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!)

 

Curiosity

 

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!

 

The Point

 

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

 

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! 😉