Prague
8 out of 10 LinkedIn Messages I receive are from individuals who pitch their business opportunity to me.
I almost never know who these people are; the pitch is the first contact.
Facebook Messenger yields a similar percentage after I approve friend requests outside of my known network.
Every blogger has the right to pitch their opportunity. Free will exists, ya know?
I personally have no problems with anyone pitching their business.
But as a blogger I want to note this obvious red flag: if you blind pitch strangers it is time to begin building your blogging tribe now.
Tribe Free Bloggers Pitch Strangers Haphazardly
I approved a number of bloggers on LinkedIn and Facebook recently.
A collection blindly pitched me their business services.
Obviously, if each built a loyal tribe then their community would grow their service business organically. Tribes do exponentially more work than one individual pitching anyone. 10, 20 or 50 bloggers promoting one blog post to their tribes gains a wee bit more exposure than a single blogger pitching strangers all day long.
Bloggers walk different paths. Some succeed with various approaches considered less than traditional. Goodness knows that I take this route from time to time.
Yet asking a stranger to hire you wastes your time and energy to such levels that burnout inevitably follows.
Never mind the fact that most bloggers burn through:
- email handles
- social media handles
- potential partners
by pushing their business on strangers who do not know, like or trust the pitching bloggers.
Basically, when you pitch enough strangers annoyed by your brute force approach your accounts tend to get suspended based on their negative feedback. You cannot blame them; each wanted to make friends on social media. People who attempt to use you to get money are largely frowned upon as breakers of a basic social media etiquette rule; get to know someone for a bit before talking business.
I no longer feel upset at being pitched by strangers.
But I no longer read their emails.
Imagine pitching 50 people daily who never read your emails? Does that sound like an effective use of 10 hours? Do you deem this to be an effective business-building strategy?
Does it make sense to ask 100 strangers daily to hire you?
Or does it make more sense to build a blogging tribe who promotes your:
- blog
- business
- products
- services
to their large, loyal, highly-targeted readerships around the clock?
Practical Example
A few bloggers asked me to introduce myself before pitching me to join their business opportunity.
I stopped reading their messages on Facebook and LinkedIn.
Loss contact = lost opportunity.
Meanwhile, a wise blogger would:
- stop by Blogging From Paradise
- read a post
- publish a genuine comment
- promote the post on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn
to build a relationship with me.
Instead of framing me as one potential sale the humanized approach above shifts attention toward gaining my trust and befriending me.
If the blogger publishes detailed, thorough content I will likely read their latest post, submit a genuine comment and promote the post across my social media arms. I may even mention their blog on Blogging From Paradise down the road if our bond solidifies.
What Sounds Better?
What sounds better?
- a $100 one-time sale?
- a long-term relationship with a blogger who helps you, guides you, collaborates with you and positions you to drive targeted traffic and blogging business exponentially over the long haul?
Do you want to slave, strain and strive for small, one-time sales from strangers or build a real business positioning you to enjoy exponential growth over the long term?
Do you want to annoy a slew of strangers daily or make friends who love you, support you, guide you and pick you up when times are tough?
Do you want to burn out solo or collaborate and thrive?
Living for Today Versus Long Term Exponential Growth
Solo bloggers who pitch non-targeted bloggers live for today.
This crowd sees dollar signs instead of humans.
Getting enough dollars today by blindly pitching humans helps them reach daily goals.
This approach forgives tomorrow, next week, next month, next year and the next 5 years.
Does it sound wise for a business owner to squeeze as much as possible out of today without thinking forward to 24 hours from now?
Or does it sound wise for a business owner to build relationships fostering long-term, exponential blogging growth over years?
Build your tribe now.
Think long term.
Think big.
Stop thinking small.
Heed the Warning Signs
The bloggers who pitched me as an untargeted, cold prospect are blogging like employees.
None are blogging like entrepreneurs.
Entrepreneurs build passive business models to eventually sell or to simply step away from in their own time.
Pitching cold prospects to make daily sales based solely on your own steam is a job requiring your 100% active participation. What happens when you get sick today and cannot pitch strangers for 12 hours? No money, that’s what happens. What happens when you step away from the computer for any reason? Your income drops to zero because every penny you make hinges on your person pitching non-targeted people your business.
Employees get money only if they work.
Blogging entrepreneurs scale and leverage to eventually get paid around the clock through their blogging tribe.
I do not mean to be harsh but honest.
Heed the warning signs of being tribe-less.
Feeling overwhelmed, burned out and flat out flustered all indicate that it’s time to build your tribe.
No blogger succeeds solo.
Thriving bloggers build tribes to tap into the concept of teamwork through collaborations.
Lone wolf bloggers pitch strangers aimlessly.
Bloggers with tribes grow referral business by the patient, persistent support of their blogging friends.
Solo bloggers try to thrive through their singular efforts. This never works at a level of scale because connected bloggers with tribes dwarf these solo acts.
Bloggers who build tribes find that their large, loyal army of blogging friends drive highly targeted traffic to their blogs around the clock.
Imagine one blogger trying to pitch 50 bloggers every day.
Imagine 10, 20 or 30 bloggers promoting one blogger’s posts through:
- blog backlinks
- guest posts from this one blogger published by their blogging buddies
The list goes on and on in dizzying, exponentially-growing fashion when you commit fully to building a blogging tribe over the long haul.
At the end of the day, the solo blogger spent 8 hours pitching 50 untargeted strangers.
At the end of the same day, the tribe builder’s blogger friend network blasted their:
- blog posts
- blogging courses
- blogging eBooks
- blogging services
to 10,000 or 40,000 or 100,000 or more readers across a wide range of loyal blogging communities.
Would you rather pitch strangers for 8 hours today?
Or does it sound more wise to patiently make blogging friends who blitz your blog to a massive, highly-targeted group of human beings, promoting your content far and wide around the clock?
How would an entrepreneur think?
