I recently read an amazing book that has inspired me to take my every day practice of gratitude up a notch, and I invite you to join me.

I initially read the book to review for The New York Journal of Books. You can read my review of it here.

The book is organized so that you can take each month and focus on a particular aspect of gratitude. The author, Angeles Arrien, encourages the reader to engage with the book alone or as part of a group.

This inspired me.

So I decided to start a virtual group. So that members will have at least some vested interest in doing the “homework,” I’ve decided to charge a nominal $7/month fee to join the group. We’ll “meet” over the phone once a month to check in and to state our intentions for the coming month.

This is a 12-month program only. We can decide as a group if we want to continue for a second year.

If you join the group between now and December 16, you will receive as a bonus the PDF version of my annotated Character Building Thought Power for no cost. I usually sell this ebook for $14.99. Additional support material and handouts may be available through out the year, as appropriate.

How To Participate

• Purchase a copy of Angeles Arrien’s book Living in Gratitude. You can purchase it at Amazon in hardcover or for the Kindle using the links above, or get a copy at your favorite local bookstore.
• Register for the study group that I’ll be leading. I will invite you to a private Facebook group where we can interact throughout the year, as well as keep you posted on when the once-monthly calls will be scheduled. This is a 12-month program only. We can decide as a group if we want to continue for a second year.
• Commit to being grateful for all the things in your life, for the more you appreciate, the more you have to appreciate!

The first call will be scheduled for sometime the first full week of January. Date and time is to be determined.
 

Would you be interested in an in-person group that met in Long Beach, Calif.? If there are enough people, I will make arrangements for in-person group to meet once a month in Long Beach. If you are interested, please contact me.
 

NOTE: I am creating this group completely on my own and am not affiliated in any way with Angeles Arrien.
 

Monthly Topics from Living in Gratitude

Benefits of Gratitude

Sprinkled through out the book, Arrien shares research that illustrates the benefits of gratitude. Here are a few of them pulled from the book:

For Health
The studies of Dr. Michael McCollough (University of Miami) and Dr. Robert Emmons (U.C. Davis) “have shown that regularly and deliberately expressing appreciation and genuine thankfulness improves health and well-being. Study participants who kept gratitude journals and practiced self-guided exercises slept better, exercised more, experienced increased positive emotions, progressed toward personal goals more quickly, and helped others more often.”

John Demartini, developer of the Demartini Method, “discovered that the more people count their blessings and give gratitude, the more their health and sense of well-being increase.”

“Studies of the physiological effects of positive emotions related to gratitude — namely appreciation and compassion — suggest that changes for the better reliably occur in cardiovascular and immune functioning. In other words, the more we extend gratitude, appreciation and compassion, the healthier our heart and immune system become.”

For Relationships
Couples who express more gratitude and appreciation for each other stay together longer. “John Gottman’s two decades of research … reveals that couples who expres at least a five-to-one ratio of appreciations to complaints stay married and increase their longevity together. Those who have more complaints than appreciation are more apt to divorce or separate.”

For Happiness
“Researcher Robert Emmons … confirms that grateful people are less lonely, bitter, isolated, unforgiving or indifferent…. Everett Worthington … notices that people who forgive find greater peace and acceptance, and the return of hope fosters more well-being.”

Food Professionals
Post images of your creations with recipes. You can either post recipes for your more basic dishes … ones that can be found elsewhere … or your more difficult recipes … ones readers would rather have you do that try out themselves. Either way, you build rapport with your readers and get them thinking of your food offerings.

Artists, Crafters and Other Artisans
Take pictures of your work and post them on your blog. Use the alt tag, as I discussed in my last post, to help people find your work. In addition to the image, explain a bit about it: what inspired it? how was it created? etc.

Writers, Authors and Poets
A blog is a great way to give out sample snippets and chapters of your work. You can also use it to serialize it, as well. If you use a membership program to turn your blog into a membership site, you can even post entire pieces of your work, but only make a small portion of it visible to those who haven’t paid to see the whole thing.

Singers, Dancers and Other Entertainers
Post video clips of your performances. Include along with the video some information about what they are viewing. When did it happen? Who was the audience? What was the purpose? Did you have any special inspiration in choosing that particular clip?

Thinking of self-publishing your book?

Want to make sure it gets on Amazon and the Kindle?
Then check out “How to Leverage Amazon.com to Attract New Clients.” In this audio course I show you how to create a lead-generating book and publish it using either Lulu.com or CreateSpace.com for physical books and Amazon Digital for the Kindle. You receive step-by-step guides that walk you through the process with ease!
 

Not sure if self-publishing is right for you?
Check out this free replay of a webinar I did with Daniel Hall: 19 Innovative Ways to Build Your Business With a Self Published Book

The Front Cover
Are you the expert and the main focus of your brand? Make sure that your mug is on the front cover. Here are just a few examples of books where the author has done just that.
 

 
When you put your photo on the cover of your book, it help establish you as a brand. It makes you more recognizable, and it also makes you appear more of an expert.

The Title
Will you be writing a series of books based on your brand? Then make sure your title includes your brand. The Complete Idiot’s Guide series is a brand … so is the “for Dummies” series. What about Jay Conrad Levinson’s series of guerrilla marketing books? You better believe that’s a strong brand!
 

 
Note: Notice anything else about the guerrilla marketing books? They all use a common theme of combat fatigue print in their covers … another way you can communicate branding with your cover!

The Table of Contents
The content of your book, as reflected in your table of contents, also helps build your brand. It does this not only with the topics you cover, but how your phrase the topics you cover. Is your brand humorous? Then your chapter titles should make people smirk!

The Back Cover
If you don’t want your mug on the front cover, at least put it on the back. The back cover is also an excellent place to put a strategically written bio that positions you as a go-to resource.

Tools Available for Developing and Nurturing Your Brand

• Plan Your Business Vision
  A guide to writing a strategic plan that is flexible enough for creative professionals
• How to Leverage Amazon.com to Attract New Clients
  A guide to creating a lead generating book or CD and getting it published on Amazon.com.
• The Turbo-Charge Your Marketing Guide to Video Blogging
  A guide to creating online video.

Everything you do and say can affect your online presence. Take the sad case of Mel Gibson. His anti-Semitic tirades and the leaked recording of him threatening his estranged wife has hurt his career. People don’t want to see his films and filmmakers are wary of including him in the cast.

How you behave in public … at the grocery store, at a networking event, at the movies … can have an affect on your online presence. You never know who will be paying attention, and whether or not they will be blogging, Tweeting or online video-ing what they see and hear.

So, if you’re polite and respectable whenever you are in public, you’ll avoid all the crap that folks like Mel Gibson and these days Charlie Sheen are having to go through.

 
The micro-blogging platform Twitter can be a good way to share content that supports your expertise status. In this video, I share a few pointers that I use with my Twitter accounts to enhance my online presence.
 

Would you like to get your questions about online presence answered in a future video tip?

(Your name and website will be included, if you so desire.)
You can submit your questions in any of these ways:

• Post your question in a comment below.
• Leave your question in a voice mail at this number: 815-642-4092
• Submit a video response on Youtube to this video
• Send me an email using the contact form
• Post your question on Facebook

 
Facebook has four different ways you can enhance your online presence:

• Your profile
• Fan or Like Page
• A group
• Events

In this video I touch on how each of these can be used to promote your business.
 

Would you like to get your questions about online presence answered in a future video tip?

(Your name and website will be included, if you so desire.)
You can submit your questions in any of these ways:

• Post your question in a comment below.
• Leave your question in a voice mail at this number: 815-642-4092
• Submit a video response on Youtube to this video
• Send me an email using the contact form
• Post your question on Facebook

 
This week, I’m answering a question that was asked on Facebook by my mother, Dolores Delgado of Dolores Delgado Fine Art. She asked, “How do I drive traffic to my website?”

Alas, this is a challenging question to answer and can’t really be answered in a 3-minute video. So, I provide some suggestions and tips on different ways to drive traffic and what you need to do to prepare your website to receive that traffic.

Basically, you need to know your target audience and where they hang out online. Then you need to make sure that links back to your website appear where they hang out. You can achieve this in numerous ways, such as:

• Article marketing,
• Social networking,
• Social bookmarking, and
• Pay per click.

The first one I talked a little bit about last week. I’ll be covering the rest in future videos.
 

Would you like to get your questions about online presence answered in a future video tip?

(Your name and website will be included, if you so desire.)
You can submit your questions in any of these ways:

• Post your question in a comment below.
• Leave your question in a voice mail at this number: 815-642-4092
• Submit a video response on Youtube to this video
• Send me an email using the contact form
• Post your question on Facebook

 
Article marketing can be a powerful part of your online presence because you can exert some control over it. It can go viral, it can support your expert status and it can drive traffic to you website.

Don’t worry if your business is not based on expert knowledge, article marketing can still help you with search engine optimization and traffic … you just need to be more creative. I wrote about this at the Women’s Business Gallery on Friday.

Alternative Types of Article Marketing for Creative Professionals

If you have a hard time coming up with ideas for your articles, I’ve written about some ways you can get inspired, too.

Trolling for Topics — On Autopilot

If you still need help with article marketing, you might consider checking out my Article Marketing Marathon service.
 

Would you like to get your questions about online presence answered in a future video tip?

(Your name and website will be included, if you so desire.)
You can submit your questions in any of these ways:

• Post your question in a comment below.
• Leave your question in a voice mail at this number: 815-642-4092
• Submit a video response on Youtube to this video
• Send me an email using the contact form
• Post your question on Facebook

 
There are three ways you can do this:

Have a compelling opt-in bonus.
Make your gift in exchange for name and email address something your ideal clients really want, are looking for and would find of value.

Keep your opt-in box as high up on the page as possible.
You want your opt-in box to be one of the first things your visitors see when they get to your website. They should have to scroll down to find it.

Make your opt-in box stand out.
Your opt-in box shouldn’t blend in with the rest of your website. Give it a contrasting color. Include a picture of your opt-in bonus. Have a picture or a big red arrow point to it. Make it noticeable.
 

Would you like to get your questions about online presence answered in a future video tip?

(Your name and website will be included, if you so desire.)
You can submit your questions in any of these ways:

• Post your question in a comment below.
• Leave your question in a voice mail at this number: 815-642-4092
• Submit a video response on Youtube to this video
• Send me an email using the contact form
• Post your question on Facebook

 
In this video, I explain why creative professionals, such as artists, entertainers and chefs, need to have an opt-in box on their website.

An opt-in box asks visitors to your website to provide you their name and email address in exchange for something of value.

For an artist, this might be tips on art, insight into your artistic process and updates on your gallery shows.

For an entertainer, this might be news of your latest gigs, updates on projects you’re involved in or advice on how to get into the biz.

For a chef, this might be exclusive recipes, special offers for subscribers, news of special events you’re involved in.

Be creative … you are a creative professional after all … and provide something that your target audience will look forward to receiving and that supports your brand.
 

Would you like to get your questions about online presence answered in a future video tip?

(Your name and website will be included, if you so desire.)
You can submit your questions in any of these ways:

• Post your question in a comment below.
• Leave your question in a voice mail at this number: 815-642-4092
• Submit a video response on Youtube to this video
• Send me an email using the contact form
• Post your question on Facebook