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Connie Ragen Green Get Started OnlineMy name is Connie Ragen Green and I teach people just like you how to build a profitable online business and use the basic technology needed to get started in this fun and lucrative field. The first year (2006) was difficult for me online, and I ended up spending about 10K and making almost no money. I vowed that my students would not have to struggle like I did.

I have now been making my full-time income online since 2006, and earn a comfortable income, primarily from my own programs and courses, information products, and affiliate marketing. I teach new online entrepreneurs how to write short reports, eBooks, and books for Kindle, as well as how to set up your own blog, set up mini-sites, use Twitter and Facebook, create your own information products, and write your own web sales copy, which is copywriting for the Internet.

My latest training, Really Simple Podcasting has now been released at an Introductory price. I’ve been podcasting since 2011 and would love to teach you how to use this strategy to build credibility, gain visibility, and add profitability to your online business.

My motto is: “If I can do it, YOU can do it!”

I took one of my students, Helen Raptoplous, to 10K a month during 2011 as part of the 10K Laser Coaching program, did it again in 2012/2013 with student Geoff Hoff, and am now working with entrepreneur Adrienne Dupree during 2015/2016. This will help you to do the same thing in your online business, so please join us.

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How to Monetize Your Blog Posts

Monetize Your BlogMonetize Your Blog Posts

(This post is the fourth and final in a series on How to Update Your Blog. Be sure to read all four posts for the best results).

Now we get to the fun part. Before we worry about prettying things up, let’s make sure this refreshed content will make us money. Ideally, each post and page on your website should serve a purpose. It could be that you’re growing a list, building a relationship with your readers, just plain entertaining them or selling them something.

For the purpose of this section of the report let’s assume you want to make a living from your blog. In that case, you need your readers to either sign up for your list so you can market to them via email, or make them an offer directly in the blog post.

If you chose to rework this particular blog post because you have the perfect product in mind to promote, this part will be easy. If not, take a few minutes and think about what the purpose of this particular post is. Do you want to encourage readers to sign up for your list? Or can you think of a product that would complement your content?

Take a few minutes to think about that and make a decision. Once you know what you want to promote or how you want to monetize your post, you can either write a call to action toward the end of your post, or work your recommendation directly into the content.

If growing your list is your goal, try adding a call to action and a signup form at the end of your post. This signup form can be different from the one you have in your blog sidebar. In fact, it should be so you can track where your signups are coming from. I find it helpful to craft a call to action that’s directly related to the content of the post.

Let me give you an example. Let’s say I have a blog about raising toddlers and this particular post was about recognizing when your toddler is ready to potty train. My call to action at the end of this particular post would be something along the lines of:

I hope this was helpful and I’d love to stay in touch. Of course, raising a toddler is about more than “just” potty training. Ready for more Toddler Tips? Enter your email below to sign up to the weekly Toddler Tips newsletter. I’ll also send you my ten best tips for dealing with temper tantrums.

Notice how the call to action flows from the content of the article to what the weekly newsletter and opt-in freebie are about?

Another option is of course to promote a product in your post. There are a few different ways to do this. By far the easiest method is to grab a graphic from the affiliate center (or a picture of your own product) and stick it right in the middle of your content. That’s also, by far, the least effective way to monetize your post. Another way you could monetize the post is by adding some code in there to display Google AdSense ads. Again, probably not your most effective way of monetizing your content – but it’s better than nothing.

Even better is to do something similar to what we did with the call to action to sign up for our list. Toward the end of your blog post, transition to a recommended product and let them know why you think it’s a good fit, or why you think they should buy it.

Better yet, make your recommendations right in the content itself. Once you do that, it starts to make sense to also incorporate product pictures. This is particularly easy to do if you are writing a blog post where you’re reviewing a product.  As far as monetizing old content goes, it can still make sense to work product recommendations directly into the content itself.

Let’s go back to our potty training example. As you go through the various signs to look for that let you know that your toddler is ready to be potty trained, mention that now would be the perfect time to order a potty seat. Then move into a product recommendation for your favorite potty seat available on Amazon.com for example.

Ok, that’s enough potty talk for now. I hope you’ve gotten some good ideas about monetizing your blog posts. Have another look through the post you’re updating and figure out what you want to promote and how you want to monetize it.

If your primary goal is to grow your list, grab the code for a new opt-in form and write a strong call to action that invites readers to sign up.

If your main goal is to promote a related product, be it your own or something you’re an affiliate for, think about how you want to incorporate it into your content. Grab your link and product images as needed and work them in.

Now that the old blog post is better monetized, let’s move on to step five.

Make It Pretty

Now that we’ve updated the content and made sure it will make us money, let’s make sure it looks good when our visitors come and visit the udpated blog posts.

Add to Your Email Autoresponder Funnel

There’s one more step to the process. It’s a little more content marketing you can do to get your revived blog post the best chance of taking off and getting spread far and wide. It’s also an easy way to stay in touch with your email subscribers and if you monetized the post, make a few bucks right away.

It’s adding the revived blog post to your email funnel. You can do this in a few different ways.

  • Send a quick email to your list to let them know you’ve updated the blog post. Invite them to click through and read it and ask them to leave you a comment.
  • If you have an autoresponder set up, consider adding a similar message to it so all of your readers, no matter when they sign up for your list get to see all your messages (and all your important revived posts).
  • If you create a weekly, bi-weekly or monthly newsletter, feature the revived post it in.

Again, the goal here is to start spreading the word about your content and get the ball rolling. Since everyone has multiple social media accounts these days, every single one of your subscriber has the potential of spreading your post to their own circle of influence. And all it takes is the right person to share it for it to get you a fair amount of traffic.

And all those social mentions and links will help with SEO (search engine optimization) as well for the long run.

Most importantly though, you want to share it because it is good content your readers will enjoy and find helpful. Your goal should always be to serve your audience and build a closer relationship with them. Only then will you find out how you can best help them and they will know, like and trust you enough to spend their money when you make a product recommendation.

Be sure to read all four posts in this series:

Updating Your Blog: Social Media Traffic to Your Blog

Updating Your Blog: Adding Images and Formatting

Updating Your Blog: Beginning Steps

And please leave a comment to share your thoughts and ideas and to connect with others who also have an interest in this topic.

 

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Social Media: Traffic for Blog Posts

Social Media TrafficSocial Media Traffic

Social media traffic is a huge part of how people find me and my websites. So let’s get back to something super simple. And since you’re already blogging the biggest chunk of work is something you only need to do once. Our task right now is to make sure it is easy to share our updated (and new) content via social media.

When we talked about images, I asked you to think about what social media sites are most important to you. Where is your traffic coming from? Where are you finding your target audience? Where are you making money? These are the social media sites you want to focus on here as well.

I’m sure you’ve seen plenty of blogs that have a big huge list of social share buttons at the bottom of their post. Chances are all those buttons aren’t doing much good. Instead focus on your main two to three social media sites and make it easy for people to share.

Do you get a lot of traction from Twitter? Make sure you make it easy to tweet out little key snippets of text from your posts. Get good results from Facebook and have your content shared around? Put a big Facebook button on those posts. Do a lot of new readers and customers find you via Pinterest? Make sure you have pin buttons on all images and pay close attention to the alt tags on your images. The alt tags will become the default description for your pins. So be descriptive and inviting. Try a few different types of calls to action and see what gets you the biggest click through rates.

Let’s break it down. There are two different types of work you’ve got to do here. The first is to make sure you have the share buttons in place you need on your blog.

The second part is to pay attention as you create or revive your blog posts. Make sure your alt tags are descriptive for Pinterest. Make sure you pick good tweetable quotes for Twitter. And make sure your images and descriptions do well in Facebook. If you don’t like the text Facebook auto pulls from your posts, try adding a different one in the meta description box in WordPress.

Got it? Great – go do that for your blog and the blog post you’re reworking right now and I’ll meet you back here when you’re done.

Driving Traffic

Now comes the exciting part. Everything is updated and ready to go. If you haven’t already done so republish or hit safe. Go look at your post and make sure everything looks the way you want it to. Try the links. Are they all working and are your affiliate links tracking ok?

Great. Now it’s time to get the ball rolling and give the post a little head start to get some traction.

Change The Date

Change the publish date to today’s date so your post shows up on the home page on your blog and gets send out via RSS feeds.  This alone will get some traffic coming to the new post and people may just share via social media etc.

Share on Social Media

Speaking of which… now is a great time for you to send out some of those social signals and make sure the stuff starts to get shared around on your best social media sites. Go ahead and pin your images. Then go back and re-pin it to one or two of your favorite group boards as it applies.

Share the post on Facebook, to your personal profile, pages you manage and groups as well. Don’t spam, but share it freely where it is welcome.

Don’t forget to tweet it a few times today as well. And work your mojo on whatever other social media sites you participate in.

The idea here is to get the traffic rolling and get things started. From here it will spread around. Some posts will do great and get you a bunch of traffic for a while, others may not. But they may surprise you a few months down the road. The key is to get the ball rolling and spread the word about your revived post. If nothing else, it will make sure that Google quickly indexes the changes. And you might just pick up a few new readers along the way.

Be Sure to Read the Other Posts in This Series on How to Update Your Blog.

 

 

 

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Adding Images to Blog Posts

Adding Images to Blog PostsThis is the second post in a series on how to update your blog – beginning steps. Be sure to read each one for best results…

Now we’re going to be talking about images. Pictures are a great way to add interest to a page and enhance the content and adding images to blog posts is worthwhile. They are the perfect way to grab your reader’s attention. And in an age of Facebook and Pinterest, you have to have images in your blog posts.

We’ll go into a little more detail on social media in the next section, but for now, think about how you want to use images and how those images will appear when your post is shared on Facebook or Pinterest.

Different image sizes are recommended for Facebook vs. Pinterest and in general a horizontal image will do better in Facebook while Pinners seem to prefer vertical images. Think about which social media platform is more important to you and your target market. Where does your traffic come from? Actually a better question to ask is where your most profitable traffic comes from.

Once you know what social media site you want to focus on, optimize the image for that platform. In either situation it is usually helpful to text to the image. Think of it as yet another attention grabbing headline.

Not sure what I’m talking about? Head on over to Pinterest.com and take a look at images that fellow bloggers have added.

Let’s talk about a quick and easy way to create these images for your blog posts. The first thing you will need is a picture. You can take your own, or use stock photography.

Here are a few of my favorite stock photo sites that you may want to check out. Some provide free images, most you will have to pay for. Be sure to read the terms for each site and know what you can and can’t do before publishing someone else’s picture or image.

Stock Photography Sites:

  • MorgueFile.com
  • Pixabay.com
  • IStockPhoto.com
  • BigStockPhoto.com
  • DepositPhoto.com

Once you have your image – be it from one of the sites above or your own pictures, it’s time to do a little editing. Don’t worry. We’re not talking about anything complicated here and it doesn’t involve expensive programs like Photoshop.

This is going to be fun and easy. There are a few sites out there that allow you to do basic photo editing. My personal favorite is PicMonkey.com. Just upload your image, change the size and resolution if needed and add some pretty text and other fun overlays and you’re done.

The PicMonkey.com image editor is very intuitive. Go ahead and give it a try. You’ll also be able to find plenty of online tutorials on how to do all kinds of fun and fancy stuff. Just Google it or head on over to Youtube.com for some easy to follow tutorials.

Let’s get back to what we are doing here. We want to enhance our content with one or two images that will also make it easy to share on social media sites.

Think about what kind of image would go well with your content. Then decide if you want to take it yourself or find something you can use on one of the stock photography sites.

Got your picture?  Take it over to PicMonkey.com and add an attention grabbing headline. Save your work and you’re ready to upload the image to WordPress or the blogging software of your choice.

Embed the image into your blog post where it makes sense and don’t forget to save your changes. And remember that adding images to your blog is well worth your time.

Most of the hard work is done. There are just a few more steps we need to take to make sure we’re getting the best possible results from all the hard work we’ve done editing, updating and rewriting our content.

Formatting Your Blog Post

Having a well formatted blog post actually has two big benefits. It makes it easier to read, but it can also help with Search Engine Optimization. SEO is a big topic that’s a bit out of the scope of this short report, but I think it’s important to at least mention it here.

The basic idea behind SEO is that you pick a keyword or key phrase that you would like to rank for and then optimize your blog post around that phrase or keyword. Some of the ways to do this are:

  • Using the keyword in your post title.
  • Using the keyword in the URL of your post.
  • Using the keyword or related terms in headings, bolded or italicized font.
  • Using the keywords or related terms in the file names and alt tags of images on the page.

This is just a short list, but it shows you how a well formatted post can help you get more free search engine traffic.

It bears repeating. Always, write and format for your readers first, but keep the search engines in mind as well.

With that said, take a look at your content. Do a little keyword research, if you didn’t do this originally, and decide what you would like this particular post to rank for. Go through the list above and see if you are including the keyword in at least most of those areas. Don’t change the URL, because it will hurt you more in terms of search than help, and make sure your content still reads well. Don’t stuff your keywords in there unnecessarily. It will alienate your readers and may actually hurt you when it comes to organic search results.

Things like alt tags and image names are easy to add or change and bolding a keyword here and there won’t take more than a few seconds.

Back to formatting for your readers though since that’s our main goal here. Make sure it is easy to scan your post. Can your readers get a pretty good idea of what it is about by reading the headline and any sub-headings you may have?

Are you breaking the text down into small paragraphs to make it easy to read online? Are you using sub-headings and bullets to break things up and again, make it easier to consume the information?

If not, work on that now until you get the formatting where you want it. If you’re not sure, ask a friend or fellow blogger to take a look at it for you. Don’t worry if this seems hard at first. After you reformat a few blog posts, this process will become second nature.

Click here to read an earlier post on how to update your blog – beginning steps. Leave a comment so that others may connect with you.

 

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Are You Taking Inspired Action in Your Life?

Taking Inspired ActionTaking Inspired Action in Your Life

The year was 2006 and I had taken steps to change my entire life. After twenty years of working as a classroom teacher, while simultaneously working as a real estate broker and residential appraiser, I walked away from both in search of a new way to earn a substantial living. In addition to these drastic moves, I also built a new home about twenty-five miles north of the city I had lived in for the past fourteen years. All alone in this venture I jumped at the opportunity for change.

At the age of fifty I was ready for a new life, but I wasn’t sure where to begin. Always being a person of great faith, I was sure that God would show me the way to whatever He had planned for me. It was blind faith on my part but it felt like the right thing to do if I were to have life experiences that I had been dreaming of for so many years. These included travel, financial freedom, and people to have these experiences with for the remainder of my life.

In my new community I was drawn to a small, non-denominational church. They met in the back of the Senior Center and welcomed me with open arms. Over the next few months I was introduced to the Law of Attraction, viewed the newly released film “The Secret”, and participated in discussions around the idea of taking inspired action. This was a new concept for me, as I had indulged in the “victim mentality” for all of my adult life. Things happened to me; I didn’t initiate the actions that led to the situations I was unhappy with on a regular basis. For the first time ever I understood what it meant to take responsibility for everything that came into my life experience. It was uncomfortable at first, and superbly empowering once I embraced and accepted this new way of thinking.

In the movie “The Secret” we were told that everything one wants or needs in every area of our life can be satisfied by believing in an outcome, repeatedly thinking about it, and maintaining positive emotional states to “attract” this desired outcome. But the people I was now surrounding myself with had a different take on this. They believed in the law of taking inspired action, which meant that we had to do much more than simply wish for and visualize what we wanted in our life experience. This made all of the difference in my life. Immediately I began learning and doing when it came to my brand new online business. Instead of creating a vision board of what I wanted to achieve, I actually took action by writing, creating, and engaging. Within a few months I was earning some income and this continued to grow.

People who had known me for years were quick to comment on the change they saw in me. They described me as being more focused and serious, yet also more playful and happy. They scratched their heads when I excitedly told them about my new online business. Timidly they asked if I had thought about returning to teaching or real estate “just in case” this new internet thing didn’t work out. I knew they only had my best interest at heart, so I entertained their inquiries while making it clear that I was working hard to make sure the new business would be a success.

But the thing was, I wasn’t working hard at all. Even though I was spending many hours in front of the computer each day, it was joyous at every turn. It was a new world for me and I was taking inspired action at every turn. Even though I had been into computers and technology since the very beginning, this was all new to me. And I had wanted to write since I was about twelve years old but seldom did, until now. My fingers (I continue to type with my two index fingers to this day) flew over the keys as I wrote articles, blog posts, short reports, and more. And as someone who had not wanted her photograph taken her entire life, I immediately turned into someone who was always ready for her close up!

The next step was to seek out like-minded individuals to walk beside on this new journey. I found them at conferences, workshops, and other live events and continue to call many of them friends. Once my business took off I was asked to be a speaker at many of these events, and the public speaking opportunities opened up yet another new world to me.

Looking back now I can see that I was ready for change in my life and open to new thoughts and Taking Inspired Actionsideas on how I could get there. I hope you can feel the excitement as you read my words here, as conveying these concepts around taking inspired action is what I most hope to achieve by sharing them with you. I know that the Law of Attraction can be a controversial topic for many people and I certainly understand why that is the case. But if you are willing to move to the next step by taking inspired action I believe you will find a world waiting for you to step inside and achieve all of your goals and dreams.

Are you taking inspired action in your life experience? What do you think about these ideas on how you can change your life by taking inspired action?

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How to Update Your Blog: Beginning Steps

Update Your BlogTips on How to Update Your Blog

This post is the first of a series of four posts on how to update your blog for visibility, credibility, and profitability. Scroll to the bottom for links to the other three posts.

If you’ve been blogging for any length of time, you have a back catalogue of posts. They’re still getting a bit of traffic and there’s a lot of good information hidden in those posts. Here are some beginning tips on how to update your blog.

Some of the material may be outdated, some links may be broken and your writing, formatting and image creation skills have come a long way since those early days. In other words, there’s a lot you can do to make these older posts better. I started blogging in 2006, so over all of these years my writing has improved, as well as my ability to choose topics of greater interest to my readers. My focus has shifted from that of just attempting to get a post written and published to being able to craft a post that will make a difference to those who look to me for guidance in growing their online business.

You put a lot of time and effort into your blog post. Why not make sure you get the most from them by going back from time to time reviving them? Instead of writing new content, schedule some time each week to revive an old post or two.

Of course I’m not suggestion you should stop writing new content. That’s always a good idea. All I’m saying is that you should also set aside a little time to revive old blog posts and turn them into traffic, subscriber and money generating machines. There are two different ways you can tackle this. You can work in batches, doing step one for a couple of blog posts, then move on to step two, etc. Or you can start with one old post and work on it from start to finish. Pick whichever method works best for you. Either way it won’t take you long to revive old blog posts.

This is the perfect thing to do when you know you have a busy day ahead of you, but blogging is on your schedule and you’re readers are expecting a post.

Look at Your Stats

Choose some posts that are getting a decent amount of traffic and work on those first. They will have the biggest impact the quickest.

To do that you want to look at your website stats. Do you have a tracking program installed? Chances are that your web host is running some default tracking for you, and while that’s better than nothing, you want to make sure you get good data.

If you haven’t already done so, install Google Analytics on your blog. It’s free, very powerful and super easy to add. Once you have Analytics up and running, wait a few days to collect some useful data and then come back to this. Now look at your stats and figure out what your most popular posts are. You can do this in Google Analytics by going to “Behavior => Site Content => All Pages”. That will give you a list of pages (or posts if it’s a blog) on your website ranked by how often they were visited.

Browse through these pages and make a list of five to ten older blog posts to use in the next step.

Pick Your Blog Posts

Grab that list of popular blog posts from step 1 and take a look at them. Does one of them stand out to you?

Maybe it’s a post that doesn’t need a lot of work. Maybe you are looking at a post and you’re already getting ideas for things you can do to improve it. Or maybe you have the perfect product to promote in one of the posts. How you choose the first post to work through is entirely up to you. Pick something that sounds interesting, fun or profitable. Got it? Great.

If you are feeling ambitious, go ahead and make a list of the posts you want to work on over the coming days and weeks. I find it helpful to have a list with the post title, the URL, and notes about what changes I need to make.

A spreadsheet works really well for this. If you’re not a spreadsheet person, then make a numbered and dated list of what and when certain things will happen. This is crucial when you decide to update your blog and will keep you from getting confused and overwhelmed in the process.

Over these first few steps we’ll update the content, work on formatting to make the posts easier to scan and read, pretty it up with some images, make sure it is easy to share via social media and of course, monetize it. These are the types of things you want to make notes on in your spreadsheet or notebook.

That’s about all the planning we need to do. Just make sure you can log into your website interface – most likely that will be your WordPress dashboard – and edit those posts.

Update The Content

We’ve done the planning and figured out what blog posts need updating. Now it’s time to get to work to actually update your blog. The first thing we’ll focus on is the content. Start by reading through your blog post. Is the content still valid? Have some things changed?

Make note of any major changes you need to make to what you’ve written in the past. I find it helpful to grab a notebook and pen or open a word document and jot down what changes I need to make.

Sometimes the content is pretty evergreen and not much needs to be fixed. Other times, there’s a lot of rewriting to do to update your blog posts. The key is to have a plan and then just sit down and rework the post.

Something else worth thinking about is if you have learned something new to share since you first wrote the post. If so, you can either just rewrite the post, or write an update section to the post. Depending on what makes the most sense, you can add it to the top or the bottom of the post.

Last but not least, take a look at the comments the post has gotten since you first published it. Are there any great tips or questions your readers have shared? If so, you may want to highlight them within the updated post.

Make your changes, do your re-writing and save your work. Go get something to drink, go for a walk, or work on something else for a little while. Then come back and read over your rewritten post. It’s time to do a little editing to make sure no spelling errors made their way in in and that everything makes sense and flows well. These are the beginning steps to take when you are ready to update your blog.

Be sure to read all four posts in this series:

Updating Your Blog: Social Media Traffic to Your Blog

Updating Your Blog: Adding Images and Formatting

Updating Your Blog: Beginning Steps

And please leave a comment to share your thoughts and ideas and to connect with others who also have an interest in this topic.

 

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Blog Your Book: A Concept That Works

Blog Your BookHow and Why to Blog Your Book

There is something you may not know about me. Even though I have now written and published more than a dozen books, co-authored two books, and contributed to many others, writing did not come easily or naturally to me in the beginning. In fact, I actually blogged much of my very first book, Huge Profits with a Tiny List: 50 Ways to use Relationship Marketing to Increase Your Bottom Line. Should you blog your book, too?

My blog to book experience occurred purely by chance. I had created a new giveaway for my Huge Profits Tiny List blog where I included ten ways to make huge profits with a tiny list. I then wrote a detailed blog post for each of these. Then I expanded it to twenty-one ways and wrote the additional posts for them as well. Once I decided to write the book it seemed to make perfect sense to increase it to fifty ways, and then to use these fifty blog posts as the main part of my book. The idea was a good one, my book was published in June of 2010, and I became a bestselling author that summer.

I was just reading a post over at Smart Blogger by author Cathy Presland on this topic of whether or not you should blog your book and why bloggers are in the perfect position to become published authors. Cathy says:

I meet so many people who have been thinking about their books for months, sometimes years. Yet they’re not taking action.

You, on the other hand, are blogging, which means you are writing. And that simple fact gives you three advantages over every other wannabe author.

  1. You have content. Your blog is a library of content you can analyze and reuse. Even if you don’t recycle your posts word for word, you already have a valuable source of ideas. Your content is what defines you as a blogger. Own it.
  2. You have a writing habit. More valuable than your existing content is the writing practice you’re developing. If you have a schedule, a process, and a commitment to your work, writing the book will be much easier.
  3. You have an audience (no matter how small). You have readers, email subscribers, and a social media following. It doesn’t matter whether that’s two people or 2,000. An audience is the key asset that many would-be authors don’t have when they start to write. You, however, have a testing ground — a place to share your work safely, and get feedback.

On top of these advantages, being a blogger also means you have gumption.

Now you may be reading this and thinking that if you are not already blogging on a regular schedule this will not apply to you. To that thinking I say get into the writing habit. I was not a writer until I came online in 2006. When I realized just how important it would be to develop this skill, I got to work every day by writing a two hundred fifty word article to submit to the article directory sites. At this point in my life I can’t not write every day. This skill has changed my life in amazing way. Start blogging, think about the book you’d like to write, and then blog your book over a period of time. You’ll be so glad you did.

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Do You Have a Strong Work Ethic?

Work EthicYears ago I met a man on a flight between Los Angeles and Chicago. He asked me if I knew what people from most of the United States thought about people who were from California. I shook my head, but then attempted to guess. Perhaps they thought we had it too easy because the weather was so favorable, or that we were a little crazy or liberal, or that we all wanted to become movie stars. No, none of these was what he was about to share with me.

This man told me that the perception of people from the Golden State was that we didn’t follow through and do what we said we would do, and that we lacked a strong work ethic. This surprised me until I gave it further thought.

While I was in law school in New York during the late 1970s my fellow law students regularly teased me for being too “laid back”, meaning that I was more casual in my attitude, the way I dressed, and how I approached life in general. It was true; my jeans and long shirts were comfortable and I didn’t feel like I needed to impress anyone while I was a student. Also, I was more easygoing than the people I met in New York and took most things in stride. The ability to be unflappable and non-confrontational seemed to be desirable traits in my way of thinking. But I believed I was just as serious and studious as my peers.

But the part this man mentioned about Californians not possessing a strong work ethic? I would have to take issue with that comment. Although I had never thought of myself as a hard worker, I was always willing to do what it took to accomplish the task at hand. Could it be that I did not fully understand what he meant by the term “work ethic”?

It was only a few months ago that the phrase popped up in my life once again. It when I watched a video with actor and motivational speaker Wil Smith, where he brought up how his “ridiculous work ethic” ensured that he could always win a challenge or a contest, and achieve his life goals and dreams. This video is below. What do think about what Wil Smith says?

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Blogging Tips for Beginners

Blogging Tips for BeginnersBlogging Tips for Beginners

Blogging is an effective way to expand your business, attract more clients, and maintain relationships with your current clients. But, how do you make your blog visitors into loyal followers? Here are some blogging tips for beginners, but first, think about these four steps as you begin…

  1. Identify both your current audience and your desired target audience.
  2. Create original content that caters to the interests of your readers.
  3. Use SEO (search engine optimized) keywords to attract new readers to your work.
  4. Establish yourself as an authority on your topic(s).

It really boils down to posting relevant content and finding ways to remind them about you via email, social media and even ads. Let’s look at the ways you can get more loyal blog followers and keep them coming back for more.

Post More Content

You’ve most likely heard that before. But, it’s not that simple. You can’t post anything and end up with fans following you and begging for more. You have to know who your audience is, and what they need to know and post that. Content needs to be relevant and of a high quality to be effective.

  • Relevant – The only way you can ensure that your content is relevant is if you do the work necessary to get to know your audience so that you can deliver the type of content they want and need.
  • High Quality – While you do not have to be perfect, don’t just slap up anything. If you buy PLR (private label rights), ensure that you rewrite it and make it your own. If you outsource any writing, edit the writing and put your voice into it, and always add a watermarked image so that when it’s shared it comes back to you.
  • Consistent – Finally, post consistently. You don’t have to blog every single day. You want to blog multiple times a week and provide meaningful content to your audience. Otherwise, they might get bored and stop visiting.

When you post relevant, high-quality content on a consistent basis in a variety of forms such as images, video, text and so forth your audience will be more likely to stay interested in what you have to say which will make them keep coming back, sharing and engaging with you. Plus, potentially buying something you created or promote.

Promote Your Content

Just posting content is not enough. There are more than 100 million blogs in existence. That’s worse than a needle in a haystack. In order for anyone, including your customers, to find you, you’re going to have to promote each piece of content that you post.

  • Social – Whatever social media your audience uses, you need to be using. While you can’t use them all 100 percent alone, you can at least choose the top three that is most popular with your audience. If you can outsource some of your social media marketing then you can do more, but at least start with the top three. Share and engage about your blog posts to bring more traffic and create more interest in your content.
  • Make it Simple to Share – Don’t make it hard on your readers to share. Get a social plugin that enables you to add share buttons at the top and bottom of your posts. Make it a point to ask your audience to “click the like and share buttons.” Make it part of your call to action.
  • Get Them on Your List – In addition, put a box at the bottom of every single page to encourage your readers to sign up for your newsletter. Leadpages.net offers a really great and attractive option for “lead boxes” that you can put on your blog to help people get what they need.

You can do this easily with a few plugins, but – do not forget to engage with your audience when they comment on your shares. You don’t want communication to be only one way. You want to build relationships so that they don’t just want to read your blog due to the great information; they want to read it because they care about you.

Provide a CTA (Call to ACTION!)

A call to action (CTA) is so important if you really want to make a difference. There are different ways to create a call to action. Your CTA can include asking your audience to share, like, follow, join, sign up, buy or whatever it is that you want them to do. If you really want them to take action, clearly state what you want them to do.

  • Ask for a Comment – A great way to get your audience to act and come back for more is to generate more comments to your posts. You can get people to comment more if you ask them to.
  • Be the Devil’s Advocate – If you really want to get comments rocking, try being controversial. This can be risky so be mindful of the potential repercussions. Try calling out a situation that makes you mad, sad, and upset. But, try to end it on a positive note if possible.
  • But a Subscribe Button after the Post – A great way to get people to subscribe for blog updates is to put a Lead Box on the bottom. You can use Leadpages.net for this. It works well and it was developed by marketers.
  • Offer a Free Discovery Call – A great way to get your reader’s attention is to offer a short 15-minute discovery call. Put a sign up box below the post along with words that attract their attention and get them to want to give their email address to sign up for the call.
  • Ask Them if They Want to Learn More – A really effective CTA asks your readers if they want to learn more, then using an attractive “learn more” button will entice the reader to click. On the learn more page it can either be more information or you can make it an easy one step opt-in box so that you can send them more information via email.
  • Give Them a Special – If you’ve talked about specific products or pain points in the blog post and you know about a product or have created a product that will help them, make them a special offer at the bottom of the blog post.
  • Offer a Freebie – Match your freebies with the topic of your blog post, and offer a download button for the freebie that relates to the blog post. Collect their email address so that you can add them to your list. If you use software like Leadpages.net, you can avoid sending to duplicate email addresses on your list, while still offering the freebie to your readers.
  • Ask Them to Join Your Mailing List – Get right to the point and ask them if they want to learn more, get reminds of new posts, and so forth and ask them to sign up for your mailing list. Let them know the benefits of doing so, and you’ll get more sign ups if the sign up box is after your posts.

There are many more ways to get your audience to act on your content but you’ll need to tell them what to do. People are relatively lazy, so make it easy for them. You’ll get a better response.

 

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Podcast: Multiple Streams of Online Income

Multiple Streams of Online Income Multiple Streams of Online Income

My most recent podcast is a discussion of multiple streams of online income as an entrepreneur. Here are some of the points I explain in great detail during the training call:

The BIG question is…

Are you taking advantage of multiple streams of online income? Let’s talk about:

  1. The “putting your eggs in several baskets” strategy
  2. Deciding which business model(s) to start with first
  3. Scheduling time to “learn” and time to “do”
  4. What to set up first in your business
  5. Productivity tips for multiple streams entrepreneurs

Think about each of these points, listen to the podcast, and then comment below. I would love to hear your thoughts on these ideas and concepts in regards to how adding multiple streams of online income will enable you to be a more successful entrepreneur.

I also discuss some concepts about online entrepreneurship:

  • Someone somewhere must purchase something for you to earn money
  • Your blog is your “home on the internet“
  • Stay focused and take action every single day
  • Share your best writing, information, and resources
  • Choose a niche and one or two income streams today

Finally, I share my thoughts and ideas on…What Do You Need For Successful Entrepreneurship?

  • WordPress Blog/Site
  • Business PayPal Account
  • Content Creation/Publication/Syndication Strategy
  • Something to sell!

This podcast training is based on my recently created Focus Guide on the topic of multiple streams of online income. Download it here and take massive action quickly for best results.

Are you ready to be surprised? Recently, I have introduced a new feature during these podcast training calls. I will always have the latest course or program, either one of my own or one offered by someone I highly recommend, at my Surprise! link. Check it out today and see what I am recommending this week. If it’s not my own program, product, course, or live event then it’s always from someone I know, trust, and highly recommend as a great value to you as an online entrepreneur.

My most recent book is now available. It’s entitled Doing What It Takes: The Online Entrepreneur’s Playbook and I’d love to hear your Doing What It Takesthoughts on it by way of a review on Amazon after you read it and implement my suggesstions.

Are you already a part my list community and receiving my daily email updates and training? If not, please give me your first name and primary email address in the form on the right-hand side of this site. If you are brand new to my podcasts, you will be interested to know that this specific training call, as well as all of the calls in my podcast series is intended to teach you and other new online entrepreneurs how to take your business to the next level quickly and effectively, and as a way for me to share my exact methods, techniques, Case Studies, secrets, and advice on creating a profitable and lucrative online business using the ‘multiple income streams’ approach. People on six continents have now discovered that starting an Internet business is the very fastest way to achieve both time and financial freedom, as well as to great success in all areas of your life, and you need help to get there quickly. That’s why I started this online marketing tips podcast for my community.

You will see that each podcast session is first recorded live as a teleseminar, and then repurposed into a podcast to extend my reach to the world. Please join my list (opt in on the right) to be included on these calls, and be sure to introduce yourself and share your site for optimal exposure for years to come! Also, check out my Podcast Show Notes site to see how you can subscribe at no cost to both of my podcasts, and please leave me a review on one or both of them if you are so inclined.

If you would like to get started earning income online right away then I recommend affiliate marketing as the stream of income that will allow you to “earn while you learn” You may now pick up my popular training on winning affiliate contests and other online marketing tips for only seven dollars at Affiliate Contest Secrets. This training regularly sells for $27. Use the discount code CONTEST to bring the price down to $7. This training has been completely updated for 2016 with the latest information, strategies, and Case Studies for you to use in your own business.

Please be sure to leave your comments below so that I may get to know you better and to serve you as you continue your journey as an online entrepreneur. Getting started with an online business will change your life forever and my reward is your massive success!

Subscribe To My Online Marketing Tips Podcast Today!

 

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