Get Ready…. Get Set….. BLOG!

Blogging — there may be no better way to start branding yourself.

Why?  Because it's written by you, with your own personal flavor.

How to get started blogging?  It's unbelievably simple.  Everything is done for you except the ideas.

I usually recommend for my new team members (with no prior blogging experience) that they choose either one of two blogging platforms:

• Blogger - simple format and structure.  Great if you want to promote your business in your blog.  Not very flexible in terms of themes and plugins.

• Wordpress.com — the beginner's form of Wordpress, this is a great blogging platform that allows a lot of flexibility in terms of plugins and themes.  But one word of warning – DO NOT blatantly promote your business or product on Wordpress.com — they will DELETE YOUR BLOG.  Take it from experience!

There are more advanced options for those with more expanded blogging needs, but that is beyond the scope of this post.  For further information, I recommend you go to Wordpress.org.

The best way to discuss how to get started blogging is to answer the most frequently asked questions I get from my new team members:

What should I talk about? What shouldn't you talk about is the better question.  You can talk about anything, but my advice to new bloggers is always the same — MAKE IT PERSONAL.  Make it about you, your experiences, your dreams, your goals.  Make it about something new you learned today.  Make it about a book you read, or a movie you saw.  Let people get to know you.

But if I talk about me, how will they know about my business? Let's back up for a minute.  You DO have a choice.  You can go to Blogger, set up a blog, and promote your business like your life depended on it.  Or you can promote YOURSELF by letting people get to know you.

I prefer the latter, although I have 2 blogs, one for each purpose.

If you get stuck for something to talk about, discuss the latest mindset book you are reading (you should always be reading one) and how it relates to your life, dreams, or goals.

How will they find your business?  Next question.

What do I put in my profile (or the About Me section)? THIS is where you can get people to take  a look at your business.  Tell more about yourself, the story of how you got to where you are today, and provide a link to your primary business (or wherever else you want to send them).

People naturally want to see who is writing this great blog, so don't skimp on the profile. You would be surprised how many people click on my profile to see who I am.  I do it all the time when I read someone's blog.  It's human nature.  It's also where you'll get them to look at your business.  TIP:  ALWAYS include a picture in your profile.  People want to see the real you, not a caricature.

How will people find my blog? Great question.  In the most basic terms, the answer lies in writing good content on your blog.  But you can help the process along.  Every time you write new content on your blog, you should "ping" it.  This means notifying one (or all) of the blogging index tools that you've added to your blog.

I prefer either Technorati.com or Pingomatic.com.  Either one is very simple to use, and each will notify all the other index tools that they should index your blog.

One more tip:  Make sure you have a way for your readers to subscribe to your blog. The most common way to do this is to have a Subscribe feature on your blog (Technorati is a favorite here).  It comes standard on Blogger, and you can add it to your Wordpress.com blog with little problem.  Just make sure you do it.  This way, people can subscribe to your blog, get notified of new posts, and you've got yourself a loyal follower.

How often should I blog? There is no standard answer for this, but I usually blog at least 3-4 times per week (unless I'm doing a Blogging Special, where I blog EVERY DAY!).  The key here is consistency. Set a schedule and stick to it.  Once a week, twice a week, whatever you choose. But stick to a schedule, or you'll find yourself going weeks between blogging posts, and your momentum is lost.

That's the key folks — Build Momentum with your blog.  That comes with adding content on a regular basis, and keeping your readers interested in what you're saying.

Blogging can be a very efficient and, at times addictive way for you to develop a loyal following and get free leads for your primary business opportunity.

If you like to write and you enjoy sharing, Blogging may be just what you are looking for!

To your Success!

Remember I said I had 2 blogs?  Check out my new blog on Blogger.

Not knowing what to expect, we finally found a parking space and approached the front door.

From the outside, this place looked like a tiny hole-in-the-wall, really rundown. Slowly we opened the door….

And what we saw astounded us. We stood at the back of a magnificently large church, with rows and rows of pews leading up to a stunning alter decorated to the max for Christmas. Beautiful poinsettias, Christmas wreaths, candle displays, and a wonderfully hand-crafted large Nativity scene.

Those of you who know me personally understand that I am not easily shocked, but this place was breathtaking.

But as wonderful as the place looked, there was a sadness because, with this grand church so large it could easily hold 700-800 people, there were only 12 people (including us) attending the mass. To make it worse, everyone was spread out, mostly towards the back, making this magnificent Church look even emptier than it already was.

As the Mass started, I was anticipating a "quickie". With this few people in attendance, I figured the priest would move quickly through the mass ritual, give a half-hearted superficial homily, and be done with it. I figured 30 minutes at the most.

But I was wrong. This mass, small as it was, was celebrated as if it was Cardinal Egan performing midnight mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral. The priest gave it his all, performing each prayer and ritual with a painstaking attention to detail.

And his homily was strong, a wonderful Christmas message of hope, faith, and charity. The organist, an older woman with a beautiful voice, sung every song as if she was singing to a church full of parishioners. The people collecting the offering performed their ritual with great detail and a smile for everyone they met. It was truly a remarkable experience.

As I was leaving and remembering the event, I started thinking how dedicated these loyal followers of Christ were to the success of their church. It didn't matter to them how many people attended the mass. What mattered was that they put out their very best effort to give the people who attended the very best experience.

It's the same with your home business. It's easy to work hard and long when the results are pouring in… when sales are up, leads are flowing, and your are working under a positive cash flow.

It's another thing to maintain this level of dedication and work ethic when things aren't going so well in your business. When you put days in to planning and executing your PPC campaigns, writing articles, providing great content in your blog, or researching possible sites for banner ads — yet see no results.

These are the times when working even harder is ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL.

I've heard people say that LONGEVITY is a key to success in online marketing. And part of that success involves working through the down periods until you start to see the fruits of your labor.

It's very easy to quit — tempting, even — and most people WILL QUIT.

But for those who don't, for those that work through the hard times, when nothing seems to be working even though you're doing the right things, the benefits are worth waiting form.   We've all been there. We've all felt the tug at our sleeve to give it up, to cut our losses, to go back to the "safe" life that we've known for many years.

If you are going to succeed in this industry, you MUST ignore these impulses to quit when times are tough. You must keep pushing on, like the priest at this mass of 12 people, as if the positive results are just around the corner.

It's the ONE QUALITY that all successful network marketers share.

It will not surprise me if I were to return to this same Mass next year, and be greeted by a standing room only congregation of avid followers. For when you keep pushing, working through the tough times, its only a matter of time until prosperous times abound.

One of the biggest questions I get from my new team members is this:

"Bob, what on Earth do I talk about?"

It's a great question really, because there is a lot of GARBAGE out there in Videoland.

I mean, really!  If I hear one more talking head pitching his business like the old "Crazy Eddie" commercials in the 70's and 80's (I am dating myself, here), I might just shut off my computer for good.

These people are missing the whole point of video marketing.

And it is the BIGGEST MISTAKE that most newbies make when doing Video Marketing:

THEY PITCH THEIR BUSINESS.

So what should you do and what should you talk about?

It's an easy rule to remember:  ALWAYS PROVIDE VALUE IN YOUR VIDEOS.

And the second rule is:  BE YOURSELF AND PUT A PERSONAL TOUCH IN TO YOUR VIDEOS.

There is a very simple formula when making an effective video:

STEP ONE:  Identify a PROBLEM

STEP TWO:  Explain how YOU experienced this problem and what the consequences were to you.

STEP THREE:  Provide a SOLUTION to the problem.

STEP FOUR:  Give a CALL TO ACTION

Continue the story on my Truth and Nothing But the Truth in Network Marketing Blog.

Distractions can kill your network marketing business.  No doubt about it.

Welcome to Day 13 of the 30 Tips in 30 Days Blog Special.

Today's topic is on DISTRACTIONS.  It would be impossible to list all the distractions that can cut into your productivity as a budding entrepreneur, so I am going to limit this blog post to the TWO that I consider to be the most prevalent and most draining on your business.

You see, the people who make the most money in this industry are the ones who, among other things, are LASER FOCUSED on their business activities.  They are masters at time management and, most importantly….

They run their business, their business doesn't run them.

Think about that for a minute, and think about your present situation.

Are you managing your time effectively and getting the most productivity out of your day?  This becomes even more important if you are doing your business part-time, where being organized is absolutely essential.  When you only have 2-3 hours a night to work on your business, you damn well better make them count.

From my experience in the industry, the two biggest productivity killers are:

Email and Phone Calls

Be honest.  How many people are slaves to their emails?  How many of you check your email dozens of times per day?

I know I used to.

Not anymore.

Same with the phone.  Whenever the phone rang, I would be the first to answer it.  With the advent of Caller ID, I might be more selective, but if it was a business-related call I would ALWAYS pick up.

Again, not anymore.

Why?

Because in order to be productive, you need to block out significant blocks of time to work in any one area.  That means no disruptions and no distractions.  And the primary disruptions in today's society and email messages and phone calls.

I was listening to a friend of mine and a top earner in the industry, Greg Davison talk about this very subject in a company webinar tonight.  Greg had these guidelines about emails and phone calls that I would like to share with you.

• Go through your email messages only ONCE PER DAY, usually at the end of the day.

• Spend only 30 minutes at the most on email each day.

• Answer your email as succintly as possible, preferably in 3-4 sentences, and move on.

• NEVER pick up the phone unless you have scheduled a call back from a prospect or team member.

• Schedule a 30-60 minutes block each night, or every other night to return phone calls.

These are great tips from Greg and I follow them religiously.

They have effectively increased my producivity at least 10 fold.

Here is one more tip from Greg that I would like to share…. when you get your mail out of the mailbox each day, don't open it.  Scan through it, open only extremely emergent letters (which should be extremely rare), and put them on a shelf somewhere.

Open all of your mail once a week.  Pay any bills necessary or perform any followup at this time.

Another great time saver.

Thanks, Greg for these great insights.  And thanks to my loyal readers for all your great ideas.

If you have any other great time-saving tips, please comment so you can share them with everyone.

To your productivity!

Bob

Welcome to Day 12 of the '30 TIps in 30 Days' Blog special — one Business or Marketing Tip for each day of the month of December.  Today we turn our focus squarely on Marketing.

Sidenote:  I am spending the day at a special workshop with Jay Kubassek, Aaron Parkinson, Dennis Karganilla, Jimmy Davis, and Howie Schwartz who will be doing one-on-one coaching with Rosemary and I.  Yes, it WAS expensive, but we know that any money we spend taking advantage of this offer will be DWARFED by the financial returns we will see because of what we learn.

It's all about INVESTING IN YOUR BUSINESS, guys.

Because we will be at this event all day (and then to the Carbon Copy Pro Holiday Party later tonight), I am going to make this short and sweet….

Are you getting Social Networking all WRONG?

Why do I ask this?  Because I am amazed when I go to social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter how many people I see blasting broadcasts about their business. Just amazing.

You see, these people don't get the point of Social Networking.

It's NOT about selling your business products or opportunity.

It's about BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS and developing TRUST.

So here is my Marketing Tip for the Day:

When using Social Networking sites, NEVER lead with your business.  In fact, don't even mention it.  Start getting to know people on a personal basis.  Develop a relationship OVER TIME, and the rest will follow.  Don't force things.

Everyone on these sites who are interested in "networking" have their own agenda with their own opportunity.  Trying to force your opportunity down their throats will strictly result in regurgitation.

And you'll generally have nothing to show for your efforts.

Until tomorrow, be healthy and happy… the weekend is almost here!

Bob

Take a look at my newest blog!

Welcome to Day 11 of the "30 Tips in 30 Days" Blog Special.  I had originally intended at this point in the series to go right in to tips for using specific marketing methods.  But a slight diversion first.

A few days ago, I wrote of the importance of developing the "millionaire mindset" in order to succeed in your home business venture.  Today, I would like to take it a step further.

If you get nothing else out of this post, get this…

What goes on between your ears is more important than anything else in determining whether you will be a success or failure in anything in life.

Last night, I was listening to one of the top earners in my company talk about this very thing.  He talked about "Getting Out of Your Own Way."

David's premise (and I agree with it) was that we have all been preconditioned to believe in certain ways.  This conditioning has likely been taking place since your early years and is supported by experiences in your present day life.

Thoughts are more powerful than anything else in determining how you feel about yourself and how much success you will experience in your life. For the network marketer, thoughts like "I'm no good at this", "No one wants to buy from me", and "I'm not qualified to lead my team" translate into reality very quickly.

The subconscious mind is a very powerful thing.  Once you plant these thoughts in your subconscious, they work 24/7 to make these thoughts your reality.

But there is hope!

David outlined 4 strategies for improving your mental conditioning:

1).  Increase your knowledge every day.  The amount of time you spend doing this is not important. It is the consistent effort, day after day that is important.  Exercise your mind by learning something new daily.

2).  Constantly question your realities and your beliefs. This is very powerful.  When doubts come across your mind, question their validity.  Are they REALLY true? How do you know?  For example, if you are getting ready to speak to a prospect and your mind fills with the usual self-talk like "This person won't be interested in joining my team", STOP right then and there and QUESTION it.

How do you know this person won't be interested?  Is it really true that your prospect won't value you or your opportunity?  This constant questioning will begin to condition your subconscious to change the chatter going on in the background.

3). Structure a new social influence.  Who you spend time with and hang out with is HUGELY important.  It's just as your mom and dad used to tell you.  Who your friends are goes a long way to defining who you are.  Take a good hard look at your social circles.  Do these people have the dreams or realities that are consistent with yours?

I'm not saying that you need to dump all your current friends.  Just be very careful who you spend time with.  Don't hang out with people who are "dream crushers". If possible, find people who are "walking the walk" and getting the kind of results you aspire to in your life.  This goes for business and personal results.

4). Read and/or listen to affirmations every day. First, make a list of your most dominating doubts, those that pop up at every turn to tell you that you can't succeed for this reason or that.  Every time you notice one of these doubts surfacing, stop and write it down.  Question this doubt as in Step 2.

Write some positive aspirations to counteract these doubts. In the example I gave before, the self-doubt "I am not qualified to lead and coach new team members" should be reworked in to the affirmation, "I AM qualified to be a great coach and team leader." Then to back it up, make it a point to learn something every day about being a great team leader (see Item 1).

Repeat this process with every self-doubt that surfaces.

Now, make some copies of this list and post it in places you will see throughout your day. Put a copy on your computer, on your refrigerator, on your bathroom mirror, in your car… wherever you are likely to see it.  Then look at your list whenever you pass by.  You don't have to study it.  Just acknowledge the items on the list.

Your subconscious will take care of the rest.

I strongly urge you to ACT on this post.  Don't just read it, put it into action.

Here's wishing you only positive and productive thoughts!

Bob

Welcome to Day 10 of the "30 Tips in 30 Days" Business and Marketing Tips blog series. The first 10 days have focused on organizing a new business and developing the proper mindset for running your new venture.

Today we will start talking about Marketing.

The first thing necessary to becoming a proficient marketer online and offline is to develop a profitable marketing strategy.

I have broken this process down into 4 steps:

Step One:  Define Your Target Market

Who are you marketing to?  You can't begin to develop a marketing strategy without asking this fundamental question.  Think about your target market.  Really take some time and define this niche.  Get into as much detail as possible.  Ask yourself questions like:

• What do they do for a living?
• How old are they?
• What do they do for fun?
• Where do they live?
• What sites online do they visit?
• What are their likes and dislikes?
• What do they wear?
• What are their habits?

Ask any other relevant questions to more closely define your target market and record them in your business journal.   This is the first step in developing a viable and profitable marketing strategy.

After all, if you don't know who you are selling to, you'll just be shooting in the dark with your marketing.

Step Two:  Declare Your Marketing Goals

What are the goals of your marketing plan?  Again, be specific and record everything in your business journal.

• How much money are you looking to ultimately make each month?

• How many leads will you need each week to meet these goals?

• What would you do with this kind of money?

• How would your life change?

• Visualize that life in as much detail as possible.

Step Three:  Determine Your Marketing Budget

Put quite simply, how much are you willing to spend each month to reach your financial goals?

Are you willing to spend some money upfront to get your marketing strategy going on the right foot?  Are you willing to invest in training that will help you move your business forward?

Be honest here.  If your marketing budget is limited, it's okay.  There are ways to market and build your business on a shoe string budget.

Check out these FREE VIDEOS by Mike Dillard of Magnetic Sponsoring for ideas on how to market on a limited budget .

But as a general rule …

The more money you can invest in your marketing, the faster your business will grow.

Step 4:  Decide HOW You Want to Market

There are plenty of options here:

• Online versus offline marketing

• Direct mail marketing

• Purchased leads (not generally recommended)

• Pay-per-click advertising

• Social networking

And many others.

The keys here are to determine what you like to do and how much money you have to invest in your business. For example, purchased leads, direct mail marketing, and pay-per-click advertising tend to be more expensive forms of marketing than lower budget options such as blogging, social networking sites, and article writing.

Deciding what you like to do, and accessing what you are good at will go along way to determining what your marketing strategy should be.

For example:

• If you are good at writing, you will want to obtain leads with article marketing.
• If you like making videos, than YouTube will be for a great way for you to gain business exposure.
• If you are very analytical, then Pay-per click will be right up your alley.

You get the idea.  Match your talents with the type of marketing that best suits you and will help you achieve your business goals.

So there you have it.

The 4 D's of Developing a Profitable Marketing Strategy.

Determining your marketing strategy up front BEFORE you start marketing will save you a lot of money in the long run.

To your unlimited prosperity!

Bob

Check out my Primary Business Opportunity and my New Blog!

Yesterday we talked about the reasons people fail at MLM and Direct Sales.  Today I will give you some strategies for coping with the inevitable feeling that you want to quit.

Welcome to Day 9 of my 30 Tips in 30 Days Holiday Special featuring one business or marketing tip during each day in December.

As I said yesterday, over 95% of people in the MLM/direct sales industry will quit. 

How do you avoid becoming one of the statistics? 

1. Start your home business with your eyes wide open.  Understand that nothing in this life is free, whether it involve money, time, or both. 
   
   
2. Understand from the very beginning that your new business is a BUSINESS and should be treated as such.  As with any business, it will involve your blood, sweat, and tears to make it work.  Oh, and it will also need your money.
   
   
3. Understand that, like anything you do that is new, you will need to develop specific skill sets in order to be successful.  And here is the bottom line….

The sooner you acquire these skill sets, the faster your business will be successful.

Wow!  I wish I had realized that when I first started!  It would have saved me a lot of time and aggravation. 

Having said all of the above, I can guarantee you one thing…..

There WILL be times when you feel like QUITTING.  It will seem too hard, too expensive, too much time away from your family, and just plain old not worth it.

Everyone goes through these times and has these feelings.  EVERYONE!

And usually more than once. 

I know I’ve personally felt the urge to quit about a 3-4 times since I started with my newest business venture a year ago.  Sometimes its due to a time factor, but usually its due to a certain frustration I am having with something not working. 

Whatever the reason, here are some things that I have found helpful to get you through the rough patches.

When you feel like quitting:

• Find someone to talk to.  This is the biggest recommendation I can give you.  Pretty much everyone has a sponsor.  It’s usually the person who signed you up when you joined.  Call that person.  If they are not helpful, ask them who their up line is, and call that person.  Keep going up the line until you find someone who can talk you off the ledge.
  

• Learn a new skill.  When I am feeling particularly frustrated at something not working in my business, I tend to change gears and learn something new.  Learn a skill that will help you grow your business in a different way.  Learn to make videos, learn how to construct a great MySpace or Facebook profile, or learn the ins and outs of article writing.  Maybe take a course in communication skills so that you can better talk to your prospects.  And what I have found is, when I learn a new skill, more times than not when I come back to my original dilemma, it doesn’t seem as large or overwhelming.
  

• Take a break.  Get away from your business for a while.  Have NOTHING to do with it.  Go do something that gives you pleasure, whether it be a hobby, taking a short trip, etc.  Some time away can help you gain perspective on what is wrong and how you can go about fixing it.  Sometimes you are just too close and need to step away.

I usually use all of these strategies when I feel like quitting.  I start with taking a break, then talk with my sponsor or a friend in the business, and finally I try to expand my marketing base by learning something new.  I have found that by learning something new, I get a renewed feeling of accomplishment and it’s much easier to go back and tackle the original frustration.

The most important point?  DON’T QUIT!

Why?  Because one trait that ALL TOP MONEY EARNERS in this industry share is CONSISTENCY.  They’ve stayed in the game long enough to reap the benefits of their hard work.  I’ve seen more than one person quit right before they were ready to see great results. 

And THAT is the worst tragedy of all.

Have a great Tuesday, everyone.

Bob

I am starting a NEW BLOGbased on my primary business opportunity.  It will be a non-hyped, unbiased look at the plusses and yes, the minuses of this particular business opportunity and those like it.   Take a look, and subscribe if you wish.

Today’s post is about MLM and Network Marketing failure.  Why?

Because at many points along the road to success in this industry, I can guarantee you one thing:

You will feel like quitting!

And it order for you to avoid becoming another MLM statistic, we need to arm you with some knowledge about why people quit. In tomorrow’s post, we will discuss what to do when you feel the urge to quit.

Here is the ugly truth in MLM:

Over 95% of MLM business venture FAIL!

Why? 
Well, I had my own ideas but I decided to ask people in the industry
what they thought the main reasons were for the high attrition rate. 
You can see all the results in my Squidoo lens.

Today I will talk about what I consider to be the top 3 reasons that people fail in Network Marketing.

REASON 1:  UNREALISTIC EXPECTATIONS

By far the biggest reason for people quitting network marketing is, paradoxically, their very high expectations
of the kind of success they will have and the time it will take them to
achieve it.  People come into the industry thinking that it will be an
easy way to make a lot of money.  They start their business thinking
that it will be only a matter of weeks, or months at the most, before
they’ll start making the kind of money that will allow them to quit
their current job.

The real truth? Unless you have prior networking or sales experience, it will take the normal person months, or even years before they start seeing the kind of results they are expecting.   In fact, most successful network marketers failed at the first MLM business they started. And the second.  In fact, for
many of the top earners out there, there were quite a few failures
before they finally learned how to be successful in network marketing.

Who is responsible for these unrealistic expectations? Sadly, most of it originates from all the hype you see out there.  You’ve all seen the ads:  “Easy Money”, “Make Huge Money Online”, and “Become Rich Online,” to name just a few.

Are these lies?  No.  There are definitely people
out there who are making a lot of money online in network marketing. 
In fact, there are A LOT of people making big money.

But they are not generally the people who are starting out for the first time.

No, the ads are not lies.  But they are misleading. At least in my opinion.

To read more, go to my Truth and Nothing But The Truth blog

Yesterday we talked about marketing to your strengths and getting the necessary training to improve upon your shortcomings. 

The second part to the question, "What kind of marketer do you want to be" relates to the kind of IMAGE you want to project to the rest of the world.

There are two ends of the spectrum when it comes to marketing:

• On one end are the people who exhibit truthfulness, integrity, and honesty in conducting their business.
• On the other end are people who want to get results ($$$) — at any cost.
• Most of us fall somewhere in between these 2 extremes.

The question you need to ask yourself is:

"How do I want to conduct MY business?" 

No one wants to admit to being anything less than truthful and honest, but the reality is that many of us get carried away trying to make a buck in network marketing.  And it's easier to get away with it, because most of our work is done online or on the phone. 

For most of us, it's a lot easier to be misleading to someone when you don't have to look them straight in the eye.

I decided early on that I placed a high value on integrity, honesty, and truthfulness.  I am a firm believer that if you run your business using these core values, your results will follow.

The results may NOT come as quicklyas they might if you take shortcuts, but I'm willing to make that trade off.

I have developed a list of MARKETING COMMANDMENTS that I do my best to follow at every level of my business. 

For the first time, I am putting them out there for all to see…

COMMANDMENT 1:  Thou Shalt Not Lie to a Prospect. 

This may seem like a no-brainer, but you'd be surprised (or maybe not) at how easy it is to slip one little lie into a conversation to make a stronger case for joining your opportunity.  If you take one nugget out of this post, it's this:   DON'T LIE.  It will come back to haunt you, guaranteed.

COMMANDMENT 2:  Thou Shalt Not Mislead a Prospect.

Similar to Commandment 1, but not as direct.  It's easy to mislead a prospect without actually lying to them.  You can do this simply by omitting a fact or two, or by evading a direct question.

This is what I mean:  You prospects asks you, "How much money have you made?" … and you answer "You wouldn't believe it if I told you!!!"  Technically not lying, but the intent is certainly to make them believe that you are making incredible money in your opportunity.

So what do you do if you have not made a single dollar and are just getting started?  Tell your prospect.  Be honest with them!  And let them know that you have a great sponsor (if you do) and a great support network that they will also have access to should they join.

To continue this post, go to my Truth and Nothing But the Truth blog