In times past, other people’s blogs would be the top referrers (and Google). However, over the past month or two I’m shocked because Twitter is the number three referrer for traffic to this blog (right under direct and Google/organic)! I’m shocked because Twitter has always been an afterthought for me!

What’s Going On?

I have, over the past couple of months, tried to get out there at least once a day. Of course, sometimes I go a week without posting or re-tweeting anything. But one thing I found that really helps is the Tweet Old Post plugin. It really helps to keep things fresh (especially if you’re not out there much). There is nothing like going to follow someone and the last time they tweeted was 6 months ago!

I also started using Hootsuite, which I find makes using Twitter sooo much easier! You can even schedule your Tweets so that you don’t forget!

Another thing to remember is this – quantity doesn’t matter, quality does. Interacting with others is what matters most. Re-tweeting interesting and helpful content is the best thing you can do. Something else to keep in mind – you want to interact with your market not  the whole world.

Also, I found a couple tools to help you unfollow people who are either not following you or are just inactive. One tool is ManageFlitter.

Moving Foward

Since I know that people are coming over from Twitter and staying on the blog for an average of about 2 minutes I’m going to ramp up my efforts to see what happens.

I’m also going to be ramping up other blog efforts as well – such as getting a redesign, adding awesome content, and using other marketing techniques to market the crap out of this blog! Stay tuned to see what I learn from this experience!

Let Me Know Below!

So what is your Twitter plan? Do you have one? Are you even using Twitter? (Follow me here).

Are you designing your perfect business right now at this moment? Are you dreaming big and going after it? Are you doing what you REALLY want to be doing? Or are you settling with whatever pays the bills?

I’m always looking to see what I need to change or what areas I need to step it up in. Well, let’s just say the truth to the above  questions can be very enlightening!

I’m a big believer in business design. You can create and build (by design) your own business around your expertise. Which usually means you pick and choose what you work on, who you work with, and really how much money you want to make.

These days the Internet makes it possible…and that can be a little problematic because there are so many things you can do! If you suffer from bright shiny object (BSO) syndrome then you might find yourself far away from that business you first envisioned.

But here’s the cool thing – if you are not building the type of business you really want to build then you can change directions starting right now!

Here is how to stop chasing bright shiny objects and start building (by design) your perfect business.

Look At You – Get CLEAR!

First, start with yourself.  This is such a critical part of building a business by design AND it’s  the most overlooked part! Your business starts with you! So spend some real time looking at yourself.

Be true to yourself and to what you ultimately what to be doing in your business. Don’t ignore that little voice that keeps telling you that you are not lining up with what you really want to be doing. Answer these questions honestly:

• What’s your purpose in business?
• What’s your expertise?
• What do you want to help someone do?
• What’s your message?
• What are your strengths?
• What are your weaknesses?

If you know these things then you are laying a good foundation and building your perfect biz will just flow from there.

Look At Your Market – What Is Needed?

Obviously you have to know who your market is. This is huge! You should not be all things to all people. One part of my business is providing Private Label Rights content to Internet Marketers. Notice I didn’t say…providing content to anyone who needs it.

Business is about serving a market. You’ll run in circles if you don’t know WHO you are trying to help. Think:

• Who am I helping?
• What problems do they have?
• What keeps them up at night?
• What do they really want?

Be A Problem Solver

Once you have things sorted out within you and you have narrowed down your market NOW you can get to work on becoming a master problem solver!

What is driving them to seek solutions? What problems can you help them solve? Look behind the questions to get to the root of the issue. Usually the root of the issue is not the tangible thing but the untangible.

Your Perfect Biz

Have you ever sat down and thought about what your perfect biz looks like. I know I didn’t when I first started…if fact I’m still figuring it out!

Do you enjoy working with people on a one-on-one basis? Do you prefer to work behind-the-scenes? Do you want to become a recognized expert in your field? Do you want to create products or services or both? Do you want to write? Do you want to do video?

There is a lot to think about when you want to design your perfect business. And if you’re not happy doing what your doing now then there is no time like the present to make a change and get more in line with what you really want to be doing!

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What does your perfect biz look like? Let me know below!

Cheerios has been on a roll developing different flavors. I know because my husband keeps bringing new ones home lol. We have now tried them all!

Anyway, as I was looking at the box it showed that they have six variations and they recommend you mix and match them to create new yummy flavors (such as cinnamon and frosted for a cinnamon roll flavor).

If you like Cheerios then you’ll want to try all the flavors and mix and match them too. EXACTLY what they want you to do!

So I thought…Are you (me) doing this is your business????

Are you creating a PRODUCT LINE? Are you packaging them to go together? Can you mix and match your products for more profit?

If not, we are missing all  types of opportunity! What can you do starting today to implement the Cheerios strategy? I’m going to start by creating more products! What about you?

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I already wrote about the pros and cons of memberships, but today I wanted to go over four different types of membership sites. This should get your brain pumping with lots of ideas!

PLR Based Memberships – This is where you provide content and give the rights away to it. An example, is my Health PLR Club. Each month members get a 20 page report, 10 product reviews, and 10 informative articles. There are many things you can do within this  type of membership. You can create minisites, videos, reports, articles, blog posts, basically any type of content needed.

Service Based Memberships – In the past I ran a successful unique monthly content program. This was successful because I was providing something that people needed in order to run their business. I also ran a link building program where I provided the content and then I manually submitted the content to different article directories. Service based memberships are great because you are helping people save time and money. Also, subscribers tend to stay in longer because of the value provided to their business. Plus there are a lot of services you could provide.

Fixed Term Memberships – The fixed term membership is perfect for training. You could have 3, 6, 9, 12 month fixed memberships depending on how much material you need to cover. Think virtual classroom with this type of membership. You can easily set this up to where you drip feed the content over the course of the membership so that it is a little more hands off.

Community Based Memberships – This type of membership works well when the community is working on a common goal and people want to see others succeed. Members support one another to success! This can be really fun as I have discovered with the PLR Business Training Club. It actually makes me want to start another one in a more general topic of marketing and internet business! There is power in a network!

This is just an idea of what you could do. Having recurring income in my business has made a huge difference!

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Do you have any ideas for a membership site?

As I’m preparing my PLR membership webinar notes (part of PLR Business Training Club), I can’t help but think about how there are both good and bad points about membership sites. Some people get caught up in the hype about having membership sites – that it’s easy, automated and passive income.

While there are great things about membership sites there are also some downfalls too.

Running a membership site is NOT easy! It’s typically NOT passive income (running on autopilot). It’s also not for the faint of heart…meaning you can’t take it personal when people cancel their membership. It’s going to happen!

Over the past 3 years, I have created 5 different types of membership sites. One of the most important steps in creating an membership site is to make sure you have chosen the right topic. I have found that member retention is directly based on what value you are providing to members. Do they need what you are offering? Do they want it? If you need or want something bad enough – you will get it. Period.

In one membership site model, I provided unique content each month for my members. It was very successful because those that signed up needed quality unique content on an on-going basis. They didn’t mind paying a lump sum each month because of the value they were getting!

So if you are thinking about setting up some type of recurring income in your business, which I think you should (it’s working smarter) then here are a few pros and cons. If you go in with eyes wide open you’ll have a better chance of success!

PROS

Ahh the pros! They get you all excited and make you feel all hopeful! They are usually the reason we do something, right?? Here are a few pros:

1.) Never start your month (or day) at zero again! I absolutely love this! What if something happens (because life DOES happen) and you are unable to work for a week or two (or longer)? Well if you have recurring income coming in then you’ll still be earning! That’s the power of membership sites!

For example, last August, I gave birth to our baby girl so that meant I was just a wee bit tied up lol. I was so happy I set up recurring income because I didn’t miss a beat as far as my income went!

2.) Providing something on a regular basis keeps you accountable! Sometimes we need routine or a deadline to keep ourselves motivated and/or pressured just enough to get things done. I know I do anyway!

3.) You have the ability to cross promote and make even more money. Your members are paying customers. If you treat them right you can recommend other products/services that will help then and earn more money on top of your member sales.

There are more pros, but you get the point!

CONS

On the other hand the cons of membership sites are not really talked about that much (hhmm I wonder why).  Again when you know the drawbacks then you can make an educated decision on whether or not creating a membership is for you!

1.) Continuous promoting of the site in order to keep your membership full. If your numbers are low is it even worth the time, effort, money of running a member site?

2.) Commitment! This really shouldn’t be a con but for some it is! You have to commit to tedious updating and maintaining content EVEN when you don’t feel like it!

3.) Technical issues. Sometimes plugins or scripts can go haywire and you have to fix or get someone else to fix the problem. This could result in customer complains and even members dropping out.

4.) Another con (as stated above) is that people are going to drop out. It’s something I hate seeing but at the same time it’s just apart of this business model. You take the good with the bad…and you have to get thick skin!

Of course there are ways to get around some of these cons. If you can isolate your personal cons and find fixes for them like I did then you can make the right decision for yourself. For me the pros far outweigh the cons!

What about you? What do you like or not like about membership sites? Do you want to run one? Do you run one now? Let me know below!

It took me a long time to start creating info products all because I IGNORED the advice I was given. Plus I didn’t really believe in myself either. Don’t be like me!

Start Here

The very first thing you must do is take a look at what you’re doing right now. How are you making money? What are your services? Who do you serve (who is your target market)?

For example, maybe you are a fitness buff and you blog all about fitness and you even do a little coaching. What information can you take from your knowledge and experience and turn into a product (an ebook, video, audio, etc.)? Maybe you get a ton of questions on a certain topic. Can you package that info together?

Once you have an idea of what your target market might want to know more about then you can proceed to the quick and easy product creation part of putting it all together.

The key to it creating a product that actually sells is to make sure the information is something that your target market/audience wants to know more about!

Once you have your idea then it’s on to FAST product creation. The faster the better because then you don’t give yourself a chance to chicken out!

Here are three quick and easy ways to get your first information product created:

Use Audio

So many things happen when I sit down to write. I easily get distracted and find that it takes me waaaay longer to get the report or whatever done. To solve this problem what I do now is open up Audacity and start talking away!

Then I take the recording and go over to oDesk and hire a transcriber to transcribe my recording (for super cheap). I take that transcription and go through and edit it. And now I have a report plus audio! SUPER quick and easy. You can also do this with a webinar if you wanted to.

Repurpose/Repackage Your Content

If you’re blogging or have an email newsletter then mostly likely you already have enough information to take and repurpose it into your very first product! If you think you don’t have enough information you could always grab some PLR to supplement your content.

Most times your info is already there and you just need to repackage it into a product that your market would want to buy. Take a look at your blog analytics to see what blog posts are most popular. Take a look at your autoresponder analytics and see what emails get the most attention. Pay attention to what people in your market are wanting to know, confused about, or need help with.

Now all you have to do is rework your info into a report or maybe all you need to do is create a video series on the information.

Screen Capturing/Screen Shots

You can quickly and easily get your first product up for sale just by using a screen capturing software like Camtasia or the free version Jing. With this software all you do is show someone how to do something from your screen. This is perfect for technical things. And/or you can easily and quickly put together a tutorial in report form by providing screen shots of each step.

But you don’t have to show anything technical. I recently fell in love with FreeMind, free mindmap software. FreeMind allows you to organize your thoughts. I found it to be a great help when it comes to explaining something.  So all you do is turn on your screen capture software and start going through your mindmap. Super easy!

So there you go! Now you are without excuse. Go and create your first information product and then let me know about it!!

What do you think? Have you created your first info product? How did you do it?

What To Outsource?

Determine what you need to outsource. What is your goal? What do you want to accomplish? Goals are different for each person and business. You may want to boost your bottom line. You may want to stop working 70 hour weeks. You may want to offload jobs or tasks that you dislike but are a necessary part of your business. Determine your goals first, and then build a strategy that supports them.

Face Your Fears

Face your fears. Be honest about your fears. Outsourcing makes great business sense but it isn’t always easy. You may be afraid you’ll lose control or that you might hire the wrong person. Document these fears and then take steps to create a strategy which minimizes your possible risks and fears.

List Your Steps and Tasks

Create a comprehensive list of all of the steps and tasks required to run your business today. Then create a list of all the goals you have for your business and the tasks required to achieve those goals.  For example, if you want to publish an ebook then you’ll need to write the ebook, write a sales page, create a book cover, get it set up with a payment button, and market the book. Each one of these steps can be outsourced and included in your outsourcing strategy and plan.

Document Your Processes

Create an SOP or “standard operating procedure” for each task and job responsibility. Document the process from beginning to end. When you outsource that task your SOP makes it easy for your contractor to complete the job effectively and proficiently because they understand exactly what you need.

Start Slow

Approach outsourcing one step or contractor at a time. This will help you learn from any mistakes. Also consider using a test project with each new contractor. For example, if you hire a person to write an ebook you may first want to hire them to write an article or short report. That way your chosen contractor understands what is required and you can see if they are the right person for the job.

If you approach outsourcing in a planned and control way then you’ll minimize stress and find outsourcing to be the best way for a solopreneur to reach new levels in business!

Want to get started outsourcing your content? Download my tutorial so you can get started right.

So what do you think? Do you outsource? What tips do you have?

This is a very simple business model. You build a list and you let them know about the high quality PLR (including discounts and sales) that you come across. You can do that right?

In my latest version of Sell PLR For Cash – Affiliate Version, I walk you through how to get started. I even throw in my spreadsheet of affiliate programs that I make money with. Check it out if you want to earn some extra cash with PLR, but don’t want to actually create the content yourself.

I was brainstorming on my whiteboard about what types of traits you need to have in order to be a successful Entrepreneur Online. What traits would you add?

I created a video doing this step. Check it out below: