Here’s my day so far…

1. Got up. UG. Not a morning person. Started IV drip with coffee.

2. Got the kiddos off to school.

3. Got on IM with Melissa Ingold about the next CoachingPLRContent.com package that we planned to release today. Published the sales page and then wrote the email for that and sent to customers.

4. Started brainstorming with Susanne Myers about an idea for a new niche marketing course.

To do next…

1. Finish this blog post.

2. Mail EasyPLR.com lists about the new PLR. Invite them to come check in there.

3. Finish writing this month’s Income CPR lesson today. Top priority for today. Planning on writing it while sitting out by the pool with the puppies and enjoying the day.

4. I'd normally publish my Expert Briefs for this week since it's Thursday, but I thought I only had one response. Just checked and found another one in my spam folder. So, I may do that and send my peeps their next question.

5. Get some exercise.

6. Help daughter with homework and then go to son's football game tonight.

I'm noticing that this week I haven't focused as much as I usually would on traffic-generating activities. I may make that a priority tomorrow since I try to focus on traffic more than I have this week. Actually, my VA is posting my content on the NAMS Membership area and NAMS blog today, so I may give her some other pieces to post up there, too, for exposure.

I may also make it a priority to answer the interview requests that I got to promote ContentDrafts.com today rather than holding them until tomorrow. We'll see how far I get on that report first.

How’s your day going? What’s on your agenda?

Please post your to-do list for today as well as your progress. Looking forward to it!

Hugs and high fives,
N

ok. This is my  morning so far. Not off to a great start, but I want to show you that I don't sit in my swivel chair for 12 hours/ day. I have a real life, too.

1. Got up.  Gathered up my daughter so she and hubby could head off to school. Hubby reminded me that his car was in the shop so I'd have to drive them. I reminded hubby that our son had a doctor's appointment at 8:30 and it would have been nice to have been reminded before we needed to leave. Threw son in the shower, headed out to drop off daughter and hubby. Of course we were late dropping of my daughter so I had to go into the school to sign her in. And, also of course, I hadn't planned on being seen by the general public so my attire was not exactly appropriate, nor fetching in any way, shape, or form. ((SIGH))

2. Swung by the house, grabbed my son and drove him across town to his doctor's appt. Got that handled. Made sure to get a Doctor's note so I wouldn't get chastised again by the Deans at the school.

3. Drove son back to school, jumped through hoops to get him checked in…

4. Headed home. Made eggs with smoked salmon and watched one episode of a show on Netflix while eating and decompressing.

5. Sat my butt down in this chair.

6. Sent out the mailing for FreeAffiliateArticles.com for the week.

7. Chatted on IM with Susanne for a few to brainstorm.

8. Got sent a sexy picture on IM from my friend, Tracy Roberts. It's from an awesome movie called “Lost in Austen”. She sends me fun stuff during the day to keep up my spirits.

9. It is now 11am. Time for real work to begin.

My priorities for the day are…

1.  Quickly post a pic on here for Marketing Monday. Hopefully it will spur on some conversation.

2. Plan my mailings for this week around the promos that I have scheduled.

3. Finish last 3 lessons for BlogCPR.com so that I can write this month's lesson for IncomeCPR.com

4. Be done by the time my daughter gets off the bus.

5. Run daughter to after school activities.

6. Hopefully do some form of exercise and get in a shower at some point today.

How about you? How's your day going? What's on your agenda?

Please post your to-do list for today as well as your progress. Looking forward to it!

Hugs and high fives,
N

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I've been in a business funk of sorts. I'm not down or depressed or anything and money is coming in just fine. I've just felt like laying in bed and watching Netflix, hanging out with my friends, cleaning the house, running errands, pampering myself, playing with the puppies, or going to the gym.

It started in July. I went on vacation for the month which was planned. I know I wasn't going to work much (if at all) on that trip other than writing a report for IncomeCPR.com. So, I didn't work and I had a ton of fun. But then when I got home the end of July, I just wanted to clean the house and spend time with my kids. Which was cool. I figured that once they were back in school, I'd get back to my super productive self.

It didn't happen that way. Instead, when the kids went back to school, I took some time to relax, thinking that I deserved it. (And, I do.)

But, then… I'd get up, head to my computer and think “Oh Good! Now that the kids are back in school, I have six full hours to work.” Six whole freaking hours! That sounded like such a lot of work. And, then, I'd crawl back into bed to watch a movie on Netflix or go read a book.

Usually when this happens, I commit myself to working 1 hour/day and just waiting it out. It's kind of like exercise. If I commit to walking 15 minutes/day, that's the hard part. I'll usually end up walking for 45 minutes to an hour once I get started. It's the starting and heading out that's hard.

So, that's what I've been doing. I get on for an hour each day, do my to do list of essentials like paying my affiliates – and then head to the gym or go on a walk and just enjoy my day.

Well, I was chatting with my good friend, Susanne Myers, and I told her that enough was enough and it was time for me to get out of this funk and get back to being super-productive. Now don't get me wrong — I've already decided that that does not mean sitting on my butt for six hours per day. That's just not what I want my days (or my butt) to look like. BUT! It does mean that I don't get to lay in bed with the puppies and watch Netflix all day either.

So, here's what we came up with. We're going to post our daily to do lists for a week, and share what we've gotten accomplished. And, I'd love for you to do the same. I think you'll find you'll get a ton more done than usual. I'm planning to.

Susanne and I often challenge each other in Instant Messenger, but for the next week, will do it on our blogs so you can keep track of what we're up to and how we spend our days.

Sound fun?

Since it's Friday, I'm taking it easy. This is my day so far…

1. Got up. Hey, that isn't always easy.   Realized I was in a good mood. The Packers won! WOOT! Got the kids off to school. Fed puppies.

2. Played FreeCell a half an hour on my iPad. As long as I'm winning most games in under 3 minutes, I'm happy. Otherwise, I get crabby.

3. Ran to Best Buy to get a new MP3/MP4 player. I was using my phone as a MP3 player at the gym, but I wanted something more disposable (ie. something I can sweat on) and that held a charge longer than my phone does. While my new toy has been charging, I loaded it up with tons of stuff that I'd bought and never listened to. I'm a terrible multi-tasker at home, so I work in silence. This means that I never listen to audio or video courses unless I drag my mentors on a walk, in the bath, or to the gym with me. (Yes, I've taken baths with more internet marketers than I should probably admit!)   This took an hour to upload the files. It's charging now for a trip to the gym in a little bit.

4. Connected with coaching client who wanted to celebrate a success. Cheered her on and answered her questions.

5. Played on Facebook for 5 minutes twice (total of 10 minutes).

6. Skimmed email for emergencies for 2 minutes. None so it can wait.

 7. Chatted with Susanne on IM. She's doing a PLR challenge on her blog and wanted to run it by me.

8. Susanne asked “Are you starting our Accountability Challenge or am I?” I said “I am.”

9. Melissa Ingold grabbed me on Instant Messenger to see if I had room in my promo calendar to release a new CoachingPLRContent.com package on the 15th. I said “yes”.

10. I received an invoice from a writer. Paid it.

11. Wrote this blog post up til this point.

It's 11:38 CST now.

I'm going to head to the gym and get smart in a few minutes. When I get back, I'm going to…

1. Finish prepping four packs for EasyPLR.com so they're done for the  month.

2. Connect with my tech gal about setting up Zen Desk for me.

3. Touch base with my copywriter to make sure she's got what she needs for this month's sales copy.

4. Outline my report for IncomeCPR.com for this month so I can get that written.

5. Run to the grocery store and get some eggs, a rotisserie chicken, smoked salmon, and avocados.

Wish me luck! Let me know what's on your to do list for today and how well it's going.

As for Susanne – tell me how your day has been and what you've gotten done and what you're planning for today.

Big hugs!

Nicole

PS. Be sure to swing by Susanne's blog and see what she's up to today, too. Affiliate Treasure Chest.

Updates are posted in comments below…

There are several ways to encourage people to do so…. (although lately I feel like I'm not the best one to give advice on this topic as my poor blog tends to get neglected while I'm working on my bigger money-making projects).

However, here you go!

How to Get your Blog Readers to Comment

1. Enable the DoFollow plugin so that your commenters' links are followed by the search engines.

2. Enable Comment Luv plug in so that your blog commenters get an extra link from their most recent blog post.

3. Email your blog commenters with a “thank you” after they post. There are automated tools to do this, but it's much better to do it personally if at all possible or have your Virtual Assistant do it for you.

4. Respond to the comment on your blog, which is really just common courtesy.

5. Visit their blogs and comment back. Again, this is time-consuming and can't always be done, but is nice to do while you're having a break with a glass of wine in the evenings. Take a few minutes away from IM, Twitter, and chatting on forums (yeah, I love them, too!) and go visit your readers' blogs.

6. Here's an idea that I hadn't seen before — list all of your blog commenters in a “thank you” post. While time consuming, it is a very thoughtful and appreciated gesture.

7. Hold blog contests and giveaways that involve commenting to win.

8. Have a contest to reward the person who comments most! (Hmm… any ideas for prizes that you'd like to see? I can do this easily! Let me know.)

9. Promote and market your blog so that it gets a lot of traffic. People want to comment on highly-trafficked blogs.

10. Ask your readers to comment. Sometimes people just want to be asked.

11. Ask them for suggestions. Ask for ideas. Ask for Advice. Ask questions — like in this post, I'm asking for YOUR ideas, as well.

12. Send a note about your blog post to your newsletter or ezine, letting them know you'd love to hear their thoughts.

13. Post something controversial. That'll get people talking – for better or worse.

14. Don't allow crappy/yucky spammy comments to remain on your blog. It makes your blog look neglected. Be sure to go in and delete your spam. If you're using WordPress the Akismet plugin will help automate this process. There are tons of other plugins that will help keep spam off your blog as well, but spammers aren't dumb and will find ways around them so be sure you delete the ones that do make it through.

15. Twitter about your best blog posts. That'll attract people who are already talkative to come by and chat. Have your Virtual Assistants Twitter about it, too.

16. Automate the Twitter process. Don't have time to twitter your own posts? Check out this handy dandy tool that twitters your posts for you. Just a note on this tool – it doesn't tweet pre-scheduled posts in WP. Or if it does I haven't figured out the trick to make it work. If you know how leave me a comment!

17. StumbleUpon your blog posts that are informative in nature.

18. Kirtsy blog posts of interest to your readers.

19. There are a ton of ways you can get the word out about a post on your blog similar in fashion to Kirtsy and StumbleUpon. You can add a widget to your blog that lists popular social bookmarking sites right at the end of your post. This makes it easy for visitors to submit your posts to the social networking sites of their choice and bring more people to it, allowing for more opportunities for comments.

20. Get personal. My personal blog posts are usually commented upon more than my others.

21. Be silly or at least “real”. If you notice, in the last post, I mentioned my husband's reaction to beans… Too much information? Probably. But, it's better than being B-O-R-I-N-G!

22. Make it easy to comment. If I try to comment on a blog and have to run through Captchas and logins in order to comment, I'll likely leave. My vision is quite good, but I struggle with those darned Captchas — and they are not friendly at all to those with impaired vision. So, unless you don't want people with impaired vision commenting on your blog… find a better solution.

23. Make sure your commenting works. A few minutes ago, I tried to comment on a blog and received an error. It was a friend, so I'll tell her, but if it wasn't… she might not know for weeks and think her readers weren't interested or reading her material.

24. If you have a Blogger blog, be kind to those who do not have blogger/Google accounts and enable the alternative commenting.

25. Change the default text in your blog template from saying “Comments” to “Please leave a comment” or “Talk to me” or something – to attract commenters.

26. Think twice before setting up your blog to moderate comments. It's definitely a hindrance to those who want to comment on multiple discussions. I've rarely seen active comments on blogs that moderate their comments.

27. Make sure your comment link isn't hiding when people are reading your main page or when they are on a “category” page. Sometimes there's so much “stuff” around the comment link that it's hard to even find.

What do you do to encourage your blog readers to comment? I would love to hear your ideas.

Thanks for reading!

Nicole

PS. Of course, blog commenting etiquitte should always be followed when posting comments.