Welcome to Day #1 of the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Challenge. As on each day of this project today I’d like to present you with two things:
- Some Teaching/Theory
- A Task to go away and Do
Teaching
Today’s task (outlined in full below) is to develop an Elevator Pitch for your Blog. Let me explain why.
What is an Elevator Pitch?
“An elevator pitch is an overview of an idea for a product, service, or project. The name reflects the fact that an elevator pitch can be delivered in the time span of an elevator ride (for example, thirty seconds or 100-150 words).” – Wikipedia
Many business and self improvement type courses teach students to develop an elevator pitch for their business (and even for themselves). The idea is to have something short and sharp that you can say about yourself when the opportunity arises instead of bumbling your way through explaining what you or your business does (and miss an opportunity).
The goal is both to communicate what you do and to get the person you’re communicating it to to want to know more.
Elevator Pitches for Bloggers
While the idea of an elevator pitch is usually something that start up entrepreneurs are encouraged to do when looking for investors – developing an elevator pitch for your blog is also a smart move also.
One of the most important reasons to do this exercise is that to develop an elevator pitch YOU as a blogger to have thought through and crystallised in your mind what your blog is about.
If you’re fuzzy on what your blog is about it’s unlikely than anyone else will have much of an idea either.
Knowing what your blog is about helps you in developing every aspect of it including:
- Writing Content
- Promotion and Finding Readers
- Search Engine Optimisation
- Networking with other Bloggers
- Branding
- Design…. the list can go on.
In fact almost every task that we’ll be doing in this next 31 days should flow from this task.
Other Reasons for Developing an Elevator Pitch
Of course coming up with an elevator pitch is not just for your own benefit. Once you’ve got one it is brilliant for communicating what your blog is about to readers (both the ones you already have and potential ones), other bloggers, potential partners, media/journalists, advertisers and even to friends and family members who might not get what you’re doing.
Once you’ve got your blogs elevator pitch there’s no limit to the places and situations that you can use it (either part of it or in its entirety). Here are a few that come to mind:
- Your blogs tag line – having a short, sharp and descriptive ‘tag line’ for your blog can be a powerful technique for quickly communicating to new readers to your blog what it is all about. Readers who don’t get a sense for what your blog is about are in danger of leaving quickly – so a tagline that is displayed prominently on your blog can be a great way to hook them in.
- Your about page – the about page of a blog (if you have one) is one of the most read pages of a blog by first time visitors. It is an ideal place to communicate what you’re about and to ‘sell’ to potential readers why they should subscribe and come back.
- Real Life Conversation – whether it be at a conference, in business interactions or just in everyday conversation, the topic of your blog is likely to come up from time to time and these interactions can be an ideal moment to pull out the elevator pitch to describe what your blog is about.
- Business Cards – I get a lot of business cards given to me at conferences and to be honest at the end of the day I can’t remember who gave me most of them. Adding an elevator pitch to a card can help trigger who you are and what you do in the mind of those you chat with at these busy types of events.
- Pitching to Media – One of the things I’ve noticed about many journalists is that they’re very busy people who are constantly being pitched with ideas for stories. Having a thought through and effective ‘pitch’ can help you get noticed and give a journalist a reason to listen to what you’ve got to say.
- Pitching to Other Bloggers – Similarly, I find that if I’m being ‘pitched’ to as a blogger that I take more notice if the person pitching to me gives me a brief insight into who they are and what they do.
- Email Signature – many people have links to their blogs in their emails, but a link can be somewhat meaningless on its own. Why not add your elevator pitch? Similarly signatures in forums can be a good place to have a short description of what you do to motivate people to check you out further.
- Social Media Profiles – the same thing goes for all those social media profiles that you have. Why not use them to not only point people to your blog but to give them a reason to go there!
Where else would you use an elevator pitch? I’m sure there are so many more times to pull them out! Feel free to share other places you’ll be using yours.
Your Task for Today
Take some time out today to develop an elevator pitch for your blog. If you’ve already got one take a few minutes to review and refine it.
How to Write an Elevator Pitch for Your Blog
I’m sure there has been much written on the topic online but here’s some starting points that I use when doing this type of thing.
- Solve a Problem or Need – I’m a big believer in developing blogs that fulfil real needs and solve problems that people have. The problem need not be a big one (like World Peace) but you should be attempting to create something that people need on some level. Communicate this in your elevator pitch.
- Define Your Audience – who is your blog for? Who are you attempting to attract? IF your blog is targeting a certain demographic or type of person (and it may or may not) – include this in your pitch. If your blog is for teens, don’t develop a pitch for grandparents – target the reader you want.
- Be Clear – don’t leave people second guessing what you mean or interpreting jargon – make your elevator pitch crystal clear.
- Keep it Short – People have limited attention spans and capacity to absorb lots of information. Get to the point, eliminate unnecessary words and make it punchy!
- Stand Out – be willing to use humour or powerful imagery to grab the attention of those that hear your elevator pitch.
- Be Intriguing – your elevator pitch is unlikely to ‘convert’ people to read your blog all on its own – but it should entice them to learn more. You don’t need to say everything in it – but attempt to write something that is still in the mind of those who hear it long afterwards.
- Be Energetic but not Hyped – you convey more than just dry information when describing your blog – but you also convey what YOU feel about it. This is important – if you ‘pitch’ someone with language and a voice that is dry and uninspired you’re unlikely to convert anyone into a reader. Show people that you love what you’re doing, that you’re passionate and that you care about your topic. But don’t go too far and hype it up beyond what it is!
- Consider Using a Question – people are wired to answer and engage with questions. Ask them, even just rhetorical ones, in your pitch and you’ll hook people in.
- Be Ready to Expand Upon Your Pitch – at a recent conference I had someone come up and give me what seemed like an elevator pitch about their blog. It worked really well, they got me interested – so interested that I asked them to tell me more. The problem was that they didn’t really have much else to say about their blog. See an elevator pitch as a conversation opener – something designed to lead into further interaction with people. You don’t have to say it all in your initial pitch – but you should be ready to say more if people are interested.
These are just the thoughts that come to my mind on elevator pitches (what would you add?). Not everyone will be able to incorporate all of the above points but I hope that some of it will help you to develop yours.
My Elevator Pitch
I have a couple of elevator pitches my blog here at ProBlogger. One’s short (just 6 words) and one’s a little longer (a minute or so). I use one or the other of them depending upon the circumstances and opportunity to share.
My short one is very simple – ‘ProBlogger helps Bloggers Build Exceptional Blogs’. I’ve used others over the life of this blog (and continue to evolve it) but have settled on this one for the time being because it is so simple, to the point and clear.
The longer version expands upon this and shares some of the ways that the blog helps bloggers improve their blogs by talking through a few of the main topics I cover.
Write Your Elevator Pitch
Once you’ve got an elevator pitch for your blog write or print it out and put it somewhere near your computer so that as you blog you can be reminded of it. You might also like to start to incorporate it into your blog as a tagline or in your about page – or even to write a post about it on your blog to communicate to your readers what you’re on about (the appropriateness of writing it as a post will of course vary from blog to blog).
Once you’ve done that – feel free to share what you’ve come up with in comments below. I’m looking forward to reading yours.
Tomorrow on the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Challenge – tomorrows task is a writing task that will have you writing a particular type of blog post to use on your blog in the next few days.
Sign up for 31DBBB
If you’re not already signed up for the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog challenge you can find more information on what it entails here.
Update! Get feedback on your results, and see what others are doing over at the forum: Day 1 – Create an Elevator Pitch for Your Blog
Want More?This task is a sample of one of the tasks in the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Workbook – a downloadable resource designed to reinvigorate and revitalize blogs. Join over 14,000 other bloggers and Get your Copy Today. |
I am officially three days behind and playing catch up! But I will get it done. Here’s my elevator pitch – good exercise. I had one, but after testing it against your suggestions – it didn’t hold up. Here is my revised pitch:
How to make your message loud and clear in a world of generational pandemonium.
Cheers!
Here’s my elevator pitch:
My blog is the intersection of a few different interests in my life. Cafes, social media and Christianity. Blog posts are either links with short commentary (”links”), or longer, more thoughtful posts (”long”). In the other categories, I talk about the different media I’m consuming: TV shows, DVDs, books, movies.
My tagline has been “cafes,decaf,movies,books,thoughts” but I don’t really use the tagline anywhere. Feel free to use the contact form on my “about” page (and my “contact” page) to suggest something better.
My elevator pitch:
At My Itchy Travel Feet, I write about active travel for baby boomers. Using my personal experiences and references, I advise boomers on where to go, what to do, where to stay and how to prepare for an active trip.
My tagline:
The Baby Boomer’s Guide to Travel
Here’s my elevator pitch for No Job for Mom:
“One woman’s journey from the 9-5 rat race to the sometimes hectic work at home pace.”
Thanks, Darren, for this 31 day challenge. Although I got a late start, I look forward to all 31 days.
Starting late on the 31 Day challenge. I worked on an elevator pitch yesterday and thought I had it nailed down. Then I decided to blog about it and while writing I realized that it really doesn’t capture everything I want to do on my blog, so it’s still a work in progress.
Anyways, for now it’s — My blog explores how we build and nurture our member and customer communities.
Not happy with it, sort of hum-drum. So I’ll continue to work on it as my blog develops. My blog is still really new so everything is in flux.
Also starting a bit late on the 31 day challenge.
For my cooking blog, Pots and Plots, it’s all about concoctions from the kitchen of a Mississippi writer.
For my writer’s blog, Murder & Magnolias, it’s all about the musings, methods, and madness of, well, me.
Great post. I’m really excited about where this course is gonna take us in the 31 days.
I have a garden website on the wordpress platform and a garden journal on Blogger, I am applying your 31 days to both, but using the journal to blog the exercises.
For the elevator pitch I came up with:
” friendly neighborhood advice on how to grow a great garden”
“There are plenty of times we wish we had an experienced neighborhood gardener who we could lean over the fence and chat with, getting tips on how to grow things better or inspiration in creating our garden sanctuary. Something along the line of “Home Improvement’s” Wilson.
A little wisdom, a little history, a little practicality, a little levity… and a lot of friendship, like so many garden companion plants in a little vegetable plot. That is what my blog aspires to be. It is also the story of my own love of growing things, and now that of my old friend (from elementary school days!) Joanne’s, documented in small excerpts of our lives and interests.”
I am jumping in a little late. Just found information about this on twitter. It is great timing for us as we are just starting our blog. So here is the Elevator Speech. Spiritual Intuitive Readings for Clarity and Direction. Got to get going on the following days assignments and catch up.
Thanks for all the great information.
blessings,
Annie
Since I review books and talk about book related things, I’m thinking:
At the corner of Chicklit Avenue and Paranormal Boulevard. Not for sure yet though, still working it through.
Starting a little late, but this course looks very interesting and informative.
Blessings to you for providing this!
My ‘short’ elevator pitch
“Showing Homeowners How to Eliminate Their Mortgage from the Equation”
Great idea this 31 day event.
My elevator pitch is
Topics that inspire those of us in the Outback
I am looking forward to the growth
thanks for the inspiration
This post has really got me thinking…
I’ve had my tagline for awhile now:
An Insider’s Look into this Thing I Call Life!
As far as a longer pitch, I’ve always had the description that I put when asked to type a short description of my blog…
A fun place for reviews and giveaways. Dore’s Diaries is where Dore’, a full time student, mommy to a VERY BUSY toddler named Brayden, and wife unwinds. You can find pictures, funny stories, raves, rants, and tons of randomness at Dore’s Diaries!
Would this be considered an Elevator Pitch if my blog is not centered on one particular topic??
Jumping in a tad late but I’m quick to catch up :)
Thanks again for putting this on for us Darren!
My elevator pitch goes a little something like this:
A mutant offspring of the 20th and 21st century I have a multitasking sort of background in public relations, marketing, social media, writing, design and advertising. I have an undying passion for reading news, blogs and books and I force feed myself more mainstream media, brands and entertainment than anyone likes to admit most of the time.
This blog is about communication and the way it is evolving our society. Not unlike my mind, this blog is scattered, but it gets its focus back by extrapolating from current events, other posts, news articles, etc. to determine how – one way or another – they all integrate to essentially point out the same thing. Of course, that’s not always the case and that’s when things get interesting.
Awesome post, thanks! I’ve been working on this one for a while…here is what I’ve come up with:
Short:
“Procrastinating Writers helps creative writers get writing done.”
Long:
“Procrastinating Writers offers advice, motivation and inspiration to help creative writers overcome procrastination and complete the writing projects they’ve been putting off.”
Here is my elevator pitch…
MomsMaterial.com offers a community with fun, creative parenting ideas and support with our struggles as a mom. MomsMaterial provides a different perspective due to the founder’s own struggle as an ADD mom parenting one child with ADD and another that struggled with developmental and speech delays. This site targets moms looking for great ideas, advice or reviews on parenting, education, books for children and moms, gifts, parties and style. MomsMaterial.com provides information on these topics and includes a forum that moms can access to ask questions or reach out with support, advice and idea.
I’ve finally recently started to create my blog. After writing a draft ebook (which I will publish and sell on my blog). And I’m really enthusiastic about Darren’s 31 Days program. I’m hoping it will turbocharge my efforts.
Anyway, here is my Elevator Pitch for TexasHoldemInvesting.com:
Short:
Learning to Invest with Texas Holdem Poker
Longer:
Did you know that it was possible to actively learn how to invest without having to read lots of dry investment books and while playing one of the world’s most popular card games – Texas Holdem Poker. Well it is possible. And TexasHoldemInvesting.com is the place to learn how. TexasHoldemInvesting.com promotes the Texas Holdem Investing method of teaching people how to invest using the medium of Texas Holdem Poker. Texas Holdem Poker provides a unique environment to help investors of all levels learn how to acquire the critical skills for successful investing.
I’d be happy to get feedback from any members of the 31 days program.
Here’s my elevator pitch!
Short: “Helping you discover useful & powerful Internet tools”
Longer version: I want to help new internet users from being frustrated by helping them discover useful & powerful Internet tools. I was new and understand the importance of seeing how to use Internet tools step by step. I will show you how to set up a strong foundation, communication, build a blog, build a list, promote through social media, and ultimately be able to gather unlimited leads while making money on line through Internet Marketing. Are you ready to get started?
My elevator pitches for my blogs are as follows:
For My Funny Dad, Harry blog at http://www.karenzemek.blogspot.com:
This blog is about my dad and the book I wrote about him in his memory shorty after he died. I miss him so much and by writing about things he did keeps his memory alive for me. He was funny, kind, and a cat lover who even built a hotel for the stray cats in the neighborhood and had it on his porch!
For my Karen & Gerard Zemek blog at http://www.zemeks.blogspot.com:
This is a personal blog that shares about our lives and our views on things including book reviews, home improvement, our cats, spirituality, things we learn and some humor. If you want to know what’s happening in our life in Parma, Ohio, we cover it on this blog.
Thanks for this! I’ve been trying to re-establish my blog this year with a new focus, and this has really helped me to put into words what I’m trying to blog about!
My post on this is here: http://taliacarbis.com/2009/04/10/31dbbb1
Dear Daren,
This is my first time to enlist in a blogging course and I want to make the most of this to improve my blog and bring it to a higher level. Kindly give me your opinion if my about us page a good elevator pitch.
My about us message:
This site is focused to promote sharing of information on free money-making skills in home business, agribusiness, franchising and direct-selling.
Likewise, it is committed to make entrepreneurs and would be entrepreneurs better informed, more knowledgeable and educated on entrepreneurial issues, successful entrepreneurs and events of general interest to the business community, among many others that can help propel and strengthen Filipino entrepreneurial spirit and develop small and medium enterprises to become a strong backbone for Philippine economic growth.
Here is the url: http://entrebankph.com/about-us/
Thanks and God bless!
I wrote the elevator pitch on my ‘About’ page and it worked. I had a few more people sign up for feeds.
Great post. I changed my short pitch on MarketingClimber.com to:
“Helping young professionals scale the corporate marketing world.”
I signed up late so here I am. What a fantastic series. I’m excited to have some forced focus on these topics.
I’m pretty happy with my tag line (for the moment.)
Tea Pages
Tea reviews, industry news, and random musings about my life. Grab a cup and read on.
My slightly longer description would be:
Tea Pages is a blog dedicated to making tea interesting and accessible to all. We offer reviews of tea, industry news, product announcements, and interviews with important people in the world of tea. Tea is our passion and we hope to make it yours as well.
I’m a little late getting into the game as I was super busy this week on other projects, but this looks like it’s going to be fun a super productive for my side project.
My Elevator pitch for MikeGreenFan would be simple because it’s a very focused blog. I’m not sure how to create interest but I like to keep it fresh with recent news. My current one would be… A site dedicated to the best offensive defenseman in the NHL since Coffey, Bourque and Orr, Mike Green!
It’s so interesting that the rules are the same whether you are trying to create an online business or something offline.
Kawasaki discusses this “elevator pitch” concept in “The Art Of the Start”. Simply, you own grasp of your business, or blog in this case, needs to be so tight that you can explain it quickly and concisely.
This immediately identifies your target market, and in doing so makes your own job of “selling” to them a lot easier.
Its funny that the more elaborate business ideas/concepts are often hard to explain- convincing me that its going to be hard to materialise.
My advice, keep it simple.
Very helpful post Darren,
Thanks.
Dave
I’m only 3 days late, but here’s my elevator pitch.
Short version: More than just a mom and a wife.
Long version: Graceful Creative serves two purposes. First, it is a journal of my personal journey to redefine myself. Secondly, it serves as an inspiration for other women to reclaim their inner beauty, and become more than watered-down versions of themselves.
I’d love any feedback!
I’m a couple days behind on my blog homework but I’ve been reading the lessons each day and giving them thought. So, here’s my pitch:
We’ve found that a lot of people believe that change needs to happen in our world and the want to help – but they don’t know how. They’re overwhelmed with life and don’t know what to do.
With our blog, we hope to provide some easy ideas around small things that families can do to make a difference. Small things add up to something big – small changes can have impact. Change becomes change and we want to inspire a little change.
I am also late, hope to catch up…
Today I have to finished all 3 assignments:-
Short version (I will be more focus on this latter on..)
“Professional sales letter for non-professional writer”
NLPmindPower is to share how to write powerful sales letter and landing pages to leverage the power of hypnotic suggestions and commands to persuade customer.
No pitch yet but many thoughts on the topic in my post, “In Need of a Pitch!”
http://www.lisarosendahl.com/journal/2009/4/10/in-need-of-a-pitch.html
From the beginning of my real estate career I have had the tagline “Jump into Greener Pastures.”.
Charlottesville Virginia is an area of rolling hills, mountain views and green pastures making it the perfect area in which to buy a Virginia horse farm or country home. Any time that you are considering selling your existing horse property or country home and searching for a new place to live you are looking for someplace that better suits you changing needs, in other words a move to greener pastures.
This blog is about everything involved with Virginia horse farms and Virginia country life that makes the Central Virginia horse country an area with the perfect greener pasture for you to move to.
This is the basic idea but now I need to work on the wording.
Great starting point Darren. I have used an elevator formula that has worked well. First, you catch a person’s interest and engage them. “Do you know how (fill in the benefit you provide) The other person says, “Yes.” Then you add, “Well (fill in what you do.)” If you have caught their attention, the other person will then ask, “How do you do that?” Now, you they are asking you about your business!
Sample: “Do you know how more and more people are buying things on the internet?” “Yes.” “Well I show small business owners how they can get many of those new internet sales!”
Thanks Darren! This is great and just what I needed to actually use my blog!
Short version: The Library-More Than Just Books!
Longer version: I’ve created a library full of thirteen project-based literacy centers covering 21st century skills encouraging independent thinking!
Short Version: Your Anti-Mediocre Blogger
Long Version: Did you know Mediocrity is NOT in your D.N.A.? This blog is for those who will not settle for being mediocre.
http://jessemuhammad.blogs.finalcall.com
Thanks for the great task for day one. I loved it and did an elevator pitch for my first post. Thanks again
LosEvolution – An Adult View to Technology and Life
Long Version: A collection of individual thoughts and a strong perception on technology and the inpact it has on life. Along with random thoughts about life and what comes of it.
A Christian perspective of the world we live in. (Short tag maybe too broad)
Thehumblecoach is about a middle class man’s Catholic Christian view of the world and events that shape our lives.
Thanks for challenging my thinking again Darren!
I’m a bit late too as I was out of town. I’m a few months into my blog and things seem to be going well, but of course there’s always room for improvement. Here’s my pitch:
Food and travel writer Amy Rosen chronicles her unique culinary experiences through prose and photos. Sometimes with recipes, sometimes without.
http://thenationalnosh.blogspot.com/
Hey Darren
This is great – really looking forward to the rest of the course.
My business is called Fat Girl Trim and my tag line is Feel Totally Fabulous.
My elevator pitch is….
I used to be really overweight and as you can see now… I’ve learnt a few tricks to shed weight easily and effortlessly, kick the dieting habit for good and create true freedom around food. Now I spend my time teaching, inspiring and empowering women all over the world how to feel totally fabulous and live lives that they love…..
Hi Darren:
I am a newbie blogger, and I don’t have a blog yet.
I am still constructing/writing about one … “global-warming”.
But after reading thru this 1st day write-up, about “elevator-pitch” and the recommended points, that one shd observe, when writing one, e.g. that it should solve a problem …. My elevator pitch for my blog becomes as follows:
Globalwarming: A threat or an opportunity?
Thank you for your Day #1 reading material. It is an eye-opener for me.
Best,
Pudjo.
New elevator pitch:
Build your custom dream home. A step-by-step example for the new owner builder.
Thanks for the motivation here. I’ve done elevator pitches for my book, etc., but honestly didn’t think about doing one specifically for a blog.
Late, but hope not least :)
I’m writing on notaniche.com everything what’s about my life. Because it’s Not A Niche!
I also like to distribute tips and tricks to the blog community mainly in web and design. Furthermore have some suggestions and tips for your daily life. You also can find some posts about music and movies I like or fun stuff.
My life is diversified, so is my website. :)
Didn’t take the time to read all 800 comments, but here’s a thought. A great place for your elevator pitch would be your meta description tag. Search users will see this and if you want a quick sell, they’re the best ones to use it on.
This was enormously helpful in making me focus on my blogging strategy and what I’m really doing with my Coffee Break blog (I’ll be applying some of this to my other blogs later!) I refined my blog tagline to Coffee for the Rest of the World
and wrote up an elevator pitch for prospective advertisers:
Coffee Break is a blog where I share my passion for all things coffee-related in a voice that’s appreciative of the non-coffee-snobs like me. It appeals to a wide spectrum of people who are looking for information about coffee and its affect on their health, their lives and the world. From how-to’s to coffee-maker reviews, Coffee Break is appealing to both social bloggers and those searching for information about specific products. The blog has a small, but devoted and growing following and pulls regular traffic from all major search engines.
Short and Sweet:
Your source for everything “fence”.
I like the shorter version as it is easy to remember.
Keith
Starting late because of my job but I really enjoyed this first task and plan to catch up and KEEP up! Thanks for this one!
Simply Dazzling Events blog
short elevator ride:
Wedding planning advice plus lifestyle & wedding eye candy!
long elevator ride:
Wedding planning advice plus wedding & lifestyle eye candy? Getting married and trying to keep your head from spinning into outer space is next to impossible. Brides have got the etiquette questions and we’ve got the answers! Brides want the wedding & lifestyle eye candy and we’ve got the goodies. Simply Dazzling Events blog features inspiration board Mondays, anything goes Tuesdays, Eco Friendly Wednesdays, DIY Thursdays, Eye Candy Fridays and more. Everything the stylish bride needs for her wedding and thereafter.
__________
I’m so glad I’m doing the 31DBBB challenge !!
My blog is more of a mag than a trad. blog but it combines both elements. Here is my go:
Tag: Cherry Mag – fresh, beautiful and good for you.
Pitch: Cherry Mag is an online mag for women who want to get everything out of life.
What do you think?
Trying to catch up…
My site is called Wired and Tired – here’s a stab at a short elevator pitch:
Helping parents harness the power of technology and media to connect with their kids.
I’m not really sure that’s as clear or catchy as it needs to be, but the exercise itself was very helpful in getting me to focus. Thank you so much for doing this!
My Pitch: “Change the world’s thinking”