10X Rule: Blogging For Your Business

10xrule 198x300 10X Rule: Blogging For Your BusinessI am currently rereading Grant Cardone’s fantastic and thought provoking book The 10X Rule – The Only Difference Between Success and Failure and have decided to apply these concepts to blogging for your business. In this book Cardone defines ‘the 10X Rule’ as a two part process, where the first part involves assessing the level of effort necessary to realize a goal and the second part being to adjust your thinking so that you dare to dream at levels previously unimaginable.

Because I firmly and wholeheartedly believe blogging to be an integral part of success as an online entrepreneur, let’s take a closer look at exactly how the 10K Rule applies.

The fatal mistake I observe all too many bloggers make is that they are not focusing on their area of specialization. If your blog’s topics and categories are all over the map and readers are never quite sure what to expect from you, then it’s probably not worth their time to stay subscribed or to ever visit your site again after their initial visit.

Think about this: There is something you know so well that if you were to write interesting and helpful posts about it on a regular and consistent basis you would attract a very specific readership and you’d become viewed as an expert in that field. And that is exactly what you want – a specific group of readers interested in what you’ve got to say on your topic.

What do you know better than anything else? What can you write about day in and day out, or at least week in and week out? When you figure out the same answer for both questions, blog about that for at least the next six months and see what happens.

Remember and believe that your audience is waiting for you. They need you to share your knowledge and understanding and experiences with them. Teach them what you know and believe. So even though it’s normal when you start blogging that you want to attract as many readers as possible, the mistake is believing that writing about any and every topic will help build your readership.

Grant Cardone would recommend that you apply the 10X Rule to your blogging by having the pure domination mentality, where you think ten times the thoughts and take ten times the actions of what others bloggers do on a regular basis.

Having a small group of niche readers follow your blog can become a very large group fast. If even one percent of people in the world are interested in what you have to say that would be seven million people! The more you narrow down your niche topic you’ll increase your ability even further to attract the right people to your blog. By being more specific it helps your readers make a choice by letting them know what’s in it for them.

Make a huge effort to stay focused, write regularly, and be open to building your business and growing it exponentially, in accordance with the 10X Rule.

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Santa Barbara Business Retreat

sb beach 225x300 Santa Barbara Business RetreatI’m in Santa Barbara this week, where I live half of the time. Today I visited two of the restaurants and one of the museums where I will be taking my clients when they arrive next week for my Santa Barbara Business Retreat. I’ve hosted groups of three to five people in this way six times previously. This Mastermind Retreat is a part of my Platinum Mastermind, an elite group I work with exclusively to help them build successful businesses both online and offline.

Many times my students do not know exactly what to expect when they schedule their week with me and the others here in Santa Barbara. That’s perfectly alright as I prefer they not show up with any preconceived notions of what they will get while they are here. The idea is for them to be open to whatever happens and to know that their lives will be forever changed by participating in this small group Mastermind in the beautiful setting of Santa Barbara.

We begin the Retreat by giving each person a chance to share more about themselves with the rest of our group. They explain why they want to build a business, how long they have been trying to do so, what their business model is currently, and some of their challenges and successes along the way. What they have in common is a desire to become successful entrepreneurs, a willingness to help others in the process, and a determination to make it all happen in a timely manner.

By the end of our week together these incredible people have found new ways to accomplish their goals, discovered a more powerful ‘reason why’ and connected with people they will know for years to come.

Success After Attending The Santa Barbara Business Retreat

You may be wondering about the level of success people achieve after spending time with me in Santa Barbara. The answer is that it varies, depending upon where each person was when they first arrived. I have some people who come to me with only an idea and dream, but with no website, products, or marketing skills. Others arrive with an already established business that just needs fresh ideas and insights into how to move seamlessly to the next level. In either extreme, or with anyone whose business falls somewhere in the middle, this is a week well spent.

What seems to make the difference is the degree of action and implementation is put forth in the days and weeks immediately following the Retreat. Those who hit the ground running are much more likely to find success than those who continue to think about what they wish to do and to search for different answers to the same questions.

If the Santa Barbara Business Retreat sounds like something you would like to be a part of in the near future, please join my list and connect with me to explore how we may work together to build your business in a way that works for you.

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Online Productivity: Online Marketing Tips Podcast

Online Productivity: Online Marketing Tips Podcast

Online Productivity Marketing Tips Connie Ragen GreenOnline Productivity is crucial as you build your business on the Internet as an online entrepreneur, and overall productivity is the focus of this podcast training. People around the world have discovered that starting an Internet business is the fastest way to both time and financial freedom, as well as to great success in your life, and you need help to get there quickly. That’s why I started this online marketing tips podcast for my community.

Having just completed my fourth annual Online Productivity Challenge for 2014, I am taking this opportunity to share how you can increase your productivity to build a lucrative business from your home computer. In this episode of the Online Marketing Tips Podcast With Connie Ragen Green, my newest marketing training podcast series, I discuss this topic in great detail. I share exactly what you need to do to begin with this profitable business model. I also discuss the importance of growing a list and increasing your visibility to build your business as an online entrepreneur.

Alice Seba offers a 15 Day Email Challenge that many people have been extremely successful with, and I recommend that you spend time each day during the fifteen days of her training going through the exercises and implementing them to the full extent. You will find that the gold is in the follow up and follow through you do with your permission based email list.

I also discuss how I have created this year’s Productivity Challenge a little differently than in the previous three years, and give examples of people’s sites where this would work extremely well. I also share why I have two main blogs instead of just one, and my strategy for using these sites to further my online goals.

This online marketing tips podcast, as well as all of the calls in my podcast series is intended to teach you and other new online entrepreneurs how to take your business to the next level quickly and effectively, and as a way for me to share my exact Case Studies, secrets, and advice on creating a profitable and lucrative online business using the ‘multiple income streams’ approach. You will see that each session is first recorded live as a teleseminar, and then repurposed into a podcast to extend my reach to the world. Please join my list to be included on these calls, and be sure to introduce yourself and share your site for optimal exposure for years to come!

Also, you can now pick up my popular training on winning affiliate contests and other online marketing tips for only seven dollars at Affiliate Contest Secrets. Use the discount code CONTEST to bring the price down to $7. This training has been completely updated for with the latest information, strategies, and Case Studies for you to use in your own business.

Subscribe To My Online Marketing Tips Podcast Today!

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Summer Online Jobs for Students

kids online jobs 300x150 Summer Online Jobs for StudentsSummer Online Jobs for Students

Now that school is almost over it is definitely time to get the kids involved in a home based business that can be done primarily on the Internet. Remember that you, as the parent or legal guardian, are responsible for overseeing the children in your life and for setting up any financial or legal entities that may be needed. My grandkids have been working online for four years now and have learned a tremendous amount about business, finance, and dealing with people from all over the world.

There are currently three models I am recommending for summer online jobs for students, and these include affiliate marketing, retail arbitrage on Amazon, and blogging on a specific niche topic. All of these models will also encourage reading, writing, and math practice for your child that will aid them in their academic studies once school starts again.

The first model is one that I use to this day in my own online business. Affiliate marketing is the process of ‘recommending what you love’ to others who might be interested. This can be done with both physical and digital products, as more and more companies understand the importance of paying a commission in return for a good recommendation that results in a sale.

Finding the right products to promote begins with looking around the house and on your computer for things you have purchased that made a difference in your life. For my eldest grandson this included his skateboard, skating accessories, and books he owned in this niche back when he was only thirteen. It just made sense for him to tell others about these items, using his affiliate link. Once he made some money he was then hooked on being an online entrepreneur. He recently turned eighteen and now earns all of his own spending money with his multiple Internet businesses.

The second model I recommend for young people is Amazon’s retail arbitrage. This is the process of shopping locally for great deals on books, toys, food, and a variety of other products and then reselling them in the Amazon marketplace. I have done this myself and have fun shopping for bargains. The best stores in Santa Clarita to find deals are Target, Big Lots, and Rite Aid. Set a limit for how much you will spend on the items you want to resell, and then pack them up and drop them off at one of our local UPS stores. They know exactly what you need to do to get them safely to one of Amazon’s national distribution centers.

The third model involves blogging on a niche topic. My granddaughter absolutely loves soccer and has blogged about her experiences since she was twelve years old. She is able to recommend all kinds of physical and digital products related to the sport, and her writing skills have improved tremendously over the last two years. She loves being a journalist in this way and sharing what’s new in soccer around the world.

If you are familiar with blogs you know they have space around the posts (we refer to this as ‘virtual real estate and advertising space’) where you can display small ads and information about products and services you recommend. It doesn’t take long for you to become a trusted advisor to those seeking this type of information online. That’s when your sales will really pick up.

As you can see, there are multiple opportunities for your children to earn money with an online business. I encourage you to sit down with your children right away and discuss the three models I have described here. Once you know what their goals and interests are you can custom tailor a home based Internet business for them to get started this summer as online entrepreneurs.

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Info Product Creation: Online Marketing Tips Podcast

Online Marketing Tips Podcast

Online Marketing Tips Connie Ragen GreenInfo Product Creation is an excellent way to build your online business, and I have been creating and marketing my own information products since 2007. Starting an Internet business is the fastest way to both time and financial freedom, as well as great success in your life, and you need help to get there quickly. That’s why I started this online marketing tips podcast for my community.

Creating and publishing your own information products allows you creativity, as well as the opportunity to control your financial destiny online. In this episode of the Online Marketing Tips Podcast With Connie Ragen Green, my newest marketing training podcast series, I discuss this topic in great detail. I share exactly what you need to do to begin with this lucrative business model. I also discuss the importance of learning how to get started with info product creation as an effective way to build your business as an online entrepreneur.

The examples I use during this training include a product I created with Adrienne Dupree called Top 20 WordPress Plugins where we explain why plugins are so important and which ones we recommend for entrepreneurs. The other product is from Dennis Becker and is called ‘10 Challenges‘.

Using Dennis’ excellent 10 Challenges training I discuss how to choose a niche using a student of mine as an example (she has almost a thousand members in a site devoted to horsemanship) of exactly what is possible. Creating info products is also the way to jump start your list building efforts to have a community of people to stay connected with and to market to for years to come.

Listen to this training, take lots of notes, pick up the 10 Challenges course (very reasonable priced!) and get started today by taking massive action.

This online marketing tips podcast, as well as all of the calls in my podcast series is intended to teach you and other new online entrepreneurs how to take your business to the next level quickly and effectively, and as a way for me to share my very Case Studies, secrets, and advice on creating a profitable and lucrative online business using the ‘multiple income streams’ approach. You will see that each session is first recorded live as a teleseminar, and then repurposed into a podcast to extend my reach to the world. Please join my list to be included on these calls, and be sure to introduce yourself and share your site for optimal exposure for years to come!

Also, you can now pick up my popular training on winning affiliate contests and other online marketing tips for only seven dollars at Affiliate Contest Secrets. Use the discount code CONTEST to bring the price down to $7. This training has been completely updated for with the latest information, strategies, and Case Studies for you to use in your own business.

Subscribe To My Online Marketing Tips Podcast Today!

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Online Marketing Tips Podcast: Content Marketing

Online Marketing Tips Podcast

Online Marketing Tips Connie Ragen GreenContent Marketing is the strategy of building an online business with a variety of content and I’ll explain exactly how during this podcast. Starting an Internet business is the way to financial freedom and great success in your life, and you need help to get there quickly. That’s why I started this online marketing tips podcast for my community.

Private Label Rights (PLR) content marketing is the way many of us build our businesses online quickly and successfully. In this episode of the Online Marketing Tips Podcast With Connie Ragen Green, my newest marketing training podcast series, I discuss this topic in great detail. I share exactly what you can use the PLR you purchase for in your business, and also what you must avoid if you are to stay within the TOS (Terms of Service) of sites such as Amazon and Ezine Articles. I also discuss the importance of this content as an effective way to build your business as an online entrepreneur.

The examples I use during this training include PLR from Nicole Dean and Melissa Ingold at Coaching Sticky Glue, and also from them at their site for small business training on PowerPoint Made Easy. This is the blog post where I use a portion of the package I purchased to create a post on using PowerPoint. Using this type of content marketing that is available at reasonable prices makes your work seem like child’s play as you will have enough content to market on a regular basis.

I also share a site called Just Retweet, which gives you the opportunity to promote your blog posts to the world. Then I go into great detail about how to get as much valuable as possible from any PLR package you buy for your business, as well as how much you will need to rewrite before you publish it as your own. Just one package will provide you with enough content to create a new product of your own, start a related blog, set up an optin/squeeze page, and to create an autoresponder follow up sequence. The possibilities are almost unlimited.

This online marketing tips podcast is intended to teach you how you can take your business to the next level quickly and effectively, and as a way for me to share my very Case Studies, secrets, and advice on creating a profitable and lucrative online business using the ‘multiple income streams’ approach. You will see that each session is first recorded live as a teleseminar, and then repurposed into a podcast to extend my reach to the world. Please join my list to be included on these calls, and be sure to introduce yourself and share your site for optimal exposure for years to come!

Also, you can now pick up my popular training on winning affiliate contests and other online marketing tips for only seven dollars at Affiliate Contest Secrets. Use the discount code CONTEST to bring the price down to $7. This training has been completely updated for with the latest information, strategies, and Case Studies for you to use in your own business.

 Subscribe To My Online Marketing Tips Podcast Today!

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Podcast: Lynda Weinman

lynda weinman 255x300 Podcast: Lynda WeinmanI can’t remember exactly how many years ago it was when I heard about Lynda Weinman and her amazing site, but I do know that when I first visited this massive online learning community I knew that I would be able to learn much of what I needed to get my new Internet business off the ground and up to speed quickly. We finally met in person at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, where Lynda has been a generous sponsor for several years. She was kind enough to agree to be a guest on my podcast series and I know you will enjoy the information she shares here immensely.

When you visit Lynda’s site you will see that it opens with the simple question ‘What do you want to learn today?’

Lynda has an interesting background, and it was when she was teaching digital arts at the college level (Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California) back in 1994 when she realized that her students would be interested in publishing their own websites on the Internet. Unable to locate a book on this specific topic, she decided to do the research and write a book herself. It was published in January of 1996 and quickly became a bestseller. She was then able to start her company with the royalties she received from the book. This took shape as a physical school in a city not far from Santa Barbara (Ojai), and her husband was actively involved with it every step of the way. They enjoyed several years of great success before they had to make drastic changes. After the 9-11 incident and the dot com crash they made the decision to bring everything online.

This proved to be a much larger undertaking than they had originally imagined, and they started with twenty of their courses, first available on VHS and then moved online, and then expanded from there. Today they have a digital library of more than a hundred thousand individual videos, mainly around the topics of digital media, marketing, social media, publishing online, and so much more, all organized into more than twenty-five hundred courses with about five hundred instructors and four million students worldwide..

Lynda shared that her company’s growth truly grew out of word of mouth referrals from raving fans.

They have made a commitment to bring certain programs and corporations, such as Adobe Creative Suite (Creative Cloud is the latest), Apple, and Microsoft when choosing which trainings to create, but their process is much more complex than just that. She uses 3-D printing as an example of something that is brand new that they have jumped in on the ground floor of with their training. They take both a predictive and trend-driven approach to what they are creating in their courses, based on both qualitative and quantitative analysis.

We also discussed how they select and compensate instructors, and how this makes her company even more unique and valuable. You will love this discussion and gain great insight into the process they utilize to make sure the students receive the very best education available on the planet.

Lynda also introduced me to the concept of MOOC (Massive Online Open Courseware) and went into some detail with this fascinating new approach to online education. Her company is not a MOOC; it’s an online community and library of free form training with mashups of the topics you wish t learn. They have a tool on their site that allows you to create a playlist of the exact courses you would need to take in order to achieve specific goals.

She gave us a true ‘scoop’ in regards to what their next steps are to take their company global. You’ll have to listen to the end to hear the details!

Listen to our call and I am sure you will appreciate Lynda and all that she has accomplished as much as I do. Enjoy a seven day free trial by clicking on this link to get started right away.

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Productivity Challenge 2014

productivity challengeWelcome, fellow online entrepreneurs! This is the fourth annual training and Productivity Challenge to help you get started with a lucrative business on the Internet. This is where I share my experience and knowledge with you on how to build a profitable online business from your home computer, or from wherever in the world you happen to be. Over the next thirty days we will explore the steps to online success and the actions that will get you there.

Day 1 – Google yourself and see what you find. For example, when I Google “connie ragen green” using the Firefox browser I see there are about two hundred thousand results. I then scroll through the first three pages and see what is considered by Google to be the most relevant search results when someone is looking for more information about me.

Do this for your own name and share your results with us here.

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The 5 Pronged Approach – All New For 2014

woman global money 213x300 The 5 Pronged Approach   All New For 2014In 2008 I came out with my original 5 Pronged Approach™ to building a profitable online business. This concept was well received by people everywhere, and many have now credited me with changing the way they approach online marketing and the daily tasks and activities associated with running a successful business on the Internet especially content creation online.

Over the past couple of years many things have changed, including the way content is distributed and disseminated among those who are most likely be searching for more information on the topic. The result is that most of us have made major changes to the way we go about our business day to day.

This is my all new 5 Pronged Approach™ for 2014. I will explain each prong so that you can begin implementing this right away for your own online business and your online content creation.

  • Blogging/Writing and Publishing Books – Your blog is your ‘Home on the Internet’. This is where you share more about who you are, what you do, and how you serve others in your business. I have two main blogs; this one and the one at Connie Ragen Green.com.

Writing and publishing books in the natural offshoot for the content you are creating within your blog posts, and that has never been easier to do. With the advent of Amazon’s Kindle and Create Space programs, you now have a way to get your ideas, information, and expertise out to the world. You can take a look at my published books here.

  • Short Reports – Previously I taught that article marketing was the second prong in my approach, but that all began to change at the beginning of 2011. Although I will continue to write and submit a few articles to the directories each month, my primary focus has been to shift my content over to creating short reports. These reports can be sold or given away, and will continue to bring you credibility, visibility, and income for years to come.
  • Teleseminars/Audio/Podcasts – Allowing people to hear your voice is the next best thing to meeting them in person. Use a variety of modalities to make sure you are heard discussing your niche topic on a regular basis. I believe in this so strongly that I am adding a second podcast series on iTunes this coming week. Subscribe to my podcast series here. Learn how to do your own podcasts from the person I learned from; Kelly McCausey has an excellent training on podcasting.
  •  Social Media, Forums, and Live Events – I started my online business during the ‘Dark Ages’, which means that there was no social media to speak of during 2006 and into 2007. I did spend time on a few forums at that time, and found out quickly which ones were worthwhile; these are the NAMS forum and membership site and the Earn 1K a Day forum.

I now recommend that you spend no more than twenty minutes each day on the ‘Big Three’ social media sites – Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn – and that you join one or two paid forums to connect with others. Attend live events whenever possible, starting with those in the city where you currently live.

  • Affiliate Marketing – I am now a ‘Super Affiliate’, which means that I can win many affiliate contests, drive significant traffic and sales to promotions I believe in, and earn more than five figures a month, every single month, from affiliate promotions. This all started in the spring of 2006, when I made my first affiliate sale and earned twenty-one dollars and sixty cents. I saw the possibilities and took off with this business model. I teach affiliate marketing to those who want to learn how to do this in their own online business.

Please take this information to heart, and know that by spending time each week with all five prongs you will be able to achieve your goals more quickly than those who simply get caught up by the next passing fad. It has never been a more exciting time to be online than it is during 2013, so get to work and make it happen for you. What do you need from me in order to increase your online content creation and reach the level you desire as an online entrepreneur?

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