Making huge profits with a small list is possible! My name is Connie Ragen Green, and I’ve been making a full time living online since 2006. I have successfully built a five figure a month income with a very small list. In fact, I was making 10K a month long before I had one thousand people on my list, and I can teach you how I did this by following some simple marketing strategies based on affiliate marketing, product creation, and joint ventures. I am now a list relationship coach, helping others to build a relationship with the people on their lists in order to increase their online income.

The mission of this site is to teach you how to monetize your list, no matter how small it is. I will share what has worked for me, and welcome your comments and suggestions for what other information you would like for me to share with you.

Even though it is important to be continually growing your list, you certainly do not need a huge list in order to make an excellent living with your online business. Thanks for being here, and be sure to sign up on the right to receive an email notification when I write a new post twice each week. Feel free to leave a comment on any post that resonates with you, and share your own experiences about making big money with a tiny list. I have completed my first book, Huge Profits With A Tiny List: 50 Ways To Use Relationship Marketing To Increase Your Bottom Line, and it is now available. Click on the picture of the book on the right to get your copy today, or visit Amazon.com directly to see what else I have available.

My latest books are now available! The titles are Huge Profits With Affiliate Marketing: How To Build An Online Empire By Recommending What You Love and The Inner Game of Internet Marketing, co-written with author Geoff Hoff. Click on the link on the right, or visit my author page on Amazon or Barnes & Noble to order your copy today.

Debbie LaChusa was one of the first people I connected with when I came online in 2006. I signed up for her 10 Steps Marketing course and learned so much about how to make the successful transition form the corporate or offline world into the life of an online entrepreneur. Debbie has many years of experience in the corporate world, and has been featured in magazines, websites, and blogs such as Entrepreneur, Forbes, CNBC, and Yahoo! Small Business. She has written her new book, titled Breaking The Spell: The Truth About Money, Success, And The Pursuit Of Happiness, to share her journey with others.

We discussed how the pursuit of more and more money does not bring happiness into your life, and the idea that serving others, whether through your daily work or other outlets leads to a more meaningful life. You will gain greater insight into your own business by listening to this call.

Click here to listen to all calls in my Podcast Series, or go directly to iTunes for your free subscription.

List building tips are valuable and will help you to grow your business quickly. Almost every day someone will write to me to ask how they can sell their eBook or other product if they do not have a list. My first response back to them is that they must start building a list right away if they are to be successful with an online business. This is a skill that will grow your business steadily over time. I have found the best and most effective ways to get started with list building are with blogging, article writing and marketing, hosting your own teleseminars, social media marketing, and attending live events whenever possible.

The biggest mistake I made during my first year working online was to not take this process of list building seriously and make it a top priority. Instead, I spent too much time setting up websites and going through endless hours of training in search of the perfect business. If I had started building my list from the very first day, my business would have grown much more quickly.

You will need to add an optin box to your blog and other sites to start building this ‘permission based’ list. This is a simple process that can be done using any of the autoresponder services that are currently available, such as Aweber. We cannot expect anyone to sign up for our list without having a good reason, so offer them a free short report on your niche topic that will provide them with useful information in your area of expertise. It used to be that people would join your list to receive a newsletter or email updates, but those days are long gone now that we all receive way too much email on a daily basis.

This report you create need only be a few pages in length, but must convey real value. Even though you are giving this away at no cost, put your best foot forward to make it look and feel as professional and polished as possible. This will be the first time someone sees who you are and what you know on your niche topic so you want to shine. I like to write three articles on my topic and then put them together into a report for this purpose. Then I call it a Special Report and give it a catchy title and tag line.

Now that the person has added themselves to your list the next step is to stay in regular contact with them through email messages. You’ll want to set up some of these in advance as a sequence of autoresponders that will be sent out automatically over time. In addition to these automated messages, stay in touch at least twice a week through broadcast emails.

Your list is the most valuable asset in your business. You may have already heard that the gold is in the list and the follow up. Make sure to continue to build the relationships with your prospects and clients by providing them with relevant content, tips, resources, and appropriate offers. Take care of your list and your business will grow.

Jeanette Cates is officially known as the ‘Technology Tamer’ to new and experiences online marketers around the world. I first met Jeanette at Armand Morin’s Big Seminar in 2008, and we became fast friends. Soon I learned that she had been online since the very beginning, and that she has moved seamlessly between the corporate and entrepreneurial worlds for many years. I’ve had the opportunity to teach several online courses with Jeanette, as well as co-hosting five live events over the past few years. She is a pleasure to have as a business partner and made the entire process a joy to experience.

We discussed teleseminars during this interview, and this is an area Jeanette pioneered from the very beginning. I’ve been through her Teleseminar Basics Training, and can tell you that she teaches everything you need to get started with this profitable revenue stream. You could be hosting your own teleseminars, interviewing experts, and creating products within a few days of taking this course.

Knowing how to write short reports is a skill and marketing technique that will build your online business quickly by allowing you to grow your list with targeted prospects, drive massive traffic to your blog and other sites, build your credibility in your chosen niche, and increase your online revenue. This is content creation at its very best and, hopefully, this will set you on the path of creating content regularly for a variety of uses in your business.

Increasing your revenue is a huge part of this strategy as long you think about how you will be able to monetize your short reports from the very beginning. That’s right, you must decide what you will promote before you even start to write the report, and how to make sure that it remains evergreen (information that will be good for years, not just at the present time) so that you your prospects will be able to use the information you prepare for them for many years to come without it becoming stale or outdated.

The thought of writing a ten to fifteen page report was daunting to me when I was first getting started with my online business. I had written reports of that length for the classes I had taken in order to get my teaching credential, but I typically had a full semester in which to do my research and prepare my paper on the topic I had chosen or had been assigned. This style of writing is very different. And, I’m happy to tell you, no one will be giving you a grade on what you write! Also, you can use PLR (private label rights) content to ensure that you have as much material as you need for this.

In fact, you will want to start your short report by just writing a short blog post on your topic. I recommend just letting your ideas flow to see what comes up. I get some of my best ideas this way, and I’m not sure exactly where they come from. I think about what I want to share with my readers, and then just start writing with small paragraphs, such as the ones I am using here.

Like I said in the very beginning, decide what you will be promoting before you write anything more than your blog post or article. Sometimes I am writing in order to promote one of my own courses or programs, but most often it is to promote an affiliate product or course. The idea is to present information in your short report that will explain clearly to the readers how they will benefit from the products you are recommending. It must all make sense to them, in terms of what they need to do first, and then what they need to do next to move closer to their goals.

By now you can see that writing your short report will be an excellent way to promote your own products and those of others for whom you are an affiliate. My intensive training on How To Write A Short Report is very effective.

Rachel Rofe (pronounced ro-FAY) is a brilliant young marketer with a background in retail sales. After deciding that she did not like working for others, she made the decision to come online in 2006 and has never looked back. Rachel quickly saw the benefits of having others help her in her business, something we refer to as outsourcing on the Internet.

Outsourcing her Kindle books is something Rachel has now become well known for, and I must admit that this course – Outsourcing Kindle Books – changed the way I now think about having other people help me in my online business. Rachel is adamant about sharing her knowledge in this area, and has books on Kindle that earn her several thousand dollars each month.

We discuss the review system on Amazon, training people to help you, and more on outsourcing to build your online business.

Working from your home computer is the best possible way to earn a living. I believe this because it is working for me and I am passionate about what I am doing, but you may have a completely different reason for wanting to work exclusively online and start home based business. I’d like to explore the possibilities and business models here so that you can make an informed decision about your business future and work at something that will truly make your heart sing.

Take a look at the reasons you were attracted to working from home in the first place. You may have young children that need to be cared for, elderly parents or other family members that need your help, or you may have health issues that make it difficult for you to work outside of your home. I had an elderly mother who needed more of my time, as well as some serious health issues that made it extremely difficult for me to be at a job for many hours every single day.

I must admit that when I made the jump from employee – I was a classroom teacher for twenty years – to online entrepreneur I had no idea of how I would be able to make any money. Looking back to that time, in 2006, it’s amazing that I was willing to resign from my teaching job and take that leap of faith to start a home-based business when I had no experience at all in this area.

You now have the benefit of learning from the experiences of everyone who went before you when it comes to getting started online with a business. You also have the opportunity to choose the business model that feels right for you. My business is a mixture of affiliate marketing and my own digital information products. This means that I also host my own courses online so that I can once again be a teacher.

Spend time thinking about the way you would like to run a business. Discuss it with your family as well so that they will be on board and have an idea of what to expect once you embark on this journey. Also, this requires at least a minimal understanding of technology, the ability to write at least at the eighth grade level on a regular basis, and research into the niche markets that you will work in. If this sounds like work, it is. It is also the most rewarding work you will ever do, so it is worth every moment you invest.

What are your thoughts on this?

Cathy Demers is an award winning entrepreneur with more than twenty successful years in business. She has worked with Microsoft and IBM in business development, and took her own company, The Electric Mail Company, public as a stock exchange traded company while she was the President and CEO.

Cathy now runs the popular Business Success Cafe, where entrepreneurs and small business owners have the opportunity to find practical solutions to business-building problems they encounter, through the use of Masterminds, education, and resources. During our call we discussed how she got started in business, the way in which she helps business owners to achieve the success they are seeking, and how to avoid ‘bright, shiny object’ syndrome when you are trying to move forward with your goals.

You may know that I have once again challenged myself to write one hundred articles over a one hundred day time span. I first did this in the spring of 2007 as a way to turn myself into a writer. That time it only took me 78 days to complete my challenge back then, and I have gone on to write more than 1,600 articles since that time.

This time the challenge was more difficult for me for a variety of reasons, including the fact that I’m in the middle of writing my next book on becoming an online entrepreneur. You can see my other books here if this is of interest to you. Time management when it comes to writing is crucial to your success, but the creative energy required is another story.

As far as the article writing challenge, I was so excited when my friend Susanne Myers decided to step up and join me this time. Susanne is one of my smartest friends, as well as a gifted marketer. She’s been using article marketing to build her business for years. Here is an article she wrote recently on the topic of autoresponders:

The Magic Of AWeber – Why AWeber Is One Of The Best Autoresponders Out There
By Susanne Myers

If you read my blog, this won’t come as a surprise to you. I love AWeber and have been using them as my autoresponder service since 2004. I have quite a few lists and some of them have well over 30,000 subscribers on them. They are responsible for a big chunk of my monthly income and I wouldn’t trust anyone other than AWeber with those lists. Here are a few reasons why AWeber is one of the best autoresponders out there.

It’s Easy – Lots Of Tutorial

It is very easy to get started with AWeber. Once you sign up, you’ll find plenty of tutorials on how to do just about anything with their service. They’ll walk you through setting up your first list, creating your first optin form and plugging it into your website. Some of the tutorials are presented as a step-by-step wizard, others are text and of course there are also plenty of “how-to” videos. On top of it, I’ve found their customer service helpful and ready to walk me through just about anything I can’t figure out on my own.

Plus since AWeber is so well known in our industry, you’ll also find plenty of video tutorials on YouTube. Don’t forget to check there if you get stuck somewhere along the way.

It’s Inexpensive To Get Started

When I started out building websites and email lists, my budget was almost $0. I didn’t have hundreds of dollars to spend on my online business, so AWeber’s $1 trial was a perfect fit. It allowed me to get comfortable with the service and start building my list without much of an expense. After that it didn’t take me long to make more than the $20 per month fee from my growing lists.

Sign up for the introductory trial and get to work right away. Make it a goal to build a list of 100 subscribers as fast as possible and start monetizing that first list. It won’t take you long to make AWeber pay for itself by following this strategy. Keep growing your list and you’ll be profitable in no time at all.

Excellent Deliverability

The best and biggest list won’t do you much good if your readers don’t get your emails. It’s hard to make sure your website and email stay white-listed and don’t get redirected into spam folders. AWeber does an excellent job at making sure they have high delivery rates. They consistently rank among the highest rates in the industry, making them a great choice.

Ready to get started with your own list?

Ready to build your own list? Sign up for a free 7-day ecourse on getting started with list building at http://www.affiliateecourse.com/listbuilding

This is an example of how to properly reprint other people’s articles as a way to connect with them and to add content to your own sites. By my publishing of this article I get more content for my site and Susanne benefits by the exposure to my readers who may not know her already. Be sure to read the TOS (Terms of Service) carefully before you use anyone else’s content on your sites or in your ezine.

The article writing challenge continues through June 21, and I encourage you to write and publish more of your own articles as you build your business.

Marnie Pehrson is a very special person. She’s the creative force behind Idea Marketers, a site where you can not only submit your articles but also become a part of a growing community of content creators and publishers. Idea Marketers was actually the first article directory on the Internet, tracing its inception back to 1998.

She is also an accomplished author, and I am thrilled to have contributed to Marnie’s most recent book, Trust Your Heart: Building Relationships That Build Your Business. This book shares insights from some of the top names online to give you an idea of how we all use relationship marketing to catapult us to success.

Marnie and I discuss how she initially came online many years ago, what success means in today’s world, and how what she is doing at Idea Marketers is changing the way we all create and publish our content on the Internet.

Are you too comfortable at your job to become a successful entrepreneur? If you stop to think about the job you are currently working at you may discover that you have become complacent about starting and building your own business because your job provides a steady paycheck to pay your monthly bills and expenses. This can be dangerous!

I worked as a classroom teacher for twenty years. Every month I received a paycheck that I used to make my house payment, car payment, and for my other expenses. It wasn’t until I had cancer for the first time and was not able to work for six months that I realized just how much that job was costing me.

At the same time I was working in real estate as a broker and residential appraiser. This work allowed me to make my own hours, set my own appointments, and have control over the amount of income I could earn. If it had not been for my ability to make money in real estate while I was undergoing treatment for my cancer, I would surely have lost my home and would have had to file for bankruptcy. Instead, I had a steady flow of income coming in and was able to meet all of my financial obligations during this difficult time. This gave me peace of mind in a way I cannot fully describe.

How can you avoid being caught up in what I call the ‘paycheck comfort zone’? Ask yourself some serious questions to see where you are in this process. Are you satisfied with the number on your paycheck? Are you alright with the amount of time and effort required to stay at your job? If you or a family member were to become ill, if you’d want to relocate to another city to live, or to want to take time off to pursue other interests, would your job accommodate you? Is the amount of money you earn at your current job sufficient for what you need and want in your life? It may be time for you to quit your job and move on in your life.

There is a certain mindset that goes along with taking the leap from employee to entrepreneur. As an employee you look to your boss to find out what the company wants to do next; as an entrepreneur you make the decisions as to what actions and steps you will take to move forward. If it’s going to happen, it is entirely up to you to see it through. You must have the inner strength to trust your intuition and gut instincts when it comes to making smart decisions. This requires you to have the self confidence to know you can achieve your goals.

This is what I wrote about in my recent book ,The Inner Game of Internet Marketing, and it applies to other areas of your life as well. You can do it, and quitting your job to become an online entrepreneur will change your life forever.

To Ray Edwards, copywriting is ‘salesmanship in print’. Ray was the very first professional copywriter I ever met, and in this interview I ask him about how he got started in radio years ago, transitioned to writing web sales copy for some of the greatest names on the Internet today, and continues to be a dominant force in the world of copywriting.

Ray and his wife, Lynn, pictured with him at left, travel the country in their motor home on a regular basis. This lifestyle gives them the freedom to work from wherever they happen to be while also enjoying the beauty and the seasons. They also have two pugs who enjoy taking to the road with them.

You’ll also want to check out his latest book, Writing Riches, as well as his membership site of the same name. Ray has graciously given this special link to my community, and if you are interested in learning more about becoming a copywriter for hire or just writing better sales copy for your products and services, this may be exactly what you are looking for. My favorite part of this site is that Ray personally critiques one of the members’ sales letters each month, giving everyone an opportunity to improve their skills. I’m sure you will benefit greatly from our discussion here.

As I continue to work with people in the area of building a profitable business, I hear the same excuses over and over. Some of the more memorable ones are:

“But you don’t understand. My business is different.”

“Sure, that works for you, but I’m new.”

“I’m too old.”

“I’m on (insert guru’s name here) list, and they said I should try (insert name of latest product or service here).”

And my all-time favorite:

“I can’t afford a mentor.”

When I started my serious exercise and eating plan at the first of this year I soon realized that I was making the exact same excuses!

Even though I was showing up at the gym each week, I found myself telling the trainers that they did not understand why I wasn’t making much progress because my body was different.

As I observed others losing weight and replacing fat with muscle I explained that it was working for them, but not for me, because I was new and needed time to settle in to the exercise and fitness routines they were teaching me. I also told them that I was too old to be able to make the kind of progress some of the others were making.

I soon began searching the Internet for help and found myself telling the trainers at my gym that people online were recommending an entirely different regime that I was going to check out. When they recommended that I work out privately with a trainer three times each week I told them that it was just too expensive for my budget.

I had effectively taken myself out of the game and ensured my failure by not trusting them to guide me in the right direction. When I finally realized this I apologized profusely and began to make a serious and consistent effort to follow exactly what they were recommending. The result was that I began to lose weight, increase my muscle mass, decrease my BMI (Body Mass Index), and feel better overall.

Once I stopped making excuses and started focusing on how to do the best I could under the guidance and direction of those I trusted, everything changed overnight.

Have you found yourself making any of these excuses when it comes to building a profitable business online, or in any other area of your life?

Adela Rubio is a Joint Venture Strategist who helps conscious entrepreneurs share their message and build their tribe using experiential list building strategies. I had first met Adela at an event on the East Coast in 2010, and saw her again in Atlanta in February of 2012.

In this interview Adela shares how she got started online and why she chooses to work with conscious entrepreneurs. We discuss what she means by ‘juicy joint venture partners’, and why she refers to her community of followers as her ‘tribe’. Adela encourages you to claim your authentic essence in everything you do.

Adela offers an Enlightened List Building training program that will help you to build your list, increase your joint ventures, and achieve massive visibility online.

In 2005 I started on a path that led me to leave my job as a classroom teacher, give away all of my real estate clients, and come online full time in 2006. I had no idea where this would lead me, but now I know that I was meant to change my life in a big way at that time.  I do believe that anyone can make this type of change in their life, but you must take the necessary steps to ensure you are building a business that will sustain you for years to come. This requires hard work as you build a list of prospects and clients, increase your online visibility, and set up the systems that will bring the profitability necessary for a successful business on the Internet.

Start by setting up a hosted WordPress blog. The hosting account will cost you less than a hundred dollars a year, and enable you to set up as many sites as you want to over time without any additional cost. I recommend Blue Host because of their customer service and c-panel features. This will also mean that you own your blog, instead of trying to start a business by using a free blogging platform, such as Blogger, that you could lose at any time if it gets shut down. Start out by posting about yourself and what you are working on. It will seem very personal in the beginning, and over time you will find that you are sharing more and more on your topic.

Include an optin box on your blog so that visitors can sign up to join your list to find out more about what you are doing. You’ll need an autoreponder service for this, and I recommend using either 1 Shopping Cart or Aweber for this. You will need to put together a check list or short report on your topic to offer as the free giveaway for this. Long ago people would sign up to receive an Ezine or a newsletter, but now everyone expects to receive some time of complimentary information, in audio (mp3), video, or written (PDF) format, as their incentive for signing up to be on your list.

Next, be sure to use your keywords for your blog post titles so that the search engines begin to see what you will be talking about. This can be a confusing part of the process, so take a look at other people’s sites to see which words and phrases they are optimizing for on their blog. Google offers a free tool, their Keyword Tool External, to make this much easier to understand. Don’t worry if this part of the process sounds confusing right now. Just know that we are found on the Internet by the words we use to describe our niche topic.

Now it’s time to monetize this entire process. You’ll need something to sell, so think about choosing an affiliate product in the very beginning instead of creating your own product right away. The best choices for this are products and services you have purchased and used in your own businesses. By recommending these to the people who come to you for help and information, you can begin to start the steady flow of income that will lead to online profitability in your online business.

Getting started online can be broken down into a series of actionable steps, and starting your own hosted WordPress blog is the first step to online success.

Lisa Suttora is an eCommerce expert. During the past ten years she has taught at eBay University a number of times, as well as teaching thousands of her own students how to source products and build a profitable business. She continues to be one of 34 eBay Certified Providers worldwide. This all came about because she wanted to stay home to raise her two young children. In 2001 she walked away from her six figure a year corporate job and has never looked back. I truly admire Lisa for what she has accomplished. She began by teaching others how to sell on Amazon and eBay, and continues to expand her reach.

In this interview we discuss all of this and more as we delve into the thought process behind building a successful and lucrative Internet business. We also talk about Pinterest, and her new training program for this fast growing social media site. You’ll want to be sure to take notes while you listen to this informative call.

There are many different ways you can use Pinterest to brainstorm ideas, share ideas, showcase your life and more. Because of Pinterest’s quick and easy to use “Pin It” system, you can whip up all kinds of image boards in a jiffy. The very best training on this topic is from Lisa Suttora. Take a look at her Pinterest Training for eCommerce course.

Here are ten creative ways you can use Pinterest in your everyday life, but don’t stop at these. If you have special interests or hobbies, use these ideas to generate other useful boards for yourself. With this visual tool, the sky’s the limit!

#1 – Foods You Want to Cook

If you cook regularly, chances are you’ll want to experiment with cooking new and exotic foods every once in a while.

Instead of having to come up with what you want to cook every night, just start pinning interesting food ideas. Then when it’s time to cook a meal, navigate to your Pinterest board and you’ll have a whole array of ideas to choose from.

You can even come up with theme boards for upcoming holidays and events. It’s a great way to brainstorm what wonderful concoctions you may want to create.

#2 – Places You Want to Go

Where do you want to go? Do you want to see the deserts of India, or the beaches in the Caribbean? Or would you rather explore some history in Rome?

Put all the places you want to go on a Pinterest board. This can facilitate a lot of discussion between you and your friends, potentially spawning a real trip. It can also be inspirational and motivational to get you to finally go.

TIP: Create a “Places I’ve Been” board and move places of your wish list to the places you’ve been as you check them off your list.

#3 – Home Decorating Ideas

How can you make your home look even better than it does now? People who sit down and try to design how a home should look often hit a kind of block. The creative juices just don’t flow.

Instead, you can just pin images of beautiful designs and beautiful homes as you go about your daily life. Once you’re ready to start decorating your home, you’ll already have a whole reference library of ideas that you think look great.

#4 – Gift Ideas

There are numerous ways you can use Pinterest for your gift ideas, depending on the occasion and/or recipient. Here are a couple ideas to get you started.

First, you can use it as a gift registry. For birthdays or for weddings, just use Pinterest to save ideas for things you’d like other people to buy for you. Smart, eh?

You can also use Pinterest as a running bank of gift ideas. When it’s someone’s birthday or when Christmas rolls around, just open up your gift registry and you’ll be able to instantly come up with gift ideas.

If you need input on a group gift or from the gift recipient, ask them to collaborate on your board. Let others in on the fun and come up with a great gift ideas.

#5 – Skills to Learn

What are some of the skills you want to learn? Use Pinterest to help motivate yourself and your friends to get involved with more activities.

If you’ve always wanted to learn public speaking, pin up a few images of great speakers. If you’ve always wanted to learn Salsa, pin up a few passionate dance photos. If you want to get inspired to decorate your child’s birthday cake in a fun new way, pin some ideas.

This will help get yourself moving towards learning those skills; as well as tell your friends what you’re interested in. You might find yourself a learning partner! You can also use Pinterest to share pictures of your home office, parties you host or attend, and much more…

#6 – Show Your Art

Do you do some sort of art? Pinterest is the perfect place to share it.

Whether you make earrings or paint, whether you just draw for fun or are an amateur photgrapher, Pinterest is a fantastic way to put your art out into the world and share it with all your Pinterest friends and the rest of their members.

Think of it as your own little portfolio to inspire and get your artwork shared.

#7 – Pictures of Your Kids

Every parent loves to talk about and show off their kids. Pinterest is a great place to do it. You can create Pinterest boards of your kids in a number of different ways.

You could create a Pinterest board with a picture of your child taken once a month, so you can watch your child grow up over time.

Or create Pinterest boards with your child in a different place in each photo. You can even share pictures of their art and special projects.

There are so many ways to have fun with this and get the family involved too.

#8 – Share Your Office

What do you do professionally? A lot of people who know you personally would be curious about what it’s really like where you work, no matter where you work.

What does the office of an accountant look like? What does a CEO’s office view look like from their window? What does a Starbucks back room look like? What does a refrigerator factory look like from the inside?

No matter what kind of work you do, chances are there are people you know who’ll find it really interesting to see what it’s really like. Share some photos of what your workplace really looks like.

#9 – Event Pictures

Pinterest is a great way to share photos of events, parties and gatherings. With Facebook, only friends can see the photos. Also, people need to be tagged before they’ll notice most photos.

On Pinterest, the photos are open to all the world to see. People following you will have the event’s photos appear in their feeds.

You can have collaborators on your event’s boards, so everyone with a camera can upload and pin the photos they took at the event.

#10 – Your Life Vision

The idea of vision boards exploded with the release of the movie “The Secret.” The movie talks about how having a board where you put all your dreams and goals can help move you closer and closer towards your vision.

Ask yourself: Where do you want to be in your life in terms of your health, your career and your relationships? Pin up inspiring photos of each of these different areas of your life.

These are ten different ways you can use Pinterest in your personal life. Using Pinterest, you can share your life with others, inspire yourself, communicate ideas, post reminders and more.

Pin It…It’s Your Board!

There’s no right or wrong approach to Pinterest, so have fun with it. Share what you love, what inspires you or makes you laugh. And be sure to check out Lisa Suttora’s excellent training to get started quickly with Pinterest.

Ellen Britt, founder of Marketing Qi, is a savvy businesswoman with a very big heart. When I spoke for the first time at an Internet marketing conference in 2008, she was one of less than fifty people who made sure to hear me speak – even though it was at nine o’clock on a Sunday morning! Ellen was already well established online by that time, and we became fast friends. I have also learned much from her during these past few years on how to build a business that serves my lifestyle.

Ellen is also a leader in the areas of list building and telesummits, and her training with this has helped to build the businesses of hundreds of people from a variety of diverse backgrounds and niches. We discuss this, as well as how she got started online after working in the medical field for many years, in this informative interview. We also talk about her newsletter and her conscious decision to include some personal information in every issue. I know you will find Ellen to be a rare gem who shares her ‘Marketing Qi (pronounced ‘chee’) in a way that you can put into practice right away.

This is a guest post from Peggy Baron:

It’s kind of a no-brainer, but in order to get all SEO-ey on your blog content, you’ve first got to have content. I mean, you can’t put traffic and conversion tactics to work if you don’t have any material on your blog to work with, right?

Now I know you know there are different ways to deliver your content – the written word, videos, podcasts, big infographics, etc. – and those are all good.

But let’s go a little deeper here with one of these methods; the written kind, because that’s the one you’ll probably post most often.

To begin with, you have choices as to who actually does the content writing:

• you
• guest poster – excellent way to have others add their expertise and send their traffic
• paid blogger – when you get big, you can hire a team of bloggers
• you
• PLR – rewrite it for maximum advantage
• ghostwriter – find one that knows your topic and doesn’t charge too much
• you
• EzineArticles – Tip: You can’t change the article you use from them but you can add an intro before and a conclusion after the article with your keywords.

If you’re like the majority of bloggers, it will most likely be you doing the writing. Here’s a logical process that can help you get maximum bang for your efforts:

1. Start with the purpose of your post by deciding what end action you want your reader to take.

The action you want them to take might be to:

• buy your product
• buy an affiliate product
• opt-in for something (to build your list)
• download a free report (that has your product links or affiliate links in it)
• read another post (internal linking)
• tweet, like, 1+, etc. (go viral and get your brand everywhere)
• other

2. Now decide which form you want your post to take while keeping your end action in mind:

• pillar post with lots of meat that others will link to
• pre-sell a product or affiliate product
• case study to show your results or another’s results
• curated news regarding the latest trends in your industry
• newsy update of what you’ve been working on
• bulleted list of tips, mistakes or steps and yes, these still work
• rant about what’s wrong and what’s a better alternative
• other

Are you wondering if your blog content should be short? Long? Lots of graphics or screenshots? Quotes? These questions usually work themselves out as you write the post. Make it just as long as it needs to be and add graphics sparingly where they seem to make the most sense.

Tip: You can find quotes at www.quotegarden.com

3. Start with an outline. Yes, it’s only a blog post and not an epic novel, but you want it to make sense; have a beginning, middle and end, with the end already predetermined by you (see #1 above). That way it doesn’t wander all over the place and cause your reader to wander right out of there before they even get to the end.

The big plus is that outlining really helps you get your article written faster! Once you figure out what information you want to impart, it’s a matter of filling in the blanks.

In case you’re wondering, I did start with an outline of sorts for this post.

Tip: What makes writing your posts even easier is to use an Easy Article Starter. It’s better than an outline.

4.  Write the post paying close attention to creating a compelling title. Be sure to add your keywords in the title and body. The introduction is where you capture your readers’ attention so this is not the time to be boring. You can introduce and illustrate the problem you’re going to be talking about in the body.

The conclusion is important too, because you’re going to lead them to your call to action – the one you came up with in the beginning, the reason why you’re even writing the blog post.

5. Add graphics, internal links, affiliate links, etc. Don’t be shy! It’s perfectly okay to add affiliate links to an informative post. It’s very natural to put them in when you’re explaining how to do something. You’re being helpful and letting your readers know where to go, via your affiliate link, if they want to get further information.

6. Promote the heck out of it via your email list and social media, and perhaps do some blog commenting on blogs that use ComLuv to get eyeballs over to your blog. Heck, you can even call your mother and let her know too. If she’s like mine, she won’t really understand but she’ll be glad you’re doing “work” of some sort.

7. Repurpose your blog content. There are so many ways to do this, so I’ll just mention a few:

• Put all your blog posts together on a similar topic and turn them into a report or ebook.
• Post it in the Articles sub-forum on the Warrior Forum.
• Rework it and put in EzineArticles directory.
• Expand on it and make it part of a membership program.
• Send it to one of your lists in the form of an email.
• Do a PowerPoint to go with it and turn it into a video.

The more content you have on your site, the more you can work the SEO magic and get the traffic you need. With more traffic you can begin to make the sales and affiliate sales you’ve been wanting. Now go forth and write!

~~~

Peggy Baron has been helping others online with their content needs since 2008. When she’s not busy embarrassing her teenagers in front of their friends, she’s writing high quality content at allstarplr.com and most recently her innovative Easy Article Starters which help bloggers get unique posts done quickly and with a lot less pain.

Denise Wakeman was one of the first people I started learning from when I came online in 2006, and I credit her with much of my early success. Starting online in the late 90s, Denise has gone on to work with entrepreneurs and small business owners worldwide to help them ‘be seen everywhere’ on the web. Today she is recognized as a thought leader in the areas of blogging and online visibility.

In this interview we discuss how blogging came to be such an important part of doing business online, the use of various blogging platforms, and how increasing your visibility will increase your bottom line. Denise is generous with her information and wisdom as she explains how and why we need to be blogging and getting our name and message out to the world. You will want to sign up for her complimentary E-Course on how you can boost your visibility on the web to get started today.

Recently I was involved in a debate over the pros and cons of having people double opt in, also known as a confirmed optin, versus using the single optin method. I’ve thought about this quite a bit over the five years I have been working online, and decided to share the implications of this with you. Please read through to the end and then leave a comment to let me know which method you are using and why you prefer that particular one over the other.

This is the situation in a nutshell:

When someone visits your blog or other site your goal is to have them join your list. This is referred to as having someone opt in to your permission based list. The question that then arises is whether or not to have them confirm their name and email address, known as the double optin method, or to simply allow them to opt in without doing any further confirmation. There are arguments for and against each of these marketing methods.

With the confirmed optin your prospects must then check their email to find the message that allows them to confirm that they have indeed requested to join your list. They click on the link embedded within this email message and are then take to another page that thanks them for confirming and tells them to go back to their email account to await the next message. There are some variations with how this all can be set up, but this is the most common way I have seen it done.

The problem arises when someone forgets to check their email, or simply cannot check it because they are away from their computer or otherwise engaged. As time passes this particular email message moves further down the list, and many times your prospect will completely forget they ever signed up at your site. Another problem is that many of these messages go straight into the spam or junk folders, never to be seen again. Either way the result is the same; your prospect is not on your list and you may never see them again.

The other method allows visitors to sign up to request your information and adds them to your list. When they check their email account at a later point in time they will begin to receive regular messages from your autoresponders and broadcasts you are sending out to them. They still may miss some of these messages from time to time, but overall they will soon realize that you are writing to them.

The drawbacks with this system are that you will have difficulty moving your list to another company, should you choose to do so in the future. I have been with my same service for six years and do not foresee making any changes in the next few years. Also, someone may opt in using someone else’s name and email address, either as a prank or a joke. That has never happened to me in all these years, but it could happen and would definitely make someone very upset.

Ultimately, I believe that the single opt in system is best. You do not lose any prospects for the reasons I have mentioned here, and your list will grow much faster. You must ultimately make your own decision about this.

What are your thoughts on this topic?

David Perdew is the founder and creator of the NAMS – Niche Affiliate Marketing Systems – event held twice a year in Atlanta. This has now become a special part of my life, so it made sense for me to interview David on how this all began. We discuss his background as a corporate consultant, and how that led to him wanting to create an educational event for new and intermediate online entrepreneurs. David shares his philosophy of how to create an event that helps so many people to achieve their online business goals.

I’ve been a part of the faculty at NAMS for less than a year, and I already see the results my students are having in their Internet businesses. We’d love to have you as a part of this group as well. The NAMS forum is the right place to start. Be sure to look for me there so I can connect with you and introduce you to the people that will make a difference in your life and in your business.

Exactly five years ago I challenged myself to write one hundred articles in one hundred days. I did this because I had come online the year before and soon realized that I would need to do lots of writing in order to be successful with my new business venture. I had been writing during that first year, but it was sporadic and the quality was quite mediocre. I needed to kick it up a notch so that the writing would come more easily and I could get my message out to the world. That’s when I decided to challenge myself. It didn’t take me a hundred days to write those 100 articles; they were all written and published by the end of 78 days. It was a wonderful feeling and I credit that self-imposed challenge with turning me into a writer.

Article marketing has been very good to me over these last five years. I now have more than sixteen hundred articles published on the major article directories, which has built my list with targeted prospects and given my sites a higher ranking on Google and the other search engines. I have also repurposed this content into a variety of formats, including short reports, audio recordings, and several books, both paperback and on Kindle.

I teach a very simple method for writing articles that get results. I call this technique the 5 Paragraph Model™ and you can read about how to do it in this post I wrote on article marketing strategies. It works for me, as well as the hundreds of people who have now gone through my training on this topic.

To celebrate my five years of article writing and marketing I am challenging myself to write another hundred articles over the next three months. I find that these challenges are always an excellent way to get everyone involved. Will you join me for this challenge? How may I help you to write more articles that will build your online business quickly?

I first connected with Dennis Becker in the summer of 2010. One of my students had found him online and was promoting his Five Bucks A Day training. This sounded intriguing to me so I purchased it to learn more. The training was excellent, and that summer I first learned the idea of earning 1K a day, something I had never given any thought to before.

Dennis and I talk about how he got started online, his business before he went online, and how he comes up with new ideas for products and trainings. We also discuss how he came to start his hugely successful 1K A Day forum. I’ve been a member here for more than a year and can tell you that if you need extensive training and access to joint ventures this is the place to be. You can get started for just a few dollars to see how you like it, and I promise you won’t be disappointed. I’m sure you’ll enjoy getting to know this amazing man when you listen to the podcast recording.

When I made the decision to come online and start a business at the end of 2005, my goal was to replace the income I was currently earning by working as a classroom teacher and real estate appraiser. Was I thinking too small? No, because at that time I could not envision ever making more money than I already made. When I actually started doing business in 2006 I played at the level that was comfortable for me. I struggled that first year because I believed that was a necessary part of the process.

By 2007 I saw the possibilities of taking this business to a much higher level, and that’s when I became aware that I was definitely playing too small. I decided to change the way I was doing business by surrounding myself with the right people, the right training, and the right mindset for where I was and where I wanted to go. This led to my search for the right person or group to connect with. I’m still a part of one group that consists of people doing business online, either exclusively or as a part of their offline business.

I also meet with a small group of business people on a regular basis in what is called a Mastermind. We have met informally for about two years now, and many of the ideas I have for new products and other aspects of my business have originated in these meetings. If you do not have a Mastermind group already I would encourage you to form one.

I no longer ‘play small’. I have a mission and a vision for my business that is definitely way out of my comfort zone. Each time I fear what may be ahead I find the courage to do it anyway. This is what we are referring to when we speak of mastering your ‘Inner Game‘. Pushing through my fears has been a way for me to grow as a person, apart from my business. Everything is easier and more joyous these days.

What about you? Are you playing the game of life too small? What do you need that will make it all come together for you?

This week I spoke with Lynette Chandler, the technical expert and marketer from TechBasedMarketing.com. Lynette has been the ‘behind the scenes’ technology wizard for many people over the past several years, and is also gaining recognition as someone who teaches technology to those of us wanting to build our online businesses by doing at least some of the tech work ourselves.

I was first aware of Lynette back in 2009 when she created a plugin to allow us to have an affiliate RSS feed in our blog’s sidebar to recommend someone else’s products. I still use that plugin on this site (scroll down to where it says ‘My Favorite PLR’) and since then I’ve been hooked on learning from Lynette. This RSS Brander plugin has earned me lots of residual income over the past year.

During this podcast we talk about how she got started, her first mentor, and how she is able to come up with solutions to technology issues that make sense for everyone. Be sure to download her Blogging Calendar here, and find out more about the technology training courses she teaches online.

A mentor is described as a trusted guide or advisor who is sometimes older but always more experienced, and is willing to help another individual develop his or her knowledge and skills. The history of this dates back to the days of Homer’s Odyssey. Odysseus’ friend was named Mentor, and he went to Troy to teach his son, Telemachus. A mentor is a teacher, in the true sense of the word.

My very first business mentor was Raymond Aaron, whom I now consider to be one of my closest friends and allies on the Internet and in my life. He has always been confident in his own expertise, and brings as much commitment to our relationship as I do. Without this expert mentoring and guidance I would never have had the courage to change my life in the ways that bring me so much joy today. I now also have several people in my life whom I consider to be my business and personal mentors. I look up to them and continue to grow and change based on our interactions.

You most likely have already experienced the supportive feeling of having a mentor, even if it was not a formal relationship. Think of a person in your life who was encouraging to you, someone you looked up to and respected, or someone you aspired to be like. This may have been one or both of your parents, or the parent of a close friend. It could have been a teacher, a coach, or a supervisor or boss at your job. Mentors are special people who give us examples to model ourselves after, and many times, they are able to guide us specifically with a skill set we need in order to be successful.

So, what’s the difference between a mentor and a coach?

Coaching has been defined by the International Coach Federation to be “partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential.” This concept first began to take off in the 1990s. Coaches most often work independently from organizations and help individuals, teams in a workplace, or specific groups of people to improve their relationships and grow stronger. This is different from mentoring in that mentors are more likely to spend more quality time with individuals with whom they share a common bond or goal.

A coach, unlike a mentor, does not need to have specific expertise in the business or profession of the client. The coach uses prior experience and knowledge to encourage the client to understand that they have choices, and that they may choose how they will respond rather than react to their personal situations. When people have more choice, they feel ownership and power. With feelings of ownership and power, they have more energy to move themselves forward towards their goals in ways that also honor their values and uniqueness. I consider what I do online to be mentoring, but it’s actually a combination of these two ideas.

Great mentors and coaches help others achieve their goals, practice the skills required to advance in their business and their life, to increase their self-awareness, and to create great lives overall. Both relationships are incredibly valuable, and although their focus is different, anyone would be lucky to experience the best of both worlds.

Who is your mentor?

Jason Fladlien has been online for about ten years now, and I must say that he is one of the foremost thought leaders in the areas of product creation, software development, and information marketing. Last year he formed a new business with Wilson Mattos, someone else I have great respect for online and off. I see this as the perfect partnership between two people who are helping others to build profitable online businesses.

In this podcast we talk about how Jason got started as an Internet marketer, how he is so prolific with his writing and product creation, and the ‘top secret’ project he and Wil are working on that will be revealed this spring. All I know is that it will address the ongoing issue of how to get our emails delivered to our list, and that is huge! I know you will enjoy learning more about online marketing from Jason.

One of my favorite products from Jason and Wil is one on measuring the results of your SEO efforts. It’s a WordPress plugin to let you know if your SEO is correct on your sites. Take a look and watch the short video to see if this is for you at Measure Your SEO. They are also experts at doing webinars to promote their own and affiliate products. I’ve learned so much from their Webinar Pitch Secrets training.

Welcome to the 21 Day Productivity Challenge for 2012. This is a continuation of the challenge I did in 2011, and this time it is meant for the advanced beginner or intermediate online marketer. If you are still at the very beginning of getting your online business started, take a look at the 21 Days of Productivity I did in 2011 to see if that is more suitable for your needs right now. You can listen to the teleseminar I did to launch this challenge here.

Each day, for the next 21 days, I will add to this post to get you moving in the direction of credibility, visibility, and profitability.  This will require hard work and dedication on your part. Building a business is not easy, but it is based on simple steps that almost anyone can follow. Be sure to always ask yourself if the activities you are involved with are moving you closer to your goals, further away, or keeping you right where you are in your business.

Day 1 – Take a look at the book list I have prepared. Start reading the first book on the list, The 10X Rule: The Only Difference Between Success and Failure by Grant Cardone, and take notes on what you are reading. I have found that reading business and marketing books by authors who are wildly successful has helped me to see things from a new perspective. You will be reading these books over the next few months. Continue to read a new book each week for the remainder of 2012.

Write a review of this first book – The 10X Rule by Grant Cardone – on your main blog after you have finished reading it.

Update your Facebook status by talking about the book, and use your affiliate link to recommend it to your Facebook friends and subscribers.

Look at the stats from your main blog (Google Analytics is best for this) to see how much traffic you are getting and where it is coming from. You can only improve what you have measured.

Leave a comment on this post to state your intention to take part in this 21 Day Productivity Challenge, including a link to your blog so that we may take a look.

Day 2 – Make sure you have left a comment here to indicate your intent to be a part of the challenge. Being able to follow a simple instruction is crucial to your success.

Make a list of at least 5 people who are thought leaders in your niche. These could be authors, speakers, or others people think of and look up to when thinking about your niche topic. Make sure you are on each person’s list. See what you have purchased from them that has been helpful to you. Reach out to the one person on your list who has taught you the most by connecting with them on social media or sending them a letter to acknowledge them for helping you. It’s a good idea to start doing this regularly to get yourself into the habit of thinking ahead to possible JVs (joint ventures) and other business ventures for the future. For example, Ryan Deiss is someone I have followed from the very beginning. If you are involved with Internet marketing at all, he is someone you will want to know. I made the effort to connect with him and this has made a huge difference in my bottom line. (You can pick up Ryan’s Special Report here.)

Write two articles on your topic and submit them to one of the article directories. You will be using these articles in the next few days to create a short report.

Send an email to your list that includes a link to one of your products or to an affiliate product.

Day 3 – Schedule a free teleseminar to connect with your target market. Allowing people to hear your voice is the next best thing to meeting them in person. Without exception, all of my students who are now at six figures a year and more started hosting their own calls and experienced huge results. I use the Instant Teleseminar service for this so that my files are all hosted by them.

Write a blog post using a keyword-rich phrase in the title. Make sure this post will appear on your Facebook wall by connecting with the Networked Blogs application there. Also, make sure you have your blog set up to tweet your posts. This type of automation saves your time and extends your reach.

Make an outline for a $97 product or course you can create during this 21 Day Challenge. This should be one that will be evergreen so that you may sell it for the next several years.

We repurpose everything we write or say to make our content creation pay off in a BIG way.

Visit the blogs of those who have left a comment here. This is an excellent way to connect with other people who are taking action to build their online businesses. Leave a comment on one of their posts and join their list if their topic is of interest to you.

Join Stumble Upon (stumbleupon.com). We will be using this site to reach even more people.

Day 4 – Choose a paid forum where you will connect with like-minded people. This has been extremely helpful, and I continue to be a part of three paid forums. The one I recommend to all of my coaching students is the Earn 1K A Day forum founded by Dennis Becker. I have seen more JVs and other opportunities here than in any forum, and Dennis also gives us so many courses and products to download on a regular basis.

Find at least five other blogs in your niche and connect with the owners. Leave a comment on each one and make sure the blog owner knows who you are. In a few days you will be contacting them to ask about writing and receiving guest blog posts. This is an excellent way to drive targeted traffic to your site to build your list.

Write an article and submit it to the article directories. You will use this article, along with the ones you wrote on Day 2 to create a short report tomorrow.

Find three affiliate products that you will promote in your short report. Make sure to check your links to see that they go where you have intended.

Day 5 – Today you’re going to write your short report. I write one of these at least once a month, and they serve as the basis for my marketing funnel. Use the articles you have written since starting this Productivity Challenge to get started with your report. I write everything in Word, so begin by doing a copy/paste of what you have written. You can also use PLR (private label rights) for this. I buy much of my PLR from Nicole Dean’s site and also from Melissa Ingold because of the consistently high quality of the writing. Another technique to write your short reports more quickly is to search for articles written by the people whose products you are recommending. Here is an example of one of the short reports I wrote recently in this way.

Before you get started with this, think about the two or three products, either your own or affiliate products, that you will be promoting here. The idea is to write about a specific area of your niche that your target audience is interested in learning more about. The more detailed and specific your report, the better it will work to increase your visibility, credibility, and profitability over time.

The goal is to write a short report that is approximately seven to fifteen pages in length. Use a Sans Serif font, size 11, for the body of the report and size 12 or 14 for the subheadings. Spend as much time as you need with this is order to create a report that represents you well to your prospects and clients. You want people to be ‘wowed’ by what you are giving away for free so that they will have complete confidence in your paid products.

You may also want to take a look at my complete training on how to write short reports.

Upload your report to your server using a free FTP (file transfer protocol) program such as FileZilla. Rename the file so that it isn’t too long.
Tomorrow you will start distributing your report everywhere.

Day 6 – Today’s the day to promote and share your short report. I am able to do this easily by sending my reports out to my list. If list building is something you’ve been meaning to do more of, please join the List Building Challenge to get going quickly for just a few dollars.

Here are the other ways to get the word out about your report:

~Talk about it on social media and include a direct download link
~Write a blog post on your topic and include the download link
~Use StumbleUpon.com to share your blog post (Please do that for this post as well – thanks!)
~Leave a comment here and tell us where your blog post is – give us the permalink to the post – and we’ll all Stumble it for you
~Start an account at Scribd.com and upload your report there
~Visit your favorite paid forum and change your signature line to include a place where someone can access your report
~Ask 3 people you are connected with online to share your report with their lists (you meet these people via social media, forums, and live events)
~Ask your online connections to include your report as a bonus for their next product
~Include your report as a bonus for your next product
~Host a teleseminar (invite your social media connections) and give away your report during the call
~Record a 30 second CinchCast and include a link to your report (go to Cinch.fm to get started)
~Set up a new optin page and use your report as the free giveaway
~Write an article, submit it to the article directories, and add a link to your report in the Resource Box

What other suggestions do you have for distributing your short reports?

Day 7 – Today I’d like for you to Google your name in quotes (like “connie ragen green”) to see what others will find when they search for you online. This is now a common practice for those who need information on us before doing business further with us. The very first time, that I am aware of, that I was Googled was when I purchased my home in 2006. The mortgage company wanted to make sure what I was telling them was congruent with my online information. Today this is commonplace. You want to make sure that you are seen in the light that you intend. Your reputation and good name are invaluable to your success.

Have you finished reading the first book on the Productivity Book List? It’s time to move on to another book as soon as possible. I hope you are understanding the benefits of reading a business book each day for thirty minutes or so. It will help to expand your thinking and get your mind ready for innovation and productive action.

Today we’re going back to the outline you started creating for your $97 product. Start with your original idea to create something that your target market wants from you. Remember that once you have mastered something that you’ve made even a few hundred dollars from you can expand upon it and teach it to others to earn six figures and more. I’ve done this in many areas, including article marketing, marketing for small businesses, affiliate marketing, setting up mini-sites, and more. Choose just one area where you’ve had some success and put together a product to share your knowledge with others.

Complete your outline so that you’ll know every point you want to include in your product. You may need to do some research to find out more information. You’ll be starting with an audio or webinar product to keep it simple. This can always be expanded upon in the future. My product during this time will be a webinar training on how to install and set up the Clickbank Press plugin. Right now I’m completing my outline to include every detail of what I want to teach during the one hour webinar. Don’t overthink this process. Choose an area where you are knowledgeable and confident.

You can do it – I believe in you!

Day 8 – Today I want you to think more long-term about your business. I honestly believe that you can do business on the Internet for the remainder of your working life. This will enable you to live the life you choose, while still earning an excellent living and having the ability to make a difference in other people’s lives. One of the ways I have skyrocketed my success is by building strong relationships with others.

On Day 2 of this Productivity Challenge you made a list of the thought leaders in your niche. You connected with one of these people at that time. Now I want you to connect with 5 to 10 people who are successful and have a similar belief system. Choose two ways to contact each person. This can be done with email, snail mail, by phone, on social media, by leaving a comment on their blog, or by attending an event where they will be. Be creative with this.

Doing this took me far out of my comfort zone during my first couple of years online, but once I started making it a part of my marketing plan it felt good to connect with others. You want to ask these people from your list if you may interview them. Make the initial contact and then lead up to asking them for the interview. You will find that most people are open to being interviewed in this way. Be professional and remember that everyone can remember being new to this business at some point in the past.

Set up the interviews and leave a comment here to tell us how it is going. We are all here to help each other.

Email your list with an offer. People will unsubscribe each time you send out an email, so get used to it early on.

Post to your blog using a keyword-rich title.

Look over your product outline to see if you want to change or add anything.

Day 9 – Today is all about creating your product. Keep it simple by creating something using audio and video. You may also want to write, but keep that to a minimum to save time. Your prospect is looking for information they can consume quickly.

My product is a short webinar on how to install and set up the CB Press plugin to create a Marketplace on WordPress sites. I have decided to charge $97 for this if they already have the plugin, and $47 if they purchase the plugin through my affiliate link. I need help creating my product so I have reached out to others who are more knowledgeable than I am in this area.

I have also decided to give as a bonus one of my affiliate marketing reports. You want your bonus to be something that makes sense for the product you are creating. The bonus you offer can be from someone else or even be PLR. Keep this as simple as possible.

Spend as much time as you need to create your product today. It will be hard work that you’ll be rewarded for in the future.

Day 10 – Now it’s time to write the sales letter for your product. Don’t be intimidated by this part of the process. Start slowly by writing a few headlines and bullet points. Hopefully, you’ve already started a swipe file of the sales letters that have compelled you to buy products and services online. Look through those as you write this sales letter, being careful not to copy any of it, but just to get some ideas. Here is an excellent example of a sales letter from copywriter Geoff Hoff.

Write a few bullet points that tell the benefits of what you will be selling. Features tell what a product is; benefits tell what it does. We buy benefits, not features, so make sure you understand the difference between the two.

Include your story in the sales copy to connect further with your target audience. We all like to know who we are buying from and why they created the product.

Ask people who have previously purchased from you or worked with you to give you a testimonial that you can feature in your sales letter. If you are brand new to the business use quotes from well-known people that relate to your topic.

Writing web sales copy gets easier over time; the most important thing is to get started so you’ll have something to improve upon.

When you are finished let it sit for at least one full day before going back to reread and make changes.

Day 11 – It’s back to reading and writing today. These are the most valuable activities you will be engaged in, so make sure you are giving them the time they deserve. Go back to the Productivity Book List and choose another book to start reading. Hopefully by now you are seeing the value in this activity.

Write a blog post about what you have learned by going through this challenge and trackback to this post. When I see that come through I will visit your blog and leave a comment. Go over to StumbleUpon and stumble this post. I’ll do the same for yours. Collaboration and building relationships will enable you to grow your business exponentially faster than if you attempt to do it alone. Embrace the idea of connecting with others for everyone’s benefit.

Day 12 – Take a look at your new product and your sales letter for that product. Today is the day for you to make any necessary changes. By giving yourself at least a day to ‘sleep’ on what you have created you will be much more objective when you go through it today.

Start writing the email messages you will use to promote this new product in the coming days. Also write some autoresponder messages for those who purchase from you. The purchase is the beginning of a whole new relationship with your clients and you want to make sure they know that you are there for them.

Write an article and submit it to the article directories. If you are writing at least 8 articles each month at this point sign up for the paid article distribution service I have been using since 2008 – Submit Your Article.

Day 13 – Today let’s revisit my 5 Pronged Approach™, upon which I have built the blueprint for my online success. This approach includes:

1. Blogging – Your blog is your ‘home’ on the Internet, so make sure you are posting regularly and have an opt-in form in the upper right-hand corner. You also want to include your picture and write something about yourself so that people know exactly who they are learning from when they visit your site. Blogging increases your visibility.
2. Article Marketing – This is how to reach out to the world to build your credibility and expertise in your niche topic. You can take a look at my articles here.
3. Teleseminars – Allowing others to hear your voice is the next best thing to meeting them in person. I hosted free weekly teleseminars for 18 months, and continue to do this twice a month now. This is the teleseminar service I recommend.
4. Social Media – This did not exist when I was starting out in 2006. Now you have the opportunity to reach people around the world very easily. I use social media to build my brand and to allow others to peek inside of my world from time to time.
5. Affiliate Marketing – Even if you have already started to create your own products, you will most likely never have enough products to build your business to the level you would like. I am now considered to be a ‘super affiliate’ in the areas of Internet marketing and information marketing. I only recommend what I use and love, and this continues to account for about 50% of my income. I have an affiliate marketing training course if you would like to know more.

I have found that my students who engage in each of these activities each week are the most successful in the shortest amount of time. If you leave out even one prong your foundation may come crashing down around you. Take a close look at what you are doing each week to see where you have room for improvement.

Day 14 – Today is a work day. Write a blog post, turn it into an article, start a new short report, schedule a teleseminar, send an email to your list, spend 15 minutes on social media, contact three people you can interview, and find one new affiliate product to promote. This used to take me weeks to accomplish, but now I can do it in a four hour workday. See how long it takes you so you can get an idea of how productive you really are. The idea is to increase your output to allow time for more creative thinking. That’s the key to increasing your income steadily over time.

Day 15 – Let’s take a look at the most important activities you engage in every week and see how we can increase their effectiveness:

Your Blog – Make sure you are using these plugins – WordPress SEO by Yoast, Google Analytics, for WordPress Robots Meta, and Broken Link Checker to turn your site into one that will get the attention of the search engines and give you lots of options. Take a look at your categories to see that they are keyword-rich.
Articles – Be sure to use keyword-rich titles for each of your articles so they’ll work for you in the search engines, take a look at your Resource Box to make sure the information is updated and accurate
Social Media – use the same picture on all sites so you’ll begin to brand yourself and be recognizable, update your profiles
Teleseminars – use the same domain to go to your most recent call, like I do with Ask Connie Anything, archive all of your previous calls, consider using a membership site to provide access to previous recordings

Day 16 – Let’s talk about eBooks. When I was first online in 2006 eBooks were very popular. During 2007 and 2008 I helped people to write and market their eBooks based on my experience helping hundreds of young people write while I was a public school teacher. Then I moved on to teaching Internet marketing in general and eBooks began to fade away.

In 2011 this all changed, as more and more people began writing eBooks and selling them on both their own websites and on Amazon, either in paperback, for the Kindle, or both. Even I have quite a few books available online on a variety of topics. My recommendation is that you spend the time to learn to write and market your own eBooks for residual income in the years to come. The very best training on this subject is from my friend Jim Edwards. At the beginning of 2012 he released the all new 2.0 version of his 7 Day eBook program for only $29. This deserves your time and investment as you build your online marketing empire. This skill will make it possible for you to always have content to repurpose and products to sell on the Internet.

Day 17 – The two magic words for today are Guest Blogging! This is the most powerful way to connect with others and drive quality traffic to your blog. Find 10 bloggers who blog about a topic closely related to yours. Contact them to see if they are interested in exchanging one or two posts with you. Each person writes posts for the other that will appear at some point in the future. This works especially well if you are going to be away and still want quality posts to appear for your readers. Each person picks up new readers and forms a relationship with the other person. Nicole Dean wrote an excellent and inexpensive guide on guest blogging that I highly recommend if you’re ready to jump in with this marketing strategy.

Day 18 – Are you still reading for 30 minutes each day? This practice has given me an education in business and will make everything you do in your online business make more sense in the long run. The reading list for this challenge is here.

Let’s talk about traffic. You must have a steady stream of prospects visiting your blog and optin pages every day. I drive targeted traffic using article marketing, SEO (search engine optimization), short reports, teleseminars, podcasts, and publishing books on Kindle. Take a closer look at what you are doing on a regular basis to drive traffic to your sites, and add something new from my list as part of this challenge.

Day 19 – Today I’d like for you to daydream. That’s right; spend time all day today thinking about your vision for the business you are creating on the Internet. We all get so caught up with all of the tasks and activities that need to be accomplished before we can go to sleep at night, we seem to forget that the idea for our business usually started out with a dream.

My dream was to be able to work from home and earn just as must income as I did by working at two jobs and being away from home 12 to 14 hours each day, six or seven days a week. Over time that dream expanded to include being able to get involved with charities, to travel the world, and to write books. What is your dream?

Make some notes, journal, or draw pictures if that helps you to remember exactly why you made the decision to start an online business in the first place. Share your dream in a comment here so that we can enjoy your thoughts and goals. Tomorrow and the next day, our last two days of this challenge, will be the days for turning your dreams into a plan that will help you to make this a reality sooner than you ever thought possible.

Day 20 – Now it’s time to get back to the work of building your business as an entrepreneur. Make sure that you have at least five pages online where your prospects can opt in to your permission based list. Set these up using WordPress, or have your tech person do it for you. Create short reports as free giveaways for these sites. Combine the short reports into eBooks to sell online and books to sell on Amazon and Kindle.

Be visible. This means that your target market needs to see you everywhere, including other people’s blogs, social media groups, at live events, in the article directories, and in the search engines. I’ll share more about this tomorrow. For now, Google yourself again and see where you currently stand for your name and for your primary keywords.

The competition is stiffer than ever as we move forward on the Internet. You must stand out and let others know who you are and what you have to add to the ongoing conversation in your niche market.

Day 21 – On this final day of the challenge I’d like for you to make a schedule for yourself of what you’d like to accomplish over the next 30 days. You are the only one who knows how many hours each week you are working on your business, and this schedule will help you to prioritize and plan out the activities you will engage in each day. My schedule includes:

~3 blog posts a week on my two main blogs
~2 podcast interviews each week
~social media interactions
~my free teleseminars
~my weekly webinar training for members of my program
~product creation
~PLR repurposing
~and much, much more

This way I know where I am, what I still need to do, and how long to schedule for working each day. My ‘prime time‘ is between 6:30 and 10 each morning, and my goal is to complete all of my writing and other pertinent tasks during that time.

I also keep a marketing calendar so I’ll know who and what I am recommending to my community on a regular basis.

I hope you will continue to work as productively as you have during this challenge. Be sure to leave a comment to let us know what you are working on and how we can help you to further achieve your goals.

Congratulations on all you have accomplished over the past 21 days! You may download this entire 21 Day Productivity Challenge as a PDF here.

This past weekend I attended the NAMS conference in Atlanta. This was my second time as an instructor for NAMS, and I have to say that it has become my favorite venue for a variety of reasons. If you have not been to this event you are most certainly missing out on an experience that can change your life forever.

The founder and creator of NAMS, which stands for Niche Affiliate Marketing System, is David Perdew. David first found out about me in the spring of 2011. He asked me to come aboard as an instructor, and wanted me to attend in August of 2011 so that we could get to know each other better. I thought this was an excellent idea. Instead of me jumping right in and teaching some of the workshops, I eased into this Internet marketing ‘family’ slowly and naturally over the four days I was there.

NAMS has four learning tracks, and over a three day period you are able to choose the classes and instructors that best serve your needs at that time. I attended a variety of sessions to learn more and to see how this event was set up. I had brought fifteen of my students with me in August, and we spent a full day together before the event started so that they could get to know each other and so we could discuss which sessions would be best for them to get the most possible out of their time in Atlanta.

Each morning the day begins with all of the attendees (about 350 in all this time) gathering in the large meeting hall. There is a keynote speech to inspire and motivate you each morning. This time I was the keynote speaker on Sunday. Being able to speak to this group about the struggles and challenges I have endured to get to where I am today was the opportunity of a lifetime.

The Monday after NAMS is a time for everyone to again gather, this time in the hotel’s restaurant. There were about seventy-five of us there this time, and we shared our memories of the weekend over breakfast.

NAMS has become a family for me, and I would love to see you there when we meet for NAMS 8 during August 3-5, 2012 in Atlanta. You can get connected with the people and the event by listening in on the weekly calls to see if this would make a difference in your business and your life. You can also get started with us in the member’s forum for a very reasonable investment. That’s where we mastermind and give our feedback on what will be happening with this event in the coming years.