I've been reading Steve Pavlina's blog a lot lately. He's had some posts that have resonated quite a bit. How to get from a 7 to a 10. He's also posted how he's done with goal settting for the first six months of the year.

I had a discussion with a financial planner this morning. He's seeing that having a blog provides a reference point for clients to see his expertise on a regular basis, for new clients to research information, and a low key way for him to stay in touch with potential clients. There's the same benefit for Steve.

I recently met someone on a plane who runs a major speaking business, working with speakers with global appeal. Steve's current goal is to become a paid public speaker, and he's found someone locally to support him in that. I'd be willing to write an intro note for him, if he wanted to meet the person I had met. That's a contact that might be able to offer some useful tips, and/or be extremely valuable down the road. It's easy to envision a scenario where they have a motivation speaker unable to make it to Vegas, and need someone last minute who lives there...you never know, but if the contact isn't made, it'll never happen...it's how Les Brown got started...It's another nice example of how networking on the Internet can take you new places :)

From the financial planning person's perspective, one of the key elements that would make a blog so much more successful than a website, is that you can publish information that people will be actively searching out. I realize you could have an "articles" series on the website, but for someone just starting out in understanding the online world, they're really likely to get sold a website that's just a version of their brochure or folder of information that they distribute. Most people who then go to the site, whether from advertising, business card, or friends mention will give it very little time.

However, if they see articles/posts on topics like "What do with windfall real estate profits", "Keys to executing a 1031 exchange and not getting audited", they're a lot more likely to stay if the topics resonate. Not only that, but with targeted advertising and word of mouth, you're a lot more likely to get people that have a problem, and are researching it. Those people are far more likely to be clients, than someone who just happens to be browsing through the site.