This week I asked our panel of experts …

“What do you do to regain your focus when you get sidetracked
and wander off on side projects??”

I think you'll find the responses interesting.

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

Sometimes, wandering off on side projects is procrastination. And sometimes it's a good business move! Knowing which is which is a key to business success.

When I look at my list of tasks and objectives and see myself avoiding the one I've listed as Numero Uno, then I give myself a deadline (and a swift kick in the yoga pants!). I have a pretty high self-discipline quotient, so I remind myself why the task is important to my business goals. That's usually enough to get me moving.

If I'm not procrastinating, then I just might be taking advantage of a more important opportunity. Like if I'm invited on the Today Show, I'm not going to be worrying about the fact that my to-do list says I should be prepping next week's blog posts!

The secret here is knowing your long-term and short-term business goals and knowing when to sacrifice the short-term because something more critical has come up. Don't be a slave to your to-do list; make it work FOR you!

Kevin Riley of  Blogpreneur Training says:

What? Who me? Wander off on side projects… Oh, look! A squirrel.

It depends. If the side project 1. won't eat up too much time, 2. won't endanger a deadline on a main project, and 3. will add to my business, I will follow through on it. That gets it out of my head and out of my way.

Now, I only do this on rare occasion. An example would be my recent “Maximum E-Mail Marketing Profits In 2013“. The idea arose while I was promoting Tahir Shah's “Total Lead Capture” system. I'd already been mapping out an e-mail strategy for my own upcoming new business venture, and I decided that this would be a great time to create a guide that put all the strategy on paper.

Now, since I will be using my own guide as guidance when creating my e-mail marketing campaign for the new business, and I could turn around and sell this guide to other Internet marketers (plus give it away as a bonus to those who purchased the TLC system via my promotion), it was a win-win decision. And, since my timeline for my new business venture stretches out six months to launch, I had the time to take a short side track.

My advice: Consider the value of your side project and the impact on your main business caused by time spent on the side project. If it's feasible to pursue the side project, without negative impact on your main business plan, go ahead (but only for a short-term side track). If, on the other hand, the side project could put you off track for your main business plan, or would take away precious time from an existing project, I recommend doing what I do in such a case – write it down on paper and pin it to a future projects cork board.

Terry Dean of My Marketing Coach says:

Your first goal is to keep these side journeys to a minimum.

I do that in two ways. The first is to become an expert at the word, “No.”

Practice it. Use it. As an entrepreneur you're surrounding by opportunities. Many of them may be home runs, but they're just not right for you. You're likely going to say NO at least 10 times as often as you say YES.

The 2nd method is even more important for me, because it's also how I usually get back on track.

I have hanging a single sheet of paper hanging in my office just to the left of my computers. It's at perfect eye level when I turned that direction. It has my yearly “Internet Lifestyle Plan” on it.

This includes what my mission is, who my target customer is, what I'm passionate about, along with the primary directions and marketing I'm planning for the year. It also lists when I work and when I'm off. I update this sheet around quarterly.

I'm always testing new opportunities, because one of my greatest strengths is curiosity. How does this work and how can we improve on it?

When I get off track on a project I shouldn't be on, that one piece of paper is staring at me. It's almost like a conscience because I can feel its disapproval.

Here's a good example of when this came into play. I was thinking about going into the “life coaching” market. It was new and exciting. I did my research, and even starting writing a course…planned as a Clickbank course for the market.

But my Internet Lifestyle Plan was staring at me. The audience wasn't the same as my core audience. It was a distraction.

Once it bugged me enough, I took what I had written, edited it quickly, and turned it into a Kindle ebook.

I made one mention of the ebook, but haven't really thought much about it since. Except every month I get a nice little check from Amazon for it…and consistent new incoming email leads also.

Plus I have several mastermind partners who I meet with by Skype/phone every month. They'll call me on it if I get off track also.

Really it comes down to those 3 steps for me:

1. Have a short Internet Lifestyle plan that's visible to you all the time.

2. Have a coach or mastermind group you're accountable to.

3. Find a way to “close shop” and profit from being side tracked.

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

BIG problem for me I confess to having a major case of shiny object syndrome as well as a mild touch of ADD. I can run down a rabbit trail with world-class precision if I'm not careful.

When I see that happening, the first thing I do is verbally tell myself to focus. (Yes, in addition to all that, I also have a quirky need to talk to myself.) I make a micro to-do list of things that I must get done that day (or even within the next few hours) and I turn off everything else. Email gets closed, Facebook gets shut down and any pressing thoughts or ideas get quickly jotted on a sticky note so I can come back to them later without forgetting what I was so excited about.

Then I remind myself of the benefits of completing whatever it is (client copywriting project, updating my own marketing plan, completing a new webinar, etc.) I was originally working on.

I sit up nice and straight, take a deep breath and off I go!

Kristen Eckstein of Self Publish on Demand says:

Entrepreneurs get sidetracked? Really? Between shiny objects and new ideas flooding my mind at 100 miles-per-hour, it’s a wonder I stay on track with a new project idea long enough to finish it and not jump to something else!

But that’s actually how I regain focus. Sometimes we’re not meant to finish that project. Sometimes the new idea brings a fresh new energy, and to try to ignore it only makes it harder to concentrate on what we “should” be doing. This happened to me with my 21 Ways series. I still have two books in the series each partially written. And that’s when I got really excited about starting a third one. Now, I’d already published two books in the series myself and had over 18 more outlined. This new idea was completely new. And I chose to use that passion, energy and drive to write it.

Less than 30 days later 21 Ways to Be a Kid Again & Get Adult Results was published. And what I learned from that experience I’ve been able to apply toward new project ideas. Instead of fighting that excitement and energy that comes with a new idea, I allow it to fuel me to take action on it. Can you imagine how many more passionate and amazing ideas will be produced if we quit trying to forget about them and drop everything to take action on them instead?

The important thing is to take action quickly before you get frustrated and begin to lose steam. Fuel your focus with your passion, run with it, and go for it!

Kelly McCausey of Solo Smarts Podcast says:

I axe those projects. ROFL!!

Ok, my real answer…

When I realize I've gone down a rabbit trail I stop everything and evaluate. My favorite evaluation tool is a good ‘brain dump'. I take stock of everything I have my hands in or my mind on. I list every project, from the biggest to the smallest.

Next, I prioritize. Which projects are most deserving of my time? Where are the great profits? What has to be done before a new project can begin making profit? Based on these judgments I decide which projects get to stay active and which need to be tabled or even axed.

Usually, once I make up my mind, I have total peace about it. I can kill a project faster than anyone I know and never look back. Whenever I do, I feel an immediate sense of relief. My ‘main projects' get more of my time and creativity and that leads to a better business overall.

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

When I get sidetracked, I don't beat myself up too much at first. Usually, it's simply a sign of mental fatigue, and I simply need to take a break for a few minutes or hours.

But if I truly get sidetracked for DAYS or WEEKS, then I know something's up. So I talk to my girlfriend (who happens to be an amazing life coach) or “Friends in the Business” for some sound-boarding. Am I confused about why the project is important? Have I found something that fulfills my goals in this new project? Am I missing a key piece that's holding me back, or encouraging the procrastination?

Ultimately, the tool I use daily keeps me focused: Freemind mindmapping software.

With my “Monetized Action Plan” in front of me when I start my computer, I have my project mapped out, and my action steps visible. I can see the big picture, and know the little steps along the way are going to help me finish the project faster.

Finally, I remember who I'm doing the project for. Every day of delay is another day that someone, somewhere continues to struggle without my solution to make things easier.

Tiffany Dow of The Guide to Shiny Object Syndrome says:

Getting sidetracked can be a boon or a bust. Sometimes what you get sidetracked with can turn out to be something that you really enjoy, that’s really profitable, and that might even replace a less fulfilling business model or strategy.

But if it’s a bust, then that’s when we start feeling regret, kicking ourselves for getting sidetracked, and vow never to do it again.

Personally, I have learned to go with it. It’s a perk of being an entrepreneur for me. If I get a touch of restlessness and need a change, I can get on a different track. If I realize it’s not going where I want it to go, I simply turn around and head home.

If you allow yourself this freedom, without guilt, it becomes less of a struggle. It’s kind of like dieting. Once you truly get rid of food guilt and allow yourself to eat what you want, when you want, it doesn’t cause you to binge and hide food, etc. You’re able to eat a few bites and walk away because you know that without any anxiety, if you want to come back in 2 hours and nibble again, you can.

It’s not an all or nothing mentality.

But during those times when I do get sidetracked and it turns out to be a bust, what I normally do is sit down with a regular pen and paper and jot down the priority of my projects. I do this based on:

• What’s fulfilling – this is a biggie for me because if I’m not happy, it has to go.
• What’s profitable – I’m no dummy, so if my efforts aren’t bringing the cash in, it has to become a hobby or be gone for good.
• What my audience needs – if they’re not considered, then I lose my edge in the marketplace. I have to make sure everything is serving their needs.

I routinely reevaluate my projects based on these three factors and I cut things out if they don’t meet all three – not two out of three, but all three. That sometimes means cutting out things that are making me money – and that’s okay. I’ve deleted sites making me $300 a month before because my heart wasn’t in it or it wasn’t beneficial for my audience.

Don’t beat yourself up if you’re a flitter – someone who goes from one task to the next. It’s a perk! Just don’t let it be your Achilles Heel – keep a leash on it to some degree and you’ll enjoy those moments of getting off the beaten path.

Susanne Myers of  Daily Affiliate Tasks says:

I’m a big list person. The best thing I can do to make sure I stay on track is to make a list. If I’m working on a big project, I like to break things down into individual steps. That will become my master checklist.

For example, let’s say my project is to come out with a new info product. My list may include things like:

• Outline the product
• Write the ebook, record the lessons etc.
• Set up a website for the new product
• Order graphics
• Write a sales letter
• Create a download page
• Create support pages (like contact, privacy policy etc.)
• Etc.

Once I have that one big long list of everything that needs to happen before I can launch my product, I start incorporating tasks into my regular daily lists.

Those daily to-do lists contain a few things for the project along with ongoing tasks like mailing my lists, blogging, approving comments, staying active on social media etc.

I pay attention to how I structure my to-do lists as well. For example, it takes me a little while to get going in the morning and I don’t do my best writing before my second cup of coffee. Instead the first few items on my daily list are easy things I can do and check off quickly. This may involve approving comments, sending out emails to get in touch with a JV partner, order a new cover etc. Being able to check a few items off quickly creates momentum for me.

I also know that I need to get most of the content creation done before 2pm, or it’s just not going to happen, so working on the content for my new product, sending an email to my lists and writing blog posts is next on my to-do list. I wrap my day up with more little “filler” work that can be done while supervising homework for example.

The key for me is to break everything down into baby-steps and have a list that keeps me on track to make sure everything gets done. Days when I stick to my to-do list have always been my most productive.

The other thing that helps me stay focused is to have a deadline. This may involve promising someone that they can promote a new product, or sending out something to my lists letting them know it will be ready by a certain date. Having that deadline will make me push harder and get things done without getting distracted by side-projects.

Felicia Slattery of Signature Speech Secrets says:

As many people who know me are aware, I was sidetracked BIG time last year with lung cancer. My business pretty much ground to a halt, aside from some small continuity and affiliate checks I had rolling in, which kept my business rolling while I dealt with serious health issues for most of the year. I am now 100% healed and doing great.

For me, getting back to work could only happen after I was fully healed (as a speaker, if I can't speak, that's a problem!). How I did it was to announce to my community – email and social media- that I was back, explained what happened while I was away, and then did a survey to gauge people's interest in my plans and content.

As a communication specialist, I communicate with people first. That's just my way and it's always been profitable. Once I had that valuable feedback, I could pay attention to trends and give people what they told me they wanted first and make my plans fall in line with that. It was easy and fun getting back into the swing of work. Today, just three months after being back, I've had three of the most profitable and successful months in my business because I listened to what people wanted.

Nicole Dean of .. here! .. says:

Wow. I guess this is sure a hot topic, based upon the number of responses today.

For me the answer to this question comes down to two things:

1. Knowing where the profit is.
2. Having a daily or weekly plan.

That's really the key.

When I know where I'm making the most money, I can focus my time, energy, and, most importantly my resources into those projects FIRST. What I do with the rest of my day, is really up to me then. That means that everything from my own time, to buying advertising, to focusing on getting affiliates to promote, etc. is all focused where I'll get the highest return on my investments. (I consider time an investment. Don't you?)

If I know my numbers, then I KNOW what to do and I'm not guessing.

For instance, it would be silly of me to wake up and dig into project B when project A is rockin' and rolling. So, I focus on A first, and then only jump into B after I've made progress.

The other area is having a daily and weekly plan. I am 100% more productive and focused when I have my plan in front of me than when I don't.  If I don't have a “Stuff to Do this Week” list – I tend to wander.

Wandering is NOT profitable. Focusing is.

My friends have already shared so much great info this week that I'm going to wrap up with a challenge for you.

Whatever you goals are,  multiply them by 5

Seriously.

• If your goal is to reach $1000 per month in profit, reach for $5000 per month in profit instead.
• If your goal is to write one Kindle book by the end of this year, make it your goal to write five awesome books by the end of the year.
• If your goal is to reach out to 5 new potential affiliates per week, make it 5 per day.

REACH HIGHER.

That in itself will help you to focus.

Post your thoughts below.

Warmly,
Nicole

PS. If you LOVE Expert Briefs, be sure to pick up my new book on Amazon:

Learn How to Start a Profitable Blog

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 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 –>

So, on that note, this week I asked our panel of experts …

It's nearly the end of the year, so I'm personally looking
back over the last year. My question this week is

“Where does your money come from?” 

Here are their responses they so graciously shared.

Tiffany Dow of The Guide to Shiny Object Syndrome says:

I get my Internet income from a variety of sources. I’ve always loved having many different sources because of the panic I would feel (and uncertainty) if I relied on just one stream. So my income is divided up into 5 parts:

1. My own eCourses
2. My PLR store
3. Digital affiliate income
4. Affiliate marketing on Amazon
5. Ghostwriting

When it comes to the lion’s share, it would have to be my own ecourses – because not only do I make money directly, but I worked to recruit an army of affiliates to promote for me. This provides approximately 40% of my online income. The best tip I can give you on this is to forget who else has already done what. Do it your way and you will have fans!

Next on the list is my PLR store. I’ve been building this for years and now have almost 500 products in my marketplace. It runs on autopilot and I have affiliates promoting it, earning 50% of the cart sales. Most PLR sellers create about 5-10 packs and quit, but volume is key to waking up and seeing $200 cart sales. PLR accounts for about 30% of my sales.

Digital affiliate income is what I consider my reviews to be. Here’s a tip on earning from digital reviews: whenever I buy any product, I implement and review it right away. It pays off because people trust me when they see my results unfold. The profits are twofold: once from the sales you make reviewing it as an affiliate, and again because you’re taking action and implementing! I make approximately 25% of my income from reviews.

The last two items on my list – affiliate income on Amazon and ghostwriting are very small players in my income, but not because I’ve failed at them. Combined, they only add up to about 5% of my income. I rarely ever ghostwrite anymore (just primarily to keep my skills sharp) and I’ve sold off (flipped) most of my Amazon sites and Squidoo lenses, so I’m just now building them back up. Best advice? KEEP the money makers. Build a portfolio, instead of flipping for fast cash.

-> Want more from Tiffany? Check out her The Guide to Shiny Object Syndrome

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

Hey Nicole – I love having a diversified set of revenue sources to balance out the ebbs and flows of having a business.

Here's my breakdown from October 2011 – October 2012:

• 40% – Personal Coaching Clients
• 16% – Mindmap My Business 3-Day Virtual Training
• 15% – Affiliate Income (Affiliate Marketing)
• 13% – Information Products
• 12% – Hotseat Holiday Workshops/Retreats
• 1.4% – Domain Sales
• 1.4% – Welcome To The Call
• 1.2% – Beef Jerky

A few things are interesting from this list for me (and from reviewing these kinds of numbers).

First, if I was like most coaches, I would be missing out on a ton of revenue without the additional revenue sources like information products and information products.

The 3 private label sources (Domains – GoDadady, WelcomeToTheCall – Instant Teleseminar, and Beef Jerky – Jerky Direct) that make up a combined 4% are both neglected and rarely advertised. I consider spending more energy on them, but then I remember how much more fun I have coaching and teaching virtual workshops.

Some of these sources are also inter-related, in that they provide the same customers multiple levels of access and intensity. If I sold in a bunch of different niches, it would be harder for me to improve my revenue/customer numbers.

For example, the Hotseat Holidays both lead to and stem from personal coaching clients.

As for affiliate income, my top generating recommendations over the past year have been for Lon Naylor (Learn Camtasia), Clay Collins (TheMarketingProgram), Digital Access Pass membership software, and Aweber autoresponders.

-> Want to learn more from Bob (and get uber-organized)? Check out How to Use Mindmaps to Organize Your Business

Connie Ragen Green of Affiliate Marketing Case Studies says:

The end of the year always means that I will be reviewing and thinking about my online business to see what worked, what I loved doing, and what I need to completely revamp and update in my business.

2012 has been a year of great growth for me. I am now speaking internationally, which was a goal I set for myself at this time last year. This is my sixth full year online, so I am now more comfortable in every area of my business. You may have heard about the ‘10,000 Hours Rule', a concept based on a study by Anders Ericsson and discussed throughout the book ‘Outliers: The Story of Success‘ by Malcolm Gladwell. The premise is that one needs to accrue ten thousand hours of experience in an area before being able to move to the next level of competence and understanding. I am now at the point in my business where major changes are more likely to occur.

• 50% – Affiliate marketing continues to account for about fifty percent of my income. I enjoy the responsibility that comes along with only recommending the people and products I love, in the exact areas that are relevant to building a successful online business.
• 25% – My own products and courses account for another twenty-five percent of my income, and I now stay tightly focused on what I create and sell under my brand.
• 25% – The rest of my income is derived from my high level Mentor programs, my Weekend Retreats, and from speaking at live events around the world.

My recommendation is to write down everything you are doing to generate income in your business to see which things are working best for you. The ultimate goal is to have a profitable business that allows you to engage in activities that you enjoy while serving the needs of your target audience.

-> Want to learn how Connie wins so many Affiliate Contests? Check out her Affiliate Success Case Studies.

Kelly McCausey of Solo Smarts Podcast says:

Where does my money come from? Had an interesting situation come up this week on Facebook. Lynn Terry and I have a big 1200+ member group working through a 90 Day Low Carb Challenge and someone got it in their head that we are some sort of Ninja Marketing Geniuses who make money every time someone clicks a link or likes anything. Lynn said ‘If only that were so!' LOL!

Affiliate marketing does represent a nice chunk of my income and it is one of my favorite sources since it tends to be the income that keeps on coming long after I did whatever I did to initiate it. It comes naturally as I recommend the tools, people and resources I have found most useful in my own online business.

Information product sales is another valued source of income for me. I have six different courses/workshops for sale right now plus a membership program. Sales come through my own list and via my amazing affiliates.

As we discussed not long ago, a surprising source of income for me is the check I get from an advertising network for displaying their ads on my small mom and family focused blog network. Sponsored posts, paid promotions and the like are all nice extras for my budget from month to month.

Occasionally I go back to my roots and generate cash with my graphic and web design skills. In fact, I put the word out last night that I'm accepting a couple of new clients. (I'm raising cash for something important!) I don't want to service clients on a regular basis, having a skill others are willing to pay to tap is a powerful thing.

I've dabbled with a few other things this year but unfortunately most of that didn't turn out to be the turn on I'd expected and I've let those projects go dormant. I think it's important for everything to know that every project and idea is not going to be profitable. I learn from these disappointments and use those lessons to be smarter about everything else I do.

Finally, I earn money by coaching clients one on one. What might interest everyone is the fact that this is not my primary income. Several people have told me that that is what they assume – that I'm getting RICH by coaching others. I'm not THAT coach who only makes money from coaching. I actually make money from real life projects that have nothing to do with telling someone else what to do as you can see here.

Flexibility, variety, having these choices is a dream come true for this solopreneur. I wish you all the same!

-> Want to learn more from Kel? One of the ways she earns money is through Podcasting. Check out her Smart Podcasting Course.

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

What a great question! I generally know my numbers, but I was curious about how they have changed over the years. In fact, I pulled a spreadsheet for 2000 – 2012 and here's what I found:

• In 2000, my revenue was half consulting and half products (which includes teaching classes). That was fairly early in my Internet Marketing career, so that makes sense.
• By 2005, revenue was 25% affiliate programs, 15% adsense (the heyday!), 20% consulting, and the rest in product sales.
• By 2010,revenue was at 20% affiliate programs, only 8% consulting (who had time?), 20% member sites (the hot thing that year!), and the rest in product sales, including partner products.
• This year, it's steady at 30% affiliate sales, 22% consulting, 22% member sites, and the rest in product sales.

It's so important to have a mix of revenue sources. As some things come and go, other items remain steady. You may have years when you create a bunch of products and others when you want to work more closely with your clients in smaller sites and consulting. Remember – it's YOUR business and you get to choose how you make your living!

-> Want to peek inside Jeanette's head and get ready for next year? Check out Plan Your Online Business

Dr. Mani of How to Set Goals says:

Interesting question, Nicole.

Here are my answers, as they apply to online infopreneur income alone:

• Affiliate marketing – 25%
• Freelance writing – 20%
• Adsense – 5%
• Infoproduct Sales – 30%
• Books on Amazon – 5%
• Membership sites – 10%
• Other – 5%

It helps that I periodically review this set of numbers, and see how well they match my overall goals for the year. That way, I'm able to tweak and focus on what matters for the month or quarter.

-> Want to learn more from Dr. Mani? Check out his report about How to Set Goals

Nicole Dean of .. here! .. says:

Well this has been interesting to me to read the responses. 

My income is similar to my friends above.

1. My Own Product Sales
2. My PLR Sites
3. Affiliate Marketing
4. Personal Coaching
5. Google Adsense (Niche Sites)
6. Web Hosting
7. Amazon Kindle
8. Consulting

I'll get into a bit more detail on each.

1. My Own Product Sales.

I have several training products that I sell to intermediate and advanced level online business owners.

My most recent one that I'm super proud of is ContentDrafts.com – how to keep your blog fresh.

I also have some courses at the beginner level, including the ones at MomsTalkBiz.com

2. My PLR Sites

I have three PLR sites.  Each is slightly different in focus.

EasyPLR.com
I opened EasyPLR in 2006. At that site, I mainly sell packs of articles, reports, and ecourses. There is no membership component involved. The goal with the site is to get people to make an impulse buy as it's a low priced item and then find out they love me and my stuff and trust me. Then they become repeat customers.

YummyPLR.com
Yummy PLR was opened after EasyPLR (I believe in 2007). We sell food PLR there, including PLR recipes. This site is a membership model and many of our members stay for years.

CoachingPLRContent.com
I opened Coaching PLR content with Melissa Ingold in 2010. At that site, we want to arm our customers with resources, tools and presentations they can use to expand their expert status even further. We have worksheets and PowerPoints slides and scripts and all kinds of stuff with PLR rights. A lot of our customers use our presentations to create video training and to do live webinars, as well.

3. Affiliate Marketing

I don't have exact numbers in front of me, but I would say that I earn approximately 50% of my income through affiliate marketing.

This varies from promoting things like Hillbilly Housewife ebooks on a niche site – to promoting exercise videos from Amazon on another niche site, to promoting services like Aweber here, on my blog and to my lists.

4. Personal Coaching

I take on a handful of personal coaching clients at a time. I spend a lot of time one-on-one with them which is why I only work with a few. I find it extremely rewarding and I love it.

I focus on Infoproduct marketers who have at least one product, who already know who their customers are, and they have their product up for sale (or nearly there). Once they get to that point, I have a blast helping them to multiply their income.

5. Google Adsense on Niche Sites

I still have some niche sites with Adsense on them. For four years, Google paid my mortgage. But, now? Not as much. It's just a nice little deposit every month. The good thing is that I don't have to do anything to earn it.

6. Web Hosting.

I am a partner in a web hosting company – MomWebs.com (with Kelly McCausey).

We focus on helping newbies who are skeeeered of technology to get their WordPress sites up and running. (Many of them switch from Blogger to WordPress with our help.) So that project brings in some monthly cashola, as well.

7. Amazon Kindle

My Kindle earnings are small, but they will be growing next year.

You can see a few of my Kindle books here:

8. Consulting

On occasion, I will do hourly consulting for online or offline businesses. I don't do this too often, simply because I don't like to have a schedule where I have to be somewhere (even on the phone) at a certain time – yeah I'm weird like that. But am always open to having someone buy an hour of access to my brain.

Well that's an overview. I hope it was interesting to you.

Talk to me.

Is this what you expected to hear?

Is it similar to your income streams? Or different?

As always, I would love to hear your thoughts on the matter.

Warmly,
Nicole Dean

PS. If you like this post – share it and check out my friends’ sites. That’ll make me happy! Appreciate you!

Here are the folks who contributed today…

• Tiffany: The Guide to Shiny Object Syndrome
• Bob: How to Use Mindmaps to Organize Your Business
• Connie: Affiliate Success Case Studies.
• Kelly:  Smart Podcasting Course.
• Jeanette: Plan Your Online Business
• Dr. Mani: How to Set Goals