derek Halpern is probably a name you are all familiar with. His blog Social Triggers has been widely successful within a few short months. After our last interview, Derek decided to take the plunge into the world of podcasting.

Here are some highlights from our chat:

Derek’s Motivation for Launching His Podcast
How Derek Developed an Angle to Make His Podcast Unique
How He Made Social Triggers Stand Out in a Crowded Niche
Identifying a Problem that Needs to Be Solved
Why You Need to Figure out Your Secret Sauce
How to Start Implementing the Advice You Read
How Derek Drove Podcast Listeners to His Website
Why Video is a Vital Differentiation Strategy
How to Turn Your Existing Content into Video Posts
The Keys to Positioning Your Business or Product

Some resources and people mentioned in this episode include:

Derek Halpern shows people how to turn traffic into leads and sales. And if you’re not getting traffic, he shows you how to get that too. Sign up for his newsletter by going to Social Triggers, and you won’t be disappointed. Keep an eye out for his first email… it’s pure gold. You can follow him on twitter @DerekHalpern.

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How to Self Publish a Book Faster Than Ever

Srinivas Rao — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 10:00:03 +0000

Peter Armstrong and Scott Patten are an interesting duo. They’re not bloggers per se, but what they’re working on is highly relevant to bloggers. I came across their work, which was linked at another post, and ended up spending the next couple of hours on Leanpub.com. I think you’ll really find this interview fascinating.

Here are some highlights from our chat:

Significant Advantages of Publishing a Book While It’s Being Written
How to Turn Your Entire Blog into a Book with the Click of a Button
The Four Parallels Between Startups and Book Publishing
Why Publishing an In-Progress Book is a Great Way to Involve Your Audience
How the Leanpub Guys Made Writing a Book as Easy as Writing a Blog Post
How Putting a Less-Than-Perfect Book Out There Can Help You Write a Much Better Book
A Fascinating Success Story About a Leanpub Author Who is Seeing Amazing Results
The Economics of a Publishing Company
How the Guys at 37signals Made over $500,000 by Packaging the Content on Their Blog

Some resources and people mentioned in this episode include:

The Lean Publishing Manifesto
Eric Riess
Andrew Dubbner

Peter Armstrong and Scott Patten are the force behind LeanPub, a service that allows you to self-publish your book while you’re writing it and earn great royalties. They are imagining a world in which authors could actually make money writing books. You can follow them on twitter @leanpub, @peterarmstrong, or @scott_patten.

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Classic: Making Your Content Interesting with Farnoosh Brock

Srinivas Rao — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 10:00:18 +0000

Originally published November 17, 2010. Republished as a BlogcastFM Classic on March 22, 2012.

Farnoosh was one of my favorite people that I met at BlogWorld. She’s also one of the most high energy people you’ll ever meet – and you can’t help but have that energy rub off on you. I think you’ll be blown away by how eloquent she is. Somebody also labeled her the most stylish person at BlogWorld and I would have to agree.

Here are a few of the highlights from our chat:

The Multiple Blogs She Ran on Blogger
Why Farnoosh Uses Her Own Pictures for Every Single Blog Post She Writes
How the Combination of All Her Interests Together Led to the Formation of ProlificLiving
How to Find the Stories from Your Life to Make Your Content Interesting
Why You Need to Love All of Your Readers
The Importance of Seeing Your Readers as Human Beings Instead of Numbers
The Pointless Emotional Highs and Lows that Result from Checking Your Analytics
Why You Shouldn’t Rush Monetization

Farnoosh Brock blogs at Prolific Living about living a life filled with as many rich, unique, growth-inducing, humbling, health-and-wealth promoting, authentic, stupendous, and soul-enriching experiences as you can possibly create. Follow her on Twitter @prolificliving. And don’t forget to check out her awesome free BlogWorld ebook.

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From Self-Publishing to Book Deal with Mark Schaefer

Srinivas Rao — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 10:00:52 +0000

Lately, it seems like we are bringing on a series of people who are making a dent by self-publishing. Mark Schaefer and I go way back to the earliest days of BlogcastFM. I’ve been a long-term contributor to his blog GROW and since our first interview he’s accomplished quite a bit.

Here are some highlights from our chat:

Lessons from Big Brands that You Can Apply to Your Blog
Some Killer Tactics for Writing Consistently
How to Use Your Own Experiences to Create Content that Resonates with Your Audience
Why Who You Are is Your Greatest Competitive Advantage
How Self-Publishing a Book Opened Up a World of Opportunities to Mark
An In-Depth Look at the Organizational Process for Writing a Book
Why Getting Away from Your Computer is Essential to Your Creativity
The Implications of Klout for Content Creators
The Story of How Mark’s Publisher Bought the Rights to His Self-Published Book
The Impact of Social Media on Education

Some resources and people mentioned in this episode include:

Mark Schaefer has spent more than 28 years in B2B sales, marketing and new product development with global Fortune 100 companies and is a popular authority on social media marketing. He is a respected college educator, business consultant and author of the blog {grow}. You can follow him on twitter @markwschaefer

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Growing a Blog to 20,000 Subscribers with Rob Walling

Srinivas Rao — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 10:00:40 +0000

Rob Walling is a serial entrepreneur and the host of the popular podcast Startups for the Rest of Us. Over the last few years, Rob has grown his blog to almost 20,000 subscribers, published books, and been wildly successful. So, I was really thrilled when he reached out to me to be a guest on the show.

Here are some highlights from our chat:

The Hamster Wheel of the Consulting Business Model
The Entrepreneurial Mistakes that Bloggers Make
Some Great Ideas on How to Determine What Your First Product Should Be
Why You Need to Pay Very Close Attention to Questions, Comments, and More
The Hockey Stick of Blogging Growth
Why Rob Self-Published His Book and How he Made It Successful
How to Started with Building a Speaking Platform
Why Narrowing Down Your Audience Creates True Fans
The Challenges of Planning a Live Event
Why Podcasting is Still in Its infancy
The Danger of Vanity Metrics

Rob Walling has been building web applications professionally for 12 years. He’s worked as a consultant, a freelance developer, the development manager for the City of Pasadena, and a team lead for the world’s largest prepaid credit card company. You can follow him on twitter @robwalling.

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This Week in Blogging Episode 3

Srinivas Rao — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 17:48:04 +0000

For those of you haven’t caught the last 2 episodes, we recently teamed up with Amy Schmittauer from SavvySexySocial to bring you a new video based show titled This Week in Blogging. Every week we’ll be doing a quick 3-5 minute wrap up of what’s going on in the blogosphere. Give us your feedback in the comments.

Creating A Compelling Personal Brand with Francisco Rosales

Srinivas Rao — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 10:00:17 +0000

Originally published December 13, 2010. Republished as a BlogcastFM Classic on March 15, 2012.

Francisco Rosales runs the popular social media site SocialMouths and is somebody I truly consider a thought leader in the field. He’s on the Adage power 150 bloggers list, which is a group of some really heavy hitters. It’s not uncommon to see some of his content get shared over 600 times! As expected he had some great ideas to share in our chat.

Here are a few of the highlights:

How Focusing Your Efforts on Connecting with People Can Impact Your Brand
The Elements of Creating a Compelling and Effective Personal Brand
Why You’ll Never Be Perfect When You Start Out
The Importance of Taking a Leap of Faith – in Everything You Do
Why You Should be Working on Building a Group of Raving Fans
The Most Important Thing You Need to Know About Your Analytics
How to Develop Truly Strategic and Actionable Insights from Your Analytics
The Keys to Making Your Content Compelling for Your Readers
The Tremendous Importance of Learning From the Best Bloggers in the Game

Francisco Rosales is the author of SocialMouths, a blog that provides free advice on social media strategies, business blogging and online marketing in general. Behind his blog, Francisco applies his experience with major brands to work with entrepreneurs and small business on implementing online strategies, designing and developing blogs and leveraging the social web. You can follow him on twitter @socialmouths.

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Blogging and Big Brands with Danielle Smith

Srinivas Rao — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 10:00:30 +0000

I know many of you have requested that we have more mom bloggers on the show. First, let me say one of the reasons we haven’t had as many as you would like is because I’m a 33-year-old bachelor – and I simply don’t know who many of the mom bloggers are. If you know of some you think would make great guests for the show, let us know!

Fortunately, when I do find them, I find people like Danielle Smith who are really at the top of their game. Danielle is absolutely brilliant and I think you’ll love this interview.

Here are some highlights from our chat:

Having a Mission and Message Behind Your Blog – Regardless of What You’re Writing About
How to Organically Incorporate Brands into Your Content to Get Their Attention
An In-Depth Look at Working at Big Brands – Like Procter and Gamble, ConAgra, and Others
How Danielle Leveraged Her Background as a Television News Anchor to Create Killer Video Content
Amazing Opportunities that Emerged Just By Staying the Course
How to Rapidly Improve Your Video Skills – In just 10 days
Why You Need to Operate from a Place of Abundance
The Importance of Thinking About Your Next Move
Why Instagram Creates an Amazing Relationship With Your Online Presence
The Untapped Gem of Live Video
A Look Inside Danielle’s First Book that She Co-Wrote With Aliza Sherman
Insights into Getting Media Attention

Some resources and people mentioned in this episode include:

“Thank You Mom” Campaign at P&G
Jessica Knows – New Year’s Resolution Post
Words with Friends
Pinterest
Mayi Carles

Some takeaway action tips from this episode include:

Record one video each day for the next ten days
Create a Pinterest board for five things that interest you

Danielle Smith is a connector, believer in good, drinker of wine, lover of high heels, correspondent, speaker, host, author, former TV anchor, and Mom. She writes at Extraordinary Mommy. You can follow her on twitter @DanielleSmithTV.

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A Blog to Book Deal in Under a Year with Jeff Goins

Srinivas Rao — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 11:00:38 +0000

I came across Jeff Goins a few months ago when I noticed that he was growing rapidly and showing up all over the web. To top it off, all of the advice that he’s writing on his blog is rock solid.

Here are some highlights from our chat:

The 6 Years of Skill-Building that Came Prior to the Launch of Goins Writer
Essential Lessons from the Earliest Days of Blogging
The Most Important Question You Can Ask Yourself Before Publishing Each Post
The Impact that Your Design Has on Your Content
Defining the Message of Your Blog Through a Manifesto
Why You Need to Develop Your Own Writing Process
The Mix of Relationship-Marketing and Good Content Required for Blogging Success
Why Publishing Every Single Day Hurts Your Blog
How Jeff Went from Blog to Book Deal In His First Year
Why Narrowing Down Your Focus Will Result in a Larger Audience
Writing Content that Your Audience Will Disagree With

Some people and resources mentioned in this episode include:

Dave Cynkin
Ramit Sethi
Jenny Blake
Seth Godin
Poke the Box

Jeff Goins is a writer, idea guy, and difference maker. He works at Adventures In Missions, writes in his free time, and believe words matter. You can follow him on twitter @jeffgoins.

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How a Blog with 6 Readers Resulted in a Book Deal with Matthew Kimberley

Srinivas Rao — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 11:00:57 +0000

Originally published November 22, 2010. Republished as a BlogcastFM Classic on March 8, 2012.

I met Matt at BlogWorld this year and immediately took a liking to him. When he told me a few stories about his blog and the things that have happened to him over the last year, I knew that we had to have him on the podcast as a guest. I think you’ll find his story to be funny and inspirational.

Here’s some of the highlights:

6-7 Years of Failures that Didn’t Lead Anywhere
How Matt Got His Book Deal on Twitter with Just 6 Readers on His Blog
Why Matt has Started Blogs that Started and Stopped
How to Deal with a Creative Block and Turn Your Day to Day Life into Interesting Content
The Trap of Boring Corporate Blogs
Why You Should Only Focus on the 10% of Readers Who Resonate with Your Message
The Amazing Power of Your First Few Readers
The Power of Inventing Rules to Develop Authority
How He Got 100,000 Visitors from StumbleUpon
Why Matt Has Invested Substantial Amounts of Money is Efforts
How to Connect with Editors and Publishers on Twitter

Matt’s blog, How To Get A Grip is about focusing on the important stuff. It’s largely a rehashing of common sense, with a couple of practical tips for manning up and getting things done. You can follow him on twitter @mjkimberley.

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What to Expect at SXSW and the Launch of the BlogcastFM Community

Srinivas Rao — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 11:00:26 +0000

Today, we decided to a record a special episode.

We sat down with Livefyre’s (our sponsor) Director of Community and discussed what you can expect at SXSW, the redesign of BlogcastFM, and the new things you can expect from us over the next couple of months. Exciting times lay ahead. South by Southwest can be really overwhelming if you don’t plan appropriately. Jenna gave us some really great tips on how to get the most out of the conference.

Here are some highlights from our chat:

How to Take Advantage of SXSW – Even if You Don’t Have a Pass
Why the Small, Intimate Parties are the Best Opportunities
The Importance of Planning Ahead
Why You Should Sign Up for Any Party You See an Invite For
The Importance of Meeting People You Don’t Already Know
Why You Should Create a Twitter List of People You Want to Meet
How to Stay Healthy During SXSW
The Thought Process Behind the Redesign of BlogcastFM
The Launch of LOOK Magazine
The Start of Our New Video News Show with Amy Schmittauer
Some Really New and Exciting Projects You Can Expect from Us in the Next Few Months

Some resources, apps, and parties mentioned during this episode include:

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LOOK Magazine – March 2012

David Crandall — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 00:23:22 +0000

First Edition

As part of our new initiative to expand the Blogcast FM brand, this marks the first edition of our new magazine LOOK Magazine.

In our first issue we tackle some of the most current topics around blogging. From responsive web design and designing with your audience in mind, to getting 100,000 users on Buffer as well as making money with physical (yes, you read that right) products online and who is doing Pinterest right.

But enough description…chances are you’ve already skipped to the download link anyways.

Start download

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Moving the Impossible Beyond the Blog with Joel Runyon

Srinivas Rao — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 11:00:41 +0000

My buddy Joel was a guest on BlogcastFM almost a year ago (Joel Runyon Talks About Blogging for a Purpose Beyond Traffic and Money). He’s had a major transformation with his blog since we last had him on the show. We covered a bunch of areas of interest to bloggers.

Here are some highlights from out latest chat:

Why Joel Took a Major Step in Extending His Brand Beyond His Blog
How Joel Tapped into the True Community at His Blog
What it Takes to Create a T-Shirt Line for Your Blog
The Video-Based Commercials Joel Created for His T-shirt
Why “Finding a Niche” is a Lousy Approach to Blogging
The Importance of Reaching a Point Where People Disagree with the Things You Say
How Good Photos and Videos Make a Huge Impact on Your Blog
The Essential Elements of Writing a Manifesto
How Joel Leveraged SlideShare to Market His Manifesto
The Launch of Nerve Rush and a Simple Passion Project

Joel Runyon blogs at Blog of Impossible Things and is set on telling a great story with his life by doing impossible things that most people only dream of: running triathlons, travelling the world, and throwing spears (or javelins) on occasion. You can follow him on twitter @joelrunyon.

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Blogcast FM has it’s own Community!

David Crandall — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 08:31:15 +0000

Late last year we started getting requests to organize a community. We started quietly and with a dedicated team of beta testers. It quickly grew to more than a beta community! We are now offering a few spots to our larger community to join us in this intimate setting.

Wanna know more?

LOOK Magazine – March 2012

David Crandall — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 03:55:07 +0000

Just a little bit longer…

We’re excited to announce the release of our first magazine in just a few short hours. Make sure to check back with us as we prepare our pre-SXSW magazine launch!

The Importance of Knowing Your Target Audience with Ameena Falchetto

Srinivas Rao — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 11:00:12 +0000

Most of you probably remember our former guest and expat life coach John Falchetto (Why You Should Build Relationships with Competitors: Relationship Marketing with John Falchetto and John Falchetto Talks About Building Your Writing Muscle, Connecting with People, and the Life of an Expat). His wife Ameena reached out to me and told me a little bit about what she was up to, and I thought she’d be a fantastic guest for the show.

Here are some of the highlights from our chat:

A Critical Mistake About Contracts that Can Really Hurt Your Business
The Emotional Roller Coaster Ride of Entrepreneurship
Why You Want an Audience Who Either Loves You or Hates You
The Importance of Getting Specific About Your Target Audience
How Ameena Uses Facebook to Understand Her Brand
Using a Brand Visualization to Understand Your Brand and Develop a Strategy
Why You Should Constantly Be Evaluating the Progress of Your Business and Experiment
A Surprising Secret Behind How Much Time Really Successful People Spend on Social Media
Determining Whether You Want to be a Product Based Business or a Service Business

Ameena Falchetto is a straight up, brutally honest marketer who is telling it like it is. She’s changing the world one brand identity visualisation at a time. You can follow her on twitter @AmeenaFalchetto.

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How Mayi Carles Sold 5,000 Copies of Her First Product

Srinivas Rao — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 11:00:42 +0000

Mayi Carles has been a long time listener of BlogcastFM, so I was really excited when she reached out to me with such a great success story. I always enjoy guests from the handmade community because they bring some really amazing perspectives. Not only that, she has a wicked cool accent that will be like music to your ears.

Here are some highlights from our chat:

How to Overcome the Internal Resistance You Face When Following Your Calling
Why Developing a Support System of Mentors and Coaches Plays an Integral Role in Your Success
Why Your Biggest Supporters are Often Your Competitors
Tapping into Your Creative Potential
The Importance of Pushing Your Own Boundaries with Your Content
Why You Need to Create Things That Have No Purpose
How to Get Good at Creating Video Content
Why You Should Launch a Product to Learn About Your Customers
How Mayi Leveraged a Small Guinea Pig Product and Caused it to Evolve into Something Big

Some people and resources mentioned during this episode include:

Mayi Carles is an artistic inventor, organizational master, and pocket-size creative business fairy with a severe cupcake addiction. She even finds time to call her mom everyday. You can follow her on twitter @mayicarles.One of our goals for 2012 is to become a top 100 show in iTunes. We can get there with your help and it will enable us to improve the how and bring on even bigger guests. So if you can, we’d be really grateful if you write us a review in iTunes.

Building One of the Most Popular Zombie Podcasts in iTunes with Jason Cabassi

Srinivas Rao — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 11:00:36 +0000

For this episode, I decided to do something a little different.

One of my best friends used to write documentation for the iPod at Apple. About a year ago, he decided to start a podcast about his favorite TV show, the Walking Deadcast. Jason has some killer audio equipment in his studio which, unfortunately, he didn’t let me steal, but it definitely upped the audio quality. Once we have some additional funds coming in, we’ll upgrade ours as well.

Here are some highlights from our chat:

Jason’s Main Goal – Which Has Nothing to Do with Money
How Podcasting has Evolved Since its Inception
A Discussion About the Pros and Cons of a Two Person Podcast
Why You Need to Have a Genuine Interest in Your Subject
Tapping into the Audience of an Existing Property
Why You Have to ACT on Your Ideas
The Intrinsic Value of Content Creation
How Jason Creates a Relationship with His Fans
A Tip for Contacting Celebrities
How to Leverage The Comments on Your Blog to Create Content

Jason Cabassi has a long-held and vague childhood memory of teenagers stepping gingerly out of a church, creeping into the dark woods, naively believing they might be safe, only to be encircled and then engulfed by shambling rotted corpses, arms outstretched. It was on TV. You can follow him on twitter @jasonandkaren.

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How He Built a YouTube Channel with Over 200,000 Views with Tyrone Shum

Srinivas Rao — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 11:00:44 +0000

We’ve had Tyrone Shum on as a guest in the episode Tyrone Shum Discusses Outsourcing Strategies to Generate Revenue, Affiliate Marketing, and Membership Sites. One of my favorite things about talking to Tyrone is that he always provides me with actionable insights. In this episode, he gave some of absolutely fantastic tips on outsourcing elements of your blog and business.

Here are some highlights of our chat:

The Basic Things that You Can Outsource in Your Business
How to Document the Processes for Your Business
The Cost of a Full Time Virtual Assistant
A Step by Step Process for How to Outsource Your Video Content
An In-Depth View into Using Video to Generate Leads
Thinking Through an Entrepreneurial Framework
How YouTube is Shifting Focus to Channels
Tips for Figuring Out Exactly What Your Audience Wants
Why Outsourcing is Essential to Growing Your Business

Some people and resources mentioned during this episode include:

Tyrone Shum started his first internet business in 2005, working over 60 hours a week. He went out and looked for better ways to have an online business and discovered outsourcing. In 2009, he sold his business and now teaches people what he learned about outsourcing. You can follow him on twitter @tyroneshum.

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The Reality of What It Takes to be an Entrepreneur with Carol Roth

Srinivas Rao — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 11:00:44 +0000

I came across Carol when she actually interviewed David Siteman Garland on his show. A few days later, I found myself at Barnes & Noble speed reading and browsing through her book The Entrepreneur Equation, which turned you be a real wakeup call and is also an New York Times Best Seller. She’s helped companies raise over 1 billion dollars in the past 16 years. Let me just say that Carol is REALLY smart and she packed this episode with some great insights.

Here are just a few of the highlights from our chat:

How Carol’s Background Has Given Her a Solid Foundation in Business
A Deeper Look at Outward Success and Why It Might Not Always Lead Where You Think
The Role that Financial Flexibility Plays in Building Your Business
How Coaching and Mentorship Accelerated Carol’s Growth
The Popular Kid’s Blessing and The Role It Plays
Why Trusting Your Gut Instinct is Really Important in Your Career
How to Build a Valuable Skill Set that You Can Sell
The Power of Connecting Other People to Opportunities
The Biggest Reasons Businesses Fail
Why the 4-Hour Work Week and Lifestyle Design isn’t for Everybody
The Importance of Self Promotion
How Your Own Criticisms Get in Your Way
The Key Elements of Carol’s Marketing and Promotion Plan for Her Book

Carol Roth helps businesses grow and make more money. Her blog at CarolRoth.com was recently named as one of the Top 10 small business blogs online. She holds a Bachelor of Science Degree from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, where she graduated Magna Cum Laude. You can follow her on twitter @caroljsroth.

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The Essential Elements of Online Video with Grant Crowell

Srinivas Rao — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 11:00:41 +0000

I came across the work of Grant because Mari Recommended him as somebody would be a fantastic guest for the show. She was spot on. For those of you who have been considering an entry into the world of online video, this interview is a must listen. Grant is probably the most knowledgeable person we’ve had on the subject. He packed this interview with gems of advice.

Some Key Tips for Interviewing Famous People
An Inside Look at Videos that Have 100,000 Views
Why Interesting Content is Not Enough
How Being Extremely Helpful Causes Your Brand to Grow
The Importance of Infusing Personality into Your Content
A Litmus Test for How Passionate You are About What You’re Doing
How to Be More Social with Your Video Content
Why Viral Video is Not a Good Strategy for Most People

Some resources mentioned in this episode include:

Grant’s Youtube Channel- Legal Video Guys
The Old Spice Video Campaign
David Crandall’s Slideshare Presentation
Will it Blend Videos
Google video sitemap

Some takeaway action tips include:

Purchase Mari Smith’s book New Relationship Marketing.
Record some video content and watch yourself.
Do a video site map for the videos you have.
Create a page on your blog for video content.
Take your FAQ and Create Videos

Grant Crowell is an online video marketing analyst, video SEO specialist, iTunes podcast show host, video newscaster, vlogger, media expert with offbeat personality, and bad poet. You can follow him on twitter @GrantCrowell.

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How Craig Jarrow Became a Time Management Ninja

Srinivas Rao — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 11:00:56 +0000

When I came across Craig Jarrow, I was really thrilled with the notion of a blog solely focused on more effective time management, something I think everybody could use some work on. In our chat, Craig shared some great tips on blogging and even on time management.

Here are some highlights from our chat:

Why What You Think About All the Time is Key to Consistent Content Production
The Importance of Looking Inside Yourself for Your Passion
Why You Need to Just Start Writing
Using Twitter to Connect with Your Ideal Readers
The Role that Niche Traffic Plays in Your Growth
Key Tips for Interacting Across Each Platform
Making the Shift to Thinking Like an Entrepreneur
The Importance of Knowing Where to Spend Your Time

Some resources mentioned during this episode include:

Quitter by Jonathan Acuff
Todd Henry- The Accidental Creative
Going from Blogger to 6 Figure Entrepreneur
10 Things to Stop doing in Order to Get More Done
Buffer
Book Yourself Solid (@michaelport)
Gini Dietrich’s Blog

Craig Jarrow is the Time Management Ninja, helping you win the battle against wasted time, disorganization, clutter, and all other things evil. You can follow him on twitter @TMNinja.

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Relationship Marketing for Bloggers (Audio) Free Preview

Srinivas Rao — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 11:00:48 +0000

As most of you know, David and I have been working behind the scenes on a number of new projects, which we will be taking live in the next several weeks. Based on some of the feedback we received from listeners, we realized that audio-based products would make complete sense.

So, a few weeks ago I sat down and recorded an audio version of my Relationship Marketing book. Today, I wanted to release a free preview for you. One of the reasons we can provide audio at such a discounted cost is because the production is much faster, and there’s no design work involved. I hope you enjoy it.

To get the full-length version of the book, visit the BlogcastFM store.

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What It Takes to Build a Sustainable Business with Tim Conley

Srinivas Rao — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 11:00:51 +0000

Tim Conley is an interesting guy. He’s been around this world for about 14 Years and his show the Foolish Adventure is one of the best content marketing podcasts out there. Right before we hit record on this episode I was actually a guest on his show and you can listen to the episode here.

Here’s a quick summary of what Tim had to share in this interview:

Why You Should Start Selling Right from the Start
The Problem with Drinking “Kool Aid” of the Blogosphere
The Non-Glamorous Aspects of Running Your Business that Make a Difference
Connecting Your Passion with What the Market Needs
Taking Your Desire and Turning into a Skill
Finding Potential Prospects for Your Business
The Difference Between Your Audience and Your Prospects
Why Your RSS Subscriber Count is Useless
A Simple Tip to Get Email Subscribers to Respond to You Rapidly
The Importance of Taking Action Every Single Day
How Action and Results Compound Over Time
The Power of Showing up Early and Often

Tim Conley is a marketing consultant, creating marketing strategies and systems for other businesses for over 13 years. He believes the easiest and most profitable place for a person to start a business is on the Internet. You can follow her on twitter @TimConley.

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Becoming a Six-Figure Entrepreneur with Andy Fogarty

Srinivas Rao — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 11:00:33 +0000

If you’ve been a longtime listener of our show, then you might actually know Andy from his previous interview on BlogcastFM. He’s made some major changes in his business since the last time he was a guest here on our show. In this interview he walked me through the evolution he’s experienced.

Here are some highlights:

Why Andy Started a Second Blog and Returned to His Original One
When It Might Make Sense to Start a Second Site
How Clarifying Your Message Will Attract the Right Audience
A Simple Way to Conduct Experiments Without Hurting Your Core Brand
The Relationship Between Investing in Your Business and Its Success
The Importance of Connecting with the Silent Majority

Some takeaway action tips from this episode include:

Spend some time this week defining your core message.
Email people who have products and/or courses you have taken – and offer that product to your audience by splitting the commission 50-50 with anybody who buys it.
Figure out who the one person whom you could help the most would be.
Split test your email subject headlines for a week.
Take 5-7 of your old posts and set them up as your autoresponder request.
Add a question to the first email people on your list receive from you.

Some links and resources shared during this episode include:

Andy Fogarty is on a mission to transform good men into superior men and good dads into six-figure fathers. He believes superior men enjoy lives of endless wealth, love, respect, and more. You can follow him on twitter @andyfogarty.

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How to Successfully Leverage LinkedIn with Melonie Dodaro

Srinivas Rao — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 11:00:52 +0000

Melonie was recommended to me by Mari Smith as somebody whom we should have as a guest here on BlogcastFM. Prior to this she wasn’t on my radar, but after chatting with her, I can see exactly why she came so highly recommended from Mari. She had some very actionable insights in this interview.

Here are some highlights from our chat:

How the Right Coaches Can Fast Track Your Success
Social Media Mistakes People Make that Prevent Results
Some Absolutely KILLER LinkedIn Tips
What You Can do to Provide Tremendous Value to Your Customers
Finding a Balance Between Promotion and Engagement
Why Knowing Your Ideal Client Is Really Important
Essential Tips for Optimizing Your LinkedIn Profile
The Importance of Bringing in Expert Help
Why Great Content is Essential to Your Business

Some people and resources mentioned in this episode include:

Some takeaway action tips from this episode include:

Promote one of your products/services through social media (i.e. a tweet, Google+ share, etc).
Allocate some of your time this week to creation of a product that you will eventually sell
Take the relationship with one of your readers, followers, or fans off-line and schedule a Skype chat
Come up with key questions to incorporate into your copy
Send out four personalized LinkedIn invitations
Create a free report for somebody you want to connect with as a client

Melonie Dodaro does social media marketing for smart business owners. She loves fitness and travel, is a Canadian author/speaker/trainer/Rotarian who was mentored by Mari Smith. You can follow her on twitter @MelonieDodaro.

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The Growth of Kikolani with Kristi Hines

Srinivas Rao — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 11:00:13 +0000

Most of you probably already subscribe to Kristi’s blog since it’s one of the most useful social media sites online. I’ve always found her content really valuable and I was really excited to have her as a guest on the show. She’s yet another one of the great people we met up with at BlogWorld LA in November.

Here are some highlights from our chat:

How Kristi’s Blog Evolved from a Poetry Blog into a Social Media Resource
The Essential Keys that Resulted in the Growth of Kristi’s Site
How to Write Comments that are of Value on the Blogs You Read
The Impact that Your Design Has on Potential Readers
How a Passion for Your Topic Can Make or Break Your Blog
Some Really Great Insights on Google+
Why Your Mailing List is So Important
The Guest Posting Criteria for Kristi’s Blog

Kristi Hines is a freelance writer, blogger, and social media enthusiast who shares blog marketing tips. You can follow her on twitter @kikolani.

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The Importance of Multimedia Content with Tom Martin

Srinivas Rao — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 11:00:52 +0000

This was hands down one of my favorite interviews I’ve done in a while because I got so many cool new ideas for things we we could do with our iPhones. I’ve already had a blast messing around with some of these apps.

Here are some highlights from my chat with Tom:

Why Using New Technology is Important
Lessons from Big Brands that You Can Utilize
The Importance of Differentiation
How Tom Used Social Media to Alter the Brand Perception of Mardis Gras
A Look at Building Relationships with Influential People
Why Multimedia Content is Going to be the Next Iteration of Social Media
The Disconnect Between Big Brands and Bloggers

Some of the resources mentioned in this episode include:

28 Tips for Producing Content with the iPhone
How to Create Content With Your iPhone (SM examiner post)
The iTimelapse Video Tom’s 7-Year Old Son Made
BigLens
iTimelapse
iPadio

Some take-way Action Tips for you:

Respond to a comment using a video reply
Find Your Most Popular Post. Ask the people who shared or commented on it why they liked it.
Identify the Common Elements between Your Most Popular Posts
Create one piece of video content by interviewing somebody.
Take a Post That You Would Normally Write, and create a video from it.

Tom Martin of Converse Digital is a social media, digital marketing, mobile consultant and keynote speaker. He likes stiff drinks and good debates. You can follow him on twitter @TomMartin.

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The Rapid Rise of Buffer with Leo Widrich

Srinivas Rao — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 11:00:44 +0000

I kept seeing Leo’s name on twitter and I ran into him at BlogWorld. I’d been hearing so much about Buffer and I finally decided to try it out myself. After three days of using it, I immediately upgraded to the paid version – because I thought it was such an amazing app.

Here are few of the highlights from our chat:

How Guy Kawasaki Became an Advisor for Buffer
How Leo Used High Volume Guest Posting to Grow His Business
Using Buffer to Increase Engagement with Your Followers
Some Insights into the Fundraising Process
Getting Big Media Outlets to Cover Your Blog or Business

Leo Widrich is co-founder of Buffer, a new way to Tweet and share FB posts more intelligently. I also blog Twitter tips at http://blog.bufferapp.com. You can follow him on twitter @leowid.

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Content Marketing with SlideShare – The First BlogcastFM Jam Session

Srinivas Rao — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 11:00:00 +0000

We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming

Today’s episode is a break from our usual programming. After listening to user feedback, it became obvious that there is a big need for content which focuses entirely on a particular topics.

Which brings us to Jam Sessions, a brand new product line from Srini Rao and David Crandall of BlogcastFM. In each episode we will tackle a specific topic relevant to our audience and discuss what it is and why we think it is relevant as well as best practices which you can apply specifically to your situation.

This new product line will not be replacing the regularly programming of interviewing top names in the industry. However, today we wanted to introduce you to this new resource with an 8 minute preview of the first volume…

Content Marketing with SlideShare

Many of you know what SlideShare is and how it can impact your business. But for those of you wondering “Why SlideShare?”, consider this:

In less than 3 months, David has had over 150,000 views from just his top 4 presentations while his work was featured on numerous big name sites. At the time of recording, he had received hundreds of shares through Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, and LinkedIn from using this platform, again from just 4 presentations and only 147 followers on the platform. Seeing the success David had with the platform, Srini also started using it and saw fantastic results as well.

That’s a lot of commotion for just 4 pieces of content!

At just under 45 minutes, Srini and David discuss what SlideShare is, why you should be paying attention to it as a content marketer, and tips on how to use it effectively for your content.

Ok, but how much?

It’s typical for products this specific to sell for tens, if not hundreds, of dollars. While many people use this model and produce amazing content and results, we at Blogcast FM wanted to make sure that this resource would be realistically available to everyone.

So we’re selling it for 99 cents! (When we say we are dedicated to making this available to everyone, we are serious!)

So go ahead, preview the 8 minute clip of us talking about what SlideShare is and the type of impact it is making. If you like what you hear, we invite you to purchase the full episode and hear HOW we have used it and recommend others do so also.

(And yes, you read that price correct.)

Click here to purchase the full audio at 99 cents!

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Laura Belgray on The Biggest Copywriting Mistakes Bloggers Make, Killer About Pages, and Injecting Personality into Your Writing

Srinivas Rao — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 11:00:14 +0000

Originally published March 21, 2011. Republished as a BlogcastFM Classic on January 19, 2012.

I came across Laura just a few weeks back on twitter, when I put out a question about writing copy for my speaking page. Laura actually said she had been a BlogcastFM listener and when I saw what she was up to, I got her scheduled for an interview right away. I’ve been dying to get a skilled copywriter on as a guest since it was an area that I myself had tons of questions about. Laura packed this interview with some awesome insights:

The Biggest Copywriting Mistakes that Bloggers Make
The Advantages of Being “Late to the Game” in the Blogosphere
Why Research Gets You Paralyzed
How to Write A Killer About Page that Injects Your Personality
The Keys to Writing Hire Me/Sales Pages That Convert
Where Bloggers Go Wrong with Their Content
Why You Need to Read Blogs Outside of Your Niche to Improve Your Content
Why You Don’t Necessarily Need a Direction When You First Start Blogging
Looking to Your Past for Great Content Ideas

Laura Belgray is the owner of Talking Shrimp, a provider of badass copywriting, branding, creative marketing and TV promos. She’s also a restaurant-dependent New Yorker and rabid fan of mostly lowbrow TV. At Talking Shrimp, she offers 5 Free Secrets To Non-Sucky Copy, so go check it out. You can follow her on twitter @lbelgray.

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