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The Seven Right Reasons To Become An Entrepreneur

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The Right Reasons For You To Become An Entrepreneur

Successful entrepreneurship is one of the most desired lifestyles. When many people think of successful entrepreneurship, they think of the private jets, mansion of a house, and a booming business that brings in a ginormous amount of revenue. Although this is the ideal lifestyle to live, this lifestyle is hard to attain. It takes many years to reach that point, and there will be points in your journey when your entrepreneurial enthusiasm will be put to the test.

When individuals get put to the test, only the entrepreneurs who are committed for the right reasons are the ones who persevere, become successful, and maybe, just maybe get the private jet, mansion of a house, and a booming business. If you are an entrepreneur for any of these seven reasons (the more the better), then entrepreneurship is the right path for you to stick on.

 

#1: You Want To Solve A Problem

No matter how advanced our society is, it will still have its set of problems. Solving problems such as making an infinite amount of information available in one place (thanks Google) and making online videos easier and cooler to watch than ever before (thanks YouTube) is the blueprint to success.

Even if you solve smaller scale problems (providing people with new information that makes a process easier), you can still make a large income. Gary Keller’s book The ONE Thing did not solve a problem on the scale of Google or YouTube, but it still solved an important and common problem by empowering readers with the knowledge they need to become successful. If you can solve a problem and promote the solution so numerous people who need that solution are exposed to it, you sales will jump upwards.

 

#2: You Want To Serve Others

Life is not about serving yourself; it is about serving others. So is entrepreneurship. If you are so focused on serving yourself, you will forget to create an experience that also serves the customer. Amazon serves its customers by saving a trip to the store, and then another trip, and those trips to various stores add up. In addition, Amazon Prime Members get their orders delivered within two days. Amazon makes it easy to self-publish books and does a plethora of other things to serve its customers.

Jeff Bezos became a billionaire because of Amazon, and one of the primary reasons Amazon succeeded was because it focused on serving others. When Jeff Bezos had Amazon on his mind, he was thinking of serving his customers, not himself. Customers are not buying from Amazon because Jeff Bezos is a billionaire. When I buy something from Amazon, I’m not thinking, “Gotta do it for Jeff.” I’m thinking, “It beats driving to the store, there are so many options, and as an Amazon Prime member, I only have to wait two days to receive my order.” If a business serves the customer, then that customer will become a returning customer.

 

#3: You Want To Spread Your Message

You have a powerful message that you are proud of and want to share with the entire world. Spreading your message and going from no audience to being an authority in your niche is a challenging task. With that in mind, make sure the message you are spreading is a worthy one. It will take you many months and years to spread your message far and wide. Spreading your message may result in a full-time income, but the full-time income is simply a by-product. Spreading a worthy message, and getting people to believe in that message should be the two main goals. Money should not be driving your efforts.

 

#4: You Want To Change The World

If you want to change the world for the better with a product, service, or any other innovation, then entrepreneurship is the right path for you. If you want to change the world, then you need to think of a way to serve other people on a global scale. Amazon changed the world because it has served people from all around the world.

A business that serves people in a county, city, state/providence, or country only serves the people in those areas. To truly change the world, your business needs to impact anyone’s life, regardless of where that person is on the planet.

[tweetthis url=”http://bit.ly/1DBXvsV”]To truly change the world your business needs to impact anyone’s life regardless of where that person is on the planet[/tweetthis]

#5: You Have A Passion

Having a passion for what you do is the secret sauce to entrepreneurial success. The “crazy people” in society, the ones who stick with their ideas when the situation looks grim but still end up on top, are fueled by their passions.

Steve Jobs’ life and legacy was fueled by his passion for technology, even when he got fired from Apple. Bill Gates’ life and legacy have also been fueled by his passion for technology. Even when Traf-O-Data failed, Bill Gates founded Microsoft and took it very far. You will encounter obstacles throughout your journey. The amount of passion you have for what you do will determine how high you can jump over those obstacles.

 

#6: You Want To Be A Pilot Instead Of A Passenger

You are tired of watching others become successful as you continue to stay where you are, and you realize that now is your time to take action. You want to put in the hard work associated with being an entrepreneur. It is easier to look out of the window as a passenger than it is to land the plane as a pilot. It is easier to watch television and procrastinate time away than it is to put in the work required to become a successful entrepreneur.

If you make the switch from passenger to pilot, then you are committing yourself to the work it takes to become a successful entrepreneur. Making this commitment for the sake of your dreams is the most important step entrepreneurs ever make.

 

#7: You Want To Live A Fulfilling Life

You want to live a life that you will be proud of when you summarize your life during your final days. This is not exactly a life defined by how much money in your bank account. A fulfilling life is one where you control the hours you work, you only work on what you love, you make a strong income (by-product), and most importantly, you get to spend more time with your family. Many marriages start going south when partners spend long amounts of time away from each other and fail to help each other. It is important to serve your customers, but some people are even more important than your best customers who will buy everything that you put into the marketplace.

Although entrepreneurship initially takes up more time in your day, you always work under your own schedule. You can take breaks and be with your family at any given moment. If something bad happened between you and family members, you will have newfound time to patch things up. When you become successful as an entrepreneur, you will make money in your sleep, and your business will grow even if you take a four week vacation.

 

In Conclusion

Entrepreneurship is a desired life path because of the chance of great fortune, full flexibility over your time, and the ability to do what you love to do. However, the most successful entrepreneurs are the ones who continue for the right reasons.

I started my journey because I wanted to serve other people with valuable information. When I first started, that meant writing a blog about the Boston Red Sox. A few blogs later, I created this blog, and the purpose for this blog is to provide valuable content that serves others. Money was a by-product of the value I was already providing before I made any money at all.

Why did you become an entrepreneur? Why are you still an entrepreneur? Please share your entrepreneurial experiences below.

10 Ways To Come Up With More Blog Post Ideas

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How To Come Up With More Blog Post Ideas

 

What is your least favorite experience as a blogger? Maybe that least favorite experience is staring at the computer screen, struggling to think of what you will write your next blog post about. When I was new to blogging, this was not only my least favorite experience, but it was also too common.

Knowing that you have to write more blog posts but not being able to come up with the ideas is a frustrating point in the writing process. The number of times this frustration occurs and lasts is dependent on the actions we take to reduce the number of times this frustration occurs and create a better response to it. Here are 10 methods you can use to come up with more blog post ideas and respond better to writer’s block, therefore reducing your frustrations as a blogger at the same time.

 

#1: Look At What Other Experts In Your Niche Wrote About On Their Blogs

The internet gave us the power to access any type of information we want at a lightning fast speed. The days of driving (or walking) to the library to gather more information have come to an end.

However, few people utilize the information on the web to come up with more blog post ideas. Many people use the web to surf YouTube videos, conduct research for the school essay, or browse through Facebook.

In my opinion, one of the most underrated ways of using the web is to come up with more blog post ideas. I read the blogs of various people in my niche. Doing so allows me to learn more information about my niche, and some of the methods I read about in their blog posts spark ideas for the blog posts that I write. I will never advocate plagiarism for as long as I live (and I have been plagiarized, so I know what it feels like), but if you combine some ideas from other blog posts with your knowledge and unique content, you will come across more blog post ideas while writing unique content.

 

#2: Take Two (Or More)!

As you write more blog posts, you will start to get an idea of which of your blog posts are the most successful. Sometimes, a blog post emerges as a winner out of pure luck while at other times, your most successful blog posts all relate to one specific topic.

Regardless of what your most successful blog posts are, that is, the ones that gets the most traffic, those blog posts can strategically be used to keep people on your blog for a longer period of time. You can write a Part Two for one of your blog post that is already popular. Since the original blog post is popular, the Part Two will also get more attention. Think along the lines of The Dark Knight. The first movie was spectacular, so people came back and watched the second movie. Then, people liked the second movie and decided to watch the third one. If there is a fourth movie, I am sure it would get a big crowd.

After you write your Part Two blog post, promote that blog post at the bottom of the original blog post. At the end of Part Two, mention Part One. If you create a Part Three, promote the earlier parts at the end of that blog post. Part Two promotes one and three while Part One promotes two and three. Visitors who want to read through all three parts of that series will have to click all three links and read the content. Therefore, the visitors who read that one series will stay on your blog for a longer period of time. A creative idea would be to create an entire blog based on a series of blog posts. Groove HQ does this very well.

 

#3: Change The Title Of A Past Blog Post

The idea for your next blog post could be in a blog post that you already wrote. When I am stumped and struggling to think of new blog post ideas, I look at all of my past blog posts’ titles. The first reason I look back at all of these titles is because looking back has its set of rewards. The second reason I look back at all of these blog posts is because I can simply replace 1-2 words in a blog post title, add a word, or subtract a word, and then I would come up with a completely new blog idea.

Let’s say you have a blog post called “10 Ways To Get More Twitter Followers.” There are plenty of variations that can be applied to this one title:

  1. “25 Ways To Get More Twitter Followers”
  2. “10 Tips To Get More Pinterest Followers”
  3. “10 Ways To Get More Blog Subscribers”
  4. “10 Ways To Lose Twitter Followers”

“10 Ways To Get More Twitter Followers” is one of my core building blocks for blog post ideas. I simply change the wording of the title in a way that would change the blog post’s topic, and then I start writing that blog post. As you create more core building blocks, it gets easier to build on top of them. Another core building block I have is, “10 Twitter Mistakes You Should Avoid.” I can replace, add, or remove words in order to come up with a completely new blog post idea.

 

#4: Use Topsy

Topsy allows you to see any tweet on Twitter, and the tool does a nice job at organizing those tweets based on categories. You can search a niche-based keyword in Topsy, and then a series of tweets containing that keyword will show up. Some of those tweets can inspire new blog post ideas. Some of the tweets you read on Topsy may even become core building blocks for blog post ideas. Twitter’s search engine also works fine, but it is easier with Topsy’s search engine to get very specific (video content, tweet with a link, tweet without a link, etc).

 

#5: Create A Twitter List Of Influential People In Your Niche

Although Topsy is more specific than Twitter’s search engine, Twitter has a special, unique feature that still makes it a very valuable resource for coming up with more blog post ideas. Twitter allows you to create a list of users that display as your custom feed.

Let’s say you decided to put 20 people on your Twitter list. The only tweets that would appear on the custom feed would be from those 20 people, regardless of how many people you are following. You can create a custom list that consists of the leaders of your niche. Then, you can scroll through their tweets. One of those tweets could provide the sparks for your next blog post idea.

 

#6: See What People Are Asking On Yahoo! Answers

Getting customers to ask you questions and turning those questions into blog post ideas is one of the smartest way to write blog posts. You get to answer your customers’ questions while putting content on your blog that answers the same questions other people may have (but these people were either too afraid to ask or couldn’t communicate with you). If you can take this path with surveys, and you get enough questions in the comment section, then focus on that path instead of Yahoo! Answers. Regardless of how popular you are, it wouldn’t hurt to have some surveys on your blog and encourage visitors to ask questions.

However, most bloggers do not get enough traffic to be getting dozens of questions every day from survey responses, comments, or any other method. Most bloggers only get a few questions every month at the very most. For the bloggers who do not get as many customer questions, there is still a reliable place to see what questions your customers may have.

Yahoo! Answers is that solution. You can search niche-related keywords on Yahoo! Answers to see what types of questions your potential customers and visitors are asking. Then, write blog posts that answer the questions you saw on Yahoo! Answers. You can also answer some of the questions directly on Yahoo! Answers and promote your blog. Yahoo! Answers is one of the most visited websites on the entire web, and it would be good to have a backlink to your blog there.

 

#7: Look Through The Comments Of Popular Niche-Related Blog Posts

Looking through the comments of popular, niche-related blog posts on the web and your blog may expose some of the questions that your customers have. You may know the answers to the questions people are asking in the comments section.

The first thing you should do is answer that person’s question in the comments section. It is okay to answer someone’s question on another person’s blog. Some bloggers will be okay with it (some may even thank you for taking the time to write the answer) while others may decide to not publish your answer and then come up with their own response (this does not happen as often, and it’s bad ethic). Regardless of whether the comment gets published or not, you are making an attempt to serve the person who commented on that blog post. Serving others is one of the core values of successful entrepreneurs.

[tweetthis url=”http://bit.ly/1D41Qot”]Serving others is one of the core values of successful entrepreneurs.[/tweetthis]

The second thing you should do is write a blog post that answers the question. If one person had a question, chances are that other people have the same question. If you answer a question for one person and publish that answer in the form of a blog post, then you are answering the same question that people from around the world had (until they read your blog post and the answer to the question).

 

#8: Read Books

Reading books is a valuable way to come up with more blog post ideas and obtain more knowledge. Some of the books I have read have completely changed my business habits and the way I structure my time and goals. You may be so empowered by one of the books you read that you may come up with dozens of blog post ideas just from that one book. I know that multiple blog posts I have written are based on what I read in The 12 Week Year, The ONE Thing, and multiple books written by Seth Godin.

 

#9: Watch YouTube Videos

YouTube videos are another great source of knowledge. However, what you learn on YouTube depends on which YouTube videos you watch. The only way you are learning new things about your niche on YouTube is if you are watching niche-related videos. If you are a digital marketing expert watching YouTube videos about comedy or an upcoming video game (at some times…guilty as charged), then you are not learning anything new about your niche.

There comes a time and place to watch anything you want on YouTube, but that should not be a daily habit. My recommendation is to surf YouTube for as long as you want for just one day every month. If you use YouTube every day, chances are you will watch several re-runs of the same video. Your time is more valuable than that.

 

#10: Write Multiple Blog Post Ideas For One Topic

If you write blog posts about Twitter, then you can write multiple blog posts that revolve around that one topic. For this tip, let’s go back to the core building block, “10 Ways To Get More Twitter Followers.”

In one of the tips, you may encourage your visitors to have more conversations with their followers. Therefore, you can write a blog post called, “10 Ways To Have More Conversations With Your Twitter Followers.”

You can also gain more followers by getting more retweets. Therefore, you can write a blog post called, “10 Ways To Get More Retweets On Twitter.” One of the ways to get more retweets on Twitter is by tweeting pictures. Then, you can write a blog post called, “The 10 Elements Of Highly Retweeted Pictures.”

One of the tips you could mention in that article is that creating your own stunning pictures works well. People may not know how to create their own pictures in the first place, so you may want to write a blog post called, “10 Tools For Creating Free Pictures On The Web.”

Do you see how one blog post about getting more Twitter followers turned into four other ideas? I could have gone on with this example in an infinite loop, but that would take too long.

 

In Conclusion

One of the common reasons why bloggers get frustrated is simply because they can’t think of any ideas for the next blog post. When a blogger is able to write content, that blogger is in a type of paradise for that moment of time. The moment writer’s block steps in, it becomes nearly impossible to think of new ideas. As a result, that paradise is lost and replaced by frustration. By implementing these tips, you will know how to come up with more blog posts ideas so that frustration occurs less often.

Which tip was your favorite? Do you have another tip to make it easier for us to think of more blog post ideas? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

6 Tactics To Promote Your Landing Page

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Promote Landing Pages For More Subscribers

Did you know that a landing page is one of the most important pages on a blog for making a strong income? Landing pages collect email addresses, and when lined up with the right technology, free prizes and a sequence of emails can automatically be delivered to your subscribers’ inboxes.

Unfortunately, most landing pages do not get a large amount of traffic. Most landing pages get a small portion of the traffic that the blog attracts as a whole. Before I started to promote my landing page, it got a small percentage of my blog’s daily visitors. After implementing a few changes to my landing page, I was able to increase my landing page traffic by 600% in just one week.

The size of my audience aided with the big increase, but it is important to note that I got these results overnight. Regardless of how large your audience is, implementing these six tactics has the potential to lead to massive results in a relatively quick period of time.

 

#1: Pin Your Landing Page To The Top Of Your Twitter Account

Twitter now gives its users the option to pin one tweet on the top of their feeds. This pinned tweet always gets displayed as the first tweet even if you send out a new tweet. You could pin a tweet from 2011 to the top of your feed, and it would show before all of the tweets you posted this year.

In order to promote your landing page, you can pin a tweet to the top of your feed with a link to the landing page. That way, each time someone looks through your feed, the tweet with your landing page shows up at the top. You can use a hashtag, add a picture, and keep your tweet in the 70-100 character range to get more engagement for those tweets. Utilizing those three tidbits in your tweet has been statistically proven to increase the amount of retweets that a tweet gets.

 

#2: Use HelloBar

HelloBar is a cool WordPress plugin that allows you to display a scroll-down message at the top of your blog. Using HelloBar to promote my latest landing pages allows them to get more exposure because a scroll-down message is hard to ignore.

The great thing about HelloBar is that you can write a clear message that scrolls down without the message taking up too much space. I have seen some services similar to HelloBar, and these bars are ginormous. Some of the scroll-down bars bloggers use take up half of the screen. Large scroll-down messages are bad because they don’t encourage visitors to stick around. Instead, visitors who see a giant bar will feel more inclined to click the back button than read any of the content (let alone click on the link in the scroll-down message).

You want to make your message short and sweet so it only takes up one line. If your HelloBar takes up two or more lines, it will practically cover a quarter of the screen. Remember that if your HelloBar eats up a good chunk of your computer’s screen, then it probably covers the entire screen of an iPhone (people won’t be able to read the content on your blog).

The landing page I promote on HelloBar gets dozens of daily visitors just from that scroll-down message. Many of these visitors end up subscribing to my blog. I know this because at one time, I was only using HelloBar to promote my first landing page with the free eBook 27 Ways To Get More Retweets On Twitter. At the time, I was averaging 20 daily visitors to the landing page (all of them came from HelloBar), and I got 4-8 subscribers every day. Depending on the day, that’s a 20%—40% conversion rate once people click on the HelloBar button and get led to my landing page. Considering most landing pages get 2.5% of their visitors to convert, utilizing HelloBar is a great way to get more traffic and increase your landing page’s conversion rate.

[tweetthis url=”http://bit.ly/1K85AHD”]HelloBar is a great way to get more traffic and increase your landing page’s conversion rate.[/tweetthis]

 

#3: Use A Picture On The SideBar That Leads To Your Landing Page

The sidebar of your blog is a great place to display a subscription button, the archives, pictures of products, pictures of you, and other things as well. However, your sidebar is also a great place to promote your landing page. If you know your landing page has a high conversion rate, you should be focused on getting people to visit that landing page instead of seeing a subscription box with a low conversion rate that says something like, “Enter your email address.” Promote the stuff that works before everything else.

I promote my landing page on my blog’s sidebar with the picture of my free eBook 27 Ways To Get More Retweets On Twitter. When people click on the picture of my book, they are immediately brought over to my landing page that has a higher conversion rate than my blog’s subscription box.

 

#4: Promote Your Landing Page At The End Of Every Blog Post

Most of the people who read blog posts to the end stuck with the blog post because it provided value. At this point, your visitor probably appreciates the value you provided in your blog posts. Some of these visitors may feel inclined to subscribe to your blog, but they need calls-to-action. At the end of your blog posts, promote a landing page related to that particular blog post. This landing page can promote a free eBook of a continuation of the blog post, a lengthy guide about a different aspect of the topic you discussed in that blog post, a short video about that topic, or something else.

Many visitors who appreciate the value of your content, read to the end, and then see the call-to-action will click on the link, go to the landing page, and then enter their information. You can also have a form at the bottom of every blog post asking for an email address to get people to subscribe without going to your landing page (just be sure to talk about the free prize the visitor will get after subscribing to your blog).

 

#5: Post Your Landing Page On Your Social Networks Every Day

No matter how big or small your social media audience is, that audience consists of a group of people who reads your content. If you repeatedly promote your landing page every day, your social media audience will eventually notice and click on the link to your landing page.

If you decide to promote your landing page every day, you should be sending at least 10 different posts every day about articles and topics other than your landing page. You want to promote your landing page, but you don’t want your feed to simply consist of post after post with you constantly telling your audience to subscribe to your blog. If you occasionally tell your social media audience to subscribe while providing valuable content, the people in your social media audience will be more likely to visit your landing page and join your email list.

 

#6: Include It In Your Email Signature

The email signature in my opinion is one of the most underrated ways to market yourself. Email conversations tend to be the longest interactions we have with people on the web. The longer these interactions build, the more likely someone will be to join your email list.

However, the only way to get someone to join your email list is with a call-to-action. Few people go into a long conversation thinking, “When I have time available, I just have to subscribe to that person’s blog.” That is why the call-to-action comes in handy. At speaking events, bloggers encourage the attendees to subscribe to their blogs. At the bottom of your email signature, you can encourage people to visit your landing page and subscribe to your blog. When you promote your landing page in your email signature, be sure to use P.S. because that is the second most read part of an email. A P.S. is like a second headline.

[tweetthis url=”http://bit.ly/1K85AHD”]The P.S. part of an email is the second most read part of the entire email.[/tweetthis]

 

In Conclusion

Your landing page is one of the most important pages on your blog, but in order for it to get numerous conversions, that landing page needs to attract visitors. Just like any blog post, YouTube video, or any other piece of content on the web, a landing page cannot survive on its own. Landing pages need to be promoted on your blog, social network, and other areas just like any blog post on your blog. If you do not have a landing page, I highly recommend making one now. In case you were wondering, I use Optimize Press to create my landing pages.

Which tactic for promoting landing pages did you like the most? Do you use any other tactics to promote your landing pages? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

5 Ways To Tap Into The Power Of Blogging

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the power of blogging

Blogging has quickly emerged as a powerful resource to make a strong income. Before 2000, if you heard the word blog, you would have no idea what someone was talking about. WordPress did not even exist, and Blogger was launched in the middle of 1999. Less than 10 years after the first few blogs were created, many people reference blogs in their conversations. Blogging has become one of the core components towards online marketers’ successes. Millions of blogs are on the web, and more people want to get a piece of the action.

Now, blogs continue to grow in number. More bloggers want a reliable way to make a full-time income from the comfort of their own homes. The phrase home sweet home now has a new meaning. However, it does not take long for new bloggers to realize that the road to success and a full-time income is a long one. Many bloggers give up before they see their traffic increase at an exponential rate.

You don’t have to be one of those bloggers who gives up in the middle of the journey. You can stick with it and make a full-time income. In fact, with the right knowledge, you can reach the goal of making a full-time income from your blog quicker than most of the successful bloggers out there. In order to tap into the power of blogging, get the traffic you want, and get that full-time income, follow these five tips:

 

#1: Be Committed    

Blogging is not an activity that you can halfheartedly do. In order to become a successful blogger, you must be committed. You must write valuable blog posts that empower your readers, and you must write those blog posts at a consistent rate. I know there are some bloggers who succeed by writing at an inconsistent rate, but new bloggers who are not making as much revenue need to nail the consistency to boost commitment.

As you get more comfortable as a writer, I encourage you to write more blog posts and even increase the length of the blog posts that you write. The best way to become a better writer is by writing often. The amount of commitment you have for blogging determines how much you accomplish in that area of your life.

 

#2: Grow A Large Social Media Audience 

One of the most powerful methods of boosting blog traffic comes from growing a large social media audience and promoting your blog posts to that audience. My Twitter audience brings in a large portion of this blog’s visitors.

Not only does Twitter directly help attract more visitors, but Twitter also indirectly attracts more visitors. I know that there are several readers who visit my blog daily. Many of those people probably heard about my blog post in a tweet. Not only do people remember me from Twitter, but one of the big factors in SEO is the social media traffic that your blog gets. If my blog’s Twitter traffic doubled, then my SEO traffic would eventually double in a few days as well.

A large social media audience provides more direct traffic, better SEO, and more connections. I interact with dozens of my followers every day, and some of those interactions have turned into strong connections.

[tweetthis url=”http://bit.ly/13NEK6j”]A large social media audience provides more direct traffic, better SEO, and more connections.[/tweetthis]

 

#3: Optimize Your Blog For Getting More Subscribers

A blogger’s revenue is defined by how many people are on the email list. The most successful bloggers on the web also happen to have tens of thousands of blog subscribers. That’s not a coincidence. The difference between a blog subscriber and any other visitor is that blog subscribers can be notified about your latest blog posts through email.

I notify my blog subscribers at least once every week about my latest blog post. I don’t overwhelm them with multiple emails every day, and you don’t have to send daily emails in order to see life changing traffic. All you need to do is grow your email list larger and larger so each of the emails you send out attract larger audiences.

One great way to get more subscribers is by creating and effectively promoting a landing page that collects email addresses. Pop-ups are also great at getting more blog subscribers.

 

#4: Create Your Own Products

Most successful bloggers make a large percent of their revenue from the products they create and sell to customers. Creating products such as books and training courses that a service automatically gives to customers will allow you to make money in your sleep. How cool would it be to wake up to an extra $200? I think that would be a great way to start off the day.

Many bloggers decide to offer consultation sessions and have ads on their blogs. I like the idea of offering consultation sessions. However, consultation sessions can only bring in so much revenue since you can only be available for your clients for so many hours. I believe consultation sessions can be used to achieve a five figure income, but a six figure income would be a bit too much (unless you charge a very high price for your consultation sessions or have numerous hours available for sessions).

Having advertisements on a blog, however, is simply not worth it. Most bloggers only make a few dollars from their ads every month. Advertisements can only provide a somewhat stable income for the big players who get hundreds of thousands of visitors every month. Even then, it would be more effective to promote your product instead of an ad. 99% of the time, a product sale leads to more revenue than an ad click. Offering multiple products also brings forth the possibility of returning customers. Who would possibly want to be a returning ad-clicker?

[tweetthis url=”http://bit.ly/13NEK6j”]Most successful bloggers make a large percent of their revenue from the products they create and sell to customers. [/tweetthis]

 

#5: Optimize Your Blog For SEO

SEO is a powerful outlet for getting more blog traffic. Over three billion people search something on Google every day which means understanding the language of SEO will allow you to boost your blog traffic. I wrote an article about boosting SEO, but don’t stop there.

The Huffington Post wrote an article about SEO. So did Forbes. SEO is one of the most important ways to boost your blog traffic. Growing a social media audience is a reliable way to boost your SEO, and there are other methods as well.

To many new bloggers, intermediate, and even some advanced bloggers, SEO sounds very confusing. I remember when I first started blogging and struggled to understand what I needed to do to boost my blog’s SEO. Although writing valuable content is one factor towards good SEO, there are other factors that go deeper than providing valuable content. When I started on my journey, I found SEOmoz extremely helpful. Be sure to take a look at their free guide.

 

In Conclusion

Blogging is a fun activity that has the potential to bring in a large income. There are some bloggers on the web who make over $1 million from their blogs. Regardless of what you think of the idea right now, you could be the next blogger who makes a six figure income, a seven figure income, and beyond.

Blogging, and the web in general, has given our culture the unique ability for anyone to succeed despite the amount of revenue they currently make, age, and any other limiting factors. The web and blogging is filled with limitless possibilities. Utilizing these possibilities to spread your message will allow you to not only make a strong income, but also live the ideal life. I’d rather make no money at all than be at a despised $500,000/yr job that tears my family apart.

You have the option to love what you write blog posts about because you can write about anything that interests you. Frank Kerns, a very successful online marketer, started with dog training videos. His training courses he provided for dog trainers and owners got a large number of sales. No matter what you have a passion for, it can be turned into a blog and products.

Which of these tips did you like the most? Do you have any other tip you would like to add? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

3 Ways That Looking Back At The Past Can Propel You Forward

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Looking Back At The Past

Society teaches us to avoid looking back at the past. Thought leaders have said things like, “Don’t look back because you are not going that way,” and, “Don’t let your past ruin your future.” While the context behind these motivational quotes is understandable (don’t think about bad things that happened. Continue living in the present and achieving greatness), they indicate that looking back at the past can never be useful.

I look back at the past, and I look back at it often. I would go as far to say that looking back at the past has made me a better individual in various areas in the present. Looking at the past can spark motivation and lead to higher achievement. Here are three ways that looking back at the past can propel you forward:

 

#1: Look Back At Some Of Your Disappointments

I agree that looking back at disappointments can have a negative impact on our futures. The grudges people hold to themselves for many years can affect their performances in life. Just by thinking about the grudges, some people lose their productivity and produce less valuable work.

However, some of the disappointments we have encountered in life can be building blocks towards our success.

There are runners who get motivated to work harder by thinking about their disappointments. I ran one of my mile races in 5:00.00 which is as close to a sub-five mile as anyone can get. Half a stride. That would have made the difference. Luckily, I ran a mile in under five minutes before this race, but the thought of being that close and not breaking five minutes was a disappointment.

It is now a disappointment that I think as I approach the final lap of some of my races (if my mind is not preoccupied with other things). In many indoor and outdoor races, especially the shorter races, a final sprint to the finish line is the difference between a new individual best time and just another time. Thinking about that 5:00.00 mile gives me an incentive to push harder, because I never want to miss my goal by one millisecond ever again.

 

#2: Look Back At Your Successes

Many individuals are so focused on the present and achieving better results that they forget about the results they have already achieved. Many individuals spend more time thinking about how they will get ahead instead of going back and thinking of how thankful they were when they got a desired result.

When I got that 5:00.00 mile, I was disappointed at that moment. Soon after the race, I thought about the time I ran the mile in under five minutes. Then, I felt a new sense of motivation that affected how fast I ran in workouts and how seriously I took core workouts at the end of practices.

On the business side, I am always thinking of moving forward. Sometimes, I think of moving so far forward that I think about what I do not have instead of the things that I do have. Sometimes, I forget all of the work it took me to grow my social media audience and how grateful I was when I hit certain milestones. Looking back at my past accomplishments allows me to increase my feeling of self-worth (which by no means is low, but everyone needs a pinch of the feeling of self-worth as often as possible), and my feeling of self-worth is one of the core components that made my journey possible.

 

#3: Look Back At Your Past Ideas

Have you ever had the moment when you scribble a bunch of ideas on a piece of paper, but you couldn’t implement them all? As you open up more time for yourself, you will also have more time to start your past ideas.

The more you scribbled on that piece of paper, the more likely one of your ideas is to be brilliant. Even if your piece of paper does not have a brilliant idea, one idea you wrote on a piece of paper can spark the inspiration for a brilliant idea. Many businesses that fall apart inspire other ones to rise above the rubble and thrive (that’s how Twitter was created).

 

In Conclusion

Many thought leaders constantly say that looking back at past experiences can hinder your future. Some people recommend not looking back at your past all together. Although our pasts have their fair share of bad experiences, our pasts also have their fair share of incredible experiences. We all have accomplishments that we need to be thankful of. As more goals get pushed back, self-worth goes down, but if we call back all of the thoughts that make us feel self-worthy again, then we will have the motivation we need to accomplish more goals.

What are your thoughts on looking back at your past? Do you look back at your past to motivate yourself? Please share your thoughts below.

5 Ways To Make Money With A Blog

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Make Money With Blog

Although there are bloggers who are absolutely crushing it on the web, other bloggers wonder if it is even possible to make any money in the first place. When it comes to making money with their blogs, most bloggers are confused and try a variety of methods to boost their income.

Some of these bloggers fall prey to the advice of taking surveys and clicking on paid links to bring in revenue. Activities similar to those eat up a giant chunk of your time every day but don’t show much for it. Even if you make $500 every month by taking surveys (that would be a great income for a person who takes surveys), that only adds up to $6,000 every year which is not enough to support a family or amplify your message.

The solution is to implement fewer, but more powerful tactics that bring in a steady stream of income. The days of taking surveys are over. The days of making thousands of dollars in your sleep are now here. In order to make a good amount of money with your blog, utilize these five methods.

 

#1: Offer Consultation Sessions 

Offering consultation sessions is a great way to bring in more revenue and make connections at the same time. My recommendation is to start with a low price, and as you get more clients, increase your price point. Compared to the other methods, consultation sessions bring in a quick, sizable amount of money, but they do take up time and force you to constantly change your schedule so you can talk with your clients.

The goal of every consultant should be to eventually charge thousands of dollars for a few hours. That way, getting one client every month means making thousands of dollars every month, and having fewer clients will open up more time you can use to implement the other four methods for making money with a blog.

 

#2: Create Your Own Training Courses

You have knowledge that many people want. Some people have become millionaires by offering advice as practical as dog training advice. Training courses have been sold for hundreds of dollars, and the really good training courses have been sold for over $1,000 (not to say that any training course under $1,000 is sub par or not phenomenal). A basic training course with a few videos can be completed in about a week. Some training courses that didn’t even take two hours to create are now generating thousands of dollars in revenue every month. Imagine what you could do if you created multiple training courses, and they all made multiple sales every day.

 

#3: Create Your Own Membership Sites

Out of all of the methods, creating your own membership sites represents the most stable way to earn an income. While sales of products can spike and decline, once someone is a member, that person always pays a weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annual fee for being a member. If someone gets access to your membership site for $9.99/month, and that person sticks around, then you can always count on making $9.99/month from that one member.

Then, imagine if you had 100 members like that. Now you are making $999/month which is about $12,000 every year. That’s not bad for an inexpensive membership site with only 100 members. What if the membership site had 500 members? What if you had 10 membership sites with 100 members each? What if members each paid $19.99/month instead of $9.99/month? The possibilities are endless.

The best part is that the income you generate from a membership site acts as the foundation for future months. If you get 20 members in July, and you only get 10 members in August, then you are still making more money from your membership site in August than you made in July (in August, you have a total of 30 members while in July, you had a total of 20 members). The foundation simply continues to get stronger as your membership sites accumulate more members.

 

#4: Promote Affiliate Links

Depending on the products you promote, the commission rates, and traffic, an affiliate can make anywhere from a few dollars every month to thousands of dollars every day. Some affiliate even get a recurring commission when they get someone to buy membership to a membership site with an affiliate link. Amazon, ClickBank, Commission Junction, and LinkShare are four websites that offer a variety of products with affiliate links.

The only problem with affiliate sites is that typically, with great power comes great irresponsibility. You should only promote the products that you have tried for yourself and believe in. Do not grab the affiliate link for a product just because that product has a high price or promises a higher commission. Only promote the products that you can truthfully say are incredible.

When you use affiliate links, it is also important to avoid turning this method into your #1 source of income. Although some affiliate marketers make strong incomes from their links, these marketers depend on other brands and entrepreneurs to continue producing products. In addition, affiliate marketers have no control over the commission rates. If Amazon decided to cut the commission rate from 4% to 2%, then too bad for the affiliate marketers. Affiliate marketing is a great way to make more revenue, but you need to create your own products and market them as well.

 

#5: Write Your Own Books

Writing your own books and promoting them on your blog serves two benefits. The first benefit is that writing and promoting your own books has the potential to bring in more revenue. The second benefit is that writing books allows you to become a better writer. Part of the process in getting more sales is how much a potential customer appreciates the value they get from your free content. Many customers see a paid product as an enhancement of free value. Therefore, the better your free value is, the more highly your customers will think of your products.

Writing books and making money from them is more than just writing a book, putting it on the Kindle, and hoping for the best. Ultimately, there are two main strategies you can take to writing books. The first strategy is self-publishing short books in bulk and hoping that they all bring in a few sales every day. The second strategy is to publish one major book every 1-2 years, promote it like crazy, and turn it into a bestseller.

My recommendation for new authors is to start with the first strategy. When authors are new, their audiences are not as large which means the chances of becoming a bestselling author are very slim. New authors would have a better chance of writing books in bulk and getting a few sales every day from those books. If you needed to get 16 book sales every day to make $1,000 every month, think of how much easier it would be if you wrote 16 books compared to if you only wrote two books. When you write 16 books, each book only needs to get one sale every day while if you only wrote two books, those two books have to each bring in eight daily sales. It is easier to achieve the same income goals if you have published multiple books, but if you choose this strategy, you must also ensure that your books still contain valuable content.

 

In Conclusion

There are many ways to make money with a blog. However, it does not take long for a blogger to realize that not all income opportunities are created equal. Some revenue generating activities eat up valuable time and don’t bring in a decent income.

Surveys take up a giant chunk of time but rarely bring in a good amount of income. Even if you somehow manage to make $1,000 every month from surveys (now everyone who takes surveys wants to know your secret, and you’re probably taking surveys for half of the day), taking survey after survey on topics you are not fond of is a bad way to make money on the web.

Instead, you could be making a six figure income, seven figure income, and beyond. Although most bloggers do not bring in much revenue, there is also a large group of bloggers that make six figure incomes just from their blogs.

You may not be making any money with your blog. You may be seeing progress at this stage of the game. You may even be making thousands of dollars every month. Regardless of where you are at this stage of the game, your blog can generate more revenue, and it can become your primary source of a full-time income.

What are your thoughts about making money with a blog? Which method did you like the most? Do you have any other methods you would like to share that bloggers can use to increase their revenue? Please share your thoughts and advice below.