Check Out This Big Orange!
Take a look at this big orange! Isn’t it lovely?
Now then, just what on EARTH does an orange have to do with making money online or Internet marketing?
Nothing! Absolutely nothing.
“Soooo, Glenn…. why have you posted a picture of a big orange and asked me to check it out?”
Well, I am so glad you asked! You’ll be relieved to know that there IS a point to this! (Phew!)
Â
Curiosity
Â
Unless you just stumbled across this page or you’re loyal reader who checks out everything I write, I’ll bet you were curious, right? You saw the title that said, “Check Out This Big Orange!” and probably thought something like, “What could that be about?? I have to see if he’s finally lost his marbles!”
While I suppose it’s possible that you’re a citrus fancier who just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to check out an orange, I imagine that it was more morbid curiosity that brought you here. After all, how often is it that you see invitations for you to check out a big orange on an Internet marketing blog? I’ll hazard a guess and say: never!
I reckon I’ve achieved a world first here, to be the only person in the world who has ever used an orange as a Internet marketing blog strategy!
Â
The Point
Â
Okay, just why did I adopt such an unusual, off-the-wall strategy for this post? For that reason exactly – it’s unusual and off-the-wall. Hopefully, it got your attention and piqued your curiosity.
I suppose the seed was first planted after reading an excellent blog post by my buddy, Ryan Biddulph. Just last week he published a post entitled, “10 Reasons Why Fijian Fruit Bats Would Be Absurdly Successful Bloggers“. Ryan blogs a lot and I have to admit to not always getting around to reading everything he publishes, but his is one of the blogs I visit regularly and get tons of value from.
So although I know that I am sure to get something out of whatever Ryan posts, the ‘fruit bats’ title grabbed my attention immediately. Why? Because it stood out as being different and I was curious as to what possible application he could be making. It turns out that Fijian fruit bats really would be absurdly successful bloggers! I recommend you check out his post by clicking on the link above.
What really gave me the idea for this post was after visiting another blogging buddy of mine the other day, Ashley Faulkes. His post was entitled, “Facebook Ads Case Study: How to Grow Your Email Signups“. In this case, although the title isn’t unusual or wacky, the subject matter grabbed my attention.
So I read through his post and came across a very interesting point about the use of images. I recommend you check out the post for yourself as it has some good stuff, but basically Ashley relates how he tested different ads and the one that generated the best results was one that was attention grabbing and had an enticing headline. Now that’s probably not news to you, however the interesting thing is that the image bore no relevance at all to the subject matter, yet it performed the best!
So it was then when I came up with the idea: what if, instead of trying to come up with some insightful headline for my next post, I were to just use a wacky title? I was tossing some ideas around the other day when I came across another of Ryan Biddulph’s posts: “7 Reasons Why Coaxing a 4 Inch Cockroach from my Bathroom in Fiji Made Me a Better Blogger“. Now, my initial response was, “Eww!” But I just had to find out how he was going to apply his experience to being a better blogger. Again, it grabbed my attention and piqued my curiosity.
Let’s Examine the Orange
Â
Okay, well I wasn’t actually intending to use the orange for anything other than a fun way to hopefully grab your attention, but let’s have a bit of fun, shall we? On the top of my head, off the fly – or perhaps that should be the other way around…?? – I’ll come up with some lessons we, as bloggers and/or Internet Marketers, can learn from the wonderful orange:
Just think about the outside of an orange for a moment. What is there to see? Well, it’s.. erm.. orange! Its skin is filled by tiny little bumps and indentations and usually feels a little ‘waxy’ to the touch. If it’s still attached to the tree then it will have leaves, twigs, etc attached to it and sometimes you’ll find some still attached if you buy an orange from your grocer (or these days, supermarket).
On the whole, it’s not terribly interesting to look at, it seems pretty plain and unexciting. But… what about when you cut it in half and take a look inside? Ah, that’s when we reach the real juicy bits! When you look inside of an orange you will notice an array of complex patterns and segments. These can be removed bit by bit and consumed, one piece at a time. When we eat them we’re ingesting the juice of the orange and the goodness contained therein, such as all-important vitamin C.
Have you ever looked at particular business strategy and thought, “Well I can’t see too much in that.” Sure, you may take a look at it, get hold of it, even take a sniff and get a whiff of what it may be about, but unless you actually cut it open, take a look inside and actually ingest it then it’s not going to do you much good, is it?
What happens to an orange if it’s left standing? It starts to dry up, becomes less and less desirable and, eventually, rots. The same can happen with all those courses, WSOs, tools, e-books, etc that we buy. It’s important to actually do something with them when we first get them. Otherwise they’ll begin to stagnate and they just won’t have the appeal they had when they were fresh and new.
There wasn’t necessarily anything wrong with the things we’ve bought, they were full of juice and goodness, but we didn’t open them up and try. Now, they’ve as good as dried up to us. In the case of certain tools or strategies this can even happen literally as things are constantly changing and what once was a viable strategy or useful tool may no longer be so.
What You Can Learn From This Post
Now I’m on a roll I could go on and on finding applications for what we can learn from an orange. Who knew!?
The thing is, I didn’t actually start out with the intention of making any applications. But when I just tried it then I found that there were lots of things I could find.
You can do this too. We can spend so much time agonising over trying to come up with the ‘perfect’ blog post when sometimes, all it takes is to just do something that’s the polar opposite to how we’d normally do things or what we intended to do to begin with. So here you go, there’s a challenge for you:
Your challenge (if you choose to accept it) is this: come up with something completely random or unusual and use it as the subject matter for your next blog post. When you’ve done it, come back and leave a comment in the thread below, along with the link back to your post. I’d love to see what you come up with!
Another thing we can learn is to just go with the flow. When I started this post I had no idea what I was going to write about, other than that I was going to feature an orange and that I was going to make the point about how it can be important to stand out and grab people’s attention.
So then, over to you:
What did you learn from this?
What aspects about Internet Marketing, business in general, blogging or whatever else do you think we can learn from the humble orange?
Why did you choose to check out this post? Did the title pique your curiosity?
And don’t forget, have a go at this yourself. I’m not suggesting that you should do it each time, necessarily. But give it a go and try picking some random thing to use as fuel for your next post. But not an orange – it’s been DONE! Ha! 😛
Hmm, next time I think I may talk about lemons. In fact yes, that’s settled. I might even get you to take part in a little experiment that you can do from the comfort of your armchair. You think I’m kidding? Well be sure to check back and see! REMEMBER – subscribe! And if you think that others need to know about the various marvels of juicy produce then please share. 🙂
P. S. Did you know that the colour, orange, was named after the fruit and not the other way around?
You see? You visit my site and you’re treated to general knowledge too! Oh, the wonders!
What other treats are in store for you? Well I guess that you’ll have to make sure that you bookmark my blog and subscribe to my wonderful mailing list to find out! 😉
Yep, you have definitely lost your marbles…
just kidding 🙂
You are definitely on to something here with
the curiosity factor at play. This is one very
powerful marketing technique that all of the
top marketers and gooroos have mastered.
The striking color of the orange also helps
in grabbing the attention of the reader as
well.
I see that you are really stepping up your
game when it comes to this blogging stuff!
Keep up the great work my friend…
I’ll be stopping by more often as it seems
that I have been missing out on a lot of
valuable content in my absence…
Talk soon,
Terry
Terry Henry recently posted…Effective List Building Strategies: Building A More Responsive List
Hey Terry,
Hehe, there are some who would say that I had no marbles to lose in the first place! 😛
I’m definitely trying to step up my game for sure. I think it’s more to do with my gaining more experience as I go along, both with blogging itself and with the Internet marketing side of things. I can’t claim to be be a master but I recognise how far I’ve come since starting. I also openly admit how much farther along I could have come and recognise that there are areas in which I need to improve. It’s all a learning curve though and I’m definitely moving forward.
It’s great to see you back, Terry, I look forward to continuing to connect with you some more.
»Glenn«
Glenn Shepherd recently posted…How to Avoid Guaranteed Failure
Hey Glenn,
Great Pattern Interrupt.
It just stops people’s thoughts in their tracks and gets their attention to where you want it.
Especially if it can be the opener for a loop, and then finish the loop with a call to action at the end.
Great stuff. 🙂
Hey Ben,
Thanks, bro. I’m actually quite pleasantly surprised at how well the post turned out. In contrast to how I normally approach my blog posts I literally had no plan at all on this occasion other than that I was going to try to grab people’s attention with the orange. I just started writing on the fly and let it develop itself. Maybe it’s the songwriting side of me that went to work here. 🙂
Thanks for stopping by, as always a pleasure to have you visit.
»Glenn«
Glenn Shepherd recently posted…The Great Traffic Illusion
Hey Glenn,.
Well of course you peaked my curiosity with that title. I thought like what Ryan does that you were going to relate it to internet marketing or blogging.
I’ve seen a lot of Ryan’s headlines and the cockroach one I thought the same thing, ewwwwww. I didn’t read it though but only because I’ve been so swamped lately I haven’t had time to do hardly anything outside what was on my list. I had to get caught up and I’m happy to say that I am.
Not sure if I’ll accept your challenge only because I already know what my next three posts are going to be but you have given me something to think about. I wonder if my readers will think I’m nuts.
Thanks for the food for thought Glenn and I hope you enjoy what’s left of this week.
~Adrienne
Adrienne recently posted…The Seven Deadly Sins Of A Selfish Website
Hi Adrienne,
Curiosity piqued? Mission accomplished! 😉
I think Ryan is a true master of headlines. The only problem with that is, if I haven’t kept up with his blogging then I end up wanting to read pretty much EVERYTHING! I see a headline and think, “Ooo, that looks interesting..” then another and think, “Ooo, I wonder what that’s about?” and so on….
I’m not sure that your readers could ever think you’re nuts, Adrienne. I’m sure that, by now, they know you well enough to realise that whatever you post will always be filled with value and will be beneficial. 🙂
Thanks for your visit, as always much appreciated.
»Glenn«
Glenn Shepherd recently posted…The Tale of a Newbie Internet Marketer
Hi Glenn,
When I seen this headline, I thought I was going to see a big orange infographic. Funny where the mind takes you sometimes?
But then I thought AHA…it’s an analogy! Well, it sort of is one I think! But the message is loud and clear. Headlines do grab attention. Just like the one you mentioned that Ryan did. I seen that too and said to myself oh no…is he going to put a scary picture up? I just had to find out.
I rolled out with my last blog post with a funny title. As you know, you were there lol. It was an attention grabber and I had a lot of fun with it. It was making me think of doing more of wacky titles.
So here I am and it is confirmed! I’m going after some cleaver titles and see what happens.
But I do have one problem. Now I want to eat an orange and there is none in my house!
-Donna
donna merrill recently posted…Why Is Google Like My Ex?
Hey Donna,
Yes indeed, that post of yours is definitely an attention grabber! Having that attention-grabbing headline is key. I’ve tried a few techniques myself in the past, sometimes I’ve hit the mark, other times I’ve missed it. But I’m always learning and always happy to experiment.
It’s interesting that the post made you want to eat an orange. Look out for my next post which will be about lemons – I think you may find that one especially interesting! 😉
»Glenn«
Glenn Shepherd recently posted…Five Essential Reasons to Attend Live Events
You are right about rolling out with some random term and building a blog post around that (can’t say I would pick a fruit…don’t get me wrong, I love fruit!).
It make the process of writing much more fun and entertains your readers too. I don’t do it as often as I likely should, so your post put a tickler in my head.
Not so certain whether the color orange was named after the fruit though! The color was present long before the fruit…
Dawn recently posted…Writing Great Website Product Descriptions
Hi Dawn,
It honestly wasn’t a conscious decision. An orange was literally the first thing that popped into my mind so that’s what I settled on using. Thankfully it seems to have worked quite well!
Yes, the colour was around long before, but the naming of the colour as “orange” is only relatively recent. Deriving originally from the Sanskrit word, “narangah”, for the fruit, it wasn’t until the 16th century that it was first recorded in English as the name of the colour. Before that it was simply referred to as “yellow-red”. I only discovered this recently and it certainly surprised me!
»Glenn«
Glenn Shepherd recently posted…The Great Traffic Illusion
Great post Glenn,
I have tried to use random interesting headlines before I.e “Sherlock Needs Some Help”, but what I found so enticing about your post was the imagery. I think your use of the orange was excellent, and real “food for thought”…… See what I did there?
I will definitely be taking your tips onboard.
WYS
Dave H
Dave Hodgkinson recently posted…A Moment Of Momentum
Hi Dave,
It’s something I’ve tried myself in the past but I don’t think I ever quite nailed it. There are interesting headlines and then there are interesting headlines. I think the imagery is an important aspect, as you mentioned. If you can manage to stimulate a person’s curiosity and imagination then I think you’re headed in the right direction.
I’m glad you liked my orange approach. Don’t forget, next time – lemons! 😉
»Glenn«
Glenn Shepherd recently posted…Live Events Can Be Life-Changing Events
Hi Glenn,
Yup, your headline did it all. Curiosity piqued, joke seen in the first paragraph and then by the end the joke was on me as you tied the headline into a really excellent and interesting article. And even a nice little call to action at the end.
Terrific work as always,
Regards,
Steven Lucas
Steven Lucas recently posted…WordPress Blog Themes
Hi Steven,
Cool, mission accomplished!
Glad you enjoyed it, many thanks. 🙂
»Glenn«
Glenn Shepherd recently posted…WARNING! You Are Being Tricked!
Great post, and dead on in terms of creative inspiration IMHO. I’d add…the importance of colour choices, which the orange illustrates perfectly 🙂
Hey Paul,
Awesome! I hadn’t actually considered the colour aspect itself – well spotted! Thanks, buddy 🙂
»Glenn«
Glenn Shepherd recently posted…One Magic Number to Increase Productivity