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

Summer is in full swing and a lot of people have been asking me about my kids daily to do lists and how I keep them motivated around the house every year during the summer so I can get work done. Instead of just me posting, I thought I'd put the question out to get even more feedback.

So, this week I asked our experts….

If you have kids at home —
how do you manage your home
during the summer to actually get work done?

Include schedules, too, if you have them. Thanks!

I hope you find something in this week's post to help make your own summer break a little less stressful.

Tiffany Dow of The Guide to Shiny Object Syndrome says:

I have three kids at home – a college student, one transitioning from middle into high school, and an elementary school student. When they’re home during the summer, I am in Heaven! But like all kids, it can pose a distraction for me when I need to get things done.

I’ve made the mistake of being a night owl and trying to work past the bedtime of my kids, just so I could spend the daylight hours focused on them, but then I found that I was too tired during the day to work or play.

For me personally, during the school years, I end up losing over two hours a day just driving the kids to and from school. When summer comes, I gain two extra hours, which I love.

A typical schedule for me during the summer is like this:

Wake up between 6-8 AM (because after all, what good is summer if we can’t enjoy not living by an alarm clock?).

Go to bed around 9-10 PM.

Everything in between is a lovely combination of work, cooking and playing with my kids. I don’t live by a schedule. I make breakfast, lunch and dinner when we’re hungry. I take the kids swimming for a couple of hours if the weather happens to be nice.

I like to run errands during regular working hours so that stores are not crowded. I technically work from the time I wake up until the time I go to sleep, but each day is filled with breaks and cooking with my kids and maybe a TV show or two.

I don’t track time. I live according to what moments my kids need with me and what tasks I have to get done that day. If my daughter says, “Hold me, Mommy!” then I drop the keyboard and hold her.

If I know I need to get something out that day because my subscribers are counting on me, then I tell my kids that morning and they work together to help each other so that they interrupt me less. I’m sure to thank them when I’m done for being so good to me and letting me accomplish my work.

I wish I could provide the perfect “work at home Mom” schedule that’s rigid and foolproof, but I can’t. I don’t even want to. I want to say this: THE biggest perk of this career path is getting to enjoy all of these precious moments with our kids.

So soak it up during the summertime. They’re grown before you know it. Work can wait. Even if you have to set your alarm earlier so that you can get more done, make the effort. You’ll enjoy your summer more when you relax and realize that most tasks can wait.

One thing I’d like to add to this. My subscribers and I recently had a conversation about the noisiness that kids bring. I’ve turned everything (TV, video games, talking) into white noise. When voices become high pitched (like my daughter saying, “STOP IT, SHAWN!”) I instantly tune in and address it.

Carol Amato recommended a great site to help train you for white noise while working. It’s free and it’s called coffitivity.com. It’s really neat and the key is to put it really low and train your mind to work around noise.

Connie Ragen Green of Affiliate Marketing Inside Secrets says:

I do not have kids at home, but I do spend about eight weeks each summer with some or all of my six grandkids. Four of these incredible children live in Finland, so while I am there I get up very early – three or four in the morning – to do my work online. They get up around six or seven and by then I've done as much as I intended to do that day. A couple of times a week it all catches up with me and I simply take a nap that afternoon. The oldest is twelve years old now, so she and I have our own work area when she happens to get up early to see what I'm doing.

When the two stateside grandsons are with me I work around their busy schedules. They are both involved in organized sports, so I attend every practice and game and do not work at all during that time.

Two years ago I started teaching them what I do online, so now we all seem to be working a few hours each day on our businesses. They are homeschooled, and this has been an important part of their education.

I would encourage anyone with children in their life to include them in what you do, as much as possible. As a former classroom teacher I feel strongly about sharing this type of information with kids from an early age.

Felicia Slattery of Signature Speech Secrets says:

My girls (ages 8 and 10) finished school for the summer on May 24. And now I'm stuck trying to figure out what to do with them for the summer. Lucky for me is there's this thing called the Internet :-).

So far, I've found a site that has a cool list of 50 free things to do with kids in the summer, a bunch of kid-friendly recipes, and affordable summer camps for both my girls.

On the days where they won't be occupied outside our house, my schedule will include work time for me from about 7-Noon, with breaks for getting them breakfast and keeping them occupied with various activities from cleaning out their closets, junk drawers, toys in the basement playroom, and more chores. After that, they have lots of self-invented games they like to play including School (I know, go figure), Barbies, and putting on plays that require hours of practice. In the afternoons, I'll take them to the neighborhood pool and let them play with friends outside as much as possible.

June is Effective Communications Month, so I'll be busy offering webinars, teaching classes and creating content for my community. This summer I've scheduled one evening class based on my 21 Ways to Make Money Speaking that will run for 6 weeks. Daddy will be home then to take care of the troops while I work for an hour an evening once a week.

We have a couple of vacations planned and I won't work much (if at all) during those times. We love summer and always have fun, while I always make money!!

Susanne Myers of  Daily Affiliate Tasks says:

Summers are always a challenge for me. My main work time during the rest of the year is while my daughter is in school. There are a few things I’ve figured out over the past few years that made my life a lot easier. Some of them I mentioned in last year’s post including not scheduling any major projects and getting work done ahead of time.

This year I’m aiming to do something that’s worked very well last summer. My goal is to get up at least an hour or two before the rest of my family does. Since they are all late sleepers and years of having to get up early has me waking at the crack of dawn anyway, this shouldn’t be much of a problem. I should be able to get most of my work done before the rest of them are up and had their coffee, leaving me free the rest of the day to go explore, hang out at the beach and the likes.

I’m also looking into some summer programs that will keep my daughter entertained for a few hours a week, while giving me a chance to sneak in a few more hours of concentrated work. It always amazes me how much I can get done when I know that’s the only work time I have.

Nicole Dean of .. here! .. says:

My kids are 11 and 16 but this is the system that we've been using since they were each toddlers. Why? Because it's the closest thing to sanity that I can arrange here.

We have a daily checklist that the kids must complete before the TV goes on, the computer goes on, or any game systems get turned on. They also must complete their daily list before friends are allowed in the house.

I found that, if I left the time limit open, that the lists wouldn't get done. However, if they know they can work through their tasks faster and be free of my tyranny – they work through it better.

Here's their list that I posted two years ago. It's pretty much the same today. You can click on it to view it in pdf format.

The other benefits are this…

1. The kids know what the expectations are in advance. They are better equipped to succeed.

2. My husband and I are on the same page, because the rules are in black and white.

3. I'm not chasing the kids around all day saying “Did you brush your teeth?” or “Have you cleaned up the backyard?” I look at their chart and it's right there in front of me.

4. It teaches the kids that habits are important. And, that a family works on routine. All good stuff.

I print it out weekly and they just check off the days as they go through them. If everything gets done during the week, they earn bonuses.

For instance, my son has a Gamefly account. He keeps it as long as the backyard is cleaned up daily. If there is an issue, he gets downgraded from 2 games/month to 1 and then to zero. It really never becomes an issue. He's really very self-motivated when he knows the rules. My daughter on the other hand… is a bit more of a battle.

My son is also taking some classes through Florida Virtual School to earn more high school credits again this summer which keeps him busy. And, he is doing some work for me in our business, but I'm not utilizing him enough yet.

Also during summer, I try to limit work to 1-2 hours per day – Monday-Friday. Some days, I work 10 minutes – just to quick check email for emergencies. Others are closer to 3 hours Am I letting some things drop? Yes. But, I'm finding that the important things, like getting a pedicure with my daughter – are getting done. And, it really helps me to sit down and FOCUS on projects and tasks that make me money.

Please share your tips. I'd love to hear them. Also, I'm working on a book about working from home. So stay tuned for that soon.

Warmly,
Nicole Dean

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

This week I asked our panel of experts a question that I get asked often from Virtual Assistants, Coaches, Authors, and Infoproduct Sellers…

“How do you decide how to price your products and coaching and what
if any struggle did you come through to charge what you're worth?”

I think you will like the responses.

Terry Dean of My Marketing Coach says:

I have to admit that pricing is one of the toughest issues we face in marketing.

Here's why. Price too low and you devalue what you offer. Some of your potential best clients might not even take a second look at the offer because the low price denotes low quality. In addition, you might not be able to pay for the advertising (both “free” and paid advertising have a cost of either time or money).

You can also price yourself out of the market you're serving. If you're delivering Walmart services, you can't expect to receive Saks or Nordstrom prices.

And the lowest price doesn't even mean you get the maximum sales. For example, I've tested products at $47, $67, and $97 several times. In all 3 tests where I ran these price points, $67 performed best for me…both in quantity of sales and profits from those sales. Yes, more people purchased at $67 than at $47.

Does that mean you should run out and price your product at $67? Of course not. That was for my audience and offer. It simply means you need to keep your eyes open to pricing. Lower is not immediately better for sales, profits, or the results your customers receive.

When I started out, my tendency was to undervalue and underprice what I was offering. It wasn't until I started networking with others who asked a fair price for the value they produced that I realized the mistake I had been making. I consistently undervalued what I offered…and honestly I still make this mistake regularly today with my products.

Here's an exercise everyone reading this should practice today. Buy a Robb Report magazine (or get one at the library).

Read it cover to cover. Look at all the ads. How does someone advertise a cooler for $1,200? What do they say about it? What benefits do they share? How is it unique?

Then look at the ads for the $25,000 watch, the $47,000 German Shepherd, or the $350,000 car.

What words do they use to describe them? What do the company logos look like? What about the other photos they feature?

Program your mind for real value, instead of just cheapest price.

What customers really want is for you to provide them with the benefits they're seeking. Sure, price factors in, but a product that can't fulfill their desires isn't worth it no matter how low the price.

Also think about which customers you most want to attract. For example, I would never do “cheap” coaching. One-on-one coaching with me is a minimum of $500 per month. That's not anywhere near the highest. In fact, it's the lowest I know of for someone with my experience and client base.

It's not cheap though. I know the value of what I offer…and what it can do for someone's business.

I also know the clients I'm trying to attract for direct coaching. They either already own an online business and want to increase their profits from it. It's simply an ROI purchase for them. Or they have previous experience owning or managing a offline business (such as a middle level executive). They know the value of coaches and consultants.

I'm not trying to attract brand new beginners for one-on-one coaching with me. That's not as entertaining and thought provoking for me as working in all these different businesses and maximizing their profits.

Now onto specifics for your product or service. The best way to judge where to start your pricing is looking at competitors who are paying for advertising. Don't base your prices on companies which only use affiliates or social media. They often don't do the numbers like a PPC advertiser on Adwords would do.

What are the competitors on Adwords charging for an equal product to what you offer? What about those in industry magazines?

You can use sites like Alexa.com, Compete.com, and others to judge the demographics of their website and make sure it's the same audience you want to attract.

Their prices give you the starting point to work from.

If you want to learn from Terry, but can't afford his $500/month coaching prices, be sure to check out Terry's Mentoring Club which is pretty awesome.

Kelly McCausey of Solo Smarts says:

The issue of pricing hasn't left my mind once since it was brought up late one recent night at NAMS 9. I was confronted with the truth that I haven't been charging what I should for a long time. It's not even like it was the first time I've heard it, but this time, I was ready for it. Ready to accept it and ready to act.

I worried some clients might panic, or worse yet – think I was getting too big for my britches. This fear turns out to be unfounded.

Since announcing my product and coaching rates are increasing soon, I've only received encouraging responses. A few have gone out of their way to tell me they know they've been getting a bargain.

As one gal put it, “I've been dining on steak but paying for a burger.”

It is great being appreciated and the input has helped get my head straight.

My homework this week has been to develop a repricing plan. I had to choose my new prices and decide which products will go through an increase first. It will be a two month process rather than a one time price jump. This gives my community a chance to act on old prices, gives my affiliates a chance to promote special bundle offers and through it all my business will gain a boost from all of the buzz and activity.

Pricing isn't a science. What we have to sell isn't measurable by hourly rates or physical weight. We can under price ourselves by underestimating the value of our products and we can overprice ourselves my overestimating our market's willingness to spend. Ultimately for me, I'm listening to what my people say and making decisions that take it all into consideration. I won't be the most expensive steak on the block, but I won't be mistaken for a fast food burger either.

That said, now would be a great moment to tell you that my One on One Coaching prices are heading for a significant increase in just a couple of weeks

Learn More from Kelly at Solo Smarts.

Bob Jenkins of Power Profits Mentoring says:

Pricing is the #1 problem barely-making-it coaches have in their business right now. Here's how I've learned to handle it.

First, I hired mentors along the way who have helped me “see straight” in regards to pricing. Specifically, the mentors who helped my mindset over the last few years have been Nancy Marmolejo, Adam Urbanski, Kevin Nations, and Therese Sparby. Today, one of my favorite areas to coach people around is their own sense of value in determining their prices.

Through their help and the feedback I got from my coaching clients I realized a number of ah-has.

Pricing by the hour discounts the amount of experience and expertise I'm bringing to the table. Instead, by focusing on the value of the benefits I provide to my clients, and the results they get through working with me, I can set a fair price that both of us can get excited about. I think of this as basing my prices on output instead of input.

Next, being the “low-cost leader” doesn't help build a reputation for quality. In fact, people's expectations of the work I do is impacted by their first impressions – i.e., how much does it cost.

Another problem with having the lowest (or lower) prices is it typically brings in clients and customers that don't value my experience and expertise, but more importantly, they don't value their own experience or expertise. When I charge higher prices than my competition, I'm typically attracting clients and customers who recognize that THEY are worth the extra investment. They are also more committed to their success and seeing a return on their investment at a quick pace.

The biggest challenge I had to overcome in my mindset was realizing my customers are completely different than me. For the first few years in business I priced my products and programs based on my history as a teacher, and subconsciously believing that all my prospective clients were living on a “teacher's budget.” That shift helped me approach sales conversations with more respect for my client's vision and goals, and less focus on their current circumstances.

Final note – I encourage my clients and anyone who is struggling with pricing to take action and revise later. Whatever your price is now, increase it by 25% immediately. Make a few sales. Then bump it up another 25%. Make a few more sales. Bump it up another 25%, etc. Do this until your conversions drop. This focus on price elasticity (cool economics term) will give you the freedom to raise your prices according to value and market response.

Want to learn more from Bob? Check out: Power Profits Mentoring

Melissa Ingold of Special Reports PLR says:

I think this is one of the biggest struggles that people have in business, and it all goes back to fear. They’re afraid no one will buy, or their existing customers or clients will complain or leave them, they’re afraid of getting too big, and they’re afraid people will find out they really don’t know what they’re doing. So they price their products and services so low they barely make a profit.

But what I’ve seen time and time again, is that if you charge what your products and services are worth, it increases the value of them in the eyes of your market. See, if your prices are too low, people will wonder why, and they’ll think that maybe you’re not very good at what you do, or your products aren’t very good.

I recently opened a 3 month coaching program to just a few people, and originally I was going to price it at $397 because I figured I hadn’t done one-to-one coaching in a while. But then I was like, no way, that’s too low for the value I’m giving. So I charged a $1000 and filled all the openings in just a few days.

The same with my PLR. Some people might think it’s outrageous to charge $47 for a package of PLR when so many people are practically giving it away these days. But what happens is (and I know this because customers have told me), those people go and look for cheaper PLR places, and that’s cool because we all want to save money where we can, but then they come right back to me because they just couldn’t find the same quality elsewhere.

When it comes to products, people are willing to pay more money for quality. Just like the shoes and clothes they buy for their kids, they’ll spend the extra money to buy the brand name quality items they know are going to last the entire school year.

So you have to show your potential customers and clients the quality they’re going to get. And that goes right down to the graphics you use on your sales page – don’t create this awesome ebook and then skimp on the ecover. If the ecover looks like crap, then people automatically think the product will be crap too – it’s just the way it is.

If you want to offer coaching, show them the value they’re going to get for their investment. Take the time to create a package(s) that outline everything they’re going to get, the benefits for them, and what they’re going to walk away with at the end of the program. Then when they see the price tag, they won’t run away, instead they’ll feel like they’re getting an amazing deal. People need to know exactly what they’re going to get for their money, so make it easy for them to say yes.

The same goes for services. You can’t just say, “Oh, I do writing, and transcriptions, and this and that”, you have to create packages that tell them exactly what they’re going to get for their money and how the package will benefit them. Will they get more traffic? Will they be able to release info products faster? Then tell them that! When you can show high value, you’ll be confident in your decision to charge higher prices.

Check out Melissa's Available PLR here: Special Reports PLR

Ronnie Nijmeh of PLR.me (< -click for a special free offer from Ronnie) says:

Instead of asking of “how much can I charge?”… I reframe that question to become: “how much value can I add?” and it changes the whole game.

$1,000 for a hamburger might seem ridiculous, but $1,000 for a new model second hand car might be a steal.

My #1 tip for you:

Don't compete on price. Compete on value.

Don't be the bargain basement seller. It cheapens your products and brand… and causes a flurry of doubts in the mind of your clients.

That's why I find pricing to be as much an art as it is a science. It's about balancing expectations with finances.

Another piece of the pricing puzzle is to have several price points for your funnel. The best way to explain this is to give you my Funnel Mapping Worksheet that's from my Expert Publishing System course. Sample price points are inside, which will be very helpful for those who want to see specific prices.

Long story short… I always have products at the low ticket tier… $4.95, $7, $17. This is to lower the barrier to entry and get clients to say “yes”. Once you get that “yes”, it's a lot easier to get to another “yes,” which is where you get into one-time-offers (OTOs), mid-ticket products, upsells/cross-sells, high-ticket offers, and membership options.

I know that there is always – ALWAYS – a loyal audience who's willing to invest in themselves and their business at the high ticket. For me, that means $500+… It's not unusual for me to offer $2,000 and $3,000 price points for a very select few who are a great fit. They happily invest because the value I offer for the price is so astounding.

But again, the number itself doesn't matter. You always have to angle your pitch on value, not price.

Ask yourself: “Is the value greater than the cost?” Because if so, then you've priced it just right.

If not, then stack more value. Here's my shortcut to add value:

1. Add additional mediums to the offer – audio, video, checklists, worksheets, mindmaps, presentations, etc

2. Add additional access to you – individual coaching, group coaching, live event tickets, etc.

3. Add services – done-for-you, installations, etc.

So those are my pricing tricks. Simple, but very effective.

Nicole Dean of .. here! .. says:

Wow. Once again, I am amazed by my smart friends.

Pricing can be a huge issue, so I really enjoyed reading their insight. Between self-esteem/confidence issues, not understanding what your market wants, and basically knowing how to write copy that sells – there are definitely a lot of factors at play.

Because we're selling digital products and the info in our heads, I feel that setting your pricing is something to me that can feel so arbitrary. It's not like selling a house where you can clearly see the area comps and add up things like 4 bedrooms, granite countertops, cul de sac, good schools, and a pool. Digital stuff is harder. At least it is to me.

For instance, should I charge 99 cents or $9.99 for my Kindle book?

Well that depends on a few factors.

• What are my goals with this book?
• Am I using that Kindle book to generate leads for my business and get exposure? Or is its primary purpose income generation?
• Is it information that naturally leads people to transition into a program of mine?
• What's that market look like as far as what is selling and what's not?
• Does pricing cheaply reflect poorly in this instance or make me seem more accessible?

These are definitely things to know and understand.

My friends pointed out a lot of issues that I had planned to talk about, so I'll summarize a few of their points.

Product A & Product B – Same Product, Different Price

We see this all the time in the PLR products that we sell.

We can have two customers buy the exact same PLR product.

The two customers have the same content. Yet one sells it for $15 and struggles to make sales while the other sells it for $500 over and over again.

Why?  The only difference is in how it is being presented on the sales page.

The hook, the value, the results, your credibility, the proof.

If you have all of those things in place, your product's perceived value starts to increase to potential clients.

Heck, even the title of your product or the cover can make the difference between whether you can charge $5 and get nobody to buy verses charging $47 while making sales hand over fist.

I have one more thought that I'll share before I turn this over to you.

Membership sites.

One area where I've had success is in scaling up my membership site prices slowly. For instance, when Melissa and I launched PLR Toolkits, we offered it as a low price for 24 hours to fill in spaces quickly. This works well for me, for a few reasons.

1. We can get members quickly – so all expenses are paid and were immediately in the black. We see a profit from day one.

2. Member retention increases. Because those first members got in at a low price, they know if they quit, they have to rejoin at a higher price. So by scaling, it makes people think twice before letting their spot go.

3. We normally raise prices several times. This gives us the opportunity to mail several times to let people who missed out know that they can still get in before the NEXT price increase. So, there is a built-in reason to promote regularly as the membership numbers are building.

That's something that I've done on a few membership sites and it works really well for me and for my clients that have used this method, too.

Share your Thoughts, Please.

As a person who sells products online – and buys them, too – I'd like to know your experiences.

Thank you so much for stopping by.

Warmly,
Nicole

This week I asked our panel of experts the same thing I asked last year and the year before …

“What's something cool in your business that is working really
well for you – right now?”

I greatly enjoyed reading the responses. I hope you enjoy them, as well.

Tiffany Dow of Squidoo Quick Commissions Guide says:

In 2013, part of my plan was to get re-involved with Squidoo and tangible affiliate earnings. I had been there since 2006, but sold off all of my profitable lenses and I wanted to get back to what it was all about for me when I first started – sharing.

But like everyone else, I wanted to spend time doing something that would launch some residual earnings. I like things I can set up once and basically never touch again. What Squidoo does for me aside from that is it also lets me break away from my usual topics – it helps prevent boredom.

I’m a flitter online. I like to jump around and do different things. I used to buy domain after domain and waste TONS of money setting up sites to promote a myriad of things (household good, sushi supplies, etc) when there’s no way I wanted to blog about that daily. Lenses help feed my craving for variety – and they’re FREE. (Love that).

So at the end of 2012, I challenged myself to test some new strategies out. I used Erica Stone’s Squid Pro Quo research tactics, but then I FrankenTiffed the lens creation with my own content strategies. I also left out the design tips (pure laziness on my part).

While the original guide had some fantastic methods on how to research products, I knew I wanted to share more personalized information. For instance, if I write about the Kinect video game – I don’t want to just write about technical aspects and price.

I get personal satisfaction sharing my story about it – how I use Dance Central and the kids and I have contests to see who can score better (and would you believe I score better every single time? I’ve got moves apparently).

When I started seeing the lenses start to perform (set up a page, leave it, and let it earn up to $30 a month), it led to me whipping up a little report on how I was doing it called the Squidoo Quick Commission Guide.

I love checking in each day to see which lenses are performing (not all do). Sometimes there’s a surprising niche that I discover. I decided to openly track my 2013 earnings and I know it’ll be slow re-growing all of my content since I was basically starting from scratch.

The earnings are a little topping on my Internet income (for now), but that’s the kind of stuff that makes me smile – the unexpected income that you forget about until a deposit that grows the more you put into it. And because it feeds my personal satisfaction, it has double the benefits.

You can learn more about my Squidoo methods in my course:
Squidoo Quick Commissions Guide

Susanne Myers of  Daily Affiliate Tasks says:

I’ve been publishing Kindle Cookbooks for a while now and came across a neat little trick. One of my hurdles in my niche was to get my readers used to consuming kindle products (and realizing that they don’t necessarily need a kindle device to read them). To get them in the habit of downloading and reading kindle cookbooks, I started sharing a few free downloads each day on my blog. These were usually books that were on a free KDP promotion and would go back to paid versions within a few days.

Susanne Myers as Hillbilly Housewife – Books on Kindle

My readers are downloading these books and are also buying my own kindle books. Something interesting started happening. All of a sudden MY kindle books started showing up in the “Customers who bought this book also bought…” section of quite a few popular kindle cookbooks. Take a look. This is a book that I mentioned on my blog a few days ago (it was a free download at the time).

Four of the first six recommended ebooks are mine. Of course this doesn’t happen all the time and I picked the best example I could find, but having even just one of your kindle books show up in there for a different kindle books each week can generate quite a few sales for you.

Here’s the basic strategy step by step:

1) Write and publish your kindle book.

2) Get your readers to buy it.

3) Share other free related kindle books with them.

4) Rinse and repeat.

There are lots of smart kindle marketers out there who are leveraging KDP to catapult their books to the top of categories on Amazon. Leverage their work by getting Amazon to promote your own book along with theirs.

If you want to download some great cookbooks on the Kindle, be sure to check out:
Susanne Myers as HillBilly Housewife – Books on Kindle

PS. If you want to find free Kindle books to recommend to your list – to use Susanne's methods, click here: Free Kindle Books

Tony Shepherd of Sales Funnel Cheat Sheet says:

Hi Guys,

When Nicole posed the question ‘what's working for you in your business right now' I couldn't resist writing this guest post because at the moment my business is going through possibly the biggest (and most profitable) change it ever has.

To cut the story short, I got hit by the last two Google updates and sites that had been pretty consistent money earners vanished into the depths of page 298 of Google or thereabouts.

Traffic dried up.

Sales did too.

Luckily my business is an Octopus and made up of many parts so it was nowhere as serious as it could have been.

But it really pissed me off nonetheless.

I took a step back and applied some common sense and quite a few bottles of wine to the issue and came to the conclusion that…

…it's bloody DAFT to let a big chunk of your business rely on a third-party site, even if it IS Google.

In fact ESPECIALLY if it's Google because the buggers move the goalposts without warning and your whole traffic flow can vanich down the toilet.

The sad but true news is that Google WILL continue to update their algorithms and if the last update or the one before that didn't hit you, then the next one or the one after that WILL

So I started buying traffic and running it through a funnel system that I devised.

These ‘engines' or optimized sales funnels allow me to buy traffic for free or for pennies on the dollar because they're optimized well enough (via tracking and testing) to pay for pretty much all the traffic I buy in the form of paid solo ads.

They're self-financing if you will, which means I build profits and my list essentially for free.

Once my funnel is optimized all I need to do is keep an eye on it, and buy more solo ads (which are paid for by the upsells in the funnels)

It's working INCREDIBLY well for me and has been for quite a while now.

I'll never put my business – the business I worked hard to build – into the hands of someone who can just switch off my sales without a second thought.

So that's what's working with me.

If you'd like to get a closer look at my sales ‘engines' you can grab a copy of ‘Sales Funnel Cheat Sheet' by clicking the link below.
-> Sales Funnel Cheat Sheet

Cheers

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

I've just launched a site I've had on the books for over two years. It's a simple Q&A site which is something anyone can add to their business. Since I love to learn and to teach, it's a perfect way for me to keep in touch with what my readers want to know, while expanding my own horizons.

Having a great time with this!

You can check out my new Q&A site to see how I set it up here
->  Ask Jeanette Cates

Kelly McCausey of Solo Smarts Podcast says:

I'm going to say that Curation is working for me as a traffic, content and relationship building strategy. I've fallen in love with curating content and not just from one angle. There are three distinct approaches to taking full advantage of the idea of curating content and I've been devoting some time every week to learning more and experimenting with it.

First, there's curating the best of the best content on your own site. Pulling in snips and linking out to what you believe your market is going to be interested in has been a real traffic booster for me. You can see my curation category on Solo Smarts here: http://www.solosmarts.com/category/solopreneurs-quickies/.

Second, there's doing what you can to encourage others to curate your best content. At a basic level, it's about getting people to click like and share. At a deeper level, it's about giving people lots of ways to republish your content. See how I've shifted my About page to encourage curation: http://www.solosmarts.com/about/. In our world, as information marketers, we welcome them doing so with an affiliate link of course.

(Special Note: If you find that people rarely ‘curate' you by liking your posts and sharing them – maybe you're not nailing great topics for your market. I've got a great little membership program that teaches you how to do just that: identify great topics that speak to your people and win reactions. It's called Topics on Target.)

Third, there's curating our favorite niche content on other sites, like BizSugar.com and InternetBillboards.net. These sites have driven traffic back to me but also helped me to make some fresh new connections, reaching into new neighborhoods in the marketing world. This has brought me some great new guests for my podcasts and invites to guest blog on sites I've never had reach with before.

There are endless opportunities to explore for this kind of curation when you think about all of the different formats you can redistribute your content in via sites like Scribd & Slideshare. Nicole, you've curated via Listly and that's a site I'd like to spend some more time on myself.

Curation takes time and I'll tell you now that you can't focus on all three areas at once and do it well. Choose one and give it your best attention for at least six weeks and measure the results through your stats. Do more of what works and drop what doesn't – then move on to tackle another side of curation

Learn how to identify great topics that speak to your people and win reactions.
Click Here to Learn How.

Lou Bortone of Video in a Day says:

Something that's been working really well lately is posting quotes or “expert tips” on Facebook and Pinterest. However, posting text doesn't really cut it anymore, so I've been using a few handy-dandy web tools to make the text more visual and share-able.

If you put your quotes into visual tools such as Quozio.com or ReciteThis.com, they look great and are much more Facebook-friendly.

I created a bunch of quick marketing tips and turned them into “photos” with Quozio and other tools, and they tend to get shared and re-pinned a lot more than text alone. Give it a try!

(click on the image to see it full size)

Want to learn to create Video? Check out Lou's
Video in a Day course

Nicole Dean of .. here! .. says:

Speaking of Sales Funnels (as Tony mentioned) one thing that's working well for me lately has been revamping my existing sales funnels and creating new funnels, as well.

For instance, my friend, Melissa Ingold, and I set up an ongoing free membership site at FreeBusinessPLR.com with an upsell into our cool new Monthly PLR Toolkits program.

It's a super simple page and I know we could totally improve it with just a bit of testing. (As always, right?) Here it is:

Why does it work so well?

The combination of a free ongoing offer with a recurring income is always a great thing in my book.   Plus, our free members WANT to open our emails to get their monthly free PLR content. So that helps, too.

If you want to see how this profit funnel flows, just click on the image above or go to FreeBusinessPLR.com, then sign up.

We are sending traffic to this offer through social media, our own lists, affiliates and solo ads, too. I'm hoping this turns into another nice income generator for us both.

How about you? What's been working really well for you these days?

I can't wait to hear your thoughts.

Warmly,
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.) 

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

Everyone always wants to know how to grow a list, what works and what doesn't, especially when they're new to email marketing. This week I asked our experts what advice they would give in this situation.

Let's say I'm a blogger with no products of my own.
What's the fastest way you would recommend that I build my list?

Here are their replies.

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

You certainly don't need a product in order to build a list. But you do need several optin gifts, such as reports, audios, or videos. I find it best (and most effective) when I rotate these optin boxes, so that they are not always the same. That also helps me segment my list as it grows.

I use Robert Plank's Action Optin for my optin box, since they can join the list and never leave the page they're on. It just gives them the thank you message in the same space.

I change the offer every couple of weeks to keep it fresh.

It's also a good idea to notify the list that you DO have, as well as your social media contacts when you publish a new blog post. You can do this via email, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. This gives them the chance to see and comment on your blog post, as well as opt into your current offer.

I've also used the Covert Messenger Pro plugin that Nicole uses on her blog now and then. It's a great way to draw attention to a new offer or event. And it's easy to use and change!

Dr. Jeanette Cates works with online business owners who are ready to expand their Online Success. She provides training for new and intermediate marketers in her well-respected Online Success Incubator  course.

Lain Ehmann of Business Love Potion says:

Create a product! No, seriously – people need a reason to sign up for your list. Discounts, special exclusives, a free download — these are all great “bait” to lure them into your list – where you'll give them MORE goodies.

Even if you're primarily an affiliate marketer, you should establish yourself as an authority, and one of the best ways of doing so is through creating your own product. Here are some ideas:

• Checklist (“10 things you need to know before you write your next poem”)
• Special report (“The five biggest mistakes in ferret ownership and how to avoid them”)
• Audio interviews
• eBooks
• Free five-part email class (“Five Days to Silkier Skin”)

Then offer this product as a gift when someone signs up for your email list. Voila, instant subscribers!

Lain knows how to enchant her readers. Check out her podcast here: Business Love Potion

Connie Ragen Green of Affiliate Marketing Secrets Explained says:

Bloggers are in the enviable position of writing regularly on their topic. In order to build a list quickly I would recommend writing reviews of products, courses, and services in your niche, and to add a relevant short report as a bonus to anyone who buys through your link. Continue to blog about the benefits of being on your list, and ask people to share your posts on social media. This will bring you some income, build your list, and massively increase your visibility in a short period of time as the buzz grows about what you have to offer your audience.

How Has Connie won so Many Affiliate Contests? Find out here -> Affiliate Marketing Secrets Explained

Susanne Myers of  Daily Affiliate Tasks says:

There are a million and one ways to grow your list and a lot of them you can do from your blog. That being said, I get the best results from a very basic strategy … but you have to do it well and constantly test and tweak for best results. Here it is…

Have The Basics In Place and Then Tweak Them

The best way to grow your list from your blog is to have some sort of optin form on every page of your site, to offer a goodie or ethical bribe in exchange for your readers’ email addresses, to overcome any objections they may have for signing up and to ask your own readers to help you grow your list further.

Yes, this is pretty basic stuff, but are you doing all of it? Let’s look at each of these in a little more detail.

1. Optin Form on Every Page

Go check on your blog and see if you have some sort of optin form on every single page. It’s pretty easy to do with WordPress. You can add it to the sidebar or tweak your blog template so it’s automatically added to the bottom of every post.

Next it’s time to tweak and test. Try a different placement for your optin form. Test different copy, color, layout … you name it. If you can think of something to change, it’s worth testing. If you are using Aweber it’s very easy to set up split tests directly in your Aweber account settings. No need to change your Blog files every time you test something new.

Keep testing and keep improving your optin rate to grow your list faster and faster.

2. Offer An Ethical Bribe

Again… it’s a pretty obvious one. Make sure you offer something to new subscribers. This could be a short report, an audio or video recording, a coupon code etc. If you have an offer in place now, take a look at it. Does it still work? (You can use PLR content to create this.)

Either way it’s time to do some testing. Come up with a few different goodies to give away and see which one works best. This doesn’t have to be complicated. Just mention a different one in each test version and then add links to all of them in your welcome email that goes out automatically. You can mention in there that you’re throwing in a few extra bonuses that you thought they might enjoy.

3. Overcome Objections

Another good idea is to overcome any objections your blog readers may have. A great way to do that is to write up a page with 10 good reasons why someone should sign up for your list. Link to that page from right below your autoresponder signup box.

Here’s an example of my page for my Affiliate Treasure Chest blog.

4. Ask For Referrals

Last but not least, let’s talk about my favorite strategy. It’s getting my existing subscribers to help me grow my list faster. Every few weeks I ask them (usually in a P.S.) to help me grow the list by referring others to it. I invite them to share my emails with colleagues and friends that may also be interested in the topic.

I LOVE my Susanne friend! Check out her Daily Affiliate Tasks here.

David Perdew of NAMS says:

Because MyNAMS.com is a membership site, we’ve focused on growing that members’ list organically and without undercutting any of our affiliates. That’s a tall order. It means slow growth until we have a system in place that protects our affiliates first.

For example, I won’t send traffic to an aWeber opt-in page first. If we do that, we’re just raiding the affiliates list.

So, we built a list opt-in box that adds prospects to a free membership first, THEN to the autoresponder list.

Now, we’re customizing our opt-in process to recognize whether visitors are logged in (if so, don’t show them the sign up box), and whether they’ve signed up for the product on that page already (if so, don’t show them the sign up box).

I’ve been really slow creating opt-in funnels because I wanted to respect the traffic source. But now that we’re set up with target specific, non-invasive opt-in technology that rewards our affiliates, every page of MyNAMS will have a popup box to harvest the maximize number of visitors.

That kind of list building is really good for our affiliates since they are tagged with lifetime database referrals. In other words, more passive commissions through better list building

Be sure to sign up for David's free weekly webinars here: NAMS Training

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

To build your list, there a few things you could do.

First, you could do some kind of 30 day challenge based around whatever your niche is. So let's say you're in scrapbooking… maybe you can post a new scrapbook every day for 30 days.

If you're in “learn to play piano”, you can have videos showing you learning to play the piano.

If you're in internet marketing, post about what you are doing to earn money.

All of these should be done with affiliate links included. As you post more and more, people will get more enrolled in your journey and sign up just not to miss the updates.

When you're done with your challenge, offer an opt-in with your main learnings from the past 30 days. People can sign up to get the report that explains your main takeaways, what you would've done differently, etc.

This would be highly valuable to people.

Another idea to build your list would be to blog with excellent content, like Steve Pavlina, and just offer a newsletter for people to get your updates. Steve didn't have any of his own products for a LONG time and was still highly successful and one of the most trafficked blogs on the web.

Another idea would be to hold contests for your blog readers. If you can make your readership engaging (contests, particularly viral ones), people will keep coming back just for the inevitable community you build.

Rachel's customers are getting results with her latest product: How To Get Every Book You Write Onto The First Page Of Kindle

Kelly McCausey of Solo Smarts Podcast says:

This is a tip for podcasters. During a podcasting webinar earlier this year, we were brainstorming ways to get the most out of your podcast content and we came up with the idea of building a list from your podcast listeners by transcribing the best interviews and making them available to list members for free.

I don't transcribe the entire episode, just the guest interview alone. I don't transcribe every interview, just those that strike me as being really meaty.

When I publish the podcast I add a note like this one: “Prefer to read rather than listen? Subscribe to my list and get a free interview transcript!”

I manage this by storing the transcripts in a protected folder and provide new subscribers with the password.

Since I started doing this I see little bursts of new optins (as few as ten, as much as twenty-five) on the weeks that I offer a new transcript.

Be sure to check out Kelly’s podcasting course. You can check that out here: Smart Podcasting Skills

Nicole Dean of .. here! .. says:

Lists, lists, lists.  So much to say. So little time.

I have many thoughts on this topic. But first, let me share one thing that I've done.

The last few weeks, I decided to give some attention to my lists. And, it's paying off very nicely.

If you've been around recently, you may have noticed some things changing. Well, most of that was to make it irresistible to sign up for my list. While I don't think I'm at irresistible yet, I think it's much more appealing.

Here's what I've been up to.

Step One: Sexy-up the Bait.

First of all, you'll notice that I made the “bait” sexier to sign up for my blog updates. When they sign up, they get not just updates, but THREE awesome reports. (Soon to be more.)

1. Where to Find Images for your Blog Posts.

2. 104 Blog Title Ideas (printable list)

3. List of the Tools that Power my Business

You could easily use PLR content to create these or just take your most popular blog posts and turn them into pdfs. Either way works.

Step Two: Sexy-up the Signup Forms.

Next, I made the signup boxes a bit more updated and current as you can see.

The new Side nav opt-in looks like this:

I added a new top opt-in box which looks like this:

And, we updated the opt-in at the bottom of the posts, too. (Although that little pokey out black thing still needs to be removed.)

 I *wish* I had a tool to recommend to make these pretty boxes. I've tried several and they've all been buggy and disappointing, so I shall just keep them to myself. BUT – I just bought ANOTHER program, so I'm testing it and am hopeful that we have a winner. Keep your fingers crossed. If it works as well as they say it will, you'll be hearing about it very soon.

Step Three: Sexy-up Your Testing.

Make sure you're using different signup forms on your blog so that you can easily track your results in Aweber.

Even better would be if you used Aweber's split testing feature that is built into their program to see which sign-up forms are getting the best results. I have used that in the past and it provides great feedback. But we haven't done it yet with these. We will though.

Step Four: Sexy-up Your Traffic.

The fourth thing to do is to boost your traffic so you get lots of people on your blog. That will give you a true test to see if your new forms are getting more signups than your old ones.

There are several ways to get more traffic to your blog, fast. These are two of my favorites.

The first one may not be the most interesting way you've ever heard, but it flat out works.

Here's a free report you can have to read more about it.

• The Easiest Way to Get More Blog Traffic (pdf)

Note: The Workshop that's mentioned in that document “Get to Know Your Blog Stats” – use coupon code “peeps25” to save 25% on it if you decide to sign up.

The second method that I like to use is Guest Blogging.

If you're new to my blog or are just getting to know me, I'll let you in on a cool thing about me, I did 75 guest blog posts during a 15 week spell a few summers ago. It was AWESOME for my exposure.

I have a course that explains the methods to my madness and you can check that out here if you'd like: Guest Blogging on Steroids.

So Talk to Me.

What are your biggest questions about building your list on your blog?

What has worked well for you in the past?

Well, I'm going to get off this computer and enjoy the beautiful day outside.

Talk soon.

Warmly,
Nicole Dean

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

A few years ago, I asked my friends for their tips for working on the road. You can still read that post here: Run your Business from the Road

I wanted to address the issue again, as I now have more experience in travel, having spent 5 weeks in Europe this summer between the adoption travel and visiting friends.

In preparation of my trip, I asked my friends for advice, not just on working from the road, but on longer-term travel.

I asked my panel of experts for the best on-the-road working tips … with a focus on working on the road FAR away from home for longer periods of time.

What do you do to prepare before you go?

Let's see what our experts are up to….

Kristen Eckstein of Finish Writing Your Book Fast: Book Writing for Procrastinators says:

I travel a lot. If I drive more than 6 hours, I try to have a driving buddy go with me so I can take the time in the car to brainstorm new project ideas or work on my iPad. While I'm away at a conference or “vacation,” I put my email autoresponders on alert letting people know when I'll be back in the office, and direct them to my Online Business Manager for support while I'm gone. This gives me peace of mind that they'll be taken care of and them peace of mind that I'm not ignoring them. Also, I always give my active clients a personal head's up as to when I'm leaving, when I'll be back, and the status of their book projects. I've learned that communication is the #1 most important thing in customer service!

While I'm on the road or in an airport, I take time to catch up on reading, go through training materials I purchased and haven't had time for at home, make phone calls to JVs and friends, and I travel with a MiFi card so I can access email and internet from almost anywhere (this is also especially helpful in hotel rooms).

When my husband and I toured the UK in the Fall of 2011, many of the places we stayed did not have working internet. It was especially important to me during this time to have all members of my team on the same page, everyone's jobs planned out in advance, and as a result my email newsletter, blog, social media posts, and customer service calls worked seamlessly while I was gone.

I also used HootSuite to pre-schedule Facebook and Twitter posts to update my friends and followers on where I was and what I was doing. This way they could stay in contact with me, though I wasn't actually present online at the time. When I got back to an internet connection, I'd answer their questions, post pictures and make comments. This increased my exposure, made others feel I was making them a part of my life, and it was rewarding for me to see their comments on what I was doing.

One note – it was extremely important to me that we stayed at places in the UK with an internet connection, so we specifically made reservations at such places. In one place in Scotland we couldn't find such a place, so I focused on relaxing and enjoying my surroundings – equally important as staying in touch with my list.

Lastly, something I've added recently to every conference, seminar or workshop I speak at or attend, is to build in at least one full day after the event for some fun to see the local sights. For example, I attended Radical Leadership in Minnesota recently and stayed almost two full days after the event to hang out with my awesome friend and business coach, Bob Jenkins, and his girlfriend, my life coach, Therese Sparby. We enjoyed some pontoon boat time on the lake, local restaurants, and I finally got to cross riding the roller coasters inside the Mall of America off my bucket list. Even though these days of fun occurred on weekdays, I made sure my clients knew when I would be back in the office, and I monitored email once a day to answer any pressing issues.

My biggest tip when you travel at length, especially if you have one-on-one clients, is to set their expectations of how long you'll be gone, when you'll return, and who they can contact in your absence. I've found when this line of communication is open, my list is more responsive and my clients love knowing I care enough about them to keep them “in the know.”

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

Packing to work on the road depends on the length of the trip and the purpose of the travel. When I cruise (mostly vacation) I just take my ipad, charger, and hot spot (my iPad is wifii so need the hot spot). On the ship I buy an hour's connection time and that will generally last me a week.

You see, before I go, I set up a special email address that only my staff knows about. They check all of my other email addresses and only forward those things that I am uniquely qualified to answer. Or things I need to know. And when you pare it down that way – there really is very little that you need to do while on vacation.

If I'm staying on land with full Internet connections along the way AND I need to upload or record videos, then I take my laptop, USB headset (for recording), extension cord, and chargers. I also have my Flip or Playtouch video camera. And of course my hot spot (to save on hotel connection fees) and my iPad and wireless keyboard – for taking notes in the meetings.

The ultimate packing load comes when I have to do a webinar on the road. The problem is that when you're presenting a webinar AND answering questions during the webinar, the control panel keeps popping onto the screen. So if you're recording that screen – you have a LOT of editing to do. To save that time, I carry a second computer with me – a netbook. Then I just set that computer up to record the webinar, while I present from my regular laptop.

I've been traveling with technology for many years and feel very proficient with it. But you do NOT want to get behind me in the airport security line! With two computers, an iPad, shoes, sweater, two carry on bags…well you can see why you want to choose the other line.

Alice Seba of Step-by-Step PLR You Can Use to Teach your Audience “How To” says:

The best thing is to plan ahead and have as much of the work done before you head out – and to have a team of helpers and partners on your side working on things while you're gone. When you have a team in place, going on a short or extended trip really seems like much less of a big deal.

When I'm getting ready to be away, I always do my blogging, email writing and other tasks in batches…getting as much done before I can as possible. I also write out a schedule of things that need to be done and gives those to my virtual assistant, so she can bear most of the burden while I'm gone. I don't usually take my laptop with me when I travel, but rely on my iPhone and/or iPad to check on emails and to do a few tasks here and there. I can always say I'll do more work on the road, but it just doesn't happen because I'm having too much fun. That's why I prefer to get it all done before going and when you get really focused, it's amazing how much work you can get done in a short time, so you can really enjoy your trip.

I don't have any picture for you. I am not showing you my unbathed, ratty-haired self after an extended camping trip.

Susanne Myers of  Daily Affiliate Tasks says:

I remember writing about this last summer right after we got back from a trip to Germany… well we went again this summer for nearly 3 weeks, and as always I keep learning new things.

While everything in my previous post still holds true, here are a couple more things that have worked well for me this go around.

Dropbox

I used to drag a portable hard drive around with me with “all” of my essential files on it … It never failed though.  I’d get there, start working on a blog post or wrap up a short report and couldn’t find an image or file I needed. Now, instead, I use drop box and have everything I need at my fingertips. And if something were to happen to my little travel notebook, I could easily replace it or use my husband’s laptop and still access all my files.

By the way … if you’re close to maxing out on storage, go ahead and upgrade to the premium edition and use it to store all your travel pictures and videos as well.

Note from Nik – Check out my video here about how I use Dropbox in my Business.

Have Systems in Place

I mentioned getting as much done and scheduled through autoresponder, blog drafts etc as possible. That definitely helped again this summer. I also do some checks in the weeks before our travels to make sure my existing systems are working well (for example, making sure ebooks are delivered to customers via email etc.).

Anything you are doing manually on a regular basis (like publishing that weekly newsletter) should be looked at. See if there’s a way to automate the process, schedule stuff to go out ahead of time (Aweber is great for this), or outsource it to a Virtual Assistant.

Don’t Schedule Any Big Projects To Work On

No matter what your good intentions are… unless you’re wrapping the project up on the plane ride, chances are it isn’t going to get done. At least that’s true for me. I had the best intentions to finally publish a kindle ebook while overseas, but didn’t work on it a lick.

Enjoy your travel, do what needs to be done and get back refreshed to tackle those big new projects.

Be Reachable in Multiple Ways

I mentioned in a previous post on this topic that having a team in place is a big help. This again saved me many times over this summer during our long trip to Germany to visit family. One of the best things I did was to come up with multiple ways to get in touch with my team including email, instant messages, phone and facebook messages. If one or two lines of communication go down, there’s still a way to stay connected.

Also keep in mind that there may be a pretty big time difference and let your team know if you need certain tasks accomplished sooner than usual (because you don’t want to have to get up in the middle of the night to put the finishing touches on that newsletter and send it out).

Travel Light

All I had with me this time around were my netbook and my smartphone. It worked like a charm. I snapped pictures with my phone, answered email and updated social media from there … I did my blogging and writing from the netbook. Anything else could wait until I got back home.

Cutting down on office stuff and various electronic paraphernalia along with cutting down on how many clothes and pairs of shoes I thought I needed allowed us to travel for close to three weeks with carry-on luggage only. It made getting in and out of the airport much quicker and there was less to unpack.

Share Your Travel Adventures With Your Readers

Last but not least, have fun and share your adventures with your readers. This is the first time I’ve posted a few pictures both from Germany and Paris. I’ve also shared some experiences on one of my niche sites. It’s been a lot of fun and was very well received by my readers. Look at this as another opportunity to connect on a deeper level.

Above all enjoy your trip and get back rejuvenated with all those creative juices flowing!

Nicole Dean of .. here! .. says:

I shared a lot about how I manage to run my business from the road in the blog post from last year which you can still access here:  Run your Business from the Road

However, this post is geared more towards longer-term travel, at least that's what I'm going to focus on.

• When I go to Wisconsin for 4 weeks, I can't run home if I forget something.
• When I went to Jamaica for a week, I pretty much had to work with what I had access to.
• And, when I was in Europe for 5 weeks this summer (half for our adoption in Latvia and the other half to visit friends in Ireland), I had to have my poop together or it would cost me a lot of money.

So when traveling far from home, for longer periods of time, some serious planning has to take place for business to continue to run smoothly.

Idea! I intentionally plan a 3 week or longer trip every year, simply to reset my business. If I don't, then I tend to get sucked back into it. However, if I know that I will be gone for 3 weeks or more it pushes me to systemize, delegate, and automate my business on an annual basis.

When planning a lengthy trip, the most important things to have are, in my opinion…

A plan.

To me, the most important thing to have, hands down, before traveling is a plan. If you can, schedule out all of your blog posts, your product releases and promos, and your emails to your list prior to leaving. Even better, try to have them already done and scheduled to go – without your involvement.

This is BIG. Please don't skip it. If you ignore this advice, you run the risk of running into one of two problems.

1. You will sit in front of your computer too much – because you're having to figure out your plan while you're away.
2. You may avoid work all together because you don't know what to do when you get on your laptop. This is even more dangerous as it can cost you more money than you may be able to afford.

During my time in Europe, I saw what both scenarios looked like.

I  had planned out my first two weeks before I left. But only the first two weeks. So, while I was in Latvia, all was well. I worked about 1/2 hour per day because I knew exactly what I needed to do. However, when I went to Ireland (3 weeks into my trip), I hadn't planned my business out that far, so I avoided work all together. This was definitely not ideal and, while I had a brilliant time with friends and wouldn't trade the experience it for the world, in all honesty I did not meet my financial goals during that time.

Your laptop (and a backup plan in case that breaks or is stolen).

You'll need an iPad, Tablet, or a laptop to work from – unless you're one of those weirdos who can write a blog post on their phone (like David Perdew…)

I pretty much always bring three things.

• My laptop (for writing and scheduling emails to my list)
• My iPad for checking email and Facebooking
• My iPhone for pictures, Skyping, answering quick email, Facebook, and other miscellaneous activities. Oh, I use it to make phone calls, too, if I'm in the United States, too. Imagine that.

Warning! While I was on my most recent trip, a woman sitting less than 5 feet away from me had her bag stolen during continental breakfast. It was a terrible terrible situation and I felt helpless to assist her since I was in conversation and didn't see what happened.

It made me really think about my laptop sitting upstairs in my room and what would happen if it were in my bag and stolen in the middle of my trip. So, be sure to have an idea for what you would do, if necessary, to continue working.

Chargers and Converter.

Be sure to pack your chargers for any electronics you have. If you do not, it may be difficult to find new ones wherever you go.

If you have a USB charger and your laptop, then you can buy less converters, we found. While not optimal, we charged the laptop and then charged one phone in the laptop USB, too. It was slow, but required less converter-juggling.

I would recommend, if traveling to a non-English speaking country, to have at least one converter before your plane lands. lol. We ended up in Latvia, with no converters, and no idea where to find one. I thought they'd be everywhere. I thought wrong. Trying to explain what a converter was in charades was interesting to say the least. Luckily we finally found someone at the Electronics store to help.

Access to your passwords.

You won't get far without access to your passwords. (I use Roboform to manage this.

Unfortunately, I also recommend you keep your Roboform access information in a second secure place, in case, heaven forbid, your laptop is stolen or breaks.

Skype

This is only really important if you're traveling overseas so that you can make phone calls easily. I used Skype in Latvia to call cabs and to call home to the US, too. If you have internet, this is a great alternative.

Note! Don't end up with a $300 phone bill. The thing you need to be careful of is leaving your phone on. Depending on your phone plan, you can get charged major bucks. I had my phone on, but had it set on Airplane Mode so that the cellular part was off and I couldn't be charged for incoming calls or data usage.

Dropbox

I can't live without Dropbox anymore. I don't even want to think about traveling without it. It would be so difficult.

I love you, Dropbox!!!

A wifi connection of some sort.

This is pretty critical. Like Kristen said, make sure the place you are staying has wifi.When we were looking at apartments in Latvia, we knew that we had to have one with wifi so I could check in easily while the kids had down time, or late at night. Be sure to inquire. Don't assume you'll be able to find a quiet place to work otherwise. When we were in Ireland, we were able to find wifi pretty much everywhere, but we still make sure when making reservations that we would have access. Just double check.

A team of trustworthy and talented people who have your back.

I adore my team. Without them, I couldn't do what I do.

Your priorities.

If you have all of the above in place, then the thing you need more than anything else is your priorities. It's WAY too easy to say “One more minute… ” and have your entire trip fly by with your face in your computer.

Don't let work let you miss out on these memories…

  My son and I riding bicycles in Latvia.

At the top of the Guiness Storehouse in Dublin, Ireland with my husband.

That's what life is all about. Uhhh… the memories. Not the Guiness.

Much love,
Nicole

PS. Did we miss anything? Please share your thoughts, too!

Yesterday, Terry Dean shared his handsome boys with us.

Today, we're moving on to two of my best buds – Connie Green & Susanne Myers.

Ladies, Show Us Your Pets!

And, here they are.

Connie Ragen Green of Huge Profits Tiny List says:

My dogs are a huge part of my life, perhaps because I never had pets while I was growing up. Perhaps that's why I have six of them.

Introducing… Micah, Sarah, Kali, Teddy, Scooter, and Jack.

Here's Micah, a Maltese who loves to dress up for Halloween and thinks ‘Woody' from Toy Story is his best friend.

Then there's Sarah, a Yorkie who also loves fashion.

Sarah has made the rounds at the hospital to bring joy to people who are very ill. She is very good at this and loves visiting anyone who needs cheering up. Scooter, her youngest son and the tiniest of all (he's just two pounds) will follow in her footsteps when he begins hospital visits this summer.

I also have Kali, the eldest daughter of Micah and Sarah (that makes her a Morkie); Teddy, also a Morkie; and Scooter, who is Teddy's little brother.

These dogs range in size from two pounds to six pounds, but they believe they're much bigger.

Scooter and Teddy. Brothers.

Then there's Jack, a Dachshund I rescued about ten years ago.

He was born blind, and he now has diabetes, but he's the happiest guy you could ever imagine. Jack is a social butterfly, and has friends up and down the street (mostly human friends).

Connie is a wonderful entrepreneur with a huge heart. Learn more from Connie Here.

Susanne Myers of Daily Affiliate Tasks says:

Susanne sent in this video that her daughter took of her cat, Maggie – the very submissive … tiger? 

Want to make more money with Affiliate Marketing? Check out Susanne’s program –  Daily Affiliate Tasks

I hope you're enjoying seeing our babies! I sure am.

Be sure to give a shout out to Connie and Susanne to thank them for stopping by.

Coming up on Monday, you'll see some more.

Have a beautiful weekend.

Warmly,

Nicole Dean

PS. I've been working on my Facebook Page and am spending more time there. Come on by and chat. Nicole Dean on Facebook.

Take it away, Susanne!

Niche Marketing: Mission Impossible Style

by Susanne Myers

Let’s have a little fun with niche marketing and approach it “Mission Impossible” style. I don’t know what causes me to come up with these quirky topics and analogies when I’m writing for Nicole’s blog, but I sure hope you’re enjoying it. With that said let’s dive right in …

Your mission, should you accept it, is to connect your readers with the best solutions to help solve their problems. Let me introduce you to your team:

• WordPress Site With Awesome Content
• Redirected Affiliate Links
• Autoresponder Messages
• Niche Research Packs

Let’s start with some good news.

Building a profitable niche website is not an impossible mission. In fact, if you assemble your team and put it to good use following the steps I’m outlining below, it won’t take you long at all.

Let’s say you want to set up a new site over the summer to help pay for that new car you want to buy (I know you’re car shopping Nicole). I like doing that anytime we have a new purchase coming up or even to save up for a nice vacation or a new laptop.

Every good mission needs some sort of mission plan. Here’s yours:

Start With The End Goal In Mind

I find it helps to set some sort of goal for the site. This could be making an extra $200 a month to pay for an upcoming vacation, $50 to cover the phone bill or $2000 to make your mortgage payment each month. Without a goal, you don’t know what you’re working toward. Having the goal helps you figure out how hard you need to work, how fast you need to build your site, how much traffic you need and how big of a list you want.

Once you have your dollar amount, it’s time to find a suitable niche to work with.

Find A Problem And Solution

As I mentioned before, your job on this mission is to help people solve their problems and since we are in the US,  that often involves our wallets and credit cards. Of course some of the problems are going to be solved by sharing a quick tip or explaining and idea. But since we’re in it to make a living from niche marketing, you also want to find good products to promote.

Build Your Site

Let’s bring some of our team members into play.

Team member #1 is a site (or blog) built with the free WordPress software. It’s quick and easy to install, very customizable and most importantly it’s fast and simple to add content to it. Use this team member to its fullest advantage by learning more about using wordpress and the various plugins available. For example there are quite a few good ones out there to help your readers share your posts via social media. (see those Facebook and Twitter buttons on this page for example).

Team member #2 is Redirection. Redirection is a simple plugin that helps you to redirect your affiliate links from within the WordPress dashboard. Of course any other way to redirect your links will do – just make sure you get it done.

Built Your List

Team member #3 is your autoresponder. 

My favorite autoresponder to use is Aweber. (Both Nicole and I use it.)

Set it up right away and start creating autoresponder messages that send subscribers back to your niche website, share additional tips and of course make offers. Your list will be one of your biggest assets so get started here as early as possible.

Your Secret Weapon – Niche Research Packs
Last but not least, I would like to introduce you to a secret weapon – or an ace up your sleeve – Niche Research Packs. They help you set up niche websites on the fly with all the time-consuming research already done for you.

Nik says:  If you use Susanne's Niche Research Packs, it's a heck of a lot faster than doing it yourself and a heck of a lot cheaper than hiring someone!

In each niche pack, you get…

• Detailed niche description
• Who your target market for this niche is
• List of affiliate products available
• 100 domain name ideas (plus list of modifiers for hundreds more)
• Detailed keyword report for over 1000 keywords
• 100 article and blog post ideas
• 15 different author resource boxes
• 2 different detailed marketing plans (beginner and advanced) with action steps to get you up and running right away.
• List of available PLR products for this niche
• Recommended tools and resources

Here’s the link to check those out: Niche Research Packs

(NOTE: Use coupon  61414 – to save $20 off any niche pack)

Please show Susanne some love and comment below.

Warmly,
Nicole Dean

Want to see more posts from Susanne? Check these out…

• Online Success Interview: Susanne Myers
• How to Create Niche Products
• Reinvent Yourself
• What is Link Building and How Does it Impact SEO?
• Before Building One Way Links – 3 Things You Need To Have In Place First
• Link Building Frequently Asked Questions
• How to Declutter Your Online Business
• How to Create Passive Income and Summer Fun
• Affiliate Marketing Lessons That I Learned at The Bowling Alley
• Skip The Latest And Greatest Marketing Techniques and Stick With Stuff That Really Works