We love inspiring blogs and bloggers, so today I’m sharing a few of my favorites. 

Why are these ladies my favorite?  Because they are genuine, never hypy, they’re not afraid to spill their secrets, and you can’t help but learn from them.

But most of all, they love what they do and they’re successful, and that’s what’s inspiring.

Have a look and you’ll see what I mean…

Lynn Terry of Clicknewz.com

Lynn’s blog is a wealth of genuine help for getting started online. I was lucky enough to finally meet up with Lynn at the NAMS workshop in Atlanta last year.  If you need ideas, motivation, even help with staying on track and accountability, Lynn’s Clicknewz forum is an awesome place to start.

Kristi Hines of Kikolani.com

Kristi is an online marketing consultant, freelance writer, professional blogger and social media enthusiast and I get tons of advice from her blog on great tools  for blogging, socializing and for how to actually get things done.

Michelle of MichelleMacphearson.com

Confused about SEO and social media?  You won’t be after listening to Michelle.  Michelle is super social media and SEO savvy.  Her personal insight, expert training and warm smile make her blog a pleasure to visit for keeping up with social media and making it work for your online business.

 
Susanne Meyers of Affiliatetreasurechest.com

Susanne is an inspiration story for any aspiring affiliate marketer.  Starting small with her Hillbillyhousewife website,  Susanne has become the internet business owner we’d all love to be.  Susanne shares what works for her, as well as her experiences and technical know-how on her affiliate treasure chest site.

 
Nicole Dean of Nicoleonthenet.com

Content is Nicole’s specialty.  She creates it, she publishes it and she helps you excel with it. Nicole also has tons of great business advice that we can all use.  She’s just a natural at it and of course just a all around fun person to know

Next weekend I’m off to the NAMS event in Atlanta where Lynn, Susanne and Nicole are regulars, so it’s an exciting time for me to be even more inspired by their enthusiasm, success stories and wisdom.

If you love having a great time relaxing and learning at an affordable event, consider joining us at the NAMS the live event.  At the very least get signed up for the NAMS monthly membership and get everything you need to start and grow a successful internet home business.

Until Next time,

OK, you have a niche topic idea and you want to start your own blog, but you’re just not sure how to get started blogging or even how to make money blogging, so you keep telling yourself you just need a little more time to read, think and analyze. 

STOP!

Right now, instead of analyzing, researching and filling your head with more ‘what ifs’ and ‘how tos’, it’s time to stop analyzing and just start doing.

I know folks that have spent the last year or more analyzing to the point of not really knowing where to start.  They call it “analysis paralysis” and it’s just plain silly. The real danger there is that it could go on indefinitely if you let it.

After all, blogging is something you know that you want to start doing, so what’s stopping you? 

You’re scared.  

We’re all scared when starting something new that requires our time, money and effort, but doing is a great way to overcome your fears, and believe me, as you get started, many of the questions you have will get answered and your fears will turn into confidence.

So what are you really afraid of?

Is it the money?  You can create a blog, get a domain name and a hosting service, all for less than $20.  Really.

Are you afraid of the technology?  This is not rocket science, in fact here’s a how to create a WordPress Blog step-by-step post I wrote that can have your blog created in just a few hours.  Just follow the easy directions and have the confidence that you can do this.  I’m also here to answer your questions if you need help.

Are you afraid of the time commitment?  Yes, creating and maintaining a blog will take some time but what worthwhile venture doesn’t take time and commitment?

Besides, we’re talking a few hours a day or less.  How do you spend your time now?  If you’re wasting it in front of the TV or dong things that are not worthwhile to your financial future, this is a great way to fill that time, and it could be fun!

Are you afraid you won’t be successful?  That’s Stinkin’ Thinkin‘  What happens to you, your successes, your failures and everything else in life, are all a direct result of your thoughts.  If you don’t believe that, then you probably haven’t read, ‘Think and Grow Rich‘.   With one simple but powerful concept, how you think and where you focus your thoughts, you can do just about anything.    I loved the book, it was life changing for me.

The Best Recipe for How To Get Started Blogging

To put it simply, have the desire, believe you can do it, believe you deserve the success and imagine actually being successful.   Then stop analyzing and just start doing.  The rest will fall in place, you’ll see

Your thoughts?

No, Jesus wasn’t an internet marketer, obviously, but I’m a BIG  fan, and the more I study the life of Jesus, what he taught us and how he lived his life, there’s a lot Jesus can teach us about internet marketing.

To start, Jesus had all the qualities and characteristics of a brilliant marketer, and ironically, those qualities are the very same things we are taught today with respect to becoming better internet marketers and effective business owners.

Let’s see what they are…

Be a teacher.  Jesus was probably the best teacher that ever lived.  That’s because he lived his faith, understood it and studied it almost to a fault.

What that tells us is that we need to practice what we teach.  Isn’t that what we as marketers are called to do?  We learn by doing and by failing.  Not everything you do will be successful, but your failures can be shared too, just like your successes can be shared.  We all have something to learn from someone who does and knows what they are talking about.

Our ministry as internet marketers is to teach our visitors and customers things that will help them.  It’s how we build trust and loyalty.

We can also teach in a variety of ways.  For example, affiliate marketers can boost their affiliate marketing commissions by teaching and helping  others to make the buying decision.  We can also benefit by teaching our customers how to use our products and how our products or services can benefit them.

Any time you can teach someone something, it builds their trust and faith in you.

Be a story teller.  Telling your story or any story is a powerful way to get people to listen.

Jesus never said,  “This is what you need to do, so just do it.“   He demonstrated the concept by telling a story that drove his message home in a way his audience could understand.

In a similar way, I could tell you that writing articles is what you should be doing to promote your business online, but the message and it’s effectiveness is much better understood if I can tell you my article writing success story.  If you don’t have a story, go out and create one.

The story of your experience is how to demonstrate what you are teaching.  It’s what makes people listen.

Speak and teach with authority. People listened to Jesus.  Why?  Because he spoke with authority, meaning he spoke with confidence.

Part of speaking and teaching with authority is thinking the part and believing in what you are saying.  Be certain in your tone and avoid using works like maybe, ‘kind of’ or perhaps.

Not always an easy task but having confidence is a mindset and it takes practice.   I still have to practice it every day

Just remember whatever you teach, teach with authority.  Be confident in what you are teaching and others will have confidence in you.

Cultivate a following. Jesus didn’t have Twitter and Facebook 2000 years ago but he knew a thing or two of the value of gathering followers and he knew how to get them.

Anyone that listened to Jesus and understood what he was teaching was happy to follow him.  That’s because he spoke with authority , but  he also listened to them, talked with them, showed he cared about them and spoke to them often.   In fact he spoke to them several times a day.   He also mentioned other important figures in his time and in history that helped reinforce his message and he shared many pearls of wisdom.

Creating your own following can be done the same way, connect with others often, mention colleagues or other niche experts that can help reinforce your message and offer wise thoughts that will help encourage and motivate.

Help others first before promoting yourself.  Jesus was compassionate and caring. Often times he helped others first by healing the sick and feeding the hungry before he set out to preach or try to convince the multitudes of his message.

We’re also called to do the same.  Give others your best first before trying to get something from them.   People will listen to you and follow you if you can help them first before thinking of yourself.

Jesus had a message and he had a mission which was to teach us how to live, how to love and be compassionate, and he accomplished all those things by coming to the aid of others first.

So What has Jesus Taught us About Internet Marketing?

Jesus didn’t have anything to sell but his message and his message is still with us today. I think that’s a powerful sentiment.

Jesus may not have been an internet marketer but I think he would have made a darn good one.  I also think it’s interesting how the very things we are taught to do today with regard to internet marketing strategies come from a man that did the very same things over 2000 years ago.

Your thoughts?

Jimmy D. Brown has just released his ’3 membership’ training site called ibusiness Owner and he’s offering all 3 memberships for just $10.

Is that quality and value at a bargain price? You bet!

If you’re skeptical just take a look here to see what I’m talking about…

http://www.homenotion.com/ibusinessowner

I’m not new to purchasing from Jimmy. In fact I have most of his products.

I like his training, I think it’s straight forward, easy to understand and I trust Jimmy to give me the training that will help me advance in my business, and I have.  But what Jimmy teaches is what he does himself every day, and in the world of online marketing that’s important for knowing what works and what doesn’t.

To give you an idea of what this training is about, I signed up for Jimmy’s 3 membership deal for $10 and broke open the contents.  Jimmy’s once again raised the bar on value.

I’m super impressed with what you get for the price of just ten bucks.   There was an awesome special report, swipe file, checklists and templates; one template was so well put together I’ve already put it to use and I just got this a few hours ago. That’s the kind of value I’m talking about

Granted this is a membership site so it will cost you $10 every month until you choose to opt-out, but here’s a cool incentive. Jimmy will give you your $10 back every month to use on other premier products of his.

Let me ask you this.  What training are you giving yourself now?  If you are investing in training are you finding it valuable?  Are you making more money as a result?

If you answered no, then I’d highly recommend checking Jimmy’s membership site. Your business is your investment and quality training from an experienced, veteran marketer can be worth thousands, yet Jimmy is giving it to you for $10.

http://www.homenotion.com/ibusinessowner

I could easily spend all day promoting my blog, but with all the things we do as a business owners, you need time saving tips for promoting your blog.

So we have to be smart about it.

I try to spend about an hour a day promoting. Some days it may be a little longer, but overall the idea is to have a system in place that works for you and doesn’t hog all your time.

Here’s what I do to help me promote.  I hope you’ll share some of your tips as well

Facebook – Connect your blog to Facebook with the Facebook app ‘Networked blogs’.  This will save  you time because your post will get automatically posted to Facebook.  You’ll find the app on the left side of your  FB page  at the bottom under ‘Apps and Games’.

Use Social Media Buttons  -  You have to make it easy for others to share  your blog posts so use social medial buttons on your blog posts.

I’ve experimented with a few social media plugins but this is the one I’ve settled on:

TF Social Share – you can make this plugin display horizontally under your title like I have on this blog or you can have be a vertical display down the side of your page.

Twitter – Make a post to Twitter or you can set it up to post automatically to Twitter.  One thing I’ve been trying lately is to make a block of posts a couple times a day.  This improves your chances of people noticing you.

The method I use is to tweet a fun quote, and follow that with a tweet about another post you found interesting, then tweet your own post and follow that with another post you found interesting.

I also use the Twitter @anywhere Plus Plugin.  It puts the “I’ve Made it Easy for You” retweet box at the end of my posts.

Stumbleupon & LinkedIN  – StumbleUpon and LinkedIn are both sharing buttons on my TF Social Share plugin, so after I publish my posts I immediately click the LinkedIn and Stumbleupon icons that add my posts to those social sites.

Blog commenting -  It could take you all day to find the right blogs to comment on, so one thing I do is create google alerts for my blog categories.  These alerts mean that Google will send me other blogs and blog posts in that category that I can review and comment on.

I keep a list of these blogs and when I write a post in a specific category I can go to these blogs and make comments.  You’ll notice that when you leave a comment on blogs nowadays, many will show your last blog post so others can click on it.  Here’s where you can find out more on how to set this up:

Instant Traffic Generation that’s free and easy

Send an email -  At the end of each week or maybe every two weeks, send an email to your subscriber list outlining your latest posts.  Don’t add the posts to the email, just add the links to the posts with a brief description.

If you use Aweber, they make this process super simple with their newsletter email templates.  I use the ‘New Web’ template.  You can also easily insert your blog’s header graphic into the template.

Write articles – This one take a little longer but it’s worth it.  For the blog posts you’re interested in getting the most traffic to, write 2 or 3 articles that contains the post link in the resource box.

Each one of these methods, with the exception of writing an article, should only take you a few minutes to do each day, but be sure to work these tasks into your schedule.  Overall they make take you an hour or so a day but they’ll be so worth it when you see your traffic levels rise.

What are some of your daily promotion methods?

When I created my first eBook, selling it on Clickbank wasn’t my first choice.

That was because Clickbank has gotten a bad wrap in the past, so I felt safer selling through PayPal.

But it wasn’t until a few years later that an online colleague of mine convinced me that selling my ebook on  Clickbank was a much better deal.

It took me awhile to evaluate whether or not to switch from PayPal to Clickbank, but after careful thought and weighing the benefits, it became obvious that switching was the right thing to do.

It’s been about two years now since switching and what I realized after doing some split testing was that Clickbank out performs PayPal by at least 200%.

When deciding to make the change, there were 2 big positives for me to go with Clickbank over PayPal.

1. Clickbank makes it easy to set up an affiliate program for your product. Once you set it up you’re done. There’s no affiliate payments to worry about, it’s completely a hands free system.  And having affiliates sell for you is an awesome way to multiply your sales exponentially.

2.  Clickbank is the product online businesses think of for finding products to promote. I have people promoting my product without having to lift a finger with making payments, using shopping carts, etc.  Clickbank does it all.

But that’s not all.  My good friend, Nicole Dean, who I met for the first time last August in Atlanta, who I love and respect immensely, promotes her products through Clickbank as well, she’s even written a step-by-step guide on how to sell your product on Clickbank, something I wish I had when I began creating my products.

Anyway, Nicole’s come up with a few more great reasons why you should sell  your ebook on Clickbank.  

6 Reasons You Should Sell Your Book on Clickbank
By Nicole Dean

Clickbank.com has paid out nearly $2 Billion to online business owners just like you in the last 10 years, and that number is growing fast.

Yet, for a lot of marketers, Clickbank has a bad rap. I’d like to spend the next 2 minutes showing you why you absolutely should sell your ebook on Clickbank.

Who does this article apply to?

* If you’re currently selling your product with a simple PayPal button. Consider switching to Clickbank.
* If you have a shopping cart (like 1ShoppingCart.com) that you’re using to sell your products. Consider also setting up a separate page or URL where you sell your product on Clickbank.

Here’s why…

Diversification of your Payments.

You may not be aware of this, but PayPal.com has been known to “freeze” accounts while looking into them after they’ve been flagged by one of their employees.

While Paypal.com is a trusted company, they do have to watch out for their own interests. So, if this happens to you, your account will not be accessible during that time. That means you can’t withdraw money, you can’t pay affiliates, and you can’t process refunds. You’re stuck.

I don’t know about you, but I have bills to pay – which is why I recommend that you also sell products via a secondary payment method like Clickbank. They pay via direct deposit into your Checking account every 2 weeks, like clockwork. If, heaven forbid, your account gets flagged by Paypal – you’ll be able to pay your mortgage while getting it cleared.

Less Book-Keeping.

With Clickbank, you get paid weekly or when you reach a certain dollar amount that you’ve set. That means that you can pay less in accounting fees – because you’ll have a maximum of FOUR transactions per month, assuming you’re getting paid weekly. Compare that to using a paypal button or shopping cart – where every single transaction has to be entered by your bookkeeper – and you can see the advantage.

100,000 + Sales Force.

Yes, Clickbank has the eye of over 100,000 registered affiliate niche marketers in 145 countries. Many of these affiliate search the Clickbank marketplace first when looking for products to promote. If you’re not listed there, they can’t find you.

Clickbank’s HopAds Program.

You may be familiar with Google Adsense, but, did you know that Clickbank also has an advertising program? As a vendor, you can create Ads that automatically show on affiliate websites – based upon keywords. So, if your ebook is about “Saving Money on Groceries” and someone with a frugal or homemaking site puts the HopAd on their site with keywords “grocery” or “save money” – your ad may display in rotation with the other ads – as long as that ad is live on their site.

Hands Off Affiliate Management.

If you’re using your own shopping cart like 1ShoppingCart.com then you have to manage your affiliates or hire someone to do so. While this is definitely a profitable thing to do, some tasks can be a nuisance, like collecting W-9 forms (if you’re in the United States) for taxes. If you sell through Clickbank, that’s not an issue. They handle it for you.

Affiliate Payment Safety Cushion.

If you’re selling your products through your own shopping cart, then every month, you have to make sure to keep a “cushion” in your PayPal account so that you have enough money to pay them. That’s not an issue with Clickbank. You ONLY receive your profits after affiliates have been paid. And, Clickbank handles paying them for you. You’re totally out of the loop.

Nicole Dean is the Busy Marketer’s Coach.  She makes it her business to help you make more money while actually having a life.  Check out her “15 Quick & Easy Steps to Getting your Ebook on Clickbank” and Let Clickbank Market Your Info Product & Attract Affiliates for you!

Since getting my Kindle last Christmas, I’ve been getting a lot more reading done. There’s a lot to be said for large fonts and not having to turn pages. The only thing it needs is a back light.  I can’t read it in the dark 

Anyway here are a few of the books I’m reading that have inspired me but  I think they’ll inspire you as well.

Crush It! By Gary Vaynerchuk

If  you like down to earth, tell it like it is, no-nonsense  individuals, you’ll love Gary Vaynerchuk,  I did.Gary is an entrepreneur who has built online success with a daily video show on wine.

As soon as you read the first few chapters of Crush It! you’ll know why he’s as successful as he is.  He just oozes character and personality, but he’s amusing and easy to follow as well.

While most of us might not be as wildly ambitious or as willing to tirelessly put ourselves out there as Gary has , there’s a lot we can learn from his successes and about how to find passion, how to work hard and just be who you are.

The book struck a chord with me.  There are a few bitter pills to swallow but they’re necessary if you want to find success in any business.  If you have fears and uncertainties, he encourages you to look past the things you’re fearful of and inspires you to believe in yourself that you can be successful.

Very powerful and inspiring book, I highly recommend it.

Unmarketing by Scott Stratten

I’m not a marketer at heart, but I don’t really think most people are.  It’s something we learn and have to work at.   But the beauty of  “Unmarketing” is that Scott shows us through his personal experience that you can build a successful business, build up a following of customers and do it all without being a natural born salesman.

Scott’s also a big fan of social media, so if you can’t quite get your arms around the whole tweeting and Facebook thing there’s some really useful advice on how to maximize these social marketing tools naturally and comfortably.

Tribes by Seth Godin

Seth Godin is a phenomenal speaker on marketing and social marketing and through his book “Tribes”, he demonstrates that with the reach of the internet, the lack of barriers we have within the online business industry and the abundance of free and low-cost tools of the internet, you don’t need millions of people to create a successful online business.  All it really take is a loyal “Tribe”.  But first you have to find them and then inspire them.

Seth has lots of  ideas for finding and leading a tribe, from being an example, sharing stories, creating a common goal, and so much more.

If you’re especially motivated to stand out in the crowd, become an inspiring leader with passion and vision and truly want to make a difference with your products and marketing, I think you’ll find “Tribes” a great read. I did.

Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh

I love Zappos for two reasons, I’ve been a  Zappos affiliate for years but I’ve also been a loyal customer for years as well, so the book was a little personal for me.

What’s inspiring about Zappos is that the company has built the majoring of their successes from achieving 75% repeat business.  That’s key if you understand that it’s a lot harder to get a new customer than it is to sell to a repeat customer. That kind of success can only come from awesome customer service and if you’ve ever shopped at Zappos, no doubt you’ve has a great customer experience.

But in Tony’s mind, successful business is not just about keeping customers happy, it’s also about keeping good employees happy too.  He’s  made it his mission to make his employees feel committed and attached to Zappos.  If you have employees yourself you’ll glean some useful ideas from Tony’s somewhat radical, but interesting, ways of doing things.

For any website, SEO is vital for traffic. In today’s hectic environment, using the right keywords is essential.

A great way to increase your website traffic for a specific topic is to localize your keywords.  Doing this can narrow down the search results and make it easier for you to be found.

Unfortunately, stumbling into pitfalls is easier than you might think.

Language is as complex today as it has ever been, and when it comes to foreign markets it’s vital that your keywords don’t get lost in translation.

So, if you are thinking about localizing, the following ten things should be avoided.

1. Don’t underestimate new competition

Stay aware of any new competition that will come as a result of localizing your keywords.

‘New York Pizza Parlor’ will open up a different set of results than ‘Pizza Parlor’; that’s new competition that might not have turned up in previous searches.

2. Don’t presume your keyword’s meaning will stay the same

Even within one language, one keyword can have different meanings in different countries; and conversely, products can be called different things.

For instance, in Spain, ‘coche’ is the word for a car, while in Latin American Spanish it is often the word used to describe a baby stroller. Likewise, what you’d call a ‘baby stroller’ in the USA is a ‘pram’ in the UK.

These linguistic tricks can mean the difference between using a correct and high traffic keyword, and a rarely-searched term.

3. Beware of spelling differences

Watch your spelling.  For example, there are some differences between American English and British English. The American English spelling ‘airplane’ is spelled ‘aeroplane’ in British English, while words like specialize and optimize are spelled using an ‘s’ in the UK (e.g. optimise).

Make sure you have the correct spelling for the area you are targeting.

4. Don’t forget about different measurements and currencies

In the USA, the weight of a person is expressed entirely in pounds. In the UK, however, it’s expressed in stones.  So if you run a weight loss website, you would need to localize your keywords to suit this change and use the correct terminology.

‘Lose fourteen pounds in fourteen days’ would need to be ‘lose a stone in fourteen days’. The same goes for ensuring you use the correct currency for the region.

5. Don’t rely only on Google

While it remains the main player in the USA and Europe, Google isn’t predominant in other countries, such as China, where Baidu is the top search engine.

Do your research in this area and ensure your optimization strategies are targeted at the top performing search engine in the market.

6. Speak the local language

If you are localizing your website for a foreign market, you can’t just leave your content and keywords in English and hope for the best.

Although English is the most widely spoken second language in the world, locals will search in their native tongue first, even when looking internationally.

7. Don’t rely on online dictionaries

You can’t simply type your keyword into an online dictionary to find the optimum version in a  foreign language. This is because your keyword might not have the same meaning when translated, or the foreign language audience might use a different word for it.

As an example, ‘hotdog’ directly translated into Finnish comes out as ‘kuuma koira’, which means a dog that is warm.

8. Don’t rely on machine translation software

It might seem like an easy option, but most machine translation software only gives you a basic direct translation, which, like dictionaries, will rarely provide you with the term that foreign language searchers are most likely to use.

Top performing keywords can be anything from a direct translation to a colloquialism or an adoption from English or another language.  For instance, the top keyword for low cost flights in Italy is an English hybrid ‘voli low cost”.  Getting advice from a native-speaker and researching the search volumes of your options is the only way to ensure you get keywords with the best search possibilities.

9. Ensure you’re using the right dialect

So let’s say you’ve translated your content and keywords, perhaps even by a native speaker, and the meaning hasn’t changed in the process. That doesn’t mean it’s definitely correct. Dialectical distinctions are another factor that must be considered.

Think about the differences within a language from nation to nation.  For example, in FRANCE, a post office box is called a “boite postale” where in Switzerland, (a predominantly French speaking country) they prefer the term” case postale.”   If your keyword is translated into the wrong local word, regardless of it being a correct translation, you could miss out on traffic.

10. Don’t use an unreliable human source

The most accurate way of translating is to use a native speaker that lives in the country you are localizing to. So, reliability is essential not only in making sure that the correct local terminology is used, but also for accuracy in general.

Engaging a professional translator with experience in your particular business sector, particularly if they have experience in the field of SEO and keyword research, is the best way to ensure your content will be accurately translated and properly optimized with your top keywords and that your localized website will bring in plenty of traffic, no matter what market you target.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Christian Arno is the founder of Lingo24, one of the world’s fastest growing translation agencies.  Launched in 2001, Lingo24 now has over 150 employees spanning three continents and clients in over sixty countries. In the past twelve months, they have translated over forty million words for businesses in every industry sector, including the likes of MTV, World Bank and American Express. Follow Lingo24 on Twitter at @Lingo24.