25 Lessons You Can Learn From Glen Allsopp

1. Be Willing to Explore New Ideas

In his guest post on Life Dev, Glen discussed ways you can stay creative:

If you ever get too stuck in a mindset that your way is the only way and you know everything about a topic that you need to know, then you could be missing out on some purely genius information.

This applies to many facets of blogging and earning an income. People can get stuck using one form of social media, or continue to rely on one or two main methods of monetization. You don't have to agree with the new ideas, but just be willing to test them out.

2.  Follow Other Creative People

Later in that post, Glen explored how you can learn from your idols:

If there are people you look up to in your niche, see if you can find out how they structure their days, where they get their inspiration from and what makes them ‘tick’. If they’re well known it’s likely someone has done an interview with them and asked them questions like this.

I love this tip - and it is something I do often! Before I do my interviews, I try to read up as much about the person as possible. I then ask the questions that were still remaining. Also, my case studies, taught me a LOT about how creative people work. If Glen motivates you, I highly recommend checking out his interview.

3. Use Your Real Name

In his guest post on Write To Done, he comments about how leaving your site name in the comments puts a barrier between you and the reader,

Even if you only want to use your first name, at least choose something that people can call and remember you by.

You'll do more for your personal brand by leaving your real name and providing an incentive for people to visit your site.

4. Have A Picture

Later in that post, he discusses how most popular blogs include pictures of the author.

This can really help the reader connect with you but it doesn't have to be limited to your about page. You can regularly link to your flickr account, upload images to twitpic and use your own images in your blog posts.

5. Reclaim Lost Subscribers

Glenn discusses how to get back lost subscribers in his Problogger guest post. I highly recommend you read it to get back the unverified readers.

6. People will always talk about you.

In his post on Alex Shalman, Glen said that what people say about you is none of your business. "People will talk about you unfavorably whether you are there to witness it or not."

Regardless of what you do, there are some people that will object. They might direct there criticism at you. They may discuss it in other mediums.  If you plan to become successful, you will have to  learn how to deal with criticism.

7. Not Everyone Is Ready To Hear Your Advice

Later in the post, he says that

Sometimes, no matter how positive or encouraging your advice is, people aren’t ready to hear it. Accept this and don’t see someone’s resistance to change as a reflection on you.

`I've seen so many bloggers complain about the price of something, accuse people of being scammers and completely reject solid ideas. Rather than trying to show them, simply realize that some people just aren't ready. As a blogger, your job is to be there when they are.

He gave two useful tips in his guest post on Life Optimiser

8. Plan Before You Execute - Unless you are one very efficient and productive individual, you’ll find that there are times where we sit down to do a project and then we just wander off into doing something completely different.

9. Outsource What You Can - Before you think you can’t afford outsourcing, think again. You can hire virtual assistants for as little as $3 per hour who are very capable of: If you are dealing with sensitive information, it’s probably best to have your virtual assistant or freelancer sign an NDA (Non-disclosure agreement) so that your confidential information actually stays confidential.

Both of these tips are really useful. I always have plans for my blog, and find they increase my productivity dramatically. I have never outsourced, but can definitely see its benefit. I've wasted about 30 hours trying to fix free blog themes, when I could have bought one and launched my blog sooner.

10. Promote affiliate products you believe in.

On his guest post on Caroline Middlebrooks blog, he gave some tips on ethical affiliate promotions.

• Don’t overly push it on your audience
• Don’t just pick the best paying products, pick what works
• Don’t just do it for the money, because your visitors will quickly lose faith

Two Tips on learning:

Glen gave two useful tips on learning in his Lite Mind guest post:

11. Give a Lecture. Although receiving a lecture is one of the worst ways to remember what you are being told, giving a lecture is one of the most effective. You could go into any college or university and offer to give a lecture on the topic of yoga and the many positions that are used.
12. Make a Video. Even if you don’t have your own blog or website, there are plenty of video portals such as Youtube and Metacafe that will allow you to upload your own videos for free. This will be effective as you can teach in the lecture format but know that you are instructing to a potentially worldwide audience.

You learn more when you create something. You have to process the information and try and communicate something that is easier to understand. Not only do you get the chance to learn more, but you can share your ideas rapidly and gain credibility.

13. Keep Notes of Success by Others.

In his post on Zen Habits, he said that

It’s very likely that whatever you want to achieve, someone has came along and done it before you. Who are they? How did they do it? What helped them along the way? These are questions that you need to answer, as in the answers may lie some valuable help to aid you in your own journey.

This is something I did over the past two years. An effective way of learning even more about others success is turning those notes into case studies. Quite like the one you are reading now.

If there is someone you admire, or are jealous of, keep notes about what makes them successful. Then try to find ways to emulate that success.

Two Tips from an interview

In his interview on Aboundless World, he gave two examples of what you can learn from him.

14. Secondly, I would say that I interact. This probably shouldn’t, but it really bugs me when I see successful bloggers really distance themselves from their audience. Like how Steve Pavlina says he gives auto responses to certain emails or how some bloggers don’t take the time to reply to the questions of their commenters.Your blog is only successful because of them. People matter and I try my best to respond to 100+ emails per day, messages on Twitter, Facebook and that kind of thing. It can get a little overwhelming at times, but I feel it is worth it.

15 Stay Consistent – Nothing is going to happen for you dramatically overnight. It takes consistent work to get where you want to be. I sold my blog, PluginID (which now has over 3,000 subscribers) for $1,500 when it only had 350. I wasn’t happy with the ’slow’ growth and decided to start another project. Then I realised that I’m just going to end up starting something else from scratch and that I had made a big mistake. Thankfully I was able to get the site back with a bit of bartering.

These two tips are awesome, especially the ones about interacting. This isn't necessary for success, but is very important in your early days. Over the coming weeks and months, you'll see my name pop up in guest posts all around the blogosphere. This because because of online relationships I created months, or years, ago.

Staying consistent is also very important. If you are inconsistent with your brand or your writing, you may alienate some of your following. This if fine it its a permanent shift. If not, all you are doing is working hard to create a cycle of new visitors interested in your content.

16. Be interesting

In an interview on Social Media Rockstar,  Glen said that

Something has to be interesting to go anywhere. Clients will come to us with a boring and static website and expect us to get them thousands of visitors because they’ve read about the potentials of social media somewhere online.”

There are many ways to make your content interesting. The best way is to make sure its valuable, and relevant over a large period of time. This will ensure more interest and leads in the long run.

17. Success seems largely to be a matter of hanging on after others have let go

LAter, he said that:

If you look at all the big bloggers now they’ve been consistent in what they are doing. Darren Rowse at Problogger has been writing almost daily for years and Brian at Copyblogger always makes sure there are updates from guest bloggers if he isn’t writing much. Success doesn’t happen overnight so it’s definitely about hard work and consistency

Many people, in all fields, give up early. I haven't blogged consistently for two years, but I've definitely hung on. Whether or not I'm successful remains to be seen.

18. Resubmit linkbain posts

In his post on reigniting your linkbait, he gave some tips on making it easier:

• Including social bookmarking buttons
• Removing any annoying or excessive ads
• Keeping all the content on one page
• Not trying to push something such as services on the user

You don't have to necessarily resubmit the post to social networking sites. You could simply try to draw attention to it on twitter and get others to share the content.

19. Produce Quality Content

In his post detailing how ViperChill reached 500 feed subscribers, he said that

Quality content is the main reason people subscribe to a feed and continual posting of quality information is the reason they don’t unsubscribe. Quality depends on what people want out of the content, for this site people want to know how to build traffic, what is working and how to have success online. For some sites, such as Flickrbabes it might just be finding an image that the site visitors can enjoy, know your audience and you will know what quality content is.

Poor content is one of the main reason for people unsubscribe from your feed. Your subscribers will grow if you provide consistent, useful and quality content.

20. Get an Avatar

In his post about getting blog traffic, he said that:

Your avatar should be something that stands out, is catchy and most importantly…memorable. If you sign-up on social sites and don’t fill in your details or upload an image then you are going to look like every other lazy member of that community.

One many sites, if you don't have an avatar people may assume you are a spammer and block you. You don't need a photo of yourself, although that helps. You just need something to show that you are trying to be part of the community.

21.  Interlink

Later in the post, Glen mentioned the two benefits of interlinking:

The first benefit is that you increase the inbound links to these pages and thus increase their importance in the eyes of the search engines. This can help you get more pages indexed. The second benefit is that you can keep your website visitors on your site for longer. Instead of just having them read an article and leave, you’ll find a lot of them clicking through to other sections and checking out your other content.

Excessive interlinking will piss off readers. However, you can also use it to draw attention to useful and relevant posts that may not get as much attention. The key, like with all links, is to provide value to your audience.

22. Regularly Leave Blog Comments

He also wrote about the benefits of leaving blog comments:

Blog comments are a good way to become ‘closer’ to the author of a blog, in which they might link back to one of your blog posts or simply add you as a friend in other social websites. I tend to find that the authors of small to medium size blogs will comment back on your site as well when they get the time, making yours look a bit more lively.

This is especially useful if you follow up with other forms of communication, like email and twitter. It is great for making that initial connection, while also showing your a valuable member of a community.

23. Read Relevant Books

In his post on Marc and Angel, he said that

It’s been said that you can become very knowledgeable about something just by reading 3 quality books on the subject.  Of course, it also helps if you concentrate on reading books that pertain to subjects you have an interest in.

This is another strategy I have been adopting for my blog and its proving really successful. Financially, the affiliate links don't convert as well but it does result in some marketers taking you more seriously. This can be a useful way to network with speakers and writers, and make connections that can help you learn more about social media.

24.  Take and Review Notes

Later in the post, he said that

You’ll probably find that some of your best ideas come when you are doing something completely unrelated to the idea itself.  In such cases, it’s wise to carry a small notebook or smart phone around with you so you can record your ideas on the go.

I carry a notebook and voice recorder around with me constantly. My notebook is full of post ideas, possible ebooks, guest post strategies and a heap of other stuff. I spend a lot of time on public transport getting to meetups and bushwalking locations and have gotten many of my best ideas at a train station.

25. Buy Your Domain Name

Glen expands on this topic in his post Protecting Your Personal Brand: 4 Simple Step

t although you may have not needed to use the domain for anything now, the $8 you can pay, or the multiples of that if you want the .net, .org or any more extensions is good reassurance that you have ways to protect your name if needed.

I was recently advising a friend on naming her business, and the first thing I recommended was that she picks up her domain name. Even if you are not going to brand yourself personally, it is very useful to have to make sure someone else doesn't use it.