Courtney Chowning

Are you interested in any of these?

Courtney — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 19:46:39 +0000

I’m cleaning house and have some domains I no longer need. If you are interested in any of the domains below, let me know. I’m selling them for $10/each.

asknightowl.com

fasttrackyourmarketing.com

getiphone4gcovers.com

growyourbiztalkradio.com

homebusinessgeeks.com

lovesongsoundtracks.com

reliablewpservices.com

~~christianbooksforchildren.com~~ SOLD

christmasblogthemes.com

webinarbenefits.com

PLR Sites for Sale

Courtney — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 12:15:52 +0000

I’m getting super focused this year and these sites just do not fit in to where I want to go with my business.

ChristianMomPLR.com – sell of Christian based PLR
WPPLRContent.com – sell of WordPress and Blogging PLR (new)
PLRGoodies.com – blog and domain where amember is installed to process sales for the other two sites

Includes: mailing lists, all old and current plr packs, facebook page, twitter account, and amember license.

If interested please email me at courtney@courtneychowning.com and we can discuss the details and numbers.

Cool New Plugin – Sticky Social Profiles

Courtney — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 13:00:17 +0000

Tech Based Plugins has just released a new free plugin for WordPress. It’s called Sticky Social Profiles and adds a “Connect” button to the side of your site (not the sidebar but the far right or left of the screen) with social media icons.

There are a couple different plugins out there that do something similar, like Share & Follow, but what I like about this one is that you have the option of uploading your own custom social media icons instead of being stuck using the default ones. It’s nice knowing you can use the social media icons you already have and love.

The Sticky Social Profile plugin is very straight forward in terms of use. Upload it to WordPress. Activate it as a plugin. Plug in the links to your social media pages and you are done.

Download it here.

P.S. If you decide to download it and give it a try, come back and let me know what you think.

7 Tips To Grow Your Affiliate Income

Courtney — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 18:08:27 +0000

Affiliate marketing is a great way to create some passive income in your business funnel. The article below is from Susanne Myers who runs Daily Affiliate Tasks – a membership site that gives you daily tasks to grow your affiliate income.

Try the Product

Before you start to promote something as an affiliate, go the extra mile and try the product. You can either ask the owner for a review copy, or just buy it and try it out. Then write an honest review of the product including the good as well as the bad. Your articles, emails and messages will be more convincing if you actually have some personal experience with the product you’re selling.

Diversify

Don’t focus on promoting just one product. Keep a constant eye on what else is available in your market and try those products out as well. If they are quality items that your readers might be interested in go ahead and promote them as well. People will often buy several similar items if they are interested in a topic or are trying to find a solution for a problem.

Get Better at SEO

Sharpen your SEO skills to get more traffic to your affiliate site. It’s the least expensive form of traffic to your site. Start with the basics of making sure you pick good keywords, and then use those in the title and content of your post. Don’t forget to work on getting more links to point to your pages as well. Spend some time each month to learn some new skills in this area and apply what you are learning.

Follow Up

Let’s face it, not every visitor that comes to your website is ready to buy. Set up an autoresponder to capture their name and email address and follow up regularly. Provide them with good, useful content and build a relationship with your list. Continue to offer affiliate products throughout and if you do your job well, they will buy and do so frequently.

Find Recurring Products

What if I told you there was a way you could make a sale once and then get paid for it month after month. That’s exactly what you can do with affiliate products that offer recurring commissions. Check out things like hosting and membership websites for these types of affiliate paychecks.

Check out the Backend

No, I’m not trying to be funny here. Marketers that know what they are doing have quite a few backend products in place. With a good affiliate offer, you not only make a commission on the first sale, but everything else the marketer upsells your visitor on down the road as well.

Testing

Don’t be afraid to test out other offers. Always be on the lookout for other products in your market that pay decent commissions. You never know when you’ll come across one that pays a better commission or converts better than what you are currently marketing to your list.

Ready to put all this together and grow your affiliate income? Daily Affiliate Tasks make it easy with weekly checklists that show you EXACTLY what you should be working on each day. All it takes is 30 minutes per day!

http://www.DailyAffiliateTasks.com

Learn How To Setup Your First Mailing List

Courtney — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 21:13:56 +0000

Kelly McCausey of Solo Masterminds is hosting a complimentary webinar on how to start your first mailing list. It’ll be on Monday, October 17th, 11am Eastern.

During the webinar, Kelly will show you, step-by-step how to create your first list and begin getting subscribers.

Even if you’re not a complete newbie, you’ll still find the webinar useful, because Kelly will be sharing:

the optimal location for your subscription box
how to get more people to subscribe
what content to put in your emails
and so much more!

If you don’t already know, a mailing list is a database of people who are interested in what you offer – enough to have given you their contact information.It can be intimidating for a beginner to put up a mailing list for the first time. I know it was for me. Even if you already have a mailing list, you often wonder, ”How can I get more people to sign up for my list?” Or, “After they sign up, what do I do next?”

So if you are interested at all in starting a mailing list or or improving the list you already have, sign up today for Kelly’s no-cost webinar. If you can’t make it to the webinar on October 17, 2011 sign up anyways so that you can get access to the recording.

What Print Media Can Teach Bloggers

Courtney — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 13:00:33 +0000

One of my early jobs was a copywriter at an ad agency where I spent most of my time in the art department. We had lots of discussions before, during and after writing the copy and rightly so since copy and creative need to work together. The lessons I learned there are deeply ingrained and I often find myself looking at blog posts through the lens of a print copywriter. That’s a good thing because there’s still a lot of pointers we can take from the industry. Here are a few that come to mind.

White Space

Learn to use it. Too little spacing between letters and lines makes your post difficult to read. In the digital world, white space is not an issue so don’t squeeze your fonts and paragraphs too much. Make use of margins and indents too.

Tame Those Fonts

While there are font variations, you won’t find a lot of flowery script unless it is part of the creative, and that’s the key. Whatever fancy fonts you use, do it sparingly with the intention to emphasize, develop character and voice or lend strength to your words. Never, as the default text.

Black On White

There’s some debate about this on the web because reading on a monitor is unlike reading on print. However, black on white still work best for the general population. You can variate it with a very light, barely noticeable gray or cream for the background. Just don’t use crazy colors like red on blue oh and don’t have patterned background too close around your text either. I was once on a blog that had a tartan background in the post. I left with a headache.

Keep It Pithy.

Space is a premium in print and we’d spend hours writing and re-writing to get the point across with as few words as possible. While you don’t need to do that, plus I believe a post should be as long as it needs to get your message through, try not to ramble or do it too often. Some things have better impact in a few short paragraphs.

Use Sub-Headings

They break up long text and help drive home key points for skimmers.

Sidebars and Pull Quotes

These also break up long posts. Plus, they let you highlight points that are important but don’t quite flow inside the article. They also make your posts visually appealing.

Quality Graphics or Photos

A lot of the photos in the agency were custom photographed by a pro. While you don’t have to go that far, there are plenty of creative commons photos or graphics. If you want to splurge there are also tons of stock photography sites. Make sure your chosen images are sharp and clear with appropriate lighting, unless your a blurry/bad photo supports your post’s key thought.

Copywriting Skills

A little can go a long way. Great titles lure readers in. Good copy keeps them reading and stir up thoughts and emotions till they feel compelled to take action either by commenting or clicking a link.

While there are plenty more pointers, this is all I have time for today. I hope this list gives you something to work on. Have a pointer or two of your own? Chime in below.

~Lynette

Lynette Chandler is a geek and marketer who’s been blogging since 1999. Get more from her by following Lynette’s blog at TechBasedMarketing.com/blog

Faith Based Business Devotions

Courtney — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 20:50:50 +0000

My online mentor and friend, Kelly McCausey, has just recently released a book of faith based business devotions. I have read these devotions and they are wonderful! In fact, I refer to them often in my day to day business dealings.

Her book is a ten week devotional that you can follow to help you reach your God size dreams. And yes, I know it is called Business Devotions, but all the topics could easily be applied to blogging.

Check out these topics:

Praying for your business.
God’s ecomony.
Your calling.
Your spiritual gifts.
Managing your time.
Business by The Book.
Your mentors.
Overcoming personal obstacles.
Pursuing excellence.
Sharing your faith.

You know I put God is in the forefront of my business and blogs and these devotions just help me to continue doing that even when I’m feeling down or depressed about the way things are going. They remind me that God is in control and if I run my business and/or blogs according to His will, then by God sized dreams will come true – in fact, they already are coming true! It’s amazing to watch God work in my business and blogs.

You can get a digital PDF version of Kelly McCausey’s Faith Based Business Devotions for just $5 or you can even get a copy for your Kindle if that is what your prefer.

How to Outsource Parts of Your Internet Business

Courtney — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 21:26:20 +0000

One of my favorite topics to discuss is outsourcing.

You’d be amazed how thinking about outsourcing and where to begin outsourcing flummoxes everyone from the newest newbies to the seasoned gurus and everyone in between.

Buy why? Why is it so very confusing? Most of us manage to outsource quite nicely in our day to day lives.

I oftentimes pose these questions to my coaching clients -

When you go to a restaurant, do you head back into the kitchen and cook your own food? (That’s just silly.)

And, if your appendix burst right now, would you go online to find out how to remove it yourself? (Please say “no”.)

Of course not!

But, why do we think it’s ok to do everything ourselves in our businesses?

I can’t figure out what it is, but I think I’m starting to narrow it down.

* Fear of losing control.
* Not knowing who to outsource work to. (Needing a recommendation.)
* Not wanting to take the time to outsource. (You think: “It’s quicker to do it myself.”)
* Costs. (Oftentimes, though, you can get help for a lot less than you think it’ll cost.)
* Lack of confidence in ourselves.
* Lack of confidence in the potential of our business.
No matter which of those it is, there comes a point with all of us, where you HAVE to outsource — at least if you ever want to be able to go on a real vacation where you leave the internet behind and relax with your loved ones.

I know. I know. If you’ve been following me for any amount of time – you’ve heard this song and dance before. BUT! While outsourcing isn’t perfect, it’s a heck of a lot better than putting the chains on your wrists from a job that you’ve created for yourself – one where you can’t escape.

So, my #1 tip for outsourcing is to try it.

Choose something small and work from there.

Submitting some articles that you’ve written to the article directories.
Finding blogs to guest post on and contacting the owners.
Answering some emails regarding customer issues.
Graphics to promote your products.

It really doesn’t matter where you start. The big thing is taking that first step so that you can enjoy the FREEDOM that comes with the online lifestyle.

Start small. Don’t go crazy. But, when you find someone who you work well with – build on that relationship so you have access to great people who know your style and who you’re comfortable working with. When I need a project done, I have my own personal rolodex of fabulously skilled people who I turn to on a regular basis. Not only does it save me time – but it also helps me to get great prices because they already know what I like, they know that I’m easy to work with and that I pay on time.

I hope this inspires you to start outsourcing in your business.

Nicole Dean can help you to get more done in your business without going crazy in the process. Yes, you can have a business AND a Life! Check out OutsourceWeekly.com and sign up for her free “Outsourcing Mistakes” lessons on the top of the page to get started.

How To Create a Mobile Website

Courtney — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 03:09:39 +0000

With the popularity of smart phones, such as the iPhone, and tablets, such as the iPad, people are using the internet while on the go more and more. This means you have to make your website accessible on the go as well. If your website is on the WordPress platform, then it is easy to make your website mobile friendly with the use of plugins.

There are currently a large number of plugins designed to make your WordPress site mobile friendly – some paid and some free. My friend and mentor at SoloMasterminds, Lynette Chandler, has just released a new plugin that achieves this goal as well. It is called MobiPages and is only $17.

I will admit, I have not used this plugin yet, but I do plan on purchasing it within the next week. I’m excited to try it out.

Do you have a mobile plugin you use on your WordPress site? Which one is it and what do you like or not like about it?

Do You Thank the Lord for your Business?

Courtney — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 22:03:14 +0000

If you are running your online business by faith, then I assume you are praying for more business, clients, customers, and God’s will. But do you take the time to thank the Lord for those things as well? How about for the computer you use to run your online business? Or the ability to have an internet connection?

In the God’s word we are told…

“Give thanks unto the LORD, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the people.” 1 Chronicles 16:8

“O give thanks unto the LORD; for [he is] good; for his mercy [endureth] for ever.” 1 Chronicles 16:34

“Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;” Ephesians 5:20

Giving God the thanks and credit for the successes in your business can only lead to good things. By acknowledging that you alone cannot do it, but only through God’s strength, God will only continue to bless you and your business.