The Productivity Challenge for 2013 has begun! For the third year in a row I am hosting another productivity challenge during the spring for you to get moving forward in your online business. If you’d like to take a look at last year’s productivity challenge, it’s on my other blog at this link.

We began on April 1, 2013 and will continue throughout the entire month with this challenge. You may join us at any time; simply leave a comment to introduce yourself to the group.

What Exactly Is A Productivity Challenge?

This is where I post to my blog every day for at least 21 days in a row (for 2013 it will be a 30 day challenge) to share the thinking, activities, and tasks you need to be implementing in your life and in your business to become a successful online entrepreneur. I like to do it in the spring of the year so that you are ready to be open to new ideas and new ways of building a profitable business.

Productivity Challenge Day 1 – Today I would like for you to find three blogs on your niche topic. Make it a goal to read their posts, to leave comments, and to connect with the authors of these sites. What are they doing that is similar to what you are doing? How are they different? Learn as much as you can about these people and their sites and make some notes on what you like the most about them, as well as what does not appeal to you. We all learn by observing, implementing, and reflecting on what others are doing. This is also the beginning of connecting with colleagues with the idea of having Joint Venture partners in the future.

Productivity Challenge Day 2 – Let’s talk about delegating and outsourcing. I am able to be super productive each and every day because I no longer spend time with activities and tasks that can be best done by others. If you think about it, you’ll see that you most likely already delegate or outsource many things in your life, such as getting your hair cut, repairing your car, or having your shoes repaired. There are some things that you absolutely must handle yourself, such as going to the dentist or getting a manicure, but other things are best done by the people who specialize in that area. This is an example of how I got started with this in a major way:

• A friend of mine used to be a travel agent before her son was born. Several years ago she asked me if she could book my flights when I went to events around the country, and now she has done this for me exclusively since 2009. We bartered for this service during the first year, and since then she has been a part-time independent contractor in my business.
• I write lots of articles. Seriously, LOTS of articles! I love writing them, but submitting them to the directories was tedious for me. A family member began doing it for me for three dollars per article, and now I have two people who do this as part of their work for me as Virtual Assistants.
• When I return from out of town (I travel every few weeks for business or pleasure) I like to have a few perishable food items waiting for me. I have a wonderful lady who lives in my neighborhood who does some shopping for me the day before I return. When I walk through the door I know that fresh strawberries, ripe bananas, Greek yogurt, and a few other delicious treats await me. She also goes to the post office, drops off and picks up dry cleaning, and waters the plants for me, working about ten hours each month in total.

These are just a few examples of what other people can do for you to help you in your life and with your business. Running errands can eat up a sizable chunk of your time, so this is crucial to becoming a successful online entrepreneur.

Today I want you to choose three activities or tasks that someone else can do for you, freeing up some of your time to work on your business. Let us know what things those are and how you will handle the delegation/outsourcing right away.

Day 3 – List building is an activity you must engage in on a daily basis as an online entrepreneur. This starts with having multiple ways for people to join your list. Your hosted WordPress blog is typically the first site you set up, so make sure there is an optin box where visitors can exchange their name and email for your free giveaway.

Next, set up an optin page that caters to a specific group of prospects. This should be a stand-alone page, where visitors have only two choices; opt in or leave. You can see an example of that at my Viral Report Marketing site.

How many sites do you own and control where your prospects may join your list? I currently have almost fifty of these, but it all begins with the first one. Share one of your optin pages with us here by leaving a comment.

Productivity Challenge Day 4 – It’s wonderful to see so many readers participating in the challenge! Congratulations on making the commitment to jump start your online business with this 30 day productivity challenge.

Let’s talk about earning some income if you are just getting started. Affiliate marketing is the way many people get started, but even before you recommend other people’s products and services you can offer your own services to others. As soon as I learned how to set up WordPress sites I started doing it for a fee for people who wanted a custom site without having to pay for it. I continue to do this when someone signs up for hosting through my affiliate link. You can see how I’ve set this up by taking a look at this page.

What can you do right now that others will be willing to pay you for? Here are some ideas:

• Submit articles to the directories
• Proofread articles, blog posts, eBooks, and books for Kindle
• Set up and post to social media sites
• Create simple graphics
• Contact potential JV (joint venture) partners
• Set up interviews for Internet radio shows and podcasts
• Transcribe audio recordings
• Rewrite PLR (private label rights) content

These are just a few ideas of ways you can earn money from work that is done online; there are even more ideas for offline work. Be creative with your thinking and see what you come up with. Much of the work I am describing here falls under the heading of being a Virtual Assistant; you may end up loving it and decide to continue doing it on a part-time basis as you build your business.

Please share how you are earning some money on the Internet right now while you are learning to become a full time online entrepreneur.

Day 5 – Continuing education is crucial to success, and every profession requires it. As an entrepreneur, take it upon yourself to be an ongoing learner. Reading is the best place to get started with your business education, and I have created a Productivity Reading List to share which books I am reading. I read physical books and books on my Kindle, and listen to audio books while walking, driving, or flying.

You will also want to frequent your local public library to find books and audio books, as I describe in greater detail in this post on online marketing research.

You will also want to participate in online trainings such as this one, attend live events, and work with a Mentor to further your business continuing education.

Be willing to devote thirty minutes each day to reading and learning. Please leave a comment to share your favorite business books and other ways of learning more about becoming an online entrepreneur.

Day 6 – We’ve been discussing many things that are crucial to your online success, but today we need to get back to the basics of what you must have in place if you are going to earn money as an entrepreneur.

The very first thing is your hosted, WordPress site. This is your ‘home on the internet’ where others can find out who you are, what you do, and how you may serve them.

On Day 4, above, I explained how I do this at no cost to you, so if you still do not have a site you own and control you must stop what you’re doing and get that set up. A site on Blogger or Weebly is not a site you own, so take that into consideration if you want to build a profitable business for yourself.

Day 7 – Before we go any further, I’d like for you to log in to the autoresponder service you are using and get to know it better. I use both Aweber (get started for only $1) and Kick Start Cart (it’s a licensed version of 1 Shopping Cart) to send my autoresponder and broadcast emails. I use both systems so that I am able to have greater control over my business, but you do not need to do this during your first year or so online. I also pay for an advanced tool to allow me to do things with my list that make it much easier for me to segregate separate lists and to change subscribers from one list to another, features that are typically only found in much more expensive systems.

If you’re just starting out, I recommend that you use Aweber to set up your first, or next, autoresponder sequence. Spend some time today clicking on everything in the tool bar. This is how you get to know just what is available and how powerful this software is when it comes to building a profitable online business.

Refuse to allow yourself to get caught up in the details of which service is best or how much it will cost each month (I pay by the year to save even more money). If you could spend a hundred dollars to earn ten thousand dollars, would you be worrying about how to save an additional twenty dollars? Of course not! That’s referred to by entrepreneurs and small business owners as ‘majoring in the minors’, which means getting bogged down in the details and minutiae. Rise above that and move profitably forward.

If you already have a site, tell us where it is so we can take a look. Tomorrow we’ll be talking about your free giveaway, so if you already have one set up opt into your list again and see what it’s like for your prospects to do the same. Read over your free giveaway to see how you may want to change it.

Productivity Challenge Day 8 – Today we want to focus on the free giveaway you are offering in exchange for someone giving you their name and email to join your list. Long gone are the days when we would opt in to someone’s list just to receive a newsletter or updates. Instead, we all want to receive something so irresistible we just can’t say no!

The most popular way to compel new prospects to join your list is to offer them a short report on the exact topic they are looking for. This may take you some time to figure out, but once you do then it is just a matter of time before your list grows quickly.

You will also use the same short report as a free giveaway to your social media community, to add to a membership site, and to send as a free gift to the people already on your list. The idea is to repurpose your content over and over again, getting your name out in a big way and building your credibility. Learning how to write and share this reports will change your business forever. I have an excellent training on How to Write Short Reports, and you may pick it up for only $17 by using the coupon code profit. That’s a twenty dollar discount.

I write at least two new short reports each month. Today I’m writing one that Marlon Sanders will be using as a bonus for his new product. When the word gets out that you are able to write short reports on your topic, you will be in high demand.

Another way to repurpose your short reports is to turn them into books for Kindle.

For the purposes of your free giveaway, these reports need only be abut five to seven pages long.

Day 9 – ‘What’s For Sale?’ Today let’s discuss making money online. The question you must ask yourself each day is ‘What do I have available for sale on the Internet?’ This means that in order to make money while you sleep, which I do every day, you must have opportunities available for people to find you, click on your links and make a purchase.

If I sat in front of my computer today, credit card or PayPal info in hand, how could I make purchases of your own products or affiliate products where you would earn money? I currently have at least five thousand opportunities available, and I continue to add more each day.

May a list of every place you can think of where there are links that belong to you. Start with your blog and see what number you can come up with. This is what I explain in the Special Report I just created for Marlon Sanders’ new WP Leads and Sales Dashboard.

Share your thoughts with us here so that we can discuss it further.

Day 10 – RECAP

Let’s take a look at where we are on this tenth day of the challenge:

• You have a hosted WordPress blog on your niche topic
• This site has an optin box, where visitors may sign up on your list to receive your free giveaway
• You are reading three other blogs on your topic and making comments where appropriate
• You have identified three tasks that can be delegated or outsourced to others, freeing up some additional time for you to work on your business
• You have purchased another domain name and set up an additional opt in page
• You are offering a service to others to earn some additional income
• You are spending thirty minutes each day reading books on business, success, and entrepreneurship
• Your initial autoresponder sequence is in place for when someone opts in to your list
• Your free giveaway is a compelling one
• You know exactly what you have for sale, of your own or through affiliate links
• Your thank you pages offer new subscribers an additional product or course

Thank you pages are the topic for today. Opt in to your own list and see where you are taken. This should be a thank you page that you or your tech person has created, specifically for your offer of a free report or other giveaway.

This is a simple thank you page I had created:

Thank You Page

Can you see what I have added to it? This is someone else’s eBook, through my affiliate link. Small changes like this will increase your bottom line exponentially.

Day 11 – Your autoresponder messages are an important, yet often overlooked, part of your online business. Today I would like for you to write three additional email messages to add to your autoresponder sequence after people have received your initial welcome email. This is what I am suggesting:

Day 1 – They receive a welcome email from you, thanking them for subscribing and requesting your free giveaway. Include a link to where they may access the giveaway, even if you have already given it to them on the thank you page. You most likely have already written this email message.

Day 2 – Include some information about yourself, in relation to your niche topic. This is where storytelling comes into play, and it is very powerful. No one has dropped out of the sky, so be willing to share a little more about yourself with your prospects. Include a link to one of your blog posts so they will a) know you are blogging regularly and b) see what else you have to offer on your blog in the way of content, products, affiliate offers, and more.

Day 3 – Include information on how they can further engage with you, such as on social media, with a teleseminar (I always have http://AskConnieAnything.com ready), or with an eCourse or upcoming training. This may be yours or an affiliate offer.

Day 4 – Send them an offer – either to one of your products or to an affiliate site. The offer must be relevant to why they joined your list in the first place. Include a link to the page you are sending them to three times throughout the email. This works!

Writing autoresponder messages may seem tedious to write and prepare, but they are gold when it comes to building your business as an online entrepreneur.

Day 12 – Let’s discuss what to include on your ‘About’ page on your site(s). This is a separate page you add to your site. There is no right or wrong way to approach this, and you may take a look at mine at Huge Profits Tiny List and here on this blog to get some ideas. How are these two pages different? How are they similar?

Include the link to your ‘About’ page so we may get to know you better and give you some feedback. I’d like to know what you think about mine as well.

Day 13 – Allow your prospects the opportunity to hear your voice! Today I’m going to challenge you to host a fifteen minute teleseminar on your topic and to invite everyone you know to attend.

I can recall just how frightened I was when I first did this in 2007, but I also remember how it made me feel while I was on the call discussing my topic with others. For an eighteen month period I hosted a free teleseminar each Wednesday at 6 pm EST. Even though the call was free to my subscribers, I earned money each week by recommending my own and affiliate products. Even now I continue host two ‘open’ calls each month. You can get a better idea of what I do on my teleseminars by going to Ask Connie Anything

I continue to use the Instant Teleseminar service for this, and you can get started with a 10 day trial for only $1 to see how it works. You may have noticed that all successful entrepreneurs use teleseminars to communicate with their community on a regular basis, and that’s because allowing people to hear your voice works extremely well in building relationships.

Let us know when and where your teleseminar will be so we may join you.

Day 14 – Today is all about the relationships you have been building with people in your niche and in niches that are complimentary to yours. How do you start the process of building a relationship with a successful entrepreneur? Here are some ways to get started:

• When you purchase something, send a card to thank them; put in a support ticket telling them why their product was beneficial to you; give them a testimonial
• Write a product review on your blog; make a short video that explains what you liked best
• Join their affiliate program and tell others about their product
• Connect with them on social media and thank them publicly
• Attend a live event where they will be speaking or attending

I started doing this several years ago without even thinking about it and now it’s just a part of how I do business. Some of the people I have connected with in this way include Dennis Becker, David Perdew, Marlon Sanders, Ryan Deiss, Armand Morin, Jason Fladlien, Wilson Mattos, and Ray Edwards.

Who will you be connecting with to build a relationship for your online business?

Productivity Challenge Day 15 – Congratulations on making it to the halfway point! Less than 10% of the people who started on Day 1 will make it this far, so no matter when you join us in the challenge you are now in the top 5-10% for entrepreneurial productivity if you’re working through the training each day. That’s why I’ve always said that there is very little competition on the Internet; most people give up, make excuses, or find something else to occupy their mind. If you’re still moving forward you have an excellent chance fir great success.

Today we’re going to outline an idea for a new product. Spend about an hour on this and let us know what you’ve come up with. Purchase a domain name for it through my discounted affiliate link at GoDaddy and get your ideas down on paper. My new product will be on how to learn to be a virtual assistant. I bought the domain name, have made some notes, and will have it ready to go as a live course within the next 30 days. Speed of implementation is crucial to success.

Make sure that a membership site is part of your new product. Geoff Hoff and Paul Taubman are starting a new course on setting up membership sites that I highly recommend. This will ensure that your new product brings you residual income so that you work once and get paid over and over again.

What’s your new product? How will it serve your target market?

Day 16 – Today we are revisiting the Day 13 tip on hosting your own teleseminars.

Let’s talk about the most powerful tool you have at your disposal. It’s not your WordPress site, your list, your products, or even your relationships. No, it’s something even closer to you every moment of the day – your voice!

The power of the spoken word is how you will connect with people all over the world, most of whom you will never meet in person. I started hosting my own teleseminars in 2007, and soon after began interviewing others this way. The technology is simple – everyone can use a phone! You can record your calls and use them as products, to recommend affiliate products, as podcasts, and as a way to try out new ideas with your audience. I have used the Instant Teleseminar service since it came out in 2007, and was in a Mastermind with its creator, Rick Raddatz, for a while. Sign up for a 21 day trial for one dollar, and invite us to your 15 minute call!

After you have recorded your talk, have it transcribed into a short report. This can be used as a free giveaway, a bonus for one of your own or for someone else’s product, or as a stand alone product. The combination of audio and written content is a winner!

Day 17 – Today is all about connecting with other like-minded people. The easiest way to do this while working from home as an online entrepreneur is to join a paid forum. I am a member of three forums, and the one I’m recommending here is the Earn 1K a Day forum, created by Dennis Becker.

Introduce yourself first, and then take a look at the thread entitled ‘Breakthrough Challenges’. Also, connect with me there and I’ll introduce you around. This is where you’ll find JV partners, have access to valuable trainings and downloads, and be able to ask questions on anything and everything you’re working on. Some of my biggest goals have been met due to the relationships and information I have access to here.

Day 18 – It’s back to reading today with books from the Productivity Challenge Reading List. I highly recommend reading each day for thirty minutes, and this would include books on your niche topic, books on business, marketing, success, leadership, time management and productivity, and anything else that inspires you to achieve your goals as an online entrepreneur.

I stopped reading fiction when I came online and got serious about building a profitable business. Now I will occasionally read a mystery or novel, but I have come to love the education I receive by reading books from experts in my field of online marketing and business.

Reading enriches your life in many ways, and as a former classroom teacher you would expect for me to feel this way. Share just one of your favorite books with us here, and I will add some of them to the Reading List.

Day 19 – Show me the money! This is what most of us are looking forward to when we make the decision to come online and build a business. I’ll never forget how I felt in April of 2006 when I found out I had earned $21.60 in affiliate commission from the sale of an eBook through Clickbank. I jumped up and down and danced around, knowing that if I could make this happen once, I could do it over and over again.

Sure enough, I have continued to earn money as an affiliate marketer, and that income stream continues to bring me about half of my overall income. In addition to the cash I earn, there are also many prizes to be one. I’ve now won fourteen iPads, and just last month I won two iPad Minis over the course of just one weekend.

I do teach this several times a year, but for now I’d like for you to pick up my $7 Special Report, called Affiliate Contest Secrets. This is excellent if you are just starting out, as it includes the exact emails I send, the strategies I use, and the system you can put into place to start earning your own commissions and prizes. It’s 60 pages long and gives you a detailed, step by step plan to move forward right away. If you already own it, go back and read it again, word for word.

One free tool that makes affiliate marketing much easier is the Pretty Link plugin. There is also a paid version, but start out with the free one (called Pretty Link Lite) for the first six months.

What questions may I answer for you on the topic of affiliate marketing tips and tricks?

Day 20 – Are you ready for your close up? Create a short video and upload it to YouTube. Use OneTrueMedia.com or Animoto.com to get started, have a friend record you with a Flip or other simple camera, or record a screen capture with you doing the voice over. Videos are easier than ever before, it’s fun to create them, and people will be able to find you easily by the keywords you use. Leave a comment here to give us the link to the video you create. Take a look at my YouTube channel and also be sure to subscribe to get updates so you may have a better idea of how I’m incorporating videos into my online marketing strategy. Share the name of your channel here so we may subscribe.

Day 21 – Today I’d like for you to reach out to three people who are successful in your niche. These should be people you have been following for six months or longer, ones you have purchased from, and also people you’d like to do a JV (joint venture) with in the future. Make every effort to contact them through their support desk, via email, on social media, or on the phone. Express your appreciation for what you have learned from them so far, and ask them how you may be of service to them with something they are currently working on.

I know this is not as easy thing for me to ask you to do, but remember that I never ask my students to do anything I would not do myself. When I was first asked by my Mentor to do this in 2008 I felt like there was no one in the world who would be interested in working with me in a JV relationship. I contacted about fifteen people, about half of them responded within a week or so, and withing a year I had done JVs with four of them! I then saw that if I had the confidence to reach out to successful people and start a relationship with them, anything was possible. Let us know what happens.

Day 22 – Are you increasing your visibility online? The best way to measure this is to ‘Google’ yourself. Go over to Google and type in your name in quotation marks (mine is “connie ragen green”). Print out the first page or two and keep it in a folder. You want to note which of your sites is listed first as the most important for your name (in Google’s humble opinion).

Over time this number will grow exponentially if you are spending some time each day in getting your name and information out to the world. Some excellent ways to help this along include blogging; article marketing; setting up additional opt in pages; creating products; writing and publishing eBooks, Special Reports, and books for Kindle; through social media; and with teleseminars and interviews.

Another important reason to do this is to see exactly what people will find when they do a search for your name. I was recently on a call with a top marketer and I innocently asked him about his new book on Amazon. I had found out about this in my search, and it turned out someone had copied his work and published it under his name. Within a few minutes he had contacted Amazon to begin the process of having the book removed, but he may not have become aware of this for quite some time if it had not been for my Google search of his name.

‘Google’ my name to get an idea of how this works, and then do it with your name so you can print it out for your files.

Day 23 – Most of the successful people working today on the Internet got their start with affiliate marketing. By recommending what you love to others, you serve them by sharing what works for you while also earning some income.

So, where do you find products to promote through an affiliate link? Start with what you have been purchasing for your own needs. You can become my affiliate at Affiliate Links and Tools. I also recommend purchasing a membership to the NAMS online forum and membership site, as well as Dennis Becker’s Five Bucks a Day book and audios. By doing what I am suggesting here you will have an inventory of more than fifty products to begin recommending to others.

What questions do you have as you get started with affiliate marketing?

Day 24 – Today is a ‘social media’ day. Change your profile on Twitter to reflect the new site you set up during the first week of this challenge. Send a tweet announcing your new site, and ask people to take a look. Do the same thing on LinkedIn. Better yet, connect your Twitter and LinkedIn accounts so that you can write it once and post to both. Then go over to Facebook, make sure you and I are friends, and tell me about your new site on my wall. Mention the Productivity Challenge so I know who you are and what you are referring to. Now go over to your YouTube Channel and edit your profile. Your final stop will be at Google+ to see what you need to add to your profile on that site.

Please leave a comment if you will be joining us this year, and share a little about yourself, your business and your goals. You may begin the challenge at any time. Our Productivity Challenge teleseminar was very helpful to all who attended live. The replay is now available here.

Today we discussed the 2013 Productivity Challenge in greater details, and I answered everyone’s questions on how to build a profitable online business. It’s not too late for you to get involved and change your business in a way that works for you.

Productivity Challenge – All New For 2013

The new Productivity Challenge addresses the recent changes in online marketing, as well as the needs of those coming on the Internet to become online entrepreneurs.

In this 7th episode of Online Marketing Tips With Connie Ragen Green, my newest podcast series, I answer detailed questions about what we are working on each day as a part of this year’s challenge. We cover a variety of topics, from knowing when we should outsource some of the tasks to how to start monetizing the business.

At the end of April, when we are a the end of the Productivity Challenge, we will have another call to connect with everyone who is still on board. In years past I have had many students jump start their online businesses with this complimentary training.

I also answer questions on a variety of topics related Internet marketing and online business success, including which plugins to use on your WordPress sites, how to become my affiliate to promote my products and courses for lifetime commission, choosing high quality PLR (private label rights) content for niche sites, using Squidoo to create a variety of sites to recommend your own products and services as well as those you are an affiliate for, setting up eCourses in your autoresponder sequence, publishing for Kindle, and much more.

Be sure to join us for this year’s Productivity Challenge!

Also, you can now pick up my training on winning affiliate contests for only seven dollars at Affiliate Contest Secrets.

 

Be sure to subscribe to this new podcast series over at iTunes

I thought this was a great question because it shows the difference in mentality between people trying to make money online versus people trying to build a business online. People who want to make money online typically want to pluck the lowest hanging fruit with the least effort. People who want to build a business online look to harness processes that don’t fade with time. What does this have to do with the question at hand? Everything!

SIDE NOTE: For those of you who can’t wait for the answer to the question, the answer is “Both!” You should use your Kindle books to both make money and build your list.

By the way…

Amazon’s Kindle is now the Web’s #1 active marketplace for ebooks. Not only is it a great place to get readers, make sales, and build up your credibility, but it’s also a great way to take a real-time pulse of what’s popular, hot, and trending in hundreds (if not thousands) of niches.

So if you want to use Kindle books to leverage your business, here are “10 Specific Ways To Make Money and Build Your List With Kindle Books!”

1. Sell the book! (make money)

Your #1 way to make money with your Kindle book is to sell it! All the other 9 strategies will fall right in line if you just concentrate on methodically making sales.

2. Include link(s) to a free video in the book (opt in)

Any time you can offer a video that either gives people a shortcut or a visual representation of what you teach, a significant percentage of them will jump at the chance to watch the video. Just ask them to sign up with name and email before viewing it.

3. Upsell a course or coaching based on the book (make money)

Whenever you teach anything, a certain number of people will want to have you teach them how to do it personally. They enjoy the contact with you and the accountability a course or coaching creates.

4. Include links to your other products / books in the book (make money)

This sounds like a no-brainer, but most authors LEAVE OUT links that can make them money. Put “add links to my other products” on your checklist of things to do before publishing your Kindle book.

BIG TIP: you can always go BACK to books you’ve already published and ADD links to new books as you create them. There’s no rule that says you can’t add those links to an already published book.

5. Included affiliate links to relevant products and services in the book (make money)

If you don’t have your own products, services, or other books, you can still make money with links in your own book. You simply include links to relevant products that make sense in the context of the book.

AVOID BIG MISTAKE: Do NOT just include a bunch of links for the sake of including them. The affiliate links you share should make sense and be extremely relevant.

6. Offer free updates / free revisions of the book (opt in)

If your Kindle book will require some periodic updates, why not offer to give free updates to those who’ve already purchased it. Make the offer at the end of your book and have them opt-in, or even send a copy of their receipt so you can send them copies when you update the book. Most will NOT buy the updates, so this is a great way to hook people into your list.

7. Include a link to your affiliate program (opt in + make money)

If you operate an affiliate program for your other products or services, telling people about it in your Kindle book can be an excellent way to build your affiliate list and have them make sales for you. Though obviously not appropriate in all cases, it works great in the right circumstances.

8. Include a chapter from another book with a link to buy (make money)

This is pretty self-explanatory. Include a bonus chapter to the “next” book at the end of your current book with a link to buy it. If you don’t have another book yet, go back and update your current book when you do come out with the next one.

9. Offer a free subscription to your newsletter / blog updates (opt in)

Some of the people who like your book would like to keep up with you. If you don’t want to do a regular newsletter, then offer people the option of following you on Twitter or Facebook.

10. Create another book and promote it to your opt-in list (make money)

The real leverage with Kindle in terms of money and subscribers comes from publishing MULTIPLE books. Very few people make significant income with a single book. The old saying of “publish or perish” holds doubly true on Kindle.

The bottom line is that making money and building your list with Kindle books are inextricably linked. You can’t really do one without the other and, frankly, why would you?! And when you consider the sheer magnitude and marketing power of Amazon and Kindle, there’s never been a better time to start.

Jim Edwards

Selling online since 1997, Jim is an Internet Marketing Expert, Author, Elite Mentor and Coach

He specializes in helping individual entrepreneurs, small business owners and authors to understand how to use technology to build your online business.

Jim is the author of dozens of ebooks, hundreds of webinars, over 1,000 blog posts and articles.

His flagship ebook “How To Write and Publish Your Own eBook… in as little as 7 Days” – newly revised and updated with V2.0 – has been helping book and ebook authors create their own best-selling ebooks since 2001! Get more information about Jim and how he can help you get more readers, make more sales, and skyrocket your credibility here => http://eBookWritingProfits.com

 

 

After working exclusively in online business marketing for seven years now, I have come to the realization that it’s time for a change in one of my basic marketing strategies in regards to my two main blogs. Instead of doing more than ninety percent of the writing, I am now going to actively search for others to write articles that can be posted here.

Why am I doing this? There are a number of reasons, but first I’ll share the thinking that got me to the place I am currently in my business. When I began blogging in 2006, writing each post was a struggle and a challenge. I was not a writer, and that was blatantly obvious from the very beginning. I could write coherently, with no spelling or major grammar errors, but my focus was on the mechanics of writing rather than the creative aspect. The result was posts that were not very interesting and not read regularly by my followers.

Over the years this changed, primarily because I persevered. I wrote something every single day, whether it was a blog post, an article, an email to my list, a short report, or the books I began to publish in 2010. Practice makes perfect, as the old adage goes, and though I was not even striving for perfection (I prefer to think of it as excellence) the writing did improve significantly.

I now have more than a thousand posts on one of my blogs and four hundred on the other. Less than five percent of these are guest posts or rewritten PLR, and they average about four hundred words in length, so you can see that I followed through with my marketing strategy when it came to blogging. I’ve also learned much about SEO (search engine optimization) and keywords over the years, so the impact has been excellent for my business.

Also, I felt a sense of ownership when it came to these two main blogs, and that kept me from actively pursuing others to write for my sites. This is typical of new online entrepreneurs, and is a natural part of the learning and growing process.

Now I am approaching my business very differently and taking it to a whole new level, and including additional writers and points of view is an integral part of my strategy. Having access to those with a different expertise is vital, and there are many people who are extremely knowledgeable in areas where I have only scratched the surface.

What do you think? Would you still read my blogs if you knew I was featuring other authors more regularly? Which topics would you like to see included here?

 

 

Barbara Winter, joyfully jobless and the author of Making a Living Without a Job: Winning Ways for Creating Work That You Love, is an amazing person that I met while in line at the post office one day. We struck up a conversation, I gave her my card, and when she emailed me later that day I was amazed to find out that what she does is so similar to what I am doing online.

As a young mother back in the Midwest, Barbara came to the realization that she was not cut out to be an employee.She was an English major in college and went on to become a teacher, but this was not for her – so she quit. People in her life were not supportive of her decision, as is the case many times when we choose to change our lives in a major way.

She finally visited an employment service center and was hired to be one of the job counselors. This led to a period of research where she learned more about herself and others when it came to having a job that is meaningful. She mentions something the Buddhists call ‘right livelihood’, which is quite a deep concept.

When the student is ready the teacher appears, and Barbara met an entrepreneur who would guide her to personal development books and other materials. This eventually led to her having her own business and changing her life forever. Once your thinking changes, everything turns around. She also shares the importance of connecting with people in person who have the ‘entrepreneurial spirit’ when you are becoming an entrepreneur.

Barbara has taught her methods and techniques all over the country, and continues to be one of the foremost thought leaders in the area of entrepreneurial development and expertise.

This interview will make you think, and will also give you ideas on how you can become ‘joyfully jobless’ as an entrepreneur. You must follow your own plan for your life, and Barbara’s book and trainings will get you there.

This is a quote that says it all:

“If you are an entrepreneur or a wannabe entrepreneur or an I-might-want-to-be-an-entrepreneur-when-I-grow-up entrepreneur, Barbara J. Winter’s wise work is for you!”—Huffington Post

Marlon Sanders has a brand new Dashboard available. It’s the WP Leads and Sales Dashboard and I’ve created a three minute video to tell you more about it.

Watch the video, think about your own goals for creating an online business, and then decide whether or not this is right for you. Becoming an entrepreneur is not for everyone, but if you have the entrepreneurial spirit this could be exactly what you need to take you to the next level quickly.

 

You can find out more by going to my link for this program and getting started today with Marlon Sanders’ WP Leads and Sales Dashboard

Finding keywords for SEO (search engine optimization) in your business is crucial. Learning how to find the right keywords takes some time and effort. I have been able to grow my business exponentially over these past few years through the use of keywords. Using the right keywords on the Internet will help you to grow your business, but learning exactly what those are and how to use them can be a challenge.

First of all, what are keywords?

Keywords are the words and phrases we all use when we are searching for something we need. When you go to Google or Bing or Amazon, or any other search engine, you type in the words that best describe what you’re looking for on that day. For example, when I have friends over and we want to have a pizza, one of us will typically Google ‘pizza delivery in santa monica’. But how can this make a difference in your business?

When you set up a site for your business, whether it’s a traditional website or WordPress site, use your keywords in the domain name (such as HandymanSantaMonica.com), in the site’s header, and in the titles and subtitles found throughout your site. I won’t confuse my explanation here by using HTML (hyper text markup language) references, but suffice it to say that you must use your keywords on every page, in a natural and flowing manner. Overusing them is referred to as ‘keyword stuffing’ and will not be tolerated by the search engines.

How do you find your keywords?

If your business is a brick and mortar one, start out by using the name of your city and your industry, such as ‘Santa Monica pet grooming’ or ‘auto body shop in santa monica’. That’s the first level of keywords. Next, use phrases that describe more specifically what you have to offer, such as ‘grooming toy breeds santa monica’ or ‘smog emission testing santa monica’. If you aren’t certain which keywords might be best for your particular business, take a look at your competitor’s websites to see which keyword phrases they are using.

This can easily be accomplished by visiting their website, right-clicking to go to ‘view page source’, and then reading through the HTML code to see their keyword description, titles, and meta tags. By doing this with the example above, you may find something you had not previously thought of, such as ‘window tinting santa monica’ or ‘dog show styles and cuts santa monica’.

The use of keyword phrases in your business is an art, not a science. This means that you must take some time to experiment with what works best in your industry. Start by making a list of everything your business has to offer. Also, list the zip codes you serve, as many people use that as their search criteria, instead of the city name, when they need to find someone to help them.

The last thing I will discuss here is what is referred to as a ‘long tail keyword’. These are keyword phrases that consist of five words or more and are extremely specific to what the person is looking for. If someone uses a long tail phrase they are most likely ready to make a purchase.

An example of this would be if someone went to Google and typed in ‘need to repair broken windshield in santa monica’ or ‘who does the best dog grooming for yorkshire terriers’. Questions are very common when it comes to long tail searches.

Also, someone may not use a city or community location name at all when typing in their search, such as if they put ‘file an irs tax extension for my small business’. If you are a CPA, this search could be perfect for your business.

I recommend that you learn as much as you can about keywords, and see how beneficial they can be for growing your business with the right clients for what you have to offer.