If you don’t have an ebook or any type of digital products for sale on your site, you’re leaving a lot of money on the table. Not too long ago the only way to get your words in front of the masses was to use a publisher. Things are changing in a big way. Sure, lots of people love holding a book in their hand as opposed to reading through their newly downloaded ebook or other digital media. And there’s no doubt about it – if you’re aligned with a top publisher it can definitely add credibility to your career.

Self-publishing an ebook and the residual passive income created is quickly becoming big business. Even if you’re published in the traditional sense, you shouldn’t be too quick to dismiss ebooks and other sources of passive income.

In a recent conversation with a new client (who happens to have two published books and wasn’t originally interested in ebooks or digital products) I explained the benefits of why she should be offering some digital products to compliment her traditional books.

- There are people who are not interested in regular books. Not offering an ebook version leaves mega bucks on the table.

- Create a mini-version of your traditional book. Easily accessible pricing means you’ll be able to net those people who feel your book is too pricey.

- Offering different types of products – audio or video for instance – will pull in people who don’t have time to read, or who find the different types of files more stimulating than books.

- As you promote your newly created ebook and other digital products, you can package the “freebies” that you create (short videos, blog posts, etc) as an online e-course that you can offer for free. This captures everyone else who isn’t able or willing to pay for your material, but it does offer you an email address to build your newsletter list.

- Once you have all these fabulously hot products, you can even set up an easy, inexpensive affiliate program.

Dawn Martinello is the creative juice behind MondayMorningVA.com where she is on a mission to open up new income stream possibilities for solopreneurs who are ready to systematically turn their expertise into profitable information products right now. Dawn also guides clients to use social media with confidence to build a solid fan base and provides one-on-one guide sessions, “do-it-for-me” services, or collaborative services to get the mission accomplished.

Often times I’m stuck with what to blog about about but lately it seems like if I just pay more attention to what is going on around me, there is actually too many ideas and not enough time to write all these posts…so today I thought I’d share a few of the ways I get inspired with topics to blog about.

#1 – Comments from my own blog. So many times people ask questions or share ideas that I hadn’t thought of or overlooked. These are sometimes the best posts because many of them end up as “How to’s” which seem to be very popular. BTW…you can get many more “How To’s” about blogging, network marketing and online marketing from my Sweet Leads Training.

#2 – Subscriber questions in response to my emails and/or training materials. After people read my emails or go through my training, many questions come up. These are again great “How To’s”.

#3 – Whatever training I’m currently going through. Personally I take a lot of training (and I mean A LOT) in a number of different areas. So as I learn, I implement, then share…in mini bite sized pieces of course

#4 – Sites like Mashable.com, AllTop.com, TopOneReport.com, MLMUrls.com and what some other bloggers in our industry are blogging about. Sometimes I’ll read someone else post and then go blog about the same idea except I put my own spin and resources into it so it’s unique. But I get the original idea from another blogger.

#5 – What I’m working on. Whether it’s split testing, Facebook marketing or Twitter…whatever I’m implementing at the time is a good, timely topic to blog about. A great idea to actually encourage participation on you blog is when you’re implementing something and you’re stuck. You could ask your network for feedback or help. This can really help to get those comments rolling in.

#6 – The News. I barely watch TV or listen to the radio, but when there’s a big enough story, you’re bound to hear about it from someone..Or feel it. (I felt the Toronto earthquake a couple weeks ago…couldn’t help but look that up in the news…not that I’ve blogged about it, but I’m sure I could find a story or a lesson to be learned in there somewhere.

#7 – What your reading. I read. A lot. I hope you do too. If you’re in this industry of network marketing or even if you’re a traditional business owner, you always need to be educating yourself. And reading is a great way to do that. It’s also a great thing to share. Lessons from books you read. Crop ‘em up and spit em out in, again, “mini bite sized pieces”.

#8 – Family & Friends. What’s going on with them. Use their experiences to learn and share a lesson or inspiration. Look for lessons in the smallest of actions. IE: I made cupcakes the other day and I didn’t want to use any sugar or butter. I’m not vegan but I’ve drastically reduced my intake of animal products. I found a recipe, and they are delicious. So if you want to do something bad enough, you’ll find a way.

#9 – New Tools, Gidgets, Gadgets, Trinkets and Tokens. I am constantly stumbling across different sites or tools that are ingenious and will help other entrepreneurs. Just the other day I discovered HARO and shared it with my business women community. Check this blog post if you’re looking for any free press.

#10 – Self talk. Do you ever talk yourself in OR out of something? Catch yourself…and share your experience. What did you learn? What will you do next time? How did you handle it? Lessons that come from our direct experience are sometimes the most powerful and easy to write. (like this post…was easy cause I just ripped it off the top of my head). I hope you got some good value from this.

So there is no lack of inspiration and ideas for what to blog about, you just have to “seize the moment”. The more you do it, the easier it becomes and soon you’ll have so many ideas and no enough time to blog about them all. Keep a notebook with you at all times and jot down your ideas…or pop ‘em into your phone notepad.

What other blog inspiration ideas do you have? How do you come up with ideas to blog about?

Tracy Matthewman
Visit Tracy at NetworkMarketingSweetie.com for more cool stuff like this!

Are you an Internet Marketer? Did you know that Blogging is one of the newest Internet Marketing tools? Let’s look into why you should have a blog.

A blog, short for Web Log, started back in the late 90′s. What started as a comment on an existing webpage has turned into a way for individuals to write about what is on their mind. It could be a personal blog that no one other than yourself sees, kind of like a journal or diary. Or it can be a place to vent or just talk about topics that are of interest to you.

As Blogging becomes more and more popular, it has become one more way to monetize an Internet Marketing Business. So why should you be blogging? Here are my thoughts, see if you agree.

1. Blogging is easy. If you have a computer and an internet connection (and who doesn’t these days?), then you too can have a blog.

2. Blogging can be free to do. You can start a blog for free, without owning a domain name or having a website, but if you are serious about marketing you will want a paid blog – because on free blogs your content may not be your own. If you inadvertently breach the terms of use, your blog could be taken down without any notice and all your hard work would be gone.

So what do you talk about? Just talk about your ideas or if you want to use it as a marketing tool, talk about new products you’ve tried and your experience with them. Did you like them? Why?

3. Which brings us to our third reason; Blogging is real. People like to buy things; they don’t want to be sold to. Think about it. Every day we are bombarded with advertising – commercials, touting that their product is the best.

The difference with a blog is that it’s like talking to a friend. It’s like you are telling them your first-hand experience with a product, why you liked it. What you hated about it. Would you use it again? You’re just giving your opinion. It’s real!!

4. So if you are real, then it stands to reason that you will become believable; which will give credibility to your posts. As your credibility builds, your readers will come to rely on your information. As word spreads of your expertise, you may even become the go to expert in your field.

5. All of the above builds readership and as your readership grows, so grows your market. Let’s face it, unless you are a big time name, no one is reading your blog except your mother, (or in my case my husband and 2 grown children).

As you can see, there are many reasons why, as an internet marketer, you should have a blog. If you think of something I missed, leave a comment.

Mary Blackburn
For more information on affiliate marketing, blogging and business trends, visit Mary at http://www.affiliatebusinesstrends.com.

Now that your website is online and you’re ready to start promoting it, you need to start making connections. How and where do you make these connections? You network, of course. The key is to learn how to network without alienating potential customers and partners. Here are a few tips to help you do just that.

There are many places where you can network online. One of the easiest ways is to network online is to find forums or communities that are related to your business. Join a couple of them and put a link to your website in your signature line, if allowed. This lets members know that you have a business.

Start conversations about subjects you feel comfortable talking about. Answer questions that deal directly with your business, but don’t push your business while you’re answering. In fact, it may be best to avoid talking about your business at all, unless someone comes out and asks you about it point blank. The same rule of thumb applies to making comments on blogs, which brings us to the next place you can network.

You may also visit other blogs that are in your niche or in a related niche. Place comments on those blogs and include your website address in the information part of the form (usually linked to your name) so other people can find your site. When adding your info, you may want to use only your first name and/or last-name initial. This keeps search results from showing up when someone does a search on your name.

Since spam comments are a problem for many bloggers, do not include a link in your comment. Here again, use your manners. Stick to the topic at hand, write more than two sentences, and add value to the post by sharing your “expert” thoughts and ideas. This is not the time or place to pump your items or site. You are a guest on the blog. Behave like one. If you don’t, either your comment will be caught by a spam filter or the site owner will send your comment to the trash.

Networking is essential to your business marketing. By networking without alienating potential customers and partners, you can bring new visitors to your website, build your authority status, begin establishing trust, and maybe even find a joint venture partner. Just remember to use your manners when you go visiting online.

Visit Kit Singleton at TheVirtualPeach.com for more helpful ideas and services to help you manage and market your business. Find out more about Kit.

Do you want to do an online business but are afraid of the scams? You’re not alone! Because of the scams reported, some people are given up their dream of working online at home. I hope you won’t be one of them.

There are a lot of scams out there today, especially in the internet world. But that is no reason to put your idea of working an online business on hold. Scams can be avoided with some careful research.

What do you look for when trying to avoid a scam? Here are a few tips you should watch for when searching on the internet for a job or business to start up.

The company should have contact information. A physical address and phone number is best. At least, there should be a legitimate, in-country email address. When you locate the contact information, use it! Call them or email them. You should get a response in a timely manner. If it is an email, does it sound like it is a personal response? If something doesn’t seem quite right, go on to another opportunity.

Check out the company with the Better Business Bureau. Not every business is registered with them, but if there have been complaints against the company, there should be a record of it. See if the complaint issues have been resolved. If not, do not do business with the company.

Go to Google and type in the “company name and scam” or “company name and complaints.” See what others are saying about them and what the general experience has been. I say general, because you will find complaints about almost anything from some people. You need to be able to read between the lines here. Is there a legitimate issue or is someone just spouting off because they didn’t put the effort into the business to make it work and wrote it off as a scam? Determine if most people are happy with the company or not.

Take your time. Decide what you would really enjoy doing and do your research.

Don’t put off your desire to run an online business. Just go in with your eyes wide open.

—-
Laurie Neumann has compiled a Home Business Resource Guide which gives you over seventy legitimate opportunities that have been researched and checked out with the Better Business Bureau. The guide also gives additional resources for training and guidance in getting started in your own business. Visit http://www.legitimate-homebasedbusinesses.com for details.

Right now more and more individuals are finding themselves out of work. Either because their job has been eliminated, their company is downsizing, or the company has closed completely due to a failing economy.

So there are more people than ever looking to the internet to either supplement their income or completely replace a lost income. One of the areas of online work that people are looking to is Affiliate Marketing.

To succeed in affiliate marketing, there are certain qualities you must find in yourself. This is a very competitive industry and to be able to rise above the rest, you need to possess the right stuff.

The first quality you need to possess is to be open to learning and have a willingness to be trained. A know-it-all-attitude will just cause you to spin your wheels. You must be willing to learn from those who have gone before. They can give you an advantage with their knowledge. So find a mentor to help you.

The second quality is the willingness to invest the time it takes to see results. This is not a get rich quick scheme. This is a business; it grows with time and effort. You must possess the stick-to-it-ness to see the results of your labor. It may and probably will take months. Just keep at it!

The third quality is self-determination. If you want to be successful you must be a self-motivator. You need to be able to push yourself.

Which leads us to quality number four; discipline. There will be no boss standing over you like a task master, saying “Get it done”. So you must have the ability to set goals and time frames for your work. Procrastinators need not apply.

Our fifth and final quality is optimism. If you really have the desire to have your own Affiliate Business, you must disregard the nay sayers. A negative attitude will never let you succeed. It will only drag you down and discourage you. However, if you feel that you can, down in your own heart, no one can keep you from achieving Greatness!

The tools you need to have a successful Affiliate Marketing Business are diverse and exponential. However, if you have the drive, the integrity and the gumption to succeed, then you will.

The capacity to realize all your dreams lies within you. Desire is the capacity.

Mary Blackburn
For more information on affiliate marketing, blogging and business trends, visit Mary at http://www.affiliatebusinesstrends.com.

Guest post by Crissy Herron

Teaching an online class can be a great way to grow your business, connect with your customers, and share the skills and knowledge you have with others.

So, how exactly does this happen? Read on for more info!

Attract New Customers

When you offer an online class, you attract new customers into your business. There are many people who would like to learn the skills you have – and that can be anything from creating great copywriting, using social media, customizing WordPress and so forth.

It’s true that you could simply offer these services, but that would only allow you to reach customers who want to hire someone to do the work for them. There is a whole market of people who want to do the work themselves, and by offering to teach them the skill, you are opening up your business to a new type of customer.

Make Connections

As you know, building relationships is one of the keys to success in doing business online. When someone goes into a local business, they can chat with the owner or clerks, and over time, they get to know them. The customer forms a connection with that business and doesn’t think about doing business elsewhere.

This effect can be hard to achieve online. However, when you offer a class, it is hard not to make a connection with the participants! While you may choose to work with them through email coaching, phone conferences, or web chats the effect is still the same.

At the end of the day, you will be working with them, coaching them, helping them to step out of their comfort zone, and teaching them a new skill. The participants will feel connected with you, and that connection will lead to a life long relationship. These people will turn into loyal, life long customers.

Earn Extra Income

Creating your own online class allows you to earn extra income in several ways. First of all, it’s a new product, so just by offering it, you are creating extra income.

As was mentioned above, offering an online class can introduce your business to new customers who may not have purchased your services in the past. So, that right there opens up a new source of extra income.

The third way that offering an online class helps you earn extra income is that it allows you to earn more per hour. For example, let’s say that you are a copywriter who charges $125 for a simple sales page, and that it takes you two hours to create it. Your average wage would be $62.50 per hour.

Now, let’s say that you are offering a 4 hour workshop where you teach copywriting. You charge $100 for the workshop and 15 people sign up. Let’s say that it takes you four hours to create the materials and, of course, four hours to deliver the classes for a total of 8 hours. If you divide that by the $1500 you earned from the class, your average hourly wage is $187.50 — which is triple the amount of writing a sales page.

Of course, this is just one example. You may charge different rates and have a different outcome. But as you can see, working with several people in a group setting will increase your income.

Creating your own online class can be very beneficial to your business – and your bottom line. Now it’s your turn to think about what you would like to teach and to get your own class started!

Would you like to learn more about holding your own online class? Crissy Herron, the author of this post, will be teaching a four week workshop that will walk you, step by step, through the process of creating your own class. By the time the workshop is over, you will be ready to enroll your own students!

Click Here for more information and to register

In case you’re not on my mailing list, (though you really should be ) I thought I would post the email that I sent out to my subscribers earlier today for you here:

====================================================

Is it just me, or do you feel like you’re moving at a snail’s
pace too?

Yeah, I guess summer does have the annoying habit of provoking
laziness in even the most dedicated of us business owners

And as nice as it would be to keep up our idle ways, you and I
both know that it’s time to shake off the fog and start planning
for the fall if we want to meet our year-end goals.

So with that in mind, I woke up Monday morning, sat down with
my coffee and indulged in a crazy brainstorming session.

A session that I want to share with you, but more on that in
just a minute.

Using a combination of pen and paper, MS Word, and mindmapping
software, I created an ACTION plan for one of my sites that
will greatly increase the current monthly over the next few
months.

And predictably, the glue holding it all together is content.

I know content. I write it, I use it to market my business,
I have memberships sites based on it. It works.

Of course everyone says it works, but what they don’t tell you
is:

-> How to come up with content ideas
-> How to create content for search engine traffic
-> How to use content to convert prospects into customers
-> How to reuse and repurpose your existing content
-> How to grow your mailing list and readership with content

You know, all the really important stuff.

So when I realized how big a part content was going to play in
my business plans this fall, I figured maybe it was time to
learn how to create a long-term content marketing plan.

Naturally, I went to Alice Seba first, to take a closer look
at her interactive content course. Mainly because I want to
be focused and I want to take action. I don’t want useless
fluff, and I don’t want to learn stuff I already know.

To be honest, I was pretty confident her course wouldn’t be
for me, but her satisfaction guarantee meant that I wouldn’t
be out anything if that turned out to be the case.

So I got in touch with Alice and asked if she could extend
the lifetime course option to me so I could check it out.

Well, she did better than that…not only did she re-activate
the lifetime access option, she also gave me a coupon for $20
off the cost – so I dug in.

And now I have to admit that I was wrong. Her course turned
out to be nothing like I expected.

For someone who knows content the way I do, I’m doing some
serious learning over here, and more importantly, applying
what she teaches to my business.

The course even includes some cool videos (loved the video on
how Alice uses her iPhone to create content and get ideas) and
tons of supplemental learning materials, like planning sheets,
swipe files, templates, etc.

Anyway, now you’re probably wondering what the heck happened
to the brainstorming session I was talking about, so here it
is…

Remember how I said that content was the glue that held my
brainstorm together?

Well, the way I see it, handing over my personal brainstorm
isn’t going to do you much good if you struggle with content.
So here’s what I want to do…

I want you to join me as a content marketing student and we’ll
work side-by-side.

Sign up for just $1.00 TODAY, and I’ll send you a copy of my
business brainstorm mindmap next week.

Go here to get signed up (clear your cookies first):

http://internetmarketingsweetie.com/content-marketing.html

Then send a copy of your receipt to melissa @ sweetiemarketing.com
and I’ll get that to you.

*** SAVINGS & EXTRA BONUS ***

If you want to give it your all like I did, grab your lifetime
membership which gives you access to all the lessons, materials,
videos, audios, etc. for just $77.

Coupon code: sweetsweet
Expires: July 30, 2010
Discount: $20 off lifetime access

AND not only will you get a copy of my business brainstorm
mindmap, you’ll also get INSIDER ACCESS to my call with Alice
Seba this September where we’ll be talking about:

“Cashing in with Free Reports: How to Get Traffic, Build
Your List, and Make Money With Free Reports.”

Just forward a copy of your receipt to me personally at
melissa @ sweetiemarketing.com and I’ll be in touch with all
the details

Here’s that link again:
http://internetmarketingsweetie.com/content-marketing.html

Here’s to a successful and profitable fall season!

Warmly,
Melissa Ingold
The Internet Marketing Sweetie

P.S. If you already signed up, don’t worry, you’ll get access
to the call too.