Well… that’s partially my personality, and it’s partially because there weren’t many people out there to follow when I first got started online. That is no longer the case… at all.

You may know I recently switched up my business model. The biggest thing I had to adjust to was being part of a team. Being accountable to other people, celebrating with others, and just plain old leaning on other people. After all these years of stoic aloneness… it was VERY hard for me to adjust to being part of a team, and having a system to follow.

Here’s the deal…. there are people who came before me… they have lots of talent and have been very successful. In fact, they are marketing masters and have created and fine tuned a system I can use! However, being the stubborn internet marketer I am, I went rogue… figured I could do it better, different, my way. I ended up wasting a lot of time… well not a huge amount of time in the scheme of things, but a month or so…

Then I looked around at what other people were doing, and saw they were succeeding. I look at what I was doing, and I wasn’t. I then looked at what they were doing that I was not… they were following the system.

So… at the beginning of  January I decided hell or high water I was just going to do what I was told. I was going to follow the system! Guess what?! It worked! I connected with new people, and my team grew, and I got my first promotion which basically doubled my income. WOOT!!

So, what’s the moral of this story if you’re a blogger or an affiliate marketer?

Follow a system. My business is not the only business model that has a system. There are systems for EVERY business model! The thing is, and it definitely has been for me in the past… I keep thinking I’m missing something. So I keep going out there looking for that thing I’m missing, that thing that’s going to “work better”… only to end up wasting a lot of time, effort and ultimately money.

So… where do you find a system? 

It depends on what you’re doing. The first thing in finding a system is get clear on what you’re doing. If you’re going to be an affiliate marketer… you’ll need an affiliate marketing system. If you’re a blogger, you’re going to need a blogging system. If you’re not clear on what you want to do though… it’s going to be impossible for you to find the right system.

Once you’ve gotten clear about that… here’s some systems I recommend.

Affiliate marketing ~ Super Affiliate Handbook. It’s hands down the best guide and system to creating an affiliate income. (BTW ~ it’s still on HUGE sale… down from $97 to $27 ~ which is a COMPLETE STEAL).

Blogging ~ Start a blog that matters. If you want to learn how to create a profitable blog that matters there’s no one better to learn from than Corbett Barr ~ and the folks over at ThinkTraffic.net

Those are the two resources I’d recommend over all others… if you’re ready to settle down, get your feet under you, and start making money ~ stop trying to do it alone. Get a system and work the system.

If you’ve given up on mainstream “internet marketing” and you want to try something new ~ join me! I’ve got a great system that works and an amazing team standing behind us! Message me on Facebook! Let’s talk!

If there’s one thing you learn this year… please, please, please realize you’ve got to stop trying new things all the time… choose a system and follow it!

Related posts:

1. Passive Income Means Money While I Sleep, Right?
2. Aim Higher Dammit.
3. Do You Know What to Do Today?

When I say that I mean I feel uncomfortable posting something about watching the Bachelor, or Grey’s Anatomy on Facebook, and yet I can have an hour long conversation about it, back and forth with a bunch of people on Twitter.

The interesting thing about this conversation was the person I was talking to felt the exact OPPOSITE. To her, Facebook was the cocktail party and Twitter was all business.

Either way… it works ~ the point is to get some clarity around what part each site plays in your marketing and your business.

So today, let’s talk about twitter. I’ve talked about creating connections on twitter, and how to provide great content on twitter so I’m not going to talk about those things today. What  I do want to talk about is twitter chats, and how you can use them to build your brand and your network.

What is a twitter chat ~ aka Twitter Party

A twitter chat or twitter party is a conversation at a designated time about a designated topic.  What’s really amazing is there are twitter chats about EVERYTHING… literally EVERYTHING!! Which means you can find a twitter chat related or relevant to your niche to participate in.

How does a twitter chat work?

It depends on the chat, but generally it’s just a conversation with a bunch of people about a specific topic. You just participate in the conversation. However, so everyone can see you’re participating you’ll want to add the chat’s hashtag to the end of your tweet.

How do I follow the conversation?

Following a twitter chat can be very overwhelming the first couple times you try! First of all you’ll need to know the hashtag. For example, Blog Chat is supposedly the BIGGEST twitter chat on the web. It’s run by Mack Collier at 9pm Eastern on Sunday nights. The hash tag is #blogchat.

So on Sunday night you can do a couple things to follow and participate in this chat. You could use tweetchat.com  which is a site built for following twitter chats. You simply put your hashtag in at the top of the site and it will start pulling in the whole conversation. You can reply and participate directly from this site. This is probably the easiest way to follow a chat. You could also use tweetdeck and set up a column using a search for the hashtag ~ then you can follow the conversation and participate via tweetdeck. Either way works. Just remember to add the hashtag after your comment so people will see it.

What’s the point? 

Participating in a twitter chat gives you an amazing opportunity to meet and connect with other people in your niche, possible clients/readers/jv partners… they’re all there chatting away about the topic you blog about! As you see people participating in the chat you can follow them, many will follow you back ~ especially if you are PARTICIPATING in the chat… this is again another area where just watching doesn’t pay. The more you can participate the more people will see your name! So follow the people, maybe even make a twitter list for them, so you can keep up with what their doing, retweet their stuff, comment on it, create a deeper connection with them ~ ask them to connect over on facebook! The point of all this is to grow your network ~ to get to know more people ~ make more connections.

How to build YOUR brand with twitter chats

Host your own! You don’t have to participate in a twitter chat ~ you can create your own! You can host a chat on any topic at any time. Just decide to do it! Then start letting people know. If you have a list, send them an announcement. If you’re on related forums, let them know. Make regular (but not obnoxious) posts about it on twitter. If you have a facebook page or group let them know as well!

Easy ways to fill out a twitter chat

It may feel completely overwhelming, the thought of hosting a twitter chat, but really it’s not too tough!! The easiest way to do it is to come up with about 5 questions that are relevant to your topic. What are the biggest questions people ask you about what you’re doing? Then you can answer/discuss those 5 questions for your chat. Simply post Q1. then the question, and then your chatters will retweet the question, and will answer it, and converse about it. If you have 5 questions, just start a new question every 6 minutes or so. You’ll be amazed at how fast it goes. If you’re feeling stuck, as follow up questions, and reply to what people have said. Even if you only have a few people on your chat you can get a lively discussion going and it will be great!

Another chat I sometimes participate in is #commenthour. This chat is all about meeting new people and getting new comments/followers on your blog. The host picks 25 random blogs (from those who have signed up for the chat) and then announces them and everyone runs over to check out the blog and leave a comment. It’s an INSANE hour. Very fast, very hectic, but you meet a lot of great people.

So it’s not always just asking questions, you can make your chat anything you want it to be. Thing about your audience, what do they need? What do they like to do? I know a group of moms who get together for #winewednesday and chat. It can be as formal or as informal as you want it to be.

When you host a chat people will be retweeting you, and replying to you. You will be building your brand, and your reputation simply by having the courage to jump out there and do something not everyone is willing to do. AND it’s fun!!

How often should I host a twitter party?

That’s completely up to you. You can do it weekly, or monthly, or every other week or you could do it ONCE!  If you have big news you do an “announcement party” to spread the news. That would be fun. If you’re going to do regular parties though make sure you’re consistent. Your party will grow as word spreads ~ remember every time someone tweets with your party hashtag their entire network can see it. As more people see it, more people will start asking questions and start coming to the party. That’s when things get really big and really fun. I suggest if you’re going to make this part of your marketing strategy you try to do a weekly party… but start with one and see how you like it.

Where do I find twitter parties?

Here’s  a twitter chat schedule. This has been around for a long time. You’ll see I wasn’t kidding about all the topics there are for twitter parties! AND if you start a twitter chat you can add YOUR party to this list as well! Here’s a list of 25 chats for entrepreneurs.

I can’t wait to hear about your twitter party ~ so when you get one set up make sure you come back and tell us when and the hashtag!

Related posts:

1. Start Building Your Brand from the Bottom Up
2. How to Make Socializing Pay Off
3. 6 Ninja Tricks for Rocking a Blog Hop

Here’s the steps to take if you’re going to consistently use Facebook to drive traffic back to your site.

1. Set up a fanpage.

Yes, you’re going to want to set up a fanpage, because if you’re going to be talking “business” you don’t necessarily want it cluttering up your profile page.

You also want to be able to connect with people who are looking for the information you have to share.

Fanpages are also open to search engines, where your profile pages are not. So… the content you post on your fanpage can be found and indexed by search engines to send you even more traffic.

Here’s some great instructions on how to set up a facebook fanpage if you need some help. Don’t get fancy. Don’t set up opt in boxes, and lock people out until they give you something… it’s not about that. Just set up a page where you can connect with the community you’re building around the topic you’re writing about.

2. Publish new and excellent content regularly on your blog.

Yes, this has everything to do with getting traffic from facebook. The more regularly you create content and publish it to your facebook page the more you’ll have people connecting, and following you back to your blog.

3. Post new blog posts to your fanpage wall.

Each time you publish a new post on your blog MANUALLY go to facebook and post a link to your fanpage wall. There are services like networkedblogs that will do it automatically for you, however, it’s been my experience (and the experience of a lot of other people) that those automated posts will NOT make it into your friends newsfeeds… so take a minute and do it yourself.

Make sure you add an image to your blog post ~ when you post the link to your fanpage it will pull in the image from your post. This will make the post much more noticeable in someone’s timeline, and if you have a great image it will draw attention and the clicks.

4. Connect with others as your page.

Like other fanpages that are related or relevant to your topic. BUT before you do, make sure you’re using facebook as your fanpage and not yourself. It’s really simple to switch over. Just go to the top of any page on Facebook, and look for the little arrow in the top right hand corner. Click it and you’ll see all your fanpages. Just click on the fanpage you want to use facebook as and it will switch you over.

The benefit of doing this is when you add to a conversation on another page instead of linking to your profile it will link to your page. If people want to get to know you better (because you’ve made a valuable contribution to the conversation) they’ll click through to your page where they can connect (and like you).

When you first get started you’ll want to switch to using Facebook as your fanpage and go out into the facebook world and “like” other pages AS your fanpage. Here’s some tips for choosing fanpages to like…

1. Find BUSY fanpages with a lot of “likes”.

2. Find fanpages that have a lot of conversation going on… people are commenting on posts, and the posts have a lot of likes.

You want to do this because when you comment on a post EVERYONE who has already commented on the post will get a notification that YOU have commented as well… it gets your name in front of a lot of people. So there is a benefit HERE to NOT being the first person to comment (unlike when you’re blog commenting and you want to be first so everyone sees you right at the top).

3. Find fanpages that are really aligned with the topic YOUR fanpage discusses. That way the fans of these pages will also be interested in the things you share.

Once you’ve liked some pages it’s pretty easy to connect with people, and comment and interact with the page. Go to the top right hand corner of the page you’re on (which will be your fanpage since you just switched to using it as your page) and you’ll see the word “home”. When you click that it will bring up the newsfeed for your fanpage. From here you can simply comment/like things that are in your newsfeed, just like you would if you were on your personal profile.

This is an important step because it gets your name and your fanpage in the community, and can help attract people to you.

Facebook is a social community. You have to give and be part of it before you can expect results.

5. Connect in relevant groups. 

While you can’t join groups as a fanpage you can switch back to your personal profile and join groups relevant to your niche. Again, you have to be social. You need to not only post links to your blog posts, but provide other value to the group. Answer questions, welcome new members, ask questions to create conversation. All of these things will help you become well known and liked in these groups which will also help you get more clicks and drive traffic to your site.

6. Join sharing groups on facebook.

These groups are set up to help get more “likes” and comments on your posts. When you join the group you agree to go to a few of the posted blog posts and comment or share the post with your network, and others will do the same for the blog posts you add to the group as well. This is a great way to get more eyes on your posts, and more likes and tweets. This builds your social proof, and with Google really starting to look at social sharing as a way to rank content it’s a great way to help your google ranking as well. Here’s a couple of these groups I belong to. Empowered Tribe and Blog Mastermind Comment Tribe You will have to ask to join these groups, and if you don’t play by the rules you’ll get kicked out, but they are a great way to build new relationships with other bloggers ~ which can also lead to some guest blogging gigs as well.

All in all if you want to get more traffic from facebook you have to get out there and participate. It’s not  as simple as just posting your link on your wall and then going and doing something else. You’ve got to find people who are interested in what you’re doing, you’ve got to connect with them and be part of the community. The cool thing is though… that when someone likes your post, or they comment it goes up on their wall, and their friends can see it. Your facebook friends become a venue for word of mouth connecting and that’s the best kind of promotion you can find. You reach their entire network, and just from connecting with one person your can reach thousands, or even millions.

So tell me… do you have your own fanpage yet? I’d love to see it! Feel free to leave a link to your fanpage in the comments section, and let’s connect on facebook if we haven’t already.

Related posts:

1. 1 Quick Trick to Overcome Being Camera Shy
2. How to Make Socializing Pay Off
3. How To Get More Traffic and Have Fun Doing It

Here’s the deal…

Times are CHANGING… social media is no longer about wasting time, and just making friends, it’s now one of the best ways to drive traffic, AND, a great way to get your blog coming up in the search engines.

You don’t think Google created its own social media site for nothing right? Google searches are changing, they’re incorporating more “personalized” searches, and starting to show results based on who you know and what they like.

If you’ve not jumped into social media… you’re going to have to.

**take note** Big font**

THERE IS A RIGHT WAY TO DO THIS!!

Social media is just that, about being social, and connecting with others. You can not go into a social media setting and just start blasting your stuff. It takes a little mindset adjustment to make socializing payoff.

You have to stop thinking about yourself and what’s in it for you. 

Instead you have to start thinking about what’s in it for your readers. You have to provide quality content, (whether written by you or someone else) you have to start creating an environment where when people hit your page (whether on FB or twitter) they can get to know you, and what you’re all about. You have to start building yourself up as a resource ~ and doing that means you have to do a lot of giving. But don’t worry ~ from the giving will come traffic, and sharing, and linking ~ and all the things we internet marketers love… but it all comes from the giving first.

So what does that look like?

It depends what network you’re on. Different networks seem to respond to different things. You will have to test things out a little bit to find what exactly works for you, but here’s some things to start with.

Twitter… 

People on twitter love links ~ they love to check out what other people are checking out.

So make sure you share links with your network. Your own links, but also great content you’re reading elsewhere that you find interesting.

You can use a service like tweetdeck or buffer to schedule your tweets through out the day. This works especially well if you spend a block of time reading blogs and commenting. Instead of blasting out 5 or 10 links in 30 minutes you can spread that great content out over the day.

Retweets ~ if you see something you like, or floats your boat on twitter, retweet it! It’s a great way to connect with other people as well as provide value to your network.

Facebook… 

Facebook is a whole other ballgame. I’ve found people do NOT respond as well to links on Facebook, unless it’s super relevant to a conversation and sometimes on a fanpage.

However, pictures, quotes, comments ~ those work GREAT on facebook. I get lots of likes on that type of content.

You might be wondering how that helps you get traffic if people are just liking a picture or a quote…

Well, it gives you the opportunity to really connect with that person. Turning random “friends and followers” into true connections is what it’s all about. It’s super simple… when someone likes something you’ve posted, just send them a quick message. Hey thanks for the like, what are you working on these days? A simple message can start a conversation and from conversation comes friendship, and from friendship can come raving fans who spread the word far and wide about you. That personal touch will set you apart from 99% of all the other bloggers/people on Facebook.

Does it take some extra time?

Yes, but the return on that time can be huge, and well worth it.

Soo… there are some tips to help you make socializing on twitter and facebook pay off for you. While I’ve not delved into all of the social networks and other possibilities in this post realize the rules are the same no matter where you go.

80% personal

20% business

Keep it real. Share yourself. Get to know people. 

With that in mind you may have noticed I’ve made a switch in commenting platforms. I’ve been adamantly apposed to a third party commenting system FOR.EVER. but realized my goals have changed and it’s not the number of comments I really care about… it’s the quality of comments.

I want this site to be a real community, where we can connect and help each other. The time spent weeding out crap comments, and those where people simply reiterate what I’ve written in a post are just too time consuming. I’m going to go with the assumption if people want to be part of the community and take part in what we do here, taking 30 seconds of your life to sign up at livefyre will be worth it.

I went with Livefyre over any other system because I like the “live” element. You can literally have a live chat with people within the comments ~ and so many of you have said you wished their was a way to “like” a comment… and now there is.

It is my hope that we will create a community where everyone helps each other, and we lift each other up together.  This change is one way I think I can start making that happen.

So… let’s talk about it. 

What are you doing to make socializing pay off for you? What’s your favorite social media platform? AND if we’re not personally connected on Facebook, please shoot me a friend request.

Related posts:

1. 6 Quick Tips to Drive Traffic From Facebook
2. How to Get Started with Blog Frog
3. Building Your Brand and Network Using Twitter Chats

Anyway… yesterday a friend of our passed away. It was sudden and unexpected. She was quite young and it got me thinking.

It’s so easy to get all wound up and wrapped up in the computer, in the online world, in how to build backlinks, and what you should write for your content, in how to get more comments, and yet when you look at your LIFE none of that is really all that important.

When we look at the big picture of OUR LIVES what’s really important? 

Our health.

Our family.

Our children.

Our happiness.

I know personally it’s been super easy to push all those things to the side in my infinite quest to make a living online, and I’m quite certain I’m not the only one. Hours and hours, days on end spent at the computer trying to identify the secret sauce that makes it work, the things that will make the money flow.

And yet, the most important things in our lives, our health, and our connections, get left by the wayside. Our hineys get wider, our hearts get weaker ~ because sitting in a chair moving our fingers doesn’t help them get strong and in shape.

I know that since I started working from home (granted it was right around the time I had my kiddo) I’ve put on weight. I’ve been lazy, and more interested in figuring out this puzzle than taking care of myself. But that’s got to end.

I’ve got to make my health a priority ~ because without me, my kiddo has no mom, my husband has no wife.

We only have one life and we’ve got to treasure it, take care of it, nurture it, honor it.

Are you honoring your life, your health, your relationships?

I’ve watched everyone create goals for the new year and I see “I wanna make 5K a month” or I want to build more sites and rule the world…

What I don’t see is I want to be healthy. I want to be connected to my loved ones.

That is JUST as much a part of business as setting up new sites ~ if you lose your family and your life what is it all for anyway?!

With that said… and on a happier note ~ I have been working on my health. I started a 90 day health challenge about 67 days ago. I’m following the plan ~ it’s super simple and easy. I’m never hungry and…

I’ve lost 4 pants sizes in that time. I’ve lost 4 inches off my waist and 3 off my hips… in just two months.

I’m thrilled to pieces, and if you’d seen me trying on new pants at the Walmart you’d have thought I was a nut with the happy dance I was doing. I have recently added exercise to my challenge as well. I imagine, if I was able to do all that without exercise I’ll be able to make my goal of a size 7 pants with a little exercise no problem.

This year my goal is to make a shit ton of money ~ don’t get me wrong… but above and beyond that, my goal is to get to know YOU better, really get to know my readers and subscribers, and my facebook friends. It’s to spend more time with the computer OFF and WITH my real life friends and family. It’s to get in shape, lose weight, feel healthy and really truly LIVE my life. Every. Single. Minute of it.

What about you? I’d love to get in shape together ~ if you want to join me in the challenge just give me a shout, hell, call me up (316-350-7429) and let’s talk about it ~ or just shoot me an email. momtohanna [at] gmail [dot] com

It’s important for me to remember WHY I started working from home, and why I don’t just throw it in and just get a job again… it’s because of my FAMILY ~ so it’s time I started treating them like they were the reason ~ and not an afterthought.

What about you? What’s your plan for this year?

Related posts:

1. Creating a Strategic Business Plan for the New Year
2. Aim Higher Dammit.
3. The Challenge is ON!

If you’re creating an authority type site, whether it’s about a niche in general or even product reviews, your content is the foundation of your site. If you’re not creating new content, you’re not going to succeed. Content is KEY!!

What are you going to write about? What if you get writer’s block? What if you run out of ideas? What if you’re just too scared to write anything, and the longer you look at that “hello world” post sitting on your site the harder and harder it gets to even start.

PHEW.

I have a solution.

The first step is this:

Decide content is a non negotiable element of your business. 

I can’t even tell you what an important step this is… it will be the difference between success and failure when it comes to your content production this year.

The second step is this:

Decide when you’ll be posting your content to your site. 

Once you’ve made those two decisions you can start creating your calendar. Here’s the technique I use to keep myself, and my content creation on track.

1. Set up month long topics/series. 

In my handy dandy notebook (if anyone can tell me the reference…), I’ve lined out each month for the next year. I’ve decided on a topic for the month.  Now on this site I only post once a week, so I now have to come up with 4 topics related to my monthly series topic and then my content is planned for the month.

I hate to be completely tied into something specific, so I’ll leave the topic rather general, so I can frame it in a way that feels good when I sit down to write.

Here’s an example:

January is going to be social media month here on IMM.

So my four posts might look something like this:

• facebook tricks to share content

• what not to do on facebook

• how to create a community using facebook

• how to drive more traffic back to your site with facebook

You see how easy that is?! Now I have a topic, and I can write about it in a way that resonates with me next month or even if this was scheduled 9 months from now, I’m sure I’d have opinions and ideas on those 4 topics.

The other cool thing about this is, I didn’t have any twitter topics, or linkedin topics, or youtube topics, so that just gave me a TON more ideas on topics I could use.

NOTE: If you’re building links and writing articles to use off site, you can take all those extra ideas and turn them into articles.

The key to this working is being organized, and sticking to the plan. Here’s some of the tools I use to stay organized.

1. Day Planner: 

I have a day planner on my desk where I write down what blog I’m posting on, and the topic for the day. I also add in any other events/activities for the day, as well as phone calls and follow ups I have for other business matters. I’ve also used Charlie Gilkey’s planners ~ which I liked very much.

2. A handy dandy composition notebook. 

I have a composition notebook for each element of my business. So for my blogs, I have a notebook, for the new project I can’t wait to tell you about I have a notebook, and for the other arm of my business I also have a notebook. This is where I write down ideas, make plans, create mind maps, etc… This makes it really easy to find any ideas I’ve had about a particular element of my business. Post it notes get lost. Write it all down in one place specific to that element.

3. Pomodoro Technique

This is relatively new, and I’m not using exactly as originally intended, but here’s the pieces I love.

The daily to do list… I write down everything I want to get done in a day on the list. (A pomodoro is a time period of 25 minutes ~ with 5 minute breaks between sessions, and a 30 minute break after 4.) I don’t necessarily use the timer, but I do in some circumstances.

The unplanned and urgent list: Here’s the key to what makes this work for me… I am easily distracted. So when I get distracted, or something comes into my mind and I think I need to go take care of it RIGHT NOW I write it at the bottom of my to do list. This urgent and unplanned section goes from the bottom up.

I DO NOT deviate from the current task at hand, I simply write this distraction down. When I’m done either with my 25 minutes or with the task at hand I will then go and take a look at the distraction and see if it needs to be added to today’s list, or maybe tomorrow or Friday’s list, or maybe it really wasn’t important at all and my mind was just messing with me because I didn’t really want to do what I was doing. (yeah, it happens!) So that has been VERY helpful for me to start getting more done in less time.

3. Editorial Calendar plugin

I don’t personally use this one, I prefer paper and pen, but there is a free editorial calendar plugin for wordpress where you can just plug your topics into the calendar and it will track it all for you. Easy cheesy and if technology is your cup of tea then it might be a great addition.

When you have productivity tools in place to help you keep on track, as well as an editorial calendar so you know exactly what you should be writing you’ll find it’s much easier to keep your content on track and coming. Trying to wing it with your content is like planning to fail. It’s so easy to let it slide, to leave it to later, to just skip it… but as you know… your content is the KEY to your business. Don’t plan to fail… create a plan.

I’d love to hear your thoughts and how you create an editorial calendar. Leave your thoughts in the comment section below.

If you’d like some personalized help with your blog or ideas for your editorial calendar join us in the KISS Club. Where we keep it simple so you can take action.

Related posts:

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The one element that’s always stayed the same is looking back over the past year to see what worked, and what didn’t. In my business and with the plan I created for the year.

Last year my business, and I, went through a lot of changes. With Google’s heavy hand I’ve had to rethink some of my business strategies as well as the business models I’ve been using.

At times I felt like I set these big goals (and I’ve written plenty of posts on goals), and when it came down to answering the question “what do I do today…” found the answer lacking. Of course, there’s always plenty of “work” to do to keep me busy through the day ~ but looking back I can definitely see there was a lot of time spent on “non income producing” activities.

So this year, of course I have big goals, but I’ve decided to look at my business as a whole ~ instead of looking at it as “a blog” or “this niche site”, I’m looking at my business as a whole and at the blog, the sites, the facebook accounts as pieces of that business ~ not the business itself.

By taking a bigger picture frame of reference I am able to see where the “pieces” fit in to grow my business as a whole. I also tend to be a very all or nothing thinker ~ so when viewing the pieces as the business it’s easy for me to get swept up in one element and completely ignore another. All this, None of that.

I have several arms to my business, and they all need to be tended to if I’m going to grow my business as a whole.

Now that I have the arms mapped out and the growth expected from them I’m doing something I haven’t really done before.

Breaking it down into the simple, daily, income producing activities.

I’ve absolutely realized it’s taking the small steps, completing the income producing activities regularly, consistently, daily that grows your business. It’s all fine and good to set a goal to be making 100K a year ~ but if you don’t take the correct actions, consistently that goal is really just a pipe dream.

Online business really breaks down into a few simple activities.

1. Produce content

2. Promote content

3. Create connections

4. Nurture those connections

From these activities you can come up with more specific ways YOU can do them, depending on your strengths. It also doesn’t matter what kind of business model you’re running, whether it’s blogging, niche marketing, product creation, network marketing ~ you’re going to need these 4 elements in one way or another. It’s up to you to figure out the specific daily actions you need to take to do those 4 activities.

Here’s an example from my business plan:

For the online marketing arm of my business I’ve got 3 blogs to tend to. Each is in a different niche. I am also starting a new project (that I’ll tell you about soon!) that will also create passive income ~ and ties in perfectly with 2 of the blogs.

So my strategic business plan for that arm of my business looks something like this:

• publish blog content daily (I’ve created a publishing schedule and have decided to do monthly topics on two of the blogs so I can easily focus and create content)

• promote blog posts via social media

• connect with others in my niche on social media, and other blogs

• write for the new project daily

Related posts:

1. Creating an Editorial Calendar for Your Blog
2. Build Some Buzz to Propel Your Business
3. The Plan: Be Everywhere

All of the actions you’ve taken thus far have gotten you where you are in your business. Are you still growing? Have you reached a plateau? Have you not even begun to grow?

Wherever you are in your business if you want to make more money you’ve got to GROW!

That’s where the concept of buzz comes in… you can create buzz about your business to get more traffic, build your brand, and propel your business forward!

It’s easy to think your business is too small, or too inconsequential to build buzz… but I bet you’re wrong! I bet even YOU can build buzz!

Here’s some tips to creating buzz for your business:

1. Come up with an event or concrete activity that is buzz worthy. 

It can be a challenge, a contest, an activity in the community… I’m doing a fundraiser with my kiddo’s school! If what you’re doing is helpful or interesting to the community (online or off) it will be buzz worthy!

Take a listen to today’s episode of Around the Kitchen Table... we did some brainstorming and came up with some fun ideas for buzz worthy events.

2. Get offline. 

We get so focused on driving traffic to our websites, and being online we forget we can get traffic and HUGE buzz from offline sources! Most newspapers now have blogs, ask to guest post, send out a press release about your event, contact your local radio or TV station and let them know what you’re doing, write guest posts for related blogs!

Get the word out. It may seem intimidating to go to offline sources, but think about it this way. They are content producers, just like you! Every day they have to produce content… why not give them something to talk about?!

Over the summer I did an interview with Lisa Leake from www.100DaysofRealFood.com she exploded her website using offline resources… take a listen, she’s got a lot of helpful advice!

3. Identify a strategy.

If you’re going to say… do 30 guest posts in 30 days to build buzz, or do a in community activity you need to know what all is going to go into making it successful. You’ll have to do some planning, some connecting, some logistical stuff.

Make sure you give yourself time to get all the pieces in place before the event. Doing a guest post blitz doesn’t happen without pre planning!

The new year is a perfect time to get excited about your business again. It’s a great time to get people’s attention, and create buzz! What are YOU going to do to use buzz to propel your business forward?

I can’t wait to hear! Tell us in the comments.

If you want to use Buzz to propel your business but have no idea where to start… Join us in the KISS Club. We can brainstorm and get a plan created to get you going!

Related posts:

1. 11 Ways to Maximize Online Communities to Build Your Blog
2. Creating a Strategic Business Plan for the New Year

While you’re getting your feet under you, gaining confidence and learning the ropes it’s awesome that you’re seeking out this information… it will give you some concrete things to start doing.

However… at some point you’ll have to realize this whole internet business is just as much an art form as it is a science. Yes, you need to build links… but even if you take someone else’s system and duplicate it exactly it will never be exactly the same… because you did it, bringing with you, your strengths, your attitude, your beliefs and all that YOU are.

I’ll tell you right now, those things are at least as important, and I’d go as far as to say even MORE important than having an exact plan or someone telling you exactly what to do.

Your beliefs, your strengths, your attitudes… they are what make you, YOU! They are what differentiates you from everyone else in the marketplace. They are what you need to use to drive your business forward.

Here’s an example:

Today in a group I’m in someone mentioned she was sending out samples to someone. She wanted to know what other people sent with their samples, because she “just wanted to do it right”.

Here’s the thing though… I might send a sample, a personal note, and a fact sheet, and maybe it works 80% of the time for me.

However, I believe in this method, I believe in the product, I believe and have confidence in my ability to do what I’m doing….

If you don’t… your results will be drastically different.

So yes, it’s great to get ideas from the team, or from other bloggers. It’s great to have an outline to follow, but think about it this way…

If I hand 18 kindergarteners the same picture to color, I’m NEVER going to get the same picture back. They each put themselves into the process. You have to do the same thing. You have to get your outline and fill it with YOU!

If you don’t have the confidence yet to do that… then I’d start working on growing my confidence. (and many times that comes from just trying something and seeing how it goes… and then trying something else and seeing how it goes!) Confidence comes from taking action and seeing results ~ good or “bad”, you at least have information from which to make more decisions and take more/different actions.

So get out there and color in your outline! (no one said you even had to stay in the lines, if that’s how you roll!)

Let’s step away from the whole idea that there’s a “right” way to do this internet marketing thing… because there’s actually not. There are million ways that work, and it’s up to you to whittle all of these options down to what’s right for YOU!

If you’re not sure how to go about this, join us in the KISS Club ~ where we can work together and figure it out!

No related posts.

If you’re going to give Google what Google wants, so you can get organic traffic from them you’re going to have to have a plan before you start any website project. It doesn’t matter if you’re creating a site for affiliate marketing, or social media marketing, or even a site to create leads for your network marketing business… you’re going to need a plan.

I must say… the planning stage of any website is my absolute FAVORITE part. Here’s how how I handle planning a website project.

1. Get a HUGE piece of paper and your colored markers. (yeah, I’m old school like that)

You could also use a mind map program if you want, but paper is really fun.

2. Identify your target market ~ the more specific you can be the better.

Busy moms vs. stay at home moms with multiple kids who need to earn an extra income ~ is better.

3. Identify 4 to 7 very general topics your target market would want information about.

for example… If I’m targeting stay at home moms who want to earn extra income ~ I might choose, cooking, budgeting, kiddos, online business, self

4. Break those general topics (now your categories) into more specific topics. (I like to have 3 to 5 more specific topics)

cooking = 5 ingredient meals, crockpot cooking, menu planning

5. From those more specific topics (now your subcategories) you’re going to come up with specific ideas ~ which will be your posts.

5 ingredient meals = several recipes made of only 5 ingredients

crockpot cooking = tips to use a crockpost, saving money using a crockpot, recipes for crockpot cooking

menu planning = weekly meal plan, tips on meal planning, monthly meal planning, weekly meal planning

Once you’ve come up with these specific post ideas you can use your keyword tool to find the specific words/phrases people are using to look for that topic.  ie… your targeted keywords

6. Create a posting schedule. 

There are blog posting calendars around… I generally use Charlie Gilkey’s planners for my posting schedule. There is also the wp editorial calendar plugin which many find wonderful.

Once you’ve gone through this process you will have tons of content ideas in front of you. If you started with 7 large categories, and came up with 5 subcategories, and then came up with only 5 specific topics for each you’d already have 175 post ideas. What’s really great about it, is the content is completely and utterly directed toward your target market. Doing this work up front helps you really stay targeted, focused and on track to provide content your target market will love.

Now you just have to write them.

You have a couple options here as well. You could just bust them out. Write them all, schedule them to publish regularly and move on to link building. You could also set up a publishing schedule for yourself and write a new post on each of your publishing days. Once you’re post is written and published then jump on link building for that post.

Gone are the days where one page sites targeting single keywords are going to work… you’re going to have to be in it for the long haul, and prepared to write LOTS of content.

Here’s the cool thing though… you’ll end up ranking for a BUNCH of keywords you never expected or could have dreamed of and those seriously unexpected long tails can bring in quite a bit of traffic.

If you need help planning a website project, or getting one you’ve already started off the ground join the KISS Club. I’d be glad to help you get your project moving forward.

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1. Creating an Editorial Calendar for Your Blog
2. How Memes are Killing Your Blog and What to Do to Save It
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