Any personal development bloggers out there? Just made a huge realization

Hey Alden,

Maybe I'm completely wrong, but I just think it's because you've not niched down enough.

Revive your life and follow your passion are both very ambiguous. It's essentially one tiny step below a general PD blog.

I think you would find much more success if you niched down even further. You might exclude some of your audience, but I think the ones who are passionate about your topic would be more likely to buy.

Hey man, yeah that's one thing too. Trying to do it too.

I find personal development to be so tricky.

But is this down to your headlines, sales copy, and promotional skills?

I don't know your niche at all, but there are freebie seekers everywhere.

What you said, about instant solutions - that's human nature and not in the least limited to your niche. If instead of pitching it as something they need, pitch it as "an almost instant solution to your problems..." If it's the same as my experiences, people react much better to being given exactly what they want or need, but expressed in the way that best matches how they want it...

[EDIT] Just looked at your site - it doesn't engage you enough.

What you're saying is too 'soft'. Better to call out the problems, then your opt-in has benefits that overcome these problems.

The site looks pretty cool - but the post headlines don't appear until you mouse over them, which if you're a lazy surfer might mean that they never get to be shown. I think I'd consider an alternative that shows the headline permanently...

Also your posts come up with solutions but don't really lead on to a product - hint, they should
You have an optin at the bottom of the post, but no strong call to action.

I think you can tweak this and make it rock...

The thing with PD is that there are very specific, little known triggers that people REALLY have in mind when they are searching for solutions to problems. They will definitely spend money, but the message to market match must be spot on. It has taken us a couple of years to really refine this down in a couple of areas...once you hit the right problem, the right desired outcome and nail your sales material along these lines, people will buy.

Jeff

Thanks guys!

Duly noted.

I really made the mistake of just writing to make "people feel good", and I thought with all that good feelings it was enough to make a sale.

specific pain points it is!

Thanks Martin. Gonna make those tweaks!

People buy what they want first and what they need (outside of food and shelter) second. As mentioned, your approach is too broad. I've looked at your site. I have a massive monitor and still, 2/3 of the screen is that picture of you. Then there's that wide nav bar up top. You need to minimize all that stuff a lot. I realize you're trying to brand yourself but that pic is way too much.

If people buy what they want first, and they do, then you have to figure out what they want. No one wants better self esteem, not consciously at least. They want the feelings that come from improved self esteem. What are those? Pride. Confidence. Money. They want to be attractive to the opposite (or same) sex. They want these things because they'll feel better having them.

That's how you sell personal development. Benefits. Benefits are almost always feelings, emotions. Tailor your presentations to give them the benefits of personal development. If you do that you don't ever have to mention self help, personal development or any other such synonym. Good luck.

I think that is the profile of most buyers in all the hot niches: make money online, lose weight, self improvement, fitness, lotteries.

You would think, logically, that people would want sane, well balanced solutions they could implement that would make a real measurable, if not dramatic difference in their lives, income or health.

But the reality is, anyone who actually has that mentality is probably already in okay, if not better, shape.

If those criteria entered, at all, in the reality of the buying decision then those prospects would have dropped out long ago having found a sane solution.

Therefore the active market must be made, primarily, of people who do not fit that sane criteria.

Hence they are desperate, looking for a quick fix, easy to sway with hyped up promises, and quick to buy over and over seeking the next "magic solution".

Market to those people. They aren't going anywhere.

EDIT: I don't mean to use "hypey" sales copy or cheapen your pitch, I just mean hit the 'desperation' hot points of the majority of the buyers in your market when you are thinking of your marketing angle.

I am in the pd niche I focus on time management and goal achievement. I have sold and given away my own ebooks but never promoted others products. I looked at your site. The layout is nice. My suggestions. Define more your audience is it twenty somethings. I am not sure you use language like sup and profanity which implies that. Not necessarily bad but may turn some off. People buy stuff for two main reasons avoid pain or pursue pleasure. I learned this from Tony Robbins. Clearly define what your product is going to do for them. Also the first page of your site needs some text and info or else people will just click on something else. Tighten the message benefits and call to action. Pm me if you want more thoughts

Nice looking site, but your optin incentive is confusing and I think trying to do too much with confidence boosting, finding passion and hinting at making money.

I'm not in your niche, but I would think boosting confidence is a great desperation niche. It could be phrased in many ways such as self-esteem, fear of [choose a fear], etc.

I think the finding your passion thing is overdone. I wouldn't sign up to anything promising to help me find my passion, but I would sign up for clear confidence-boosting freebies. That's just me.

I also think the "confidence" market opens itself to promoting tons of stuff ... public speaking, anxiety, blushing, weight loss, fitness, etc.

In 2012 I broke into a broad consumer-based niche and while I too have struggled monetizing my list (like you I avoid sledge-hammering offers and produce an informative e-newsletter), but I have found that complementary promotions work such as credit card offers (sell it in a way that resonates with your audience), dating sites (promote a dating site that targets your niche), etc.

Great looking site nevertheless.

Great thread Alden. Really glad you started this discussion. Lots of great feedback from other members.

With that being said, I have to agree. "Follow your passion" is soooo overdone and doesn't resonate with anyone .

I just did a search in google for that and there were over 317 million results. lol

Searched boosting confidence to approach women (just a small segment of your confidence theme) and that numbers drops down to 2 million and you have hit a specific audience with a specific need.

I mean, you ask ANY normal person would they like to do something they are passionate about and of course EVERYONE would say yes.

When you speak to everyone.... you speak to no one.

I don't think you need to worry about getting to narrow a topic. You can always branch out later.

What if you just targeted 20-somethings in college dealing with issue that are specific to the early years of college. Even if you wrote about JUST that for a few months, you would have a tight, PASSIONATE audience because your message would be directly for them.

Then you could branch out to talking about confidence in transitioning from college to the corporate world for a few months. Then balancing career and relationships... and so on.

Niche down first.

Branch out second.

I think you are doing it the other way around.

Blog looks good now! I like how you have changed it!