Category Archives: Online Marketing Tips

How to Reduce Stress as an Entrepreneur

Reduce Stress and Soar with Entrepreneurship

Back when I was working as a classroom teacher and also engaged in my real estate business, I longed to change my life and reduce stress, or at least keep it to a minimum. In 2006 I left my teaching job and gave away my real estate clients and thought I had actually achieved my goal. But lo and behold, over the years I have allowed myself to get stressed out over a variety of issues. So once again I am seeking ways to reduce stress and enjoy my life more fully. Let’s take a look at how we can all achieve this state in our lives.

I attribute the stressful feelings I am experiencing to a combination of lack of planning, spending time with people and situations that do not serve me, and to the fact that I do not take enough time away from my business on a regular basis to keep my mind clear. Let’s take a closer look at each of these and ways to make some ongoing changes that will be effective and life changing in terms of how to reduce stress.

When I mentioned a lack of planning as one of the ways I am stressed out on a regular basis. Seeing as how time management and productivity are strong areas for me as an online entrepreneur, you may be wondering how it can be that I am not planning in a way that will lead to optimal results. I will share that many times I take on too much, both in my business and in my work with various charitable organizations. My recommendation to you and myself is to say no more often, be even more picky about which projects and tasks I will take on, and to make sure to be accurate with how much time and effort something will take in order to complete it successfully.

It was pattern as a young adult to spend time with people who were not true friends. I’m not sure why I did this, but it led to feelings of insecurity, low self esteem, and lack of confidence. I thought I was done with that forever when I started my online business, but somehow the old patterns reappeared and I slipped back into forming friendships with people who were not right for me. I have now distanced myself from these relationships, and I did so in a way that was not hurtful to others. If you have people in your life who make you feel less than you want to feel about yourself, make an effort to move away from them slowly. This has also been a huge strategy for me to reduce stress in my life and soar as an entrepreneur.

Taking time away from your business is also crucial to better life experiences. At some point I allowed myself to be bogged down with work and began spending less time doing the things I truly enjoy. These days I am back to marking off several days each month where I will be engaged in the activities I truly love, like films, live musical performances, sailing, and being in the outdoors to enjoy nature. If this doesn’t reduce stress, then nothing will. Are you taking the time to stop and smell the roses throughout your life experience?

As you can see, there is always a solution to every problem in life. I needed to reduce stress and enjoy my life and business again, and by getting back to the basics of spending less time with certain people, taking time away from my business, and doing a better job of planning I have done just that. Entrepreneurship can be a wonderful and exciting lifestyle, so it’s definitely worth it to make it work for you.

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 Internet Marketing Six Pack training course.

Market Your Live Event

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How to Market Your Live Event

Social media comes to mind immediately when I think about how to market your live event. This is one of the easiest and fastest ways to marketing your event. That is, if you make the most of the tools available. In the photograph on the left I’m a panelist at Ray Edwards’ live event, along with Joel Comm, Robert Plank, and some other popular marketers. Social media was crucial to this event’s success.

Currently, some of the most popular social media sites are:

* Facebook

* YouTube

* Twitter

* LinkedIn

* Instagram

* Pinterest

Each social network is slightly different in terms of the kind of content posted – and more importantly, in the kinds of users that tend to favor these sites

Here are some tips on how to market your live event effectively on each of these sites:

* Facebook is by far the largest. Create a Facebook page for your business if you have not done so already, and also one to market your live event. Link up to these pages from your own personal account. Ask your helpers and customers to do the same. Facebook also has a large number of groups where you can connect for free with those interested in your niche.

* Twitter has a strong user base and best of all, you don’t need to create a lot of free content – 140 characters or less are all that is needed to post a tweet to your followers about exciting news in reference to your local event.

* LinkedIn is the number one social network for professionals. Once you open an account, you can create a detailed profile designed to impress so that others will want to interact with you. You can also post events and write articles which other readers will see if they are in the same niche or industry, positioning you as a thought leader.

LinkedIn also recently acquired SlideShare.net, the number one site for sharing PowerPoint presentations online. This is a great way to also become better known as an expert in your field. We will also discuss this highly visual site in the next email.

YouTube, Instagram, and Pinterest are in a class of their own, since they are so visually focused.

* YouTube is considered to be a search engine in its own right, as it is so packed with content. If you want to increase visibility for your local event and company, this is the first place to start.

* Instagram is a popular site for posting images related to your business – in particular, by using their app with your smartphone. Think of it as Twitter for photos, in the same way that Vine is Twitter for videos.

* Pinterest is also heavily graphics based, but has the added advantage of letting people post marketing event info to group boards. Post images and infographics related to the event and get your helpers to re-pin so all their followers will be able to see them. Post pictures after your local event to show what a great time everyone had, and list details of any other upcoming events as you know them.

When posting at any of these sites, try to put keywords into your postings; that is, some of the most common words and phrases that you wish to rank highly in. Content on YouTube, for example, can show up in Google search engine results right on the top page if you take the time to provide detailed descriptions of the content. Don’t forget to add your URL with http:// in front of it so the link will be clickable.

Once you have posted your video on YouTube, copy the link and embed it in any web page. If you have a WordPress blog, paste the URL into a new post or page and save. The video will show in a player on your site with no fancy coding needed. Then all your site visitors have to do click to watch. You can also post the link on your Tumblr account to let your followers view the content without eating up your video content posting per day allowance.

If you are too shy to appear in front of the camera or believe there is no way you could ever create a quality video, think again. Use PowerPoint to create professional-looking presentations to inform, educate and entertain. Use your informational decks not just for local events but also as the basis for your videos. Set times and transitions for your slides, save as a video, and post to your YouTube account.

Make your decks do double duty by posting it on SlideShare as well. You can share your decks on all the major social networks, not just LinkedIn, with just a couple of clicks. I hope you have learned something new about how to market your live event.

If you can come to Los Angeles March 3rd through the 5th, consider attending
Weekend Marketer Live, my popular Workshop.

Are You Suffering With Business Overwhelm?

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Business Overwhelm and How to Move Past It

Life can be overwhelming at times, even under the best of circumstances. But if you are an entrepreneur, business overwhelm may be something that you were not expecting. Let’s discuss how you can face this situation head on and change the way you approach what you are trying to achieve in your business.

You probably started your business in order to have more of a choice in the way you worked. Perhaps you had previously worked for a corporation or had a career you had prepared for over many years, and at some point that lifestyle was not serving you. In my work with newer entrepreneurs I find that the possibility of earning more income was not as important a factor in their decision to start their own business as was the goal of having more free time, choice of when and where to work, and the dream of making a difference in the world through the new business and other ventures.

But here you are at some point down the road, and the idea of working fifty or sixty hours a week for someone else does not seem so bad. In fact, you might yearn for the days when the final responsibility of running a business was not left entirely up to you. If this describes your thinking, then stop it right now. You are simply suffering from business overwhelm and need to get back on track to enjoy what you have created as an entrepreneur.

Most likely this business overwhelm stems from the fact that you have too many ideas, you are trying to focus on too many things at once, and you feel like you must do everything yourself. Remember that you are in charge of what happens and must take full responsibility for everything that occurs in your business. This also means that you are in control, so keep that in mind as you move forward.

Don’t be afraid to say no to people and projects that do not fit into your schedule. Maintain a calendar so that you know what you are working on at all times. Each day you must work on income producing activities first and foremost, before you accept tasks that are not crucial to the survival of your business. Just as they tell us when we fly to put on our own oxygen mask before assisting others, the same is true of our business. Help yourself before helping others and you will have achieved a balance that will serve you well.

Set your priorities and goals for your life and for your business. Maintain a to-do list that helps you to decide what activities can be delegated to others, which ones can be eliminated, and which must be done only by you. You will be amazed at how effective this is in minimizing your business overwhelm because you are only good at a few things. That means you only have to do those things.

For example, I am only good at writing, teaching, creating products, and mentoring entrepreneurs. There is very little else that I do in my business because the other things are best done by the people who will do them in the way I like for them to be done. If you try to do these tasks and activities you are taking them away from others who enjoy doing them.

Karyn Greenstreet has an excellent post on dealing with overwhelm for entrepreneurs that you should read. She gives forty-four tips on how to move past this feeling.

Take a deep breath. Know that business overwhelm creeps into the hearts and minds of most entrepreneurs. And know that you can achieve everything you intended to by thinking first and then taking action in the proper direction each day.

Productivity Tips: Triple Your Personal Productivity

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Triple Your Personal Productivity and Add More Hours to Your Day

I’ve hosted a Productivity Challenge online every spring for the past seven years. I thought I would share my thoughts on personal productivity with you here in preparation for the next one.

There never seems to be enough time to get everything done. Actually, there is. You’re wasting too much time and spending your time on the wrong things. There are people that run over a hundred companies simultaneously and still have time for dinner with the family each night. They just use their time more wisely than the rest of us.

Make the most of your time and increase your personal productivity:

Learn how you waste time. Even if you’re the best worker at your company, you still waste a lot of time. Determine how you waste time at work and at home. Notice what you do when you’re sick of work, tired, bored, or stressed. Using your time effectively is a key component of becoming more productive.

Just for your own education, keep a stopwatch at your desk. Keep track of how much valuable work you do each day. This doesn’t include time spent checking your email, looking out the window, chatting with a coworker, or drinking coffee.

Eliminate distractions. While some people can concentrate with chaos all around them, most of us do best with as few distractions as possible. Control what you can in your environment. The fewer distractions you have, the more you can accomplish.
Prioritize your priorities. If you have 10 priorities, you don’t have any priorities at all. Develop a list each evening of your three top priorities for the next day. Do everything you can to accomplish those three things. Avoid wasting time each morning trying to determine how you’ll spend your day. You should already know when you wake up.
Spend time on the most effective actions. There’s a difference between being busy and being effective. Imagine you’re having a dinner party and your house is a mess. You could be busy cleaning out your bedroom closet, but that’s not accomplishing much in this instance.

A more effective action would be to wash the dishes, vacuum the floor, or straighten up the living room

Take regular breaks. You might be able to work hard from 8am to noon, but you’ll have nothing left in the afternoon. Studies have shown that taking a 10-minute break each hour greatly increases productivity over a full day.

Give yourself an even longer break every few hours. You’ll stay fresh and find your ability to focus is less-compromised later in the day.

Develop a morning routine. The most successful people are the most productive. And the most successful people also have a morning routine. Get out of bed early and get your day started productively. Have a good breakfast, exercise, meditate, or do whatever else will get you primed for the day.

Apply the same concept to work. Have a work routine that addresses those tasks you do each day. Plan them and get them done.

Choose the best time for each activity in your life. Do you buy groceries at the most convenient time, or do you go when everyone else is at the store? You could save a lot of time by going after 7pm in the middle of the week or early on Sunday morning. Save what I refer to as your biological “Prime Time” hours for the work that is most meaningful to you.

Consider how and when you do things. Could they be done in a better way or at a better time?

Get more done with the time you have available by increasing your personal productivity. Evaluate how you’re using your time, both productively and unproductively. Find your weak spots and develop a strategy to improve your behaviors and your approach. The key to productivity is using your time as wisely and efficiently as possible. And be sure to watch for my next Productivity Challenge coming up soon.

Work Ethic in the Workplace

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Work Ethic in the Workplace: Doing More Than is Expected Each Day

I’m writing a new book about rethinking the work ethic, and in the course of my research I’ve been speaking to people from all walks of life about what this means to them. Today I spoke with a small business owner who shared his experiences as a college student working in London during the 1980s.

He had been hired by Harrod’s department store to work in the stockroom. Wishing to do his best and to please his supervisor he arrived a few minutes early each day and quickly got to work. After a couple of days one of the other stock clerks took him aside and suggested that he slow down a bit. He explained that once management realizes you can work faster and more efficiently than had been done previously, this becomes the new expectation for everyone.

I had similar experiences as a new teacher, where several other teachers were quite vocal about my willingness to do so much for the children. They told me that I was going to make them look bad if I continued to do so much, both in the classroom and on my own time. I’m sorry to say that I succumbed to their demands and soon settled in to doing only what was necessary and required of me the majority of the time.

Years later I regret that decision and choice. Now I’m more mature and better able to handle bullying and negativity from other adults. I wonder how many other teachers did less than they could have at that school for similar reasons. If only we’d had the courage to stand up to what was probably the minority of teachers who only did what they had to each day. What a different experience teaching would have been and the results could have been life changing for the students who passed through our doors during those years.

It was only years later, at the final school I taught out before resigning from the school district that I found my voice and did what I knew was best for everyone. Even though I left the teaching profession on a high note, I spent many years in mediocrity because of my inaction.

I would love to hear your thoughts and experiences on this topic of work ethic in the workplace. And look for my new book to be published in the spring of 2017.

How to Eliminate Procrastination in Your Life

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Eliminate Procrastination and Accomplish Your Goals

I intended on writing this article sooner, but I put it off. That is my lame attempt at making the idea of how to eliminate procrastination a funny one. The truth is that putting off, delaying, or postponing anything you deem to be important in your life is not one bit funny. So, what can you do to eliminate procrastination from your world once and for all?

The first method that worked well for me was to write down my goal and give myself a deadline. A goal without a deadline can be put off indefinitely, so by adding it to my to-do list I had no choice but to tackle it by the next working day. I learned much about myself in the process, such that I would much prefer to write than to speak with someone I do not know on the telephone, and that the longer I put something off the more difficult it seemed to become.

You will also want to break down the tasks and activities you write down into smaller pieces, or chunks. For instance, when I am creating a new online course or writing a short report, it’s much better for me to do that over a period of two or three days instead of trying to make it happen all in one day at a single sitting. That’s when I can become overwhelmed and then I accomplish very little that day. Instead, I make a list of what will be included in my project and then work on it one section at a time.

Visualizing the future is also helping in the effort to eliminate procrastination. This means that I step back to look at and visualize the bigger picture of what it will be like to accomplish my project. Basking in the joy of having another course to add to my inventory of products makes me feel like I am headed in the proper direction for my business.

In the interest of honesty, I will admit that fear used to be the driving force behind my tendency to procrastinate on certain issues. But as I have progressed as an entrepreneur those days are long gone. If I ever feel fearful, I push through the situation and keep moving forward. Having the ability to harness your fear will make everything in life easier and more joyous.

These days I am accountable first and foremost to myself. That means I must accomplish my goals in a timely manner and stay on schedule at all time. Yes, occasionally there are times when I get behind or change course at a crucial point in a project, but for the most part my days of postponing my work are not an issue in any area of my life. And when I do exactly what I said I would do I reward my progress with a pat on the back and a favorite film. I certainly hope you will use my experiences and examples to eliminate procrastination and get the job done.

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 Really Simple Online Courses training course.

How to Manage Your Time More Effectively

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Manage Your Time and Change Your Life

We all have the same twenty-four hours each day, so why do some people manage time more effectively than others? Let’s explore this concept more fully to understand how it works and to make a plan of action that will work. Once you are able to manage your time it will change your life forever.

I find that as I get older I have become much more patient when it comes to my time. If I have to wait in line I use that time to check email on my phone, to email someone waiting to hear back from me, or to engage in conversation with another person waiting in line with me. I might even use those minutes to daydream about some aspect of my life I have been pondering.

In the mornings, I begin writing as early as possible, which is typically around six-thirty or seven. I maintain what I have always referred to as a “dynamic” to-do list, which means that on an ongoing basis I am completing, deleting, or delegating tasks that I have decided to work on. There may even be more personal items on this to-do list than one associated with my business because it works best if I keep everything together. As an item on the list is completed I make a check mark next to it, when it is delegated to someone else I draw an arrow, and if I change my mind about a task or it no longer is needed I simply draw a line through it. All of this is kept on a mini legal pad, about five by seven inches. When I finish a page I tear it off and add it to the back of the notepad so that I may look back at any date and see what I was doing.

I also keep a wall calendar with my most important appointments written in red, blue, or green. I won’t explain too much about the need for color coding, but I do like to manage time by planning out activities with family and friends before I add any business appointments. You will find that you can better manage your time when you get your priorities straight first. This also adds joy to my life and that is always an excellent thing.

In the late afternoon and evening my energy level is much lower than it is during the morning hours, so that’s the time I schedule activities and tasks that require less alertness and brain power on my part. Medical appointments, seeing movies and play, shopping, and time relaxing with family and friends all take precedence during these hours.

After maintaining this type of time management schedule for several years I am confident that it is the most effective way for you to manage your time. I’ve said for a long time that I always feel like I have plenty of time to exactly what I want and need to do both personally and professionally, and I would love for you to feel this way as well.

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. Be sure to take a look at my Really Simple Content Marketing training course to help get you started on how to think like a publisher.

Making the Most of Your Biological Prime Time Hours

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Figuring Out Your Biological Prime Time

During the twenty years that I worked as a classroom teacher people would regularly comment to me about my being a “morning” person. To them it was obvious that I was enthusiastic and energetic first thing in the morning, (I don’t usually drink coffee or other caffeinated beverages, so this was all natural) but I did not see it that way. Instead, I believed that I was simply a person who had chosen a career that required me to be alert and on task by seven or even earlier each weekday morning. I dreamed of sleeping in until nine or ten, but even on the weekends I had to be up bright and early to do my real estate work.

Fast forward to 2006, when I left my teaching position and gave away my real estate clients. Now I was an entrepreneur and could choose the hours I worked each day. But guess what? To my surprise I found it almost impossible to sleep past eight in the mornings unless I had been up late the night before or wasn’t feeling well. Since both of those scenarios are rare for me, it’s up with the chickens for me each day for eleven years now.

For a period of about three hours, somewhere between about six thirty or seven and ten or eleven I accomplish more than I used to by working eight to ten hours in my previous life. I believe these morning work hours are my “prime time” and that my brain is ready to conquer the world with my writing, ideas, and creations. I took this phrase from the world of “prime time” television, where the regularly occurring time at which a television or radio audience is expected to be greatest is typically the hours between eight and eleven in the evenings. And it turns out that the study of “biological prime time hours” is a fascinating one with lots of case studies that make sense.

Also, I absolutely love the work I am involved in as an online entrepreneur, and that makes a huge difference as well. Whether I am writing articles, blog posts, and short reports, or creating information products, I’m anxious to get started and enthusiastic about completing each task or project.

Have you thought about your biological “prime time” hours each day? Sam Carpenter coined this phrase in 2009 in his popular and well-received book, Work the System: The Simple Mechanics of Making More and Working Less. It is my sincere belief that knowing which hours of the day are your best can be crucial to your success. I recommend that you give this some serious thought to figure out what works best for you in terms of writing and creating for your business. If you have a job or career that precludes you from working on your business during these hours, like I did when I was a classroom teacher, then take full advantage of your days off to make up for it.

Also, over the years I have made an effort to get a “second wind” and work for another three or four hours later in the day. Sometimes I am successful with this, but the work I do at this time is never quite as good as what I can accomplish early in the morning. I thought that by napping for sixty or ninety minutes in the early afternoon or evening I might wake up refreshed and ready to work, but if anything this works against me. So I went back to the drawing board and figured out that if I go for a walk or do some other exercise for about thirty minutes I am able to have a second round of prime time. Perhaps it’s the blood rushing to my brain that makes this so. I would love to hear your thoughts and experiences on this topic of discovering and maximizing your biological prime time.

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 popular training course, the Internet Marketing Six Pack.

How to Write Short Reports

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If you search for information on how to write short reports, you will unearth a myriad of examples and opinions prepared by people from many walks of life. Instead of sifting through all that has already been written on this topic, I prefer to explain exactly what I have done since 2006 that has helped me to build a massive online business as an entrepreneur on the internet by writing, marketing, and selling short reports.

My definition of a short report is a simple one. Short reports are comprised of content on a specific topic and may be based on original writing from the author/publisher, PLR (Private Label Rights) content, curated content from a variety of acknowledged sources, or content from guest authors and contributors. The purpose of a short report is to provide readers with a summary and overview of a topic in order to form opinions, impart knowledge, and lead to further discussion and study. They typically range in length from several thousand to more than twenty thousand words, though this is entirely left to the discretion of the author and/or the publisher.

In the world of information, a short report makes it possible to share information more readily and in a condensed form so that all parties have the opportunities to come to conclusions and make decisions without having to do massive research on their own beforehand.

Over the years I have published many short reports on topics related to online entrepreneurship. If you go to my main marketing site at ConnieRagenGreen.com you will see “Short Reports” and “More Short Reports” in the Menu Bar at the top. Those will give you an idea of what you can create to give away. Even those those short reports are free, I continue to earn income from them because of the links I include within the reports themselves and in the Resources section at the end. Knowing how to write short reports opens the door to passive and residual income opportunities.

My recommendation is that you start small by creating a five to ten page short report. Use a combination of your own original writing and some PLR, curated, or guest articles. Get into the practice of adding a Table of Contents, a Resources section, and About the Author.

My very best recommendations for PLR (Private Label Rights) content:

Alice Seba and Melody Spier: http://ConnieLoves.me/freePLR

Alice Seba: http://ConnieLoves.me/AliceDIY

Ronnie Nijmeh: http://ConnieLoves.me/SelfHelpPLR

Nicole Dean and Melissa Ingold: http://CoachingStickyGlue.com

Sue Fleckenstein – http://ConnieLoves.me/SuePLR

Use your new short report as a free giveaway to build your list, a simple product, or as a bonus for another product or course you have available. The time you spend working on learning how to write short reports will serve you and your prospects for years to come.

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 popular training course, Really Simple Content Marketing.