The Big Shift

In a recent teleclass that I led on The 5 Biggest Shifts That Entrepreneurs Must Make When Writing Articles That Attract Clients, I talked a bit about the dramatic SHIFT that is happening on the web right now. Search engines like Google are now taking a very close look at whether or not your content is being shared via social media and ranking your content based on those factors. This shift will significantly shape your online reputation.

Uh-Oh Is This High School Again?

Okay, so this sounds a little bit like a popularity contest right? Well sort of. The more folks who share, like, retweet, and comment on your content the more IMPORTANT that Google thinks you are. So essentially it comes down to the more people who like you — the better you will do in the search engines, BUT there’s one great advantage you have…

You Have MAJOR Control Over Becoming A Cool Kid

Unlike actual high school, you don’t have to depend on an arbitrary hierarchy  to decide whether your content fares well in the search engines. YOU are on the same playing field as all of your competitors and you are probably 2 steps ahead of all the “Big Boys” in your niche, because everyday people make the decisions on whether to share, retweet, and like content.

If your content is good, if it’s inspiring, if it’s compelling, if it’s entertaining — it will be shared, regardless of WHO you are. When Google sees this, they ASSUME that you are important and rank your content accordingly.

Okay Lisa – So How Important Is This?

This shift towards more importance being paid on social media influence is critical if you want to remain relevant — at least in the search engines. If you are not on social media or created an account a year ago and haven’t been active, it’s time to get on the grid.

If you must choose just one to start with, I’d go with Facebook because it is the largest social media network and it has undergone tremendous growth over the years and continues to do so. If you are a rapid implementer. then I’d sign up with the power 3: Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

If you’re active in social media and want to check just how well you are doing in social media (your social media influence), then a great place to check is: Klout.com. *I have a little disclaimer here though. Don’t get real crazy over your numbers in Klout. Use your Klout number as a frame of reference for how you’re doing in social media and what you need to work on. Then leave it alone.

This Still Sounds Like An Uphill Battle

No, it really isn’t. Sure, there are always going to be leaders who were already powerhouses offline like Oprah and will do great in social media — but when it comes to shining in your niche — social media really does level the playing field. The #1 key is to make sure that you are sharing kick-a@#! content. Get that right and everything else will fall into place. I recommend that you get started by building a strong foundation with articles.

Okay, Now You…

First, if you found value in this article, I’d appreciate it if you tweet or share it with your community or comment on it. Pay it forward please:)

Now for my question of the day: Do you think it’s a good idea for search engines to use social media as a factor for ranking content? Do you believe it puts you at an advantage or disadvantage?Similar Posts:

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For a very long time, I would compare the success of my business to other business owners in or related to my niche, and it would make me sick (literally)! The big reason is that compared to many coaches and mentors who I started out with in this niche (so around 2005-6), I was on a SLOW learning curve. It took me way longer than I hoped to catch on to and multiply strategies that were working in my business, as well as identify and eliminate ones that weren’t. It was ridiculously frustrating, and I was starting to believe that I wasn’t good enough. I almost quit more than once.

So undoubtedly, this was a mindset I had about myself and my business that was destructive and putting me in a really “low” place energetically. I would step away from the business for days — because of it. Which of course wasn’t helping, and honestly was giving me the entrepreneurship blues. (cue the blues guitar please:)

Fast forward to today and I am in a totally different place energetically as well as realistically thanks to Brenda Rivas & Fabienne Fredrickson. I have in essence “caught up” to most of my peers — and the ones that I haven’t, I applaud their success instead of envy it. Was it easy to make these shifts – nope. But it was crucial to my success and I know that it probably will be to yours as well.

[This is a text heavy post today -- but I was in the zone!]

1. Stop Thinking That You Are In A Competition For Clients

You have to step outside of yourself a minute and think realistically. There are oodles of companies who do the same thing and yet they all seem to make money and stay in business. Even with McDonald’s domination of the fast food industry, there are plenty of companies that are just fine: Wendy’s, Burger King, KFC, etc. The same principle applies to your business. There is a limitless supply of clients available to you.

2. Stop Thinking Smaller Is Safer

There is a tendency for many entrepreneurs to dream small, act small, and therefore get only small results. Once you understand that if you think bigger and BELIEVE in bigger dreams –then you will ultimately create bigger results.

3. Be Clear About What You Want

A confused mind creates confused thoughts and energy. If you are confused — the universe will be confused. Be clear about what you want to accomplish today, this week, this year, over the next 3 years. If you aren’t sure, get help around that. That way every daily step you take towards your business is purposeful and congruent with what you want.

4. Don’t Be Afraid To Ask For What You Want

I have run into many entrepreneurs who are great at what they do but often think “Hey I’m smart. I should be able to figure out this thing by myself. Why should I ask for help?” Okay — yes you are smart, creative, passionate and all of that — but there is no shame in asking for what you want. Asking the universe, God, etc. AND asking peers and mentors all around you. You’d be surprised how many people will help you.

5. Remember The Bigger Picture

It’s easy to fall into the daily business of growing your business: creating content, social media, working with clients, etc. But what’s your bigger picture. Keep that in mind. Is it establishing your LEGACY? Is it creating more time with your FAMILY?

6. Fill Your Subconscious And Your Soul With Good Stuff

When Oprah first talked about the OWN Network, I have to admit that I was one of those people that said “I love the idea of this but I don’t know how many people are really going to watch positive television day after day.” I’m a bit embarrassed by this but the point of this article is to be truthful and hopefully insightful. So there it is. But I started to finally “get it” about 9 months or so ago. Especially at the end of the day. I think it’s much better to go to bed reading a uplifting or entertaining book than watching a horror flick or for that matter the World News! Filling my soul with positive reading, television, movies etc. has really helped my occasionally “cynical” outlook on life.

7. Remember You Are In The Business Of Serving People

Most people in business want to make money. There’s nothing wrong with that, but remember the money should be a financial reward for serving your clients and your customers.

8. Be Mindful Of What You Are Attracting

If you are attracting low-paying, highly-demanding, clients then you need to take a closer look at why. Sure it may be your marketing materials, but it’s deeper than that. You have created, selected or approved those marketing materials. You are unconsciously attracting the types of clients that you don’t like.

9. Surround Yourself With Your Positive Peeps

This was a difficult one for me. Many of our closest relationships are with family members or friends from childhood and unfortunately it seems to be that more of our “forward thinking” pals are people we meet along the way in our journey — and not from the past. Perhaps college. Or people you meet while building your business. This isn’t a hard and fast rule. But regardless of HOW you met the “negative nellies” or less forward thinking people in your life who are holding you back — you’ve got to let them go. Surround yourself MORE with folks who will support and lift you towards your goals, or who at least are doing what you want to be doing. Shout out to my positive peeps Coach Kelly, Therese Prentice, and Ange’ Anglade.

10. Change Your Relationship With Money

If you have a “scarcity” relationship with money, meaning you feel badly when you invest in yourself, you frequently have buyer’s remorse, you select lower quality products to save money, you constantly are thinking about your “lack” of money, the bills you owe, or the client you didn’t close and what that is costing you — you’ve got to turn this around really SOON. The more you stay in the energy of “not having” the more you will not have. I know this seems to be easier said than done — but its simply a shift in perception. If you don’t have any money right now, if things are super tight, then that is a sure symptom of a negative mindset around money.

11. Change What You Regularly Say To Yourself

In other words – STOP your self-sabotage. How many times have you thought “Maybe I should just get a job” or “People will discover I don’t know what I’m talking about”. That’s your subconscious scaring the hell out of you! Tell him or her to shut it up, and start changing what you say to yourself in front of others as well as in the dark.

12. Start Recognizing Gratitude

Do you wake up and write in a gratitude journal? Does that question make you chuckle? If so, that means you are probably living in a low feeling place. You wake up frustrated. Overwhelmed. Discouraged. Instead of joyful, enthusiastic, and optimistic. It’s important that you give recognition and be grateful for all that is RIGHT with you personally, your family, and your business.

13. Allow Yourself To Feel Especially During The Tough Times

Everyone has very different ways for how they handle the rollercoaster emotions that come when running a business. My husband gets very passionate about his business and gets very animated about it — especially during a challenge. I on the other hand would numb myself or escape with novels, television, outings with some of those “negative peeps” I talked about earlier. This of course did nothing to make me move forward and get past whatever the challenge was, so I had to make some shifts. And I realized that the first one was allowing myself to “feel” the emotions (whatever they be) and work through them and then get over to the other side and keep pushing.

14. Upgrade Yourself!

Remember Beyonce’s hit “Upgrade You”? Well it was all about upgrading her man to the finer things in life. Introducing him to new things. This is what you need to do for yourself. It’s crucial. In fact, I have a client who wants to start a new business in a very competitive market but she still stands in a long line, in a hot office, to pay her cable bill! That’s not living a “platinum” lifestyle. Why would anyone invest in you if you don’t invest in yourself? So where you can make upgrade changes to your lifestyle – do so. Grow! Experience! Permit yourself to treat yourself ROYALLY!

15. Let Go Of Resentments

Let go of the bad feelings for family members who wronged you, friends who betrayed you, or resentments of someone’s success. Holding onto those resentments is absolutely toxic, because it often leads to strong feelings of anger, frustration, fear, or unworthiness that get in your way. “Why did they treat me this way, I can’t understand it!?” or “I can’t stand that she’s a millionaire and has no talent!” (I hear that all the time about Kim Kardashian — but fail to understand why people are so mad.)

16. Let Go Of Other People’s Negative Perception Of You

When someone unsubscribes from your list, do you feel a little twinge of “awww”? And then do you read why they unsubscribed, which some experts recommend that you do, but for the most part I advise against and this is why…Too many people take those comments personally and then they interpret them as there is something wrong with them. Or their content. You have to let that go and realize that no one can determine who you are — only you. All you can do is be the best that you can be.

17. You Must Take Personal Responsibility

It’s easy to play the blame game when things go wrong, but when you do this you are putting the POWER of what will or will not be in the hands of someone other than yourself. You must realize that only YOU create the life that you have now and the one that you want to have with every decision and action you take. There is no big, dark “force” working against you and your business — you are the FORCE.

Okay, this was a really long post, and typically I would have advised to break this up into at least two articles — but I appreciate that you’ve made it down this far in the article:) Now I’d love for you to answer this question: What 2 mindset shifts will you implement starting today or tomorrow? Or are there any other shifts you’ve implemented that you’d like share?

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About two years ago, I worked with a client who wanted help with positioning himself as a go-to authority in his industry. He initially found me through an article I had written somewhere (as most of my clients do) and wanted me to basically perform miracles for him. Okay — I’m a miracle worker sometimes (dusting off my shoulders:), so I took on the challenge.

My first job was to take a look at his business and one of the first things that I took inventory of was the types of content he had created and in particular if he was creating content that resonated with his ideal clients. He wasn’t, and at first, he didn’t get it. He would occasionally write articles and publish them, but never with any purpose or rather enough purpose. Never strategically. He really just wrote what he thought was important for his ideal clients to know, titled them what he wanted,  and waited for them to come. They didn’t come.

And that’s my point here.

If you are going to spend your valuable time creating content such as articles, wouldn’t you like to make sure that they are working hard for you, and pulling more of your ideal clients towards you? Of course you do!

So here are a few points you should consider when sitting down to write an article this week. Think about your ideal client during this entire exercise – not yourself:

1. What is the point of this article? Is it to entertain your ideal clients? Am I solving a huge challenge for them?

2. Did I write this in a way that my ideal clients can understand and relate to? Am I using language that they use or am I talking above their heads or to the lowest common denominator.

3. Have previous clients asked you about this topic? That’s always a good indication that you will attract more ideal clients with content designed around the same topic.

4. Are you publishing the articles places where your ideal clients visit? Why are you guest posting at a home business site if your ideal clients are frustrated  and burned out CEO’s?

The key to filling your business with not just clients, but clients that you LOVE working with, is to ensure that you know who those ideal clients really are and that you create content that they are looking for. I’ll be talking more about how to create client attracting content like this in my upcoming teleclass, “The 5 Biggest Shifts You Must Make When Writing, Publishing & Marketing Articles That Attract Clients!” .  Register right now!Similar Posts:

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Do You Have Writers Block?

If you are an entrepreneur who shies away from writing articles because you struggle with writer’s block, do not waste your time trying to beat it by using traditional “writers block” books and courses out there. Those are typically written by fiction authors who are trying to help other fiction writers — and that’s a whole different animal!

Fiction authors typically write from a purely internal creative place. Entrepreneurs like us, need to also write from an external influence — and that’s solving the problems of our clients. When you write content that meets the needs of your clients, you will never run out of article ideas, that is article marketing 101. So when I work with new clients who tell me that they hate writing because it takes them hours to get just one article written — I know what the problem is immediately…

1. They have not identified their client’s problems and struggles.

2. They do not know how to talk to their ideal clients in a way that they will understand.

3. They have not clarified their marketing message.

And Really What All This Means Is That They Are Not Clear About Who Their Ideal Client Is. Are You?

The real struggle and the real block comes up when you start moving forward in marketing a business but aren’t 100% sure who you are talking to because you are wishing and hoping that everyone will see the value of what you do. You want anyone who will pay, and this is marketing from a place of “lack” and “desperation”. This is why you are blocked and this is how you can beat it…

Regardless Of How Sure You Think You Are,  Re-evaluate Who Your Ideal Clients Are And What Transformation You Provide For Them

Okay, I already see your eyes rolling up in your head:) But I want you to really consider what I’m asking you to do today. If you were really spot on about who you clients are, would you be struggling around idea generation?

So I today I want to get VERY specific. More than you ever have before. Ask yourself what they look like, how much money they make, what they do for a living, are they married or single, do they have children, what is their education level, where to they hang out, what social media to they use, what other sites to they visit,  and any other details you can think of.

Don’t waffle or waiver on this. If this is who your ideal clients is than that’s who they are and that’s who you should target. You cannot speak to EVERYONE. It is not effective nor authentic marketing by any stretch.

Now that you know who they are, it will be much easier for you to craft a marketing message that speaks to your ideal clients. If you are still blocked and can’t come up with 10-25 article ideas, my recommendation is to go back to the drawing board and do another exercise around getting clear about who your ideal clients are.

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Want To Refer To Scholarly Publications In Your Work?

Are you in a niche where you’d like to write content that references scholarly content from academic publishers, universities, professional societies, librarians and more? Using these types of references in your work can dramatically add to the credibility of your articles and they are easier to find than you may think. Simply use Google’s search engine for scholarly search: Google Scholar.

Want To Be Considered A Scholarly Resource?

If you are an educational professional, etc. and would like the content of your site to be considered as a resource for the Google Scholar search engine, here are the content guidelines straight from the horse’s mouth that you need to consider:

Content Guidelines

1. The content hosted on your website must consist primarily of scholarly articles – journal papers, conference papers, technical reports, or their drafts, dissertations, pre-prints, post-prints, or abstracts. Content such as news or magazine articles, book reviews, and editorials is not appropriate for Google Scholar. Documents larger than 5MB, such as books and long dissertations, should be uploaded to Google Book Search; Google Scholar automatically includes scholarly works from Google Book Search.
2. Users click through to your website to read your articles. To be included, your website must make either the full text of the articles or their complete author-written abstracts freely available and easy to see when users click on your URLs in Google search results. Your site must not require users (or search robots) to sign in, install special software, accept disclaimers, dismiss popup or interstitial advertisements, click on links or buttons, or scroll down the page before they can read the entire abstract of the paper. Sites that show login pages, error pages, or bare bibliographic data without abstracts will not be considered for inclusion and may be removed from Google Scholar.

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