When I think of Greg Cesar, classified ads, AdWords, and overall marketing strategies come to mind. The picture on the left was taken on the cruise ship during one of Jim Edwards’ events, and that is Greg in the process of winning a game of air hockey against Jim. Greg and I have been friends since 2008, when we met at Big Seminar in Atlanta. Since that time we have shared the stage on two different occasions, and I have continued to learn from him and have him share his knowledge and experience with my students.

During our call we discussed how most anyone can get started online with information marketing, and how Greg has taken his ‘out of the box’ thinking to new levels with this. I shared a ‘blast from the past’ with Greg as I pulled a twenty-five year old book from my shelf on how to use classified ads to build your business. He gives his insights on this and why, to Greg Cesar, classifieds as still make sense today. If you want to get your products in front of more people, this is an excellent way to do it, and at a very low cost.

My students continue to tell me how much Greg teaches them, and how he steps in personally to make sure their sites are earning to their full potential. He’s a born teacher.

We talked about the best niches to go into, how to best monetize your sites, and what type of sites are most effective when it comes to marketing online. Greg was also gracious enough to give me the link to a webinar we did recently that explains how you can move forward quickly with the approaches, systems, and methods he teaches as a part of his Creative Marketer course. This program is the most popular training he has, and my students love what Greg is teaching them there every month.

Please watch the webinar replay for our training on the Creative Marketer’s course, and be ready to take lots of notes.

I am regularly asked about my best blogging ideas to make money, but posting to your blog is about much more than that. Your blog is your ‘home on the Internet’ and should include as much as possible on your niche topic. There are so many excellent ways to find ideas for your blog posts. One of my favorites is to use Google Alerts to find relevant news and other postings about specific topics of interest to me and to my readers in a specific niche. I like to monitor online conversations in these areas to get inspired and to find new sites to follow. I also have alerts set for my name and for the titles of my books. That way I know very quickly if someone has mentioned me on their site and I can swing by to read their post.

Blog directories, such as Technorati and Alltop, are also excellent sources of new ideas in your niche. I love to find bloggers that I am not familiar with, or whom I have simply lost touch with over the past few years, to see what they are blogging about and to leave comments as a way to connect with them.

You may want to create your own ‘Top 10′ list of the people in your field who stand apart from everyone else. We all love to see our name in print, and when you recognize a colleague it can really make their day. This is an excellent way to build relationships with people you would like to know better and to do business with in the future.

Which blogs do you read regularly? You will want to subscribe to blogs in your niche to stay on the cutting edge and be aware of what the experts are talking about. This has been one of the ways I have stayed at the top and have been able to JV with so many big names on the Internet in recent years.

Brag about what you are doing in your business. Every time I come out with a new short report or write a book for Kindle I shout it from the rooftops. This is also the case when I will be speaking at a live event or come out with a new product. Be proud of your accomplishments and ask others to join in your celebration.

Give your readers your very best tips and resources. I have never held anything back, and I believe that is why I am fortunate enough to have so many raving fans. People know they can count on me to give it to them straight and to share what I know.

Open up your blog to guest bloggers. I didn’t do this for the first few years because I believed it would detract from my credibility. Now I see that it is one of the best ways to build readership with people who are already interested in your topic. I love Nicole Dean’s inexpensive training course on guest blogging.

Whether you are looking for blogging ideas to make money or just to increase your online visibility, these ideas will give you a place to begin. And as they say, blog about what you love and the money will follow.

Gene Pimentel, domain flipping expert, is someone you’ll want to know. I recently met Gene and his wife, Roey, at an event where we were both presenting. I had followed him for quite some time before this, so I was excited at the opportunity to hear him speak about domains and domain flipping. I own almost 600 domains so I knew this was an interesting topic, and a lucrative one as well.

He started his business in the 1980s and was intrigued by the digital market as the years went by. He was able to transition into this field easily because of his business acumen and vast experience.

Gene describes himself as a ‘domainer’, which is someone who registers or buys domain names with the intent of selling them. The key to being a successful domainer is to get your domains to pay for themselves through monetization. This allows you to have an unlimited number of domains in your portfolio at no real cost to you, if you choose domains wisely. During our talk Gene shared many strategies that can be utilized to monetize domain names depending on the quantity and quality of the names.

Even though some of us have many domains, Gene explained that quality will always be more important than quantity when it comes to monetizing this income stream. Keyword research is crucial, and he is only interested in domain names that are evergreen. He looks for domains with keywords that people are willing to pay more for, and also keyword rich local domains. I know you will enjoy learning more from Gene Pimentel to see if domaining is right for you. You can see what he’s doing by visiting his all new site at Domain Profits Academy.

Please join us this Friday, September 21, for a webinar on how to turn your domains into fast cash.

Online profits are appealing to most of us who come onto the Internet to work, but it requires great discipline to be successful as an online entrepreneur. As I look back over my years working exclusively on the Internet, which began in 2006, I realize that I now have more discipline than I have at any other time in my life. I wok with people who would love to emulate my success, but most are not willing to do what it takes to build and sustain this type of business for the long term.

Time Management For Online Profits

It all begins with time management. We all have the same number of hours in the day, but the way we utilize that time varies widely from person to person. My recommendation is to make a schedule of what you need to work on within your online business. I know that I want to write two blog posts for this site every week. One is a post such as this one, where I share my information and knowledge on how to make huge profits with a tiny list, and the other one is related to the person I have interviewed that week for my podcast series. Typically I write the informational post on Tuesday mornings, and the one related to my podcast guest immediately after I have interviewed them. I then schedule the posts to go out on Tuesday morning and Friday morning, giving my blog the consistency it deserves and Google loves. The time involved here, including the writing of both posts and the podcast interview, is about two hours per week.

Which Activities Are Crucial To Your Business?

In addition to writing blog posts and hosting my podcast series, I also write articles for the article directories, short reports on a variety of topics, host free teleseminars twice each month, and create my own information products. I have a schedule that I adhere to in order to accomplish everything I need to do each week.

While I am traveling, which I do each month, I only write blog posts and send emails to my list. All other activities for my business are suspended until I return home. This schedule works well for me in terms of online profits because I have already built a foundation that makes sense for what I am trying to achieve.

Discipline – The Key To Online Profits

Finally, you must exercise discipline each day in order to achieve maximum results in your business. In addition to having a weekly schedule of the activities I need to complete, I also make a daily to-do list before I end each day. That list is the first thing I look at when I sit down at my desk the following morning. This gives me the flexibility to choose which tasks to work on right away, and which ones to leave until later. My ‘prime time’ is from around six-thirty to ten each morning, so as long as I complete everything I need during that time frame my business continues to move forward profitably.

The true test comes when you have a deadline to meet, such as creating a new product, writing a sales letter, or completing some work related to a JV project. This requires additional time, focus, and resolve to meet your goals and achieve the results you were hoping for. Managing your time, working on the right income producing activities and tasks, and having the required discipline will make all of the difference in your bottom line.

 Be sure to subscribe to my weekly podcast series by clicking on the link in the sidebar. It’s completely free, and you will be exposed to people and ideas that will help you to achieve your online business goals.

When you hear the name James Roche, information products may be the first thing that comes to mind. But James is about so much more than that. He’s a master coach and strategist and has helped his people to grow their businesses in a major way. He partnered with Ali Brown in 2008 in order to serve an even larger audience.

James and I discuss relationship marketing and how he came to connect with Ali and some other people in order to grow our businesses in a huge way. He also shares how he met Melanie, his wife and soul mate. You’ll love his story about the wedding cake. Then we moved on to the topic of creating successful information products. James is an expert in this area, so I encourage you to takes notes as you listen to this podcast interview.

He believes that you must talk to your clients and prospects to be able to identify the problems and solutions of the people who will want to buy your products for years to come. It’s a dialog between you and your market, where your information product solves the problems they are dealing with in their lives.

Finally, we discussed James’ take on the trends and changes the Internet is undergoing as it applies to online entrepreneurs. Things are easier now when it comes to the technology. We are now in Web 3.0 and everything is more niched with micro-communities. We are able to be a personality and share our own style with our tribe or community. Part of our USP (Unique Selling Proposition) is standing out and providing value to others. As online pioneers we have the opportunity to share our viewpoints with others and build a following of people who know, like, and trust us. It’s about so much more than just providing information to others. James encourages us to be ourselves and be interesting while also providing great value. It becomes more about lifestyle and storytelling than traditional marketing.

You can download a Free Special Report from James Roche and learn more about how he can help you to achieve your online goals.

This is a guest post from my friend and colleague Jim Edwards. Be sure to leave a comment to let him know what you’ve learned from him about eBooks and affiliate marketing.

I hear this all the time.

“I’m an affiliate marketer, why do I need an ebook?”

I think that’s a great question, because it shows you want to concentrate on what you’re doing and avoid distractions. However, no matter what you sell as an affiliate, having your own ebook(s) as part of your overall business strategy makes too much sense to ignore.

In fact, here are 10 outstanding reasons why every serious affiliate marketer should strongly consider creating their own, original ebook as fast as possible.

1. Profitable Income Source

Other than software, ebooks are the single most profitable thing you can sell online. Why, because other than credit card charges, they translate into pure profit (no printing, no postage, no waiting).

As an affiliate, you only keep a percentage when you make a sale. As an ebook author, you keep 100% of the profit when you make a sale.

2. You’re In Control!

Your own ebook gives you something to market that you 100% know you can trust. You know the author (YOU) and you know the quality of the material. As an affiliate, even if you trust the merchant you sell for completely, you still give up control of the customer and the customer service. With your own ebook, you keep control.

3. Reason to Promote

Your own ebook gives you a reason to run promotions. You can do your own sales. You can do your own webinars. You can use article marketing, blogging, Facebook and more to promote your own product!

4. Sell on Amazon

Everyone knows about Amazon. And, having your ebook on Amazon means you are a real, published author. If they can find it on Amazon, you’re the REAL deal as far as 99% of the people in the world are concerned. The days of needing a traditional publisher to be considered a “real” author are long gone!

5. Conversation Starter

People love to talk to authors, especially published authors! When people find out you’ve written a book, they’ll go out of their way to want to engage with you, whether in person, by email, or through social media.

6. Credibility Builder

Nothing screams “credibility” like being a published author. Period! Legitimately putting the title “Author” after your name is a real game changer for you professionally.

7. Increase Affiliate Sales

One of the most effective ways to make affiliate sales is to link to affiliate products in your own ebook.

KILLER TACTIC: Teach someone how to do something manually or step by step in your ebook, then provide your affiliate link to a piece of software, tool, or service that does it FOR them (EZ Button). I’ve made a TON of money using this single tactic for over a decade!

8. List Builder

I never met an affiliate who didn’t ultimately realize they needed their own list of followers. Whether it’s an email list, RSS subscribers, or social media followers, your own list is the fast-track to making LOTS of money as an affiliate.

You can use your ebook to build not one, but TWO lists. You can use your own ebook to build up a list of buyers of the ebook, along with special report subscribers who haven’t bought yet.

9. Networking Tool

Affiliate marketing and networking are basically the exact same thing: making new connections with people around a central theme or topic.  Nothing helps make a new connection (in-person or online) like offering them a copy of your book to start the relationship! Again, this ties in directly with the credibility and authority having your own ebook brings you.

10. Build an Affiliate Base

You can build up an affiliate base without your own product. But what better product to offer than an ebook, the most profitable thing you can sell online? Why not build up your own sales force of people to do for you exactly what you do for other online merchants? Having your own ebook enables you to do just that in an authentic and business-building manner!

By the way, creating an ebook is EASIER than most people ever imagine. You can do it in a couple of days with the right strategies. Lots of people do it every day! And, if you’d like to join them, check out the new, updated, and revised classic that helped launch the entire online ebook movement “How To Write and Publish Your Own Ebook… in as little as 7 Days!” at http://eBookWritingProfits.com.

Jim Edwards

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

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

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

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

Internet marketer James Jones is someone you want to know. He started online back in the 19080s with bulletin boards, and then moved on to services with AOL, Prodigy, and CompuServe. That’s where he started placing classified ads during the mid 1990s and had his first website by 1996. Later he worked at a bank where he was able to learn more about computer software and programming before going out on his own in 2002. The message here is that James was willing to work for a company in exchange for the knowledge he would gain that would help him later on in his own business. As soon as his online income surpassed his offline income, he knew he was ready to make it as a full time entrepreneur.

James thinks of himself as a problem solver. When he reached 500K a year he knew it was time to start hiring employees. He credits this with allowing him to further increase his income as he replaces himself over and over with people who can take over specific tasks and responsibilities.

We discussed his program on Kindle Triangulation, one that helped me immensely with my books on Amazon. He has studied this extensively and has been selling his writing on Amazon for almost four years now. It’s important to note that he learns by actually doing, something we can all learn from. He predicts that Amazon will make huge changes in what it allows to be published, including requiring authors to have their own ISBN numbers and copyrighting of content.

James is now getting into gaming by creating app and interactive programs. He is also creating a series of eBooks that will spin off into games.

His advice to people who want to get started online is ‘Do something!’ He believes that you must get your business started so that you can learn what works and what doesn’t. He recommends ‘failing more’ to make sure what you are doing involves taking enough action on a regular basis. He also wants us to re-evaluate what we consider to be a failure. Don’t give up too soon. Failures are just learning experiences that move us closer to success.

Learn more about James Jones and what he has to offer by taking a look at this site. He offers a $7 product each week as part of his special.

Podcasting has been around for years, but the idea has really taken off for online entrepreneurs during the past two years. If you are not familiar with podcast hosting, they are audio recordings on a specific topic that you can subscribe to in iTunes and listen to through your computer or on your iPod or other mp3 playing device. They are almost always available as a free subscription.

I started podcast hosting in 2008, but soon lost interest in my topic (technology tips for newbies) and let it go by the wayside. During the next couple of years I subscribed to several other people’s podcasts to see what they had to offer, but many of their episodes were sporadic and seemed to get off topic easily. They would do five or ten shows and then disappear forever.

In December of 2011 I spent time with a group of entrepreneurs who were sharing how much new traffic they were driving to their sites and how many targeted prospects were finding them through their podcasts. I made the decision right then to commit to starting a new show and hosting it consistently, and sought out podcasting expert Kelly McCausey to learn exactly how to get started with her Smart Podcasting Skills course. Throughout 2012 I have released one new podcast each Friday with a new guest each week.

My podcasts are twenty to thirty minutes long and share insights from each entrepreneur’s perspective. I chose the half hour format because one hour seemed just too long when I wanted to listeners to subscribe and listen to the new episode each Friday. I also have a slightly different format in that I turn each one into a blog post and make it downloadable directly from there by using a free WordPress plugin called PodPress.

I have never seen anyone do what I am doing by featuring the podcast on both my blog and on iTunes. I believe that this marketing strategy is ideal for ensuring the most accessible means of finding my show. I also include additional information within my blog posts that make visitors even more interested and likely to check out the entire series and subscribe on iTunes. Each week more and more people are doing just that. On a side note, remember that the content you are creating with your podcasts can easily be turned into a product, a course, or even a book.

If you have been thinking about starting your own podcast series, there has never been an easier time to do this. Choose a topic you are knowledgeable on, set up your free account over at iTunes, and start podcasting. You can do each episode by yourself, interview guests informally as I do, or come up with your own format, and then enjoy the new stream of listeners and prospects who will find you when they are searching by keyword on iTunes.

Get started right away by learning from Kelly McCausey, the foremost expert in entrepreneurial podcasting. Sign up for my weekly podcast by going to Connie Ragen Green on iTunes.

Stu McLaren, Wishlist Member co-founder and CIO (Chief Idea Officer is how I think of him!), is a man on a mission. We were recently together in Las Vegas at a Mastermind we are both a part of for entrepreneurs.

Stu and his partner, Tracy Childers, started Wishlist Member as a solution for those who wanted to have an online membership site within their business. But Stu is about so much more than this. He was going to business school in his native Canada and playing on the varsity soccer team as well. They earned two national championships while he was on the team, making this a large focus for him. After his first year at university he did not maintain the grades to stay on the team. This, of course, was devastating for him, and led him down a path that would ultimately change his life.

Stu watched a video of someone named Doug Hall, founder of Eureka Ranch, where entrepreneurs brainstormed new ideas for their business. He applied what he learned from Doug, author of Jump Start Your Marketing Brain: Scientific Advice and Practical Ideas, to his school work and turned his life around. This was a turning point that changed the direction of his life

He became passionate about creative thinking and wanted to teach others about it. Stu started speaking to groups on this topic and wanted to bring this to the world by leveraging the power of the Internet. While at a conference on creative thinking he ended up in a session on journaling. This was eye opening when he realized he was ready to go out on his own as an entrepreneur immediately after graduation, instead of taking a job he would not enjoy. The rest, as they say, is history.

During our call we also discuss the challenges of becoming an entrepreneur later in life, and how that gives us the ability to help so many people to change their lives.

When Stu and Tracy started Wishlist Member in 2008, my dreams of having my own membership site became a reality. I now have several of them and enjoy the recurring income and benefits of this business model. It was truly the answer to my dreams. The idea for this came out of their own frustrations in trying to set up their own membership sites in the years leading up to this. It was a technological nightmare and they felt that it didn’t have to be that hard. The solution was found when they created a WordPress plugin to handle the entire process. Wishlist is now used on more than 42,000 sites and people like you and I can easily set up everything they need. They continue to make it better and better and add new features on a regular basis. I love the idea of recurring revenue in my business. It’s the difference between simply having a transaction and building a trusted relationship.

Stu encourages and challenges everyone to take a frustration or a problem and turn it into an opportunity. Focus on one idea and turn it into a business.

Every October they do a huge anniversary promotion to celebrate what they have created. Stu’s advice to you if you are new to membership sites is to watch the video with the 10 membership models to see how Wishlist Member can build your own business.