7 Secrets to Avoid the A-List
And Still Rake in Tons of Cash
Written by Alice Seba
If there’s one theme that I hope is clear at Contentrix, it’s the fact that you can always do MORE with less. You don’t need a huge list to start making money. You don’t have to blog every single day. We’ve also talked about fame vs. money and how they don’t have to go together. I know a lot of people appreciated that fame vs. money post, so I thought we could come up with some kind of action plan today.
This year marks my 9th year of online business. I’ve met a lot of people, seen a lot and experienced a lot in that time. And if you’ve known me for a little while, you know that I started my online career of with a bang and grew a very nice large audience for myself…and since then, I have reinvented my business a few times over to get the peace and satisfaction I need…personally and financially.
It has been one amazing, eye-opening journey…
I have spent a lot of careful time shaping and reshaping my audience into the ideal fit. And because you’re reading this, I want to say thank you for being the ideal fit. It’s people like you that make this worthwhile and bring me such joy and satisfaction from the work I do. But I’d like to say that I planned it all along that you’d be here. 
Which brings me to the main point of all this…
How can we all, once and for all forget the need to be popular…to keep up appearances, just so we can appear successful? To me success is bringing my message to people who really want to hear that message and can truly use it in heir lives. It also means sharing with like-minded people who may not always agree with what I say, but with whom I can exchange ideas and learn from.
And of course, success also means earning the living you’d hoped for, without making your life’s work into your life sentence.
7 Ways to Stay on Track with Your Goals
1. Know what you want to achieve personally and financially. Adapt to achieve your goals, but don’t veer because of what you think others want you to be. Of course, your goals may change, but again, make sure it comes from you and what you really want.
2. Value your time. If you find yourself feeling obligated to do extra stuff, helping people for free and it’s taking away from your reaching your goals, you are not valuing your time. And no, you don’t need to be a doormat in your early years to make it big in later years. If you are a doormat today, your audience will continue to expect you to be one in the future. Instead, attract an audience that values your time as much as you do.
3. Realize many of your best customers will never comment on your blog, tweet or “Like” you. I would estimate that I have never “socialized” with over 90% of my regular customers, even though I am available to them on the blog, Twitter, Facebook and elsewhere. The take away here is that if you think tons of blog comments, etc. are critical for you to start getting customers, I’d encourage you to alter those thoughts. Life is much easier when you aren’t sweating those details.
4. As a general rule…conversion over popularity. Now I don’t promote conversion at all costs because that’s just sleazy. What I mean is to keep working to convert your ideal prospects into customers and selling to your customers over and over again.
5. Keep it targeted. Whether you are building your list, promoting your website, keep your focus on your ideal customer. Trying to capture a wider audience for the sake of popularity and having a “busy” site will only serve to make you busier and increase the difficulty of marketing appropriately to your true target audience.
6. Test, track and improve. Know your numbers and work continually toward improvement. When you’re just getting started, it’s perfectly acceptable and a good idea to just put things out there to see what sticks, but you have to take what you learned from that and improve. If you just sit and wait, figuring all it takes is a bigger audience, you’re making things harder than they have to be.
7. Grow your mailing list. According to the Direct Marketing Association, email marketing produced an ROI of $43.62 for each dollar spent in 2009. Email is still the bomb and don’t abandon it for seemingly greener pastures. That is not to say that everything else is a waste of time. Just make sure you are working to actively grow your list at all times.
In short, if you stay focused, you’re going to get to exactly where you want to be. Know your goals, get to know your idea customer and work constantly toward improvement.
More Lessons in Doing More with Less
You don’t have to be an Internet rockstar to live your own personal rockstar life. All you need to do is connect with your ideal customer, get their attention and deliver what they need. And it’s easier than it sounds. Really!
That’s exactly what you’ll learn in the Contententrix Better Content Marketing course, where our focus is on helping you get more RESULTS from your content without so much work. We are still open to new students and would love to have you join us.
It’s a 19-week course filled with hands-on practical advice and applications for your online business. You can even ask questions the whole way through and get answers, feedback and more.
Look forward to seeing you there!
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Everybody says "Content is King", but what does that mean for you? 
Sharon says:
As usual, I so appreciate your straight forward, interesting and useful posts which appeal to those of us looking for credible voices and useful resources.
I like the fact that you “planned” for me to be here (good marketing) – more proof that you practice what you preach and what you preach works!
Alice Seba says:
I knew you’d say that, Sharon. Hehehehe. Seriously, thank you for your thoughts. Much appreciated.
MaAnna says:
Could not agree more with this post. Most of my clients come by word of mouth. I do a recap of my post links and tips in my weekly newsletter and that’ the way most of my clients “follow me” so to speak. Most don’t follow or make comments on my social media or blog posts. So, my online popularity nu,bers aren’t as high as others, but I certainly enjoy a steady stream of clients, most all of whom I have long term interaction with. When folks find their geek buddy, they tend to hang on to them
Alice Seba says:
Exactly and well said!
Regina says:
All 7 points slapped me in my face, LOL! These are things I know to be true but have slacked in every area – ugh! BUT, as time goes by, and learning from your instructions, things are picking up. Yay! Thanks for keeping it real the way you do, I’ve learned a lot from you… now to focus on conversion over popularity – cause that popularity thing doesn’t pay the bills
Alice Seba says:
I’m glad, Regina. I know you can reachbyour goals!
Natasha says:
I’m a new fan but am loving your posts!! Thank you!
Alice Seba says:
Thank you, Natasha and welcome!
Yvonne A Jones says:
Thanks to Sharon for sharing this post and I’m glad I did not miss reading it. Alice, you covered a lot in a calm, no-nonsense way that really reached my heart. I’m not a social butterfly. I’m all about building relationships and when everyone tells you you have to be visible all the time on the social networks it can be challenging. They do have their benefits, I agree, but point #3 resonates with me.
A really great post. Thank you.
Alice Seba says:
I am glad Sharon shared it too. I think the best thing is to be available where it fits you and what you hope to accomplish. For me, that means most of my connection time is by email or my own website.
Dennis Edell | Direct Sales Markrting says:
I’d say this is great advice for when you reach the middle. In the very beginning, you need to foster those relationships and comments are a great way to do that.
Alice Seba says:
For me, I think it’s misplaced effort and energy. I’d work on growing a list more than worrying who’s commenting on a blog post. Email can the power of connection, even when it is one-sided. Plus, those subscribers will turn into people who will comment on your blog.
Jeff Jones says:
Alice,
I’ve made the leap and signed up for your course. I’m already impressed with your ability to reduce things to their essential elements and especially like learning how to focus on what’s important.
That rockstar mindset is still taught in way too many places.
Jeff
Alice Seba says:
Wonderful Jeff. Glad you joined us and look forward to working with you.
Janis Miller says:
“… success also means earning the living you’d hoped for, without making your life’s work into your life sentence.”
I connected with the title of this article, but the sentence above really touched me.
Great content, thanks, Alice. Hope you don’t mind if I quote you. (full credit to you, of course)
Janis
hmmm… is this the same for everyone? my “anti-spam” word is “connect” LOL
Alice Seba says:
Hi Janice…thank you so much. Of course, you may quote!
Patty Gale says:
Great post! Alice, you and I have been online for about the same length of time. I, too, have reinvented myself a few times over the years and most appreciate your comment about it being an eye-opening journey.
I admit, in those early years I thought that popularity was going to help my success. Actually, I thought popularity was SUPPOSED to help my success. Then I realized that I quit that game back in high school and didn’t want to play it in my business.
#6, Testing and Tracking is something that I definitely need to be more consistent with.
Alice Seba says:
Thanks for sharing, Patty. I really appreciate it.
I couldn’t handle the popularity game in high school either. Seemed like too much work!