Author Archives: Connie Ragen Green

How to Schedule Your Blog Posts

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How to Schedule Blog PostsDo You Know How to Schedule Blog Posts?

While blogging can give you a great return on your efforts, you’ll only achieve that return if your blog has regular updates and fresh posts. Coming up with a schedule for what you’re going to publish on your blog can help you avoid the content droughts that can cause your readership to dwindle. Here I’m going to teach you why and how to schedule blog posts.

Why Schedule Blog Posts

There is always a specific time of the day when your site (and actually your entire niche) receives the majority of their visitors. Now if you live in a different time zone than your readers, then it can be a problem. Imagine having your peak time as 6 am EST, like I do. Instead of having to wake up at 3 am to reach my audience, I can sleep another few hours. Scheduling posts can be very helpful for this.

The other situation is when you are going for a vacation or business travel, but you don’t want to abandon your blog while you are not in front of your computer. So how do you remedy that problem?

Simple, you schedule your posts in WordPress. This feature allows you to stay ahead of yourself by finishing up articles in advance and having them ready to go when you choose to publish them. You can prepare for a busy week ahead of time and schedule articles to be published automatically. I do this on a very regular basis because I live in two different cities and also travel extensively.

Once you start thinking into the future, you may find that once you get into a groove of coming up with new topics to write about, you’ll be able to identify a half-dozen, or a dozen, or even more. Having a list of relevant topics can be a powerful thing, as many writers would agree that coming up with the answer to the “what should I write about?” question is often the hardest part of the process!

You don’t necessarily have to write all of these articles at once, but at a minimum you should have a schedule for when each post will be published so you won’t get confused. I post to two different blogs each week, so I must stay organized. Try starting with a twice-a-week schedule and then see if that needs adjusting. Whatever you choose, make sure to be consistent. And once you learn how to schedule blog posts it’s all a breeze.

If you are able to write some of your content in advance, WordPress makes it simple for you to automatically schedule blog posts for publication at some date and time in the future. That way you can upload your new content, choose exactly when each post will go live, and then be free to focus on other aspects of your business until it’s time to write and upload a new batch of posts.

How to Schedule Blog Posts

This Is Simple To Do!

While you are writing your post, save it periodically using the “save draft” feature. Then use the scheduling feature to have your post automatically publish at the exact minute that is best for you and your target audience. For example, I schedule my posts to go live around 6 am EST. Knowing how to schedule blog posts makes all of the difference.

I’m Connie Ragen Green, online marketing strategist, bestselling author, and international speaker on the topics of entrepreneurship and inner game mind shifts. Let’s connect to see how I may best serve you in the near future.

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Blogging: Finding Your Voice

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Finding Your VoiceFinding Your Voice with Blogging

I was someone who talked about becoming a writer for most of my life, yet I did very little actual writing. It wasn’t until I embraced the idea of blogging that I found my voice and became a writer. This has changed my life in so many ways. Let’s discuss this concept of finding your voice in more detail.

The Art of Finding Your Voice

Having a voice doesn’t just mean the act of talking or writing. It means having a point of view, being distinctive, and maybe even a little opinionated or controversial. Agreeing with everyone and everything is the exact opposite of finding your voice. There is a lot of noise on the Internet, and one of the biggest challenges that people face is sifting through all of that noise in order to find the content that’s interesting, challenging, and sometimes controversial.

In fact, one of the things that makes blogging such a great opportunity for you – the fact that there are virtually no barriers to entry and that it’s easy to start a blog – means that there are a lot of not-so-great blogs out there.

By having a strong and consistent point of view, you’re already going to be more compelling than most other blogs. You may already have an idea of how you want to go about building your blog audience, or you may need to take a little time to self-analyze your business and your unique selling proposition. The voice of your blog should be a good fit for the product or service you’re selling. For example, if you are an affiliate marketer for natural health care products, then a writing voice that’s positive and nurturing is almost certain to be more appropriate than a voice that’s “in your face” or that uses risqué humor.

Of course, in order to have a strong voice, you also need to know who you’re speaking to.

Knowing Your Audience

Be sure to consider this factor from a couple of different perspectives. First, take a look at your current prospects and clients. On average, how old are they? Where do they live? How much do they spend with you, and how frequently do they purchase? Are there any demographic clues that you can derive from your customer data that might help you come up with a picture of your typical client?

In addition, you should also give some thought to the people you want to be talking to. Who is your ideal audience? Maybe you’re looking to just grow your following with more individuals similar to your current followers. Or maybe you’re looking to branch out into new markets and reach a new class of individual.

Being Relatable

Be personal. Now, personal doesn’t necessarily mean unprofessional or overly-familiar. In fact, it probably shouldn’t mean those things. “Personal” means that when you’re writing to your audience, you should speak to them as you would if you were having a face-to-face conversation. Your audience is made up of individual people, not a demographic group or statistic.

Appeal to them as individuals, not a market group. This means that your blog posts should make some type of emotional inroads with them, with the exact nature of the emotional appeal to depend on what you’re writing about. It might mean writing your posts from a first-person perspective, but not necessarily so.

Even if your business is a large one, and you’re setting out to create a blog that speaks to your customer base, there are always ways to make it personal. Show that you understand the issues they’re facing and the problems they’re looking to solve. Use your blog posts to demonstrate to your audience that you’re the best solution to those issues and problems. You might be best for any number of reasons: your solution might be the cheapest, or the easiest to follow, or the most convenient. Use your key selling proposition to relate to your audience.

Stephen R. Covey (his latest book – Primary Greatness – The 12 Levers of Success is a great one) teaches that you must ask yourself four questions as you are finding your voice. These embody your heart, your mind, your body, and your soul. They are:

  • What are you good at?
  • What do you love doing?
  • What need can you serve?
  • And finally, what is life asking of you?

Ask yourself these questions and take the time to answer them truthfully. Write every day. Blog at least twice each week. Share your most honest thoughts, beliefs, and experiences. This will enable you to get closer to finding your voice and making a real difference in your niche.

I’m Connie Ragen Green, online marketing strategist, bestselling author, and international speaker on the topics of entrepreneurship and inner game mind shifts. Let’s connect to see how I may best serve you in the near future.

 

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Self-Publishing Your Book to Increase Credibility

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Self-Publishing Your BookSelf-Publishing Your Book

Once you’ve finished writing your manuscript, then you’ll need to figure out the different ways you plan to publish your book. You can publish your manuscript in multiple ways. You can publish digitally or you can put it in print, or do both. I like to release the paperback version of my book first, take it to bestseller status, and then release the Kindle version about six months later.  Plus, you can do all this via self-publishing or traditional publishing. Self-publishing your book is a lot faster, but if you already have a huge following that you know will buy your book in large quantities, and you want to publish traditionally, it won’t hurt to give it a try.

  • PDF / Digital – You can make a PDF book (also known as an eBook) easily using Adobe Pro, Pages (MAC), or MS Word. If the book will be downloaded from your own website and you’ll be handling distribution or using Clickbank.net or JVZOO.com or one of these systems, then you’re in charge of how your book looks and is formatted. The trick here is to make an attractive, readable, organized book with plenty of whitespace and images so that it’s a pleasure to read and it all makes sense. Jim Edwards continues to have the very best training on exactly how to write, publish, and market your eBook professionally and profitably here.
  • Kindle – This is also a fast and free way to get published. But, you do have to follow the terms of service and the rules of formatting to ensure that your book looks good. You can turn your edited manuscript over to someone else to format your Kindle book or you can follow the easy directions here. Pay special attention to how to format images if your book has any. And remember that if you sign up for the Kindle Select program you will not be able to offer your book for sale on any other websites, including your own, during that period of time.
  • Print – Using Amazon’s Create Space you can self-publish your manuscript. Like Kindle, you’ll need to follow very specific formatting rules to ensure that your book looks good. Or you can turn your finished manuscript over to an expert to help you format it and get it ready for publishing.

No matter how you publish, it’s very important to have a professional cover created for your book. Look at other books to find out the type of things they put inside the book, too. You want your book to look completely professional and for no one to be able to pick it out of the crowd as done by an amateur. You can accomplish that by yourself or you can hire help.

 

Self-Publishing vs. Traditional Publishing

Let’s talk a moment about self-publishing your book vs. traditional publishing. There are a lot of misconceptions about both. First, people assume that with traditional publishing you’ll get a ton of help with marketing your book. But, you won’t. This only happens if you’re super famous already. So, put it out of your mind that you won’t have to work as hard if you find a traditional publisher.

Secondly, the idea of growing a captive audience with your own published book doesn’t require that you find a traditional publisher. It will work with self-publishing and it will be many times faster and frankly, a sure thing. If you write a good book, self-publishing is going to be a great choice. If you don’t write a great book you wouldn’t be able to publish traditionally anyway.  So remember, a good book is more important than how you publish.

Thirdly, when you self-publish, if you market and promote your book properly after having built up an audience for your book, you’re going to earn more money in the long run. When you publish traditionally, you will usually make less per book. Often, the money is not even made in the sale of the book, but rather in the connections you make due to the book with your audience and others who then buy your other products and services based on how much they trust you.

Self-publishing your book will increase your credibility almost overnight. It may lead to speaking engagements, joint ventures, and other opportunities. What other questions do you have for me on this topic?

I’m Connie Ragen Green, online marketing strategist, bestselling author, and international speaker on the topics of entrepreneurship and inner game mind shifts. Let’s connect to see how I may best serve you in the near future. And be sure to check out my writing and publishing training program at Write. Publish. Prosper.

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Making Affiliate Offers to Prospective Affiliates

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Making Affiliate OffersMaking Affiliate Offers That Are Worthy

If you really want to get the best affiliates then you need to make affiliate worthy offers. Make smart affiliates want to promote everything you have because they know that you provide a great product, good customer service, and amazing creatives for them to use to market your programs. Making affiliate offers is worth your time and effort.

In order to attract the right affiliates, it’s important to share certain types of stats with them so that they know what to expect with your program. Keep in mind, you will not have any stats to show, but as time progresses, you will. As soon as you have this information, start sharing it.

 

Important Stats, Information & Figures to Share with Making Affiliate Offers

Some statistics are more important to share than others. If you just consider what’s important to you about your affiliate program it’ll be easy to see what you need to share.

  • Conversion Rate: They like to know how often a visitor to the sales page converts to a buyer.
  • Commissions: They want to know how much they’ll make per product and whether or not there is potential to make more due to your deep funnel.
  • Upsell: Let them know if you offer an upsell or not and what the commission is on that as well as the conversion rate for that too.
  • Recurring Commissions: If any of your products offer
  • Incentives: Let them know what type of enticements you offer for successful sales.
  • Product Reviews: Do you allow affiliates to review your product free? Hint: Once you have stand out affiliates it’ll pay off to let them have a free copy.
  • Visitor Value: Let them know the target market for the product and the value it offers.
  • Training: While affiliates aren’t your employees and aren’t on your staff, you can still offer a lot of training to help them make more money promoting your products.
  • Collateral: Ensure that you have plenty of professional graphics, copy, and information that enable your affiliates to promote your product.
  • Program Description: Ensure that you’re very succinct and inclusive in the description for your program.

Anything you can let them know at a glance is important to share. You can offer more in-depth information as well but the information right up front should include what they need to know to figure out if your product is what they want to promote to their audience.

 

Keeping Affiliates Happy

Once you recruit affiliates, it’s also important to keep them happy. Happy affiliates will be more likely to promote your products. They may even tell other people about you too. That’s why developing relationships, communicating, and following up with your affiliates is so important.

 

Making Affiliate Offers that Build Relationships

In business one of the most important things you’re going to do aside from creating amazing products that your audience needs, is building mutually beneficial relationships with other people. In order to build relationships with affiliates, you need to understand them as a separate audience. They have different needs from the people that buy or get your products. To help you build your affiliate relationships, here are a few things you want to do.

  • Communicate – Use email, webinars, teleseminars, and other forms of communication with your affiliates. Some of them will prefer email and others will like the one-on-one feel of webinars. When you keep your affiliates abreast of new products to come, changes in old products, sales, and other information they’re going to be that much more likely to stick with you and promote you because of the trust that you develop.
  • Listen – Communication is a two-way street. Therefore, it’s imperative that you also open the lines of communication in reverse. Ask them questions, conduct surveys, and connect one on one with your highest sellers. For example, you can have a trigger number of sales that elevates your affiliates to your affiliate inner circle where you can help them with all kinds of things.
  • Ask for Feedback – When you send out new products to your affiliates, ask for feedback so you can make the product better before launch. You don’t have to send it to everyone who signs up for your program. Choose a few affiliates for feedback, based on your knowledge of them and their reputation in the business.
  • Show Your Personality – People do business with those that they like, know and trust. The more you can connect with your affiliates and find ways to show your character, the more you can enhance this effect. Add a little personal information in your emails, webinars, and live videos, and live events. Seeing and hearing you can make a huge impression.
  • Be a Helpful Resource – When you really want to have a real relationship with someone, you seek to be helpful. Even if the assistance has nothing to do with your business, being helpful and pointing people in the right direction will go far in helping you solidify your relationships. While you may not be able to pay as close attention as you’d like to each individual affiliate, you can use the information and tools at your disposal to build relationships that will stand the test of time and encourage even more sales if you’re open to it. Use email automation, set up training series, host live webinars to talk about your new products and to get ideas, and otherwise be open to new ways to connect with your affiliates. Remember that your business is about more than just making affiliate offers.
  • Keeping Track of People you talk To — When you are seeking to impress people, one way to do that is to remember who you’ve talked to and what you talked about. A good way to do this is to use some sort of customer relationship software or help ticket software. This is true even if you aren’t really providing customer service to your affiliates due to a product they bought. The help desk software will keep track of all your conversations so that you can easily stick to your promises.
  • Hosting Contests – A good way to kick off some relationship building is to plan and host a contest for your affiliates. Give away some iPads, cash, and depending upon your price range, perhaps a free trip. The more outrageous you can be with your contest the more attention it’ll get.
  • Do What Needs to Be Done – Affiliate’s needs depend on their audience too. Suppose an affiliate contacts you and asks you to do a live webinar with them. It is to be played “live” multiple times. This is a good promotional item to offer your top affiliates. It will help you develop relationships as you get to know each other as you work together on the webinar and get other people involved.

Finally, the most important thing of all is to follow up. Even if affiliates contact you infrequently, make sure that you do contact them. Connect, encourage, and connect more. Always deliver top-notch services, products, and tools while making affiliate offers.

I’m Connie Ragen Green, online marketing strategist, bestselling author, and international speaker on the topics of entrepreneurship and inner game mind shifts. Let’s connect to see how I may best serve you in the near future. And please be sure to check out my popular training on affiliate marketing.

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Amazon Author Page – Your Books’ Virtual Real Estate

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Amazon Author PageThe Value of Your Amazon Author Page

In the spring of 2008 I was speaking at a marketing event in Atlanta, Georgia. One of the speakers told the audience about a book he had just written and published through Amazon. He stressed the value of having a link back from this mega site to our own books and blog and how that was increasing his visibility and credibility in a major way. It would be two years before I published a book and set up my Amazon author page, but when I did it changed my business in a major way.

Your Amazon Author Page is valuable real estate. You need to know that Amazon provides an absolutely free of charge “about the author” page to each author who has an ISBN listed on Amazon. This applies whether you are the sole author, or if you collaborated with other writers. So this becomes a website for you to market yourself and your writing to reach an almost unlimited number of highly targeted and qualified prospects.

People come to Amazon looking for information to purchase, and making sure that your author page is completely flashed out will assist you in attracting the right people into your funnel. This type of visibility is uncommon on the internet, especially when there is no cost to take advantage of everything it has to offer.

Amazon calls these pages “Author Central,” and your personal profile page there helps your readers to know more about you as a person and as an authority on your topics. You may include a biography, your most recent blog posts, videos, photos, your latest tweets, and information on where you will be in person in the future. This can be extremely valuable to your credibility not only as an author, but also as a speaker, coach, or more.

Once you are an author, go over to Amazon’s Author Central and create your account. It’s free and simple to set up. Then add your book, write about yourself in the biography section, and add the URLs of your blog(s) and Twitter feed. I also recommend add the next event you will be speaking at or attending. Sometimes I add the location of my Rotary meeting if I don’t have an event coming up soon so people will always have the opportunity to meet me in person.

Add some photos and videos to let people see you and learn more about you. This personal touch can be just what you need to connect with your readers. Also, ask readers to click on the “Follow” button so they’ll know when you release a new title. This is great marketing for you over time, as Amazon will send these followers an email about your upcoming books when they are added to your page.

Every time you publish a new book, or collaborate with others on a book be sure to add it to your Amazon author page. Over time you will enjoy massive credibility and visibility when people visit your page and see your body of work.

Author Central also tracks your sales and author ranking to let you know just where you stand overall with your books. This can be valuable when you are brainstorming your next book and want a better idea of the bigger picture and how you can benefit from it. Take a look at my Amazon Author Page and then leave your feedback here in the comments section. I would appreciate that very much.

I’m Connie Ragen Green, online marketing strategist, bestselling author, and international speaker on the topics of entrepreneurship and inner game mind shifts. Let’s connect to see how I may best serve you in the near future.

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Blogging for Your Business – It’s Worth It!

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Blogging for Your BusinessBlogging for Your Business

The purpose of this writing is to encourage you to blog for your business on a regular basis. This has been the most difficult challenge for my students, even though they continue to see my success because of my blogs. It is my hope to somehow inspire and motivate you to get started, continue, or get back to blogging for your business today.

I started my first blog while still working as a classroom teacher. I had fifth grade that year and we decided to blog about the science projects we were reading about. The budget had once again been cut, and science took the biggest hit at my school. So instead of having any hands on experiments or a science fair, I thought at least we could start a blog and write about what we were learning.

The students embraced the technology without question and we launched our science blog the day we decided to move forward. We had three working computers in our classroom so three people could always be working on something for the new site simultaneously. This was 2003, so it was primitive in terms of today’s capabilities, but I was willing to do anything to keep my students actively engaged in the learning process. Little did I know that blogging would become the foundation and backbone of my business just a few years later.

These days I maintain two main blogs. One is found under my name – Connie Ragen Green – and the other is at Huge Profits Tiny List. I won’t go into the details and story behind my second blog, but suffice it to say I have very good reasons for posting to both of them.

Blogging for my business allowed me to find my voice. I wasn’t a writer when I came online, but thanks to the many blog posts I wrote during that first year I became one. These days I write five hundred to a thousand word a day, every day, and when I am writing a book or a short report that is likely to double or even triple. But I won’t ever forget what it was like during the early days of staring at my computer screen and not knowing what to write about.

That’s when I began learning about keywords and SEO )search engine optimization). I found out that when people searched for specific topics the results were all tied to the words used. In the beginning I helped people to write, publish, and market eBooks. Finding our which words your target audience was searching for helped you to write eBooks that could be found and purchased by the people who wanted and needed the information.

My blogs provide me with a platform to tell the world what I think. Getting your message out to the world is crucial, and you don’t want to leave it to the temporary world of social media posts to do that. Blog posts are permanent and allow you to be in control of your content. You are a publisher at the click of a button and can reach a million people around the world.

I also discuss and share details and information about my products and courses on my blogs. I consider these posts to be “advertorials” in which you combine your information with the sales details in the style of an editorial or objective journalistic article. Instead of paying for advertisements to your products, the only cost here is your time. And what you write in your post is there forever, as opposed to only as long as you are paying to display it.

SEO, a platform for your message, and the advertorial approach to selling your products are just a few of the benefits of blogging for your business. The writing will get easier over time. Your site will get more popular with the search engines over time. You’ll learn how to become a skilled copywriter over time. Be willing to put in the time and your work as an online entrepreneur will soar.

I’m Connie Ragen Green, online marketing strategist, bestselling author, and international speaker on the topics of entrepreneurship and inner game mind shifts. Let’s connect to see how I may best serve you in the near future.

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How to Define and Achieve Success on Your Own Terms

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Achieve SuccessYour Journey to Achieve Success

Success is one of those abstract concepts that is difficult to define. It will mean something different to everyone you ask, and may change dramatically over the course of your life. Yet we all seek this on some level and will go to great lengths to achieve success.

In my own life the idea of success has evolved over my lifetime. As a teenager it meant doing well in school, getting along with friends and family, and planning a future where I could reach my full potential. And if the opposite of success is called failure, then I did a good job of avoiding more than a handshake acquaintance there.

As a twenty-something I redefined  and explored how I would achieve success in the workplace and with my young family. Everything got more dramatic during this time as job opportunities were lost, children got sick, and finances were tight. Yet I never considered myself to be failing as long as my life balanced itself on a plus side after each incident.

By the time I reached my thirties I had settled into a complacency that worked for me. I believed that many opportunities had disappeared due to my age and circumstances and that settling for “good enough” would have to be my mantra. But I wasn’t complaining, as more of my friends had achieved much less than myself than those who had more.

I would have to say that for forties were the most challenging decade I had experienced to date. My belief system allowed for very little in the way of dreaming about ways to achieve success in my life going forward. Everything I had settled for during my thirties was dragging me down now. This applied to my relationships, career, and goals I had hoped to accomplish by this time in my life. But I took full responsibility for my situation. No one had forced me to do anything I didn’t want to do. Every day I told myself that the life I had on that day was the result of my thoughts and actions in days and years past. This was just how it was going to be.

Then something interesting began to happen as I approached my fiftieth birthday. What if I didn’t have to live this life any longer? What if I could do something to change it all and live the life I had dreamed of as a younger person? I set out on a quest to discover what I really wanted and what options were available to me. I woke up one day during April of 2005 and felt like the weight of the world was off my shoulders and that I could do anything I wanted to do with the remainder of my life. I could finally achieve success because I was willing to pursue my dreams and goals!

I had been a teacher for twenty years, and now I was ready to be a student again. And not in the traditional, formal sense, but in the sense of becoming a student of life. I sought out people who could be of help to me. They recommended books I should read, places I should go, and more people I should connect with now that I was thinking differently. Within two months a whole new world had opened up to me and I could see my future much more clearly now.

Within a year I had resigned from the school district I was working for, turned my best real estate clients over to others who could better serve them, and embarked on a journey and path I am still exploring each day. Also, I became a writer along the way, something I had long given up on as a way to achieve success in my life.

I now know that I could have made these drastic changes to my life at any point along the way. But not believing it was possible kept me imprisoned. I was like the elephant in the circus who does not try to escape, even though the chain has not been connected to a stake for many years. The prison was of my own making, and once I realized I was free the doors began to open rapidly. You can do the same thing, and the way to achieve success is to define it for yourself.

I’m Connie Ragen Green, online marketing strategist, bestselling author, and international speaker on the topics of entrepreneurship and inner game mind shifts. Let’s connect to see how I may best serve you in the near future.

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How to Find Affiliates to Grow Your Business

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How to Find AffiliatesHow to Find Affiliates for Your Products and Services

Once you know you want an affiliate program, you need to find affiliates. Finding affiliates is a combination of simply asking people and letting interested parties know about your program. In addition, you can encourage people to be an affiliate by offering excellent products, top-notch customer service, and a by offering generous commission. Learning how to find affiliates for your business will change everything you do from now on. Here are the very best strategies to do this today…

  • Direct Contact – Find competitors and others who market to your audience who do not offer exact products or services as you and approach them directly. Work first to build relationships with these people in online groups, via joint ventures, events, and more and you’ll be certain to get a percentage of these people to sign up for your affiliate program and promote your products and services.
  • Clients – Your best affiliates can come from people who have purchased from you. Definitely, run an email series for your customers to encourage them to earn money by recommending your products to their friends and family. This is a great way to end up with a true fan as an affiliate.
  • Colleagues – Even if you work from home, you are likely part of a group of like-minded individuals online and / or offline. Ensure that you let these people know that you have an affiliate program so that they can choose to join if they want to. You can also if you’ve used the right type of software, give special commission amounts to people you know.
  • Movers & Shakers – You’ve seen them on Twitter, Facebook groups, and probably on numerous webinars and other places. These big earners shake things up. Work toward building a relationship with them, then make it super simple for them to promote by giving them a free copy, graphics, and more. Offer to set it all up for them so that all they have to do is collect the money when they make sales. As a fellow “mover and shaker” you can bet I always know how to find affiliates.
  • Conferences – You can also meet potential affiliates at live events and conferences. Whether you’re a speaker or an attendee, you may meet people who need to offer your products to their audience. Make it worth their while to promote you, by also promoting them.
  • Print Publications – You can place ads in relevant print publicans such as work at home magazines and other magazines devoted to people who are interested in this type of income opportunity.
  • Social Media – If you join groups and friend people online, ensure that you also connect with potential affiliates. Take the time to get to know them. When it’s appropriate, let them know about your affiliate program. You can use social media also to talk about how excited you are about your affiliate program. The more enthusiastic you are about the program, the more they will want to join to earn money.
  • Blogging – Use your blog part of the time, to speak to potential affiliates. Your blog provides your audience with solutions to their problems. But, once you have an affiliate program, you can also mention how you want to help as many people as possible and your readers can help by becoming an affiliate.
  • Forums/Groups – Any groups you’re part of, online or offline, can be great places to find affiliates. The best thing to do is to build relationships with people you think would like and promote your products. Offer to do things for them, make your program so inviting that they can’t resist.
  • Online Ads – Another way to attract affiliates is to advertise the program and its benefits. You can use Facebook, Twitter, or even Ad Words to market the program. This works very well, if you have a good product funnel, offer excellent commissions, and a wide range of products for your niche.
  • Your Website – Don’t forget that your website is the hub of your business. Keep reminder info and an affiliate program link in a prominent place on your site. This can be short and link to further information about the program details.
  • Word-of-Mouth – People like to talk, so if you do a good job taking care of your affiliates plus offering really great products then super affiliates will notice you and talk about you. Plus, when they start promoting your products, other people in their circle will notice and join too.
  • Cold Calls – If you know people already that promote other people’s products and you’re sure that your product fits in with their niche, go ahead and drop them an email, or even get them on the phone. Be ready to explain what is so great about your product and how it benefits their audience. Plus, explain how you’re going to make it super easy for them to be part of your program.
  • Hire an Affiliate Manager – Even if you’re just starting your program, hiring an affiliate manager can help you grow your affiliate program faster. Hire someone who is familiar with your niche, who has connections to promote to super affiliates and who understands the software you use. A good affiliate manager will know exactly how to find affiliates for you.
  • Directories – There are directories, such as affiliatesseeking.com, where you can list your affiliate program. They do require a link back, but it’s free. More than likely, you won’t find as many affiliates this way since building relationships is very important. However, it does help direct potential affiliates to your opportunity.
  • Affiliate Networks – Another great way to find affiliates is to list your products in affiliate networks such as Clickbank.com or JVZOO.com. Marketers who are looking for a product to promote often go there to search for products. Make sure you offer a great program, and a lucrative commission. Include tools to make promoting easy. These could articles, graphics, emails, etc.

Finding and recruiting affiliates is only part of starting an affiliate program. Now you need to make your affiliate offer worthy, appealing and timely. Plus, the more unique your offer is, the more affiliates you’ll recruit. Now that you know how to find affiliates, what other questions may I answer for you to help you grow your business?

I’m Connie Ragen Green, online marketing strategist, bestselling author, and international speaker on the topics of entrepreneurship and inner game mind shifts. Let’s connect to see how I may best serve you in the near future.

 

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Teaching Online Courses to Share Your Knowledge

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Teaching Online CoursesAre You Teaching Online Courses?

I honestly believe that if you have knowledge, experience, and insight into a particular area, you are morally obligated to share it with others who would benefit from learning about it from you. Back when I was a classroom teacher I worked with adults who were not willing to share what they knew. I struggled with the new technology in those days and found it difficult to believe that other teachers would not be helpful at all. I promised myself that whenever I figured something out I would be the person who would share my knowledge with anyone who needed it. Little did I know back then that teaching online courses would be a part of my life.

Once I came online I found a world filled with natural teachers. People were more than willing to share their knowledge, their experiences, and their insights on a variety of topics.  It’s interesting to me that I had to leave the classroom and public education in order to surround myself with people who love and value education in the way that I do.

Teaching online can take many shapes and formats, and I have explored them all at one time or another over the past decade. Teaching online courses, both live and in home study have become my favorite way of sharing information with people all over the world. You can do the same thing, no matter what your area of expertise. There are always people somewhere who want and need to learn about your topics.

Start by hosting free teleseminars where you answer questions and share your knowledge. Create a short study guide listeners can print out for further reference. From these, choose the topics that the most people were interested in and then begin creating and teaching online courses on these.

I begin by writing an outline and making notes about what I will teach. Then I do some research to flesh out any parts of my outline that might be incomplete. Then I write a blog post on the topic to share with visitors to my site. I ask for comments so that I can open the conversation and find out more about what people wish to learn. That conversation continues on the social media sites, as well as with replies to my daily email messages. Within a few days I have enough feedback to begin writing my course. I divide my content into three or four sections or parts before moving forward with this part of the process.

I then create a slide deck that contains all of the information I will be teaching in my online course. I tend to work on this intensely for several days, then I go back to make sure I have included everything I want to teach, have omitted anything that is not relevant to my topic, and to put the slides in a logical order.

What topics could you teach and share with others? While I was a classroom teacher I knew that a student had mastered a topic when they were able to successfully convey it to someone else. I believe we are all natural teachers and that teaching is a valuable part of our life experience. Take a look at my training program on teaching online courses to get started right away.

I’m Connie Ragen Green, online marketing strategist, bestselling author, and international speaker on the topics of entrepreneurship and inner game mind shifts. Let’s connect to see how I may best serve you in the near future.

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