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. |
Great post! First day is starting off great.
I have a niche blog about the use and promotion of technology within the healthcare staffing industry.
My elevator pitch:
Conversations on technology and healthcare staffing.
Helps if you put the //
http://www.silversmyth.com/blog
See still working on it!
Day 1 has already been helpful. Thanks :-)
I’ve taken my tagline and come up with an elevator pitch which I think will be a slightly new, positive direction to take my blog in, to keep me focused, and to better interact with my readers. Of course I will consider it for a couple of days rather than rush off and change my blog.
Thanks for getting my creative juices flowing.
willblogforfood: there will always be blogs that stand above the rest…
short tagline: See the market pulse of Naperville and more
Pitch essence: How is the housing market in your neighborhood? Weekly stats udates on prices, market times and more. Great way to follow the trendings of your area.
I run two blogs with two very different foci, and yet it was the less popular blog that was easiest to write the elevator speech for.
LauraEarnest.com: Creating Sanity for Working Parents.
The more popular blog was more difficult, mainly because I didn’t know how to express what it has become:
SimpleProductivityBlog: Effective living through simplicity and productivity
Wow this got me thinking all day. Finally got it whilst walking the dog.
Leaders by Nature… develops people to be extraordinary.
Great start to the month. Really looking forward to this.
Darren
Hi! What a great post and full of quality information for beginning bloggers and experienced bloggers. I am often disappointed by the poor quality content on many blogs seeing them as, at best, thinly disguised marketing spiels.
Blog series’ or lessons are often even worse with writers scared to give anything of value away – clearly not the case here.
Gavin
p.s. My blog, GavinIngham.com – sales training & personal development for individuals & businesses serious about getting results.
@ LJ… How about
Simple Producitivy blog… makes your life simple and productive
GREAT READ! Never really thought of a elevator pitch before or a way to deliver it.
i thought of : title- personal journalism in its highest form
tag line: thoughts of a wanna-b-writter
My blog is “Your Focus” Here is my pitch.
Welcome to Your Focus. Your Focus is about addressing the needs of the whole being of the entrepreneur. Whatever your focus may be, financial planning, health, travel, business, style, philanthropy, and more, we hope to enlighten your search and interests.
We welcome your expertise, so please feel free to contribute to “Your Focus” by submitting you article to [email protected]
Enjoy!
Thank you, Darren, for another great post!
Here is my elevator pitch: “100CafeStreet.com is a Dessert Blog. Creative ideas about Sweets for the sweetest.”
Simple Thrift – Thrifty tips for today’s times
That’s my tag but you’ve got me thinking about how I follow that up. Give examples of how? Show a concrete money savings? I’m going to a writer’s conference on Saturday and you better believe that I’ll have my answers in hand by then.
Thanks for great information.
I’ve start a blog for SEO one month ago, and I say “Borned for SEO & Lived for SEO” on my tag line. Does it count?
My blog is a month and a half old, and I’ve only been following ProBlogger for a couple of weeks…Perfect timing for this 31 day course!
Needless to say, I’ll be jumping right in.
Retirement Soup: an exploration into early retirement and creative living.
Hi,Darren. I have just started my blog http://www.whatkrap.com and was looking forward to this article.
My pitch is Uncensored, Unbiased, Unplugged. The blog is about my views on things happening around me and how i add humor and wit to it. it is not a niche blog and i comment on lot of things.
twitter@karan_singh
Darren,
You are changing the blog world. I’m writing a blog for our web site and really need your help. We have a new and innovative product…now all I need to do is be able to convey the information to the world.
Our company is taking something that has become hated by many of us…the plastic bottle….and has developed a biodegradable plastic bottle. We are an environmental company making a difference, and I want to convey that to as many as possible.
Thanks for the program.
Max
Ensobottles.com
Short pitch for my blog: (WhyBuyUsedCars.com)
The How, What, Where & When of Used Cars.
Expanded Pitch:
WhyBuyUsedCars.com informs and educates the used car buyer with the best information and resources on the web – with an entertaining spin.
Thanks for this great tip, Darren.
I run a food review blog about cheap restaurants, food deals, and yummy recipes called Frugal Nosh.
My elevator pitch/blog tagline is:
“Delicious things to nibble on that won’t empty your already empty wallet.”
Any suggestions, please let me know.
What a great start! My tagline is currenlty Little People Wealth – “freebies, deals, and steals”, but it definitely needs tweeked. The SWOT analysis showed me that and now I have a kick in the butt! Thanks!
My elevator pitch:
Wow Casually Speaking is a blog for people interested in the World of Warcraft MMO. Specifically, for those interested in following a casual player’s approach to the game.
Is this kind of what you meant.
Tedra64
The blog I’m writing is not necessarily unique (http://landaudesign.blogspot.com). I actually started it because I was tired of explaining the same simple stuff to client after client. There wasn’t one place I had found online I could point my clients to, so I began the blog really to save myself time. I reference it all the time in client conversations. In the end it’s really noobie information for creating and managing website and social networks. Truly generated out of the questions I am asked by my small-business clients.
Short elevator pitch: Landau Design Blog: Tips and tricks for managing your online presence.
Long elevator pitch: The Landau Design blog is a place where clients can ask questions about creating and managing websites and social networks. The information is provided so that clients have a good understanding of what they are buying when they purchase web services, and can learn how to implement some things themselves (if they choose).
I had an interesting task trying to write an elevator pitch. I have a blog (or 5) for work purposes with clear cut goals, but I’m taking this challenge to improve my personal blog. It can be a bit random at times as I post pretty much whatever is on my mind at the moment. It doesn’t have a theme the way a “finance blog” or an “entertainment blog” would have a theme. I spent time thinking about why I write in my personal blog and what I hope to share with my readership.
I ended up writing a post with/about my elevator pitch and the 31 Days Challenge, here:
http://www.dominickevans.com/2009/04/day-1-making-my-elevator-pitch/
I tweaked my elevator pitch more than once, but I believe for now, I’m satisfied with it. Thanks for inspiring me to discover my true purpose for writing my blog. I think it will cut down on too much randomness, now that I have a definitive goal for the blog.
Thanks for the wonderful info. I’m getting ready to ride the elevator now!
My blog is a digital journal of my art and jewelry making. My purpose is to inspire other artists in their creative adventures. I write about art techniques, other artists, do art product reviews, and art tutorials.
Really liked the idea about 31 days tutorial thing, and an interesting post to start with. Surely, I will change my subtitle today or tomorrow morning as soon as I come up with. This will surely lead me to work on certain types of post, app reviews and a slight change in targeting my readers, as I write reviews sometime for noobs, sometime for intermediate type of level of geeks, but still to write something for hardcore geeks.
p.s. nice work darren.
Well – thanks for this Darren..
Here’s mine (by the way, this is something I had been meaning to do but too busy with ‘other things’ – thanks for the excuse to get it done.
******
The Hockey Writers is for the serious hockey fan that wants the Inside Scoop.
Looking for a video of your favorite player getting caught in the ‘Trolley Tracks’ or the unbelievable shootout goal by that Swedish guy? Editorials, opinions, player biographies, locker room interviews, your comments and more…
Thanks for doing this, Darren. My blog, “how to be a Christian without being a jerk!” is a teaching and encouragement tool for younger Christians looking to share the message of Jesus with those who are receptive.
elevator pitch short version:
How to be a Christian without being a jerk!
elevator pitch long version:
When you hear the word, “evangelism” do you want to run and hide? And you’re a Christian! Why would being connected to the greatest cause in the galaxies, sharing the message of hope and freedom that Jesus brings, be so awkward? There can be only one reason. You haven’t been reading “how to be a Christian without being a jerk!”
“how to be a Christian without being a jerk!” is based on a few core principles:
* Share the compassion of Jesus with everyone; share the message of Jesus with those who are receptive.
* Spend way more time dealing with what you are for rather than what you are against.
* Christianity is an astounding view of reality, and the reasonability of the Christian faith is clearly discovered through a careful, straightforward reading of the Bible.
If Jesus is who he says he is, why wouldn’t he want to connect with you?
My tag-line / Elevator Pitch:
“An actor’s attempt to create a new, distinct character every week, for fifty weeks. Video every Wednesday.”
What do you think?
The project just started last week, so check it out if you’re interested: http://50in50.wordpress.com
Very excited about 31DBBB! Thanks for doing this!
The short version of the elevator pitch (6 words) could also be your slogan.
You could stick it everywhere on your blog……will think of my own short version to publish on sportential.com
Great to be a part of this training. The idea of an elevator pitch is extremely useful, both in conversation and in marketing/publicity about one’s blog.
For studentlinc, my tagline is – “Developing lifelong leaders one student at a time.” There’s a lot packed into that statement that I can spend anywhere from 5 – 50 minutes talking about it.
Looking forward to the journey!
ThisMusicSucks.com: Showing you what is wrong with today’s music.
RealFreeBSDTips.com: Real solutions to real FreeBSD problems.
Timely article, Darren! Tonight I am teaching a workshop to a group of writers on how to deliver a “home run” elevator pitch to editors and agents. Am going to “borrow” a few of your ideas.
Laura Christianson
Twitter: @heblogssheblogs
What a great topic for day 1, many thanks Darren.
I created an elevator for my business website/blog, http://www.ctswestcork.com, without too much difficulty; but my personal blog is proving much harder.
My personal blog, http://www.davidhollingworth.com, is a real mishmash of productivity postings, reviews and just general uninformed comment so it’s really not one thing or another.
I think a lot of peoples blogs are like this (aren’t they?); but how do I create an elevator pitch for it?
Perhaps I should decided to make the blog just one thing and move everything else off the blog?
Hmmmm…. things to think about.
Just wanted to add my Thanks for this. I’ve had a very short elevator pitch for some time for my blog “Dedicated to all things Antique, Vintage and collectable” but I think its a great idea to expand it to a loner one as well.
Thinking of taking using this particular idea on my web shop
http://www.antiquesavenue.co.uk
as well as on the blog
Spent 2 hour or so to figure out the elevator pitch & the ‘About’ page. As much as I wanted to do this 2 weeks ago, finally got the urge due to the #Day 1 of BBB. Nothing too fancy for the pitch though…
“A Comprehensive Social @ Blogging Guide for Dummies”~because I think like one
Mainly because my blog is about analyzing & detailed, unique posts of the related subjects. The About page is a tough one to write. I wonder if these are ok?
So there goes the Day 1, and it’s 1:30A.M now… worth the brain storming.
Hi guys!
Well first of all I don’t classify myself as a pro blogger in the industry, particularly I blog about myself.
My short elevator pitch would be ‘Vince’s Blog, His Story, His Profile’ and it clearly explains about my daily life, routines, works and just put it into my blog. My goal is to gather more personal-based blog bloggers and share among each other.
Okay that’s what I can think of.
Great starting point for the series. If your blog is just an extension of your brand…. does it get it’s own elevator speech tweak or is it best to keep it consistent? My site is about comfortable in your own skin coaching and the blog is another look into that and visually branded similarly.
Any suggestions on if a blog needs to distinguish itself further from the elevator speech of the business itself?
Great place to start! I’m getting right on that!
Love this first assignment. Here’s my elevator pitch:
Blog: Megan’s Minute, (www.megansminute.com)
Tagline: Quirky Commentary Around The Clock.
I’m like the Consumer Reports of media except more fun. Just like we’re all consumers of toothpaste, today we’re also consumers of media: television, movies, news and online video. I rate, rank and rake over the coals. My blog targets women of all colors and if I get riled up about something, you’ll know it.
Can’t wait to see what you have for us tomorrow Darren!
I have a food blog called Delicious Dishings. The tag line I’ve been using is “A place to dish on dishes.” I’m not sure how I feel about it though, and after reading some of your pointers, I agree that maybe a question could be more intriguing, such as, “What are you dishing up?”
This really is forcing me to narrow down the point of my blog. I use it to write about new recipes I’ve tried or share meals that I’ve made up on my own or talk about restaurants I’ve been to. Sometimes I’ll highlight a new product or re-post an interesting food news article and give my thoughts on it. And I also plan to delve a bit into the history of publishing cookbooks, food books, and food magazines. Really anything food-related… so it’s hard to put that in one statement.
I am looking forward to this series very much. Unfortunately, I have not yet launched the blog that I was hoping to apply all of the lessons to. However, I will apply them to my personal blog and then also apply them once I have a chance to launch my new blog.
I see the step of creating an elevator pitch as being quite helpful as a part of the process to develop a new blog (or refine an existing one). By having something in writing, it will help me to keep my blog focused and targeted on the key topic I am covering and on what my audience’s needs are.
Darren,
Another of your great ideas. Thank you for taking us on this incredible journey. I am hoping to learn a lot from you and the community here and share a few bits of knowledge. I set up a new blog just for this purpose. it is work in progress:
http://www.tools2think.org/infotools/
Dorai
Would love some feedback on my Elevator Pitch.
My blog is Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin’?, and my tagline is “Reading is sexy.”
I have an about page, but know I need to change it. Here’s what I’ve come up with so far for my Elevator Pitch. Seems like something’s missing or not quite right, but I can’t pinpoint it myself.
Have you ever needed a good book recommendation, but didn’t know who to ask? That’s where I come in. I’m a prolific reader and will give you my honest opinion about a book. I also have author interviews, author guest posts, and general book talk. If you’re not an avid reader, I would still encourage you to hang around, because while books are my main focus, I talk about other things as well. I’m very chatty and live for the discussions that result in the comments.
I think I need to revamp my pitch.
I put the elevator pitch on the blog in the About page, but thought it may be easier for people to read it here:
Short one:
This blog will help you with tools and services for discovering, tracking, mining and visualizing information.
The longer one:
How do you discover useful information? How do you keep track of information essential to your organization? How do you track trends? How do you use information to increase innovation?
We plan to focus on information tools:
* For discovering information sources
* For tracking information,
* To detect early and emerging trends
* To validate trends,
* Every trend is an opportunity, let us find some
This exercise was extremely valuable.
Changed the name of my blog to “MusicBizGuy Speaks” and my tag line to “The New Music Business Explained & Exposed”
“Food Review with a Twist:
We here at Gimmie Something to Eat (GS2E) wanna eat your food and help those in the world who are hungry in the process.
Sound too good to be true? Well, actually too good to pass up! Send us your food to eat. We will record us eating and critiquing your product, and entertain you all the way to the food bank.
Only one dollar a day, days sold at face value. We will donate a portion of our proceeds to Second Harvest food bank. For every day sold we will donate $1, for every month that we sell out we will donate $300. If we sell out the entire year we will donate $5000.”
Tag Line:
Isn’t it about time we started thinking?
Short Pitch:
One Pretentious Bastard is a Blog where the lines between philosophy, slacking, pop culture and hard work blur.
Longer Elevator Ride Pitch:
Modernity requires us to consistently bend rules and blur lines. Given these pressures, I created this blog to help me understand where I fit in the scheme of things. By sharing my insights and experiences, and encouraging others to do the same, I believe it is possible to help us all understand who we are and our place in this world.
“Bionic Butler is a high-concept blog that explores way to improve personal productivity at home — providing uplifting solutions for very busy people.”
~Dane / BionicButler.com
Great post on one of my favorite topics. Since I find it can often be helpful to have a couple of samples to help get you started, I thought I would leave a couple of my favorite ‘template’ ideas
1 – I work with ___________(specific audience) who __________ (problem) and I show them how to __________ (solution)
Using Darren’s it might look like this:
I work with blog enthusiasts and professionals who want to increase their blogs impact and readership and I show them step-by-step how to easily optimize and market their blog to attract readers.
2 – I support ___________ (specific audience) to transition from ___________(problem) to _______________(solution).
3 – I help ___________ (specific audience) eliminate/reduce ___________(problem) in order to increase/expand ____________(solution).
Cheers – @jackalert