Whether you like it or now we’re all authors and publishers now.

How did that happen?

Content is the name of the game and if you don’t know how to create great content then you’d better learn. Fast.

You’ve got two choices:

Create and publish content yourself or get someone else to do it for you.

And both options are fine and dandy but you’d better make sure you’re doing at least one of them or you’re going to be invisible online.

With that in mind I’m giving you some easy tips & ideas this week for creating great content:

Don’t fret about what you can’t or don’t want to do.

Choose something you want to do instead.  What’s your ‘thing?’

Will you create video, written blog posts or audio?

Or if you get bored easily you might want to use all three.

Start with one and master that.

See how you like it.

Give yourself permission to get creative.

What did you like to do when you were a kid?

Collages, write stories, take photos… What?

There’s a way to connect your creativity with creating modern content.

Remember it’s not set in stone and if it’s not as much fun as you thought you can move on to something else.

You don’t need to create more than one blog post per week.

Really.

If you’re clear on your perfect who (your tribe) and your WHAT (your topic or service) then one post a week can create an authority platform for you.

It’s better to spend your precious time promoting your content and building your list.

Anyone (even people that HATE to write) can create one blog post per week.

Content is anything where you’re giving some value and demonstrating your expertise. (Like I’m doing here.)

Even when you’re creating a squeeze (capture page) or sales page always inject some value so that your readers learn something whether they buy today or not.

Make marketing fun. (Did I say that already?)

If it’s not fun then perhaps you’re not creating content about a fun topic for you …

To make it with an expert style business you have to find ways to stay inspired and passionate.

The easiest way I’ve found to stay passionate is to choose a tribe I love and a topic I love to talk & create content about.

I love working with enlightened entrepreneurs.

Who do you love to work with?

I love helping them plan a big vision and implement.


What do you love to do?

You see it’s not so complicated if you just take a few minutes to think about what you actually want.

So your challenge for today is to plan and create a piece of content for your perfect who or your tribe, as Seth Godin would say, on your topic.

Procrastinate no more!  Content doesn’t have to be long.

It just has to be of value to your audience.

This is how you become known in your niche.

Go for it!  Leave a comment below or ask a question over at my Facebook page.

If you’ve found this helpful please share on the buttons below.

Creative entrepreneurs and coaches often get their knickers in a right old twist when it comes to talking about their competition.

Today let’s talk about why competition is a very good thing for you.

How your competition can help you

Healthy competition proves there is money in your niche. If there is no established competition the chances are the niche is not a profitable one or you will need to invest your money and time testing it.

Even if your company offers a product that is a new category creator as with Apple’s iPad – it’s just the delivery system that is more innovative but the consumer need to go online with a mobile device was already established by the ‘competition’.

You don’t need to create a new product category 

If your big idea isn’t as huge as Apple’s don’t let that knock you out of the game!

Your big idea may be something as simple as how you deliver your product or service with a twist. Some of the most compelling brands promote a simple idea.

Think Martha Beck style. Martha is Oprah’s favourite coach and she’s one in millions of life coaches but she stands out. Her big idea is that you can build your business around your unique life experience. This in itself doesn’t sound all that innovative does it?

You see it doesn’t have to be complicated but you must make your big idea your own.

One of my big ideas (of course I can’t be boxed in with just one! is that you can position yourself as an expert from day one of your business.

Again, there are lots of coaches and trainers talking about being experts right? The twist to my big idea is that you can do it from day one because it is more mindset than anything else.

Of course we’re talking here about professionals serving with integrity and specialising in a niche. If you want to take it further I can tell you that if you don’t have a targeted niche you won’t be able to position yourself as an expert even if you’re a real professional and delivering your service for 20 years!

This is the difference between simply being an expert and also positioning yourself as one.

So you see how my big idea can have a huge impact on my niche clients who can start charging premium rates from day one versus never having the mindset to do that.

It all starts with the awareness and sometimes that’s all a big idea is.

This week’s challenge is to research your ‘competition.‘

Find out who they serve, what they offer and what their big idea is.

Here are a few questions to get you started

What do you like?


What’s not so compelling?

Where are the weaknesses in what they offer?

How can you stand out in your own unique way?

Take some time to study your competition and I promise you’ll be able to gradually move away from feelings of fear and lack through to feelings of joyful abundance and creativity.

Would love to hear your thoughts. Leave a comment below and please share this week’s challenge.

Entrepreneurs, coaches and consultants or however you categorise yourself tend to have a lot of confusion around their niche.

I see people jumping around from one niche to another with no real plan or understanding of the damage this can cause.

How can you position you or your company as an expert solution in your niche if you keep changing it?

Hmmmm. I know. In your enthusiasm to ‘get clients’ and ‘make sales’ you may have let that marketing fundamental slip by.

I understand because I’ve certainly been guilty of trying to be all things to all people myself.

Entrepreneurs tend to get many ideas every day, some of them all at once!

This can cause what’s known in The Niche Expert community as an acute case of ‘Multiple Niche Disorder.’

I’m not saying you can’t operate successfully in multiple niches if you’re very focussed but if you try to do it when you’re not yet established in one niche it’s going to make everything that much harder for you.

Here are the 10 tell tale signs you’re suffering from chronic multiple niche disorder.

1) You describe yourself as a ‘multi-passionate entrepreneur’ but you struggle to pay your bills.

2) You don’t really have a business model. You’re just going to ‘share your gifts,’ and charge by the hour.

3) If you ask someone who knows you well what you do, they’re not really sure or may say something like ‘you have a finger in many pies.’

4) You don’t get any referrals because people don’t know who to refer to you and for what.

5) You jump from one guru to another trying to fit your business model into their system so you can model them.

6) You can ‘help everyone,’ or ‘anyone really.’ (This is a classic multiple niche symptom that runs rampant within health, marketing or life coaching)

7) You have 3 websites but no long term vision or plan to develop them into a real business this year.

8) You are never invited to speak at events or tele-summits.  (The magic key to attracting high level invitations to get your message in front of other people’s audiences is reserved only for experts who specialise in a topic)

9) You do a bit of this and a bit of that because you don’t want to commit to one niche.

10) You’ll get some coaching and training one day but now you don’t want to invest your time or money. (It’s impossible to have a breakthrough with the same thinking that got you stuck where you are now)

Remember that a very smart person once said ‘A confused mind says no.’

And that’s what your potential clients will say if you don’t have a clear niche and don’t know how to communicate what solution you offer.

This week’s challenge is to get clear on one niche that you’ll build your profitable business around so you can become an expert and be paid as one this year.

And then sweet one if you want to add another niche to your bow you have my bountiful blessing.

What are your thoughts? Let me know in the comments below.

Today’s challenge is about testing your current niche and/or committing to your niche so you can finally start getting paid some real money by your perfect clients and build a real business where you’re known as
the xxx coach or expert.

Here’s my 10 point checklist for you to test your niche to see if it’s profitable and purposeful for you right now.

1) Do you know WHO you want to help?  (The answer here should not be, ‘I can help everyone.’  If you want to market online with that lack of clarity you’ll drown.  Offline won’t be much better unless you’re a real
networking dynamo and can change hats faster than a stand up comedian.

2) Do these ‘perfect clients’ have the ability to pay what you want to charge?  A good example of this is if you want to work as a career coach and work with women to help them get back into the job market.  How will they pay you?  They either need to have the income to do so or you can align yourself with an organisation that has funding to pay you. Otherwise you’ll be a frustrated, broke coach!

3) Can you reach your perfect clients in large numbers?  You will need to get your solution in front of a lot of ideal clients for some of them to be in the right place to enroll with you today.  You need to know where to find them online and preferably offline too.

4) Do you know which keywords your perfect clients are tapping into Google to seek out the solution you offer?  If not you’re going to have a hard time being found online without being glued to social media all day.  Why not set up your online platform to generate highly targeted niche leads. (It’s not as hard as it sounds)

5) Who are your direct competitors?  Study their style and how they deliver their coaching and programs.  If you don’t bother with this how can you find your way to stand out?  Yes being your authentic self is a great start but you also need to be able to communicate your value in practical terms.  We cover your ‘Magnetic Expert Profile’ which is also known as branding in module 3 of the bootcamp.

6) Do you have the experience and skills to be able to deliver on your promises when you get a perfect client?  If you feel weak in this area you may sabotage yourself because you’ll be afraid of actually getting clients, believe it or not.

7) Do you feel passionate and excited about your niche?  If you are only ‘picking’ a niche because you think it’s profitable you’ll probably struggle with consistency because you’ll lack the passion to do the work to become known as the go to coach in this niche.  I recommend having two pillars to your business: Profitable & Purposeful. This is how you make big money but stay in integrity and fired up about your work.  Figure out how you can more closely align your niche or multiple niches with your bigger purpose.

8) Can you start a mega movement or at least a mini-mission? This is linked to no.7.  You don’t have to be a guru but you need to blaze a trail for your perfect clients to follow and if you’re not clear on your niche you can’t leave a trail.

9) Do you have an engaging hook?  People are motivated to solve their problems and not thinking, ‘oh I need a coach to help me to live my best life.‘  (That may be a bit of a blow to you and I’m sorry but that’s the truth)  What is the big problem you are going to help your client solve. Ideally it needs to be something that they are worrying about every day.

10) Have you spoken to real people who fit the criteria of your perfect clients?  See no.3 and create a little action plan for connecting with them right away so you can gather data about what your clients are really struggling with and want help with.  (It may be totally different to what you imagine)

There are many more aspects to finding your profitable niche but here are 10 that when applied will make a huge difference to your clarity and ability to build a real coaching, consulting or service business doing what you love.

When you are aligned with the right niche for you the horizon looks bright and beautiful and you can sleep well at night.

Take the challenge today and let me know what you think. If you’ve got any questions I’ll answer them in the comments box below or if you want to snag a free mini niche consult with me schedule yours here. (Limited availability)

I used to spend so much time reacting to other people’s agendas and and my internal conversation was often ‘I don’t have enough time.’

Yes I know the old argument that we all have 24 hours in a day blah blah.

Neither of us can deny that but the truth is that unless you start to operate on a much higher level of productivity you’ll never enjoy the time freedom to do the stuff you REALLY dream about doing.

Here are the 3 big mistakes that many coaches, consultants and solo service providers make without even realising it:

1) The don’t design their perfect working day, week, month and year.

The reason for this is that they think they will just start and when they have the money coming in they’ll figure it all out then.

But this rarely works well because by the time you have the money coming in you have clients or customers who expect certain things from you and you may find yourself a prisoner to your schedule.
It’s far easier to set your perfect client’s expectations upfront than to move the goal posts half way.

For example if you’re a coach, schedule in the periods that you want to be available for client sessions.  Batch them up into half days or full days and you’ll immediately save yourself hours of wasted time between sporadic sessions.

You can have whole days free to work on other projects when you batch your sessions or core profit activities like this. It’s liberating and you can finally enjoy the freedom you craved when you got into business instead of running your schedule to suit everyone else.

2) They don’t set their schedule boundaries.

The reason for this is that business owners feel fearful about not being on call or missing out on opportunities by not being available 24/7.

As in the coaching example above you can package up your sessions into programmes so that you and your clients know when you’ll be working together and they know which times and days you’re available in advance.  If you are ‘always available’ you’ll always be working and probably in a very unfocused, unproductive and exhausting way.

The reality is that when you set your schedule boundaries your clients will appreciate you much more and will benefit from your example of self care for their own life and business.

3) They don’t charge what they’re worth.

The most common mistake I see is that coaches, consultants, speakers and other service business owners don’t charge enough. Then they wonder why they feel they don’t have enough time.

The reason they don’t charge enough is that they have a nagging feeling that perhaps they’re not worth that amount or that they won’t be able to get clients if they charge more than a certain competitor.  (Often they haven’t done any other research and don’t really know what others in their field are charging and don’t have a clear niche vision)

In this example you can have 20 clients at $500 per month and make over $100k (approx £66k) per year or you can have 20 clients at $150 per month and make $36k (approx £24k)

What would you rather have? Here you can see a clear way to almost triple productivity and profits with a few simple tweaks to your programs and mindset.

What usually happens is that when you charge more, people appreciate you more and you attract more of your perfect clients who can actually afford to work with you.  You also stop having to talk about money
all the time.  Your clients also get better results because they are more committed to the process when you don’t price ‘cheap.’

The wonderful thing is by avoiding these 3 mistakes you’ll be able to create a much more productive and profitable business as well as a much better service or program for your clients.

It’s so critical to design the lifestyle you want BEFORE you design your business model because otherwise you’ll set up a business that doesn’t suit your long terms goals and dreams.

If you don’t set boundaries and decide what your perfect working day, week and year look like then it’s unlikely you’ll be able to step into living them.

This week’s challenge is to review the 3 mistakes and make any tweaks and changes you need to make so you can have the business you want this year!

There are so many amazing opportunities and ways of building an online business that you can end up accomplishing NOTHING due to lack of focus.

It can be very discouraging and I know how it feels because 
I’ve been there.

As a creative prone to ‘multiple niche disorder’ I’ve had to learn the hard way how to discipline myself into seeing things through and sticking with my plan.

In fact I have a note on my dream board as a daily reminder that says:

In the case of building an online or semi online business the plan must begin with creating or improving your platform.

Today we’ll cover the simple steps for you just in case you’ve been slipping into overwhelm or allowing yourself to be distracted and not sticking to YOUR plan!

1) Find or get greater clarity on your niche. It all starts here. You must know your niche  so that you know who you want to attract & serve, where your perfect clients or customers can be found AND what value you can
offer to them.

2) Plan your online marketing funnel and platform. Don’t skip this and think ‘I’ll just post some stuff on Facebook.’  Remember YOU don’t own Facebook – only Facebook and the shareholders own
it!  You have to have a good plan for where you want to go this year and beyond BEFORE you begin. (Begin with the end in mind)

3) Create your platform foundation. WordPress.org is the easiest and most effective foundation for your platform and you can start with a blog and develop it out to a full blown website.  If you could see how plain my blog looked when I started blogging for my first business I’m sure you’d feel very encouraged! 

4) Connect up all the other pieces for a money making platform:

You need a ‘gorgeous giveaway,’ which is a free gift that will motivate your perfect client or customer to exchange their email with you to receive.

You need your email marketing system set up so the giveaway is delivered automatically and you can stay in touch to build the relationship.

You need a blogging and content creation strategy.

You need stuff to sell & way to receive money. HELLO? I’ve lost track of the number of people I see online with a fancy pants platform which has no stuff that people want to buy.

If you want to make great money you have to have great stuff to sell.  Create a service (easiest to start with) or a product or sell someone else’s.  Or all of the above. That’s it.

5) Get traffic.  To be found online you need to develop to what I call a ‘Marketing Game Plan.’  Choose your methods (free or paid) and start generating leads with your new gorgeous giveaway.
Without traffic that converts to leads you can’t build a list of perfect clients and customers who will buy your products and services over the long term.

Well these are the basics.  I know you most likely know most of them in theory.

My question today is do you have them in place in a way that is making you consistent income?

If not you have a problem and need to do some planning & tweaking. Quite possibly you need to start all over if you have an outdated website and platform.

By the way most of my clients are surprised when they find out that I’m not a techie geek at all.  I outsource what I can’t do or don’t want to do.  And you can too so don’t let that drag you into overwhelm because when you are in overwhelm you’re not usually in a place where you can make money.

This week’s challenge is to review your platform using the 5 steps.

The online marketing space is evolving very fast and you need this foundation in place if you don’t want to be left behind and invisible online.

What do you think and where do you find yourself falling into overwhelm?

I don’t mean a list on your hard drive or a list in someone else’s database from promoting affiliate products.

I don’t mean a Facebook list or a Twitter list although they are good things to have too.

And I don’t even mean an email list where you’ve added people but they wouldn’t choose to be on that list of their own accord.

Going to networking meetings and adding everyone in the room to your email list without asking them if they’re interested to receive your newsletter does not a profitable list make!

Actually this is my pet hate.

Here we’re talking about your own email list.

An email list that you own …

An email list that is made up of people who have raised their hand to hear more from you on your topic or service again via email.

Can I be any clearer?

I’m emphasizing this today because most coaches, consultants & small business owners don’t have a real email list.

Many have a ‘friends’ or a ‘networkers’ list.

That can give you a warm fuzzy feeling in your tummy but won’t put cash in your bank account.

And if they do have a list they don’t know how to market to that list.

These are the two actions that can make the biggest difference for you in your earning potential this year.

A permission based list makes you recession proof and puts you in control.

But it doesn’t just happen by hanging out on social media or going to networking meetings.

You have to set your platform up online so that people desire to join your list.

The best way to do this is to create a compelling free giveaway for your niche.  If you don’t know your niche (your perfect clients and what your solution is for them) then you will struggle to create a ‘gorgeous’
giveaway tailored for them.

Once you have your niche and your giveaway in place at your website and/or squeeze page now you can start rocking your list.

You need a good email marketing tool to get started. Here’s the one my clients & I use: Email List Building

Here are the 3 main ways to get people on your list:

1) Meet your ideal clients offline by attending events where they will be so
let’s say you’re a life coach you would research events that serve your
ideal clients and attend, or speak at the events which is even better.
Be ever ready to connect with ideal clients and find out more about their
challenges and let them know you can help them with your free giveaway
or if they’re a hot prospect arrange to be in touch by phone to find
out more about their situation and take them to the next step.

2) Meet your ideal clients online.  Join groups where they hang out
and comment on websites and blogs where they visit and enter the
conversation with valuable (not pitchy salesy messages)
When blog or forum commenting make sure you include your
website URL which points to your giveaway free subscription and
people who like your comment can join your list immediately.

3) Attract your ideal clients online.  Create high value content via
your blog, guest posting on blogs in your niche, being interviewed
and taking part in video or tele-summits. Always have your
URL ready for your ideal clients to take the next step with you
by claiming your free gift. (Joining your list)

Boom! This is how it’s done.

Don’t let technology stop you building your own email list.  You can make big money with a small list as long as it is targeted for your niche and your main focus is to serve your list not to sell to it.

Always remember that the names on your list are real people with frustrations and big dreams.

You sell to your list by creating products and services that give the solution your people are looking for and/or recommending via affiliate programs products and services that you know will help them.

It’s not that hard and you don’t need a big list. Some people with big lists make less money than those with tiny niche lists.

It’s all about knowing your niche (your who and your what) because if you don’t know that you’re really not going to be able to make the big money you deserve.

The sooner you put this into practice and build your list to your first 500-1000 targeted niche subscribers the sooner you can escape the ‘chasing clients’ and ‘I’m not making any money online’ syndrome by learning how to market to your list.

The challenge this week is to start building your list or to focus on adding new subscribers.

Got questions or comments please let us know below.

In my book, The Niche Expert, I warn that if you don’t set up your online presence you’ll be trampled by the cyber foot.

Now that free high quality content is everywhere and so many people are online it’s time to go even deeper.

Creating good content isn’t enough.

What you need is specialized content because people are looking for solutions not just more information to plough through.

Think about it …

I bet you’re not thinking, ‘oh what can I spend hours of my precious time reading today?’

If you’re into the latest Ken Follett or a fascinating marketing course then the above may not apply but
I think you get the picture.

We’re not looking for more ‘stuff’ to do.


Your perfect clients are looking for quick and easy results.

That’s human nature.

No matter how we logically know that big results usually require a lot of effort, we’re still drawn to the quick and easy.

Your job as a solution provider therefore is to simply provide more easy solutions.

When you’re a specialist this becomes much easier. (Truly)

If you know who your target audience is and you know what their problems are it’s not that hard to come
up with some great solutions.

I’m living proof of that.

If I marketed my business as ‘general online marketing services’ how many people do you think would want to coach with me or read my book?

So if you haven’t planted your flag as a specialist yet and you’re still ‘marketing to everybody’ and creating
‘generally helpful’ content I urge you to rethink your strategy.

We’re living in the most exciting times the world has ever seen and we all have a global reach at the push of a button.


What will you do with your power?

Here’s 5 ways for you to start specializing today so you can attract the right clients and customers who want what you have:

Find your niche
(this is WHO your perfect client is and WHAT you specialize in)

Ask yourself WHY you want to be a specialist in this niche.
(without a strong motivation and excitement you will struggle to do what it takes)

Create your niche platform
(don’t let tech issues hold you back – get help with outsourcing and/or coaching)

Practice and improve your memorable marketing message (otherwise known as your USP or Unique Selling Proposition which is even more critical to stand out
online than off to get clients)

Create content, services & products that teach a specific strategy or give a solution
(so that your perfect clients know that you are their go-to-person for your niche).

So that’s it for today.
As Jim Rohn used to say, ‘it’s easy to do and easy not to do.’

This week’s challenge is to see where you measure up on these 5 points and to make an action plan to get all of them in place so you can stand out as the specialist or niche expert & get more perfect clients.

What do you think?  What are your challenges of becoming an expert in your online niche?

It can be overwhelming especially if you’re not as organized as you might like.

Many people fall prey to hopping about from one shiny new toy to another which is really just another form of procrastination.

I’ve certainly been guilty of it myself.

When you’re creating your marketing game plan, as we call it in The Niche Expert community, it can be tempting to dabble with methods instead of seeing things through to get results.

In reality it takes at least 6 months of consistent effort for most people to start seeing results from online efforts unless you already have ‘stuff’ to promote and are experienced in promoting.

Recently there’s been a lot of buzz about Ryan Deiss’s new program Authority ROI because he talks about blogging being dead and promotes recruiting writers to create content for your blog instead.

I’ve had a few panicked enquiries from clients and subscribers wondering if blogging or guest blogging is really dead so today’s post will help you decide if it’s the right strategy for you.

Blogging & Guest Blogging.

It all depends which side of the fence you’re on. Ryan is teaching a course on publishing so of course as a marketer he’s focusing on the winning angle from the publisher’s point of view.

On the other hand if blogging is dead and guest blogging is really a waste of time then it stands to reason that as a publisher you’ll struggle to get people to write for you so can this be true?

I don’t believe blogging is dead at all but Ryan is trying to get the attention of hard core bloggers who try to make a full time living with their blog alone.

If you implement the Marketing Game Plan strategy and have a product to promote you can create a real business not just a blog which has always been the end game for most of us.

The publishing model is brilliant and I’m applying it to one of my websites, as I took a coaching program with Mary Ellen Tribby called Inbox Empire.  Ryan’s new course is a spin off of this as they collaborated on Inbox Empire when it launched and Mary Ellen helped Ryan turn his websites into online magazine format.

So it’s not really a new strategy but that’s a good thing. When you decide which methods you’ll use and which business model to operate you want to go for proven models and methods.

I can’t imagine any coach, consultant, author or expert of any kind not benefiting by having a blog even if they only update it occasionally.

Yes if you’re the owner of a site like Forbes then perhaps you can get off the hook of updating your blog personally but is that the model you operate?

If on the other hand you want to get clients not just publish a newsletter then the more they can sample you personally the better and blogging is perfect for that.

Many publishing models promote other writers but even then the owner often contributes too because that is how you get your name and brand out there.

So for now I’d say even if you want to create an online magazine or website based on the publishing model you’re probably still going to need to create some content … otherwise you’re going to be held to ransom by writers.

If your main goal is to get clients or sell your products then don’t get confused by this because it’s a different model entirely.


What is guest blogging?

I’m not saying you do a few guest blogs (write for other websites in your niche) and you can retire and never work again as that would just be silly.

I am saying that if you’re strategic in the websites and blogs you choose to collaborate with you can benefit from guest blogging in multiple ways:

• You get ‘expert positioning’ by being featured as an expert in your niche

• You tap into what’s called ‘Other People’s Audience’s’

• You can generate leads if people reading your article click back to your website to subscribe

• If you have products you can collaborate with the website owner to recommend them which is a perfect next step to your published article

• When prospective clients google you and find you’ve been featured on other websites that validates you and your company

• When a little stream or a tidal wave of people flock to your site as a result of your guest posting, Google sees your site as popular ‘outside of Google’ which is major for the latest trends of search engine optimization. (Getting a bit geeky here)

• Can lead to regular content syndication like happened for me at The
 Bomb and Home Business Radio Network

• Are these enough benefits for you to start reaching out to websites in your niche and offering the occasional article?

It’s no different than trying to run a business without ever speaking to anyone.  If you want to get other people talking about your stuff you need to collaborate.

What’s the bottom line?

You’re not off the hook with blogging!  When blogging on your own blog you have a unique opportunity to get your voice out there to connect with your perfect clients and customers.

Even if you’re a total whiz on social media your prospects or potential clients still want to find out more before they enrol to work with you or buy your products and what easier way is there than pointing them to your blog?

If you have done your niche research you can also strategically be found on Google by the smart use of your niche keywords which you sprinkle through your blogs.

Confusing?

It can be if you haven’t had the training and coaching to help you with this.

So if you’re blogging and guest blogging without knowing how to use keywords and/or how to collaborate
with the publisher for a win win then it may well be a waste of time.

Otherwise keep on blogging!

The challenge this week is to research highly trafficked websites (use Alexa Toobar to see) in your niche that have audience’s that match the people you want to reach. Then connect with the owners and ask if they’re open to guest posts or follow the instructions at their website.

What do you think? I’d love to hear your thoughts on blogging and/or guest blogging.

If you’ve found this helpful please share on your fave social media because social validation is becoming increasingly important in Google’s eyes too.

You’re not confined to owning just one…

But if you’re already overwhelmed with one then it’s a good idea to focus on one first!

The big question is which is the right business model for you?

With so much information whizzing around the internet and so many shiny new toys I thought it would be helpful to pull apart the main three online business models for you at a glance:

Online Business Model 1: Guru or Niche Expert Model 

You build a brand and this model works especially well for authors, coaches, consultants, speakers & online marketers.


Where does the money come from?

Digital products, books, coaching, consulting, speaking, joint venture and affiliate revenue.  You either create or recommend products and services that your niche market (perfect who) need and want.

For more info on this model go here: The Niche Expert

Online Business Model 2: Affiliate Marketing

A full on affiliate model usually involves creating mini-websites around certain individual niches and keywords.

Where does the money come from?

People find your websites through the search engines and if the product you offer is a good match for their search they may well buy through your affiliate link.

For more info on this model go here: Affiliate Websites

Online Business Model 3: The Publishing Model

Multi-million dollar publishing companies have been using this model for decades and it’s becoming very popular online because with the internet anyone can do it. Think Oprah …without the studio!

Our new online magazine runs on this business model. You showcase experts in your chosen niche and publish their content which creates a valuable resource and a wonderful win-win for the publisher, the contributors and the readers.

Where does the money come from?

A combination of affiliate revenue, advertising and/or product creation through joint ventures (partnering with experts to create & publish products).

For the latest info on this model go here: Authority Hacks

It’s interesting to note that all three involve the publishing model, whether you’re creating content for your own brand, building mini-sites for affiliate marketing or curating content for an online resource, publishing is the name of the new media game.

This week’s challenge is to review your business model and make sure you have clarity on which one you’re operating and where the money is coming from.

If you found this helpful please share on your fave social media and/or leave a comment to let me know what you think.