Alice is a long-time business acquaintance turned friend.

She’s in the PLR business as well, and specializes in -> Step-by-Step PLR Bundles with Photos and Screenshots but she has so much more, too.

Today she's here to answer questions about how to use your PLR Articles to generate traffic.

Here's Alice.

Using PLR Articles to Get Traffic

by Alice Seba

QUESTION 1:  Is rewriting PLR necessary in order to get traffic from it?

No, definitely not.

I actually find it a little bit bizarre that people spend their hard-earned money on some quality PLR content and then either spend a lot of time or even more money to have it completely rewritten.  Not only does rewriting suck up a lot of resources (time or money), it also diminishes the quality of the content you paid for in the first place. A sentence by sentence rewrite (which is what most people do) will rarely come out better than the original content.

And all that aside, it’s just not necessary.

I do agree that in most cases, publishing PLR content “as is” is not your best strategy, but there are still things you can do to customize PLR and make it stand out from everyone else…without rewriting everything.

Here are a few things can do:

• Add your point of view to the content. Your readers are most interested in what you think about a subject, so let them know.
• Insert examples and case studies. Your readers will absorb your content better if it includes examples they can relate to or real-life case studies.
• Add statistics, facts and quotations. All these types of content add credibility to your content and a great quotation gives them something to ponder.
• Add images, video and other visual elements. These type of additions not only capture your visitors eye, they also enrich the experience and make your content more meaningful.
• Put together a worksheet, graph, spreadsheet or anything that helps your reader understand or use the information more effectively.
• Add links to relevant products and resources.  Part of being a great source of information is providing your readers with further help they need…and you can even attach your affiliate link to it.

Now you don’t need to do each one of these things for each piece of content and it’s true that these customizations take time. However, these customizations add tremendous VALUE to your content and make it possible to draw in more traffic through word of mouth, social sharing and more. When you put all your efforts into rewriting, at best you come up with a comparable article to the one you started with and at worst, you end up with an inferior version…so where do you think you should spend your time?

QUESTION 2: Can I buy PLR that is already optimized for search engines?

Now and then you’ll come across a PLR seller that claims their content is optimized for search engines. Unfortunately, SEO-optimized PLR is a fairy tale. Unless the seller is selling to one person only (YOU), you cannot publish that content and expect a flood of search engine traffic.

But please understand, I’m not sure suggesting that if someone says the content is optimized it’s not quality content. It’s possible that a very good writer had the mistaken notion that they could optimize one piece of content and then let a bunch of people publish it as is for search engine rankings. So don’t dismiss “optimized” content out of hand, but do realize that if you want search traffic, you have to do your own optimization.

Think about it. If 30 people publish the exact same article targeting the phrase, “pink poodle bows,” do you think that all 30 people will get to the top of the Google listings? No..it’s pretty much impossible.

What you need to do instead is conduct your own keyword research and optimize for a keyword phrase you choose. You can use tools like wordtracker.com or even Google’s keyword tool at https://adwords.google.com/o/KeywordTool. If you use WordPress, a plugin like WordPress SEO by Yoast can help you more easily optimize your posts.

If you need a little SEO checklist, here’s a short version of things you should be doing:

• Look for a highly targeted keyword phrase that will attract the type of traffic you’re looking for the content piece. Look for a specific phrase that has a decent amount of searches, but isn’t too competitive.

Once you have your phrase, you can include it in the following places:

• Title tag and headline for your article.
• Subheadlines
• Body text of your article
• In ALT tags on your images
• In the description tag

…to mention a few things, but do be natural. Over-optimizing is even worse than not optimizing at all. Be descriptive and present great quality to your readers and you’ll do well. And don’t forget your content has to be out there for search engines think it’s valuable. Links coming to your website and shares on social media sites all go toward improving your search engine rankings.

QUESTION 3:  What’s the most important thing people should focus on when it comes to growing traffic through PLR?

The focus should always be on quality first, but even if you have the best content in the world and do nothing to get it out there, it’s not going to be worth your while.

So, to simplify the answer, I’d say focus on quality first. Then promote the heck out of your quality.

Here are some ideas to help you with those two things…

Quality: Only purchase good PLR. Don’t publish something you wouldn’t be proud of. Add some personality to your content by adding examples, case studies, images and other things that will make your content stand out. Listen to feedback from your readers and pay attention to what they like. And of course, always publish more of what they like.

Promotion: Unless you have a website that has a ton of subscribers and you’re already a Google-darling, you have to bust your butt to get your content seen. The nice thing about using PLR is that it saves you a ton of time on the creation side of things, so you can focus on the promotion. Always publish your content to an RSS feed, share it with your mailing list and social media followers and link to your new content from other relevant content. Those are just a few of the many things you should do on a regular basis. As your following grows, the less active work you have do to promote your content, but when you’re just starting to grow…you have to work it and work it hard.

PLR really does provide website owners with a headstart on growing their audiences. Use that content wisely, enhance it and tell everyone about it.

Learn How to Profit from the PLR Content Sitting on your Hard-Drive:

Alice Seba and Melody Spier offer an incredible education opportunity to help you us PLR to grow your business.

If you want to learn how to publish PLR more quickly, build your list, grow your traffic and even sell more products, definitely check it out:
Click here to Learn How to Profit from your PLR.

These ladies have put together detailed tutorials and they’ll even help you each step of the way. Sign up by March 28 and you’ll be invited to 2 bonus group coaching sessions AND you can even knock $10 of your tuition by using the following coupon code…

Coupon Code: nicolesfriends
Discount: $10 off
Expiry: Thursday, March 28, 2013

Get in soon, so you can get the additional savings and group coaching opportunities. It’s well worth it.

It's Your Turn.

What questions do you have about using PLR to get traffic to your sites?  Suggestions? Frustrations?

Let us have it.

I'll be back with more soon.

Warmly,
Nicole

Recommended High Quality PLR:

• Alice's DIY PLR – Grab it here
• EasyPLR – by Nicole

PS. Here's a video that I recorded awhile back about how to customize your PLR for your blog:

As you can see, Alice and I are pretty much in agreement. I hope you enjoy it.

Alice is a long-time business acquaintance turned friend.

She’s in the PLR business as well, and specializes in -> Step-by-Step PLR Bundles with Photos and Screenshots but she has so much more, too.

She shares one of the most comprehensive lists of how to use your PLR Content that I've seen. I'll be back soon! Miss you all…

Here's Alice.

How to Use DIYPLR Content

by Alice Seba

While Nicole is still neck-deep in adoption paperwork and is getting settled back in after her long trip, she asked me to step in.

Nicole asked if I would share some ideas and examples of how to use DIYplr. I know Nicole is always kind enough to sing the praises of DIYplr, but if you're not familiar with us, perhaps I should explain.

We specialize in creating illustrated tutorials in a variety of subjects and providing other useful tools like slide shows, tips lists and more for our customers. The idea is that we give you the nuts and bolts of high quality content that you can incorporate into your own unique business. Instead of giving you the “business in a box” type of PLR (which absolutely has its uses), we give you stuff that you can incorporate into your business…almost seamlessly.

So let's look at some examples of the types of content we provide and all the wonderful things you can do with them…

#1 Step-by-Step Tutorials for Tools, Software and Applications

We offer a variety of these types of tutorials that show your readers how to use popular tools, software and applications. Whether it's Autoresponse Plus, running apps for mobile phones or meal planning applications for busy families, we do it all step-by-step and include a ton of screenshots.

Here's a little snapshot from our Meal Planning – Digital Style bundle. This is a guide to using the All Recipes App (which is totally awesome, by the way). :

So what could you do with this type of content?

• How to blog posts: This content is easily turned into a blog post, just copy-and-paste and insert your images. Add your own thoughts, opinions and suggestions.

• Wiki content: If you have a technology wiki or a food wiki, our content provides makes it easy to take snippets and add the information and the pictures you want.

• Info product content: If you've got a product about meal planning, here's some great stuff to add. Or simply bundle up the 4 app tutorials in this bundle, add an introduction and conclusion…and you've got yourself a free giveaway report.

• Original blog posts: If you're weary of using pre-written content that might be published elsewhere, write your own content, but just use our screenshots as a real time saver.

• Slide Shows: The screenshots are easily added into a how-to slide show. And psst…a number of our bundles actually come with ready-made slide shows. You can add slide shows to slideshare.net, post them to your blog and more.

• Videos:  Take those slides I just mentioned and turn them into a video. Add your narration or some music (YouTube has lots of free music to choose from), and you're ready to go.

• Webinars and Presentations: Because the guides are so visual, they can also be turned into presentation material for webinars or in person presentations.

• Add your affiliate links, of course!: In this example, add your links to the app store or to programs like Christine's Meal Planning Central.

Other Illustrated Guide Topics Available: Autoresponse Plus, Kindle Loader Guides (free download), Online Business Security, Make Money Online – No Marketing Genius Required, Warrior Forum, Facebook, Facebook Ads, Instagram, Social Media Integration, Running / Jogging Apps, Genealogy and Words with Friends.

#2 Recipes with Photos

Food is one of my favorite subjects, so I  might be a bit biased, but there are also so many thing to do with recipes with photos. Here's a snapshot from our Cakes & Cupcakes bundle.

So what to do with this mouthwatering content?

• Post the recipes to your blog: Easy-peasy, right?

• Pin images from your posts to Pinterest: People love seeing yummy food and repin feverishly.

• Make a cookbook…print and/or digital: You can even take the images and rewrite the recipes and add your own flair to create a Kinde ebook. Thanks to Peg Baron for that tip!

• Feed the search engines: Recipes are amazing search engine fodder because people are always looking for recipes.

• Keep the Images in a Collection: We all know it's not always easy to find the stock photo we need or they can be expensive. Grab a few of these bundles, and you've got a pretty sweet collection of images you can use in all kinds of other content.

Other recipe PLR Available: 30 Delicious and Easy Recipes

#3 Top 10 Lists and Slide Shows

Another kind of fun and versatile type of content we have available is our top 10 lists and slide shows. Everybody loves a top 10 list (whether they agree or vehemently disagree with the list) and it's the type of content people share and like to comment on.

With most of our slide shows, we provide an illustrated Top 10 list in .doc format. Here's an excerpt from the Top 10 Web Stats Programs list in our recent Internet Marketing Top 10s mega pack.

The lists can be used for:

• Blog posts: Add the text, insert the images and your ready to go. Perhaps add your own opinions and experiences for a more unique reader experience.

• A downloadable report or document: If your readers are considering a variety of web stats programs, having your handy list available will certainly help them make the right decision (so don't forget your affiliate links!).

• A script for a webinar or in-person presentation: We've also added the slide shows, so the list  in .doc format can serve as your script.

• A 10-day or 10-week series by featuring one item each day: What an easy way to stretch your content by dripping each item in the list day-by-day or week-by-week.

• Just a beginning: Add even more top resources that you think should be on the list (and, of course, remove any you think might not belong there. :-))

And each top 10 list gets a slide show. From the same mega pack, here's a little peek at the Top 10 Email Marketing Autoresponder Tools slide show.

The slide shows can be used in a number of ways:

• Brand & Monetize: Definitely add your logo and special offer…we've made a space for you to do that.

• Presentation: Use it for a webinar or in-person presentation (coupled with the list you can use as a script)

• Video: Turn the slides into a video. One of the easiest ways to turn a slide show into video is by exporting the slides as images and then importing them into a free program like Microsoft Photo Story. You can add narrations and music, if you'd like.

Other Bundles with Slide Shows Included: Email Marketing Tips and Slide Shows, Work at Home / WAHM Tips, Facebook Slide Shows, Digital Publishing (with resell rights) and the Social Media Integration Mega Pack.

#4 Tips Lists

We also frequently provide large tips lists for our customers and they usually sell out relatively quickly because they can be used in so many ways and include a ton of content. Here's a little sneak peek of our 366 Social Media Tips bundle. Each tip that is under 140 characters, includes a T beside it for Twitter, so users can easily identify tips that could be posted to that social network.

Some ideas for the tips lists:

• Schedule to Social Media: Add the tips to Hootsuite and schedule Facebook posts and tweets…or just pull up the list anytime you're one your favorite social network and copy and paste.

• Post to Social Media: Break up the tips list into categories for numerous lists. These make great blog posts, printable lists and more. For example, you could do a Top 40 Facebook Tips or Top 30 Twitter Tips list from these.

• Put a rotating “Tip of the Day” on your website: All it takes is a little script (just Google “tip of the day script”) and loading all the content in and you're good to go.

• Make a printable daily calendar and put a tip on for each day: What a great gift for some of your favorite customers.

• Expand each tip into a short article: The tips can serve as a topic brainstorming tool.

• Put a tip of the day on video: Grab your video camera and make a series of quick videos…then publish one each day.

• Slide Show: Turn the tips into a slide show…just add some images

Other available bundles with tips lists: Email Marketing Tips and Slide Shows. We also have 366 Finance Tips coming in July.

#5 Checklists

A number of our bundles also include handy checklists that your readers can reference, print and refer to over and over again. Here's a little look at a checklist from our Online Business Security bundle.

• Value boost to your information products: Checklists add great value and very useful content to information products, so add them in.

• Add them bonus download to your blog posts (and use the Kindle Loader plugin to make it easy for your readers to add the checklists to their Kindles): Readers love getting little extras to take away from your helpful blog posts.

• Expand them into a report or ebook: Checklists include a ton of starter information that is easily expanded into longer content.

• Print them out and give them away: Give them at local events, in offices that reach your target audience and more.

Other available bundles with checklists included: Facebook Glossary, Checklists & Quiz…with others coming soon.

How Our Customers Use DIYplr:

In preparation for writing this post, I asked our customers how they use our PLR and I got a few responses that might be useful for getting the creative juices flowing as well.

– Kim Castleberry: “[I] supplement my usual posts on my blog…I do similarly for new client blogs to give them a little bit of a ‘lived in' feel.”

– Marya Miller: “I use your PLR as rocket fuel. Seriously. If I have a heavy workload (which seems to be all the time) I will go through my collection of PLR to quickly glean links to resources. I use it as a research tool — it shortcuts the beginning of the research process by providing ideas, clues, avenues it would have otherwise taken me three hours to discover I need to explore and so forth.”

– James Artre: “I keep a close watch on several PLR sites, such as Nicole’s and your own, to see what type of content you are currently offering; being ever mindful of changes from one month to the next. Since any good PLR provider has already performed the necessary research to verify what is ‘hot' and what is not, then this saves me time from those duties and allows me to focus more of my energies on content creation.

Based on my personal needs/goals at the time, I purchase the relevant packages and then glean the content for: titles, leads, keywords and keyword phrases. If the content is good ‘as is' – then I simply rewrite, restructure and re-purpose the content.”

– Jeannette Cates: “I love PLR – particularly your DIY PLR. That’s the one I use the most because I am in the Internet Marketing niche. So nearly everything you publish fits somewhere in my business. I use many of the individual reports to either generate a short slide show for youtube or one of my members’ sites or I use it ‘as is' and create a PDF that I post into the Online Success Incubator, my main member site for beginners.

I’ve taken PLR and create products from it. My Pinterest Made Simple is 100% PLR – or it was till I started ‘adding' more content to it. But I started with the Pinterest 5-message autoresponder sequence and then added the special report. Now I’ve added a few videos, additional autoresponder messages, etc.”

– Marcia Ming: “I use some of the PLR as a starting point for blog posts and articles. I also have been using it to spot opportunities in the market place. I love the Top 10 series you offered recently. I am planning to create some videos to load on YouTube and my blog with those.”

The Only Limits Are Your Own

I hope this has generated some great ideas for you…whether you use our PLR, Nicole's, anyone else's or even create your own content from scratch. There is always so much that can be done with just one piece of content that provides great value to your readers.

Recommended High Quality PLR from this article:

• DIY PLR – Grab it here!
• EasyPLR – by Nicole!

Your Turn to Shine!

Now, I'd love to hear from you. How do use PLR or what ideas has this post help generate?

Alice Seba

(Stepping in for Nicole)

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

I feel that being transparent is really important and shows the “real” person behind the business. So, on that note, this week I asked our panel of experts …

What's one mistake you've made with your blog?
And, what did you learn from it?

I think you'll find the answers this week helpful in developing your blogging strategy over the course of the year.

Connie Ragen Green of ConnieGreen.com says:

I started blogging in 2006, when I was brand new to the Internet. Even though I started taking classes and learning as much as I could, I made lots of mistakes. The biggest mistake I made with my blog was not planning out the categories ahead of time. Instead, I just started posting, and soon I had more categories than you can imagine. In fact, my list of categories looked like an Internet marketing dictionary!

The result was that I had very little search engine ranking for my main topic. As I learned more and more about SEO (search engine optimization) I began to change my ways, and soon people were finding me simply by searching on Google and the other search engines.

What I learned from this experience was that you must take action right away, but always be flexible enough to ‘course correct' along the way. Even though I made mistakes with my first blog, it was still the best way for me to get started online. As I continued to learn, I made small changes here and there to improve what I was doing. Over time, I was able to build my list and increase my income steadily each month.

I encourage you to get started blogging now, and not to wait until you think you know everything before getting started. This is an industry that changes on a regular basis, so even when we think we know everything there is to know, it is very likely that something new is right around the corner.

Shannon Cherry of The Business Building Live Intensive says:

I was one of those ‘early adopters' in blogging. Those were the days when blogging was more about journalling and less about business, so I wrote a lot of different stuff. It was a good time – and I even got media coverage in Entrepreneur Magazine as a result of my blogging.

However, I wasn't seeing any kind of conversion: no growth in my list, let alone sales. And at first, I couldn't figure it out. I knew the content I was sharing was good stuff. But why weren't people even commenting?

Turns out, I hadn't asked them to. You see, I never included a call to action on the blog at all. I made a terrible assumption that if my target market liked the content, they would figure it out. Essentially I was giving them good ideas and tips, but then they were left with a question “Now what?” vs a direction “Here's what I need to do next.”

Some calls to action on a blog can include:

• leave a comment
• share the link on social media
• check it out
• sign up now
• subscribe to the RSS feed
• buy now

What I also learned was to step up the calls to action gradually if you've never included them before. Basically you are training your audience to take action. So first, I asked them to leave comments. After watching the amount of comments I was getting, I stepped it up to ask for them to sign up for something for free (a report, audio, etc), until I felt confident that when I asked for a sale on my blog, I would convert. This strategy worked effectively for me.

Today, I offer a mix of calls to action, but on every post you will see one, no matter what.

Jeanette S. Cates, PhD of JeanetteCates.com says:

I started online in a different time when business was much more formal, and I've had a hard time adjusting to the “transparent” approach. So two mistakes I've made really stand out.

First I put off blogging and social media too long. I was sure it was a passing fad, but now that I've realized this is a whole movement in society, not just online, I'm having to play catch-up. So if you aren't blogging and you aren't actively working social media – get over it! And get on board.

Second is that I sometimes forget to post to my blog regularly. I tend to communicate with my list because they are MY people. But then I'm leaving out new people who I might get to know by not being more visible publicly on the blog. My most consistent blog posts have been when I prescheduled PLR articles (thank you Nicole!) mixed with my original articles, so that there was new content coming out as I worked on the rest of my business.

An observation: Just participating in Expert Briefs provides the opportunity for more transparency, especially when you ask us to reveal our mistakes. Scary!

Nicole Dean of .. here! .. says:

Let's see… so many mistakes… so little time to write them all.

Two big mistakes stand out that I've personally made.

1. Talking to the Crowd & Trying to Please Everyone.

The first one was not knowing who the heck I was talking to – or what the goal of my blog was.  When I first started blogging, it was PAINFUL to me. I didn't know what the heck I was doing, who I was writing to, or what they wanted to know about. At the time, my main site was ShowMomtheMoney.com – so I was alternating between articles about working from home, Direct Sales tips, business ideas, home organization, and internet marketing.

What a nightmare. I had no purpose and didn't know if my readers were interested in working from home, network marketing, internet marketing, or starting an offline business from home, like Tutoring. EH GADS!

About that same time, I started doing some work for Lorrie Morgan-Ferrero as her Affiliate Manager. She's one of the best copywriters on the planet (in my not so humble opinion) and I started to learn from her. The biggest lesson I picked up was a term she coined “Tarket” – which means your one person who is your target market. So, I forced myself to figure out and narrow down exactly WHO the heck that person was.

Now, it's easy as pie for me to blog. I get on here, and I know exactly who that person is. (Actually, I have two. One male coaching client of mine and one is a female coaching client of mine. I know their problems, their concerns, and their wishes and dreams.) And, now blogging is a breeze. I just think of things that they'd benefit from and voila! Done.

You may remember this blog post: Please All, and You Will Please None.

The same lesson applies.

2. Spending too much Time ON my blog instead of OFF of It.

This is one thing that I lecture my coaching clients about now. Get OFF your blog! Go steal someone else's audience. It's much easier to get people to read your blog that way.

What exactly do I mean by that?

Yes, it's important to focus energy on your own blog. But, it won't do you any good if no one sees it. That's why you need to dedicate time every day to getting exposure on other websites.

This can be accomplished in any number of ways, including…

• Article Marketing
• Guest Blogging
• Video Marketing
• Doing Podcast Interviews

Here's a blog post with more information on this topic:  How to Get One-Way Incoming Links

I hope it helps!

It’s Your Turn.

So, now, I’ll pose this question to you. What has been your biggest blogging mistake? Do you have any questions about the answers above that you’d like to ask? Go for it!

I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Warmly,
Nicole Dean

PS. Here are a few of my favorite Expert Briefs:

• Check out My Home Office… If you Dare!
• How to Decide What to Blog About Next
• How do you get people to comment on your blog?
• Internet Credibility. How to Establish that You’ve Got It?

If you've been following me for any length of time, you know how I feel about marketing and what I teach my coaching clients.

Choose ONE method of marketing and be GREAT at it before you get overwhelmed by the million and ten other things you COULD be doing with your time.

Right?

So, if you despise the thought of writing articles, but love talking at the video camera, then don't structure your marketing plan so that you're writing and submitting articles every week. Record a slew of videos instead and get those working for you.

It's common sense, right? (You'd think so. Wouldn't you?) Well, if it's common sense, then why are so many of my clients struggling with the “SHOULD's”?

• I “SHOULD” be doing article marketing.
• I “SHOULD” be guest blogging.
• I “SHOULD” be doing press releases.
• I “SHOULD” be doing social marketing.
• I “SHOULD” be doing video marketing.

Shoulda woulda coulda.

YES, you need to be doing some marketing every stinkin' day, but it's your business, so you get to choose which kinds you want to do.

AND… on that note. Let me continue my vent. (Remember all of those times you guys have said how sweet I am? Well, uh… hope you still love me in a minute.)

Speaking of Social Media. I think there's a BIG problem with it right now.

Everyone is being told they must do social media, but I feel that it's not a good fit for every small business.

And, I'm talking plumbers, hair dressers, coaches, consultants, authors, speakers – EVERYONE.

Want to know what's worse than “missing” the social media train?

Doing social media inconsistently or half-heartedly. While you can do other types of marketing inconsistently and get away with it, social media is much different. It's all about “now”.

Let me explain.

Last week, I recorded a bunch of video critiques as part of a bonus that I offered to my readers. Well, several of the blogs were brilliant, but, they linked to Twitter and Facebook pages that were dead or very outdated. And, an old Twitter page that hasn't been updated in months makes people wonder if you're still in business – or responding to emails – if you're available for interviews – or if they should bother to refer people to you. It's better to have NO Twitter account at all than to have one that hasn't been updated in months.

And, that's the honest truth, whether you're a house painter, a restaurant owner, a blogger, a coach, and especially if you're a social media consultant. (Don't get me started on that last one.)

Here's what started this rant. I do a bit of work for offline businesses in my spare time. It's nothing big or time consuming and only for people who I like. Well, I whipped up a site for a friend who is an esthetician and it's getting her new clients on a regular basis (due to my marketing). Well, since everyone and his brother thinks they know marketing (even if they haven't made a single penny online for themselves) – she's getting advised from others who “know” stuff.

She comes to me and says …

“They say I need a blog. And, they say I need a Twitter account. And, they said I'm supposed to have a Facebook Fan page”.

And, I can hear the stress in her voice.

Now, this is an esthetician, NOT a marketer. She does facials – and she does them DANG well. But when it comes to the computer – she can barely send an email.

So, I had to ask her yet again – “Do you WANT to learn this stuff or do you want to do facials?”

Of course she said “I just want to do facials!”

So, the ONLY thing she'd be doing by creating a Twitter account, a Facebook Fan page, or a blog at this point in her business is either –

1. Creating work for herself that she hates.
OR
2. Creating a job for someone else to maintain her social accounts.

Obviously, since she doesn't know enough about online marketing, it would be #2. That would be fine except I don't believe that having someone else Tweeting on her behalf would really benefit her at this point enough to justify the expense.

So, she'd end up with either a neglected social media account, or one run by someone else.

Now, I've got nothing against outsourcing in your business, but you've got to outsource smart, and in HER case, that's not a smart move.

Instead, with her business, we're focusing on video marketing, list-building, and some link-building to keep her at #1 in Google for the terms that are bringing in clients from her website every week.

So, what's my point here? My point is to IGNORE the noise, guys. Just ignore it.

You can make money without doing a fraction of the things you're being told you HAVE to do.

As long as you have the following two things, you're set:

1. People who you can help. (Also known as “Traffic”)
2. Ways to help them – that you can be paid for. (Also known as “Offers”. ie. products, services, affiliate recommendations, etc.)

The rest is just gravy.

So, there. Stepping off my soapbox now. I'd love to hear your thoughts below.

Warmly (and sometimes prickly, too) –
Nicole Dean

The question I asked our experts today is:

“With so many people vying for your attention and so much on your plate,
how do you protect your time?”

And here are our expert replies on the subject….

The Awesome Shannon Cherry, of The Power Publicist says:

“Time, time, time, see what's become of me
While I looked around
For my possibilities
I was so hard to please.”

– Simon & Garfunkel

It's our most important asset in business and the one we abuse the most… TIME.

With twin daughters in preschool, a husband, volunteer opportunities, and a growing business, everyone – and everything – seems to want my time.

To keep things in harmony – and to keep my sanity – here's what I've done:

1) Understand my peak working hours.

I'm a morning person… always have been. By 2 PM I'm in a slump and by 9 PM, it's hard for me to do anything remotely thoughtful. So, I schedule my working hours to coincide with the best times that I do more and make less mistakes.

2) Tame the email and phone demons.

All my email (thanks to a tip from Nicole) now goes to a help desk where someone else either deals with it or forwards it along to me. In addition, I also have autoresponders in place that tell people when to expect a reply to the email (within 24 business hours.) I do not pick up my phone unless there is a schedule appointment. Everything goes to voicemail, which I check twice a day.

3) Get it on the calendar.

I've scheduled basic tasks on my calendar and stick with it. Monday is writing day (blog posts, emails, sales pages, press releases). Tuesday & Wednesday are phone call days and client follow-up. Thursdays are planning and writing days. Fridays are my free day. Most of the time, I take it off, but if I am feeling creative or need to wrap something up, I may use it for some work.

4) Outsource.

Even though I touched on this in the last expert brief, once you outsource, you free up time to do other tasks.

5) Systems.

For everything we do in my business, we create systems (mostly checklists) of how it's needs to be done. That way, fewer time-consuming mistakes are made AND I can outsource it to someone else to do it the way I want.

It's key for any business owner to learn these simple, yet effective, ways to make more time, out of less. Try one of these tips; I promise you, you'll see you have more time on your hands!

The Amazing Lynn Terry of Clicknewz! says:

What a great question! If you're not careful your business will run you, instead of you running it.

When you start a business, or even a project, it starts out FUN. You come up with the idea, you map out the strategy, you have the vision. You OWN it. But somewhere along the way the tasks become overwhelming, maybe even demanding, or at the very least… no longer fun. And all of a sudden IT owns YOU.

I've been through this myself and there are three things I've learned the hard way:

1. Be Prepared

You start a business expecting it to grow and be successful. Right? Ironically, very few people structure their business for that growth. Growing pains can be incredibly stressful, and even fatal (for your business).

The key is scalability. If you have to break your business structure in order for it to grow, every time it grows, its ultimately going to break you.

Consider every task as one you may eventually outsource. Create it to be easily outsourced. DO NOT be the only person that can perform each of the tasks it takes for your business to run smoothly. Even if you run a solo-operation and don't feel like you'll be hiring or outsourcing anytime soon.

Being set up for business growth from the start will protect your time and sanity as your business evolves.

2. Use Stock Answers

As you answer emails and phone calls, you'll notice recurring questions or topics. Take note of these. Use common questions to revise your marketing message and/or your business model if necessary. Also document common questions and use those to create an FAQ page for your website. For every person that takes the time to ask, there are many more that don't bother – and just leave.

Your swipe file and FAQ will make outsourcing communications much easier in the future. It will serve as training material for new hires, and also take less of your time to copy & paste than to personally reply.

AND it will make saying “no” a lot less personal. The options and opportunities can get overwhelming as your business grows. Saying “yes” to anything and everything is a surefire way to lose sight of your goal, and lose control of your business – and your time. Have a swipe file of stock answers. Then it's not personal. It's policy.

3. Go Mobile

There is a right way and a wrong way to “go mobile”. Done wrong, your business will consume you 24 hours a day. Burn a hole in your pocket so to speak. Done right, going mobile will give you greater freedom and flexibility.

If you structured your business to be scalable (#1) and created swipe files (#2) you can easily manage your business on the go. Gmail and Google Calendar allow you to stay organized and in touch – and seamlessly synced across every device, or even team member. You can use Evernote to store your swipe files, and easily access them from anywhere.

I work across Mac and PC, from mobile device to master workstation. Nothing is proprietary and anything can be outsourced.

That doesn't mean you should work everywhere, or all the time. It means you spend less time trying to locate or transfer files & programs. Less time typing the same responses over and over. Less time stuck inside in your office. And you become more productive by getting things done even when you can't be in your office. Not during family time, but in otherwise wasted time.

Example: I wrote these tips from my Android phone while waiting for a doctor appointment. That means I have less to do when I DO get to my desk, and don't have to call the morning a loss. But last night when I was out for dinner & a movie with my handsome fellow?? My ringer (and all biz notifications) was put into silent mode…

I hope this helps you avoid the chaos and frustration so many people experience with their business.

Remember: it's your business, and your time. You either have control of it, or it controls you.

The Marvelous Melissa Ingold of Internet Marketing Sweetie says:

Outsourcing and planning. As your business grows, you get more customers, more subscribers, more attention, etc. So it makes sense that more and more people are clamoring for your attention.

Now you can either do it all yourself and crash and burn in the process, or you can outsource and plan.

Through the use of a ticket desk, my assistant handles all customer service, and there's a lot. She spends at least 12 to 15 hours per month doing nothing except helping my customers. I also turned over all work-related email accounts to her too, so that my time isn't sucked up answering questions.

It's not that I don't want to help my customers, I do, but I only have 24 hours in a day. I started my business because I wanted the freedom to be with my kids and come and go as I please, while still supporting my family financially. So outsourcing has become essential to protecting my time.

And when I talk about planning as a way to protect my time, I mean that I know exactly what has to be done during my work time on any given day. I plan promotions, projects, emails, etc., so I'm not wasting time.

As to how planning relates to people vying for my attention, I'm very picky about what I choose to do. That includes JV's, interviews, promos, and so on. If I were to do everything that came along, my business would be a mess, simply because it doesn't all fit. I have a plan for everything.

If someone requests an interview, I want to make sure that it's going to benefit them and my business. Will it fit into a product, can I create a new product around it, is the interview relevant to share with my readers or will they get nothing out of it, does that promo fit with what I have going on…You see?

So I have to plan in order to protect my time from being wasted. My time is valuable because it belongs to my family first. If I squander that time, I can never get it back.

On a final note, there will be people who'll complain that they can't deal with you directly, and that's okay. You have to remember that's it's YOUR business and you can run it however you want. If they don't like that, well, then that's their loss.

And, here's my 2 cents. I wrote this before reading the others just to make sure I wouldn't let their ideas sway mine.

Nicole Dean of .. here! .. says:

I'm having issues with my kids this summer. It seems that I'm only able to work in short spurts before sibling rivalry rears its ugly head and one of them ends up crying in my office. ((sigh))

Yes, I've got all kinds of processes in place to help summer go smoothly (which I can write about another day) – but I'm limited in how much I'm able to work right now.

So, when I DO get on the computer – I obviously can't have 5000 emails and 800 voicemails waiting for me, or I'd curl up and cry.

I simply have to protect my time. I've referred to myself as a “time snob” on a number of occasions. I view time as my most precious resource, so I obviously can't waste it or even give it freely without consideration. Any time I give unnecessarily is time away from my husband and my kids. It's time that I can't spend with my mom or my friends. It's time taken away from taking care of my SELF (you know, little things like hygiene and exercise). It's time taken away from my life.

I'll share some of my biggest tips for protecting my time right now. I know they may sound extreme, but you'll, hopefully, also see how I get so much done in my business.

1. Stop Trying to Make Everyone Happy.

First of all, as terrible as this sounds, I had to stop caring so much. A year or two ago, I would feel obligated to respond to every email, no matter who sent it or what was asked. As much as I would love to be able to still do that – it's just not possible.

So, if you send me a question (that isn't customer related) or a JV request and it involves more than 5 seconds of effort on my part – unless I know you personally, it's probably going to be sent to archives. Of course this doesn't apply to customers. Those emails are efficiently handled by my support team.

2. Block Unknown Calls.

The phone service that we use for our main line at home (and is SUPER CHEAP) has a cool feature. It blocks all “Unknown” or “1-800” calls if you so choose.  Well, we choose. So, now I don't have to worry about a telemarketer stealing time from me while I'm trying to work.

3. Prepare Emails in Advance.

I get a lot of the same questions into my help desk.

Rather than having my help desk gals write a new response each and every time (or ask me to), we've got prewritten answers that are ready to send. It makes their lives easier – and mine, too.

4. Say “No” to Social Media.

While Social Media is GREAT, it's unfortunately another way for people to bypass your help desk and get directly to you. Plus, it just compounds your email issues and makes life crazier.

Focus your social media on the few sites that give you the most benefits, and let the rest drop.

For me, that's:

• Twitter.com – Nicole Dean on Twitter
• Facebook.com – Nicole Dean on Facebook
• YouTube.com – Nicole Dean on YouTube

I ignore everything else on the social media front at this point. And, even with those three sites, I have most email notifications turned off. So, when someone sends me a message on any of those sites, I don't get an email that throws me into “workus interruptus”. Instead, once a week or so I log in and check my DMs in Twitter and Facebook on MY time – usually with a beer in the evenings.

5. Know Where the Money Is.

It's hard to prioritize what is worth your time unless you know where your money is coming from. That's where having good tracking and knowing your numbers is key.

Otherwise, how do you decide which JV requests to respond to, which interviews to accept, which projects to outsource? You can't. So, keep tabs on your business profits so you can make those decisions wisely.

6. Be VERY Aware of Interruption-Based Activities.

I know I've mentioned this already, but it's so important that it needs it's own section.

Anything that interrupts your work time, immediately becomes more important than whatever it is that you're working on.

For instance –

If you have a screen pop up when you get a new email, then whoever sent that email just took top priority in your mind – and threw off your train of thought.

When you get a phone call, that person suddenly trumped whatever it was that you were working on (whether the call was important or not) – and, again, threw off your train of thought.

Because of this, I turned off Gchat (which is Google Chat) several months ago, simply because anyone who's ever emailed me at any point that I've had my Gmail account was given the power (by Google) to GChat with me, therefore interrupting my work, whenever they felt like it. Now that's not to say that many of those interruptions weren't beneficial (or helpful) to my business or fun, BUT I wasn't in control of how my day went anymore. I wasn't in control of what was most important in my business at that time. Yes, I can choose to ignore interruptions, but studies have shown that any interruption throws of your productivity because it takes time to get your brain back to where it was before the interruption – and by that time, there may be another interruption – restarting the process. It's a wonder we get anything done!

• So, Skype is normally turned off.
• GChat went bye-bye.
• My phones go unanswered.
• And I have my Yahoo Instant Messenger set to “offline” pretty much all the time.

I do this business because it's fun, but more importantly, it feeds my family and is our only source of income. So, I can't let others dictate how my time will be spent – especially on the days where I only want to work for an hour or two – which is most days during the summer.

I hope I don't sound too harsh in this post. I just know that many of my coaching clients allow the interruption-based mentality to totally sidetrack their progress.

How Can You Learn More about Time Management?

I could go on all day on this topic. In fact, I've been considering putting together some training on the topic.

Let me know if you're interested. If so, I may be able to talk some of the smart marketers on this page into spilling more of their tips, too.

Warmly,
Nicole Dean

PS. Please post your best tips for protecting your time below. Thank you!

This week, I have the amazing Carrie Wilkerson with me.

The audio recording of our interview is below. 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 Carrie yet, here's more about her and why I wanted her on the show.

Carrie Wilkerson

Carrie Wilkerson is the voice of experience. From corporate life to teaching high school to direct sales, to information marketing and coaching she has ‘been there and done that’ professionally and personally. An ‘overnight mom’ to 2 toddlers through adoption, her priorities instantly changed and so did her workplace. She’s now built several businesses and coached others to do the same while overcoming extreme debt, losing 110 lbs and having 2 more children, for a total of 4, aging from toddler to teen!

As “The Barefoot Executive,” and President of the Association of Work at Home Women, Carrie and her network of experts have quickly become the definitive resource for helping others achieve extra income and career goals while working from home.

Currently a mentor/coach/advisor to over 100,000 men and women as the Barefoot Executive through videos, podcasts, masterminding, mentoring and live speaking. Not only a business expert, but an expert IN Business, Carrie’s work-at-home methods have inspired thousands and has earned many awards, online and off.

A sought after speaker, Carrie’s humor, real-life examples and tough love translates to every audience, gender, genre and generation.

Her passion is in teaching others to ‘Fill their Stadium’ with fans so that marketing is easy and business is abundant!

Translation: She's pretty awesome.

Step 1: Check out these Essential Tools for Online Business Success that Carrie Recommends:

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

For Content Management: WordPress.org – For content management that you can access from anywhere.

For Social Media: Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and Twitter.
Are you following us? Nicole on Twitter | Carrie on Twitter

For List Building: An Autoresponder.
(I use and recommend Aweber since 2005 – Click to try it for $1.)

For Video Marketing: Carrie uses a basic Flip Mino Cam. She suggests the kind that uses AA batteries.

For Selling your Products: You need a way to sell your products, with a built-in affiliate tracking system – also known as a shopping cart or an ecommerce solution. (Carrie Recommends: SwimCart)

Step 2: Listen to the Interview.

Be sure to listen to the entire interview. It's another great one.

Step 3: Get a free link on my blog.

Please post your comments below after you listen to the interview. Show Carrie 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.

Step 4: Share the Love.

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

Step 5: Learn More about Carrie.

Want More Carrie? I know you do!
Head over here to learn more from her: The Barefoot Executive.

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

PS. Would you Like to Start a Podcast like Mine and Have Cool People Like Carrie Wilkerson on your Show?  If you can make a telephone call, you can have a podcast, too: Click here -> How I Record My Podcast On the Telephone.

1. No time to learn something new.

2. No time to “chat” all day.

Well… I think I was a bit short-sighted on both fronts, because I started to see a bunch of Twitter traffic in my web stats from others talking about me.

So… I just joined Twitter (it's free) and I already love it. It's a fun way to let others know about what you're working on and just take a little coffee/sanity break during the day.

If you'd like to join Twitter and keep up with me, I'd be more than happy to have you. Here's my link…

http://twitter.com/nicoledean

Join me?

Nicole

PS. If you're twittering, please post your URL below, as well.