After a lot of thought on this topic, my conclusion was fairly simple: you’re a wuss and it’s costing you. Here are 3 things you can do to stop being a wuss and start making money.

Forget The Fear of Failure…It’s A Myth

This is a very real feeling, no doubt. But SO WHAT? Nobody WANTS to fail. Nobody wakes up in the morning and says, “Today is the day I fail!” That’s ludicrous. Instead, as intelligent beings, we are much more sly with how we manifest this fear. You see, it would be too simple for us to just admit we’re fearful, address the feeling, and move on. No that won’t work for us. We have to attribute our fears to others, an experience, or a reality we face that is the REASON we can’t do something. It might go something like this:

Sure that guy can make money, he’s got _______, and _______ going for him. Not only that, he’s been doing it for ______ years. Furthermore, he probably doesn’t have the responsibilities of ______ and ______ and ______ like I do.

Have you ever had a conversation with yourself that resembles those statements in any way, shape, or form? Do you see what you’re doing by making those statements? You’re setting yourself so low that before you even start something, you’ve talked your self out of it.

Here’s a better way to deal with fear of failure.

Sit down, and make a list of the top 3-5 things you are MOST fearful about regarding your new endevour, project, or business. Be real with yourself, don’t let that manipulative self take over and write the halmark version of what your fearing. Be REALISTIC. Be HONEST. Be SPECIFIC. Once you have a list ask yourself these questions.

1. If I was counseling someone else with the same fear, how likely would I tell them the chance of that actually happening was?
2. If this fear does come to pass will it cost me my family, all my savings, or my life?
3. If I didn’t have this fear, would I feel capable to pursue this project?

Most often, when you ask yourself the tough questions, you’re able to see that the actual thing you fear is something completely different than you may think. That fear of failure may be more a matter of your feeling inadequate, incapable, like you just don’t have what it takes (because remember, NOBODY WANTS TO FAIL). The point of this exercise is to identify the real reason we continue to fail before we begin. Are you willing to go there with yourself? Are you open to asking the tough questions? Are you willing to squelch the inner wuss so you can move forward with confidence?

Play To Your Strengths, Manage Where Your Weak

This ties in so well with the fear of failure myth. I’m not a PhD, and I’m not attempting to be one, but perhaps the reason we are so good at failing is because we spend so much time trying to improve our weaknesses that we forget to spend time on our strengths.

It’s human nature. We’re taught that weakness is bad. We’re told that we need to work on it, be better at it, just NOT do it.

While that may be well intentioned advice, it’s completely backwards if you ask me. Instead of spending so much time getting better at where your weak (and remember, I’m talking in the business world), spend 90% of your time playing to your strengths and hire out where you’re weak.

Maybe you’re great at writing salescopy but suck at web design. Maybe you’re unbelievable at customer support but horrible at vision casting. No matter the comparison, identify where you’re strong, identify a business that plays to those strengths, then manage your weakness (by hiring someone else). This has probably been one of the most valuable lessons to me personally.

Set SMALL Goals

Don’t be the, “I want to make $50,000/month this month,” guy or gal.

I can GUARANTEE you it won’t happen. If you’re trying to go from $0 to some huge number in NO time, let me save you the frustration and tell you the truth: it ain’t gonna happen.

Now instead, why not focus on something like this.

If $50,000/month is your ultimate goal (you can fill in whatever number that is), then take what you ultimately want and work backwards. $50,000/month is about $1667/day, $69/hour, $1.16/minute.

Next, identify something IN that goal as your FIRST goal. Meaning, take $1667/day and make that your first monthly income goal. $1667/month is $55.57/day, $2.32/hour, 4 cents/minute. That is a much more reasonable place to start, but it also does something sneaky to your brain: it helps you achieve part of your bigger goal, establishing success, and motivating you to the next level. Does that make sense? By establishing a small but measurable success in your bigger goal, you establish momentum and the sense of ability to go to the next level. You’ve accomplished something. You’ve achieved it. In your mind, you now know it can be done.

If you’re a planner by nature, this will be a valuable little nugget. Always be mindful of the bigger goal, but don’t spend so much of your energy trying to go from sea level to the summit of Everest when you haven’t even conquered getting to base camp.

So forget fear of failure and identify the real reasons you’re not pursuing what you want, play to your strengths/hire where you’re weak, and set small goals that are stepping stones to your biggest goal. Don’t be a wuss, and don’t let it cost you anymore!

Before I had a Mac, Camtasia was probably one of my favorite pieces of software. Both easy to learn and use, Techsmith hit a chord with their popular PC version of Camtasia, and after years of “is it or isn’t it going to be realased” talk, TS finally delivered.

The video above is just a small sample of what you can do, and I learned how to do it all within about 5 minutes of playing around with it. Through the end of the year, you can get the Mac version of Camtasia for only $99. They also have a 30-day trial. Either way, you can’t go wrong with Camtasia for Mac.

To contact the Blogging Experiment Logo Designer (and take advantage of the 50% discount offered to BlogEx readers), you can contact William at the following address. Be sure to mention you were referred from Blogging Experiment to get the discount.

Finally, if you have any questions or comments about the new design, the site in general, or just want to say hi…post a word or two below.

I don’t know about you, but I appreciate the details site owners take when creating and releasing content. Anyone can write text, almost anyone can add an image, and fewer yet can embed a video. You’re going to be leaps and bonds ahead of everyone if you actually embed a video IN an image. Whether you want to brand video with your logo, incorporate a design element, or do any number of other things, this is a great trick to know (and we’ve tailored it to WordPress).

It’s important to remember that when you add content to your site, do it in a way that makes your brand stand out from the “norm” in your industry or profession. More specifically, take the time to add as many unique features to your material, website, or blog so people notice right away that there is something “different” about your site. The internet is full of “me too” bloggers who rehash the same information you can find on countless other websites or blogs. Beyond just finding your online voice, this is about setting yourself apart because you think to take care of the details (however small they may be…they still matter).

Adding Embed Video Code to an Image in WordPress

A few weeks ago, I was working on a site for my 19 month old little boy, and I wanted to find a way to include a video we had taken into a picture. I searched online and found this great video tutorial on adding embed video code to an image. Watch it first, then come back here.

The Finished Product

Let’s Look At The Code

Once the html page is created, there is a slight modification you have to make to the code in order for it to look right in WordPress. Below is the code generated from Dreamweaver. This is what you would upload to a website (not run on WordPress) to have the video embedded on an image.

<br /> <html><br /> <head></p> <p><meta http-equiv=”Content-Type” content=”text/html; charset=iso-8859-1″><br /> </head><br /> <body bgcolor=”#FFFFFF” leftmargin=”0″ topmargin=”0″ marginwidth=”0″ marginheight=”0″><br /> <!– Save for Web Slices (embedexample.png) –></p> <table id=”Table_01″ width=”600″ height=”600″ border=”0″ cellpadding=”0″ cellspacing=”0″> <tr> <td colspan=”3″> <img src=”images/embedexample_01.gif” mce_src=”images/embedexample_01.gif” width=”600″ height=”103″ alt=”"></td> </tr> <tr> <td> <img src=”images/embedexample_02.gif” mce_src=”images/embedexample_02.gif” width=”101″ height=”295″ alt=”"></td> <td> <span class=”mceItemObject” width=”400″ height=”295″><span name=”allowfullscreen” value=”true” class=”mceItemParam”></span><span name=”allowscriptaccess” value=”always” class=”mceItemParam”></span><span name=”movie” value=”http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1297050&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1″ class=”mceItemParam”></span><span class=”mceItemEmbed” src=”http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1297050&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1″ mce_src=”http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1297050&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowfullscreen=”true” allowscriptaccess=”always” width=”400″ height=”295″></span></span></td> <td> <img src=”images/embedexample_04.gif” mce_src=”images/embedexample_04.gif” width=”99″ height=”295″ alt=”"></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan=”3″> <img src=”images/embedexample_05.jpg” mce_src=”images/embedexample_05.jpg” width=”600″ height=”202″ alt=”"></td> </tr> </table> <p><!– End Save for Web Slices –><br /> </body><br /> </html><br />

 
With WordPress however, I found that I needed to merge the tables (slices) 2-4 into one table. Here is the code I used to get the embed video on the black BlogEx video image you see above.

</p> <div> <table id=”Table_01″ style=”height: 600px;” border=”0″ cellspacing=”0″ cellpadding=”0″ width=”600″> <tbody> <tr> <td colspan=”3″><img src=”images/embedexample_01.gif” mce_src=”images/embedexample_01.gif” alt=”" width=”600″ height=”103″ /></td> </tr> <tr> <td><img src=”images/embedexample_02.gif” mce_src=”images/embedexample_02.gif” alt=”" width=”101″ height=”295″ /><span class=”mceItemObject” classid=”clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000″ width=”400″ height=”295″ codebase=”http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0″><span name=”allowfullscreen” value=”true” class=”mceItemParam”></span><span name=”allowscriptaccess” value=”always” class=”mceItemParam”></span><span name=”src” value=”http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1297050&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1″ class=”mceItemParam”></span><span class=”mceItemEmbed” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” width=”400″ height=”295″ src=”http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1297050&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1″ mce_src=”http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1297050&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1″ allowscriptaccess=”always” allowfullscreen=”true”></span></span><img src=”images/embedexample_04.gif” mce_src=”images/embedexample_04.gif” alt=”" width=”99″ height=”295″ /></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan=”3″><img src=”images/embedexample_05.jpg” mce_src=”images/embedexample_05.jpg” alt=”" width=”600″ height=”202″ /></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </div> <p>

 
You only need the table data from the html page Dreamweaver created for you when publishing to Wordpress. If you try to upload the html file just as Dreamweaver created it it won’t look right. Because remember, they created an entire html page, while with Wordpress, we are just wanting to include it IN a page or post. Again, it’s all spelled out in the code above, so feel free to reference that as needed.

 
I promise I’m still here. This has been an incredibly busy (but in a good way) time for both Blogging Experiment and our popular training program: Buying & Selling Websites. While the Blogging Experiment design should most likely be finished within the next week, I wanted to let you all know a little about the other “project” that has been taking up so much of my time recently.

Buying & Selling Websites has been a very popular, helpful resource for those wanting to learn about the art of buying and selling websites. There has always been a real lack of good training for those interested in purchasing a website, sell an existing one, and answer all the questions in between.

BASW was put together to address the who, what, when, where, and how to an industry literally begging for quality information on the topic. We’ve received rave reviews from our members, and I’m excited to announce that we’ve only just begun.

In the coming months, BASW is going to be revamped with even more material, videos, and training so we can continue to be on the cutting edge of all things related to Buying & Selling Websites. With these new additions, we wanted to give the site a brand new look, and I wanted to share it with you today.

Admitedly, this may not be the final design, but it’s the direction I’m leaning, and I wanted to share it with you. For those of you who haven’t joined, now is the time. Due to the nature of the content we provide, and the fact that we even had one student tell us he would have gladly paid $2000+ for the material (that was great to hear), we are going to be raising the price of the training back to around its original pricepoint (but not anywhere near $2,000 so don’t worry – even though it is worth that many times over we want it to be reasonable enough for the “average joe” to be able to participate).

So for the next 30-60 days, you’ll be able to get the entire training + ALL the new material (when it is released) for the insanely low price of $99. This wasn’t meant to be a sales ptich, but as I started writing about the new design, I got excited with thinking about how great the new material will be. If you want to be “grandfathered” in at the $99 level, I suggest you join soon. Obviously, this is not a “You have to join by midnight tonight.” We’re not going to officially launch this for a couple months – and the $99 will be in tact until then – but it would be a great time to get your feet wet with the content and videos we already have and browse through our mastermind forum.

So here is a preview of the new design (click here to enlarge). Let me know what you think. And for those considering joining our BASW Community, let me encourage you to take that step. We’re passionate about this material, and we look forward to proving it to you!

 
August 10, 2009 Update: It’s been a couple months since we posted first design idea for BASW, and we appreciate the positive feedback and the many, many new customers we’ve received as a result. To keep you current on the latest “goings on” at BASW, I wanted to show you what WILL BE the final design for the new BASW.

Since we’re adding new content and reshooting/updating the current content, we don’t have a firm date on when BASW 2.0 will be released, but one thing we know for certain is that the price will be higher than the $99 price point it is now. If you join now, however, you will be grandfathered in, and all of the new content, material, and training will be included at no additional charge. Just because we’re updating and adding material does not take away from the fact that this is still remarkable, relevant, current, and meaningful training, which customers from all over the world can attest to. We’re just going to make it even greater. The picture is a little fuzzy, but this will give you an idea of the final design. Click to enlarge.

Join Buying & Selling Websites

I’d like to give you a preview to the next generation of Blogging Experiment. I’m working on a complete design and content overhaul (with some exciting things planned for this site), and I wanted to give you a sneak peak by showing the new logo.

The only thing staying the same – and getting better – will be the content we provide. Aside from that, I’m changing everything. From video to more unique content to a potential blogging forum (to discuss more advanced techniques and strategies to blogging, SEO, Pay Per Click, and more). Basically, I want this site to live up to it’s name – a place where we can talk about the experiments we all undertake to make our blogs and websites better looking, more functional and ultimately more profitable.

Blogging Experiment 3.0 will be one of those sites you look forward to revisiting because of the no-nonsense…bottom line…help you make money online material. That’s my goal, and that’s what I’m going to do!

1. Using Untested Keywords (why most keywords you’ll target will suck…literally suck the profits away from you – side note: check out The Keyword Academy if you’re interested in learning the ins and outs of GOOD keyword research)
2. Badly Written Page Titles (learn how to make the SEO title tag more appealing than the Adwords ad – and it’s free)
3. Link Building Boo-Boos (most link building techniques don’t work, he shows you which links matter)

There’s 4 more, but you’ll have to watch the video series to see what they are.

Next, they provide 3 amazing videos covering very specific, actionable SEO techniques that the power players use to dominate any niche in any market. The best part, it’s all completely free.

From what I understand, this is only available for the next couple of days. If they extend or shorten the availability, I’ll let you know. Don’t waste any more time. Go watch the videos and learn the 7 SEO mistakes NOW.

So there I was pruning some pages that had been created as holder pages  - and while quickly going the motions: delete, delete, delete…I saw to my utter disbelief and despair that I had deleted one of the main pages to the site inadvertently.

After searching around on Google for a bit, I discovered a Wordpress forum post that was so simple (and genius) it worked. If you’ve dealt with this before, you might have thought it up yourself, but since I hadn’t it was a nice Ah-Ha moment. Here’s what the poster suggested.

1. Go to Google
2. Enter the exact destination of the now deleted page: mysite.com/page-i-just-deleted-because-im-a-moron/
3. Hit the cache button
4. Copy the content from the Google cache and you’re good to go.

I’ll even take it a step further and remind you to copy the source code for the main content pane – as opposed to simply taking your mouse and highlighting the text on the page (by doing it that way you lose images and other various formatting that the html code will keep in place).

So after about a minute, I had found the cache of the page, copied the source, gone back to Wordpress and pasted the code, double checked that everything was in tact like before (which surprisingly it was 99% perfect – just one line needed to be centered again), and that was that – a quick and easy solution if you ever accidentally delete a page or post from Wordpress.

Now, if it’s a relatively new post or site and the search engines haven’t had a chance to index it yet, most likely your host can help. Places like Hostgator (where this site is hosted, and whom I recommend 110%), Site5 (another one of my favorite hosts), and most all the major hosting companies take daily, weekly, or monthly backups to your site so if worst comes to worst, you can contact them in a last resort to get your missing content back. In case this has happened to you, I hope this will make getting your content back a little easier.

Oh yea, now go make money online!

The question is how much you should pay just for a logo? Answering this question is not very difficult when you know which factors to consider. A normal person has a difficult time knowing how much he should pay someone for designing a logo. Some people think $500 is a reasonable amount, while others will consider this very expensive.

A company that charges you $1000 for a logo may have more experience and knowledge in logo and graphic design. They will (hopefully) spend more time on making your logo a perfect emblem. On the other hand, another designer or company may charge you only $25 for the same specifications but they will most likely only put a fraction of the effort into it. Therefore, cost is hard to nail down. There are actually 4 key factors you should be aware of when it comes to logo design.

Price

This factor is often considered first while going for a logo design. It is fine if you go for a cheap logo design, but think before how much importance a logo can have for your business. Your logo is going to be placed on mediums like stationary, website, promotional material and so on. These marketing collaterals not only introduce your customers to your business, it builds an image about your company through the impression of your logo. Therefore, spending a very low amount may not be reasonable, but spending thousands of dollars also doesn’t make much sense. The better option is to spend in between $100 to $500. You will probably use your logo for at least 10 years, and if you divide cost with the number of months, it only comes out to a few dollars per month. By having these thoughts in mind it is clear that price should not be considered as the major factor among other important aspects.

Level of Service

Service level should be considered on top while selecting a logo design company. It usually depends on the package your selecting. The more you pay the more service options you will get. The service level of a company can be determined by the number of designers who will design your logo, the number of revisions (requests for changes), and the number of initial concepts provided at first round. In addition, money back guarantees are also an important element that should be considered if you don’t like the design or if they don’t deliver your work on time.

Quality of Design

Design quality is one other major factor that determines the worth of your logo. If you are ok with paying $1000, it means you also want to make sure and get the value of your money back in the shape of a great design. To assure the quality of design, you should check out the design portfolio of the company, the testimonials written by the customers, and the experience and knowledge they have about logo design.

Company’s Location

Location of a company provides a great deal of advantages to the business owner(s). If you hire a designer who is located outside your country – for example China or India, it would be nearly impossible for you to take legal action against him/her if you come under the case of trademark infringement.

In short, considering price, hiring a logo designer, and getting the final formats all play an important role in determining how much you will pay for a custom logo design. Besides design, your logo is that element which give your company an identity. It really doesn’t matter how much you pay – if your logo doesn’t attract your target market, all the money you just spent is pretty much wasted. Hence, spend a considerable amount of time searching for a suitable logo design company before hiring one. You’ll be glad you did!

This original article, written exclusively for Blogging Experiment, is from Ben Johnson of Logoinn, custom logo design services based in the UK. Ben was nice enough to not only send this article but a couple ideas for a logo for Blogging Experiment. We’re working on a complete redesign of the site, so it was nice to see someone actually provide relevant content about logo design PLUS provide a personal touch by sending in a couple of ideas for this site. I’ve included the mockups below, so you can see a sample of their work. Coupon Code: Ben has also been nice enough to provide Blogging Experiment readers with a 15% discount by using promo code: MKT-01 at checkout should you decide to hire them to create YOUR custom logo. A big thanks to Ben for the great article and promotion code!

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Long story short, their popular Dropship Focus product ($97) is being given away for a short time absolutely free –  no credit card or Paypal address required. I’m going to do a more detailed Dropship Focus Review in the coming days, but considering this offer could end at any time, I wanted to make sure you knew about it as soon as I did. 

I have personally met with the management at Worldwide Brands, and I couldn’t vouch highly enough to their integrity and intense passion to help people make their dream of starting an online business a reality. If you’ve ever wanted to know how to make money with dropshipping as well as learn the 3 most common mistakes new dropshippers make (I especially liked Mistake #2 and would have never thought of it on my own), get Dropship Focus for free today.