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My Rant On Someone Else’s Rant About Bloggers

John Hoff — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 04:00:02 +0000

So the other day I was surfing the web and came across a blogger’s site which made me stop and read for a minute. The headline read something like, “Stop Fucking Writing the Same Shit”.

Okay, I’ve been online for quite a while now and blogging for about three years and without reading any further, I already knew what this post was going to be about. Ironically, that post itself was a post similar to three or four other posts I’ve read before, but those were put in a much more elegant way… and I’m sure if you’ve been blogging for awhile, you probably know what this article was about as well.

In case you’re new to blogging though, let me explain.

Every now and then you’re going to come across some seasoned blogger’s blog and see an article telling you the following things:

Everything that needs to be said has already been said online
Stop writing what everyone else has already blogged about
Why don’t you come up with your own ideas once-in-a-while for an original blog article
I hate blogs about blogging tips–there are 10 billion blogs out there about it already (same for making money online blogs)

…you get the idea.

Aside from the more seasoned and successful bloggers being extremely limited on time because they are busy making money online, realize that one of the reasons why they typically won’t stop by and comment on your blog is because chances are if you blog about blogging tips, they are way ahead of you in that game.

But I’m here to tell you that it’s okay. If you want to blog about making money online or blogging tips, then blog about it.

Let me tell you, in my 35 years of life on this Earth, I’ve learned a few things. Such things as:

Follow your heart, but be mindful of the logic in your brain
It’s impossible to keep everyone happy, especially if you’re trying to make money
People don’t always know what’s best for you
To be successful, you need to discover your true self and build from there

If you’re blogging about blogging tips, these seasoned bloggers aren’t going to be your target readers anyway.

I’m not saying what they are saying doesn’t have merit, because it does to some degree. Unless you’re coming up with something really unique, then many of these bloggers are just going to skip you by and read someone else’s blog.

But so help me if you don’t write an article on using banner ads on your blog simply because blogger A tells you not to.

New Blogger’s Game Plan

The first thing you need to understand is that unless you’re writing on a very rare subject, like Keeping a Healthy Bearded Dragon, it almost doesn’t matter what you blog about, somewhere online someone has probably already hit on the subject and the only way you can “be different” is by mixing your own experiences into it.

Also, realize that you’re not going to make everyone happy, so brush that off your shoulder right now. In fact, I can’t think of anything really that will make everyone happy.

Here’s the secret ingredient for being successful online. Are you ready for it? Okay, here it comes…

The secret ingredient is, good research and planning.

Yes there’s more to it than that, but without that… that “secret ingredient”, you will work really really hard and probably get somewhere really really slow. It’s only after you’ve done your due diligence in researching your target market that you can move on to pissing off the people I mentioned above and moving on to being a success.

Good research and planning might include:

Clearly defining your goals
Getting a clear understanding of who your target blog readers (and customers) are going to be
What your blog is going to be about (create a quick elevator pitch)
Researching forums and taking a look at the kinds of questions and concerns your target readers are asking
Going to Amazon.com and searching for best selling books in your target market. Look at the Table of Contents and be sure to hit on those topics on your blog
Using the Google Keyword Tool to see what kinds of things your target market are searching for

The list goes on, but I think you get my point.

To be successful online, it takes having a good attitude, planning, strategy, heart, tools of the trade, and execution. I’m sure there’s some A-list blogger out there who has a better list, but that’s mine.

So to those bloggers who tell new bloggers, “Stop F’n writing the same shit”, I say to them, “Stop F’n telling people what to do with their lives”.

Okay… so there’s my rant for the day.

Fatten Up Your Wallet by Using Online Videos

John Hoff — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 04:00:58 +0000

I’d like to thank the Shoemoney Newsletter for bringing this site to my attention, and I loved it so much I wanted to share it with all of you.

Andy Jenkins (a.k.a. The Video Boss) is releasing a set of videos showing us how we can use video to increase sales and conversions on our sites. I have to say, this video series is freaking awesome and well worth your time.

In the videos he shows us which camera to use, which programs he uses to create video slides, how the video’s message should be focused, and so much more.

If you sell products or services online, this is a must see video series. I definitely plan on following his advice and will be working on perfecting my video skills for our WordPress video tutorials site.

Andy does ask for your email address before you can watch the videos, f.y.i. But if you’re like me, you have a special email address for subscriptions so as to not clog up your primary email address.

Here’s the link to the tutorials (not an affiliate link): The Video Boss.

John’s Top 5 Crash and Burn Blogger Mistakes Which Keep You Poor

John Hoff — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 20:14:59 +0000

I’ve been blogging for a number of years now and I have:

made money
lost money
broke even
posted articles regularly / not-so-regularly
changed my blog design
changed my blog’s web address

… you get the idea (been there done that).

Aside from being obnoxious and rude to people, here are my top 5 blogging mistakes new bloggers might make which can slow the growth of their blog and pocketbooks.

1. Domains and Hosting

After deciding you want to start a blog and choosing your topic, your next step is setting up your blog. Question is, do you go with a free blog, self hosted blog, get your own domain name, etc.?

There are a couple of ways to look at it, but for the most part a self hosted blog is your best bet. Here’s my criteria for whether or not you should go with a free blog.

A free blog is ok if: All you care about is your content. Free blogs are good if you want someone else to take care of all the security issues, upgrades, etc. If your only goal is to write and you don’t care much about making money and turning your blog into a business, a free blog is fine.

A free blog is not ok if: You want to turn your blog into a business; want full control of the design of your blog; your mind is telling you that you’ll upgrade to a self hosted blog one day down the road; etc.

Let’s face it, hosting and domain names are cheap. So don’t let me hear anyone say they don’t have the money right now.

The reason why I typically advise new bloggers to choose a self hosted blog and purchase their own domain name is because you never know where your blog will take you in the future and having to stop, bundle it all up, and transfer your blog to a new web host (and possibly a new domain name) will KILL your blog.

2. Insufficient Research

This could range from a wide array of topics which might include:

Failure to do proper market research (is there anyone looking for what you have to offer?)
Understanding the consequences I outlined in #1 above
Research experts and their price point which could help boost your blog’s success
Failure to watch, analyze, and understand what your statistics are telling you

Those are some of the basics. As with any venture, online or off, if you wish to be successful at what you do, you need to spend a little time researching. By researching, you can point your boat in the right direction.

3. Truly Understanding Niche Marketing

Understanding the ins and outs of niche marketing is an entire course all on its own. Something I’ve seen over the years as an entrepreneur, however, is that newbies to niche marketing think niche marketing mostly entails finding a small crowd or group from within a topic and sell their products / services to them.

The more focused your niche is and better your product or service can solve for them is what they’re told niche marketing is.

While that is true, most newbies don’t realize that it’s not just about finding a focused group to sell to, niche marketing is about positioning and perception.

If you’re new to blogging, finding a niche is great, but if you fail to position yourself as an expert or “go-to person” in your niche, you’ll fail.

Even if you’re not the real go-to person, make sure you are perceived that way. The power of perception is kind of like “the force” in Star Wars.

4. Improper Use or Lack of Scheduling

Ask any seasoned blogger about time management and you’re sure to get an earful. Unless their educated in time management, new bloggers I’ve talked to fail to realize just how much time and organization blogging requires.

Writing an ebook? Posting 3-5 times a week? Need to spend time with the kids? Gotta cook dinner? Want to read and comment on other blogs? Need to figure out how to get more clicks on that banner? Want to write a series of guest posts? Looking to start a newsletter?

… the list goes on and on.

In the beginning you might not think you need a time management schedule because you’re not doing all that yet, but you’re wrong. Time management is key to growing your blog, making more money, and generating traffic to your site.

Simply writing down goals with no mechanism or direction to get you there ain’t going to cut it!

Want a time scheduling outline for bloggers? Alex Fayle has a really cool time management sheet he uses to keep himself on track (I use it, too).

5. Blog Security

I suppose blog security may or may not keep you poor, depending on if you get hacked or not. Nevertheless, it’s so important I feel it deserves to be on this list.

Let’s face it, when you’re new to blogging, you’ve got a lot to think about and a lot to set up. The problem is, since you’re new you don’t even know which questions to ask yet.

Blog security seems to always take a back seat. New bloggers don’t realize though just how important this is. It’s kind of like that movie where you see someone gets sent to jail for the first time and doesn’t yet have the experience to know how to protect themselves or just how bad it is to bend over to pick up that soap.

Newbie bloggers in a similar way are prey.

They set up their blog and start thinking about making money and writing articles, not the fact that their blog is or very soon can become easily hackable, removed from Google, and worst of all… destroyed.

If you’re new to blogging, blog security should most definitely be high on your priority list. And if you’re not sure how to better secure your blog, just hire me and I’ll get you hooked up.

Bonus Tip For New Bloggers

Blog your passion and be real. Don’t try to make money from your blog, but rather let your blog make money for you.

Be yourself, find your own voice, and don’t force it. In time, you’ll find that’s a much better route to take.

—————————————————————————————-

There are of course a ton more tips I could hand out to help start your blog off on the right foot, but I’ll leave that for my upcoming newsletter. Be sure to subscribe to my blog so you can be notified when my newsletter with tips like these is released.

In the meantime, here are a few other “blogging mistakes / tips” articles you might want to read (links open in a new tab):

Question: If you could go back to when you first started a blog and change something to help boost how long it took to get you to where you are today, what would you tell yourself?

Aside From A Blogger, What Are You Really?

John Hoff — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 04:00:17 +0000

Judging from my analytics, I bet many, if not most, people who visit my blog are bloggers.

What is a blogger?

Well I could visit Wikipedia and look it up, but there’s no need for that; we all know what a blogger is, right?

But what are you, really?

Yeah yeah, I know – you’re a human being… ha ha; ok, no what I’m really talking about is have you ever stopped to think about why you’re a blogger and what your blogging purpose is?

Many of us know why we started a blog. My blog, for example, was started to:

A) Drive traffic to the WP Blog Host domain and generate brand awareness

B) Teach bloggers things I’ve learned as a blogger myself all along the way

But what does that make me? A blogger?

To me it sounds more like an online marketer.

So then I might own and run my own blog, and yes that makes me a blogger, but if I had to put a title to what I do, I’d say I’m an online marketer.

And if that’s the case, then maybe… just maybe I have gained a little more insight into what more I need to learn in order to help make my “job” a success.

True you might be an entrepreneur, but what exactly is it you do?

I once asked Darren Rowse this question: “So what exactly aside from a blogger do you consider yourself?”

His answer was “Web publisher”.

What About You?

So what’s that next level deep and more focused idea of what you are?

Because once you figure that out, you can then sail the ship in the right direction.

FTC Blogging Regulations, A Webinar You Need To See

John Hoff — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 04:00:44 +0000

Jim Edwards, the author if the 7dayebook and many other informational products, recently interviewed Rich Cleland, Assistant Deputy at The Federal Trade Commission, and asked him to clarify some of the “new” regulations bloggers should be concerned about when it comes to affiliate commissions and reviews.

Noticed I put the word new in quotes; that’s because as Mr. Cleland puts it, these are not “new” regulations at all, but rather clarification on existing ones.

If you’re a blogger and you advertise banners in your sidebar, do paid book and product reviews, use testimonials as an advertising tool, and make money in any other way related to affiliate commissions, you need to provide adequate disclosures and testimonial follow-ups.

You can watch a replay of the webinar by visiting Jim’s I Gotta Tell You blog. The webinar is a bit long and I know most bloggers probably won’t sit through the entire interview. But maybe its for reasons like those that problogger David Risley wrote his article, Are Bloggers Just Crappy Business People?

Blogging is not always fun, nor is it only about writing articles and signing up for affiliate programs. It takes work and if you’re serious about making money with your blog, you also need to know a few rules and regulations you should abide by. In my opinion, anyone serious about making money in their industry needs to spend at least a little time keeping themselves educated in their trade.

Ok, enough pep talk. Go watch the video now and feel free to come back here and leave a comment for discussion.

The Top 7 Mistakes eBook Authors Make!

John Hoff — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 09:34:43 +0000

I’ve been a subscriber of the Jim Edwards I Gotta Tell You Newsletter for some time now and I gotta tell you, it’s an awesome newsletter.

His newsletters are always packed with valuable information detailing ways to get more traffic to your site, list building techniques, how to write and profit from ebooks, and a ton more. What I really like about this guy is he simply shows you how he makes millions of dollars himself, many times through free webinars.

His latest newsletter, just emailed to me last night, talks about 7 mistakes many ebook authors make. It’s a fantastic article and a must read if you’re ever considering writing your own ebook (as is his newsletter). With his permission, I am reprinting it here for you to read.

For full disclosure, please note that the links in this article to his ebook, eBook Secrets Exposed are affiliate links. I did, however, purchase this ebook myself and think it’s packed with great information for ebook writers.

And if you’re looking for an ebook packed with a ton more information about writing and publishing your very own ebook, you might like to check out his other book, How to Write and Publish your own eBook… in as little as 7 Days. That, my friends, was an awesome book and I highly recommend it.

Ok enough jibber jabbering. Here’s the article – enjoy!

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
The Top Seven Mistakes eBook Authors Make

-By Jim Edwards and David Garfinkel

eBooks are the hottest thing going on the Web right now!

Authors with the entrepreneurial instinct are making anywhere from a few hundred to tens of thousands of dollars per month – that’s right, per month – by selling ebooks
online.

Why are some authors doing so much better than others?

We’ve discovered seven key mistakes that most ebook authors make (and in doing so, hold themselves back from major success):

1. They don’t write to a specific, target audience.

The biggest mistake most ebook authors make is they don’t clearly define, identify and visualize who they are selling their ebook to. On the Web, to be successful, you must
write to a specific group of people who have specific interests. Make sure that you know exactly who is going to buy your ebook, and where you can find them online.

2. They don’t automate as many of their business activities as possible.

Selling ebooks, though it is highly profitable, is not a business where you make hundreds of dollars per sale.

Automate everything you can – credit card processing, ebook delivery, as much technical support as possible. If you can’t automate a function, delegate it to someone else.

3. They don’t have a compelling title for their ebook.

Use words that convey the benefit of what’s in the ebook, as well as words your audience is familiar with.

A bad title for an ebook: “Online Marketing for Newbies.” A good title for the same book: “97 Ways to Promote Your Website – No Experience Required.”

4. They try to cover too much ground.

Many ebook authors convey a lot of information but don’t cover anything in-depth. As a result, they never fully explain anything in enough detail to provide any useful value to their readers. This is a very bad mistake to make, especially when it comes to how-to ebooks, which happen to be the best type to write.

5. They are not proactive in their marketing.

It would be nice if marketing for your ebook simply happened on its own – but it doesn’t. You have to do it yourself.

After you’ve promoted your ebook to the people on your own mailing list (if you have one), then you have to contact other Website owners and persuade them to be your affiliates. You should do this continually.

6. They don’t differentiate their ebook from its competitors.

When you choose your topic, even if there are a hundred other ebooks out there on same general subject, choose an angle for yours that will make it easy for yours to be distinguished from the others.

For example, right now job-hunting ebooks are very popular. There are dozens that are big sellers. “Secrets of Breaking Into Pharmaceutical Sales” has a very specific title that sets it apart from the competition, and is aimed at a clearly identified target audience.

Incidentally, it’s selling very well itself.

7. They write ebooks that nobody will pay for.

Many ebook authors write about information that either people can get for free, or that people are not actually interested in enough to pay for the information.

Before you invest weeks or months into the writing of your ebook, invest a little time investigating whether other ebooks in the same subject area are selling on the Web.

So, there you have it – the seven big mistakes to avoid. Remember, the opportunities are plentiful – and huge – right now for anyone who wants to become a best-selling ebook author.

Simply use common sense, follow our advice, and let your literary career flourish!

Jim Edwards and David Garfinkel are co-authors of “eBook Secrets Exposed: How to Make Massive Amounts of Money in Record Time With Your Own eBook (whether you wrote it or not!),” the authoritative guide to publishing and marketing ebooks on the Web.

Guerrilla Marketing author Jay Conrad Levinson says, “If there ever was a ‘must-read’ for this century, it’s this book.” For more information:
Click here ==> eBook Secrets Exposed

A-List Bloggers & Everyday Bloggers, They Do Things Differently

John Hoff — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 18:14:19 +0000

I’ve been blogging for awhile now and I’ve noticed something. I’ve noticed that A-list bloggers do things a little different from how everyday ordinary bloggers do things.

This article is about things I have noticed when it comes to how A-list bloggers vs. everyday non A-list bloggers deal with comments and interaction with their followers. It is not meant to make A-listers look bad, but rather help newbie bloggers understand why they don’t always respond to others.

What is an A-list blogger?

Real quick, if you’re new to blogging and not sure what an A-list blogger is, an A-list blogger is a blogger who has a mass number of followers, readers, and typically have a well established community. They also have reached a level of success through their blogging endeavors, such as making $100k/year from blogging alone. There is no defined definition of what makes you an A-list blogger, but this description at least gives you an idea.

The everyday blogger

That’s opposed to the everyday blogger. The everyday bloggers are those of us who don’t make enough money from our blogs to quit our day jobs, don’t have 80k followers in our RSS reader, and aren’t necessarily known throughout the Internet as a “top guru” in a given niche.

Differences I’ve noticed

Over the years I’ve read many blogs and probably can’t even count as high as the number of times I’ve left comments. The interesting thing is, when I visit an A-lister’s blog and leave a comment, rarely does the A-lister reply to my comment, even if it was directed at him or her. On the flip side, when I visit the everyday blogger’s site and leave a comment, I almost always get a reply back.

Furthermore, many times we read on the A-lister’s blog how one way to promote community within your blog is to reply to your commentators questions and concerns and become useful to them by engaging them in conversation. You also hear how it might be a good idea to visit many other blogs and leave useful comments “over there” in hopes that the other blogger will start visiting your blog and take notice (as well as that other blogger’s community).

But in all your travels online and to different blogs, how often do you see an A-lister’s name in the comment section? Many times they don’t even leave a comment in an article in which they were interviewed.

That seems odd, doesn’t it?

Again on the flip side, I see everyday bloggers taking the A-list blogger’s advice and replying to every comment directed at them on their blog (usually every comment is replied to). In addition to that, I see them leaving comments on other blogs all the time.

There seems to be a missing link here, right? Something’s not adding up.

Then there’s social media sites like Twitter and StumbleUpon.

Have you ever tried to engage an A-list blogger through Twitter? How often do you get a reply back? However, if you have messaged someone that’s not considered an A-lister, I bet most of the time you get a reply.

What I really find fascinating is how many A-list bloggers talk about how to use Twitter to drive traffic (and hopefully business) to your blog or website. They even have ebooks about it. Some of these tips include:

Try to be useful and leave meaningful statements that relate to your niche
Try not to tweet only links
Use Twitter to build a relationship

But then it seems they don’t always follow their own advice. One A-list blogger I stopped following because he kept tweeting things like, “A to the izo”, which means absolutely nothing. But I guess that’s his personality and he’s letting it show through. I suppose that means I’m not his target reader/follower. But in my research on how to use Twitter, never have I seen anyone say to tweet things like that.

So Why Is This Happening?

I’ve had my ideas but when Darren Rowse recently published his article, How I’m Increasing Reader Engagement on my Blog, I decided to ask him if this is something he has noticed.

To be honest, I felt a little timid asking him my question. I’ve learned a lot by reading Problogger.net and I would hate to think Darren might think I’m trying to be a jerk or stir up controversy. But then I remembered that blogs have a comment section for a reason and Problogger.net is all about helping bloggers learn and grow.

Darren of course can’t answer for every A-list blogger out there, but he does provide some good insights which in my opinion, parallels a business growing into a successful business.

Amongst other things he mentioned, here’s a good summation:

John – it’s certainly a lot harder when your blog grows to be able to interact with everyone. For example on an average day I get 100-200 emails from people asking questions, with problems or wanting to interact…. plus all the comments.

The advantage that I do have though now that I have traffic is that quite often readers answer one another’s questions.

I think the ‘leave comments on other blogs’ advice is good for those starting out but I guess you get to a point with your blog where you have critical mass and your ‘marketing’ takes a different form. Similarly, responding to comments takes a different form also as you just can’t do it all. For me it means I tend to respond to people via email more than as comments because I live more in my inbox than in the comments section of my site.

That of course is a very logical reason as to why A-list bloggers cannot do the same things everyday bloggers can. Imagine trying to answer every blog comment, every Twitter reply, every email, and spend time on other blogs commenting all the while trying to develop new products and services to increase profits.

Oh, and I haven’t even touched on a family or personal life yet.

The reality is this: As your business or blog grows, so does the way in which you have to do things. If you’re an established entrepreneur, you know that growth can kill your business if you simply keep trying to do things the same way you always have been.

You need to adapt to your situation.

I still think the “a to the izo” thing is stupid, but then again maybe I’m still missing something.

I don’t hold anything against very successful bloggers when they never respond to my comments because I understand their situation. I do think, however, that it can be a little confusing and frustrating to newer bloggers.

That was the reason for this post.

I think there is a missing link between what many A-list bloggers say and what many A-list bloggers do.

And that is something I think new bloggers should understand.

Questions:

Have you run into this issue before? Has the lack of an A-list blogger taking notice of you left you felt you must not be important enough?

If an A-list blogger never replies to your comments, will you keep reading their blog?

If an everyday non A-list blogger never replies to your comments, will you keep reading their blog?

Make Things Easy To Find On Your Site

John Hoff — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 05:00:15 +0000

The other day I did a blog security upgrade for a WordPress blogger. In order to do some of the upgrades, I need access to your web hosting account, in this case, his.

He sent me his username and password and noted that he was hosted with Host Gator.

Ok, no problem.

So I headed over to Host Gator’s site only to get frustrated as hell. They are suppose to be a web hosting company. I assume that means people will be logging in and out of their accounts often, not to mention needing access to their webmail accounts whenever they’re away from home and don’t have access to their normal email program.

But I couldn’t find a login / out link anywhere. Now when the person signs up for web hosting they will be sent a link to the login page in an email, but what if you want to login from your parent’s house? Or an Internet cafe? How are you suppose to get into your webmail? Do they have webmail?

Confused, I clicked on their Support link and typed in my question. The returned response made it sound like logging is was such a hassle I had to watch a movie on how to do it.

Ok, I’m not meaning to bash on a competitor’s website. Sorry Host Gator, I don’t have anything against you, I swear.

The point here I’m trying to make is this.

You need to make things easy for people online. If you own a membership based website, make it easy for them to get into their account. If you sell a product, make sure navigation to that product is laid out easily.

The worst thing you can do is create confusion on your blog, because I have a saying I’ve always stuck with and has served me well.

“A confused mind always says, no“.

New Regulations For USA Bloggers May Be Around The Corner

John Hoff — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 05:00:46 +0000

I read an article the other day from the Washington Post entitled: FTC plans to monitor blogs for claims, payments which basically tells us that if you make money from your blog, you need to disclose it, otherwise you could be in some trouble with the Federal Trade Commission.

Basically, the Federal Trade Commission is trying to protect US consumers by introducing new legislation which will require all us United States bloggers to disclose when and how we make money on our blogs. So for example, if you place an affiliate link in your article or use Google AdSense, you need to tell your site visitors that if they click on those links, you make money.

This also goes for any kind of paid reviews or reviews done by you in exchange for gifts from a company.

My Take On The FTC’s Plan

For a few seconds I thought this could be a good thing. In my article How To Choose The Best WordPress Blog Hosting Company, I mention how I can’t stand these dumb “Top 10 Hosting Companies” review sites you see all over the Web. They in fact are not true review sites, they are just affiliate links designed to make the website owner money.

Sites like these get my blood boiling. Not even my coffee tastes the same when I come across sites like those. There’s no real value for the site visitor and I feel they are misled.

But then I quickly realized how the FTC really isn’t solving anything. My buddy Steve said it best in an email discussion we had about this:

One of the big problems here is that the FTC can’t do anything about a blog in Canada, for example. Just creating more government for very little to no gain, in my opinion. What will happen in the long run is that our government will put so many controls on the Internet, that server companies will start relocating to Mexico and bloggers (among others) will simply start hiding their identity…then, of course, only the honest people who don’t try to hide will be penalized for violating some silly government reg.

That about sums up my opinion on the subject.

What do you think? Do you think your government (wherever you live) should impose such regulations?

UPDATE: Here’s the actual FTC Proposal. Be warned, it was definitely written by a lawyer.

Stay up to date on stories like these and other blogging / WordPress tips by subscribing to our blog.

How I Obtained A $30,000 Credit Line With A Bad Credit Score

John Hoff — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 04:00:37 +0000

Why some people almost always get the lowest interest rate on their mortgage… and never pay too much in points or “junk fees” If you want a mortgage with the lowest rate… for the lowest points and fees…here’s exactly how you do it!

Your bank can help you build your empire.
Image by DavidDMuir

Today in the United States the economy sucks.

The term “credit squeeze” has been floating around lately and refers to the fact that banks are in so much trouble themselves that they have tightened their lending policies almost to the point where credit scores don’t matter.

Cash is king, yes, but there is a “queen” out there that is almost as good as cash.

What is it?

Trust.

Being that I deal a little in real estate, people sometimes ask me questions about how to improve their credit scores or what’s the best way to obtain a line of credit.

My answer has always been you need to build trust with a bank, preferably one you can physically walk into and meet with someone face-to-face. If you already have great credit with an out of state bank that’s ok too, continue building that credit and trust, but nothing beats being able to walk into a bank and getting to know the staff.

I bring this up because it has always been something I’ve said you need to do as a business owner and real estate investor and a couple weeks ago, my belief was put to the test.

Because of this poor real estate market, my credit score has basically been ruined; I made one bad investment which has trashed my credit and there’s little chance a bank would easily loan me money based off my credit score alone. But over the years I’ve gotten to know a few bankers at my banks of choice (yes I have a few) and I rarely can walk in and head for the teller window without waving hello at least twice to friendly faces.

This is also great for networking. Bankers are often times the first people to know when someone is starting a business needs a website or might be going into foreclosure. So networking with a bank and getting to know a banker or two is a very powerful tool you can use to find business and make a little money by solving people’s problems.

What Happened When I Met With My Banker

Personally, I’ve networked with a few banks and have a decent relationship going. A couple weeks ago my wife and I decided to transfer one of our business accounts over to another bank in order to simplify how we move our money around.

We sat down with the banker we know at that bank and opened a new business account. When she asked me if I’d like to apply for a line of credit I thought to myself this would be the first time that my somewhat recent tarnished credit score is going to hurt me. I wasn’t thinking about the good relationship I had built with this bank in the past.

She popped my information into her computer and within about 10 seconds I was approved for a $30,000 line of credit, no questions asked!

I joked with her and said, “Only $30k?”

She laughed and said “Well I can run your credit and see if we can get you some more.”

I of course declined as I didn’t want her discovering that my credit score has recently been lowered.

I think of a bank as a silent partner in just about everything I do. In the beginning they don’t know me, therefore they don’t trust me. However, over time as I build a good relationship with them they will begin to trust me and even bend a few of their rules to help me succeed.

So if you’re a business owner or are thinking of starting a business, realize one of the best first steps you can make is to start building relationships with the right people and other businesses.

Quick Tip To Build Trust & Credit With A Bank

To quickly build a decent credit history with a bank you could do the following. Find something you could use to obtain a loan for through your primary bank, like refinancing your car or something. Pay on it for the next 4 to 6 months and then pay off that loan with another bank’s loan (i.e. refinance).

Yes it ends up costing you money to refinance but if you obtain 2 or 3 decent size loans through a bank, pay on them for a bit, and then pay them off, the bank will be willing to loan you money a bit easier as time goes on even though your credit score isn’t so great.

The bonus too is they will report your great credit history to the credit reporting agencies.

Question: Have you built up trust with a bank? If not, what are you waiting for?