This guest post is by Brandon Connell of brandonconnell.com.
Leverage is something I have used my entire life. It was what I used when I bought a 5,000 square foot mansion with zero down, bad credit, and had the seller finance the deal 100%. Fortunately, I was easily able to adopt the idea of leverage for my online businesses as well.
The funny thing about blogging is that many people give up too easily. They abandon their blogs because they don’t see the progress with it that they envisioned. That progress may have been in the form of traffic, commentary, or something else. By using leverage, you can have all of these things, and more, instantly!
One form of leverage that I have been using more of these days, is Fiverr.com. If you aren’t aware, Fiverr is where you can go to hire people to do something for $5. I like to use it to get some extra stumbles on StumbleUpon, or some permanent backlinks. You can also use it to have text or video reviews created for your new product. The possibilities are truly endless, and you need only explore the site for ten minutes before you come up with some ideas.
Fiverr will definitely help you launch your new blog and get that needed traffic, but it’ll also save you time that you can spend writing valuable content for your blog. And you thought outsourcing was too costly for your small operation…
The use of leverage vs. the traditional DIY method
The do-it-yourself method is what I started out with. I worked my behind off building up traffic to my blog. I worked extra hard pushing out seven articles every single day. I went blog hopping 100 times every day. It was a rough experience, and I recommend against it to any newbie or established but struggling bloggers out there.
I am not saying that DIY learning was a bad thing. I think that it added character and first-hand knowledge to my blogging arsenal. I do, however, believe that if you can combine the learning process with the use of knowledge learned from others right away, then you can go much further in a shorter time period.
By utilizing others to do the tedious tasks that take hours of your time, you can really focus on quality, and learn from their work at the same time. You can learn what works and what doesn’t by paying someone else $5 to actually do the work for you.
Leverage comes in many forms
I want to dive deeper into some of the steps you can take to make leverage work to your advantage, so you can build your blog faster.
To keep this simple, I’m going to focus on the Fiverr.com website, so you know where to go and get started right away.
- Articles – I would say it is a must to write your own articles for your blog, except in the case where you’re using guest posts. However, you don’t need to write your own EzineArticles, if you use that service. Instead, why not hire someone to write five or ten unique articles for EzineArticles? It will only cost you $5. Of course you’ll have to check the posts’ quality—they’re representing your blog, after all. But this could be a good way to reduce your workload if you find the right service provider on Fiverr.
- Stumbles – I hired a guy the other day to stumble 33 of my blog posts and pages on three separate accounts, and it brought me some easy traffic. You can find lots of people to do something similar on the cheap.
- Twitter followers – Why go through the tedious task of following and unfollowing non-followers every couple of days, when you can have someone get the followers for you? It’s even better if you hire someone to get you non-reciprocal followers—and, depending on your strategy, can be more personal and targeted than using an automated service.
- Facebook likes – Do you have a Facebook page with only 50 likes or so? Hire someone to get you 200 at a time for $5. Remember, this is a numbers game. The more people who like your page, the more people will see it on their walls and follow suit.
- Promotional materials – Outsource the collection of video and text reviews about your product or service. Then you can focus more on the launch of the product or service, and generating maximum sales.
- Traffic – You can hire someone to tweet your message daily for a week to their thousands of followers on multiple accounts. That will get some traffic to your product or blog article quickly. It will also result in new followers. No, the traffic levels may not last over time, but as a means to get a launch-period boost, this can be a tactic worth considering.
- Offline marketing – There are people who will put your message on a billboard sign and stand in front of Grand Central Station for $5! Let’s not neglect the power of offline marketing—which can also be procured on the site.
- Design – Looking for graphic design? Guess what. Someone will do it on the cheap if it’s a small project.
Beyond Fiverr
Are we seeing a pattern here? The power of leverage is an amazing thing, and you can master it in a short period of time.
Don’t let me make you think that Fiverr is the only place to use leverage, though—it’s just one example of outsourcing, which is just one example of leverage. There are many things you can do to access the benefits of leverage, such as sending out a newsletter to a targeted double opt-in list, and having a mailing list company deliver it, too.
If you are already using leverage, please share your experiences with us below.
Brandon Connell is a full-time blogger and internet marketing expert who teaches you how to make money blogging. You can also hire him for consulting and coaching services.
You can’t buy a tribe. To build a tribe you must work hard and build it stone by stone.
I do agree with Raul. It is important to build a tribe for our products and it is not possible to buy a tribe.
However, for new blogs, services provided by Fiverr can be a good starting point to jump start the blogs. the objective should not to create a tribe but to give some form of motivation and feel good factor to the bloggers for example by having good numbers of fans in the facebook page.
What do you think?
Fiverr is a genius idea, but definitely not for bringing (fake) traffic.
It is not “fake” traffic. What you would be doing is buying stumbles and facebook likes. This brings in real traffic. A lot of that traffic converts into actual subscribers. It has in my experience.
Yes, this works well. There are many people who say that a method does not work. On make money blogging a lot of people fail because they are nay-saying to everything just because it’s difficult or their opinion just not same with the methods.
Maybe it looks pragmatic, but tactical thinking are common in business, as you promote a product. Not because you blog then you do not do promotions, and buy some simply but effective method.
FB page is great traffic resource in my opinion,and getting more likes for your updates is workin like a charm.
I agree with Brandon. Facbook likes might be fake, but exposure and traffic are real.
If you follow the advice you just gave, your blog will take forever to get going. It isn’t “building a tribe”. It is building real traffic and residual traffic without working hard to gather that traffic. It’s a way that allows you to focus on content rather than traffic.
Out of context now, do you think Barcelona FC would have won the champions league without the 100 000 fans who pay over 100 Euros to see them play every weekend, you really think that they can just get goons from the streets(FIVER) to shout MESSIDONA for them and Messi would just score many goals…My point; Barcelona have a cult-like following that is has gradually won their hearts over a number of years, they could if they want go to the streets of Barcelona and give out free tickets but they are confident in their TRUE and LOYAL fans will always come out in large numbers to offer support, NOT PAID GOONS from Fiverr
But who said anything about getting paid fans? Sharing on social networks is about the exposure, and the exposure alone. The paid likes and tweets may not be from true followers, but they are sharing a message which will reach interested parties, who will in-turn, become loyal followers. Do you get it? Pretty much every negative comment on this post was about what you said even though the article was not about what you said.
I agree with Raul.
I agree with Raul, you can never buy people’s heart. I blog from Africa (Kenya) which means fiverr.com is a headache to do business with from this part of the world, plus what makes you think that it is possible to get a good quality article that represents your blog’s philosophy for $5, I sincerely hope Darren is not using fiverr.com to get these mediocre posts.
I agree with Raul and Anthony.
I know people who are building traffic with real followers – who really care about what they’re doing, getting guest posts (writing for others and getting others to post on their own blogs). They think carefully about what they’re doing, test, see what works, try again, adjust. Those people will end up with a real tribe of fans.
Paying for fake traffic doesn’t cut it.
I too am wondering how this post got through.
This post got through because it wasn’t saying anything about fake traffic. A commentator said something about fake traffic. If you read the post carefully, I talked about getting people to like a facebook page, add stumbles, and other things that result in real traffic. Nowhere did I say for anyone to go and push for fake traffic.
Thanks for exploring me to Fiverr, I think I knew this site before, but forgot it. Now I found it, awesome site to gain inspiration on what special things to do too. :D
Do guest posting consider leverage too? When people submit their posts to post on my blog. It does save much of my times too, and win win situation for both.
Guest posting is leverage. The blog owner is leveraging other peoples time and creative minds in order to bring unique content to their blog. The guest poster is leveraging the blog for it’s audience and backlink value.
This isn’t “leveraging” others’ “skills”–this is paying them dirt poor wages to do work of questionable value. I’m really disappointed by this article, and it might make me unsubscribe from ProBlogger. Blogging can be lucrative, but it should also be done with integrity.
I’m with Kerry. Just like buying a mansion with no money down and bad credit, this whole article seems shady.
Hi mom-mom-mom,
I have personally bought real estate using those creative financing methods, and my deals are always win/win for both parties. The seller got what they needed out of the deal, and I got a great property with excellent terms. What’s wrong with that? Are you familiar with real estate investing? If not, what made you mention it here?
I understand that marketing is not for everyone.
You clearly are not familiar with Fiverr. It is not like going to a professional and saying “I want to pay you this regardless of your industry standard”. Fiverr is for those that want to offer something that they can do for $5. That’s the entire concept of Fiverr. It would be nice if you check out Fiverr, and also read this entire article before you say such things. It’s clear you haven’t.
Very good article, Fiverr can really help to easy the workload, thanks
Flip this advice on its head: Get people to pay you to comment on their blog.
$5 for 5 comments. That gives you incentive to write a great one, and it’s attention for your own blog. :)
I don’t like the idea of paying for comments. Those are something that should come from the real traffic that you are building through paying for social media shares.
Thanks for sharing this. I can see it being very handy. I’d much rather focus on building content than searching for traffic, which I seem to be really bad at any way!
I am surprised Darren let this post through as written. While many of the points mentioned by the author are fantastic ideas, I think using leverage is essential for all bloggers, some of his tactics are not ones that I have seen recommended before on Problogger. While getting posts written for EzineArticles or help with graphic design is an excellent idea, others fall into the “grey hat” area in my opinion. Garnering paid Facebook likes, paid Stumbles or Twitter followers is not something that seems consistent with the Problogger message. I would be interested to hear Darren’s thoughts on this.
The content I wrote about in this article is about marketing methods. Using leverage within your marketing. There was nothing wrong with, nor unethical about the content I have written about. I do however, understand that everyone is a critic. I also know that I too have had issues with certain methods in the past before I gained the knowledge and experience that made me what I am today.
As for writing content, I NEVER outsource that. It is fine for some people, but I personally write all of the unique content I publish. That’s one of the things I would never personally outsource as it represents me. The only way around this is that I allow guest posts which are clearly identified.
It is an interesting idea to essentially outsource your blog. At least the parts that you are not good at or just simply do not want to do. Another idea would be to get friends or family to do these tasks for free.
You must have a great family Tim. I couldn’t get my family to even read my blog. LOL.
Well for spending that much money we need to establish our blogs first. So hard work is must.
I must say I’m very happy with some of services available at Fiverr. There are however bad eggs out there, you just need to filter them out. I’m using Fiverr to outsource my social bookmarkings etc. Imagine getting a niche blog header, logo and favicon done for five bucks!
With my blog I’ve always been hesitant to outsource, but it does make sense and it seems much more intelligent to do so. There are people out there who love to do things you don’t want to do. On the other hand, I do feel like the relationship building part of blog marketing would be a growth experience for me.
We’re currently in the process of building another social media site, and we’re seeing that that’s going to have to be 90% outsourced, and we might even need investors. Our hopes of going cheap and doing it ourselves got busted real quick. Too many advanced skills needed.
I am somewhat skeptic about buying thinks like Stumbles or Tweets because I can’t be sure about the quality of the followers (they could all be bots or fake accounts for all I know). However, some Fiverr deals truly are great, like people making promotional videos for mere $5… Amazing.
This sounds like an excellent way to free up your time. I would rather be focusing my attention on monetizing my blog then getting traffic like I have been doing. I would have to agree that in the beginning of any new blog you need all the help that you can get. Even if you have to pay $5.00.
I think the idea of fiverr is pure genius, Not only for the buyer, but for the seller as well. Here both parties get the opportunity to ” test the water”. The seller getting a chance to show their wares, services, expertise and offering it at just $5.00 and the buyer kicking the tires and deciding if they wish to do additional business.
From a buyers perspective it might be the first time they experience outsourcing.
Truly Hats Off to Fiverr – “Surfing on the Side of Knowledge” HelpMeHarry
Yeah, I do NOT recommend buying twitter followers from fiver or any other place. Not only it is not professional and does not get you the brand recognition you hope to get, but it makes you look like a phoney.
Just check out John Chow’s twitter followers, 35k+ of his fans are bought. They all have random letters at the end of their name, they end with AA or QQ or CC, they all have the same bio too.
Not only that but if you buy followers, you do not get extra traffic because all these people selling followers do not have anyone actually following them on their accounts that are being sold.
I am a huge fan of problogger but lately it feels like Darren so busy with product launch the guest posts are starting to look very unpro and lack the respect problogger has come to gain from me and other people.
I have not tried buying Twitter followers because of how Twitter works. Most of those services for Twitter followers can end up getting your account blocked for spam. Now Twitter tweets are another thing, but you have to gauge the results afterwards to determine is those tweets were of value.
I use Fiverr all the time but you really need to be careful with who you hire. There are some gigs that can actually hurt your site. There are tons of xrumer type backlinks services which can build 20,000 profile backlinks at one time, but this is not the kind of links you want and can harm your site over time. Also, using Fiverr for Twitter followers can be problematic and can get your account banned. Even buying Facebook likes is really black hat stuff and I would avoid it.
I would disagree on the Facebook likes. That isn’t black hat. Twitter followers would be something to do due diligence with though because as you said, you can get banned if too many follows are happening too quickly.
Getting perfect person to do your task is now a days tough.
Because more and more new bie people are getting into this with no experience and people those are experienced do not have the time or have higher rates.
But yes fiverr is correct one because there you will be able to see what they are selling.so this is quite useful.
Talent rises regardless of Fiverrs, Tenerr’s or whatever. If you have a crap blog you may get a temporary bump, but it’s temporary.
Crap content in. Crap content out.
Traffic drop.
Leverage is brilliant, well written, insight content.
The end.
Agreed. I always assume I am talking to real bloggers when I write though, and it’s unwise to produce crap.
Fiverr is a great place to find people to leverage, but sometimes it takes a bit of time to find people who can really do the job.
I have had some good luck with them so far.
If you are posting quality articles and your pages are not indexing in the google search then these kind of websites help us make our dream reality.
Brandon – I clicked through from the e-mail update (that I get from ProBlogger.net) to leave a comment for you and ask a question – but then I decided to read through the comments to see if maybe you had already answered it, only to find out that you got a lot of negative comments! I couldn’t believe it!
A friend of mine told me about Fiverr about 6 months ago. I used it 3 times – 2 times for a press release and another time to have the press release distributed. 2 of the 3 worked out.
So my question is – how do you know on Fiverr when someone is worth a darn? For example, I love your ideas for Facebook and Twitter followers – do you have a recommended person for those tasks? One that you’ve used and liked?
Thanks for an excellent post, as I had sorta forgotten about Fiverr and all the funny things people will do for $5.
I haven’t used anyone for Twitter followers. I have used someone for Facebook Likes though on some of my pages for different niches. It worked out well. I can’t personally recommend anyone, as I am sure you understand. I can tell you that a lot of the people deliver as promised. If they don’t deliver then you don’t pay. It’s that simple really. Give it a shot and I am sure you will come up with some excellent sources for future work.
I was also surprised on the negative comments. You have to take it with a grain of salt because pretty much all of them come from those that either didn’t read the article in its entirety, or don’t have the hands-on marketing experience to justify an opinion based on fact. It’s something you have to try for yourself, and then make a decision on your marketing efforts from then on. Thanks for the comment!
Great post. Thanks for sharing…
I feel the genius in this method is in the social networking. As Brandon suggests, leveraging someone to add a bunch of “Likes” spreads the word about a Facebook page to other users (friends of those users). I see a potential for exponential growth if the Facebook Page you created is a strong idea.
Thanks Daniel. It is nice to see those that get the concept of growth and exposure. That is truly what marketing is all about. Things can turn viral pretty fast when you use a bit of leverage to get your message in front of eyeballs.
Hey guys,
I’m glad to see all the comments — and differing opinions on this piece. I’m Darren’s content manager, and it was my decision to publish this piece, as with all guest posts on the site. I’d like to explain a little about my thinking on this one.
As is clear from the comments here, many ProBlogger readers aren’t familiar with Fiverr, and of those who are, many have had little experience with the service. This kind of service is something we should all be aware of as site owners; whether and how we might choose to use it, on the other hand, is open for debate.
This post has sparked such a debate. In these comments, we have constructive, intelligent comment from different perspectives — a conversation that has the potential to raise new points that each of us may not have considered before, and which may consolidate or shift our positions on this topic.
Industry best practices are determined by the industry’s players — not just by its leaders. A blog’s comments are often more rich and insightful than a post, since they’re the thoughts of many, not just one.
If ProBlogger avoids discussing the potential and limitations of concepts that affect bloggers because those concepts are unacceptable to some, I think we’ll run the risk of failing to provide a realistic picture of the blogosphere. No individual’s approach is less valid than any other’s — as you guys comment, probloggers use the techniques Brandon mentions in this post.
It’s been my inclination to present such concepts (as explained by bloggers for whom they have proven successful) so that we can discuss them openly for the benefit of everyone. You can draw your own conclusions from those discussions, but I’m of the opinion that it’s better to provide a forum for the discussion than nix it because some of us might feel it’s somehow inappropriate.
I’d be very interested to hear your thoughts on this approach. If you would prefer ProBlogger only presents, discusses, and considers best practices, and ignores anything that doesn’t fall into that category — or ignores it until it does fall into that category — then let us know.
Georgina
Thanks for the clarification Georgina. I appreciate that, and it was my intention to provide the readers with options as you stated. As you mentioned, not every technique will be compatible with everyone. Everything is up for debate.
I think idea of Fiverr is good for whatever it’s worth. It is good for a self-starter who may want to experiment things on the website. Source consultants for pennies on a dollar. Not bad idea. I will surely, experiment with this. It answer some of the problems I have been battling with for the past one year. eg my website, my logo, my blog, my wordpress problem setting it up. My social networking on face book, twitter, My space etc.
This is the best thing that happen to me in a long time.
It’s just another loophole to game the system that hasn’t been blocked yet. It may work fine for you but at expense of those if us that are ethical and honest.
I hope that stumble, facebook, etc catch on and start banning anyone they catch doing it.