While the Internet still retains some of the “wild wild west” feel, increasingly, Internet activity, and particularly blogging, is being shaped and governed by state and federal laws.

For US bloggers in particular, blogging has become a landmine of potential legal issues but many of the US laws apply to bloggers globally. For example if your blog readers are in the US then you need to abide by the latest Federal Trade Commission (FTC) rules no matter where you live.

In this article we highlight five of the most important US laws when it comes to blogging and provide some simple and straightforward tips for safely navigating them.

5 Blogging Legal Issues

1. Paid Posts

Over the last five years bloggers have begun to displace traditional media outlets as individuals’ source for reliable information and recommendations. This development has created big opportunities for advertisers to get bloggers to endorse a product or service, primarily through posts or affiliate links.

The Federal Trade Commission published a recommendation that companies who promote their product through word-of-mouth marketing must disclose these relationships. The recommendation applies explicitly to blogging, meaning that bloggers must disclose the fact that they are being paid to promote or review a product whenever that is the case.

Take Action

If you are paid to promote a product or if you write about a product, make that clear to your readers. Add a sentence at the beginning or end of the post saying something like: “This post was sponsored by XYZ”, “I was sent this product by XYZ” or “I was a guest of XYZ”.

2. Deep Linking

One of the biggest advantages that blogging has over traditional media is the convention to include links in an article which connect the reader directly with the source. The links could direct the reader to a file, a different page on the same site or to a new site altogether.

Deep linking involves a blogger who places a link on his site that leads not to the front door of a site, but instead to a particular page within that site.

Currently, there is no law that explicitly bans all deep linking to content you do not own. However, courts have declared that individual deep links are in violation of state law if they are not cited correctly. Thus, it is clear that passing off someone else’s work as your own by linking to a site in a manner in which it appears that the linked to content is a part of your site, is considered copyright infringement and it violates state laws that govern competitive business practices. But, it also appears that if you make it clear that the deep link you are providing isn’t to your own site then you are in the clear.

Take Action

Review the links you have used in the past and ensure that they are cited correctly. When in doubt, make it completely clear that the deep link you have provided isn’t to your own site.

3. Images and Thumbnails

Images are an important way to make your posts visually more appealing and to keep the readers interested and engaged. Often, rather than creating the images they use themselves, bloggers simply use other images that they find or purchase online. Because of the obvious copyright issues with just copy and pasting someone else’s picture from their site to yours without permission, bloggers have come up with an alternative technique for using the images of others with thumbnails.

With image links, courts are concerned both with copyright infringement and trademark infringement, which in simple terms means they want to stop bloggers from passing off someone else’s name or trademark as their own.

The law on thumbnails is a bit clearer. As long as you are actually creating thumbnails, which have standardized dimensions, and aren’t just reducing the size of an image slightly, a US Circuit court has held that thumbnailing is protected under the fair use exception of Copyright Law.

Take Action

Review any images you have used and ensure that you have actually created thumbnails, as opposed to slightly reducing the image.

4. Domain Name Trademark Issues

If you’re just starting out as a blogger, chances are you don’t have a trademark yet. However, large corporations do. If you’ve registered a domain name that a trademarked entity can lay claim to, you may have to give it up.

Never register a domain in the name of an existing trademark. The days of profitable cyber squatting are long gone, and attempting to do so today will only cost you time and money.

Take Action

One of the best ways to do a free check is to simply do a search engine search for the name of the domain you want to use as well as some common variations.

5. Blog Comments and Liability

For those of you who have opened your sites up to user-driven content, be it comments, reviews, or a bulletin board, you may have had to deal with finding slanderous, libelous, copyright infringing, or just plain hateful speech content on your site. Even though you as the webmaster didn’t have anything to do with the content, people inevitably look to you to fix the problem or even to blame when someone gets hurt.

The law was designed to encourage free speech by allowing ISP’s, bloggers, and message board webmasters to focus on building participation rather than on the potential liability of getting sued for some user’s crimes. But while it protects bloggers from things like having to monitor for defamation, slander or hurtful talk, the law does not provide protection for federal crimes or intellectual property violations, meaning that you can potentially be found liable if this type of behavior takes place on your site.

Take Action

Monitor your blog comments and any other content created by your readers then delete content you’re not comfortable with.

As a final note, and to make sure we all avoid legal problems, do not rely on this information as legal advice, nor as a recommendation or endorsement of any particular legal understanding.

You should instead regard this article as intended for entertainment purposes only. It probably won’t make you laugh but hopefully it will help you enjoy that crazy wild west feel of blogging and stay on the right side of the law.

Guest post by Yo Noguchi

Yo Noguchi is an experienced freelancer, guest blogger, and frequent contributor to a blog hosted by Benchmark Email, one of the world’s global provider of email templates.

Photo credit: Beijing Patrol

Blogging outposts are all those other places bloggers can hang out to meet new people and connect with new readers. There are hundreds of them but these are a few I use: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, StumbledUpon, Instagram and LinkedIn.

Social media outposts like these and Tumblr can help drive traffic to your blog and help your readers spread the word about it. There’s a ripple effect every time you write a blog post and share it on your social media outposts as you can see in this image I made for a presentation.

As the image shows your blog is the heart of your business which drives new leads and clients to you.

Outposts are places where you have a presence but you do not own those sites. They are important but less important than your blog. that’s because you do not own Facebook and you cannot control what happens there. It is even possible that your Facebook page could be shut down if it is accidentally reported.

So while your main focus is your blog you will also be spending time on your social media outposts.

These outposts are sites where I make my blog stronger by:

• adding content or micro-blogging;
• asking for feedback;
• sharing my expertise;
• talking to readers;
• making new relationships and nurturing old ones;
• having fun.

As you can see it’s not just about getting traffic, it’s about offering your community multiple ways to stay in touch with you.

Remember that there are other outposts too like forums or other blogs where you are commenting regularly and adding value to the community.

At the very least you should set up a Twitter account and Facebook page to your blog which automatically updates with the RSS feed of your latest blog post. I use Hootsuite to manage Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn from one place and also schedule in advance.

Better yet get social media smart, consider your Twitter tactics and start playing around on your outposts. Make sure they are in keeping with your branding, enjoy making new connections and wait for the ripple effect to kick in.

And who knows, maybe I’ll see you on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn soon?

Happy Blogging Until Next Time

Blogging Tips A-Z runs every Sunday (or Monday if you’re in Australia). It’s a quick start guide for new bloggers and a refresher course for bloggers who want to stay motivated and inspired. Subscribe now by email or RSS feed so you don’t miss out.

Please leave your comments and questions below – I’ll answer them there or in a separate blog post.

Need more blogging help? Check out my workbook and audio book Successful Blogging in 12 Simple Steps. Click here to find out more.

It’s not just product creation that’s hard, product pricing is tough too but it’s something you need to get right if you want to get buyers and increase your bottom line.

• How much should you sell your product for?
• How can you increase your profits from the product without creating much more work?
• How can you offer your clients the type of product they really want?

These are the main questions entrepreneurs will be asking before they launch their product and my experiences and experiments have helped me come up with some interesting answers on product pricing.

When I was launching my book Successful Blogging in 12 Simple Steps I was studying The Empire Building Kit, an 356 day email course, by Chris Guillebeau which was the precursor to his brand new book The $100 Startup.

Many of Guillebeau’s tips inspired and helped me while I was creating and launching my ebook but one tip stands out more than any other. That’s the recommendation to offer your buyers three price points on a product: low cost, medium cost and high cost. The theory is that most people will buy the medium priced product so your challenge as an entrepreneur is to work out how to create an up-sell of your basic product.

I decided to try it but wondered how I could create three separate pricing options for an ebook. Then I noticed from comments on other people’s ebooks that an audio version was commonly requested.

I never listen to books but it looked as if a lot of people did, whether they wanted to listen in their car, on the commute to work or while out exercising I didn’t know, but I determined to provide an audio version of my ebook for those who preferred to listen instead of read.

So I created three packages for my ebook:

Low Cost – Hot Package – $29
For the ebook self-study course plus a bonus chapter on motivation because, even if people were only buying the ebook, I still wanted to offer them a bonus and make sure they stuck with blogging.

Medium Cost – Super Hot Package – $39
For the ebook self-study course plus a bonus chapter on motivation, 5+ blog case studies and an audiobook recording.

High Cost – Super Hot Consultation Package – S499
I priced this very high as the main aim was not to sell this but to provide a third and more expensive package which would encourage more people to the medium priced package.

Then I launched my ebook a few years ago and waited to see what happened.

Lo and behold the up-sale of the ebook and audio book, the Super Hot Package, at a $10 higher price represented around 80% of all sales.

I’ll never know if that was because people wanted to listen to the audio book, wanted to get the blog case studies or just didn’t want to buy the lowest priced product. Which ever way you look at it the product pricing tip helped me and helped readers too by offering them an alternative format to reading the book.

Please note I didn’t create the audio book myself. I hired a professional voice-over artist to record it and supply me with the files all for under $500 so there was no time investment on my part.

The small financial investment in paying for a professional voice-over artist paid for itself many times over, created a quality product I am be proud of and provided added value to the small business owners and creative types I help.

Finally, Guillebeau recommends you include a guarantee  on your product sales page. Here’s mine:

“Satisfaction Guaranteed

I guarantee this course will save you time and make your blogging experience more successful and enjoyable. If you’re not 100% satisfied there’s a 90 day money back guarantee. Please note: to give you time to try the course no returns within the first 30 days.”

In two years only one person has asked for a refund and that was a self-described “social media expert” who has a Twitter account with a few thousand followers but no blog. I gave a full refund immediately and when I asked why she wasn’t happy with my book she said:

“I already knew it all.”

If you know it all already that’s great, but if you don’t and you need help getting your business off to a flying start then read The $100 Startup. Chris Guillbeau’s business tips helped me and I know they will help you too.

You can buy The $100 Start Up book on Amazon here: The $100 Startup: Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love, and Create a New Future or look for it in a book store near you.

What’s the best business tip you’ve ever actioned?

It’s not what you know it’s who you know so let’s look at how you can use that to your advantage.

Networking is essential to build those blogging contacts and help take your brand further. You need to produce high quality content to make sure people want to recommend your blog or products and work with you but, all else being equal, the final choice will usually come down to contacts – who knows who. Or in other words who’s better at networking.

The good news is that there’s never been a better time to make those contacts because now you can network across the continents and the time zones. Social media has made networking easier than ever so here’s how you can take advantage of that to make sure you have strong networks in place to call on when you need them.

How to Get Noticed by Influencers and Your Peers

1. Read their blogs and follow them on Facebook, Twitter or wherever you both spend time.

Popular bloggers and social media figures get hundreds of people clamoring for their attention every day but they can spot genuine fans easily and you’ll need to be one.

Pick and choose who you want to engage with then read their blog and follow them on Twitter so you know where they live, who with and what they eat for tea.

That way you can engage them in conversation without asking the same boring questions everyone else does and show your respect with your personal insights.

2. Engage them

Let them know you’re a genuine fan of their work by leaving a comment and sharing their blog posts on Twitter, Facebook or Google+.

3. Write about them and link to their blog.

This is guaranteed to get someone’s attention and endear you to them.

If you mention someone on your blog or write a whole post about them, send them a little tweet saying you inspired them to write about them and see what happens. Maybe one of your heroes will even leave a comment on your blog. I got quite excited when marketing genius Seth Godin commented on my blog and we exchanged emails too.

A short interview or book review is always a good starting point. If you can’t write a whole post about them a Twitter recommendation is good to:

“LOVE these tips on [niche] by @bigbloggersnamehere” – Don’t forget to link to their blog too.

4. Use their first name.

If you email someone do use their first name so they know you’re not sending the same thing to zillions of people. Even better add some other personal information that let’s them know you’re paying special attention to them such as:

“Hope you’re keeping warm in New York this winter.”

5. Be brief and appreciative.

When you email social media influencers or anyone else keep it short. Five lines should do the trick. Anything more will make their eyes glaze over.

Be clear about why you’re emailing them. If you’ve now built a genuine relationship and helped them out whenever you could you might be ready to ask them to do you a favor in return. For example:

“I’ve written a new ebook about haircare (attached) which I think will interest you and your readers. If you like it I’d love if you tweet about it or review it on your site. I really appreciate your support.”

6. Take it offline.

Meeting people face to face builds relationships faster so it’s worth investing in attending blogging events from big events like BlogWorld to small free tweet ups.

You can also attend other people’s networking events in your area or start your own. Meet Up is a great place to look for people in your area or be proactive and start your own group. Check out the Queensland Bloggers Meet Up group I started here. Remember to join now if you’re in Australia and would like to meet me sometime.

7. Keep at it.

It takes time to build strong networks and friendships. Keep repeating these steps for months or years and you should build up strong network of bloggers, both big and small, who will be willing to help you out.

If you’re a hot blogger, a source of top content and a cool cat they’ll be as happy to hear from you as you would be to hear from them.

The best way to get noticed by social media influencers is to stop gagging for their attention, start paying attention to what they do and give them your full attention.

Finally remember that networking is about meeting people and having fun. If you do that you can be sure that you not only know your stuff but you know the right people too.

Happy Blogging Until Next Time

Blogging Tips A-Z runs every Sunday (or Monday if you’re in Australia). It’s a quick start guide for new bloggers and a refresher course for bloggers who want to stay motivated and inspired. Subscribe now by email or RSS feed so you don’t miss out.

Please leave your comments and questions below – I’ll answer them there or in a separate blog post.

Need more blogging help? Check out my workbook and audio book Successful Blogging in 12 Simple Steps for a fast, effective guide to taking your blog to the next level.

Do you dream of making money from your blog? Would you like to monetize your passion and turn your hobby into a viable business which allows you to work from home and be your own boss?

If you’re providing value to your readers monetising your blog should be a possibility, not a pipe dream.

We’ll look at the four most common ways of monetising a blog including the best and worst ways as well as why you should look into all of them if you want to succeed.

Blog Monetization Options

1. Selling Your Business Services

This is the most accessible way for people to make money from blogging which is why the focus of my blogging advice is to help business owners and writers market their services or products.

Using your blog to market your freelance or small business is the most realistic way to make money from blogging, although you might not be able to track your income directly unless people buy direct from your blog.

I sell my web design, blog design, consultation and copywriting services through my blog. I don’t give my readers the hard sell but I have found many new clients through my blog. Or rather, they’ve found me.

I have my own web design business in New Zealand for 10 years and found that I could never get a job unless I met the client face-to-face. Blogging has solved the problem for me and helped me make a real connection with clients all over the world which is fantastic especially if, like me, you don’t live in a large city.

2. Selling Your Own Products

If people like your blog you can then create your own products related to your niche and sell them. Most blog readers are happy to pay for quality products.

This can bring in an additional income stream and in time, as your blog grows you can choose to focus more on that if you wish.

I sell my blogging ebook here. Electronic products like ebooks, video courses or podcasts are easy to sell online because there’s no shipping involved, but you can also sell other products like these t-shirts I created for my travel blog.

Print on demand services such as Red Bubble can organise and ship stickers, posters, clothing and many more items direct to your buyers which is perfect for creative business owners. It’s up to you to decide how much markup you want to put on the items and how much profit you want to turn.

As your business grows you can expand your product range and you may want to consider paid webinars or private membership sites. Anything with a recurring monthly payment can provide a valuable income stream.

3. Affiliate Reselling

If you’re an affiliate reseller for a product you get a payment everytime someone uses your link and buys a product you’ve mentioned on Twitter, Facebook or on your blog. You can find out more about putting affiliate links on your blog here.

I recommend a handful of products I believe in and know might help my readers such as the Thesis WordPress theme. Make sure you stick to related products you really recommend and always provide full disclosure which is a legal requirement.

This is an additional income stream for me, not a primary source of income which works better here than on my travel blog where there are fewer affiliate products worth recommending. It only works if you consider your readers first and money second.

4. Advertising and Sponsorship

This is the worst of blog monetisation option because you need to have blog traffic before you can monetize your blog by selling advertising and get interest from advertisers. It takes a long time to build blog traffic so this probably isn’t a viable option unless you have endless time on your hands and don’t need an income right now.

Be warned that if your blog traffic doesn’t grow to over 10,000 readers per month you may never be able to exploit this income revenue, however, if you can build up good readership advertising can turn into a useful income stream.

Advertising agencies like NuffNang (for Asia), BlogHer, Federated Media, RocketFuel or Google Ad networks, can help you find advertisers and cut out a lot of the work. Of course they will also take a cut of your profit but that’s fine as long as you are getting a reasonable income.in

If you’d prefer to cut out the middle man you can find advertisers by seeing what brands are advertising on other blogs or targetting blogs or blog readers then approaching them directly.

Create a professional media kit which includes site statistics, reader demographics and information about who you are and why brands should be interested in working with you. Do some research on rates for other blogs or websites with similar traffic and choose your rates carefully. Be prepared to negotiate but don’t sell yourself cheap. I set my rate high as my brand is a quality brand so I’d prefer to work with fewer brands and higher quality products.

Finally, choose only advertisers that are a good fit for your blog and your readers.

When you write sponsored blog posts write in your normal tone, be honest and enthusiastic, not fake, use lots of photos which advertisers love and only write sponsored posts for products you’d buy or use.

3 Golden Rules of Blog Monetisation

1. Diversify – If you want to make a full-time living out of blogging you will need to diversify and use more than one of these approaches.

2. Experiment -You’ll have to play around to see what works and what doesn’t work, to see what is your readers want to buy and what doesn’t interest them.

3. Persevere – As time goes on and your blog grows you should be able to slowly increase your blogging income.

It won’t happen overnight but it can happen. Read the success stories, allow yourself to be motivated and inspired by them and give yourself time to work out the best blog monetisation options for you.

Need more blogging help? Check out my workbook and audio book Successful Blogging in 12 Simple Steps. Click here to find out more.

“A steep learning curve is when you have tons to learn and you need to get it it figured out soon, and that’s not easy for anyone I’ve ever met. And that is, in my experience, very much what a new blogger faces.”
Sonia Simone, Copyblogger

That’s a comment Sonia left on my post The 8 Habits of Highly Effective Bloggers in which I wrote the fourth habit of effective bloggers is continued learning and getting over the learning curve.

There was some controversy in the comments about what I described as a “steep learning curve”:

“4. Effective bloggers are lifelong learners

If you’re new to blogging, you’re probably on a steep learning curve at the moment.

Maybe you tell yourself that things will get better when you’ve been doing it longer. There won’t be so much to learn. You’ll have systems in place soon and everything will run smoothly.

Sadly, this is a myth. I’ve been using and designing for the Internet for about 15 years, and it keeps changing. Just when you’ve got one element sorted out, something new gets released. Or becomes obsolete. Or mutates in 20 different directions.

If you want to stay ahead in blogging, you have to keep learning.

Fortunately, being curious and wanting to learn keeps you young and your brain active. A love of learning doesn’t just set you up for a successful blog, but for a successful and happy life.”

Whatever existing knowledge you do or don’t currently possess, one thing is inevitable when it comes to effective blogging: you will reach plateaus that you feel you won’t be able to get over but you can.

The way to get over those humps and through those plateaus is to keep blogging, keep learning and keep applying new techniques that work for you.

Have you got over any blogging learning humps lately? I just bought my first mobile phone (true!) so I can use Instagram so I’m learning about that and iPhones now.

Need more blogging help? Check out my workbook and audio book Successful Blogging in 12 Simple Steps.

There are more than one billion blogs worldwide so about one in six people have a blog. Many are hobby blogs, folks who write about gardening, antique collecting and needlepointing, for example. Some blogs have an established business behind them. Other blogs try to rally support or awareness around a cause.

I’ve been blogging for more than four years and have read hundreds of these blogs. After landing on one, I get an immediate sense if the blog has quality, integrity and character by what is written. I’ve found that good writing isn’t related to how long the blog has been around, or how many subscribers it has, good writing is related to one simple component – passion.

While proper sentence structure, good grammar and mistake-free spelling can improve the experience around how a blog post is read, the best way to deliver a message is by allowing passion to leap off the page and into the reader’s mind, heart and soul.

One advantage of blogging for a long time and writing my first book, Saying Yes to Change: 10 Timeless Life Lessons for Creating Positive Change is I’ve found my voice. I don’t hold back; I’m vulnerable and I share parts of my life so my readers won’t feel alone with their thoughts or feelings.

Writing with passion has helped me claim my spot in the blogging world because it has separated my blog, for the better, from millions of over blogs. Three posts that reflect the passion I try to put into every article are My Brother’s Keeper: A Journey Into Healing, The Point of Being Human and Confessions from a Recovering Father.

How to Write With Passion

Here are two strategies that will inject a little more passion into your writing style if you want your blog to stand above the rest:

1. Blog about what you know

As mentioned earlier, there are blogs on every topic. If you are a gardener and blog about gardening, you can do it with passion. Write about why gardens are important; how flowers can inspire someone, or the feeling of digging your hands into the cool, rich heart.

Start with what you know and then offer a depth of feeling and emotion about how you feel about the topic Go beyond the mechanics of what your do and to that deeper place of how your hobby, interest or talent stirs your soul.

2. Be comfortable with being transparent

The purpose behind my transparent approach is to provide a properly-sized window into my life so others can see their lives in the reflection of the window’s glass. Often we feel like we are alone with our thoughts, feelings or fears. But by being honest with how I feel, may give someone the encouragement to be honest with their feelings, too.

I do guard about being too open. Before I publish a piece of writing so it must pass the Emily test. Emily is my 13-year-old daughter. I consider how she would react to my writing; if it would make her feel uncomfortable, embarrassed, etc. I’m mindful that my book, and blog, is mine and although my family is incredibly supportive, I respect their privacy.

Writing with passion has less to do with technique and more to do with having something to say and then using your blog as platform for your message, and your voice – your inspiring, passionate voice.

What topics can you write about with passion?

This is a guest post by Alex Blackwell.

Alex is the Founder of The BridgeMaker. His first book, Saying Yes to Change: 10 Timeless Life Lessons for Creating Positive Change is now available on Amazon check it out here. Connect with Alex on Facebook.

Photo credit: John Nolan

Editor’s Note: The Only 72 Sale is over now but you can buy The $100 Start Up book on Amazon here: The $100 Startup: Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love, and Create a New Future.

I don’t promote much here, apart from my own self-study course and workbook Successful Blogging in 12 Simple Steps, but  now and then something brilliant comes up that I want to share with you because it’s either a great product or a great deal.

Like right now because, for a short period only, you can get some great products AND a great deal on them too as Only72.com is having another sale.

It’s called the $100 Start Up sale which includes over $1,000 in business courses as well as a hard copy of Chris Guillebeau’s new book The $100 Start Up.

I’m reading The $100 Start Up myself and loving it.

I’ve already done Chris Guillbeau’s course The Empire Building Kit, so I’m familiar with many of his ideas and principles for launching a business and growing it, but I’m appreciating the refresher course.

Reading The $100 Start Up is giving me added motivation to keep improving my business and the fantastic stories about entrepreneurs who’ve turned their passion into successful, lucrative businesses are inspiring.

Guillebeau’s a great writer who never fails to make me to want to achieve more both personally and professionally so I’d recommend you read The $100 Start Up too if you want to learn more about starting and growing a successful business.

If you take advantage of this Only72 $100 Start Up sale a print copy of The $100 Start Up will be delivered to you anywhere in the world free of charge which is pretty amazing. Click here to check it out now.

What’s Only 72 and The $100 Start Up Sale?

It offers:

• $1,000 in the best business courses, ebooks, and digital downloads.
• A hard copy of The $100 Start Up delivered to your home or office.
• 90% off the for 72 hours only (hence the name!) so you get the package for just $100.

When is it?

It’s on now:

From Monday, April 30th at exactly Noon EST. Ends next Thursday at Noon EST.

In Australia? It’s starts 3am Tuesday, April 31 AEST. Ends Friday, April 4 at 3am AEST.

What’s Included?

1. Better Blogging ($137 in value) by Corbett Barr and Susannah Conway.

2. Passion-based Business ($137 in value) by Jonathan Mead and Scott Dinsmore.

3. Freelancing ($167 in value) by Ashley Ambirge and Men With Pens.

4. Confidence & Courage ($129 in value) by Johnny B. Truant and Marianne Elliot.

5. Selling & Advertising ($144 in value) by Pam Slim and David Risley.

6. Technology & Systems ($171 in value) by Joshua Kaufman, Free The Apps and Brett Kelly.

8. Artists & Writers ($131) by Alyson Stanfield and Chris Guillebeau.

9. Chris Guillebeau’s brand-new book, The $100 Startup shipping anywhere for free.

Editor’s Note: The Only 72 Sale is over now but you can buy The $100 Start Up book on Amazon here: The $100 Startup: Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love, and Create a New Future.

To be notified next time Only72 have a sale click here.

I’ll be back with more blogging tips soon.

Until then, happy blogging!

Are you a life long learner? Blogging offers a fantastic opportunity to learn about your business, online marketing and much more.

So many small business owners and creative types are put off blogging because of the steep learning curve. It’s true there’s a lot to learn and that there are always new things to be learnt but you should see that as an advantage not a disadvantage of blogging. No one wants to be a dinosaur.

You shouldn’t get discouraged by how much you don’t know about blogging but rather think about how much you do know already.

We all have to start somewhere with anything and just starting a blog is the best way to increase your knowledge about the topic.

Since I started blogging about three years ago I’ve learned so much, not just about blogging but also about my business, about social media marketing and about online communications. All topics I knew a lot about already because I’ve been running my own web design business for 13 years.

Then there are are all the things that I didn’t really want to learn but had to. Like how to work the back end of WordPress (it’s not hard), how to use widgets and what plug-ins will help me blog better and faster (Akismet for handling blog comments and the blog editorial calendar are life savers).

These are just a few of the things I’ve learnt from blogging:

1. Blogging is a highly cost-effective and effective way to market your business.

2. If you dare to share your creative work and your passion online amazing opportunities will come to you because of that.

3. Your personality and personal story will make people want to work with you more than your qualifications and work experience.

4. Networking is easy with social media.

5. It pays (literally) to experiment and have fun with your business.

6. Blogging can enable you to add more products and services to your business, to diversify and to increase your income.

7. Blogging improves your mind, makes you more creative and increases your bottom line.

If you’d like to carry on learning about blogging and increase your knowledge here are 11 links to some of the most useful blog posts on Successful Blogging.

These articles answer some of the most common blogging questions and solve the most annoying blogging problems:

1. Free Blogging Tools
2. Launching a Blog
3. Overcoming Fear
4. Getting Noticed
5. Blog Post Length
6. Guest Blogging
7. Search Engine Optimisation
8. Blog Content Ideas
9. Blogging Schedule
10. Blog Writing Tips
11. Affiliate Selling

That should keep you busy until next time and hopefully reading this will inspire you to start blogging, stick with it and achieve your goals.

But first take a moment to congratulate yourself for being a life long learner. Not everyone keeps building their knowledge and bettering themselves. You are and it’s great to have you on our team.

PS. Look out for a post tomorrow about a business marketing course and book sale. Subscribe by email now so you don’t miss it.

Happy Blogging Until Next Time

Just leave your comments and questions below – I’ll answer them there or in a separate blog post.

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12 months ago I wrote a post a post by the same name about how I was struggling to keep up with the demands on my time and working far too hard.

One reader commented that they almost cried when they read that post and I sometimes feel like crying too because, although I’ve made changes since then, I still work long and crazy hours. For example, I am writing this on a Saturday in the middle of a long weekend while my husband and children are away camping.

You can read the original post here but this is a recap of the demands on my time:

• Writing and maintaining two blogs – Successful Blogging and Get In the Hot Spot;
• Running my web design and copywriting business Mucho;
• Managing a large house;
• Three active, hungry and intelligent children who deserve more fun time with their mummy;
• The Mucho Man. My husband is more of  a help than a demand on my time so it would be good to spend more fun time with him too.

But Wait, There’s More!

Just to add to the excitement this year I announced here that I want to write and publish my travel book.

I started blogging three years ago so I could write a book and now I have the sought after platform but no time to complete, or even start my book. It’s already April and I haven’t done any dedicated writing for the book yet.

I am also running an intense three week series of blogging talks close to where I live as a continuation of my personal challenge to do more public speaking and make sure I’m as well known in my local area as I am in North America where many of my lovely readers are.

Recently I was invited to be a World Vision ambassador. I couldn’t resist that because it’s a cause that’s close to my heart and it’s a privilege for me to use any influence I have for social good. For example, did you know there’s a food crisis in Niger right now? You can read about that and how bloggers are helping here on the World Vision site.

Then here at the beginning of the year I got invited on a press trip to Japan for travel writers. That was the first press trip I’d ever been asked to go on but since then I’ve been invited on three more international press trips and have accepted Tourism Canada’s invitation to go make my first visit to Canada.

I can’t wait to see Vancouver, the Yukon, Banff and Calgary. Sorry Hong Kong and France I can’t fit you in right now but I really appreciate your kind invitation and hopefully I’ll get to visit you another time.

As I travel writer and lover I get very excited about overseas trips and these press trip invites are an indication that my travel blog Get In the Hot Spot is respected and that brands want to get featured on it to connect with my 20,000 plus monthly readers.

But sadly press trips don’t pay. In fact, they create extra strain because they involve hectic schedules so I can’t work while I’m away and I’m forced to play catch up when I get home under added pressure to write about my trip fast and as often as I can.

Plus of course there’s guilt about being away from my children and leaving my husband with a lot more work on his hands.

Blogging Success Vs. Blogging Victim

It’s complicated because blogging has made a successful writer and blogger.

It has taken me from being a timid writer and copywriter who never dared tell anyone she was a writer to a confident writer and global brand with readers all over the world.

Blogging has even got me dream writing jobs like being well paid to have a massage and write about it, as well as the travel opportunities which are just starting to materialize.

1. Started deleting emails that won’t help me earn money, learn something new or have fun.

I’m talking about the hundreds of emails I get each week from search engine companies, content marketing companies and PR companies who want me to write about them, their business or their products. If I had a dollar for everyone who asked me to review their app I’d be laughing.

2. Stopped giving free advice on how to win business online.

When I get an email from someone who wants help I recommend that reading my book or booking a consultation with me is the best way to move forward. Book sales of Succcessful Blogging in 12 Simple Steps and bookings for consultations have increased which is brilliant because I love working personally with other writers and small business owners and that way everyone wins.

3. Asked for help.

I’m working on getting the kids to help more around the house and household duties are now shared evenly with my husband. Yes, three cheers for the Mucho Man who does most of the cleaning in the Candy house.

4. I take time for myself.

I rely on time alone and exercise to keep me healthy and happy so I power walk on the beach every other day, do light weights and stretching on the other days and go to a weekly boxing class.

5. Perfect lifestyle for me.

I live in beautiful Noosa in Australia and work from home. I don’t waste any time commuting and when I want to get out in nature (another lifeline for me) I just have to step outside. We go to the beach or for a walk as a family about four times  a week.

What I’m Working on Improving

1. Focus

With these myriad and varying demands my thinking is often scattered. After reading Uncertainty I decided to stop thinking about meditating and actually do it. I’ve been to a meditation course, downloaded guided mediation podcasts and am practicing daily.

2. Deleting more emails

This sounds harsh but I don’t delete as many emails as I should. I’m a social person and I like helping people so it’s hard for me to put up that barrier and accept that to protect myself and my family I can’t help everyone on the planet.

3. Productivity

I’ve been writing more blog posts this year but I still don’t think I write as much as I could.

I currently rate my productivity level at around 60% and would like to increase that to 90% with the other 10% of my time dedicated to reading other blogs or hanging out on social media. It’s hard to class that as productive but it’s an important and enjoyable part of my job.

4. Delegating

I know I’m missing out on blog advertising and sponsorship opportunities because I don’t have time to actively pursue them and I don’t like the idea of working with a blog advertising agency who may not have my reader’s best interests at heart. But I’ll probably have to go that way soon. I can’t do everything and some things are best delegated to others.

5. Getting help

I don’t have an assistant and when someone asked if they could be my intern I deleted their email because I don’t like the idea of someone working for me without getting paid. But at some point I’ll have to start looking for someone to help me with tasks that can be delegated and that person will be able to learn a lot from me so it should be a mutually beneficial relationship.

What Success Means to Me

Lest you feel sorry for me let me confess now that our business is growing and I took six wonderful weeks off work over December and January while my kids were on holiday.

While my press trip to Japan was very full on it, was also heaps of fun and I’m looking forward to flight-seeing, hiking, horse-riding, wildlife spotting and much more in Canada.

I’m also slowly racking up air miles points so I can take a well-earned holiday with the Candy family sometime soon.

I’ve always been the type that likes to work intensely then do nothing. That suits me.

But I need to stop wasting time so the essential  jobs can be done within school hours and I can spend more time relaxing.

That way, in 12 months time, I can update this post for the third time with even better news and even a few tears of joy.

What does success mean to you? How do you balance work and play? What are you doing right and what do you need to work on?