Personal Branding Rules to Being Popular and Profitable

1. Be loud and opinionated

Some people just can't over-tweet or make too many videos. Their audiences are huge, and people pay attention every time they open their mouths. Even if you don't love everything a loud person says, you have no choice but to listen. They invite conflict and debate and don't care whether you like them. 

2. Teach

The best way to help elevate yourself is to elevate those around you.

Give until hurts. Teach everything you know. Teach your secrets. Walk people step-by-step through what you do and how you do it. Make your failures just as public as your successes. Use every lesson in your life as good advice.

Remember: Nobody listens to the silent expert. 

3. Break all the rules

Productive people are too busy knocking over barriers to help their audience to waste time on rules. They don't have time to ask whether they are doing it the "proper" way or not. One of the worst things you can do is look at somebody else's rule list and apply it to your marketing. No two people or companies are the same. Determine what your mission is and goals are. Then make up your rules along the way. 

4. Have no shame

Sometimes, people are afraid to share their knowledge because they don't want to seem arrogant. They might not want to making a scene over a controversial topic. But, if you don't speak up on your expertise, people will turn to the guy who does.

I stopped being embarrassed a long time ago. I know I am going to look like a fool part of the time. I am going to make mistakes. That said, I'd much rather come crashing through the wall than cower in the corner when it comes to being an expert in my field. 

5. Monetize, baby

If a large online following always equated to money, the world would be full of instant millionaires. This is definitely an area of business where the 80/20 rule applies. 80% of the money online is being made by 20% of the people. How do you start the revenue flowing? How do you take 10,000 YouTube subscribers and make it rain money? Get them off YouTube ASAP and over onto your email list. Then, give them something to buy. Make something cheap for people that don't have much money and make something else expensive for people that love you and have $1000 burning a hole in their pockets. As soon as you see your traffic and online following start to grow, develop products to make their lives better. 

6. Own your platform

One of the most important pieces of internet advice I give out: Do not build your empire on rented land. The bitter reality about social media that most people seem to forget is that you don't own your social media information. You don't own any of your followers. I've seen Facebook fan pages with 50,000 followers get shut down with no explanation and no recourse.