Displaying Others RSS Feeds on Your Website: Freebie Friday

If you’ve got a blog or website you just love and the content is something your readers are interested in, adding the site’s RSS feed to your own site is a great way to give your readers the information (just make sure you have permission to use the feed). No need to send them away from your site…keep ‘em right there for the awesome content.

Here’s a short video that shows you how.

If you’re looking for other cool things you can do with your blog check out Blog Starter Pack.

My Brain is Full - Can’t Give Three Thoughts

It’s Thursday and normally I share 3 brilliant thoughts on a subject. I’m working madly here for tomorrow’s Outsourcing Sweetie Launch (sorry, the BETA membership is now closed…I TOLD you to hurry), so here’s a little comic instead:

And don’t get snarky with me, Outsourcing Sweetie is definitely not some dumb ebook…it’s MORE than that as our members will already know.

How Did You Hear About Us?

Tonight I was looking at a report of this month’s Outsourcing Sweetie BETA (it’s closing Thursday at 12 PM PST, by the way) purchases and I browsed through the “How Did You Hear About Us” column. There were a variety of answers, but these in particular, made me smile:

• “YOU :-)”
• “everywhere”
• “Been a ‘Sweetie’ for a while”
• “Girl are you kiddin ‘ I love your work!”

Thanks…you made my day. Much better than the OUCH customer service day Kelly McCausey had. Man, she almost said that “A-word”!

Getting What You Want;EXACTLY What You Want: Tough Question Tuesday

Communication is important in all aspects of our lives and most definitely in our businesses as well. In fact, one of the greatest benefits I’ve found from Internet marketing is learning to communicate with people so I get exactly what I want.

The benefits come in handy every single day for business AND my personal life.

No, I don’t mean any Jedi Mind Tricks that manipulate anyone into doing something they may not want to. I simply mean being clear and concise, mixed with a little bit of persuasion.

On the receiving end of online communication, sorry but I’m often a little frustrated when asked to do things by other Internet business owners. Whether people are submitting questions for my Internet Marketing FAQ or submitting requests for Training Sheets at Outsourcing Sweetie , you’ve got to tell me specifically what you want.

(And hey, I’m not saying this to complain. I’m saying it to help you get exactly what YOU want!)

I’m busy and you’re busy so - please don’t ask me to solve all that ails your business, especially without giving me any clue as to what might be ailing it. Please don’t ask me to summarize Internet marketing into one-page. Be specific on what you need. If you don’t know what you need, take some to think about it and research it.

I completely understand what it’s like to need a LOT of answers, but you have to start small. People are more likely to help you if you ask them to help you with very specific things.

The same with JV offers…or more like non-offers, as often happens. I receive emails that say, “I really love your work. I’d love to do something together.” Please tell me what your offer is and exactly what you have in mind. Then I can consider it. Yes, you can still tell me you love my work and WHY (hehehe), but do get specific, so you can get exactly what YOU want.

Same goes with your own offers on your web pages and in your emails – tell your prospects exactly what they’re in for and tell them what you want them to do. Don’t get wish-washy or vague…it’s not going to work. If you want them to sign up for your newsletter, tell them to do it. If you want them to buy something, tell them to buy it.

How being specific worked in my personal life

It’s funny how the communication skills I’ve learned in business have definitely passed on to my personal life - helping me get more of what I want. Here’s a little example:

In June, I pulled my son out of preschool for the Summer. He was very sad that he wouldn’t be seeing one of his friends for 2 months. So, to help him feel better, we wrote a little card saying, “I’ll miss you over the summer. Please have your Mom call my Mom so we can have a play date,” and I included my number.

No phone call.
Then, just recently we needed to switch preschools and again, my son was concerned about leaving this one particular friend. Determined not to have his little heart broken again, I wrote a new card. This time I got specific. “I am going to be going to a new preschool and I will miss you when I’m gone. Can you come for a play date at my house on November 10 at 1 PM? Please call my mom to let her know,” and I included my phone number.

What do you think happened? Yep, she called me. I sent out a specific invitation and instructions to help ensure we got we needed. The boys had a great play date!

Now, that may seem like a simple example, but it rings true. If you want something, always be specific; whether you’re asking for help, arranging a play date or making offers to your own prospects.

So, here’s your Tough Question for this fine Tuesday – How do you get what YOU want? In business and in life?

More on the Myth: Do What You Love and the Money Will Follow

Last night, I posted a Silly Sunday cartoon from Blaugh. Although the cartoon was pretty funny, it really rings true to some dangerous advice that runs in Internet marketing and home business circles.

The myth was:
“Do what you love and the money will follow.”

I think the true statement is:
“It is possible to do what you love and with proper research, planning and marketing, you might make money doing it.”

There is the definite perk of starting your own business - you can make the choice to only do what you love doing.

But the problem is, not everything you love doing will turn directly into profits. That’s ludicrous.

Let’s create a common scenario:

Imagine that I wanted to start a content site on a topic I was passionate about. I said I wanted to make money through affiliate programs and possibly create some ebooks. It’s a common scenario, seen on Internet Marketing forums everywhere. Then someone inevitably responds to the thread and says:

“What is your passion? Build your website around that.”

Here’s the Problem:

- How many people are potentially interested? If very few people share your passion, it’s going to be tough to capture an interested audience.

- Do they spend money on it? Even if a lot of people share your passion, do they ALSO enthusiastically spend money to pursue it?

- Have you considered competition? Of course, there are ways to get around competition with a well-crafted USP (Unique Selling Position - i.e. what sets you apart from the competition), it is still something that needs to be taken into consideration.

- How will you generate traffic? Without the skills and knowledge to build your traffic from a variety of sources, it’s going to be tough to make things happen.

- How will you get people to buy your products or take your product recommendations? Getting people to say YES is not as simple as getting people to your website. You need to understand how to talk to your target market, know what types of products they want and how to present your offers to them.

- How will the money keep flowing? If you do see money coming in, how are you going to maintain that? Can you keep the traffic coming on an ongoing basis? Are you going to successfully build a mailing list that is interested in and takes action on your offers.

No…I’m Not Trying to Be All Doom & Gloom

Certainly if you find a topic/target market that has an interested audience with their wallets wide open - you can conquer the other obstacles of getting traffic, making offers and maintaining the income flow.

You’ve just got to be prepared to learn, test and improve.

Here are Future Article Marketing Masters - Sweetie Saturday Winners

Thanks to everyone who entered the Easy Article Marketing giveaway over the weekend.

I’m pleased to announce our random draw has been completed and our winners are:

• Danielle Anderson
• Sue Fleckenstein
• Gordon Mutch

To the winnners, please email Mel at news @ internetmarketingsweetie.com with “Sweetie Saturday Winner” in the subject line. She’ll hook you up with your access to Easy Article Marketing.

Please join me in congratulating the winners!

Silly Sunday: A Common Internet Marketing Myth

Unfortunate, but true…it’s cool when the money does follow, but it doesn’t always work out that way, does it?

Article Marketing Just Got Easier & Sweeter

I’m back this week with another Sweetie Saturday giveaway and since I started the week out by busting a myth about article marketing, I was quite happy when Kelly McCausey and Nicole Dean they’d be glad to offer their product for this week’s giveaway.

Easy Article Marketing is a full course that will help you not only write articles, but get the most benefit from the articles you write or those you have written by a ghostwriter. You’ll even learn how to determine the effectiveness of article marketing.

I’ve got 3 copies of the Easy Article Marketing course to give away to 3 of my readers. Here’s what you need to do in order to be one of the lucky 3.

1. Head over and check out everything that comes with the course by clicking here.
2. Come back to this post and enter a comment simply letting me know that you want to be entered. Please include your full name along with your state or province in your comment.
3. Post your entry no later than Sunday, November 25, 2007 at 10PM PST. Not sure what time it is on my side of the world? Click here to find out.
4. I’ll announce all 3 winners on Monday right here on the blog, so don’t forget to drop by to find out if you’re one of the lucky ones!

Good Luck to everyone!

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