How to Create The Ultimate “Social Proof” Blog In 7 Days
Marlon's Marketing Minute
How to Create The Ultimate
“Social Proof” Blog In 7 Days
January 23, 2010
9:49 am CST
Hi,
Marlon here.
Today I show you:
Title: How to Create The Ultimate “Social Proof” Blog In 7 Days
Subtitle: What I'm up to lately
I haven't really seen anyone talk about how to create and
use a blog specifically for social proof. A concept I dub
“the social proof blog.”
My pal Yanik Silver does this to the T. I'm going to show
you exactly how to lay it out in 7 days and get a very high
quality blog.
I'll illustrate with a blog I'm creating just for kicks but
may also make a little coin with if all goes well.
There are only 5 steps and by next week at this time you can have
a drop dead blog up and running!
Marlon Sanders
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C. Main Article: How to Create The Ultimate
“Social Proof” Blog In 7 Days
Subtitle: See the latest fun stuff I'm up to
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I want to talk to you about how to create an
AWESOME “social proof” blog. One that rocks.
And it'll only take 7 days — or less.
I'm not the biggest blogger in the world. But I
think they're a really great told for the right
place and time.
I'm going to give you a few secrets of creating
blogs that are totally PRO and not amateur.
And how to create a blog that wows, inspires or
does the exact job you want it to.
A lot of blogs are cookie cutters. And they're
OK for that. But let's talk about the next
level.
I call this creating a “social proof” blog, which
is an entirely different concept from a regular
blog.
A social proof blog is designed from the ground
floor up to provide social proof. And I can't
even begin to tell you how vital social proof is
in marketing.
In the old days, before the new FTC law interpretations
in the U.S. you mostly used testimonials. They're
still legal but practically castrated.
But testimonials are not and never were the goal.
The goal is SOCIAL PROOF. I don't think a law can
ever be passed against using social proof.
It's how society works. It's how the human brain
works. People look to others for validation of
whether or not something will contribute to their
survival, replication and prosperity value or not.
In other words, using social proof is a shortcut humans
use to do their research. While you could research
everything on your own, the shortcut is to take an
aggregate opinion from others.
Here's how social proof is hard wired into the human
brain.
There was a study done with pigeons (as I recall). You
had this male pigeon and some female pigeons. The females
didn't have any particular attraction to the male pigeon.
Then they put a female pigeon WITH the male and all the
other females started showing interest!
This is an actual study that was done. Who has the TIME to
conduct such research I have no idea. But it shows this isn't
JUST humans.
This social proof thing is literally hard wired not just into
the human brain but somehow in the collective genes of mankind.
So how do you use this to create a “social proof” blog?
Good question.
The idea is to put all sorts of social proof on your blog.
That social proof could be videos of people talking about
the RESULTS of your product. Or reviews of it. Or the
product in action.
Coming up with these ideas is a fundamental brainstorm
activity. I'll write sometime on how to brainstorm. A lot
of people don't know.
Anyway, I'm going to show you a blog I'm designing for FUN
and a little coin. It's a men's fashion blog where for kicks
a few friends of mine and I are going to interview women about
what they think of different men's clothes.
It sounds kinda stupid. But it's a great way to meet people
to start with. And second, I've done my research on the market
and think there's opportunity in it.
So it's a little project for fun and, yeah, I'll probably make
some bank from it also. I have a friend in Austin who is crazy
enough to do this.
And I think it'll be fun to go around the streets with a camera
and film some video. We'll see. Maybe it's a great idea or maybe
not. It sure doesn't take long to find out.
And if you have a cool idea, I'll you here how you can have it
up and running in 7 days.
1. Find your theme
The FIRST thing you need for a social proof blog is a great
theme.
There are tons of themes but I recommend you get something
really nice.
The theme I bought is from Woothemes.com. These are premium
themes that aren't real cheap. Which I LIKE because then not a
lot of people will be using them.
Look at all these stunning themes they have:
http://www.woothemes.com/
That's my affiliate link. Then click on “themes” on the menu.
And if you can't find it, go here:
http://www.woothemes.com/themes
I also like the themes over at Themeforest.com
I SHOULD be giving you an affiliate link but I'm a little lazy
this morning.
Here's a GREAT example of another wootheme blog:
http://katiefreiling.com/
That is a very well done blog using one of the Woo Themes.
Now, you do NOT have to use
Wootube has a Youtube video theme I like.
You could do video interviews with people over skype, record them
using whatever software and publish them on your blog. These could
be screen capture videos.
It's simply a test of how creative you can be.
Now, Lisa did this design in about 2 hours. And most all of that was figuring out
a few weird things on how to expand the header height.
A good designer will figure this out for you. If you don't have
one, you need outsourceplan.com (aff link).
Anyway, that brings me to step two.
2. Register your domain
I use namecheap.com for this but any service will do. In general,
it's a good idea to put your keyword in your blog title.
I didn't.
My blog is called “weeklypeacock.com“. The idea is that a male
peacock shows it's colors to attract females. This is a fact
of nature.
It's maybe a bad domain and I might should have put the keywords
in it like mensfashiontips dot whatever. Most of the good keywords
were taken.
This is a blog for fun so it isn't like I'm losing sleep over it.
3. Install your blog
Once you buy your totally rocking theme, install it.
The installation part is easy. You upload the files.
3. Get the header designed
You need a good designer for this. Plus, in this wootube thing,
you have to insert parameters in the CSS code to change the height
and width of the graphic header. Normally you do this is in the
header file. But wootube is kinda weird and Lisa had to search
for where to do it.
It took her probably 20 minutes to find the picture and do the
graphic. And it took an hour to tweak the code to expand the size
of the header.
You can hire a designer to do this for you from any of the
freelance sites like Odesk.com, elance.com or other places.
4. Set up your layout
Once you get it all installed, there will be layout options in
your menu at the left. At the left, it'll say WOOTUBE or
whatever the name of your theme is. That is where you choose
your options.
5. Create your content
On a social proof blog, this is the FUN part or the challenging
part.
What I realized after getting my blog up is that getting people
to AGREE to do the videos may not be easy! Hey, nothing is
perfect.
If it ends up being too much work, I'll skip it.
But all is not lost. This is PRACTICE for some ideas I have in
my real niche which is obviously Internet marketing. Sometimes
I like to practice on a fun project that adds a little spice.
That makes going through the learning curve easier.
For content, you could add:
* PICTURES of people in your coaching club having a blast at
meetings.
* Skype interviews
* Audio interview transcripts
* Pictures of you having fun with people at seminars you attend
* Pictures of you doing activies
Really, the only limit is your imagination.
My friend Yanik Silver has a cool, subtle social proof blog:
http://www.internetlifestyle.com/blog/
Yanik plays subtle credibility factors very well. For example,
social people and people involved in activies are viewed as
more credible. People who raise money for charitable events are
viewed as more credible. People seen with their family are seen
as more credible.
Yanik plays up all these angles.
I recently put a lot of social proof type pictures on my Facebook
and they'll eventually make it over to a social proof type blog
similar to what I'm teaching you about today.
On Facebook I have pictures of me with my friends in places all
over the world. That's good fodder for a social proof blog.
Probably I'll use a Woo Theme to create it.
As far as how I'll get the videos on the blog and all that,
I cover that in http://vblogsecrets.com/producepromote
What I wanted to show you here was a little inspiration.
I hope this gives you a few ideas about the possibilities for
your OWN blog which is the real point here.
You should be able to do this in 7 days or less.
* Installing the blog takes 20-30 minutes
* Hiring the graphic designer takes 30 minutes
* Registering the domain name takes 10 minutes
* There's not too much more to it than that
Marlon Sanders
The King of Step-By-Step Internet Marketing and
“The Ambassador of Old School Marketing”
=======================================================
Marlon Sanders helps people with hopes and dreams figure
out how to turn those into reality by selling stuff on
the Internet. http://www.marlonsanders.com
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=========================
D. Resources you can use
=========================
(If you want to post this ENTIRE ezine, you can replace the
following links with your RESELLER links. Get your links
at http://www.getyourprofits.com)
1. The Marketing Dashboard: Amazing Formula and Gimme
boiled down to icons and step-by-step. Doesn't replace AF
and Gimme but useful. Basically, it spoon feeds all the
things in AF and Gimme. http://www.getitgoing.com
2. The Marketing Diary: Me teaching Matt daily all the
details of the Amazing Formula and Gimme system. This
contains additional insights into The Amazing Formula and
Gimme that you won't find in those products. It's
literally what I taught to Matt in his first 90 days with
me. http://www.themarketingdiary.com
This is an EVERGREEN product and if you're new to this business
you'll learn tons.
3. After 8 years, thousands of customer emails, thousands of
buyers in virtually every major city in the world (and
many you haven't heard of), 13 web site designs, 4 product
designs, after ebook and CD versions, after endorsements
from major marketers the world over, after hundreds of
marketers and products have come and gone, after attacks
by the world's most notorious criminals, after attempts to
put it under, there is ONE product that remains and stands
tall. There is one product that is stable.
http://www.amazingformula.com
4. Are You Paying Over $10.00 For Hosting?
If you are, you may be getting ripped off. Design Dashboard shows
you not only the basics of doing your own design but really
walks you step by step through setting up your hosting,
autoresponders and shopping cart.
http://www.designdashboard.com
5. Promote your own products made easy
Grab the brilliant video by Adeel Chowdhry on how to mash
together stock video, stock sounds and stock music to create
an attention-grabbing, compelling video you can put on your
sales page, Facebook, Squidoo lenses, Hub Pages, or even
Twitter out to your list.
http://www.PromoDashboard.com
6. Your Own Products?
It's the only step-by-step, A to Z system not JUST for
creating info products …. but that shows you HOW to select
product ideas using my “flanking move” I've built my business
on, HOW to do 12-product surveys with an actual example, that
gives you a tested, proven email & source with a 30% success
rate in getting interviews with experts — PLUS, templates
that would cost your more than the Dashboard to have custom
created! http://www.productsdashboard.com
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