Charles’s note: Here’s a world-class copywriting expert who supports my view that ‘Communication is King’

By John Carlton

There’s nothing better than discovering a book by writer who knows how to get deep inside your head, so you can’t wait to get back to the book for another dose of the world he’s created. It’s even better if he’s been a prolific little dude, and there are more books lined up behind that one.

But I’m not holding my breath. I have been left at the altar, so to speak, far too many times by books with good cover blurbs (“The most riveting, ball-busting adventure I’ve read in decades!”) and no juice inside.

Really good writers are hard to find. Bookstores are crammed to the rafters with BAD writers (in case you hadn’t noticed).

Sometimes, for example, I get a hankering for some science fiction – a niche that sustained me during a gruesome adolescence – and I’ll cruise the SF aisles, randomly opening books and reading half a page.

Sci-fi novels are almost universally horrible these days. I long for the next Asimov or Bradbury. But I’m not holding my breath for that, either.

Wait. There’s a marketing lesson here.

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“You have 15 seconds. Ready… go.”

I was in a Rich Dad seminar, and a young man had been selected from the audience to come on stage for the chance to pitch his business idea to Rich Dad advisor Blair Singer. He would be rewarded $100 if he can convince Blair that his idea is good.

To simulate the real world, he was given 15 seconds.

I cringed as the poor chap tried to talk to Blair but got hammered back with rejections like “Who are you? What do you want? Why are you talking to me?”

Before he could even talk about his idea, the 15 seconds was up. So Blair gave him a second chance.

He failed again.

The young man received an encouraging applause. But for all his bravery and enthusiasm, he failed to sell his idea to get the $100 reward (though he was rewarded with Blair’s audio course on sales presentation.)

Blair Singer was teaching us a valuable lesson. No matter how good we think our product or business idea is, we won’t get anywhere if we can’t convince anybody to buy it. In other words, your ability to sell is more important than your idea.

Now think with me for a moment – isn’t that true for blogging as well? No matter how good we think our content or ideas are, we won’t succeed in getting readers to our blogs if we can’t convince anybody of their value.

Our ability to persuade and influence our readers is just as important as the content itself.

Robert Kiyosaki then came up on stage and pointed to the Communications part of the B-I triangle, which is the Rich Dad version of a solid business model. “Next to cashflow,” he continued,

“The #1 skill in business is Communications.”

In the B-I triangle, the 5 functions in the business are ranked in terms of importance from bottom up.

Cashflow forms the base, because without cashflow the business collapses. Then you have Communications that is the second highest priority.

Communications is everything you say and do. Sales, Marketing and Branding are all part of communications. The key goal is persuasion – to persuade people to do business with you.

Rich Dad says in business, Cash is King. But if you think about it, in the blogging business, cashflow is not a problem since the costs are so negligible.

This brings us to the next highest priority – Communications. Taking Rich Dad’s idea and applying it to blogging, this means for us bloggers…

COMMUNICATION is KING

Our ability to communicate our ideas and information effectively is every bit as important as the information itself, if not more important.

Because even if you put out what you think is the best content in the world, it won’t draw any readers to your blog if nobody is convinced of its value.

Just like the young man who had a great idea and tried to sell his idea on stage, your ideas won’t help if nobody is convinced of its value.

Then why do many bloggers say that ‘Content is King’?

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One of the best ways to get attention is to disagree. You and I live in an over-communicated society with millions of other bloggers, and I’ve found that disagreeing works very well in getting noticed.

Of course, I don’t mean that we should go around disagreeing with everybody for the sake of attention. That’s being an attention-seeker, and it’s undesirable.

But disagreements for the ultimate purpose of adding value to people not only gets you their attention, you can win them over as well. By the end of this article, you will learn how to win friends and influence people through disagreements.

A Word Before I Get Started…

I recently made a guest post at John Chow’s blog about Why Ideas Matter More Than You Think, and the part that got the most people talking was the statement, “Don’t apologize when people disagree with you.”

The whole idea behind this is to guard against changing opinions too much too quickly to be acceptable by others, because the blogger risk getting seen as double-minded and unsure of himself. By learning to be firm and confident with his ideas, the blogger attracts like-minded supporters.

But there’s the danger of taking this to the extreme, where the person becomes too stubborn with his own ideas. He is absolutely not open to feedback, and he fails to learn anything because his ego stands in his way. Others will start viewing the person as being arrogant and proud.

The key here is to strike a balance. You are neither weak-minded, nor are you overly hardheaded. You are right in the middle – self-assured yet open to feedback. You are an understanding person – accepting of people yet not necessarily agreeing with their opinions.

Disagreements then become great opportunities for you to gain friendships from readers and fellow bloggers. There are two different scenerios where this can happen. I’ll also share a true story to illustrate this.

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