If you've missed past Expert Briefs, you can click on the undies to see them all –>

A lot of online business owners are looking at the holidays with dread because they're going to be headed into the new year with even more debt. So, my question is this..

“If you (meaning YOU, not someone you were advising) had to double your income in the next 30 days, how would you do it?”

I think you'll find the answers this week interesting and hopefully motivating.

Denise O’Berry of DeniseOBerry.com says:

Well, thankfully my business is not one of those facing more debt but these are some things I'd do to double my income by the end of the year.

• Find my hot products and raise the price a bit — somewhere in the neighborhood of $1 to $5 depending on how well the product performs today.
• Package like products together and run one or more promotions to my list and on my website.
• Find a JV partner who wants to increase their sales for the month and create a promotion that will benefit them and me. This could involve me selling to their audience or them selling to mine or both.
• Include a new one time offer in all of my email list sign up sequences.
• Create a niche report on a timely hot topic, find partners to help me sell it, and put it out there for the world to buy.
• Create some quick videos as a companion to an existing product that is selling well, make it a package for a higher price than the single product.
• Run a retirement sale on products that are good quality, but need refreshing.
• Offer a resale rights package on an appropriate product.

Those are all the thoughts that come to mind as I brainstorm the possibilities. Thanks for asking the question. Looks like I have a good start on a new action plan. I'll do some now and save some for later!

Shannon Cherry of Quick Sales for Quick Profits says:

As someone who has run a completely debt-free business from the beginning, I've had to sometimes really bootstrap in order to make sure I had enough money to pay my bills and not be tempted to EVER run up a credit card.

Here's are the survival tips I've used in the past:

1) Cut the fat. Look at your business expenses. What can be cut? (Be especially critical of those items you pay for each and every month. Are you really using them? I often look at things like SaaS (Software As A Service) as a big money suck.)

2) Hold a sale on old items or some redone PLR. As a matter of fact, my sales have been so successful, I've was asked to share how I get them done. The result after make sure every step works is the S.A.L.E.S. System Formula. Get the free report and ebook to learn how to use Quick Sales for Quick Profits by clicking the link by my name.

3) Make some phone calls. I look for people who have invested with me in the past and get on the call and thank them. Often times this leads to questions from them where I can direct them to products to help them.

4) Ask for help. Sometimes you need extra help, and that's when I reach out to a friend and ask them to promote me to their list. Sometimes, its hosting a teleclass where they interview me; other times I write them some sales copy on a good product I sell and let them send it out.

Connie Ragen Green of ConnieGreen.com says:

If I wanted to double my income during the next 30 days I would create a new product and a new training course, as well as taking a look at other products I have not been promoting recently. The product would be something that would be evergreen, meaning that I could set it up on the Internet and sell it for years to come. I find that a $97 product does best. Then I would promote it using every method and technique that works, including article marketing, blogging, social media, interviews, teleseminars, and affiliates.

Then I would survey my list to see what type of a course they would be interested in taking from me during the next week to 10 days. Just as soon as I figured out what they wanted to learn from me, I would design the course to be taught in three or four sessions. I'd create supporting materials to go along with it, and set it all up in a membership site. Depending upon the topic, I might bring in other experts to teach their area of expertise to my students.

Next, I would take some of my products off the digital shelf and dust them off. Most of us have products or courses we have not been promoting. Sometimes our list has forgotten that we have them, so this is an opportunity to freshen them up, add some new bonuses, and market them more vigorously.

Finally, I would let my affiliates know that I was having a huge promotion. This would bring in even more sales and connect me with new prospects and clients.

I tend to go through this exact process every six months or so, and my income takes a huge jump each time.

Alice Seba of Contentrix says:

What you're asking for is a short term plan…doubling in 30 days, so let's talk about it in that context.

What that requires:

* Full focus – no distractions, no shiny objects. I have to stick to the plan.

Speaking of the plan, that includes:

* Reviewing stats and financial statements. Things to look at include the numbers from last December. What sold well? What was down? I would also look at the stats over the year. What products sold best, which affiliates sold the most, which products didn't do well? What promotions and coupons performed best? Which days of the week were the beat performing?

* Using that information, it's time to come up with a plan for new products and/or special promotions to create in the coming month. This planning would include assigning any work to writers, my VA, etc. Products need to be put together. Promotional copy needs to be written and shopping carts need to be ready.

* Making a promotion/email schedule. The money is in my lists, so that's where my focus lies. Blogs, social media…etc. those are secondary if I am looking for immediate financial benefit. I will focus on my opt in lists, customer lists and affiliates

* Make a short list of affiliates to personally contact and ask to promote the most relevant products for them.

* Make a list of new affiliates with potential in order to contact them with a really great promotion. It would have to be something that truly benefits the affiliate's readers and is lucrative for the affiliate as well.

Next comes execute, which involves:

* Getting contractors ready with full instructions, deadlines and a plan to follow up

* Writing emails like crazy. Write them and schedule them.

Basically, it boils down to having a plan that includes new products and very attractive promotions. Couple that with being fairly aggressive in leveraging my own lists and the lists of others…and we're ready to roll!

Susanne Myers of AffiliateTreasureChest.com says:

I actually had to triple my income for the month at some point last year to cover some unexpected expenses. Here's what I did:

Take a look at your current assets including
– All websites and domains you own
– All products you created
– All articles, plr and other stuff you own that's collecting virtual dust on your harddrive
– All lists that you have.

Next, come up with a plan to bring in some big cash.

Do you have some websites that are still making some money but you've lost interest in? They could use some TLC and have good potential, but you just don't have time enough to work on them? Consider selling them. You can put them on flippa, or offer them to some of your friends, colleagues, and even your affiliates.

You can do the same with some good domain names you have. Be prepared to spread the word and do some marketing to get some decent cash for these sites and domains.

Next, look at the products and lists that you have. Combine some of your current products, use articles you've written and plr to create bonuses for it or come up with some new products. Create a nice combo package and then email your list about it. 4 day sales that create some urgency work best for this in my experience.

Next, email your affiliates and people in related markets and have them offer the same sale to their list.

Scott Tousignant of FatLossQuickie.com says:

If I had to double my income in the next 30 days I would…

Number one, would be to connect with a few Joint Venture Partners who have high quality and complimentary products to those that I offer, which fulfill the needs of my Fat Loss Quickie fans and followers. I would then plan some cross promotions that are win-win-win situations and schedule the entire month on my promotion calendar.

A win-win-win situation occurs when I recommend a Joint Venture Partner’s product and earn a commission, while they gain customers and make money too. Then they return the favor and recommend one of my products and earn a generous 75% commission, while I gain customers and make money. The customer wins because they receive high quality products that solve their problems.

…By the way, that is exactly what I’ve already done to prepare for the month of December.

I particularly like to scope out hot new products that have an irresistible offer, such as a Huge 3 day sale.

I would also consider running a 3 day sale on my own products and run an affiliate contest with big prizes. This has worked extremely well for me in the past, and I believe that I shared one of those instances in my interview on Nik’s Success Cast. I paid out huge prizes, which may sound scary, but the outcome was BIG profits in just a few days.

David Frey of MarketingBestPractices.com says:

Simple.

I would take my best selling information product and turn it into a high ticket ($2,000 plus) live event. Then I would offer it to all of the people who already bought the lower ticket information product.

I would also offer the buyers to become an affiliate for the live event that including some affiliate prizes.

Then I would create a rocking sales video and do a private product launch to my list and to select JV partners.

So the formula is…

Low(er) ticket product -> High ticket event

Nicole Dean of .. here! .. says:

I've created a list of six ways to increase your income.

1. Increase New Visitors (More Traffic)
2. Increase List Size (More Leads)
3. Increase Number of Offers (Create More Products)
4. Increase Number of Offers Seen by Prospects (Better Followup & Funnels)
5. Increase Results (Improve Conversion on my Offers)
6. Decrease Expenses (Cut Costs)

So, any time I want to increase my income – I know that I can do so by tackling one or more of the items above. Some are quicker. Some take more time to see results. But, the cool thing is that they work together. So, if I increase my traffic AND my conversion, for example, that actually multiplies the effect, as opposed to doing only one or the other.

However, the question was what would I, personally, do to double my income in 30 days. And, that's simple because I've had to do it on a few occasions. It wasn't a lasting effect (as far as consistently staying doubled), but I can make it spike when I need to – and, although the “double effect” dips the following month, it's still higher than it was before.

I  know that I could do it by running a sale. However, I don't like to run sales. If you're on my lists, you've probably realized that by now. The reason is simple. When I release a new product (whether my own or PLR) – my LOYAL readers normally buy it right away because they're excited to get it. I feel badly offering it at a discount six months down the road. It just doesn't sit right to  me. So, instead, I normally release my products at a lower price initially to reward my customers and those who are fast-action takers. Then I raise it.  I'm more comfortable with that approach. So, that rules out sales for me.

The only exception to that is running a unique offer that is a bundle – so that my loyal customers can not directly compare it to something they've previously purchased. For instance, I might take two products of mine, add something to it, and sell it for a price higher than each product would sell alone.

So, what would I do?

Actually to be completely honest with you (like I'm normally not? lol!) — I'm having a difficult time writing this blog post. In fact, if I hadn't have already gotten the responses from my friends, I'd probably stuff it back into draft mode for awhile and think a few more days.

I just feel silly writing about what I would do – like “DUH! I you WOULD do this, why AREN'T you doing it right now?”

Even though my income is higher than ever – it could always be higher. And, the more money I make, the more good I can do for myself, my family, my friends, and for charitable organizations. So, why aren't I doing it?  That's a very good question – and the reason why I have my accountability partners to kick my butt when I let fear, procrastination, and self-doubt get in my way.

So, I guess I'll change the question. It's my blog. I can do that.

What WILL I do?

Well, looking at the list above, if I were focusing on short-term results (like the question states), I would, like Alice said, put aside blogging and social media and instead focus on my lists (and leveraging the lists of others) and offers.

* The first thing I'd do is call in some favors. I've successfully promoted a lot of other people who have not promoted me back nearly as much (or at all). So, I'd let them know of some of my hotter products and get them mailing for me.

* The second thing I'd do is write up a plan for my lists for the month. Whenever I do this, it's extremely successful. However, when I fly by the seat of my pants, I stress and don't do as well. So, I'd sketch out a plan for connecting with my lists  – making sure that  I'm putting together a good combination of useful information, fun stuff, with appropriate promotions tied in for products that I  know they'll love.

Just by doing those two things, I could possibly meet my goals, but that's not good enough.

* I would also run an affiliate contest or promo at EasyPLR.com to give people an excuse to talk me up.

* And, I would release a new product – and tell all of my affiliates. I'd then reconnect with the JV partners above – in case they wanted to promote that, too (plus it gives me an excuse to bug them twice without looking like a pest!).

That should do it.

It’s Your Turn.

So, now, I’ll pose this question to you. If you had to double your income in 30 days – what would YOU do? I’d love to hear your comments!

Warmly,
Nicole Dean

PS. I have created brandable reports from several of the previous Expert Brief columns that you can use to earn commissions by giving them away.

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If you've missed past Expert Briefs, you can click on the undies to see them all –>

This week I asked our panel of experts a question that I've been thinking about lately.

“This question is about blog plugins. We all know about Akismet and All in One SEO and the other commonly known favorites.

Of all of the plugins that you've got installed on your own blog, tell us about 1 or 2 gems that you use that aren't as widely known.”

Shannon Cherry of List Building Promotion Secrets says:

Plug-in. Plug-in. Who's got the Plug-in?

I will admit I am almost as addicted to plug-ins as I am domain names. And why not? There are more than 10,000 of them out there to pimp out your blog. But if I had to narrow down my favorites, here are my top three:

• Thank Me Later. This one allows me to email first time commenters automatically. You can write up the email to remind them about your RSS feed or just to invite them to connect with you personally. (I do both!)

• SEO Scribe. This is a subscription based plugin (meaning you have to PAY for it). It works with All In One SEO Plug In to analyze each blog post for the best SEO. It finds keywords and event backlinks you can use. Best of all, the subscription can be used on multiple blogs at once (currently I use it on 4 of them).

• WPTouch iPhone Theme.This plugin will instantly make your site optimized for mobile browsers, while keeping your normal theme for people browsing your site on their PC. If you don’t use a heavily customized theme, then this plugin will be perfect to you.

Now there is ONE plug in I don't get that comes with the WP install: Hello Dolly! Can someone please tell me why that's in there?

Mark Mason of MasonWorld.com says:

This is an easy one for me.

I have 36 active plugins currently installed on MasonWorld.com, but the one I like the most is W3TotalCache (W3TC). I was previously using WPSuperCache, but I was having some page load time performance problems, particularly right after sending my list to my blog. So, I did some research and switched to W3TotalCache.

According to the W3TC people..

W3 Total Cache is the fastest and most complete WordPress performance plugin. Dramatically improve the speed and user experience of your site. Add browser, page, object and database caching as well as minify and content delivery network (CDN) to WordPress.

The cool thing is that W3TC uses Amazon S3 and Cloudfront (that the CDN thingy referenced in the blurb) to host some of the more frequently downloaded files on my site, and that helped performance a lot.

Regards,
Mark

Kelly McCausey of Work at Home Moms Talk Radio says:

I'm utterly dependent on the Broken Link Checker plugin. I have several WordPress sites with thousands of pages of content going back five years or more. Dead links are going to happen and I love how easy it is for me to remove or update them with this plugin. This is especially important with affiliate links that have gone dead but cleaning up dead links in general is important if you don't want to annoy your web visitors.

• Broken Link Checker

I'm using the WP-Invoice plugin on one of my service based websites where I often work long term with clients. The WP-Invoice plugin allows me to simply issue a web based invoice for monthly retainers and incidental projects. My client can then easily pay via PayPal. I love that I'm able to view pending invoices right within my WordPress site.

• WP-Invoice – Web Invoice and Billing

Lynette Chandler of TechBasedMarketing.com says:

Alright, I'll admit I'm partial to plugin since we developed it:)

1. List Authors Plus – this allows finer control over how authors are listed. You can display authors using the plugins' template tag or using sidebar widgets. Really handy when you have a bunch of accounts on your blog but not all account holders warrant a mention on your authors listing.
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/list-authors-plus/

The rest of the list were not developed by us though we have more in the works

2. WP-Invites – allows you to create an invite code and only those who enter the correct invite code will be able to successfully register on your blog. I love this (and similar plugins) because we often request guest posts and we like to have our guests create their own account for both their convenience and ours. But at the same time we do not like to have the blog open for others to register either this stops unauthorized people and spammers from creating accounts yet still automates the author's account creation process.
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-invites/

3. Syntax Highlighter and Code Prettifier Plugin for WordPress – I'm not sure not many people know about this but certainly not many non-techies know how to use this. I find  WP-Syntax great for affiliate sites – as in sites where affiliate managers post updates and codes etc. One of the problems with WordPress is, when you try to post a text article inside a textarea, you will get unexpected results with the line breaks. In short, it doesn't make easy copying and pasting. This allows you to create boxes for code and copy/paste text and also
makes it easy for people to copy and paste.

4. WP Mobile Edition – Pretty self explanatory – allows you to display a mobile version of your blog/site to those who are viewing on mobile devices.
http://crowdfavorite.com/wordpress/plugins/wordpress-mobile-edition/

5. Header-Footer – Don't you hate it when you have to install a gazillion plugins just to add a code to the header or footer of your site? Many don't realize, you don't have to. This allows you to add any type of code into your headers and footers and cut down on the number of plugins too, reducing that plugin mess (yay!)
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/header-footer/

6. RunPHP, PHPExec, PHP Execution – lets you add PHP code into your posts, pages. While true it works well only if you know what you're doing with PHP but oh it can help you do a multitude of things. Like automatically add your affiliates' ID to your products links on the page. I've used it many times to do that and am sure affiliates appreciate the extra help.

7. ThemePerPost – love this. Lets you use different theme for a post or page http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/themeperpost/

I'd have to end this by a small advise to do your due diligence on any of the plugins mentioned. While we have run it without problems and have not encountered rogue code in them but our servers may be configured differently than yours and also files on download pages change from time to time.

Got some feedback on Twitter from Warren Whitlock:

Denise O'Berry of DeniseOBerry.com says:

It's hard to believe that just a few years ago, small business owners had to struggle with learning how to code html or php if they wanted to build their own website. WordPress has made life so simple for do it yourselfers.

And it continues to get better and better as the platform matures and those cool techie folks out there create plugins that make our lives simpler.

Like most small business owners, my websites have the standard plugins to battle spam and allow for social sharing. But one of my favorite plugins — that's not so common — is Add Sig, a plugin that allows you to add standard and custom signatures at the bottom of your posts. You can find it here http://www.dagondesign.com/articles/add-signature-plugin-for-wordpress/

I've used this plugin to add guest blogger bios, affiliate products, email list sign up forms and many other options. It's simple and takes just a few minutes to enter or change without requiring a ton of technical knowledge.

Connie Ragen Green of ConnieGreen.com says:

I have found that less is more when it comes to plug-ins, so I choose them carefully before installing them on my blogs. The ones I'd like to share are
the broken link checker plug-in and the drafts dropdown plug-in.

I include links in most of my posts, and I always check them before I publish them. However, things beyond our control often happen, resulting in broken links and unhappy readers. The cure for this is the broken link checker plug-in, which lets you know when a link on your blog is no longer active. This gives you a chance to correct it, replace, it, or simply remove it.

I post regularly to two blogs, so I tend to write partial posts and save them as drafts. The drafts dropdown plug-in makes it so easy for me to choose
which draft I want to work on, saving me lots of time.

Pat Flynn of The Smart Passive Income Blog says:

Hi Nicole,

Here are a couple of gem plugins that most people probably don't know about:

• Broken Link Checker: this plugin is great because it will automatically detect any broken links on your WordPress blog, either links that you type in yourself that were just not typed in correctly, which happens from time to time, or links that used to work but do not anymore because the page that it points to is no longer available.

• Robots Meta: this plugin, which is a bit more advanced, allows you to choose a number of settings for your WordPress blog as far as what the search engine spiders can and cannot crawl through. So for example, if you want to create nofollow links for your comments or for your archive page, it's just a click of a button away. Also, each new page or post that you create has a setting where you can choose whether it should or shouldn't be indexed by Google, which comes in handy when you are creating more private type pages, such as landing pages for lead magnets for opting into an email list.

Cheers!

-Pat

Alice Seba of Contentrix says:

I'm pretty old school when it comes to marketing. I don't look for fancy marketing tools or plugins for every little thing. However, I am a big fan of saving time and automating things where it makes sense. With that in mind, I have to make a little plug for my own plug “Speedy APLC Publisher”. It is designed for our members at allprivatelabelcontent.com and it allows them to instantly load their PLR articles into WordPress. But the cool thing is, it can be used for any content. Whether it's PLR you bought elsewhere, articles from a ghostwriter or stuff you wrote yourself. As long as it's in .txt format, it can be uploaded.

It allows you to:

* Mass upload of articles in .txt format
* Schedule imported articles for publication e.g. Every 1 hour, 24 hours, 72 hours, etc.
* Upload the articles as drafts if you want to edit them before they are published.
* Choose your categories. Publish all articles in one category of your choice or individually select a category.
* Choose your authors. Assign all articles to one author or individually assign articles to author(s) of your choice.

It's a great timesaver, even if you plan to edit the content. All you do is upload the zip, make your setting and everything is ready for you to work your magic.

Here is a video showing how the publisher works.

Denise Wakeman of Blog Squad Tips says:

Great question, Nicole! I usually go for plugins that make things easier and automate tasks.

I especially like …

• Viper’s Video Quicktags: Super-easy way to add videos from YouTube and other video sharing platforms to your posts.

• Photo Dropper: Lets you easily find and add creative commons licensed photos to your posts from Flickr.

Nicole Dean of .. here! .. says:

I currently have 25 active plugins on my blog, but amazingly I don't have the broken link checker. I'll have to add that one today since it sounds really handy. Then have my Virtual Assistant go through the broken links for me and fix them.

As for my favorite plugins, it was easy for me to choose mine, and I was surprised that they hadn't been mentioned yet.

My absolute favorite three WordPress plugins are:

• WordPress Editorial Calendar
• Datafeedr Random Ads V2
• Page Links To

I also depend on Podpress to keep my podcast running, but I didn't think that was really a “hidden gem” so I'll just mention it in passing as my other most favorite plugin.

Here's a bit about each one so you can see why I love them.

1. WordPress Editorial Calendar.
Their description says:

The Editorial Calendar makes it possible to see all your posts and drag and drop them to manage your blog.

The Editorial Calendar is basically a way to organize and manage your blog posts.

I've found that it's especially useful if…

• You're a visual person
• You like to plan your posts and promos in advance
• You're outsourcing
• You have guest bloggers or a community blog where others are contributing to your blog
• You have theme days (like I do these Expert Briefs)
• You're doing a challenge or contest of some sort (like my month-long Computer Butt Challenge)

Here's a screenshot that I took on Monday (the 15th) of my blog calendar. You can see that I already had two blog posts scheduled for Tuesday, ready to post.

If I didn't have this plugin, I think I'd have gone crazy(ier) by now.

Click on the image if you'd like to see it full size.

2. Datafeedr Random Ads V2

Their description says:

The Datafeedr Random Ads plugin is a free plugin which allows you to simply and easily show random ads anywhere in your template files or using widgets.

Here's a video to show you how I use it on this blog. I have it installed on several other blogs, but thought you'd be most interested in seeing behind-the-scenes here.

3. Page Links To Plugin.

Their description says:

Allows you to point WordPress pages or posts to a URL of your choosing. Good for setting up navigational links to non-WP sections of your site or to off-site resources.

The easiest way to show you how this works is to point you to my navigation above. If you go to the top navigation where it says “Tools I Use in My Business” – hold your mouse over those words and you'll see a list of sub-pages.

If you click on some of the pages that display, you'll be taken to pages here on my blog. If you click on others, you'll go directly to other sites where you can learn more about the tools. I didn't have time to create pages for each tool yet, but wanted my readers to know what I personally use in  my business, so I started to list them there.

Here's what the plugin looks like when you're using it. This is my settings for my “Contact Me” page under “About Nicole” on my top navigation.

It's Your Turn.

So, now, I'll pose this question to you. What are your favorite lesser known plugins? I'd love to hear what you have on your blog!

Warmly,
Nicole Dean

PS. I have created brandable reports from several of the previous Expert Brief columns that you can use to earn commissions by giving them away.

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