If you're on any of my EasyPLR.com mailing lists, you know that I LOVE LOVE LOVE giving away free PLR.

If not, well, now you know.

Several of my friends have been giving away free PLR like crazy this month.  So.. in case you're not on my PLR list, I wanted to mention it over here.

Finance (credit cards, saving money) articles (click here)

Health articles (click here)

Complete Marketing Package about Membership Sites (click here)

Personal Development PLR Package (click here)

A Parent's Guide to Medicine Safety: Answers to Common Questions Parents Have When They're Sick (click here)

Each of these PLR freebies is set up to so that you'll be presented with a special offer on the download page. Take a look at the special offers if you need PLR on those topics. It's a great opportunity to try out these services for cheap, cheap, cheap.

Have a great day.

Warmly,
Nicole

They can:

* Help you to establish yourself as a “real person”
* Help you build relationships with current readers and customers
* Allow you to gain new readers that eventually turn into customers
* Help create new and important connections with other like-minded bloggers.

But what happens when you can’t think of anything interesting to write about on your blog?

This happens to me ALL the time! (Hence the feast or famine flow of posts here.)

Blogs are started with the greatest of intentions, but then life gets busy. Or even when we’re good at keeping up with our blogs most of the time, we can find ourselves in an idea slump now and then.

If you’ve faced this challenge before, here’s a cool freebie that will help you generate more ideas than you can possibly write about. Plus, these are ideas that people will talk about, generating more BUZZ and word of mouth for your blog.

I’m talking about Lynette Chandler’s “12 Buzz Topics You Should Blog About Right Now”. If you don’t know Lynette, she is a good friend of mine, a great teacher and a wealth of knowledge on the topic of blogs. Whether it’s technology or blogging ideas, she knows her stuff.

The downloadable report is comes at no charge or any kind of obligation whatsoever. You don’t even have to opt-in to get it.

Just go to:

“12 Buzz Topics You Should Blog About Right Now”

…and click on “Download Now”.

At a super easy-to-digest 5 pages, Lynette has given you 12 sure-fire starter ideas that are applicable to ANY market. Take a few minutes to read it and get blogging!

Again, the link to grab yours is:

“12 Buzz Topics You Should Blog About Right Now”

By the way, while you're there, I do recommend that you sign up for her additional freebies. I'm on her notifications list and I'm getting some really fun stuff. If you don't, though, I think I might still be able to get some of the goodies for you — but I can't guarantee they'll give me permission to share all of them.

Have a great week!
Nicole

I couldn't be prouder or happier for her. She's been the voice of WAHMs online — a protective guard-dog as well as an encouraging big sis for many of us over the last 5 years, and I'm proud to call her my friend. I always know Kelly will tell me the truth and I appreciate her so much for it. She's also been a supportive business partner over the years and we've learned from each other through working together. You go girl!!!

Swing by and grab the great freebies she has to offer, listen to her show, and, if you would, post a shout out to her below in the comments section to cheer her on for her next 5 years – I'd really appreciate it!

ALSO, speaking of Kelly, she's got a cool barter-swap over at Sparkpluggin. If you want to trade VA hours for ghostwriter hours or get a press release in trade for candles — swing by there. Bartering is one of the coolest ways to save money in your business. No cash out of your pocket – and the potential to JV with other businesses owners. Have a look and see if there are any win-wins for you.

That's it for now. Have a wonderful week!

Warmly,
Nicole

I've mentioned in the past that I'm happy to do interviews, especially written ones, since they are easy for me to fit into my schedule. (Want one? Just contact my helpers helper@justaddsweat.com and we'll get you set up.)

Here are two interviews that I did recently —

• Vonetta @ Small Business Sanity – Entrepreneur Spotlight: Nicole Dean, Multiple Income Stream Diva
• Affiliate Tips – Interview With Nicole Dean the Affiliate Success Coach

Why do I take the time to do these?

1. New Readers. As you can see, both interviews expose me to new readers. The Affiliate Tips interview has already been rated almost 200 times. Who knows how many eyeballs have seen that page. The interview is archived, so it has the potential to send me traffic for years to come.

2. Talking about ME. I also get the opportunity to talk about ME without feeling silly or braggadocios. That's kind of the point — to talk about myself and what I have to offer people. Unlike my a press release, an ecourse, or an article for article marketing, I can freely talk about how wonderful my products are. Of course you can do that to some extent in your articles and press releases, but that's the POINT of the interview so it comes naturally.

3. Talking about my products and freebies. I'm also given the opportunity to showcase my projects when the interviewer asks what I'm up to, or where people can learn more.

4. Link love. For search engines, I'm given some link love, which is always nice.

5. It's fun! I get to meet new friends.

6. Credibility/Endorsement. The interviews also lend an air of credibility. The fact that I was asked and am featured on these sites acts as an endorsement by the readers.

So… when the last time you thought about doing interviews? Got anything to talk about? If you've got a blog, the answer is “yes”!

Get started.

Here are a few places where you can learn more.

1. In my Web Traffic Basics course, I share tips for being a Guest on an Online Radio Show.
2. Of course, Kelly McCausey has a great course about Press Releases.
3. I recommend you stop by Shelancers.com to see how affordably you can get help with your press release writing. (I have a press writer who I found through Shelancers.)
4. Many of my interviews are found through networking. People chat with me at places like www.MomsMastermind.com and find that I am a real person who is willing to grant interviews when it's a win-win situation. So, I highly recommend that you find a group of successful marketers to hang with. It's amazing the deals that go down when you're chatting with people who can get things done. (Check out www.MomsMastermind.com if you're a mom. It's great!)
5. HARO. These are reporters looking for people to interview. Join the list. It's free.

You've GOT to market your business if you want to keep growing. Whether you're doing that with article marketing, guest blogging, or search engine optimization, it's all good.

Interviews are another avenue of marketing. Give it a try.

Have a wonderful week.
Nicole

In the meantime, though… I received a phishing email today that almost got me (and I'm a pretty tough nut to crack). Since I ended up looking it up, I wanted to warn you about it so you didn't fall for it. Man, they are sneaky little crooks.

Here it is…

Sbj: Inaccurate whois information.

Dear user,

On Wed, 29 Oct 2008 14:53:24 +0100 we received a third party complaint of invalid domain contact information in the Whois database for this domain Whenever we receive a complaint, we are required by ICANN regulations to initiate an investigation as to whether the contact data displaying in the Whois database is valid data or not. If we find that there is invalid or missing data, we contact both the registrant and the account holder and inform them to update the information.

The contact information for the domain which displayed in the Whois database was indeed invalid. On Wed, 29 Oct 2008 14:53:24 +0100 we sent a notice to you at the admin/tech contact email address and the account email address informing you of invalid data in breach of the domain registration agreement and advising you to update the information or risk cancellation of the domain. The contact information was not updated within the specified period of time and we canceled the domain. The domain has subsequently been purchased by another party. You will need to contact them for any further inquiries regarding the domain.

PLEASE VERIFY YOUR CONTACT INFORMATION – http://www.enom.com

If you find any invalid contact information for this domain, please respond to this email with evidence of the specific contact information you have found to be invalid on the Whois record for the domain name. Examples would be a bounced email or returned postal mail. If you have a bounced email, please attach or forward with your reply or in the case of returned postal mail, scan the returned letter and attach to your email reply or please send it to:

Attn: Domain Services 14455 N Hayden Rd Suite 219 Scottsdale, AZ 85260

LINK TO CHANGE INFORMATION – http://www.enom.com

Thank you,
Domain Services

[IncidentID:65257]

Do NOT. I repeat Do NOT click on the link and enter your information. If you get a message like this, hold your mouse pointer over the link and look on the bottom left corner of your screen. The link and what shows up are not the same. In this one, the URL was actually enom.com.com92.biz (not enom.com).

If you're ever concerned about your domain registration, contact your registrar directly by typing in the URL into your browser.

I hope this helps save someone some headaches.

Warmly,
Nicole

Well, he's gotten quite a nice turnout and now it's time for you to go grab as many of them as you'd like.

If you've every considered adding a “freebie” section to your website, now is the time.

Download brandable reports here.

I hope you find some that you like!

Warmly,
Nicole

If you're unfamiliar with using Giveaways as a traffic generator, then this will be something pretty cool.

There are two factors at work here that you can benefit from.

1. You sign up as a Contributor to get exposure for yourself from everyone who signs up for the freebies. This could be thousands of eyeballs on your name and your URL.
AND… in this instance..
2. Your contribution is a rebrandable download that everyone who downloads it can REDISTRIBUTE it.

I'll certainly let you know when all of the freebies are available for download so you can load up on freebies. However, right now, they are only looking for contributors. So, if you have a brandable item (an ebook or free report) that you'd like to get circulating more, this is a great opportunity to do so.

I just wish I could sign up more than once!

Anyway, check out the page to see the details: Viral Brandable Giveaway < — click here.

Let me know if you have any questions.
Nicole

Questions:
1. Why would I give something away?
You'd give away a pdf document that presells your other products and links to them. That way, everyone who downloads your free gift will have the opportunity to learn more about you and your products or services.

2. How do I make a document brandable?
I use Viral PDF

3. What if I don't have a giveaway item?
Well, I'd suggest you make one. You can hire a writer or even start with a PLR product and edit it to make it your own. (If that's in the allowable rules.)

Here's the link again: Viral Brandable Giveaway < — click here.

Thankfully, I called upon my friend Tawra, publisher of the Living On A Dime series, and she graciously offered to do a quick interview. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Welcome, Tawra! Tell us about you.

I'm a SAHM with 3 kids 9,8 and 4. My husband is a video producer but quit his job in Jan. 2006 to work full time for our publishing business. We live in Kansas.

What are your favorite kinds of income streams?
The best income we have right now is adsense and sales from our books.

What’s the #1 mistake you’ve made and overcome with your online business?
We ordered too many books. We were told that the big companies would be more inclined to buy in bulk if we had them in stock. Wrong! We lived with a LOT of books in our garage for 5 years trying to get rid of them because a publisher took over and changed everything so the “old” edition was obsolete.

Do you have any recent news, products, a new launch, freebies, etc.
Yes, we are bringing out 3 new books in the next few months.

• Dig out of Debt, 1,000 of the best tips and ideas from Living On A Dime
• Penny Pinchin Mama, 401 Ways I survived on $500 a month (my mom's story)
• Winning the War on Credit Cards or how we saved $67,000 in 30 minutes. (our story on how we got out of debt using 0% credit cards)

What are your absolute favorite products or resources you can’t live without in your business?
Good quality packing tape and a Mac computer! Really, it makes all the difference when you're packing a lot of books and my computer doesn't crash anymore!

What’s the #1 tip you’d give for your success?
Never giving up. We averaged $1,000 a year for the first 8 years of the business. Only last year did we finally start seeing some profits. Even then it was about $20,000 so hubby is working a 2nd job until we can get things moving.

Thanks so much, Tawra, for your time!

And, if you love saving money, check out Living On A Dime!
Nicole

I've chatted with Mary Ann several times, as she's an affiliate for a few of my clients. She's definitely rocking as an affiliate marketer (I see her stats and KNOW she knows her stuff) — so I wanted to showcase her and let her teach us all a thing or two.

Here you go…

Welcome, Mary Ann!

Tell us about you.

I am now a work-at-home mom who started a basic homeschool website, www.TheHomeSchoolMom.com , 7 years ago when I started homeschooling my children.

Over time I learned more about good website code and design and was blessed to move up in the search engine rankings. I joined an active online community of homeschool webmasters and thanks to their shared knowledge I have been able to continually improve my site and earn a good income. My sites now include the homeschool website, a menu planning website, and a local parenting website that is still in the development stage. I love what I do and often find myself reflecting on what a blessing it is in this world where so many are dissatisfied with their jobs that I am able earn a good living doing something that I love to do (and still stay home with my children).

Why do you do affiliate marketing?

Although contextual pay-per-click ads (like adsense) do very well on my sites and represent the bulk of my income, I have found that targeted affiliate products are very successful and help me balance my income sources so that I am not too dependent on any one company for my livelihood. Because all of my websites target women, and moms in particular, I have found that menu planning affiliate programs are highly successful. Even though one of my websites – www.Menus4Moms.com – actually is a source of free menu plans, I like to offer my visitors other options. By highlighting affiliate links to other menu plans that are more specialized than mine (Kid-Approved Meals and Healthy Menu Mailer are good examples), I am able to provide my visitors with what they need while creating an additional source of income for myself.

What's the #1 mistake you've made and overcome with your online business?

Because I started with no training in online businesses and basically through trial and error, I made more than my fair share of mistakes. I think the biggest thing that I learned is that there is no free ride. I took it for granted that because I considered my site valuable that others would be excited to hear about it too, and would love to hear all about it. I made myself a pest telling people about it online and didn't realize that what I was doing was poor netiquette at best and extremely annoying at worst.

I learned quickly that *if you want traffic for your website, you have to earn it with time and effort.* I backed off the self-promotion and really tried to create something that promoted itself. It took at least 3 years before I had enough traffic to make any significant income, but the site has grown steadily since its inception. The one thing that helped more than anything was to create something valuable to give away on the website and publicize it (in a more kind and gentle way). That is when my traffic really started to build. For my homeschool site, that was a free downloadable homeschool planner. Asking for people to link to your site when it only benefits you is not nearly as easy as getting people to link to a free resource that will benefit their visitors. And once a few sites start linking to yours, the search engines start to take notice, and it's all downhill from there.

Do you have any recent news, products, a new launch, freebies, etc.

I just launched my first digital cookbook this month, Bulk Cooking for the Freezer: Ground Beef , and look forward to adding more Bulk Cooking ebooks to the store soon. I also have a free planner download including a menu planner found here: http://www.menus4moms.com/homeorganization/planner.php
This year I launched a new section of the Home Organization area of Menus4Moms called the Daily Reminder. It is a 15 minute task that is emailed each weekday to help moms declutter and organize the home. This is new within the past few months and has taken off like crazy, going from launch to 6600+ subscribers in 6 months.

What are your absolute favorite products or resources you can’t live without in your business?

This year I made the leap from desktop to laptop. In the past I carried a laptop when traveling but worked on a desktop at home and had to go through the hassle of synching files and dealing with network problems. This spring I purchased a workhorse laptop so now I don't have to switch back and forth between two computers. I absolutely love working this way and it has really freed me to travel and work outside the home when necessary without synching files and dealing with emails on both computers.

My other two favorites are PayPal and Dreamweaver. Dreamweaver was an expensive investment about 3 years ago that has been worth every penny. It has allowed me to accomplish tasks in minutes that used to take hours (particularly updating snippets of code on pages throughout my websites). I wish that I had made this investment sooner! Paypal has allowed me to take payments from advertisers and ebook customers without any hassle or complication.

What's the #1 tip you'd give for your success?

Know your audience and appeal to their specific needs with high quality affiliate ads. Just throwing affiliate links out there willy-nilly is likely to be unproductive and may even lower your site's credibility. When you frame each promotion around the needs of your site's visitors, they begin to look at your ads as a valuable part of your whole site. What bride doesn't consider the ads in Bride magazine just as valuable as the articles? But if the ads are unrelated, poor quality, or badly worded, the whole magazine suffers. The same is true for websites. Site owners that know their audiences and combine high quality relevant ads with excellent site design increase both their income and the perceived value of their site.

Thanks so much, Mary Ann, for your time!

Nicole