Archive for the ‘Blogging for Profit’ Category

This week, my quest to make my business office more “green” went to hell. I’ve been sitting on – oh, about 50 ebooks that I’ve been dying to read. I sit in front of my computer screen for over 12 hours a day and I’m just not loving the idea of spending another few hours reading.

I broke. I gave in. I printed my top 10 reads. I’ve been reading everything from how to use Twitter in your business to an interesting read from StomperNet.

What’s the point of all this?

Ideas.

See, if you don’t ever do anything different, you become relaxed. You go into auto drive. You perform what needs to be performed – and you may even do it really well – but you don’t excel. You become settled. Stuck.

If you’ve ever tried a workout regime, you probably know what I mean. The pounds fall off until you plateau, then it doesn’t matter what you do – nothing seems to get that last 5 pounds off. What do you do? Change it up.

So that’s what I did. I’ve been reading more. Writing more. And it seems to have shaken something loose up in the old noggin’. Ideas seem to be popping out everywhere. Sometimes I can’t keep up. Sometimes I’m just not prepared for the idea. Sometimes I keep up too well and become overwhelmed with all my new schemes.

“The value of an idea lies in the using of it.” – Thomas Edison

…but in order to use those ideas you need to get working. Ideas are likely going to come to you at inopportune times so you’d better be ready.

{Case in point – as I’m writing this, I had a great idea for the next talking point, but my cats distracted me and it’s now gone}

Keep a pad of paper handy, keep NotePad open on your computer, or use a voice recorder. Different strokes for different folks – do what’s going to work best for you.

Don’t worry if the idea seems out of this world. Albert Einstein quipped that if at first the idea is not absurd; there is no hope for it. Ideas aren’t too big, too small, or too crazy. After all, the entire history of mankind is really just a huge series of ideas.

Here’s some of the fire-y business ideas I’ve been tossing about. Who knows – maybe it’ll spark your next idea.

- Move away from hourly work and into packaged deals (why? because my goal for 2010 is to stop trading time for money. More on that later)

- Create and publish a series of ebooks. {psst…the volumes will be published under the title The Rules of Social Media}

- Create a new niche and rock it out – You won’t want to miss this announcement – it’s going to be great. I know I’m a little biased. I’m just saying.

- Mini Consultations.

- Passive Income {this is one of those areas where the ideas seem to come in a constant nearly overwhelming stream} I won’t bore you with all the details but it does involve a launch process for ebooks and webinars, Tutorials for popular programs, and membership sites.

How about you? Did an idea spark? Where do you get your best ideas?

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.

Blogging is becoming more popular than email to reach and expand your market; because it is a lot faster to click on a blog site than to log in and download your email. But if you use your email marketing wisely it can be a great tool for bringing readers to your website.

Be sure to have an email capture on your blog. To entice people to sign up, offer them something free. Don’t make it junk!! Offer something of value. Then when you have permission to send them emails, use a short email to tease them into clicking to read more at your site. Or offer worthwhile information in your email, possibly a short term free lessons. Use your email signature to get them to your website if your email has to do with an unrelated subject.

You want to be sure that you use their email addresses responsibly. No one likes a spammer, besides I think it’s illegal.

Conduct a survey. That way you can get information right from your readers to help you to understand them, their profiles and advertising preferences. If you want to know something, want feedback on a post, or a link or a subject that you talked about, ask!! Let your readers know that you want their feedback.

Use RSS, it’s the fastest growing technology on the internet today. RSS feeds to your blog can add interest to your site.

Use video, You Tube adds yet another dimension to your blog.

Bring in a guest blogger, that way you get a fresh idea and your readers stay interested with a different perspective.

You may even want to run a contest. Have your readers leave comments and then randomly choose a winner. It will certainly get people talking.

I hope this has sparked some ideas for you. 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.

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.

*Note: I just found out that Darren Rowse has cut the price of his 31 Days to Build a Better Blog by 50% when you use coupon code: probloggeris5…but you have to hurry because this offer is only available for approx. the next 6 hours (I just picked up a copy of this for myself)!

31 Days to Build a Better Bloge is a workbook designed to help you revitalize your blog by giving you 31 tasks.

How To Use This Workbook:

While originally designed for bloggers to work through over a month – the feedback that we’ve been hearing from bloggers indicates that 31DBBB is being used in a variety of ways including:

- Intense Training – bloggers setting aside weekends or weeks to go through multiple tasks at once

- 1 Task a Day – the way we designed it – one day at a time

- 1 Task a Week – bloggers taking their time with the challenge and making the tasks week long tasks

- Monthly Cycle – bloggers using the tasks again and again each month as a monthly routine for their blogging.

- Occasional Inspirational Resource – bloggers dipping into 31DBBB on a more occasional basis – using it on days when they have time or lack inspiration.

The great thing about 31DBBB is that you can do it at your own pace and in your own way.

Who is this Workbook for?

31 Days to Build a Better Blog is for bloggers at different stages of their blogging including:

- those who have just started a blog but who don’t know what to do next
- those who have had a blog for a while but it’s stalled in its growth
- bloggers with bloggers block and lacking inspiration

This workbook is NOT designed for bloggers yet to start a blog (PreBloggers). It doesn’t cover setting up a blog. If that’s you check out the ProBlogger book which covers this aspect of blogging.

By the end of the 31 Days you’ll have:

- written a variety of different types and styles of posts
- learned techniques for coming up with new post ideas
- promoted your blog in a variety of ways
- built relationships with readers
- reached out to and developed working relationships with other bloggers
- developed an editorial calendar for your blog going forward
- discovered ways to be more connected to your niche/topic
- designed a plan for the next month of your blogging
- All in all the daily tasks are 31 steps to transform you blog into a valuable online asset.

Click Here to pick up your copy  for under $10 using coupon code: probloggeris5

Earlier this week we told you that Alice & Lynette are just about ready to shut the doors on their Internet Marketing Blogging Bootcamp intensive coaching program that shows you how to create a low-maintenance, high-profit blog.

Well, time is running out. You have to register by Friday, September 25 in order to take advantage of:

-> This 4-week program. After this Friday, Lynette & Alice won’t be offering it again.

-> The half-off tuition rate. An amazing deal for one-on-one guidance from two experienced blogging for profit teachers.

Again, those details are here for you:

http://IMBloggingBootcamp.com/ims.html

…you’ll find out what you’ll learn week-by-week, what other blogging students think and how to register. If you don’t have a strategic profit plan for your blog, now’s the time to get one!

Everyone seems to talk about blogs like they’re the greatest thing…so easy to set up, a no-brainer to make a profit, etc.

If you’ve set up a blog, you know that’s often easier said than done.

But if you’ve got the right guidance, things can go a lot more smoothly…and this will be your last chance to get this type of one-on-one help to turn your blog into a profitable venture.

For quite some time now Alice and our resident technical whiz, Lynette Chandler have been offering their 4-week “Internet Marketing Blogging Bootcamp” where they take you through a series of 4 lessons and practical assignments to help you create a lower maintenance and higher profit blog.

They take you through:

- Creating a deeper connection with your target audience (a target that actually buys stuff).

- Creating an easy-to-maintain blogging routine.

- Selling through your blog (You bet it’s possible!).

- Maximizing your promotion opportunities.

Well, here’s some important news on this highly sought after coaching program:

1. This is the LAST time you’ll be able to register. Alice & Lynette are doing some restructuring and will only be offering the program one last time.

2. Tuition is HALF PRICE. You don’t want to miss the opportunity for one-on-one guidance straight from Alice & Lynette. Get feedback, advice and ask plenty questions to help you on your way to more profits from blogging.

Here are the details week-by-week and information on how to register => Internet Marketing Blogging Bootcamp

We really encourage you to register now. There’s a lot of misinformation about what it takes to make a blog profitable and Alice & Lynette set the record straight, so you can get on the right track with your blog.

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