Why Blog Anyways

Folks, obviously the income examples discussed are extraordinary. The income claims presented are not intended to serve as a guarantee of income. Instead, they're designed to give you an idea of what's possible. Success in this business requires leadership, hard work, and dedication. Since we want to help you make an informed decision, we've gone above and beyond with our income disclosure document.

If you want to see the average earnings, please visit the page at www.empowernetwork.com forward You are listening to the Empower Network Inner Circle, the best way to get your daily audio training, which is one of the eight core commitments here with Empower Network. I have the pleasure of introducing the spiky-haired Asian man who crossed 100K in a month and one of your million-dollar ring earners in Empower Network, training you today, Lawrence Tam. Hey, do you want to come over? I have a party at my house and just bring a bite to eat and if you want to bring some drinks or if you want to maybe bring a friend, come on by. Hey, my name is Lawrence Tam.

That's the natural way of inviting somebody into maybe a party or a gathering or you're basically selling an idea. Come to my house and have a party versus having a party at the office or a party over the phone or a party like literally right when you're talking to them. See that's the main issue and that's what we're going to cover on this Inner Circle call. My name is Lawrence Tam. See you've probably seen a lot of trainings inside of the Inner Circle or even inside of Empower about why we blog but I want to give you a little more of a clear understanding of how and why I blog.

If you get really good at inviting, then what actually sells a good night or a good party is the actual party itself. So I like to treat the party, the blog. It's your house. If you're throwing a house party and you have people coming over, well, you have people bring their friends to the party. See that's the difference between how some marketers market in the successful marketer's market and especially if you're using blogs to market, it just gets that much more important to have a friendly place to send people that they feel comfortable sending their friends also.

I mean think about it. Would you invite a friend to a house party if you didn't get a warm fuzzy? You felt kind of – I don't know what the word is. Let's say queasy about it like maybe the house owner doesn't have a clean house or maybe it's in a very unsavory neighborhood or maybe the owner has a history of like bringing out shotguns. If it's not a safe environment, let alone you going, you're probably not going to take your girlfriend, your boyfriend or your friends or acquaintances or co-workers to the same party just for the fact that you don't feel good about it and that's the same way some blogs are.

Some of these blog posts and blogs in general, when you go to them, they don't actually have a warm and fuzzy feeling when someone comes. Now sometimes people come and they don't know what to expect until they arrive and the problem is when they arrive, they go, wow, there's nothing of value here. There's nothing for me and see that's the key. When someone comes to a website, they're internally thinking what's in it for me. Why should I stay and why should I come back let alone why should I share this website to other people?

So if you have a blog or a blog post more specifically and it doesn't bring value, why would they come back? I've been watching these blog posts and it will literally be like five sentences and a link that says, join me now. So let's say you were very good at promotion and you were able to get people to that blog post, the promotion needs to be so good, it needs to be sold already by the time you land on the blog post. But see the average person isn't built like that let alone they don't have the skill set to sell on a pre-sale. So what does that mean is let's say you have a blog post and then let's say you're using Instagram and you're using these pictures and picture quotes and you're instructing people to learn more about you to click the link to go to your blog.

Now in Instagram, there's one link on your profile or maybe you put it on the image, you embedded it or maybe you put it into the location file. But let's just say you were able to drive traffic through Instagram because you're an Instagrammer if that's what you're called and you're getting those people to your blog. Now how much can you really say on a single image? Now you got them to take the first step which is to trust in you that whatever you're providing on the next page from Instagram moving to your blog, it's of value. Now let's say you're a fitness coach and let's say you're showing burpees like you're showing a form of burpees and it's an inspiring image and the person who's watching this is like, wow, that's really cool.

I want to learn more what that is and they click your link. If they go to your link and it's a blog post and the blog post is like 10 words that says, hey, join me now, you would have had to sold that person not on the blog but have sold them while they were on Instagram. Now depending on how well you've built your promotions and where you're promoting from, it is possible to do that where basically your blog post is just a join me now page basically. That's all it is, right? You can definitely do that but I would say 99% of the people who do this fail because the promotion wasn't strong enough or the connection between the prospect wasn't strong enough.

So by the time they went through and looked at this blog post, they go, hey, check out a burpee, additional information, click here. If the person didn't get what they were really looking for after they clicked through, they're not going to click again. They're not going to continue clicking because you're not giving enough value. A better way would be let's say you have an Instagram picture of a burpee or a push-up position and then it goes to your blog post. In your blog post, you show them six different routines on how to do push-ups, burpees, incline presses, just different ways to increase maybe your chest muscles, whatever – pecs, your pectorals, your shoulders, and you're showing these with images, with videos, with text and it's instructional like step one, step two, step three, step four, step five, step six.

The person who came from Instagram is coming from a very visual background, a very visual type of advertising and depending on how well they know you, they come to this page and they go, wow, this person must know a lot about fitness and about maybe – maybe they know a lot about CrossFit, maybe they know a lot about boot camps and physical fitness. Maybe they're a really good trainer. Now on that blog post, you have the ability to sell them. Why? You're giving them value and you're solving one of their problems.

Maybe the problem is, hey, how do you do that or maybe they're just curious and intrigued on what you do and they go, wow, that's a really awesome blog post about how to strengthen your upper body. The thing – the main thing you want to do with your blog post really is to get a lead. Now, leads do eventually lead to sales but if you can generate the lead, you then have yet another opportunity to communicate with them. See, in the landscape of marketing, you generally need about seven points of contact. You need seven exposures, seven times a person sees your message.

This is why so many big brands like Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Adidas, Nike, these banks, they're running advertisements, billboards, direct mail. They're running all these ads to get in front of you to become someone that you would trust, you're familiar with. But if you're the very first time they see you, the very first time they see you and they're like, I don't know who you are but I'm going to give you a shot and when you send them to your blog post, it's just a hot mess. There's no reason. There's no benefit.

There's no reason why they should continue clicking through. Worse yet, some of you have no next action for them. Some of you just write some stuff and then that's it and then you're expecting them to go, okay, I'll click a banner. Some might but the higher percentage of people will always click something that solves their problem. So if someone's problem is losing weight and you're building an Instagram following on how to get fit and eat healthier, then those links then click through to your blog post that talks about dieting, proper exercise and different books you're reading.

So when they come there, they're like, wow, this is really cool. I want to learn more. That's what they're telling themselves. That's what they're thinking. But then if you give them a direct course of action, go, we'll click here and I'll give you my seven steps, my seven additional steps on how to lose 10 pounds in the next two weeks without working out.

Like that person, the average person who reads that ad copy goes, okay, there are seven things for me. I get it free and it's exactly what I wanted and it's free. Oh man, I'm sold. All I have to do is give you my email. Fantastic.

You're building a rapport with that person. It's like if you're trying to be good friends with your boss and instead of trying to be friends with your boss, you just force a friendship on them in their office. Instead, you invite them to your house, throw on some good music, have some fun food, maybe drink a little bit, maybe watch a movie to break the ice and they go, what? You like Lord of the Rings? I like Lord of the Rings.

Get out of here. See, that's the rapport but you would never have known until you opened the door. See, when your first exposure comes online, no matter what social media or advertising platform, people have that stranger danger wall. Can I trust you? Once you build that trust, the stranger danger wall actually goes away, then you're no longer a stranger.

You're more like someone you might know, an acquaintance, possibly a friend on the internet. But once you bring them into the house, which is your website, your blog, that's the power of a blog. You can continue building upon that to increasing why they should know more about you. But then when you put them into a newsletter – see, the key is this. The key is getting permission to do exactly what you want them to do, which is buy from you.

But you must have permission to be able to sell to them. People don't like being sold to but they love to buy. So how do you use that for your own good? How do you use that for your business? Bring them to your house, build a relationship with them.

So your seven points of contact can come very quickly as long as you treat a relationship with them. And maybe they've only seen you through an ad or through a status update through Facebook or Twitter. When they then come back, you can then have them in your email, which then sends them to more blog posts, more videos, more social media. Maybe it's something that they look at you and go, wow, I really like what you provide. Then you can sell to them.

See the blog is about getting leads. You can sell to them depending on how well you have pre-framed or pre-sold but generally the average person isn't really good about maybe building a Facebook following. But not to say it's not possible, it's just more difficult. See the idea is if you're on Facebook and let's say you have 200 close friends and they all love you and anything that you say, they just go do. So say an example.

You're on Facebook and you say, hey, this Transformers 4 movie is freaking awesome and they go, fantastic. They all go watch it instantly. Awesome. But the same can also go for you go, hey man, I'm actually taking this supplement and this supplement is actually helping with my energy. They all see that, they instantly buy.

But no need for a lead at that point because they already love what you provide. But the average person who's expanding past their friends and family, they don't have that tight connection yet. Why? It takes time. I mean a little bit.

Think about it. Most of your friends have known you for years and you've built the trust that if you say there's a good movie out there and they trust your movie taste, they'll go watch that movie. Let's say there's a really good meal down the street at a new restaurant and you tell them, I had a really good time at that restaurant and I really liked it. You recommended it. If your past history is recommending good food, they're going to go ahead and follow you to that new restaurant.

But on the internet, it's not that easy because they're probably complete strangers to you in a different country, different time zone. So you have to build the rapport. you build it on the blog and it's easier to then take a prospect into becoming a buyer if you have them take steps. First step, having them become a lead on your blog. And so a blog can be a great lead in into sales conversions.

It's kind of like warming up your meal. If you have a frozen dinner and you want to open it up and eat it like a night hawk or a hungry man, I mean, can you imagine eating like that patty that's frozen? It's like a frozen brick. Couldn't do it. Now, if you had to, you could.

But would anyone want to? No. You heat it up. You warm it up. And that's the same thing with your prospects.

They just want to know, do you really care? Can you really help them? And if you can properly convey that in your messages with proper ad copy and just being yourself, that's where it comes in. See, why would you blog? Number one, great way to generate external traffic from other sources like Instagram, Twitter, maybe your other blogs or maybe Facebook or maybe offline.

Next thing is, it's good for lead ins into a sales process where you warm them up. And I've been describing, it's like coming to a party. They might not like you now, but once you have a couple of drinks, once you have a meal together and just start talking about anything, then there's the relationship that's being built. I mean, number three why you should blog, it's traffic. You start getting traffic.

And so back to the analogy, would a friend bring their friend to your home party or house party to hang out, maybe play some ping pong or whatever, and if they did it, would they feel safe? If they did, they would start bringing their friends. This is the same thing with bloggers. This is the same thing with you if you were to blog properly. See, someone who comes to your blog post and you had 12 different ways to raise $5,000 for your startup.

And let's say you're writing this blog and someone comes to your blog and goes, wow, that's really interesting information. That's something my buddy would like. They physically will share it on Facebook, maybe pin it on Pinterest or maybe they'll email their buddy, hey, you need to come read this. This is a really interesting article about how to raise some money. If you solve a particular problem and you write it in such a way that pleases or solidifies your relationship with somebody, they will then use their sphere of influence to connect to you.

But they only do that if they trust you. They only do that if the message and the content that you provide in your blog is valuable. So if you're just a complete spammer or you're a jerk on your blog, you probably attract jerks. I mean, let's just talk about it that way, right? And maybe you have a bunch of customers who are jerks.

So a lot of it, depending on how you target your avatar, the person you're physically talking to, those are the types of people who come in. A lot of my messages talks to parents because I'm a parent. I know how it is to become a parent, to raising kids, how expensive it is to give them a good education and to have them have a good life, a better life than you have, right? And that's just a dream most parents have, not to say all parents, but I'm targeting the parents who care about their kids. I'm not targeting the kids who do not care about their kids.

But that traffic, you then, as you dig deeper into niches, that traffic, that's when people go rabid. That's when people start to share your information because you're telling what needs to be told. You're telling their friends what they wish they could have told them about raising kids, eating properly, or maybe saving for college, one of those, right? That's the free traffic viral effect. You get other people sharing your information because they love you.

And because of that, Google sees this as an indicator of how long people stay on your website plus where people are linking to your blog, which is off-page SEO. This is the start of how you start getting additional free traffic outside of your personal sphere of influence because everyone has a personal sphere of influence. How many Facebook friends you have, how many people on your email list, how many people on your Twitter, there's only so much penetration. But when other people use their social medias, it starts to be like six degrees of Kevin Bacon. You start to branch off to other people and the reason they do it is because your content is valuable, right?

Now what else does a blog do? It actually influences and connects deeply, like I've been stating, with your prospect. Your prospect really does want to buy what you have. But there's always that bearer of, do you really want to help them and can you really help them? Like being sincere.

Would you really buy from someone on the side street and you just smell shady all over them? They are just like, hmm, this is not a person I would trust, right? Now would you buy from them? What you buy, your purchasing power, what you buy is your vote. That is your most powerful way of telling someone you trust them.

And so every person who buys from me, I tell them I appreciate them and I give them more, right? You need to have a type of business where your blog is the appetizer to the meal, right? Like, can you imagine having a meal and your appetizer is just horrible? Like, what if you're at a nice steakhouse and you know how most steakhouses, you have like a side salad, sometimes you have an appetizer and sides, right? Well, there's a steakhouse in Houston and what they do is, you know, you go and pick your steak, right?

And after you've picked your steak, you sit down and then they take your drink orders and then they go, okay, let's go and take you to the salad bar. Salad bar is excellent, right? It's excellent. But it's a really high class steakhouse. Now, can you imagine if I was to, you know, go there and you're spending like 60 bucks a head, like it's not cheap without liquor and you go to the salad bar and the salad bar is just like gross.

Let's just think about it. Let's just say it's infested with flies, it stinks, all the lettuce is wilted, the cheese is moldy, you know, the worst of the worst. Things being out, things you shouldn't eat, things that look just completely gross. When you sit down, you've basically pre-framed your meal from an awful experience on the appetizer. But that has nothing to do with the steak.

What if there was a prep chef for the salad and then there's a chef for the actual steaks? The steak chef maybe had like one of the world's best steaks but because the prep, the pre-sale is so awful, it sours the entire process and probably they either get up and leave, right? They don't wanna pay this meal, right? Or they eat the meal but it wasn't to what they would have experienced if you had made the entire buying process, the process, the journey of them going through it a little more enjoyable. Now, that's a little extreme, right?

Generally, everything's a little more on par but you know what I'm talking about. It's like going out for dinner and having drinks and then having a meal and the drinks are just horrible, right? And it's just the way it is, right? And that's the same way your prospect understands the buying experience. If what you present, right, on Facebook, it just looks spammy, what do you think their perception is of your business?

And then let's say they go and click through, do you think they have a high expectation of what you provide if you get a click through, right? But it gets worse because if your blog doesn't have value, you basically just confirm to them, wow, you really do have no value for me, I'm outta here. Now, value comes in different forms and shapes but the value you want to deliver is particularly, I'm not talking about colors or images or format, in particular is solving their problem, whatever it is. If you can solve their problem, it can be a blank white piece of paper with text, it will work. Ugly websites with good ad copy will solve your financial woes.

Why? You're solving their problems. But if you integrate with video, integrate with images, good spacing, good ad copy, on top of that, with a pretty site, maybe a nice header, it just adds to everything. It's like having flowers at the table or fresh squeezed lemonade. It's that extra thing that everyone who comes in goes, they notice.

And in today's age, with the way we can develop systems and marketing systems, especially within Power, they come in and look at this, okay, look, I don't know what to expect but depending on how they come in, you can increase your conversions depending on how you treat the front end, how you bring them into the funnel. Because if you're not selling products, it could be because the way you're bringing in people. It could be the way you're attracting people and it could be because you're fishing in the wrong fishing hole. What that means is, what if you're going after tire kickers all the time? What if you're going after people who are just extremely needy and negative?

Can you imagine having a marketing campaign and you target people who are like super aggressive, needy and skeptics? You have a lot more to warm them up. That's like a frozen TV dinner that takes a lot more time to microwave and thaw before you can enjoy the product. That person is depending on you to solve their problem but they have this big wall up. And you can definitely bring that anxiety, that fear and the actual, maybe they're just scared to depart with their money because times are tight for them, whatever it is.

And so the better you're able to convey that, and it can just be through words, maybe through a video, however way that they learn or love to connect, that's the way you need to do it. That's the way. Now, how do you do it? Make sure you have a lot of traffic sources going to your blog post. All types of social media, your email list and you just gotta have proper ad copy.

Don't be a jerk. Be the person that people wanna hang out with. Be the place that, man, this is the party to go to. Treat your blog like it's a party. Treat the blog with respect, give it some love and have a good blog post that people want to recommend to others, right?

So that's why we blog. To get leads, to be a lead into sales conversions, to get free traffic either through Google and through other people visiting your blog and influencing and connecting at a higher level. And then you'll see why I like to blog and why so many people use websites. But blogs are just easier to bring people in, to build a connection, treat it like your house, have an awesome house party, but make sure you have a party that people would wanna come back to. My name is Lawrence Tan.

I appreciate you. Make sure to attend more Inner Circle calls. You can dive in, download, stream them, listen to the ones coming up in the future, and also listen to the ones in the past. I appreciate you for being a member of the Empowered Network Inner Circle. My name's Lawrence Tan, signing off.

Peace.