If you missed the hype of the initial launch of Popup Domination by Michael Dunlop (which sold 1,000 copies in a month) then make sure you read my Popup Domination Review. But this post details the future for the product and what is coming up very soon!

About a month ago I did a review on a brand new product that was set to revolutionise the way we as WordPress bloggers build email lists – and it looks like a lot of you saw the benefits of Popup Domination!

Now, Michael did not sit back during the launch and just watch the money come in. Instead he was already looking at ways to make it bigger and better – and this month he is all set to launch Popup Domination 2.0.

And Here Is Why You Need To Buy It Now!

1. The Price Is Going Up…. Again!

   As with any product that get’s relaunched. Since there is new features – there is also a new price! With the new name and new features, the price is going up to $77. so definitely a great reason for grabbing it now!

2. You Get A Free Upgrade To The New Version

   If you purchase Popup Domination now for the current price, then as soon as the Popup Domination 2.0 is released with all the new features – you get a FREE upgrade! So you pay $47, for what is going to cost $77!

3. Not Just For Bloggers Anymore

   One of the major new features of Popup Domination 2.0 is that it will no longer be solely for WordPress bloggers – or even just bloggers. With the new ‘standalone’ version you will be able to have the best popups on any website you own – (I will definitely be integrating this into WebsiteBuildr course now!)

4. TRAINING!

   The one thing that I personally felt was missing from the initial product was training. Michael has such a responsive email list – and I am sure that a lot of us would love to know what he does to get the results he achieves. Well there will be a training area included with the relaunch – as well as some GREAT NEW THEMES!

Should You Buy It?

Now I personally own Popup Domination and use it on a couple of my niche blogs (once is converting at close to 10%) – so I recommend it!

BUT I know there are some very vocal opinions when it comes to popups, but I think if they are done right – they can be quite effective.

I just wanted to let you all know about the price rise, so that if you were thinking about buying Popup Domination OR were waiting for them to add some new features – you can grab it before it becomes $30 more expensive!

My FREE e-course will show you the 7 Things Every Successful Blogger Has!

This is a guest post by Michael Vreeken. If you want to guest post on this blog, check out the guidelines here.

FaceBook is a huge promotional opportunity – everybody knows that, but most people neglect it. Probably because they are not familiar with the FaceBook marketing techniques that I want to share with you today.

FaceBook Page Basics:

It’s pretty obvious that all FaceBook marketing is build around your FaceBook page, and the FaceBook page is promoting your blog in it’s turn. So how can you drive people from FaceBook to your blog? Let’s take a look at the Britney Spears page as an example:

#1 Custom landing page – the first thing you see upon visiting the page. Its main purpose is to convert your visitors into fans of your page, so there should be a clear call-to-action. Additionally you can provide a direct link to your blog, twitter or any place in the web. Check the StandoutBlogger FaceBook landing page as it follows all the best practices.

#2 The Wall – this is where you post links, pictures and videos. Wall updates is an ultimate tool to drive traffic to your blog. But remember that the wall itself is useless – people rarely visit pages, they are just checking their own newsfeed for updates.

Facebookers are mainly checking the Top News section for updates, so your aim here is to make your update prominent among others. Only updates with lots of “likes” and comments appear in Top News.

#3 Links – FaceBook page has some additional places for your website link. The most common ones are the info tab and the text box under the page avatar:

Recap: Status updates is an essential traffic source. Once people interact with them – their friends will know about that in their own newsfeed. Good updates can easily go viral and drive lots of traffic.

Gaining Fans:

It’s really hard to make people interact with your status update as they are very lazy. From time to time you can ask your friends to “like” your update in order to boost its positions, but this will start irritating them real soon. The only solution is to grow your fan base and have your updates appear in Top News naturally. The more fans you have – the bigger chance someone will interact with your update. But where to gain those fans? Here are some tips that should help you:

#1 Use your friends – first thing you need to do is ask all your friends to join your page. Moreover, once your page has 25 fans – you can make a vanity URL for it.

#2 Put your FaceBook URL everywhere – tweet about it, use it in signatures, mention it in your blog posts. The principles are pretty much the same as if you were promoting your website URL.

#3 Make an attractive landing page – Mostly when people visit someones page they see a boring wall, which rarely encourages them to become fans of your page. I’ve previously made two great showcases with the coolest FaceBook pages available: 50 Most Prominent Custom Facebook Pages and 40 Highly Effective FaceBook Business Pages – still think that not having a custom page is OK?

#4 Use FaceBook Badges & Plugins – Some of them help your visitors to instantly become fans of your FaceBook page. Others are good in promoting your posts around FaceBook. The 2 essential plugins for your blog are: FaceBook Like Button and Like Box

#5 Mention your page around FaceBook – FaceBook gives you an opportunity to mention a person or a page, just like twitter. Put @ and start typing your page name to see a drop-down with the choices. Use this technique to spread the word about your page on FaceBook.

#6 Make an attractive avatar – avatar is what people associate your page with. A tiny bit of creativity can really make difference: 5 Creative Ways to Hack Your Profile Photo, Making the Most of Your Facebook Profile Picture.

#7 Build Partnerships with other pages – each page on FaceBook has “Add to my Page’s Favorites” options. This adds a logo of the page into a “Favorite Pages” box of your page. Exchange links with the pages in your niche to gain some fans from partners.

Conclusions & Resources:

Promoting your blog on FaceBook is a hard and sluggish process. You need to work a lot till the first results, and the most of your efforts should be aimed towards the next few things:

• Creating awesome landing page with a straight call to action;
• Using every opportunity to promote your FaceBook page link and thus gain more fans;
• Posting really interesting valuable updates, that will collect a lot of “likes” and comments and go viral around FaceBook.

This was rather a basic guide to FaceBook Marketing, but if you are interested and eager to follow the white rabbit even deeper into the hole – here are some recourses that are really valuable:

Allfacebook, Insidefacebook – powerful recourses with pretty much everything you need to know about FaceBook;

Socialmediaexaminer – awesome blog with lots of tips and tricks on FaceBook and Twitter, which I really respect and visit frequently;

Facebookdesigns, Customfacebookpage, Facebookshowcase – Showcases with cool FaceBook pages to inspire you a bit;

FaceBook Templates – premium templates for FaceBook pages for those who are not really good in web design, but willing to have an attractive page.

My FREE e-course will show you the 7 Things Every Successful Blogger Has!

As a follow up to my weekend question, I wanted to take a look at the main reason that the majority of bloggers are not making money – and how you can make sure you are part of the minority that do! If you were anything like me, for the first couple of years that I started blogging, MAKING MONEY WAS HARD! It is quite disheartening to see your traffic increasing and your subscriber count on the rise, but your income was going no where. Isn’t it obvious that as a blog grows in popularity that it should start making more money as well?

There Is No Correlation Between Blog Popularity And Blog Income!

I think that the first blogging myth that we need to break is that traffic or ‘popularity’ is the main ingredient for a money making blog! Because it is not! There are plenty of bloggers (even within my niche), who are getting a lot more traffic to their blogs than I am – yet are not making 10% of what I make online. Now I am not saying that to boast, I am just trying to break the mentality that you need a lot of traffic to make money!

In this post I want to highlight where the majority of bloggers are going wrong when it comes to monetizing the blog, and how you can jump ship and join me and the minority who ARE making money from their blogs!

Where Most Bloggers Fail When It Comes To Making Money

1. They Follow The Crowd

Have you ever noticed that when you visit a lot of blogs in the same niche that you are consistently seeing the same products being promoted? I don’t know about you but once I have seen an ad about 2-3 times, I get ‘ad blindness’ and that ad is now totally ignored – and I think this is one of the main reasons that the majority of bloggers are not making money. BECAUSE THEY ARE ALL PROMOTING THE SAME PRODUCTS!

Why Do Most Bloggers Promote The Same Products?

• Because They Are Sheep
  Blogging is very ‘guru based’ and people look at how the ‘guru’s’ are making money and try to copy them. But the thing you have to realise is that the reason they reached the income levels they are now at – is because they were unique – AND FOUND WHAT WORKED FOR THEM!
• Because They Are Lazy
  Some times I think that people think that all you need to do to start blogging for money is grab a Clickbank account and sign up for the 2 or 3 most popular products related to your niche. Now while this may work for some people – the fact that they are the most popular usually means that the majority of people who are going to buy it already know about it. So your chances of making any decent money from these unless you have a highly responsive email list is quite minimal!
• Because They Don’t Know Any Better
  Now I don’t want to imply that the majority of you are lazy sheep because the truth is that a lot of bloggers just don’t know any better. When you start blogging, there is no course that everyone takes to teach you how to make money from your blog – you need to learn for yourself. And since most of the successful (with income as the criteria for successful) bloggers don’t want to give away their secrets (because that means more competition) – it means you have to try and work it out yourself!

So How Do We Break Away From The Crowd?

So if following the crowd is not going to have us making money, then how do you break away from the crowd?

• Find New Products To Promote!
  Look outside of Clickbank (only about 5% of my monthly income) and find products that no one else in your niche is promoting. And before you tell me that you can’t find any, I personally spent a couple of hours today looking through all the offers on Commission Junction and found about 5 new affiliate programs (that I didn’t even know existed) that I am now looking to fit into my blogs/email lists. There are plenty of products with affiliate programs and some great affiliate networks that have a heap of fantastic products to promote – so spend some time researching.
• Look For Complimentary Products
  I think that the reason that most people promote the same products is because they only look at directly related products. For example, if your blog is about blogging – you only promote blogging products. However, most bloggers want to learn how to master Google – so what about something SEO related? Or something that will help them save time? (because we all know that the majority of all bloggers are shocking at time management!!)
• Focus On Products & Services
  Now I can only speak from my personal experience, but recently 99% (I’d say 100% but I could have forgotten something) of all my online income comes from affiliate commissions as a direct result of products or services that I have recommended. Now I do have ad’s on my blogs for information products – but for me personally, they don’t seem to convert! (On a side note – it is always best to recommend products that you use, because it gives you much more credibility).

2. They Sound Desperate

Since most bloggers are following the crowd and promoting the same thing that everyone else trying to promote – they start to worry when they are not making any sales. And that is when they start to appear desperate!

Have you ever visited a blog and it has just felt like every single article was a desperate attempt to make the blogger money? One overly positive product review after another, each just a rework of the products sales page…

Now I doubt that these bloggers start out with the intention of creating a spammy blog that adds no value to the ‘blogosphere’ but when people try so hard to make something work and they don’t see any results – they get desperate!

The Best Way NOT To Sound Desperate!

The easiest way to make sure that you don’t start to sound desperate is to keep your credibility. There is nothing wrong with promoting products or services but don’t do it at the expense of your readers.

Only promote reputable products – and if you are wondering how you know if a product is reputable, the easiest way to tell is to experience it yourself! Other than that, scour the internet for reviews (both good and bad) and see what actual users are actually saying about it.  Don’t trade quick returns for your long-term credibility as a blogger!

3. They Focus On The Unimportant

Do blog ad’s really work that well? I always look at the 125 ads in John Chows sidebar and wonder who would be stupid enough to pay $500/month to advertise there. Now, to be honest they may be converting incredibly well, but from the ads that I can track – none of my sidebar advertisements actually convert to sales (currently trying to work out what to replace them with!).

So why do most bloggers put so much emphasis on their sidebar ads?

Once again, it comes back to the ‘sheep mentality’. Bloggers see all the probloggers with their sidebar full of those 125 boxes and think that since they are making a full-time income blogging  – obviously I need to do the same as them!

The 80/20 Rule – And How It Will Make You Money

One of the biggest things that I learnt from the Four Hour Work Week was the Parento Principle (or the 80/20 rule), which simply put states that 80% of the effect comes from 20% of the causes. So 80% of the results come from 20% of the effort.

I took this principle and looked at my blogging, and more importantly my blogging income and found that this was definitely true. 80% of my income was coming from less than 20% of my sources. So then the goal was to optimise the 20% that was working for me – and removing the 80% that was just taking up my time (the unimportant!).

What is the unimportant in your blog, and what can you cut out?

4. They Are Not Strategic

A lot of bloggers fail to plan and that is why they fail.

Sure going with the flow is great, but you need to have a direction otherwise the ‘flow’ could take you in the complete opposite direction from where you want to be!

Be strategic with your blog and your writing. Know what you want and how you are going to deliver it.

Since I know that the majority of my blogging income comes from links inside of posts – I now have made the strategic decision to try and talk about my personal experiences in my posts, and how a product or service has helped me in that area. Now obviously when you are using personal experiences, you must actually own or use the thing that you are recommending – but that is what I prefer.

How I Am Being Strategic With WebsiteBuildr

Now I know WebsiteBuildr (my latest project) is not a blog (but a product), but the process can easily be transferred to the blogging platform.

The initial product is a video course for small business owners who are looking to create their own website, but yesterday I was planning out the autoresponder series – and looking for other products that I could promote that I believe these small business owners would benefit from.

Here Is A Short List Of Affiliate Programs I Found:

• Intuit Websites – Simple online based website creator (In case they struggle through my course)
• Market Samurai – In case they are interested in SEO traffic!
• Aweber – So they can start building an email list for their business.
• Vista Print – Because if they are interested in a website, they may be open to other promotional products.
• Hotels Combined – Because business owners need accommodation when they travel for business (and holidays)

Notice how none of them expect Intuit have anything to do with website design? That is because if my course is teaching them how to design a website, then why would I be promoting other website courses?

That is why I find it funny that a lot of blogs that talk about blogging are promoting ‘how to start blogging’ products (shouldn’t they be learning this from your blog?). Now don’t think I am having a go at anyone, if you scroll up and check out my sidebar you will find a couple of blogging products there (which is probably why they are not converting) – but as I said, now I know that they are not working for me, it is time to find something that does. It is all about being strategic, doing the research and watching what works and what doesn’t.

Look for complimentary products (yes, focus on products), break away from the crowd and find out what is working for YOU personally – and run with that! Be strategic with the way you promote and you will find that you don’t need to be writing desperate review posts – instead you will write honest reviews (and most likely get a better response!).

And That Is How You Can Make Money Blogging -When Most People Fail!

Why I Didn’t Discuss List Building…

A lot of you might be wondering why I didn’t add list building as a method of making money from your blog – since that is what all the ‘probloggers’ are now trying to sell us as the new ‘golden ticket’.

Well, the reason is the exactly what I have just written about.

Just because the ‘probloggers’ recommend it, doesn’t make it right for you!

Now I do build lists with the majority of my blogs – and yes, I was one of the first people to start using Popup Domination (which I still use on a few of my non-MMO niches) – but does that mean that you need to be building a list to make money from blogging? NOT AT ALL!

Once again, my online income bucks the trend – and comes mainly from search engine traffic to older posts in my archive (because of my strategic planning, and sometimes luck!). There are plenty of different methods to make money from a blog (and maybe I will tackle that in another post), but the purpose of this post was to challenge a mindset that is holding you back from making money. A mindset – not a method!

So What Is Holding You Back? And What Are You Going To Do About It?

My FREE e-course will show you the 7 Things Every Successful Blogger Has!

Do you struggle with making money from your blog? Or is it something that comes easy to you? Today I want to discuss making money blogging and how everyone feels about it!

I have recently been chatting with quite a few fellow bloggers on Skype and the one topic that keeps arising is how ‘Make Money Blogging‘ seems to be so hard – and it definitely can be.

So today I just want to know if it something that you seem to be having difficulty with, or are you smashing your targets?

For me, I am comfortable with where I am, but if I am going to reach my goals – I need to really kick it up a gear. Which is why I have a post lined up for next week about ‘why most bloggers don’t make money’ and I just wanted to see if that is something that people are worried about. Or are you just blogging for fun?

So, Is Making Money Blogging Something You Struggle With?

PS. If you didn’t read my Four Hour Work Week review by Tim Ferriss – Then you really should!

My FREE e-course will show you the 7 Things Every Successful Blogger Has!

The Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss is one of those books that leaves you thinking, ‘Why don’t they teach you this stuff in school?!’ If you are interested in lifestyle design or just want to learn how to be more productive in what you do – then you need to read this book!

I must say that I don’t read as many books as I used to since I started blogging. However that being said, I have read some fantastic books recently and thought I would share my thoughts on them with you from time to time.

Before I Start The Book Review:

I have just set up an account with Audible to get one full audio book a month for just $7.49 for the first three months.

Each audio book that I download will be reviewed here – and the first one will be The Referral Engine by John Jantsch – which retails for $26.44 (and i get it for $7.49!).

> > Check Out Audible Yourself

Have you used this service? If you have I would love your comments below!

The Four Hour Work Week

The Four Hour Work Week has quickly become my favourite book! Since purchasing it about 4 months ago – I am currently reading it again for the 3rd time. Each time I learn so much more and it definitely is a book that I recommend you put on your ‘to read’ list.

Introduction To The Four Hour Work Week

The important thing to remember while reading this book is that it is a book full of ‘concepts’. A lot of people read this book and instantly disregard it as impossible, improbable and label Tim Ferriss a scam – but the value is in the large amount of unique ideas that you can put to work in your life!

In the Four Hour Work Week Tim Ferriss uses the acronym DEAL for the four main chapters of his book. The acronym DEAL stands for: Definition, Elimination, Automation, and Liberation.

Definition

This first section of the book is all about finding out what you want and looking past what society expects of you – and what is considered normal!

It is in this section that he first introduces two different types of people, The ‘New Rich’ whose currency si not money – but time and mobility, and the ‘Deferrers’ or those who save everything to enjoy life after they retire.

My favourite parts in this section are:

• His Thought Comparison of The ‘New Rich’ and the ‘Deferrers’
• The Section On Conquering Fear
• Getting Unrealistic!

> > Get The Four Hour Work Week!

Elimination

Definition is all about crushing a mindset that has been drilled into us since we were born – and new mindsets mean that things need to go. The elimination section of this book is all about productivity and effectiveness – and has a huge focus on Parento’s Law (better know as the 80/20 principle). I love this section because it is so simple – but the majority of us don’t put it into action. If the majority of our results come from a small portion of our effort – why are we not focusing on that which is working, instead of beating a dead horse? And if 20% of our customers are causing 80% of our problems – why are we just ditching them to focus on the 80% of customers that require no addition effort?

My favourite parts in this section are:

• Parent’s Law – 80/20 Principle
• The Low Information Diet

> > Get The Four Hour Work Week!

Automation

Automation is the one section that hit me hardest. As bloggers we have a business model that requires us to continually work on our businesses – unless you build a multi author blog(Like FamousBloggers).

Now while I am not saying that blogging is a bad business model – or that I am ditching StandOutBlogger. But this section did challenge me to look at how I am working online and to look at automating my business and life as much as possible.

A huge section of this chapter is focused on outsourcing jobs overseas and he talks about the benefits of hiring a virtual assistant. Outsourcing is something that I have been doing quite a bit lately – and the company that I recommend is oDesk!

This section was also a big inspiration for my latest project WebsiteBuildr which will be completely automated (and for once – not include a blog!).

My favourite parts in this section are:

• His Rules On Outsourcing
• Finding The Muse
• Management By Absence

> > Get The Four Hour Work Week!

Liberation

The reason that automation is so important is because the final chapter in the book is all about Liberation! This section focuses on removing your location dependence and escaping the restrictions that most jobs have.

I love his concept of mini-retirements (which is 3-6 month ‘holidays’ overseas – regularly throughout your life, instead of one big retirement at the end) so much that my wife and I are currently planning one ourselves (read my fear of failure post for the details).

After reading his section of normal holidays, which he calls ‘binge holidays’  (because you try and cram so much into a little time) it really struck me how ineffective and tiring this type of vacation actually is. The problem is, that because most people are tied to where they work – they can’t escape for much longer than a couple of weeks.

My favourite parts in this section are:

• The Whole Section On Mini-Retirements
• His Thoughts On Filling The Void

At the end of each chapter Tim Ferriss also includes a list of different tools that will help you start putting these concepts into practice.

> > Get The Four Hour Work Week!

My Final Thoughts

If you are skeptical about these types of books – you are going to hate this book (this is definitely a ‘love it or hate it’ type of book. However, personally I found it to be full of thought provoking concepts and was a massive ‘mindset changer’ for me.

I am a huge quote fan, and this book is riddled with some of the best (which was an added bonus). So if you are tired of feeling like no one relates with your ideas – I think you will love this book.

Definitely comes highly recommended!

>> Grab This Book On Audible for just $7.49 (And listen while you work!)

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This is a guest post by James King of BetterStartBlogging.com. If you want to guest post on this blog, check out the guidelines here.

Are you blogging for money? Do you blog with burning ambition to aniline every blog that crosses your path? Are driven to monopolize the blogosphere with your content? Whatever your ambitions are blogging needn’t be so competitive.

Misconception of blogging

Billions of blogs exist on the internet. Many perish from the lack of: enthusiasm; interest; abundance or financial gain. The glamorization of blogging makes the medium attractive towards selected “entrepreneurial wannabes” that assume making a colossal sum of money is attainable in record time.

Reality of blogging

Successful bloggers realize that competition is guaranteed. It is crucial to focus on your reader’s needs. Blogging is about developing and serving communities rather than worrying about competition. The successful bloggers focus their efforts on solving problems. Answers to problems are more valuable and readers will acknowledge great content.

The significance of an online community

The online communities created by bloggers have little boundaries. A strong online community can provide a variety of benefits including:

• An environment that encourages learning and sharing ideas

• An environment that has no boundaries geographically

• An environment where people can network and develop lasting relationships

• Opportunities to find work or participate in a project

The selfless blogger is the successful blogger

Selflessness is a trait to becoming a success. Blogging is about creating trust and rapport with fellow bloggers and their audiences. A provider of value in any marketplace is on the road to prosperity. Bloggers that develop a selfless attitude by enriching online communities with their experience and wealth of knowledge will forge stronger relationships and networks online.

Blogging provides opportunities to contribute and build rich learning environments. Web 2.0 allows bloggers to comment and create conversation.

An active community is a stronger community

Providing assistance in an active community will provide you with opportunities to be recognized as a specialist. Web 2.0 has given everybody the opportunity to express their view online. Everybody is entitled to their views look at Facebook. People yearn to belong to a community and bloggers that don’t participate in any groups are overlooking huge potential to grow their blog. Bloggers shouldn’t consider joining other communities just to promote themselves. The purpose of joining a community is to provide answers to problems. Have you noticed why forums are so popular? Look at Yahoo Answers.

Two ways to contribute to a blogging community

• Commenting

  The easiest and less time consuming method is comment on blog posts. Blog post commenting has many benefits, but most importantly you are contributing to a learning rich facility. After a few weeks of commenting on a certain blog you will be impacting on a community and become well-known with that community.

• Guest posting

  Creating an excellent guest post for a blog community takes time and needs to be planned carefully. However, the benefits for a fresh writer that has a different approach can make your readers consider content contrastingly. Your content will be viewed by a diverse audience that will appreciate some new colors to this online canvas.

A community must grow to be successful. New members must visit this online presence. A highly competitive approach to blogging is a consequence. Focusing on the number of visits you get everyday isn’t going improve your presence. Solving problems to people’s needs will. A bloggers main focal point is delivering information that helps people to succeed with their issues is the solution.

Do you contribute to an online community and focus on delivering for their readers? Do you write guest blog posts as a way of enriching a different blog? What ways to do contribute to a community? Has this post changed your mindset of blogging?

My FREE e-course will show you the 7 Things Every Successful Blogger Has!

I am sure if you have been blogging for any amount of time then you would have noticed the high turnover of bloggers. With ‘blogger burnout’ becoming more and more popular, here are 3 things that are regularly promoted as ‘good things’ that could possibly make you more prone to this growing epidemic!

If you haven’t already had the symptoms of it yourself, chances are you most likely will. ‘Blogger Burnout’ is not something that you should think will never happen to you, because in the 3 years I have been blogging I have been amazing by not only the amount of blogs that just drop off the planet – but also the quality of bloggers that disappear.

It saddens me when I find a fantastic new blogger who has a bucket load of potential – only to see that he has left his blog to become cobweb-filled and rat-ridden.

Today I wanted to take a look at a couple of the causes of ‘blogger burnout’ in part-time bloggers, because it is the exact things that a lot of the ‘probloggers’ are promoting as things that will ‘make you famous‘.

How To Fast Track Blogger Burnout!

1. Post Every Single Day

   This might be ok for full-time bloggers, but trying to write 5-7 blog posts each week, while working a full-time job is a sure fire way kick start the ‘blogger burnout’!

   Your article quality will decrease as you try to force out content. Why not focus on creating a couple of quality articles and give them a chance to be seen, instead of pushing them quickly into your archives with so many new articles?

2. Become A Commenting Junkie

   One of the most written about traffic generating strategies for bloggers is commenting. Everyone is trying to tell you that you need to comment everywhere, often and first – but this can be extremely tiring!

   I used to be subscribed to over 300 blogs and would comment on almost every new posts that came up in my feed, but I started to get the early symptoms of ‘blogger burnout’ so I cut right back on the blogs I subscribed too and now rarely comment on blogs. Don’t get me wrong, I still read a lot of blog posts – I now only comment when I have something important to add.

   Have you noticed how all the biggest bloggers rarely comment? Yet they don’t seem to struggle with generating traffic. Personally, since dropping my frantic commenting and focusing on my content – my traffic has doubled!

3. Get Addicted To Social Media

   This one is tough, because social media is a fantastic tool that can really get your content in front of a lot of eyeballs – but a lot of people let social media become an addiction (wasting A LOT of time).

   The one way that I have found to steer clearing of checking a million different social profiles is to limit my activity to just a couple of networks. I have Twitter, Facebook and StumbleUpon – because they are the ones that I have got to work to me. The problem I see with trying to build a tonne of social media profiles is that you spread yourself thin – why not focus building real relationships in just a few networks instead of spamming a heap of social media networks with your links?

   But back to the addiction, social media can quickly become a time drain if you don’t set some boundaries. If you let social media get the best of you then the one thing that you think will shoot your blog into the spotlight – will eventually be the death of your blog.

Can You Start To See The Signs…?

What do you think? Maybe I am wrong and you can keep up a full-time job while posting every day, commenting everywhere and still have time to feed your social media addiction – or maybe you can’t!

What do you think are some of the causes of ‘blogger burnout’? And have you experienced it yourself? Let me know what you are thinking by leaving a comment below (or maybe you are ready to put some of this into action – and are ready to drop commenting unless you have something important to say).

My FREE e-course will show you the 7 Things Every Successful Blogger Has!

If you are writing an ebook and in need of a great cover, then you need to check out eCover Creator 3d. In this video I review this great product!

>> Visit eCover Creator 3d

If you are reading this instead of watching the video, the scroll up and hit play. In the video I show you the tool that I use to create quality ebook covers in under 5 minutes – and take you through how simple the process actually is!

No Photoshop required!

Question: How did you create your ebook cover?

My FREE e-course will show you the 7 Things Every Successful Blogger Has!

This is a guest post by James Adams. If you want to guest post on this blog, check out the guidelines here.

Online marketers often want to offer something tangible to visitors and potential customers that offers value, establishes credibility, and makes them want to come back for more. Often an eBook meets those criteria. If you want to offer an eBook as a free incentive or as a product for sale, you should first recognize that creating an eBook does not guarantee success.

To give the eBook you write its best chance for success, learn from the following eight characteristics of a successful eBook.

1. Write About Something You Know

Writing about topics unfamiliar to you does nothing to help your readers and hurts you in the long run if readers complain to the online world. Readers usually want to learn something from an eBook they have downloaded and possibly purchased, so do not disappoint them.

2. Get Unique Material

Let’s face it: anyone can scour the net and get commonly available information. Go the extra mile to make your eBook successful by getting original sources and uncovering new facts. Doing this can be as easy as visiting your local library or contacting a highly respected expert in your field for an interview. Often, libraries have a wealth of material online that you can use, and many experts will gladly be interviewed via email, so you can improve the quality of your work without even leaving your desk.

3. Make An Effort

If you go to the trouble to get unique material, you probably will be willing to make an effort to produce a quality product. Even when writing an eBook that you will give away free, take the time and do the work to do it right. Simple things like logical organization and a table of contents will set your eBook apart.

4. Cite Sources

Some writers avoid disclosing their sources because they fear readers will abandon them for those more knowledgeable. Although that might happen, you gain a lot more because you give readers a chance to delve further into your subject if you want. Furthermore, it really looks bad when a writer resorts to plagiarism to create an eBook. Citing sources also boosts your credibility in that you can prove that other experts support the things you say.

5. Offer A Sample

Rather than rushing to trap readers into buying your eBook, let them read a chapter or two for free. This puts pressure on you to produce a quality product and it assures the buyer that they will get a worthwhile product.

6. Build Up Anticipation

Learn from the big companies that hype up their product weeks or months before they become available. Apple, for example, announces its new iPhone versions months in advance and let the news and anticipation snowball to the point where it cannot satisfy the demand for the product. Do the same thing for your eBook. Use your blog, social networking sites, and forums to let people know about your eBook project. By whetting the appetite of your friends, customers, and visitors, you will have a whole customer base ready to buy as soon as the eBook is released.

7. Encourage Comments On Your Download Site

Successful eBooks will have a lot of positive feedback from those who have read it. When prospective buyers see the number of people who are happy with your product, they are even more likely to buy it.

8. Get Third Party Reviews

Find a well respected Web site in your niche and get the owner to review your eBook. This not only creates a new back link, but it lets people know that someone else has read your eBook and likes it. Readers can also learn why the reviewer likes your book, an opinion that may play a part in the purchasing decision.

Online marketers love eBooks because they attract people to a Web site, increase revenue and contribute to a lot to the lives of others. Go get started on your eBook now, keeping these 8 characteristics of a successful eBook in mind.

This is a guest post from James Adams, a product analyst and tech writer for a leading UK-based online ink supplies specialist. His days are spent covering tech news, analysing and reviewing products such as the T0715 and, if he finds a spare minute, posting from time to time on their blog.

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I don’t know about you, but success has never been a thing that I have ever been scared of. The one thing I fear most is failure! I know I have amazing potential, yet I am afraid to share my dreams because of the voice in the back of my head that says ‘but what if you fail?’.

If you are anything like me, you are very protective of your goals.

Maybe it is because I am pursuing a different path than that of the majority of my friends and family, but I rarely ever talking about my blogging or online business.

Now it’s not that I am afraid of being called a nerd. I’m passed that – in fact I am embracing it! I recently got some Clark Kent style glasses which might make an appearance when I get around to doing a video – so it definitely isn’t that. What I have come to realise is that I am afraid of not achieving my goals and having all my 8-5 friends say, ‘ I knew you couldn’t do it – just get a job!‘

NO FEAR = NO DRIVE

But the problem with no one knowing your goals is that you start to put everything on cruise control – and that is where I found myself over the last month!

I was just going about business like usual – but I had hit a plateau! And for me…. plateau’s are EVIL.

So here are the steps that I have taken to smash forward towards my main goal:

Of having a location independent family, funded by my online assets.

I hope that it will encourage you to let your own fear of failure push you higher!

Step 1: Set Specific Goals!

I am a massive believer in SMART goal setting and I knew that to get to a new level and to break free from this plateau, I needed some specific goals with a time limit!

So I sat down with my wife and said:

Let’s set my job exit criteria! What levels do I need to be at to start doing this full-time?

Here is what we set: (and this is where my fear of failure kicks in!)

• To be making $,5000/month PROFIT
• Online Income must be TRENDING UP
  
• Have $10,000 in SAVINGS

Oh, and the time limit we set was JULY 2011!

Ok, so I am semi-comfortable with these goals – so time for step 2!

Step 2. Make Your Goals Uncomfortable!

The problem with comfortable goals is that most of the time they never get achieved! Because people start off thinking they have a heap of time to achieve them – so they don’t do anything. And then their time limit sneaks up on them and by then it is too late -and they fail.
That is why one of my all-time favourite quotes is:

“It is better to aim for the stars and hit the moon, than to aim for the trees, and hit the ground.”– Suzanne Oggenfuss

It is in our discomfort that we are spurred into action – and I don’t know if my wife knew that, but she has definitely made my goals a lot less comfortable. Let me explain.

We are only a newly married couple (14 months) and when we arrived back in Australia from 3 months in Canada (September last year), it just so happened that my parents were looking for a new place to rent at the same time we were -so to save money we found a big 5 bedroom house between us.

Just last month we signed another 6 month lease to end in March – with the goal of going our separate ways (my parents and us) at the end of the lease.

And my wife throws out an innocent suggestion…

Let’s go overseas  for 6 months from March – instead of waiting until July.

Now I know she was just thinking logically, because that would mean we wouldn’t have to try and find a short term rental lease , and don’t get me wrong – I love the idea! But cutting my goal by three months has definitely kicked me into gear!

Now our goals are the same as before, but now by March 2011!

Talk about a wake up call! But just in case that still wasn’t enough to drive me… here is step 3.

Step 3. Make Your Goals Public!

Setting SMART goals is great, making them uncomfortable is even better, but as soon as you release your goals into the public domain – man your productivity increases!

If you are feeling flat with where you currently are, then there is nothing like the fear of failure to kick you up the bum!

Where To From Here?

Obviously now that I am starting to get a large amount of drive, I need to channel that drive.

So I looked at my current projects and as you can see from my weekend discussion post, I am looking at making some changes to StandOutBlogger.

And as well as that, I am channeling a lot of my focus at the moment into a new project WebsiteBuildr – which is quickly taking shape (get ready for a big post about that one!)

Over To You?

Are you starting to hit a plateau with your online business?

Why not follow my lead and set some SMART goals, refine them to make them uncomfortable and then make them public!

Let the ‘fear of failure’ drive you a new level!

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