The 6 Guiding Principles of a Rockstar Online Business
Excerpted from Online Rockstar, © 2016 Barry Baz Morris
In 2016, I published an eBook called Online Rockstar: The Digital Entrepreneur’s Guidebook to Building an Online Business that Rocks!
This post is adapted from one of the chapters and still applies to online business today.
What’s a Rockstar Business?
It’s any business that places its customers, clients, readers, visitors, listeners, viewers, etc., at the heart of everything they do.
Rockstars aren’t just musicians and singers but writers, novelists, playwrights, poets, non-fiction authors, bloggers, and commercial businesses.
Examples of Rockstar businesses include Apple Computer, Harley-Davidson, Elvis Presley Enterprises, and others.
In future articles, we’ll explore more qualities common to Rockstar businesses, but today, we will review six guidelines all Rockstar businesses remember when writing to their fans, readers, etc.
1. Be Insanely Helpful
Readers won’t engage or comment on your story or article if you aren’t giving them something useful. Corbett Barr, a well-known digital entrepreneur, has a slightly different way of saying this, but the concept is the same — “Write epic shit!”
Your readers want to hear from you. So, give them something helpful in each post.
When you are accommodating, you’ll get them interested in your product and services in a hurry.
2. Be Consistent in Your Publishing Schedule
There is no hard and fast rule for publishing frequency on Medium or Substack. Many readers will depend on that consistency, which only builds further trust.
Your publishing frequency will depend on your content wheelhouse and your target audience’s expectations.
For example, subscribers will expect more frequent articles if your Substack or Medium blog is news-oriented.
Your preferences also come into play. Weekly posts might be best if you have a 9–5 job. Suppose you post weekly, fine. Just post every week.
3. Be Uniquely Informative
Being informative is more than listing bullet points to remember. It’s teaching your readers why they should do what you ask.
Your blog, articles, books, body of work, etc., is a classroom where your students gather to learn.
That means that you’re writing and teaching, and teachers have a tremendous opportunity to influence the future.
Just as your favorite childhood teacher inspired you to move forward, give your students the same.
4. Be Inspirational
Rockstars are inspirational, by definition. This can result from their star power, sex appeal, or talent. Because of this, their fans expect something from each song, book, article, etc.
Give your fans something to look forward to.
Tell them about your success, but in a way that inspires them to apply your principles and mimic your behavior.
Tell them how to do it, and gently guide them through the processes. Keep lighting the path.
5. Be Entertaining
This is perhaps the most critical aspect of writing online. Let’s face it; you’ve got competition out there.
How can you keep readers returning to your Substack or your Medium blog? Be entertaining!
Inject your real personality into each contact with a reader or listener. And, by entertaining, I don’t mean you must be a comedian or tell a joke in each newsletter.
I often inject a line about what kind of coffee I drank that morning in my GET PAID TO WRITE micro-newsletter. It’s as much a part of my personality as my introverted nature.
Make reading your column, Substack, Medium story an enjoyable experience by injecting some personality into it.
6. Be Authentic
Speaking of personality, you’ve got one, right? Let it shine through!
Steven Tyler, Axel Rose, Rod Stewart, and Mick Jagger aren’t pretending to be someone else; they are who they are.
Be who you were meant to be, no matter who that is, and your fans will honor that. They can spot a fake. Be authentic.
Be authentic and authentically you. It’s a winning recipe every time.
I’m Baz, the author of Online Rockstar and the Get Paid To Write newsletter I mentioned earlier. When you subscribe to my micro-newsletter, you’ll also receive my 6-lesson mini-course— ‘ Get Paid to Write by Teaching What You Already Know!’ Sign up here!