This week I asked our panel of experts…

“What is your most productive time of day?

How do you optimize and plan for that?”

I think you'll find the responses interesting.

Lou Bortone of Video in a Day says:

I'm a night owl and usually get a second or third wind at 11pm. By then the kids and dogs have finally settled in, the house is quiet, and I can hunker down for a couple of hours of productive time. I set aside the late shift for creative work like copywriting or video editing – stuff that requires the focus I don't usually have during the day. (Did I mention that I have the attention span of a gnat?)

Terry Dean of My Marketing Coach says:

My most productive time of day is late morning before lunch – usually 9 to 12 AM.

Since I'm an early riser, I will usually handle client emails before this. Then I'll exercise, eat breakfast, and get ready.

Then depending on the day, usually I spend that entire 3 hour period writing on Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays. On Tuesday and Wednesdays I do phone clients.

Any ‘routine' activities are usually done in the afternoon.

Everyone always seems to tell you not to do email first in the morning, but that all depends on your energy levels. I find email works well for me first thing and then run my most creative periods a little bit later in the morning.

You need to find a system that works for you personally, and then flow with it instead of forcing yourself into someone else's model.

Kevin Riley of  Blogpreneur Training says:

I find myself most productive at either mid-morning or late night. When I want to take advantage of this productive time, I do one of the following:

Walk away from my computers and go somewhere quiet to write. This may be my kitchen floor, on the roof of our building, or on a train to one of my favourite hiking spots.

Hop on the computer at my studio (the only Windows computer I have – exiled from my Mac-only office, but loaded with my old MX Flash software) and draw the character drawings I need for my new videos.

Do whatever is on my ToDo list.

Rachel Rofe of How To Get Every Book You Write Onto The First Page Of Kindle says:

I am definitely best in the mornings. I love working from 7am to 12pm.

Some of the ways I optimize are:

– I aim to go to bed before 10pm so when I wake up, I feel rested and ready to go.

– I have my to-do list written out the night before so that I can hit the ground running when I get to my computer.

– I aim to have healthy and nourishing breakfast foods on hand so there's no wasted time thinking about what to eat.

– I don't schedule any phone calls or interviews during that time.

– I do my best not to check email in that period.

– I schedule all of my hardest tasks from 7-12, and do the hardest one first, while I have the most juice.

Kelly McCausey of Solo Smarts Podcast says:

My productive times are split. I'm highly functional between ten in the morning and two or three in the afternoon, then I'm back in action after eight at night. In between I may nap or run errands, read and poke around websites ‘for fun'.

I've found it important to embrace the flow of my focus. If I try to push through and work in the afternoon, the work product is not going to be great.

There are exceptions. Sometimes a project is so exciting I can't turn away from it no matter what the clock says. Follow your bliss I say!

Tiffany Lambert of Work Life Balance says:

For me, I have a split level of productivity.

I am most productive on menial tasks in the morning, having coffee, checking email, checking sales stats, etc.

I am more creative and productive with products in the evening.

So I go with the flow on that. I work early and then break for lunch and sanity and then get back to work in the evenings for fun stuff I enjoy doing, like working on my Kindle fiction.

Shannon Cherry of Learn How I Get *Paid* to Attend Events says:

I'm a morning person… I always have been. So I work on my most creative tasks in the morning (the ones that need a lot of thought). I plan my week very carefully to optimize my time. Things like social media posting are automated so I only pop on while waiting for the school bus or another time when I am doing something else.

People ask me all the time how I get so much done in my business working only 15 hours a week. It all comes down to this: I choose to make the hours I work as productive as possible. I've created a video with some tips on how to be more productive:

Nicole Dean of .. here! .. says:

I am so NOT a morning person that it's not even funny. But, I've always been that way and love being a night owl.

That said, my optimal working time is between 10am-6pm. Of course, I don't work that straight through though. I come and go from my computer depending on other obligations: kids, puppies, husband, appointments, eating, and overall energy level.

This means that I schedule all interviews between 10 am-3 pm. That works best for me hitting my peak brain time, without conflicting with family time. I've made the mistake of recording interviews in the morning and WOWZA. I had major word soup. Just not a great idea.

I also know that I work really well in bursts so I'm ok with that. However, the bursts are usually determined by me, and not the people around me. If I have interruptions while I'm actively trying to focus, I am not as productive.

What do I mean exactly?

Well, I got on the computer this morning around 10 am, and worked a bit on CoachGlue.com stuff. Now it's noonish and I just took at shower and came to sit down and finish this post. When it's done, I'll reward myself by getting out of my office and checking in on the kids or seeing if some laundry needs to be moved, or checking the mail. Then I'll head back to write my email and get it scheduled, too. I may take a few minutes to check in with Facebook or catch up with texts/calls on my phone, take a bathroom break, get a big glass of water, and  head back to my desk for my next big task – or I may call it a day and work on stuff around the house that's more important.

That works really well for me – and my family can usually handle not interrupting me during those spurts.

What does NOT work, as I mentioned, is constant interruptions.

Thankfully my kiddos are old enough to know that I'll pop out of my office in a bit, after my interview, or my writing spurt is done and they'll leave me to work.  Whatever they need, they can usually get on their own, and things like their friends asking to come over can wait 20 minutes. But, that also means that I choose to ignore my phone while in a work burst unless it's a “911” text from a family member or close friend. They know I'll ignore phone calls while I'm working, but if there's an emergency, to text me “911” and I”ll call them back immediately. That's for instances where it's time sensitive and they feel I need to know right away. Everything else can usually wait and can't come ahead of me making a living.

I used to try to sit here in front of the computer and work all day, but I found that I wasn't nearly as productive as when I work in those focused bursts. I've given myself permission to come and go from my office, as needed, rather than forcing myself to sit here so I felt “busy”. Busy and productive are not the same things – especially when running a business.

So, I sprint, recover, sprint, recover, and sprint again. It's what works best for me.

What if I'm working on a BIG project?

Well, when I wrote my book, or when I created larger courses, I break them down into “single sitting' pieces. If I know all I need to do is knock out one chapter or one module or one webinar and then I can go to lunch with my hubby, I can do that. To sit and say “finish this book” – yeah, that's not going to happen.

I hope this has been helpful. Now comment, share, and then do a money task so you can do something fun to reward yourself.

Warmly,
Nicole Dean

Recommended Resource:

The Unstoppable Productivity Software Can Help You to Quit Spinning Your Wheels and Double Your Productivity!

When you use Unstoppable Productivity, there’s no complicated time-management ‘system’ you need to learn or remember. The goal behind our software is simple: To give you a way to visually structure your day in a way that you feel absolutely compelled to focus, take action, and get things done, once and for all!

In addition to being built around a system designed to motivate you to take more action, the interface helps you get absolutely clear about your day, allowing you to easily visualize your time and accomplishments at-a-glance.

Here’s How This Software Can Help You:

• Plan Your Day In Less Than 30 Seconds – Unstoppable Productivity comes pre-loaded with dozens of common tasks, and you can add as many of your own as you want. With all your tasks readily available, you’ll have your day planned in no time!

• Discover Where Your Time Is Going – At the click of a button, Unstoppable Productivity will go to work generating a report about all the actions you’ve completed, helping you quickly see how and where you’re time is really being spent

• See Your Day With More Clarity Than Ever Before – Instead of your day being some blurry, abstract ‘thing’ of stuff you need to do, Unstoppable Productivity uses various graphical elements to help you actually visualize it, making it more real and more achievable to you

• Feel A Stronger Sense Of Accomplishment – As you finish tasks using Unstoppable Productivity, the interface will provide you with visual feedback of their completion, giving you even more momentum to continue moving forward

• It’s Your Full-Time Coach – Unstoppable Productivity is a very lightweight application, meaning it takes up very little of your computers’ resources so you can use it all day every day knowing it’s not standing in the way of getting other things done on your computer

• Plenty Of Room, Even For Your Busiest Days – With the ability to display up to 12 timers at once, from 5 minutes to 3 hours each, you’ll always have plenty of flexibility to manage and plan even your busiest days

• Spend More Time Using It, And Less Time Learning How To Use It – With an intuitive, simple interface, mastering its use usually takes less than 3 minutes!

Click here to
Get More Productive!

PS. Remember, if you want me to keep getting awesome smart peeps to answer questions here, go check out their stuff.

• Lou Bortone – Video in a Day
• Terry Dean – My Marketing Coach
• Kevin Riley –  Blogpreneur Training
• Rachel Rofe – How To Get Never Have a Bad Day Again
• Kelly McCausey – Solo Smarts Podcast
• Tiffany Dow – Work Life Balance
• Shannon Cherry – Learn How I Get *Paid* to Attend Events

This week I asked our panel of experts…

“We all at some point have to deal with a time sucker in our industry. It may be someone who we started a friendship with who wants more time or information than we can realistically give, a family member, or it may just be a friend who you've outgrown.

How do you value your time, set boundaries, and still be the best YOU possible?”

I think you'll find the responses interesting.

Lou Bortone of Video in a Day says:

This was always a really tough one for me, because – like most of us – I love helping people and I hate saying “no”.

However, I've learned that “access” to me is my most valuable asset – and now when someone asks “Can I pick your brain?” I say, “Sure, I charge $300 per hour, how much time do you need?” I can also refer them to my online scheduler, where they can purchase a quick consult.

Terry Dean of My Marketing Coach says:

I honestly don't have to deal with this problem much anymore. But I had it BAD years ago. I wasted hours every day in unpaid conversations by email and phone with people who never even became customers.

The disease I had was “Nice Guy Syndrome.”

One of the subtle symptoms is a feeling of responsibility to answer every email and every phone call that comes in personally. It meant I invested myself in thousands of people…many of which had never even purchased anything from me.

I thought all this free advice would really help people, but the reality was I simply didn't understand human nature.

Rarely do we value what's given for free. For example, have you ever tried to give business advice to a friend of family member?

Sure, you may have that rare gem who takes what you share with them and runs with it, but much more common is the nodding head where they then walk away and do what they wanted to anyway.

I had it so bad back then that's one of the reasons I had to take a break from the Internet completely for 18 months.

But I haven't had to deal with this issue much in years.

And it's because that experience was so miserable for me that I figured out what I had to do to escape the possibility of this ever happening again.

The first thing you have to do is value your own time. Just by setting up an hourly consulting rate or an organized coaching program, you've solved half the battle. Because now you can point to your consulting or coaching whenever anything veers into that territory. Once you value your own time, others will start valuing it as well.

On the rare occasion a business friend or client goes a little too far… you can and should set clear boundaries. This is important! Make sure to set the boundaries BEFORE you're aggravated by it. Don't respond in anger and frustration. Once that's likely to occur, you've waited too long.

Instead, it's good to remind people of how you operate. For example, with new clients I always tell them how and when I will respond. If I'm on vacation or something changes, I let them all know in advance how my schedule is changing.

I do the same with joint venture partners and business friends. They know when they can expect a response from me and when they can't.

A lot of this comes back to knowing what you want your Lifestyle to look like. If you're not clear on this yourself, how can you explain it to anyone else?

Kevin Riley of  Blogpreneur Training says:

Fortunately, I don't have any offline friends who are time suckers. My best friend, outside my wife Rieko, is my old buddy from my house-building days, Toriu. We get together about 3-4 times a year. The rest of the time, we are rarely in contact. That's normal here.

However, online, I could easily be time sucked by a few things: The rare customer who fires off question after question, Facebook, and YouTube.

By setting aside a short (10-15 minute) window of time in my mornings to answer e-mails, I don't allow any customer to suck my time, yet they receive an answer to their query (making for happy customers).

As for Facebook and YouTube, I don't always win the battle – allowing myself to lose time to fun. But then, that's why I do what I do – so I can have fun.

Rachel Rofe of How To Get Never Have a Bad Day Again says:

As a recovering people pleaser, I can see why this is such a great question to ask.

And that being said, I think a lot of people in the personal development world can be quick to say they've “outgrown” someone, or that they're “further ahead” than people they once loved.

I don't know if that's always the truth.

With that said, I'm going to answer this question from the perspective of someone who's considering leaving a friendship that was once fulfilling.

So… my answer:

From experience, I've found that unless someone is mentally unstable, having an honest conversation (coupled with diplomacy, grace, and humility) is the best policy.

I like to think that people are smarter/more emotionally available/willing to grow WAY more than most of us give them credit for – especially when we're in a space of being annoyed with them.

So I'd look at having a conversation with my friend. It starts with however I'm feeling, and might sound something like:

“There's been something I've been wanting to share with you. I've been holding it back out of fear that I'll upset you, when really, I just want us to be able to understand each other better. Would you be OK with you if I share some messy thoughts?”

After you get their buy-in, share that you know where they're coming from. I might say something like: “I know that you're in a place with your business where you're really wanting to grow. I admire your focus and excitement for getting things done, and you're making real strides forward. It's awesome to see.”

Then where I'm coming from: “And from my perspective, while I love your business enthusiasm, I'm feeling like you want more information than I feel good about giving. I find that we talk about business more than I desire and I leave feeling drained.”

Then ask to come to a solution together: “I would love to find a way where we can both feel really good about this friendship. Can we talk about what that might look like?”

In most cases, if you are completely honest, share both perspectives, and look to find a solution TOGETHER — you'd be absolutely amazed at what can happen. You may end up deciding that the friendship has worn its course, or you may find that you have a newfound container for a more fulfilling friendship where you both feel even closer.

The main thing is to give BOTH people the opportunity to have a voice instead of just writing them off.

Of course, if this is with someone you were never really that close with in the first place, a simple “I've scheduled time to work on some things that are really important to me and unfortunately don't have free time to chat” also works.

Kelly McCausey of Solo Smarts Podcast says:

I've a friend I've seen potential in for ages. Over the years I've invested a lot of energy into encouraging, equipping and pushing her into action. When I'm not actively motivating her, she drifts off into the demands of every day life.

Last year I finally admitted that I wanted it far more than she did. I had to let go.

I love her so much, I didn't want to lose our friendship. I went to her and apologized for pushing. I promised to leave it alone and just enjoy our personal friendship from now on. It was important to me that she know I don't need her to be entrepreneurial to be my friend.

This is an area of issue for me in a lot of relationships. I often want someone else's success more than they do. I'm working on it!

Tiffany Dow of Work Life Balance says:

I've had to do this a lot lately. This is the first time I've put strict boundaries on my time and space. I've gotten to where I'm just blunt or more apologetic about doing what's in my best interest.

I grew up a people pleaser. Never wanted to come across as “rude.” But it's not rude to get your work done before chit chatting with a friend. That was all in my head.

I have found it very freeing to tell people honestly, “I have to focus on work, so I won't be able to visit much until (whatever time).” Nothing at all rude about that.

And truth be told, if someone didn't respect my boundaries, I wouldn't feel very valued by them.

Shannon Cherry of Learn How I Get *Paid* to Attend Events says:

Of course, this happens to everyone. ​ And sometimes the lines blur so much that you have difficulties seeing the issue until you realize how bad it really is.

That recently happened to me and it got to the boiling point. A friend, was consistently asking business questions, which at first I didn't mind answering. But soon, I was realizing that any advice I gave her was disregarded. (She was a ‘bright-shiny-object' type who jumped from idea to idea.) I was getting annoyed to say the least. It was time for ‘the talk'. Essentially, I shared my concerns and more importantly how I felt. It cleared the air and we have remained friends who only focus our chat about your lived, not business.

Although that one has a happy ending, not all do. I find this especially true when it comes to social media ‘friends' (those who only know you online). Of course, it starts innocently – a quick question about something, but soon you might find yourself coaching or consulting (something you get paid for). Here's what I've done to help stop this:

1. I make rules for myself and keep them. For me, it's answering one question and that's it.

2. I've created canned responses so I don't have to fumble for words when feeling awkward. For example, on reply is this: “I appreciate your trust in my advice, and I value our relationship. I want you to know that what you are asking is something I get paid to do. It's how I make my living. And because you know how limited availability is, I need to focus on paying clients with my time. However, here are a couple of blog posts that may help…”

3. If all else fails, ‘Bless and Release', meaning wish them the best and ignore them, block them or whatever you have to do so they don't suck your time.”

Nicole Dean of .. here! .. says:

I'm so glad my smart friends sent in so much great insight for this post.  I know that I, along with my coaching clients, have struggled at times with this issue over the years.

Like most, I'm much better at telling others how to regain control over their time than I am sometimes in owning my own.

But truly the thing that I end up saying oftentimes when I'm talking with them is “YOU ARE NOT A VICTIM HERE! So QUIT IT!!!”

Don't pull the “Nobody respects my time” line, if you haven't set the rules first. Otherwise, it's not their fault. It's yours.

Draw the line in the sand and have options for people who want more of you. Options that you are comfortable with.

Granted, I failed majorly at this initially. I'd be resentful of people who were “using me” until I realize that it was my fault!

1. They didn't know any better because I hadn't told them, and

2. they didn't have a legitimate option for paying me for my time. DUH.

Once I realized that I was putting THEM into a pickle, I kicked my “woe is me” mentality to the curb and I took control of my time.

What did I do to fix it?

1. I created a coaching page.

2. I wrote and published my book.

Now, people who ask about making money online are referred to my book. And, people who want ME are referred to my coaching page. Easy peasy.

Granted, I still do find myself slipping at times, and I have to put up barriers in those instances.

I think the thing that I finally figured out is that EVERY moment of EVERY day that I give to someone else is a moment that I'm taking from taking care of me, spending time with my kids and my Joe, or being with my family and friends.

Your time (as with your energy) is like a bank. And, the minutes go where they are allocated. Make sure you're INVESTING them wisely.

My favorite quote for over a decade has been “The days are long, but the years are short.”

I encourage you to think of that when you're giving your time to others. Because we blink and a year passes.

It's a lesson that's been one that's taken me a while to learn, so I hope this perspective helps.

Warmly,

Nicole Dean

Recommended Resource:

If you need an energy boost – check out Energy Jet Pack by my friend, Lain Ehmann.

PS. Remember, if you want me to keep getting awesome smart peeps to answer questions here, go check out their stuff.

• Lou Bortone – Video in a Day
• Terry Dean – My Marketing Coach
• Kevin Riley –  Blogpreneur Training
• Rachel Rofe – How To Get Never Have a Bad Day Again
• Kelly McCausey – Solo Smarts Podcast
• Tiffany Dow – Work Life Balance
• Shannon Cherry – Learn How I Get *Paid* to Attend Events

This week I asked our panel of experts…

“What tools do you use to backup your business, including your docs, sites, etc.”

I think you'll find the responses interesting.

Rachel Rofe of Work Less to Live More says:

I'm pretty low maintenance.

Ever since my computer got stolen (and didn't get backed up properly!) a few years ago, I've just been putting EVERYTHING onto Dropbox. I can access everything super-easily that way, and I don't worry about what happens if another computer gets stolen. It's all right in there.

Lynette Chandler of Tech Based Marketing says:

For websites that run 100% on WordPress and have nothing else on them, I use the BackupBuddy plugin. I have it save to Amazon S3 so it is off site and can be retrieved even when the server is down.

For mission critical sites where the shopping cart is on, where there are non-WordPress systems like forums or static HTML pages, I use AutoSiteSaver. This is a solution we created that will grab everything there is to grab on a cPanel account.

Most WordPress plugins only get WordPress. While BackupBuddy can get non-WordPress stuff, I run into strange issues with it on occasion. That's when we run AutoSiteSaver. On top of that, AutoSiteSaver also gets your emails. So if you use an email address that runs on your domain and save them there, it grabs them too.

Another thing that is often a pain with plugins, you have to log into each WordPress site to set up and manage your backup. Even with systems like ManageWP you have to install the plugin on each site first. Depending what I'm doing, I often find backing up multiple sites on AutoSiteSaver much easier.

Here's why. If you have a reseller account and above, you will get access to something known as a WHM. In our system, all you need to do is enter the WHM credentials one time and it will grab every single site on that account. From there, I can choose to backup all, or not backup some.

It also saves all your backups to our system so you can access them when your own host is offline as well. That is important to us. Of course, you can also download those backups anytime to store where you want.

When it comes to my computers. I run BackBlaze for continuous offsite backup. As a safety net, I also use Time Machine. Then, there is AeroFS.

Aero is not a backup solution but it can be handy when one computer goes down unexpected. It is more like a personal Dropbox. It doesn't store your files but it will sync between computers. You can get started for free and because there is no data storage involved, you never have to worry about that.

Kelly McCausey of Solo Smarts Podcast says:

I've been a Carbonite subscriber for a couple of years now. It backs up all of the files on my computer every night. What a lovely peace of mind that gives me!

I'm using Backup Buddy on my WordPress sites. I have it configured to send backups to my Amazon hosting account so if my hosting server crashes, I'm not too far from being back up and running.

I still have to do manual back ups of things like my Amember and member forum database – which is surely the most important thing! This reminds me to contact my smart tech partner about how to automate that.

Lynn Terry of Niche Success Blueprints says:

I'm a big fan of off-site backups that are automated. While I use solutions that are not, such as manually backing up source files to Dropbox, or an external hard drive, my primary sources are both automated AND off-site. In a worst case scenario, such as a flood or fire, you'll lose any devices (and files) stored in your home or office. And when it comes to manually backing up files, well… we've all experienced that moment of shock and (oops!) regret, right? Not fun!

I've been using Mozy for years to do automated backups, and it works great. I always say the real test is in the “restore” – and I've had to restore files from Mozy a number of times over the years. It was a total breeze. In a worst case scenario you could grab a new laptop, log in to Mozy, restore all your files and be back in business in short time. Definitely recommended.

That said, I now work across a variety of computers and devices – Macbook, PC, Android phone, iPad tablet, etc. Almost everything I do now is based in Evernote, which is a free “app” that is cross compatible. I have it installed on every computer/device and it automatically syncs between them all and is also always backed up.

I use Evernote to create products, for example. So I can move between devices, editing or adding notes/ideas, or working on the project. I may be sitting at my desk on my PC in the morning, grab my laptop and work from the deck in the afternoon, think of an idea while I'm out & about and add it from my mobile, etc.

Last year when my Macbook hard drive crashed, I was right in the middle of several big projects. Fortunately all of the sources files and notes were in Evernote, so I didn't miss a beat while it was off getting repaired. I simply logged into Evernote and everything was right there where I left it.

It's free, it's cross compatible, it syncs automatically – it's perfect!

I use it for everything from my task list, grocery list, goals & ideas… to writing my info products and webinar outlines.

Tony Shepherd of ‘Inside My Five Figures A Month IM Business‘  says:

Hi Guys,

I'm slightly nutty about backups since losing some sites in a hack attack several years back.

I'd (stupidly) assumed that they would have a backup of my sites.

Nope turns out they didn't

It was MY responsibility to back them up and one of the most important lessons I learned – take responsibility for EVERY aspect of your business.

So my my backup runs like this:

1. Main sites backed up weekly by my PA. She sends one copy to me and keeps another in a secure HD that I bought for her at her house too (not good to back up everything to one place) and another copy to cloud storage too

So that's my main sites and blog, niche sites, membership areas and sites from other businesses.

2. I back up my main content (newsletters, courses etc) once a month in the same way.

3. My lists from all the autoresponders I use are backed up every Monday, again one to me, one to my PA and one to cloud.

4. I do a BIG backup of what I'd call ‘everything I need' twice a year. I do this myself, manually and it takes a full day to complete including the next night too, for everything to download and copy. This 24 hour period usually involves at least one bottle of wine and takeout food being delivered more than once as I lock myself in my work room.

Strangely enough I find this really productive because it gets me back in touch with products, sites and content that maybe I'd neglected of even forgotten about and can re-market AND while I'm waiting for uploads and downlaods I watch all the traiing vids and stuff that I never seem to get around to on a normal week.

The backup from this goes to my HD at home and I store another copy at my mum's house. I can't stress how important it is to store a copy AWAY from where you work. If (God forbid) there was a fire at your home or office you'd lose everything if you stored your backups there too. Think cloud and physical storage AWAY from where you work, at the home or workplace of someone you trust.

I also have a personal folder on these external drives for photographs and videos of family life etc that I need to keep safe too. In terms of Software I don't really use any. I put procedures in place so my PA knows what to download and how.

I don't have much faith in software that puts it's own extensions on my files and then restores them itself. I prefer to grab HTML files and folders that I know how to work with and can just FTP right back into place should I need to

It takes longer and it costs me more in terms of employee hours, but I feel safer and it;s an area of business you really can't afford to scrimp on.

Alice Seba of The 30 Day List Challenge says:

I use SugarSync to back up all my files and my site back ups are handled through a service.

For my file back ups, SugarSync automatically backs up all my files within minutes of my creating them, so I don't have to remember to do anything. If I create a new folder, SugarSync will also back that up…I don't have to tell the software which folders to back up. Files can also be uploaded and synced via email.

What I really love about SugarSync is how easy it makes collaboration. I can give my assistants access to the folders and files they need and when they update them, the changes are automatically saved to my computer. I can also set it to have people view the files only, so they can't make any changes or I can share certain files or folders publicly (with an option password) if I prefer and they don't need a SugarSync account to access it. I have complete control over who can do what.

Much like other services like Dropbox, I can access all my files from my iPhone, iPad and pretty much anywhere I go. That means I can leave the laptop at home and still get stuff done on the go.

I don't just consider SugarSync a back up tool, but a productivity tool as well.

Shannon Cherry of Learn How I Get *Paid* to Attend Events says:

If there is one thing that always surprises me, is when a client says they have no backup plan. After all, if you work online, your assets need be secured… and as current as possible.

Let me give you a recent example why it's so important to backup. Last week, a client's website got infected with BaDoink! a security issue that redirects Apple devices that are viewing your website to a porn site. (We like mobile friendly, but not THAT friendly, right?!?) She contacted me in a panic. Previously, my site was infected but because I have automated backups, it was easy to go back to where the code was not tampered with, then fix the ‘leak' so it would not happen again. When I explained this to her, she began to cry, because she had not ever backed up, and her host didn't do it either. Basically she had to hire a security expert to remove the porn code and then remove the leak. A very costly mistake. However, I've heard of much worse scenarios.

There's a lot you can do to protect yourself when it comes to backing up.

1) Consider a webhost that does automatic backups. Just remember that that is a stop-gap. The best backup plans are the ones you do yourself.

2) Dropbox is my BBF (best backup friend). Everything is on it in the cloud, including all my files from websites, my computers, tablets and iphone. Since it does it automatically, I don't worry have to worry about it!

3) Speaking of websites, if you are using wordpress, I recommend backup buddy. It backs up your site automatically and you have a choice where the backup will be housed (for me Dropbox an on my webhost server). I purposely create this backup 3-4 days after my webhost's weekly backup.

4) Don't forget your lists! Aweber is my email service and I have a backup (essentially a file created by aweber) weekly. Again, this is saved to Dropbox.

Nicole Dean of .. here! .. says:

Wow! As usual, I got tons of great information. Thanks everyone.

I definitely agree that you should backup your documents, your pictures (including your family photos), your websites, and every other part of your business in an offsite location.

Having been through floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, and lightning strikes in my 40 years, I'm kind of realistic about how stuff can happen when you least expect it.

However, if everything you just read went completely over your head, you may be interested in my 20+ page guide that walks you through the hows and whys and includes printable checklist to put together an Emergency manual for your business, too.

If you'd like more info, check it out here (BUT DON'T BUY IT):

For a better deal, grab a copy of my course BlogCPR
which will help you to make blogging easier
and you'll now get a copy of the “Avoid Disaster” ebook free.

Warmly,
Nicole Dean

PS. Please support my friends who contributed their vast knowledge in this post:

• Rachel Rofe can teach you to -> Work Less to Live More
• Lynette Chandler is a whizz at-> Tech Based Marketing
• Kelly McCausey talks to Solopreneurs on her -> Solo Smarts Podcast
• Lynn Terry is a Super Affiliate who knows how to create Niche sites in her sleep. She's revealing her -> Niche Success Blueprints
• Tony Shepherd is a hilarious, smart do-er who takes you -> ‘Inside My Five Figures A Month IM Business‘
• Alice Seba wants to help you with -> The 30 Day List Challenge
• Shannon Cherry loves to -> Get *Paid* to Attend Events

This week, I have Rachel Rofe, with me.

The audio recording of our interview is in this blog post. Just look for the “play” button and listen. It’s free! Also, be sure to check out all of the resources listed below.

If you’re not familiar with Rachel yet, learn more here:

Rachel Rofé is a multiple bestselling author that's been featured in Entrepreneur, Woman's World, and Fox News.

Since she began internet marketing in 2006, she's developed over 30 products, 40 Kindle books, and bought and sold companies with as many as 120+ employees. She speaks nationwide about copywriting, book creation, outsourcing, and product creation. And her favorite part: she does all of this while living the “internet lifestyle”, traveling the world and having fun.

Step 1: Learn More from Rachel.

Head over here to check out Rachel's awesome stuff… (all links open in a new window)

Step 2: Listen to the Interview.

Be sure to listen to the entire interview.

Prefer to Read?

If you prefer to read the interview, it is available on Kindle.

Uncovering Experts: Rachel Rofe

Step 3: Check out these Essential Tools and Resources for Online Business Success Mentioned in this Show:

All links will open in a new window and not interfere while you're listening to the audio.

Rachel Uses:

• This Web Host
• This Shopping Cart

Other Fun Tools She Recommends:

• Jing
• Kindle App
• Flux.fm
• Voxer
• G-Whizz App
• Finance Managers
• Kinstant Formatter

Other Resources Mentioned:

• NAMS in Atlanta (Rachel and I will both be teaching there)

Step 4: Share the Love.

If you liked this interview, don't keep it to yourself. Share the link with some friends by using the sharebar to the left. (Pretty please.)

Step 5: Make Sure you Don't Miss a Thing.

Either sign up for my blog updates
over there –>

Or grab my feed on iTunes so you can get lots more free interviews just like this one. (Please leave a glowing review while you're at it.)

Or Subscribe and Listen on Stitcher

Step 6: Get a free link on my blog

Please post your comments below after you listen to the interview. Show Rachel the love so I can continue to get great guests like her.

Plus, of course, you can include your URL and your Twitter ID in the appropriate fields when you comment, as always.

Thanks again for being part of my business and my day. I'm looking forward to hearing what you learned and will apply from this interview.

Warmly,
Nicole Dean

Would you Like to Start a Podcast like Mine
and Have Cool People on your Show?
If you can make a telephone call, you can have a podcast, too:
Click here -> How to Start a Podcast

PS.  Here are the links to Rachel’s sites again for your reference:

As you may know, last month, I announced to my lists that my new book “Blogging for Profit: The Stripped-Down Naked Truth from 26 Rockin' Online Business Owners” is available. Yay!!!

Well, one thing that I'm finding really hard is getting people to write reviews. (Apparently I'm normal and most people struggle with this.)

So, I turned to my friends for help.

This week I asked our panel of experts…

“For Amazon authors: What's your biggest tip for getting more reviews on Amazon?”

I'm working on tracking down a few more people to answer. So make sure you sign up for updates so you find out when their responses have been added.

I think you'll find the responses from my friends interesting. I did.

Rachel Rofe of Rolling in Reviews says:

One great tip to get reviews is to just ASK the people who have read your book to leave a review.

I put a picture of a post-it note at the end of my books, along with a reminder scribbled on it to leave a review if they liked the book, and a link to my book.

It works really well.

Kelly McCausey of Solo Smarts Podcast says:

My limited experience as a Kindle book publisher has taught me one thing: Not very many people leave reviews!

On my Solopreneurs are Smarter: Why Solopreneurs Rock The Online Business World book there are 16 reviews.

15 are there because I specifically asked for them. The 16th came out of the blue, and it was negative. He criticizes the book for not being something the book never promised to be (a how to guide).

I ignored the negative remark. Sure, I could point out that he apparently expected something not offered in the book's description – but what good would that have done?

I want to be open with your readers Nicole. A LOT of people that I asked to leave a review, never did. I can only guess that it falls under the ‘we're constantly pressured to comment, like, share and vote and now we have to leave Amazon reviews?' category of ‘I'm just too busy'.

All I've learned about the situation then is this: Ask for reviews. Ask, remind, cajole, beg and plead.

Then say thank you, of course. And doggone it, return the freaking favor!

Connie Ragen Green of Affiliate Marketing Case Studies says:

To get more reviews for your Amazon books, simply ask for them.

I have lots of reviews for some of my books there, and none at all for the ones I have not asked people to review.

Kristen Eckstein of Self Publish on Demand says:

Here are my Top 5 ways I get more reviews on my books on Amazon:

1. Ask. Ask. And ask again. Often people are very happy to provide reviews. You may have to give them a copy of your book, but friends, family and colleagues are excited to help you out by leaving a review for your book. Tell them it can be as short as a few sentences, and refer to #5 for an easier way for them to say, “Yes.” Make sure you follow up with them every few days to a week or so. The squeaky wheel gets the grease, and if they said, “Yes,” don't be afraid to remind them.

2. If your book is in print, send a secured PDF copy to other experts in your niche and ask them nicely for a review. These reviews can be put inside the print book, then when the book shows up on Amazon you can ask them to copy and paste their review on the listing. It's also super easy if you send them their original review in an email so they have less excuses to get it posted.

3. Include a page at the end of your print or Kindle book inviting readers to review the book and share your book with others who will enjoy it.

4. Research. Find bloggers who have an established website and ask them if you gift them a copy, if they would post a review. Most are only too happy to get more free reading material. You can either mail them a printed version or click the “Give as a Gift” button on Amazon for Kindle books. With the Kindle books, you still make money for that book sale even though you have to buy it, so it becomes a cheap way to get quality reviews.

5. Write a sample review for them. Ghost writing reviews is an easy way to get busy people to say, “Yes!” Write what you'd like them to say about the book, then send it to them for their permission to use it and/or tweak it. Include it in your print book and ask them to post it on Amazon.

Nicole Dean of .. here! .. says:

What I did was to buy Rachel's course Rolling in Reviews for inspiration first. Yes, that's an affiliate link, but I did purchase the course, too.

Then, I followed these steps so far…

1. I offered a book bonus for my “Blogging for Profit” book when it was first released. People who purchased the book could get bonuses during a certain period of time. When they signed up for those bonuses, they were put into an autoresponder. Seven days after getting added to the autoresponder, they received an email making sure that they got their bonuses, asking them if they enjoyed the book, and then requesting them to please leave a review, too.

2. I asked the contributors who were in my book to leave a review. Some of them did. (Those peeps will definitely be featured in future books.)

3. I waited a few weeks to give time for the people who bought the book to finish reading it – and am now writing this blog post to beg for reviews. Too subtle?

Here goes…

Please Review My Book if you Read It:

-> If you bought my book and enjoyed it, please leave a review here:  How to Have a Profitable Blog <-

If you didn't love the book, then I seem to have misplaced the link. (Go here instead to spend time with Grumpy Cat and get happy.)

Then Share your Tips and Questions Below.

I always want to hear from you.

Warmly.
Nicole

This week I asked our panel of experts …

“Have you Written Kindle books? If so, what was one
mistake that you made from concept, to creation, to formatting, to marketing that you wished you'd known sooner so you could avoid it?”

The question has been obviously on my mind as I've been releasing my books lately, including my freakingly awesome book:

Get it here:
Kindle (only $4.99)
or Paperback

Before you dig in, please grab a copy of the book while it's till so cheap. If you already have a copy, a review would be ever so much appreciated. Thank you so much!

Here's what my friends and I have to say about Kindle Publishing mistakes. Enjoy!

Lain Ehmann of Crafting Your Business, Step-by-Step says:

People DO Judge a Book by the Cover.

I wish I'd paid more attention to the cover graphic. I released my first Kindle books long before there were tons of ebook and programs on “!!BECOMING A KINDLE MILLIONAIRE!!” and so I just slapped a simple graphic on the cover and called it good. Big mistake.

People buy books based on the cover, and having a more attractive, professional cover surely would have made sales better.

See? You can click on the covers if you want to see them up close and personal.

Interview with Derek Halpern on Branding:

Interview with Paul Evans on Branding:

Check out Lain on the Kindle: – Lain on Kindle

Kevin Riley of  Blogpreneur Training says:

Professional-Looking Layout Matters.

When I wrote “The Clockwork Manifesto” a few years ago, I wrote it for publication in paperback. I never considered how it would look in Kindle. So, I laid out the text and images to look nice in a physical book – setting my images and text side by side at time. I used a lot of tables in OpenOffice to get a great layout on each page. The book looks fantastic on paper.

However, all that beautiful layout does not translate well to Kindle. I ended up hiring someone to re-format it all (384 pages of book – egads) for display on Kindle. I've been told that it still doesn't look all that great on the Kindle reader (Yes, I've not had the heart to look at the my labour of love since I myself obtained a Kindle).

Check out Kevin on the Kindle: – Kevin on Kindle

Rachel Rofe of Easy Kindle Formatting Software says:

Bad Formatting Caused Negative Reviews.

My biggest mistake with Kindle books was not having the formatting done right when I first started publishing my books. I thought they were done right, but bad reviews taught me otherwise.

It ended up being a blessing in disguise though, because it led to the creation of Kinstant Formatter, which has gone on to sell thousands of copies and help many people avoid the mistakes I had to.

Check out Rachel on the Kindle: – Rachel on Kindle

Connie Ragen Green of Affiliate Marketing Case Studies says:

Set up Her Own Publishing Company to Be Taken More Seriously.

I have now published eight books on Kindle, and I have to say it has changed my life and my business in a major way. Authors are perceived differently by others, being considered to have more knowledge and expertise on their topics, and this has opened doors and provided opportunities I would not otherwise have experienced. This includes speaking globally, contributing to other people's books, and having corporations contact me for advice.

The only thing I wish I had known from the very beginning is the power of having your own publishing company for your books. Even though I continue to have Create Space print and deliver all of my paperback books and Amazon's Kindle program deliver my digital books, once I began using my own ISBN numbers through my company it took me to an entirely new level as an author. I am contacted regularly by other publishers, the media, libraries, and companies wanting to know more about me and what I do in my online business.

It's simple enough to set this up: purchase a domain, file a Fictitious Name Statement with your city or county, set up a site, and purchase a block of ISBN numbers to get started. You'll absolutely love what happens as a result.

Check out Connie on the Kindle: – Connie on Kindle

Kristen Eckstein of Self Publish on Demand says:

I’ve published nearly a hundred Kindle books for other people and several for myself. Here’s what I would change:

Concept & Creation – Two of my Kindle books are transcribed from webinars I conducted. If I could do things differently, I would have either written them from scratch to begin with or made it clear in the marketing that these books are transcriptions of the webinars. Instead I tried to hybrid the two methods by writing some, editing the transcripts, and leaving the overall “webinar” conversational style and feel intact. This caused my grammar to not be quite as good as it should be, especially given my profession, and it shows up in the Amazon reviews.

Formatting – It’s always good to test your eBook out on a real Kindle since the Kindle Preview Tool tends to miss major issues or worse yet, show them where none exist.. If you don’t have a Kindle, get one. Hey, if you’re an author & you’re using it to test your books, it’s a business expense!

I have always tested eBooks on my Kindle(s) since I first started publishing them several years ago. However, technology changes. With the latest change of new software for the Kindle Fire HDs, many eBooks are encountering new formatting issues that weren’t present before. This can be a two-part problem. 1. It’s an issue with how Kindle HDs are viewing the files, and interpreting the code. With this there’s nothing you can do to fix it. 2. It’s an issue in your eBook itself that can be fixed. In both instances that we’ve encountered an issue like this, it’s been fixable.

Bottom line… Always, always, always check your eBook over on a real Kindle before hitting the “Publish” button. And if your file does have issues, hire a professional eBook programmer to fix them up.

Marketing – I’m continually learning in this arena. Honestly I don’t think any of us are ever done learning new things we can do to market! Recently I started an experiment publishing cookbooks under a pen name. I’m using as little of my own influence as possible to market, and chronicling my experience as a “new” author on my blog. My hope is that not only will I learn some new ways to market my new eBooks, but others will see they need to actually do a little work to market their eBooks, especially when they’re first-time authors. I’m also excited to share with them things that have worked, things that haven’t worked, and help others market their eBooks effectively.

The only real regret I have is not knowing sooner how swiftly Kindle would overtake the market. I’m such a die-hard print gal that I ignored the fact this technology would transform my entire industry. If anything, I’ve learned how important it is that I stay up to date on all publishing industry developments so I can be a better resource to my authors, and I encourage you to treat your industry the same. Never stop learning!

Check out Kristen on the Kindle: – Kristen on Kindle

Bob Jenkins of Power Profits Mentoring says:

Hiring a Book Coaching to Do it For You.

I have one Kindle book so far: Take Action! Revise Later… which is an e-book version of my physical book. The biggest mistake I've made is in not doing more Kindle books sooner. I have a boatload of transcripts and other material that I'm sitting on, and hiring a VA or working with an intern to publish more titles is a languishing opportunity for me.

The best move I made was in hiring a book coach and ghost publisher (Kristen Eckstein of Ultimate Book Coach) to get the book formatted and designed so it looks awesome on Kindle.

Check out Bob on the Kindle: – Bob on Kindle

Susanne Myers of  Daily Affiliate Tasks says:

Don't Rush It.

I’ve been creating and publishing Kindle books regularly since the fall and have made plenty of mistakes (and still do). The one that’s had the most impact on my bottom line is not waiting long enough after I’ve hit publish before I start promoting.

I’ve found that ideally you want to upload your book, wait the 12 to 48 hours for it to publish and then give it at least another 48 hours before starting to promote the Kindle book. It will take that long for Amazon to do whatever it is they do in the backend. Whenever I’ve waited, my books have risen in the rankings much faster once I’ve started promoting.

I do go ahead and buy a copy myself after it goes live and look at it on my phone, kindle and ipad to make sure the formatting looks ok. Then I’ll wait before mailing my lists, posting the link on Facebook etc.

Of course there are also times when I don’t get enough work done ahead of time and need to push the book right away. It still works, but I’ve noticed that it takes a bit longer for my books to show up ranking within their respective categories.

Check out Susanne on the Kindle: – Susanne (as Hillbilly Housewife) on Kindle

Melissa Ingold of Solo Masterminds says:

2 years ago I had 28 Kindle books up for sale and I was making consistent sales with no promotion of any kind – they just got published and that was it.

Once the crack down on using PLR for your Kindle books started happening, I got slapped and had to pull all my books down and basically start over.
After letting my account sit for a year, I finally published a new book in early February of this year based on a webinar I hosted with Carrie Wilkerson about video marketing.

One of the things that I decided to do differently this time was keyword research. I figured I do keyword research for pretty much everything else, like the domain names I buy for squeeze pages, the content I want to produce, and more – so why not Kindle books?

Here’s What I Did:

1. Used Google’s free keyword tool and played around with keywords and key phrases that people might use to find information about video marketing.

2. Used Google’s search trends option to see what topics are trending as related to video marketing.

3. Based on that research, I had a list of some really good keywords that I could use to optimize my book.

4. I made sure that I used one of my best keywords in the title of my book. Then I wrote out a description and bullet points that incorporated my keywords naturally throughout.

5. Then I threw some traffic at the book using Fiverr and OneHourBackLinks.com to build some back links to my book, and then I set up some Facebook ads too.

I think I sent out like one tweet and one Facebook post about the book, and that was the extent of my marketing.

I’m not as serious about Kindle as most people. For me, it’s a fun little side project that brings in some passive income and helps me build my mailing list. My whole strategy is a “set it and forget” approach, that I know I can grow by publishing more books. If every book makes me $50 – $100 a month in passive income (plus builds me a list of buyers) that can add up pretty quick.

Since my first book has already reached this point, I’m going to put a little more effort into my second book, and then it’s onto the third. I plan to publish one new book per month, and since I’m pretty close to having my ‘rinse and repeat’ system into place, it’s going to be super fun from here on out 

Check out Melissa on the Kindle: Melissa on Kindle

Nicole Dean of .. here! .. says:

As I mentioned, I just released my latest book this week. And, boy have I made enough mistakes to give myself a roaring migraine.

But before I talk about all the mistakes that I've made in the launch of this book, here it is again.

If you wanted to grab a copy of it, please do. If you already have a copy, please leave a review.

Get it here:  Kindle (only $4.99)

ok. So… first let's start with what I did right.

1. I wrote a very interesting, fun, informative book.

2. I involved very smart people.

3. I had the book professionally designed by Kristen and her team. (It's BEAUTIFUL inside and out.)

4. I planned to promote the snot out of it.

5. I created unique bonuses to give to the people who bought my book during the launch. It's a series of interviews not available anywhere else at this time. Note: If you buy the book soon, you can still access them. Details are here:  Grab Book Bonuses

 All good stuff, right?

Where did I flub up?

Where to begin?

1. Planning.
My husband's family is in town for Spring Break right now. I had cleared my work schedule so that I could be at the beach with them. BUT, then my book was published and I got excited and decided to release it this week. I underestimated the time and effort involved. This has caused me lots of stress because I'm working more than I would like while they are here. Just a stupid move on my part.

2. Jumping the Gun.
Related to the first mistake, I should have waited, as Susanne mentioned, until Amazon had everything in order, tested a few days, ordered a few books, both print and paperback and cooled my horses a week before starting to promote. That would have allowed me to noticed and play a bit beforehand and not just be rushing around trying to figure things out WHILE the book was live.

3. Linking the Books.
I had no idea how Amazon linked paperback and Kindle versions together. So, my books were not linked together as the same book. This caused two problems.

• First, it's difficult to promote, when you have two completely different links. (One link for paperback and one for the Kindle.) Every time I mailed, I had to include both links, rather than one, and letting people choose which version they wanted on that page.
• Second, the way I understand it, sales weren't counting together. So, if I sold 100 copies on the Kindle and 50 of the paperback, Amazon didn't know that it was really 150 copies of the same book. This affected rankings…. which is not a great thing. So… I found in the DTP dashboard an area, where you can request that the books get linked and I did that. I immediately got a response, which was awesome, but the customer support rep said that it could take 72 hours to fully propagate. Not great, but better than nothing, right? So, I would definitely have done that sooner had I known.

4. Not having a Plan for Reviews.
I think know that this book is awesome.  Therefore, I assumed that it would naturally get reviews, at least even just from my friends and the co-contributors. Not quite so.  So, I would have worked on that a bit better and asked for reviews during that week while I was planning the launch. oops. There's that planning word again.

I'm actually going through Rachel's course: Rolling in Reviews now to see what can be done about that, and I'm giving a copy to my Virtual Assistant so she can help me with that process, as well.

5. Related to #4, Not Asking for Help Enough.
I think people assume that I have it all together. Well, yesterday, after crying in the parking lot of a movie theater because I was frustrated and a friend made the mistake of asking “How are you doing?” I decided to write to some friends and ask for help. I  told them that I was tired and frustrated (especially with the Amazon linking issue) and could they please share the book on Facebook or with their lists? Pretty much all the cool kids did and it cheered my heart greatly.

Plus, I got a video in an email from my friend Tracy Roberts marked “OPEN ME NOW”. It was her and her kids yelling “We love you Miss Nicole! Come back and see us soon.” That was the bomb-diggity.

So guys, in all transparency, yes, I'm selling copies of my book. Yes, people love it. But, no, I did not have things go as planned. It's a good thing there's this thing called TOMORROW, right?

So what about you?

Got questions? Got horror stories? Just want to give me virtual hugs?

I welcome it all.

Resources that I Recommend –

These are my favorite Kindle resources that I've personally bought and enjoyed. All just happen to be by Rachel.

• Kinstant Formatter – the tool that my Intern uses to format most of my Kindle books
• Hands Off Kindle Publishing – How to Write Kindle Books without Writing them Yourself
• Rolling in Reviews – 50 ways to get more reviews on your books

With much appreciations –

Warmly,
Nicole

PS. Here are the contributors on Amazon again for easy reference:

• Lain on Kindle
• Kevin on Kindle
• Rachel on Kindle
• Connie on Kindle
• Kristen on Kindle
• Bob on Kindle
• Susanne (as Hillbilly Housewife) on Kindle

This week I asked our panel of experts to name names…

What web host(s) do you use to run your business?
Yes, I want to know Who has the Host with the Most?!

The best way to know what to use is to ask successful people, right? So that's just what I did.

Before I share their responses, I feel I should clear up a few things.

1. What is a Server?
A web host like Host Gator is really nothing more than a building with a bunch of computers in it, just like the computer in your own home. Each of those computers is called a “server”. Each one of these servers runs many websites from it.

2. What is Unlimited Hosting?
Unlimited hosting means that for one account, you can have many of your websites hosted for one price. I was shocked when I went to NAMS one time and a lady told me she was buying a new hosting account every time she set up a new blog. eek! Nope. A simple upgrade and you can host all of your sites in one account – assuming that your sites aren't filled with tons of huge huge files. If that's the case, then you may have to upgrade to a bigger account.

3.  What is VPS?
VPS stands for Virtual Private Server. Several of my friends below talk about having a VPS. What that means is that you are the ONLY customer on that computer at the web hosting company. Instead of sharing the computer at say Host Gator or Mom Webs with 100 other people, you have it all to yourself. There are definitely big benefits to doing this, but there are higher costs,  as well. This is typically something that people grow up to, and don't buy a VPS right out of the gate. One BIG benefit is that you can block all IP addresses but yours from logging into the control panel (also known as the cpanel). This can help to keep you safer from hackers.

Now that, hopefully, that is cleared up, let's see what my friends are using to run their businesses.

Karon Thackston of Step-by-Step Copywriting Course says:

Several months ago I moved to a virtual private server (VPS) on Host Gator. It's much more secure than using off-the-shelf hosting where my sites would share a server with many others.

Because of a security scare with my Marketing Words Blog and Step-by-Step Copywriting Course sites, I decided to take whatever preventative measures I could.

Karon Uses:

Rachel Rofe of How To Get Every Book You Write Onto The First Page Of Kindle says:

I use HostGator. They're fast, cheap, and customer service is always excellent.

Rachel Uses:

Tiffany Dow of Gathering and Structuring Ideas says:

Hosting is something where I don’t risk my business by simply going with a slightly cheaper price. Hosting is cheap enough as it is –and I have used Host Gator since I started online with absolutely zero regrets.

There have been times when people would say, “Well this other hosting company is $2 a month cheaper,” but $2 is worth my peace of mind.

I love so many things about Hostgator. They’re affordable. You can get a little hatchling plan, move up to a baby plan or go with a business plan as your online efforts grow. They’re a household name, not some company poised to go out of business any day.

But more than anything I appreciate their customer service. Hosting is technical, and therefore it’s intimidating to me. Anytime I have what is probably a really stupid question, I just log into cpanel, click on Live Chat and someone’s there 24/7/365 to walk me through whatever it is that I need.

I’ve seen so many people freak out if their website is hacked with malware or something. With Hostgator, you just get on Live Chat, let them know, and they fix it and email you when it’s right again – which is really fast.

Tiffany Uses:

Alice Seba of Step-by-Step PLR Guides says:

Next month, it will be 9 years since I’ve been with Servint. I have used a number of other hosts over the years (and still do use one other currently) for small projects, but my core business is on Servint.

They offers VPS (virtual private server) and dedicated server services, rather than regular shared hosting. In 2004, I chose them for a few reasons:

* When my business partner at the time, Linda Stacy helped me research, we found they had a stellar reputation above other options we investigated.

* I owned a very busy website that was already starting to tax my current web host and I just didn’t want to deal with those issues anymore.

* I was also concerned about SEO issues and not wanting to be associated with any bad sites I was sharing hosting with.

It was a move I’m definitely glad I made and have no intention of moving anywhere anytime soon. I can host as many sites as I’d like, there’s tons of bandwidth, the support is 24/7 and they are very security conscious. That last one has become very important to me in the last year, especially with hacking issues.

It turned out to be a very good choice to use the VPS because I’ve run a lot of sites over the years and many at the same time, so the server always made it easy for me to manage that. Add to that, the support is fantastic (although there have been some changes over the years and I’ll get into that in a second) and they often go above and beyond the call of duty.

A VPS has other benefits including:

* It’s more powerful than shared hosting, but you get much more support and help than you would with a dedicated server

* A VPS has more power and can handle unusual strains on your resources including spam and DDOS attacks…you aren’t sharing resources with other hosting clients

* You get root level access to your server, which gives you much more opportunity to adjust settings, manage permissions and install software to your server

* You can host a mail server, FTP server or other similar services

When I first signed up with Servint, their support was lightening fast and everyone was extremely knowledgeable and they always seemed to know how to help me when I had no idea what I was talking about. These days, there is no longer the 5 minute response time (amazing, hey?), but if you ever need to phone them, they answer right away. I also find that the front line of support isn’t always as knowledgeable and so I have to be more specific than I used to be…but things work out well too. And no, I don’t mean I have to be super technical because I have limited knowledge when it comes to technical issues…I can’t tell you how many tickets opened that have the phrase, “I don’t know what that means, but can you help me?” or “I have no idea how to do this. Can you help me?” I also find have to be a little more persistent than I used to be. I’ve had a few tickets where I felt I was being brushed off when I detected a potential issue, but if I persist and then ask them to escalate the ticket, I do get the help I need without any further issues.

I wanted to mention that because about a year ago, I was starting to feel a bit frustrated with them because the relationship was different than what I had with them in 2004, so I needed to learn how to communicate with them. After all, a company that has grown over the years like Servint has will experience a change in the type of service they provide, so as a client I had to adjust a little too. So if anyone reading is using Servint or is thinking about it, I wanted to provide some pointers on how to approach communication with support. Don’t ever feel like you’re on your own because if you ask the right questions or simply ask for escalated help, they will provide it to you. They continue to go above and beyond…all you have to do is ask and I think this sets them apart from other VPS providers.

I am actually up to hosting two VPS’s with Servint now…and it’s possible we’ll have a third later in the year. The uptime is great. I only remember any noticeable downtime in about 2005 when a fibre optic cable was cut somewhere, but everything has been shipshape since. Definitely not going anywhere.

Alice Uses:

Susanne Myers of  Daily Affiliate Tasks says:

I first started out online after my husband and I came across an ad in a magazine that offered 2 years of free hosting if you registered a domain with them. From there we’ve grown our online business to include some shared hosting with a few different hosting companies including Host Gator, BlueHost, and MomWebs, a virtual dedicated server with Reliable Webs and 2 different dedicated servers.

From a logistical standpoint, it’s a bit of a nightmare keeping up with what’s hosted where and what’s billed on Paypal and what by Credit Card. But there’s reason behind the madness. I like to keep our various web properties spread out. One reason is SEO. I’m sure you’ve heard that it helps to have sites on different c-classes when you are linking from one to the other.

The main reason though is that no matter what things are going to go wrong. A server can go down and sometimes even the best backup plans fail. When (not if… but when) that happens, I don’t want it to take down my entire online business at once. That’s my main reason for spreading things out across a variety of different web hosts.

I also like to check out different hosting companies that I come across by purchasing a small shared hosting plan, putting a site or two on there and just see how things go for a little while. It gives me a chance to check out their uptime and support before considering moving a larger site over to them.

Susanne Uses:

Kelly McCausey of Solo Smarts Podcast says:

All of my sites are hosted with MomWebs.com and full transparancy here – this is the hosting company I own together with Nicole Dean.

Way back in 2002 when I first set up my first site, I ended up being left in a lurch by the person I trusted for my hosting.  I had no idea at the time that there were such a thing as a ‘reseller' host but that's what he was.  When he let his hosting bill go late, all of his client sites went down.  It was pretty disturbing to say the least!

I was rescued by a smart gal who ran her own (non-reseller) hosting company and later she sold her business to someone else.  I was nervous about trusting the ‘new guy' but soon discovered I was in very good hands.  I so often referred others to him that I asked him if he'd consider setting up an affiliate program.

The idea of running an affiliate program was not appealing to him so ultimately I decided to pursue the creation of a new hosting brand where I could offer a residual commission affiliate program (http://www.momwebs.com/affiliate-program/) and he would run the tech side of things for me.  That is where MomWebs.com came to be and it has been a successful project ever since.  We have around ten servers servicing several hundred clients at this time. I have SoloSmarts hosted on our VPS hosting and my other sites are on a semi-dedicated server.

Kelly Uses:

Nicole Dean of .. here! .. says:

Over the years, I've been through a few different hosts.

The things that are most important to me at this stage are:

1. Reliability. 
The host can't be going down for no reason – as it costs me money.

2. Customer support.
If I have an issue, I need it fixed and explained to me in little words.

3. Security.
Make sure backups are being done and that the hosting is locked up and safe.

Because I'm not one to take risks with my business, I do spread out my business between two different hosts.

I use:

I use HostGator for a bunch of my niche sites.

I also use MomWebs.com which I started using years ago. MomWebs.com specializes in helping moms and the non-techie to get their sites running.

They also help people who are currently using Blogger.com to move their blogs to a self-managed WordPress site to build an ongoing business.

What about you?

What's your experience been with web hosting?

Are you happy with your current web host?

Do you have any questions about web hosting that we can answer for you?

Thanks for reading – as always.

Warmly,
Nicole

If you're NOT having a good day, then I have the coolest thing for you.

My friend Rachel Rofe just wrote a very interesting guide called “Never Have a Bad Day Again“.

When I first heard about it, I thought “oh airy fairy stuff” and wasn't really interested. But then I read the sales page and thought that for under 10 bucks, I'd support my friend and maybe learn a thing or two.

I bought the course, started reading and literally had tears running down my face in minutes. And not from laughing.

You might look at Rachel and think “Of course she's never had a bad day, just look at her. She smart, pretty, thin, funny, financially stable and travels the world. Why should she ever have a bad day?”

Well, her past is, for lack of better word, ugly.

Cold, hard, and ugly.

And, yet, she is the epitome of joy – even when things go wrong, and they do.

After reading her course, I now see how she does it.

I had the chance to look at the world through Rachel's eyes – and I like it.

You can too: Click here to grab your copy of “Never Have a Bad Day”.

Her course is quick to go through, has several fun exercises where you choose how to react to different scenarios, like getting honked at rudely, finding out you owe a huge bill, and having your car break down – and see how you could face these situations with grace and joy.

I asked Rachel a few questions and she was kind enough to reply. You can read that short interview below.

Nik: Rachel, what do you say to people who say “Of course you're happy, just look at you. You're pretty, you're thin, you travel, and you're successful financially. I'm not like you.”

Rachel: Thin? That's a stretch. lol

But seriously, everyone has a story. Everyone has dealt with hardships. Nobody has a ‘perfect' life.

I've definitely dealt with my share of things. In 2012 alone, I was married, annulled 7 months later, moved several times, broke up with my business partner, had major health challenges, and a slew of other unpleasant things. All in the course of a year.

So the same things happen to me, I just choose to look at everything as an opportunity. I think, “Why did this happen for my highest good? What's the blessing here?”

I'm sure you've heard countless times about people seeing things as blessings in disguises later on. So I just look for what the blessing is in the moment.

Even if someone doesn't want to do that, my boyfriend has really good advice: “Deal with it or don't let it bother you.”

To me, that only makes sense. We have the power of choosing how we want to respond to things… why not choose the most empowering perspective?

And as a side note, sometimes I feel like the people with the biggest hardships almost have it easier in making change. They have more of a reason to change things, more “oomph” in their reservoir with which to pull from.

Nik: What inspired you to create this course?

Rachel: There are a few reasons.

First of all, kind of tying into #1, I feel I went through a lot of hardship partly so I could persevere and hopefully inspire people to see that you can get through anything.

Mostly, I just feel really fired up when I can help people improve their lives.

I feel like I came to this planet to help people realize they have a CHOICE in life, to really show people you can make your life whatever you want.

Nik:  Can you tell me about a recent time when something went really wrong and how you made sure that it didn't ruin your day.

Rachel: As you know, “bad” things are always going to happen. It's just a matter of choosing how you're going to respond to it.

So for example, last night on the plane I spent a few hours working on a sales letter for something I wanted to launch today. I was SO HAPPY with it, hit “update” for the millionth time (I hit “update” obsessively), and my entire letter literally went missing. I couldn't find it in the WordPress revisions at all.

NOT COOL.

The first time I write something is when all the inspiration comes. Writing a second time is like trudging in mud.

In fact, I was so bothered for a few minutes that I posted about it on Facebook, which is something I ordinarily don't do.

The beauty of my posting on Facebook was that a ton of people (including you, Nicole… thank you so much!) tried to help me retrieve it. That post got 150+ comments.

So while I still haven't been able to retrieve the sales letter (though someone's looking at it), I asked myself, what can I be grateful for here?

I came up with quite a few things:

• I was lucky so many people wanted to support me.
• The sales letter took a few hours, not a few days, so that was a plus. (I've had my laptop stolen too ;))
• I didn't need the sales letter from an income perspective, so that gave me a chance to appreciate my financial situation.
• I also chose to think that maybe my second version would be even better somehow.

So I did get upset at first. I think that's important, to feel your feelings.

I think it's also important to not let one bad thing happen, then decide your day is ‘ruined', and look for (or create) other bad things to prove your point for the rest of the day.

When you focus on goodness, you find more goodness. The same is true in reverse.

Nik: Why should ALL of my readers who are in online business read your course?

Rachel: The challenge in answering this question is to limit myself to a few answers. I could go on and on and on…

First of all, do any of your readers enjoy having bad days? I'd imagine not :), and I really feel like if people go through this course and really implement it, they can literally not have bad days again.

I think the Choose Your Adventure exercises in the course really help with the power of perspective.

Besides that, it's pretty impossible to succeed online if you have an attitude where things can take down your energy levels (even if you're justified in getting upset). This course helps you operate from a place of empowerment.

The tools, if implemented, could definitely help someone take their business to a higher level… free up things they don't enjoy in their lives… and just make them happier.

I put a lot of my heart into this and really feel it's a solid value for anyone interested in improving their life in a TANGIBLE way.

Click Here to Learn How to Never Have a Bad Day Again

One more thing, I asked Rachel if I could include a excerpt from her course and she generously agreed.

This is one part that I enjoyed:

Here are a few techniques you can use to lift yourself out of a fog:

1.) The movie screen technique.

If you’re ever feeling bogged down about a situation… like you just can’t get “out” of it…

And you sure as heck can’t see why it’s happening for your highest good…

Then I want you to mentally step “out” of it.

Here’s how it works: Imagine a big movie screen outside of your head. You can see the movie screen, and you’re in it, but you’re looking at it as an observer.

Put whatever situation you’re going through onto the movie screen. See everything you’re seeing now, but from an outsider’s perspective – not as you.

Look at it like you’re somebody who has nothing to do with the situation.  You’re not involved in the situation; it’s just on the movie screen.

As an outsider, what would you say about this?

– Excerpt “Never Have a Bad Day Again” by Rachel Rofe.

I hope you've enjoyed this and it's brightened your day.

So, what about you?

What do you do to get out of a funk? I would love to hear what you have to say.

Warmly,
Nicole Dean

I just returned from an amazing weekend at the NAMS Workshop in Atlanta where I spoke/taught as well as spent a bunch of time in the one-on-one room giving attendees 15 minute clarity sessions. I also got to relax and enjoy time with my friends and meet new friends, as well. (More on that, though, soon.)

As I was in the airport waiting to head back home, I thought of a great question.  This is what I asked.

“What is your biggest tip for those of you who fly often to make life easier, be more comfortable – and/or to earn the most out of your trips in the way of frequent flyer miles, etc?”

I hope you enjoy the responses. I did.

Rachel Rofe of How To Get Every Book You Write Onto The First Page Of Kindle says:

1. Get an AmEx Platinum card! This gets you into all their lounges at airports. SOOO great – you get outlets, extra room, business centers, free food/drinks, and lots of other goodies..

2. Those Xpress Spa stations at the airport = my favorite invention of the month. 25 minute manicure as you sit on an EPIC massage chair. Love.

3. If you go on American Airlines, splurge for the extra legroom and go for aisle 8. You get exit-row legroom (right behind first class) and you get off the plane sooner. (Side note: I got this entire row to myself. WOOHOO!)

Jeanette S. Cates, PhD of Plan Your Online Business says:

I consider travel time “my” time. So while others are stressing about a flight delay, I'm relaxing with a book I've been too busy to read or downloading a new app I can play with. That takes all the pressure out of the trip.

I also have a standard packing plan – for 3 day weekend events, my mastermind meetings, and week long trips. So when it's time to pack up, I print the appropriate packing list – and relax, knowing I won't forget anything.

I always check my bags. No sense in stressing about overhead space or working around things under my feet. If I'm traveling with a computer, I use a rolling bag to save wear and tear on my back. But increasingly I tuck my mini-ipad into my purse, pack the keyboard and we're off!

I use my noise cancelling earphones on the plane and generally start with a relaxation audio so that I'm in the right frame of mind for creative thinking. This time on the road is great for letting new ideas come out. But if you don't give yourself the “time space” you'll never get those deep ideas.

Enjoy the trip!

Kevin Riley of  Blogpreneur Training says:

Avoiding jetlag. I love traveling and have been taking intercontinental flights since I was a kid. One thing that I do, which IMO leaves me without any jetlag (I'll fly from Osaka to Switzerland – an 8 hour time difference – and easily adjust to the local time instantly), is to stay awake.

I stay awake most of the flight (with just a 1/2-hour catnap somewhere over Asia) and watch a ton of movies. I'll get inspired and start writing stuff in a notebook (my popular Recipe For Commercial Videos was conceived on a flight to Austria in 2008, when I saw a German commercial on the plane). I eat all the airplane meals (yes, I'm brave that way), have a few drinks (a little alcohol is always nice, but I don't get carried away – except for that one flight to Calgary in 1978), and I drink tons of water (get them from the tray coming around and help myself at the dispenser near the kitchen). Very important to stay well hydrated, as airplane air is dry.

When arriving at my destination, I do NOT go to sleep or even take a nap if it's still afternoon or early evening. I always stay up until 10-11 pm, no matter how tired I am. This way, I get a good sleep, wake up refreshed at the local time's morning, and get right into the swing of local time.

Mark Mason of LateNightIM.com says:

I travel all over the world for my day job. On any given week, you can find me podcasting from a hotel in Taipei, Taiwan or blogging from an airport in Bangalore, India. As a result, I am constantly on the lookout for power to charge my iDevices.

By far the best travel gear investment that I ever made was when I bought a HyperJuice battery. This external battery can charge my MacBook Air, my iPhone and my iPad (or any other USB device). I just charge it up before I leave home (or the hotel) and put it in my backpack. That way, I never run out of power on the go.

By the way, a great Swiss Backpack made for laptops is another travel godsend. Don't leave home without it.

Felicia Slattery of Signature Speech Secrets says:

As you know, I had a rough go of it with my health last year, and all work, including business (or other travel) screeched to a halt. However, I found my frequent travel tip also worked for my stays in the hospital as well.

In my career as a professional speaker, I have traveled to loads of events across the country. And I find a few things with regard to packing make life so much more fun!

1. Master Travel List
Several years ago, while I was on an organizational kick, I read about creating master lists for everything. The only one that's stuck with me to this day are my travel lists. I even created travel lists for my kids so when we go on family vacations I can simply print a list for each child and check things off. For my work, it's been such a time-saver because instead of re-inventing the wheel every single time I have to get ready to leave, I simply print my list – which I like printed on actual paper rather than on a device – and start checking off what I need as I pack it.

2. Pre-Packed Toiletry Bag
The one time I didn't follow through on this, I ended up speaking at an event right after the amazing, late, great Zig Ziglar; we were in Florida (humid-city, as you know) and my wild wavy hair was without hair spray. So on the most important speaking day of my career, I had a bad hair day. I learned to never again skip this tip for myself. Of course before a trip, things are crazy busy, and there's always last minute work things going on. But after a trip, you can arrive home and take a deep breath and regroup. Part of my regrouping and unpacking process involves assessing everything in my toiletry bag and refilling or replacing everything before putting it back into my closet. Then it is ready to go for the next trip and all I have to do is pull it out and pack it. Part of this tip includes having doubles of everything I need; one for daily use, one for travel use. So I have my regular daily toothbrush, for example, and I have another toothbrush already packed in my toiletry bag. Same with deodorant, shampoo, conditioner, gel, razor, shaving cream, dental floss, toothpaste, soap, comb, brush, and yes hair spray. If I'm running low on anything, I add it to my grocery shopping list and when I get home from shopping, I refill or replace what's needed and then store the bag until the next trip. Then before a trip when I'm running around at the last minute with everything else, I don't have to worry about stopping somewhere to pick up more deodorant. It's ready to go and totally stress-free!

3. Pre-Packed Suitcase
Now I don't go as far as having all my clothes in a bag ready to go, but like the toiletry bag, I have a few things I bring with me on every trip. So I re-stock when I get home from the trip, so when it comes time to add all my clothes, I don't have less to remember. I keep a set of workout clothes packed, a bathing suit for the hotel's hot tub after a long day, a pair of my favorite comfy socks to wear at night – because every hotel room is freezing to me, etc. That means fewer items for my master list and fewer things to throw together when I have to leave.

4. Pre-Packed Briefcase/Business Bag
Are you seeing a theme here? After I get home I re-stock my business cards, neatly arrange my extension cords that I threw in the bag after the event while rushing to get back to the airport, check to see if my pens still have enough ink, and make sure I have a clean notebook ready to go for the next time I have to make a dash out the door for the airport.

Dr. Mani of How to Set Goals says:

My biggest tip is really a “non-tip”. Before flying, ask yourself if you really have to! The answer to that question is “No” so often, that I've rarely found myself on board an airplane for anything other than on a holiday trip

We often hurry and rush around to keep “doing” stuff that we rarely ask if there's an alternative or work-around. With communications technology becoming so wonderful,
there are few circumstances where, at least as an online entrepreneur, you're forced to travel anywhere at all.

Connie Ragen Green of Affiliate Marketing Case Studies says:

The smartest thing I did last year was to apply for a security clearance through the Global Entry – http://www.globalentry.gov/ – program. This program is open to all United States citizens and the cost is only one hundred dollars every five years.

I travel extensively these days, and during 2012 I flew thirty-six times, including domestic travel and international travel to China, Thailand, Finland, Costa Rica, and the United Kingdom. This program made it all go smoothly and saved me lots of time, while also reducing the stress that can be associated with flying these days. Many times I do not have to remove my shoes, jacket, or laptop, and I no longer wait in line or fill out customs forms.

More and more airports around the world are now recognizing this program, and I do not think it is too much to ask of us to take this extra step to ensure our safety and the safety of others.

Karon Thackston of Step-by-Step Copywriting Course says:

Oftentimes, what I DON'T take is as important as what I do take. I'm not known for packing light (all those shoes take up space!) so I try and save inches wherever I can. The better hotels have great brands of shampoo, conditioner, body lotion, etc. in the room so I leave all those bottles at home and use what's provided by Marriott, Hilton or wherever I'm staying.

I also don't bring a lot of cash. Practically every place along the way takes credit or debit cards from the parking lot to the food kiosks/restaurants at the airports. I carry a little moola for tips and whatnot then put everything else on the card. Not only do I not have to worry about running out of cash or paying ungodly ATM fees, but I get extra bonus points for using my cards. Plus, it's very easy to keep up with my expenses since they all appear on my statement every month.

Nicole Dean of .. here! .. says:

I don't fly as much as some of my friends, but I do travel more than many people (averaging 6-12 trips per year between personal/family and professional), so I've developed systems to make the travel less stressful.

Standard Printable Packing List. I have a standard packing list that I print before every trip.  I cross off items as I put them into my backpack or suitcase and it ensure that I don't do anything silly like leave my cell phone, charger, favorite lip gloss, wine opener or prescription behind. I highly recommend you do this as forgetting something important can stress out your trip as you're running around trying to get it replaced.

Standard Luggage. I use the same backpack (with the laptop pocket in it) for every trip. That way I know which pocket has my passport and itinerary, which pocket contains my earplugs, where my money is, and where I can quickly access my iPad to read on the flight.

Standard Travel Clothing/Patterns. Personally I like routine when I travel. I check my suitcase now so that I can put all my liquids (shampoo, etc.)  in it and not have to worry about it. I wear sneakers/gym shoes because it's easy to run through an airport in comfy shoes and my feet are warmer on the plane. I pack my belt so I don't have to take it off during screening. I have my prescription in my backpack in case my suitcase gets lost. All the usual stuff – just makes it much easier for me to relax, especially when coming home from an event when my brain is super tired.

Know What Stresses you Out. If going through security stresses you, then just check your main suitcase and strip down to essentials before you get into the line. (Taking everything out of your pockets, removing your belt, etc., before you even head into the security area.) For me, the noisiness of the plane rattles me. Therefore I actually wear double earplugs. I have one set in my ears. One pair over them. This relaxes me quite a bit.

Always Be Earning the Points. One thing I'm definitely slow on the uptake on is earning points. This past weekend, Connie and David Perdew each invited me up to the Concierge area at the Marriott where we were staying to talk. There was food and service up there and personal guests were welcome. DUH. I stay there often enough now that I certainly *should* be racking up points with them. I'm now all signed up.

Get Loyalty Points at the Airport. I just found out this weekend that some of the airports have loyalty cards. So if you fly through Atlanta (or to Atlanta) a lot like I do, I just register with them and I can earn Delta miles or other miles just for buying stuff like water or meals. Cool. http://thanksagain.com/ for instance, http://thanksagain.com/atl is the Atlanta one.

Well that's what I've got for you today off the top of my head. What is your biggest tip for relaxed travel when going to events like NAMS?

By the way, I hope to see you there in August. I'll be there! Click here to join me.

Best of luck.
Nicole

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

This week we asked our panel of experts something a little different to get ideas for thinking creatively in your business.

“What's a unique way you make money – something that most people might not think of or think that you would do?”

Here are their responses.

Rachel Rofe of How To Get Every Book You Write Onto The First Page Of Kindle says:

Well, I recently outed myself to my list, but I created a site back in 2006 or 2007 that shows people how they can marry Russian women. I learned a whole lot about Russian culture while making that site!

Another unique way to make money has been with my blog. Sometimes I make blog posts that are informational but also include some of my products, like this one which is a detailed explanation about how to publish a book.

I then add an affiliate link to the post into my affiliate center. That makes it so that affiliates can get an affiliate link to send traffic to that individual blog post.

Basically, affiliates get paid to share great content. A lot of times, leads come to my site and end up staying for a while. They often buy my other products.

And since my affiliate program pays out lifetime commissions, affiliates can send people to a FREE blog post, but get paid for years to come on anything their leads buy.

It's a great win-win-win. Affiliates can share great content AND get paid for it, customers GET great content, and I get more exposure to my blog.

Note from Nik. I do love having the ability to share Rachel's blog posts like the one above with an affiliate link. It's great content and it has profit potential. Two things I love.

Terry Dean of Internet Lifestyle Cheat Sheets says:

Good question. I make money all the normal ways: product sales, coaching, services, Kindle, and many affiliate programs. But here's a method a lot of people might not have thought about. I have business partners in a couple of other countries that translate and sell my products to their audiences.

For example, I have a business partner in Russia who translates my products into Russian including even republishing my physical book into Russian. It's their business. They do the work and pay me a royalty fee on everything they sell that's mine.

I also do a webinar for them around quarterly. They supply a translator and we do a content rich webinar that sells one of the partner products at the end.

This is a fun way to expand your publishing business into other markets and languages while adding almost no additional work for your business (the webinars are usually ones I've done for my own audience and the partner handles the translation of them).

How do you get deals like this? Once you build a name in your market, you may get approached by them. Or it can also be as simple as sending an email to your own list letting them know you're interested in this kind of arrangement. Most of the people who would want to do this with you would already be on your list as one of your current fans.

If you're fluent in another language, this also becomes a potential business idea for you – republishing someone else's work into another language. You'll find most markets are less competitive than the English version.

Note from Nik. Terry's so smart. I've thought about paying to have some of my books translated, but never considered the model he has where he just sits back and collects royalties. It's totally hands-off. And, pretty brilliant.

Connie Ragen Green of Affiliate Marketing Secrets Explained says:

I had to think about this question, because my business tends to overlap with my personal life these days. One unique way that I've made money several times now is by helping my friends to ‘market' their high school age kids so that they are more attractive to the colleges.

This started a couple of years ago when my friend's daughter was told by a school guidance counselor that she would most likely not be accepted by the colleges of her choice because the only thing in her favor was her grades. She was a shy, introverted girl who had never joined clubs or become involved with other activities at school. She was an accomplished pianist, loved soccer, and excelled in mathematics.

We set up a blog for her so that she could share her thoughts and ideas with the world. Being able to communicate from behind a computer made it much easier for her. We also set up a YouTube channel where she could post videos of herself playing the piano. She began to blog about the school's soccer team, analyzing each game and giving tips for what they could do to improve. She also blogged about math, sharing tips and strategies for some difficult concepts. Finally, I had her connect with three ‘influencers' at her school, asking them to tell others about what she was doing online.

The results were fast, fun, and fantastic! She was asked by the music department to join them for specific performances; the math department asked her to help with some after school tutoring, and the soccer coach asked her to come in as a strategist for the season. Her gifts and talents were being noticed and acknowledged.

And, yes, she was accepted by all five colleges she applied to, and she is now a freshman at the University of Texas in Austin.

Note from Nik. Great idea from Connie. And I'm betting whatever she charged, the parents thought it was a steal considering the results they got.

Shannon Cherry of Learn How I Get *Paid* to Attend Events says:

I have several ‘sneaky' ways to add more money to my bottom line. But the most profitable to date has been getting sponsors to pay me to do my marketing.

I've been using sponsors to underwrite everything lately.

• Sponsors pay for me to attend events. I have sponsors pay for travel, lodging, meals, outfits and even gifts to give out whether I am speaking or not.
• Sponsors have paid for me to blog on my own blog, Mommy-Inc.com.
• Sponsors are paying for some of my renovations in my house because I am blogging about it.

(Yes, that means you do NOT have to have your own live event to get sponsored!)

In the past few years, I've earned more than $170,000 just in sponsorships alone.

How does it work?

If I am reaching a particular target market, I find a company who wants a connection to that target market. Then I make that connection for them, by simply using the marketing I am already doing, and they pay me.

Sponsorship marketing is still in its infancy, so now is the time to add this to your revenue mix. If you have a direct connection to a particular market, take the extra step now and get companies to pay you to market to them. If done right, you can be paid for years to come.

You can learn Shannon's system here: Learn How I Get Paid to Attend Events

Note from Nik. Shannon has been talking about these sponsorships that she gets for a few years now, and every time she does, my jaw drops. It's like magic to me. Seriously, amazing stuff. I need new flooring in my house. Hmmm… maybe I should think about this.

Mark Mason from the Late Night Internet Marketing Podcast says:

Well, here is something really different — a non-traditional answer for you. One of the best “unique” ways to make money that I have found is to help people without asking for anything. In other words, helping people absolutely for free and often without being asked.

For example, I just noticed that a guy was having trouble on facebook installing a plug-in in wordpress. I made him a quick YouTube video and sent it to him. Probably saved him hours (maybe more). He was stunned and amazed that I took the time to help. And that is important — I did it to help him. But there are a three good things that might happen.

One — he will almost certainly say thanks. That might seem like a small thing, but I have found selfishly that gratitude and praise from others adds fuel to my fire. I love that feeling of knowing I helped someone and hearing them gushing about what a big deal it was to them. Just makes me happy — selfish, but true.

Two — He will tell people about it. Brand and reputation is everything online. ‘Nuff said.

Three — And he and his friends (and his friends friends) might buy stuff from me someday. Maybe. All just because I helped without being asked. Notice that the money is the last thing. That's important. You need to be satisfied that helping people is enough. Then the money will come.

“You can get everything you want in life by helping enough other people get what they want.” — Zig Ziglar

Note from Nik. True. I find that the saying “the more you do, the luckier you get” holds true.  However, and I'm sure Mark would agree, doing nice things repeatedly without selling won't cut it either. I give all the time, and I have learned over the years that not everyone is wired to reciprocate. If you're hoping that they'll figure it out, it can eat away at the relationship. So, you do also have to be asking for things in return.

But, giving from a place of goodness and not needing or asking for anything in return is sure a great feeling, too. Hmmm… I'm thinking this needs to be a separate blog post. Watch for that.

Kelly McCausey of Solo Smarts Podcast says:

My surprising income stream probably comes from my little blog network. I run ten blogs on a variety of home and family topics and I earn income in quite a few ways there.

First, it's part of an ‘ad network' that pays a tiny amount per ad impression. Two ad impressions are served for every page view so that tiny amount adds up pretty well over a month.

Second, the network earns a nice amount of ‘pay for placement' advertising income as well. This income fluctuates quite a bit, some months I may see only a couple hundred and others months I'll see close to a grand. If I would intentionally promote sponsorship, I'm sure I'd have more steady income from that – I just can't make myself do that. I'd love to work with a partner on that, it has so much potential!

There are some non-financial benefits too. Naturally we get a lot of product reviews offers as well and I'm very choosy about what we accept. I'm not in the habit of doing free PR for anyone but if it's a great product that I'd want anyways or can use as a gift for one of my nieces or nephews – I'll go for it.

Everything else I do online has to be so targeted, so specific! The blog network is all about sheer magnitude of all kinds of content and traffic so it's very different animal for me to manage. I have created it to run as independently as possible. All of the new content is created by my blogging interns and I have a VA who manages email inquiries.

Note from Nik. I love Kelly's blog networks. And the fact that they've evolved and changed over time has been cool to watch.

Jason Fladlien of WP Secure Pro says:

Nobody really sees this, but we license whole or parts of the code for our software… sometimes directly to others marketers in our niche, but also to marketers outside of our niche.

A lot of software developers don't understand that their code has a lot of value – and when faced with the option of developing parts of all of software from scratch or paying someone a few grand to hand over it already done – well obviously a lot of people would happily pay you $2,000.

That's why it baffles me that people on the Warrior Forum sell software for like $10 or $20 a pop. The bigger picture is that it behooves us all to think in terms of ASSETS, not products or services. A product IS an asset, but an asset doesn't JUST have to be a product.

What are ways you can take your current ASSETS and leverage them outside of their normal function? That's a profitable thought exercise to have

-> Check out Jason's course to make sure your WordPress blogs are safe and secure here:  WP Secure Pro

Note from Nik. As I've said in the past, Jason is freaky smart. The way I understand this is – he is saying that he sells rights to his software (or pieces and parts of it) – similar to Resale or PLR rights, but with software instead of content. Not only is he selling to his direct competition, but he's also finding other markets of people who may be interested, as well. Smart. Smart. Smart.

One of the products that I bought from Jason and have listened to many times is this one: Six Figure Baby. Check that out. I love it.

Susanne Myers of  Daily Affiliate Tasks says:

I’m an affiliate marketer and make money in a variety of niches. Some are larger than others. Today I want to share one of my smallest niches with you – a tomato cookbook. Toward the end of the summer I noticed that there were tomatoes everywhere. The store, the farmers market and of course my own kitchen counter. Neighbors would drop off buckets full of these delicious red fruits (yes, they are fruits) and I had to get creative in what to make with them and how to preserve them.

One weekend, I sat down and wrote a kindle cookbook all about cooking tomatoes. It includes salads, soups and the like but also more exotic dishes like tomato jam and tomato pie. I formatted it for Amazon Kindle and uploaded it to the Amazon Kindle Store. It’s been selling like hotcakes. The past few weeks sales started to slow down as tomatoes are no longer in season, but I’m sure I’ll continue to sell a few copies each week over the winter, and really see sales pick back up early next summer.

The Tomato Cookbook

The beauty of this money making method is that it’s completely passive. I wrote and uploaded the book and I’m done. Amazon takes care of orders, fulfillment, customer service emails and even some of the marketing. I can just jump in and do a little extra promoting as time allows. Other than that I’m just cashing the checks Amazon sends my way.

Note from Nik. I love this example, because this is a highly highly targeted niche Kindle book on a topic that most would  never think of. So, rather than writing a big long Kindle book, you might want to grab each chapter of it and put it up on Kindle separately.

Bob Jenkins of How to Use Mindmaps to Organize Your Business says:

As a business coach and marketing teacher, the bulk of my income comes from private and group coaching programs and teaching online courses and virtual workshops.

But what most people don’t know is my long history making a healthy chunk of change from selling a weird product online: beef jerky.

It’s kind of a funny, random story.

Back when I was still a full time history teacher with dreams of making money online, I tried a little bit of everything in the network marketing world. Dental plans, diet cleansing products, video email, even a premium social network.

At the time (this is back at the end of 2005), the Million Dollar Homepage was successfully launched by Alex Tew in England. He sold 10×10 pixel blocks for $100 each – and he sold out for the full $1 million dollars!

Seeing an opportunity (i.e., a squirrel), I bought the pixel ad script from the German company that designed his and launched PixYourBiz.com to give network marketers a unique advertising opportunity. That site generated a couple thousand dollars, but the fad ran its course and I let the site die and its registration expire.

However, I had placed Google Adsense on the site for additional monetization which would prove fortunate. Not because I made much from Google Adsense – hardly! But because one day (this is January, 2006), while I was tweaking the back end settings for PixYourBiz, I noticed an ad that read: “Beef Jerky Goes MLM”. Even though I wasn’t an experienced jerky connoisseur, I was intrigued.

After clicking the ad (you’re really not supposed to do that on your own sites, by the way!), I was introduced to an online direct sales company, Jerky Direct. After a quick review, I jumped on the easy $12/month online store and waited for my 2 bags of jerky to arrive.

I loved every bite of that first bag, and have enjoyed a pair of bags of beef, buffalo, or turkey jerky every month for the last 6 years. The best part has been that I haven’t had to pay for my online store or the bags of jerky since it’s generated a lot more revenue for me.

Here’s how that happened…

I created a page on a brand new (at the time) social content site (Squidoo) to advertise the product and business opportunity – “Where Can I Find The Best Beef Jerky Without Putting 10-Syllable Chemicals Direct Into My Body?” I also bought a good domain name (Jerky.ws). My “lens” quickly hit the top 100 on Squidoo, and I saw sales of jerky coming in. On Google, it didn’t take long for my lens to appear on the first page of the search results for “best beef jerky” and similar keywords.

The real boost came when the New York Times printed its first article on Squidoo in April, 2006: A Home Where Bloggers Can Plumb Those Obscure Passions. The author, Bob Tedeschi, used my lens as the initial angle in the story. Within a day, my lens was #1 on Squidoo.com and remained there for over a week. With an active link from the NYTimes.com, Google rewarded me with the #1 result on its search engine. The lens stayed in the top 3 for well over 3 years. Today, the lens is on page 2, still sending me traffic.

With my passion for coaching business owners, I’ve never actively promoted my online jerky store other than the Squidoo lens and a casual mention, since it makes for a fun story. And now you know another weird, unique way to make money online.

Note from Nik. I'm glad you shared a physical product, Bob. That's a cool twist compared to the other answers.

Nicole Dean of .. here! .. says:

Well, goodness. I've had several odd businesses in the past, but this is a hard question – simply because I'm pretty transparent about my businesses to begin with.

I'm going to share two methods, today.

Niche Sites.

You may not know this but I have several niche sites still that bring in passive income month after month after month. A few of them, I haven't touched in years – which is a mistake on my part. But they still bring in money. So, that goes to show that quality over quantity worked in 2006 and it still works now.

Is that an unusual way to make money? Not really. But it may be unusual when you think about me.

The niches? Well, I'm glad you asked.

Four of my favorite niche sites are about:

• Romance in a Marriage
• Fun Exercise DVDs
• Kids Crafts
• Cooking

How to I Make Money with those Sites?

Through a few ways.

• Affiliate Marketing. I get checks from Fredricks of Hollywood for the romance one – and all kinds of other places.
• Google Adsense. Yes, still. My deposits aren't nearly as big as they were a few years ago, but I'm also not really doing anything to earn it, so I'm happy with the amount that I am getting.
• Selling my own niche products. I don't do this nearly as much as I used to, but I'm about to get back into more niche product creation again. This time, on the Kindle rather than selling the products as an ebook.

And, because I've successfully created my niche sites, I then spun off a series of Kindle books about a few of them.

So that's one odd revenue stream that you may not have known about.

What else?

Monetizing Affiliate Communications.

Another revenue stream that I have in place that may be considered “unusual” is in monetizing my affiliate program.

I don't “sell” to my affiliates. However, I will include a PS. when mailing them about a new affiliate tool or new product or promo of mine.

The PS might say something like this:

Want to make more money with my Affiliate Program?

I recommend that you check out these two courses to boost your profits:

• Daily Affiliate Tasks is really good, especially if you're struggling with overwhelm.

• If you're just getting started, then this is the training that I would suggest: Affiliate Sales Domination as it starts from the absolute beginning.

I have lists of affiliates. Those affiliates need training to be successful. Therefore, I see a win-win scenario.

How about you?

What are some unusual ways that you make money?

Warmly,
Nicole Dean

PS. Be sure to click on the links of my friends to learn more about them. That’s how I get them to come back.)