9 Vital Statistics for Tracking Site Traffic

9 Vital Statistics for Tracking Site Traffic: "When you know who your visitors are, you can turn them into customers."

5 Easy Ways to Ramp Up Your E-Book Sales

5 Easy Ways to Ramp Up Your E-Book Sales: "

Once you’ve written your E-Book, got your Website up and integrated your shopping cart, you can sit back and start waiting for the money to come rolling in, right?

WRONG!

These days it’s getting harder than ever before to be able to get people to notice you – and just because “you build it” doesn’t mean they’re going to come.

So what’s an author to do?

Actually, thanks to all the tools that are available to you – including Web 2.0 – marketing your book – and ramping up your sales – is not as hard as you might think.

In fact, here are a few ideas to get your juices flowing. Add them to your sales plan, and use them as a jumping off place to help you make even more sales.

Create a long-term plan before you write even one word of your first book. The truth of the matter is that you’re probably never going to get rich from writing one E-book. So before you start writing your first book, start thinking about your second book. And the first product that will tie into your first book. And the second. And then the third.

Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Come up with as many different income streams as you can and plan to build them into your plan. For example, can you create a workbook from your E-book? What about recording some audio files that go into further details or give more information. What about doing a joint venture with other experts in your industry?

Sell more books at one time. If your book covers any one of a number of popular subjects – self-help or development, home improvement, business, religion – there are probably corporations, organizations or niche markets that are always on the look-out for inexpensive gifts or bonuses for their employees, clients or associates. Your book could be just the ticket. Although you might have to go down in price – what do you think sounds better? Selling one or two books at a time or selling box loads of them?

http://4u2bn.com/lh79

Once you’ve built up your credibility as a published author, it’s time to take things to the next level. Have you ever dreamed of attending seminars or workshops as a presenter? What about having a speaking career and being flown all over the world speaking to people in your niche market? If you don’t like traveling or crowds, consider putting together teleseminars or holding intimate bootcamps.

Create joint ventures. This is the fastest and easiest way to leverage your expertise and start raking in the cash. Find people who are in similar – but not competing industries as yours. Explore ways for you to provide value to both of your customers while you’re cross-selling or upselling.

For example, if you own a restaurant, what about creating a special Valentine’s Day promotion with the local florist. Offer free drinks or desserts to any of the florist’s customers who bring in a special card (that you’ve provided to them) when they come to your restaurant. And your joint venture partner (the florist) gives you roses or carnations that can be given out to any women when their companion gives you the special dessert card.

See how simple that is? Real value that makes your customers happy, and builds loyalty and trust – and positions both of you as the first people your customers think of when they need flowers or want a romantic restaurant or a place to eat during a special occasion

http://4u2bn.com/lh79

Thanks
Joseph Vaughn

Want To Make Passive Income While You Sleep?
Discover How You Can Now Quickly Create Your Own
Branded Cash Producing Viral Ebooks With Just A Few
Clicks That Spread All Over The Web
http://4u2bn.com/lh79

Social Bookmarking"

4 Ways To Package Your Content For High Sales

4 Ways To Package Your Content For High Sales: "

Experienced information marketers know that creating the product is only half the process. Learning how to effectively package your content so that it is attractive to buyers is just as important as finding your niche. It doesn’t matter how good your product is if no one wants to buy it. The same pages of information can be packaged in many different ways. Look over the following options and determine which method would be right for your niche and their needs.

Remember the acronym P.E.R.M.

P – Physical Products

E – Ebooks

R – Reports

M – Membership Sites

Physical products: Physical products offer you the ability to put something real and tangible in the hands of your buyers. Physical products are often marketed as “home study courses” which can be set at a higher price point than an eBook or a set of online videos. Although you will have to pay for the production of the book, the videos or the audio CDs, you can more than make up for those costs with your price point. With certain topics, physical products just make more sense.

eBooks: Can be anywhere from 30 to 200 pages long. They normally offer a more widespread look at a topic than a short report, but they have the potential for covering a lot more topic areas in the niche. The advantage of eBooks is that they can be priced at higher rates than short reports. They are automatically delivered to your customers so they get the instant gratification of having the product immediately. eBooks can be paired with supplemental reports, audios or videos depending on the niche and how many resources you want to offer your customers.

Reports: Short reports are typically between 5 and 20 pages. They go in depth on a small part of a topic instead of giving a general overview like most large eBooks do. With a short report, you’re normally giving someone an actionable plan that they can use to fix an aspect of their life. “How to Calm a Colicky Baby”, “How to Improve Your Golf Slice” and “How to Lose 5 Lbs this Weekend” are all examples of the narrow focus of short reports. If you have a larger topic, sometimes breaking it down into short reports and offering them separately is a great way to make more money and establish your authority in the niche.

Membership sites: If you have a lot of information on a niche and feel that you can provide month after month of content, you can create a membership site. The benefit of making a membership site with your content is that you earn money each month from multiple members. Instead of having a one time sale for your content, you can earn from it continuously. Your membership site can take many different forms. You can offer weekly or monthly reports delivered to your members’ inboxes. You can host a forum where members can meet and discuss the niche. You can also offer training through a private blog. The options are endless!

Before you decide on your product delivery system, make sure to research your niche to see what the norm is. Figure out what would be best for your niche and proceed accordingly.

If you need some more guidance or you’re just getting started, be sure to pick up your copy of: Information Product Sweetie. You’ll learn everything from how to conduct market research, how to create awesome products and how to follow it up with a great marketing campaign.

"

Market Research in 5 Simple Steps

Market Research in 5 Simple Steps: "

Ready to conquer a new niche, but want to make sure you’re on the right track? You can’t just build a site on underwater basket weaving – you’ve got to make sure that:

1. People are looking for information on the topic


2. That there are buyers (not just freebie seekers)


3. There are actual products you can sell or affiliate with

1. KEYWORD RESEARCH

Initially, you’ll do your keyword research. That is, identifying a possible niche and running it through Market Samurai to see if it’s got potential. You want a keyword that has a decent number of people searching for it (so your new site gets traffic) but also doesn’t have too much competition.

I’ve put together a series of videos to show you how to use Market Samurai to dig out profitable keywords quickly, the most recent one is below:

For all the videos in this series (and more free niches you can steal) check out the Steal This Niche page.

2. MONETIZATION

Next, we ensure that the niche can be properly monetized. Are there products you can create and sell, or simply affiliate with, within the niche? If not, the niche is dead and we should move on to another.

To check that a niche can be monetized, we can use the “Monetization” Module inside Market Samurai.

We can also do a Google search and see if any of the top results or Adwords ads displayed on the right have affiliate programs.

Checking sources like Clickbank, Datafeedr, Ebay, Amazon, Commission Junction and ShareASale can identify further affiliate opportunities.

You want to have a laundry list of products you can sell on your site, so when it’s time to build, you know you have an offer for site visitors.

Also, make sure the products you’re identifying are a tight match for the keyword you identified with Market Samurai. If you identify people as searching for “How to make your own soap,” you don’t want attempt to sell them a candle making kit. Yes, people interested in making their own soap might well be interested in making their own candles too, but it’s not a perfect message-to-market match. You need a perfect match from what your users are searching for and what you’re selling to encourage sales.

3. SOCIAL MEDIA BUZZ

Checking the social media buzz for a niche serves two purposes:

1. Ensuring that people are talking about your niche. If they’re not, it’s dead. People must be interested enough in it to talk about it, otherwise they’re probably not buying.


2. Give you a point of entry to use social media marketing in your campaign. Checking the buzz allows you to identify the social media sites, forums, blogs etc. that are most active within your niche. When it’s time to promote and build links, you’ll already know the hotspots for your niche.

You can go to each social media site individually and use the search function to check if there’ buzz, but that’s tedious. Plus, it leaves out blogs and forums, which can be a huge source of conversation and potential traffic.

Instead, use the service WhosTalkin. You simply search for your keyword and you’ll get a look across all kinds of social media platforms where people are sharing images, articles, thoughts, videos and chatter. Plus, it gives you an RSS feed for your search so you can subscribe to it in Google Reader and catch everything people are saying within the niche and respond to it once your site is up.

Another place to check is SocialMention. While this service isn’t as comprehensive as WhosTalkin, it gives you a look, in the sidebar, of the reach, passion, positive & negative percentages and top users talking about your topic.

4. TOPIC TRENDING

You don’t want to climb on a niche bandwagon when it’s just about to die. So check with Google Trends and Google Insights to identify any patterns in your niche. Does it peak at certain times? Is it generally climbing upwards or downwards? Where is it right now in relation to where it’s been in the past?

Don’t beat a dead horse (or niche). If it’s time in the spotlight has ended, take a pass on it and find another niche with a longer lifespan.

5. VERTICALS & RELATED MARKETS

You may have identified other related markets (that may be more profitable, or could provide you with other categories, topics or subtopics for your site). We’ll investigate those further to ensure we’ve covered all our bases in our keyword research. Simply follow the tips above for any related markets, keywords, niches or sub-niches you’ve found.

To identify additional related markets, check with the following sites:

• Keyword Spy


• SpyFu


• SEMRush

With each of the above resources, you’ll be able to get an idea of the advertising spend in the market, as well as other, related keywords you can look into further.

CrowdMountain members, check your members area over the next few days – we’ve got some pre-made markets ready for you so you can just jump right in to site building!

Related posts:

1. Steal This Niche – For the Shortys
2. Steal This Niche – Intro
3. The difference between #1 and #2 is HUGE!

"

Telecommuting in the 21st Century: How to Implement or Improve Virtual Teams and Flexible Work in Your Organization (Part 7: Where Do We Start?)

Telecommuting in the 21st Century: How to Implement or Improve Virtual Teams and Flexible Work in Your Organization (Part 7: Where Do We Start?): "

Welcome to Part 7 of our 13 part audio series on Flexible Work and Telecommuting - Telecommuting in the 21st Century: How to Implement or Improve Virtual Teams and Flexible Work in Your Organization“.

When looking to roll out telework or flexwork in your organization it often helps to start with a pilot program. This can help you gather important feedback, make sure you have the right technology in place, and help you recognize any speed bumps that might arise when expanding your program throughout the rest of your company. The size of your company will dictate how formal and involved this process needs to be. However having some type of trial period is always a good way to start.

In part 7 of our podcast we look at steps for successful telework implementation and how to get started.

So listen in to Part 7: Where Do We Start?

.

OUR PANEL OF EXPERTS:

Jeff Zbar : Founder of ChiefHomeOfficer.com (and faciliator for our discussion on telecommuting).

Rachel Hastings: Vice President of WFC Resources Inc.

Phil Montero: CEO of Montero Consulting and Founder of YouCanWorkFromAnywhere.com and TheAnywhereOffice.com.

Want the whole story?

Listen to all 13 parts of Telecommuting in the 21st Century.

We hope you find this audio series useful – please take a moment to post a comment and share your thoughts and feedback with us below!

Subscribe (in the right hand column) to be sure you don’t miss anything!

What to Look for in a Telework Candidate?

"

Beyond Articles: 10 Creative Ways to Distribute Your Content

Beyond Articles: 10 Creative Ways to Distribute Your Content: "So you’ve got a great article written. You’ve done your keyword research and placed it in strategic but natural places throughout your article. The article is informative and engaging, and it has a compelling call to sign up for your newsletter.
What next? Put your article to work – again and again. Of course, you would [...]"

Beyond Articles Part 2: 10 More Creative Ways to Distribute Your Content

Beyond Articles Part 2: 10 More Creative Ways to Distribute Your Content: "Last week, I gave you 10 ideas for spreading one single article all over the Internet without having to rewrite or spinning it.
If you take the extra time and effort to rewrite, you’ll get even more content out there to promote your business. It’s much easier to create new content when you already have something [...]"

3 Ways To Find Ideas For Your Next Information Product

3 Ways To Find Ideas For Your Next Information Product: "

Once you’ve written a successful information product, you should follow up on your success with another product. Whether you write a product in the same niche or go on to conquer another niche, it’s important that you use the momentum from your first product to fuel your second, and so on. If you’re stuck for ideas on where to find and idea for your product, you’ll find that creating a new eBook is as easy as A.B.C.

A – ASK your list members

If you’ve built a list from selling your first information product (and you should have!) the keys to creating your next product are just a few e-mails away. Your list can be a goldmine when it comes to product ideas. Create a survey using a free online survey program (like SurveyMonkey.com) and ask your customers what topic they are most interested in learning about next. You can make the questions multiple choice and give them a few different options. Add the link to the survey in your autoresponder program and then gather the results from your previous buyers.

This product idea method works really well because not only have you already established yourself in the niche, but you know that you have ready made buyers if you can create a product your list is looking for. Since surveys are so easy to set up, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be using this for product creation.

B – BROWSE through the product affiliate networks.

A great way to find a surefire product idea is to look at the product affiliate networks, like Clickbank, Ejunkie or Paydotcom. I’m not talking about ripping off ideas. I’m talking about finding existing gaps in the market and filling those needs. For example, if you’re looking through Clickbank and notice a lot of products on growing your own organic garden you know that those sellers are tapping into a profitable market. However, you also notice that not one of these books talks about how to store the abundance from your organic garden. This is an important part of making the most out of your garden. Since so many people are growing organic gardens these days, it’s going to be a profitable niche. On top of that, you can contact one of the people who have a gardening eBook and do a joint venture.

C – CHECK out peaking trends.

Tools like Google Trends can help you find out what topics are growing in popularity. By jumping on a rising topic, you can be the first to the market with a topic. Being the first product in a particular niche can secure your dominance in that niche, even after other people jump on the bandwagon. Keep an eye on peaking trends and see how you can create a product to meet the needs of those in on that trend.

Any one of these methods could give you enough topics for your next ten products. Don’t sit on your laurels after you’ve created your first product. Use that momentum to jump on the next product idea and you’ll be able to build a long term infomarketing business.

If you need some more guidance or you’re just getting started, be sure to pick up your copy of: Information Product Sweetie. You’ll learn everything from how to conduct market research, how to create awesome products and how to follow it up with a great marketing campaign. Comes with training guide, checklists, bonus audio on info product creation, website templates. PLUS, you’ll also get a cool bonus report, audio, and checklist on generating more product launch sales.

"

Business Plan Mistakes

Business Plan Mistakes: "

Affiliate Post of the Week: Business Plan Mistakes

By Palo Alto Software, Inc.

Often you may hear about what a business plan consists of. While including the necessary items is very important, you also want to make sure you don’t commit any of the following common business plan mistakes:

1. Putting it off: Don’t wait to write a plan until you absolutely have to. Too many businesses make business plans only when they have no choice in the matter. Unless the bank or the investors want a plan, there is no plan.

Don’t wait to write your plan until you think you’ll have enough time. “There’s not enough time for a plan,” business people say. “I can’t plan. I’m too busy getting things done.” The busier you are, the more you need to plan. If you are always putting out fires, you should build firebreaks or a sprinkler system. You can lose the whole forest for paying too much attention to the individual burning trees.

2. Cash flow casualness: Cash flow is more important than sales, profits, or anything else in the business plan, but most people think in terms of profits instead of cash. When you and your friends imagine a new business, you think of what it would cost to make the product, what you could sell it for, and what the profits per unit might be. We are trained to think of business as sales minus costs and expenses, which equal profits. Unfortunately, we don’t spend the profits in a business. We spend cash. So understanding cash flow is critical. If you have only one table in your business plan, make it the cash flow table.

3. Idea inflation: Plans don’t sell new business ideas to investors. People do. The plan, though necessary, is only a way to present information. Investors invest in people, not ideas.

Don’t overestimate the importance of the idea, particularly the importance of the uniqueness of the idea. You don’t need a great idea to start a business; you need time, money, perseverance, common sense, and so forth. Very few successful businesses are based entirely on new ideas. A new idea is much harder to sell than an existing one, because people don’t understand a new idea and they are often unsure if it will work.

4. Fear and dread.

Doing a business plan isn’t as hard as you think. You don’t have to write a doctoral thesis or a novel. There are good books to help, many advisors among the Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs), business schools, and there is software available to help you (such as Business Plan Pro, and others).

5. Spongy, vague goals: Leave out the vague and the meaningless babble of business phrases (such as “being the best”) because they are simply hype. Remember that the objective of a plan is its results, and for results, you need tracking and follow up. You need specific dates, management responsibilities, budgets, and milestones. Then you can follow up. No matter how well thought out or brilliantly presented, it means nothing unless it produces results.

6. One size fits all: Tailor your business plan to its real business purpose. Business plans can be different things: they are often just sales documents to sell an idea for a new business. They can be detailed action plans, financial plans, marketing plans, and even personnel plans. They can be used to start a business, or just run a business better.

7. Diluted priorities: Remember, strategy is focus. A priority list with 3-4 items is focus. A priority list with 20 items is something else, certainly not strategic, and rarely if ever effective. The more items on the list, the less the importance of each.

8. Hockey-stick shaped growth projections: Have projections that are conservative so you can defend them. When in doubt, be less optimistic.

Source: bplans.com

Technorati : Business Plan, Marketing, Marketing Plan, Palo Alto Software, Planning

"

Facebook Pages the Impact Marketing Way

Facebook Pages the Impact Marketing Way: "

by Guest Blogger, Maria Reyes-McDavis

Whether you need a Facebook Page or not is no longer in question. The real question is how you’ll use a Facebook page in the big picture of your online marketing to create Impact and results. There are 3 steps to get to the right answer for your business. This is the first of 3 posts that will explore the reality of marketing your business with Facebook pages.

Impact Marketing:

Connect + Engage + Impact = Results

Connect

Every business, large and small, must have a Facebook Page, period. There is no way to get around this reality. If you’ve already heard that before, you may not understand why or you’re being told this for all the wrong reasons. So, let’s explore…

First, building business starts with being visible. Meaning, your first task in online marketing is about getting found. If your audience cannot find you – game over. You get found by being where your audience is at all times. Of course you need the right message, but that’s an entirely different post

In the Impact Marketing equation referenced above, getting found is about the Connect. It is the first of 3 steps you have to take to build your business online. A Facebook Page is required because it adds to your Connect along with your ability to be found in the world’s largest social network of people and within search engines since Facebook has opened its network in recent months.

Facebook Page Connect Tip: Your FB page is an extension of your online hub (hopefully a blog site). Make sure your page is not only set up to connect with fans on Facebook, but to also direct them to connect with you at the center of your world, your blog site. One way to do that is to add an Impactful welcome tab to your page:

Note the connection opportunities present throughout.

The Connect game is all about reach and intelligent automation, especially for the time-starved solo-professional. Tie your hub to connect points like your Facebook page by using services like Hootsuite, which ties to Ping.fm, which will then automatically update a significant part of your entire social media presence quickly and easily, including your FB pages.

In the second part of this series, the Engage game, we’re going to take you past the Connect, past visibility and automation into the world of marketing that creates leveraged relationships so that your reach begins its transformation into revenue. See you then!

About the Author:

Officially, they call me the insanely brilliant @WebSuccessDiva. {wink} I’d rather you know that I’m a Child of God, wife, mother of 3, serial online entrepreneur, digital marketer, advisor, teacher, tech-geek, and classic car lover. In that order I help small businessES, non-profits, and ministries build profitable legacies that Impact the communities they serve using blogging, online marketing, and social media.

I work with Impact agents who are leaders not followers, self-believers not self-promoters… We can connect on my Impact Agent blog or at the Impact Marketing Zone. I’m looking forward to it

"

The Course in Mastery – Day 8 – How to Listen

The Course in Mastery – Day 8 – How to Listen: "The Course in Mastery - Day 8 - How to Listen



How to Listen: Day 8 of a 30 day challenge designed to help you gain balance in your life.

Today, Tom Wood describes the amazing impact actively listening has on your ability to communicate and Dr. Tony Alessandra gives specific ..."

The Course of Mastery – Day 7 – How To Take Action

The Course of Mastery – Day 7 – How To Take Action: "The Course of Mastery - Day 7 - How To Take Action



How to Take Action: Day 7 of a 30 day challenge designed to help you gain balance in your life.

Today, Tom Wood gives steps to follow in order to take action effectively and Dr. Barbara De Angelis gives ..."

The Course in Mastery – Day 6 – The Unlimited Power of Belief

The Course in Mastery – Day 6 – The Unlimited Power of Belief: "The Course in Mastery - Day 6 - The Unlimited Power of Belief



The Unlimited Power of Belief: Day 6 of a 30 day challenge designed to help you gain balance in your life.

Today, Tom Wood and Dr. Janet Lapp explain the impact that faith has on your level of ..."

Get Your Brand on Every Social Network with KnowEm

Get Your Brand on Every Social Network with KnowEm: "One of the biggest advantages of social media is the ability to get your brand Web-wide recognition among very active consumers across any number of niches, large and small. One of the biggest disadvantages is the massive amount of time it takes to get these profiles set up and keep them maintained. You can also run into problems when someone else...



[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]"

AddThis - the #1 Bookmarking and Sharing Service

AddThis - the #1 Bookmarking and Sharing Service: "

AddThis - the #1 Bookmarking and Sharing Service

Source: www.addthis.com

Increase traffic with the easiest, most popular sharing tool in the world. Served 30 billion times a month to 500 million people in 50 languages.

This looks like a valuable service???

"

Apps for SalesForce: Free, Popular and Downright Nifty

Apps for SalesForce: Free, Popular and Downright Nifty: "If creating and maintaining positive relationships with customers is your focus (like it should be) then you won’t need convincing that CRM software is a key to your success. While there many vendors touting their wares, market leader SalesForce is where many companies are turning. In addition to being the most robust solution available,...



[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]"

Web Content Writing Resources

Web Content Writing Resources: "

As promised, I’m also going to share some of my favorite resources for developing web content. Writing doesn’t come easy for everyone, but you may be surprised to learn that even some of your favorite writers use checklists, outlines and even PLR (private label rights) content.

I do myself, and I shared my outline for blog posts in my How to Write A Blog Post tutorial. I also recently shared a detailed PLR Article Rewrite.

And while I’ve been writing web content for years (more than a decade, actually), I am still constantly looking to learn and improve my writing skills. What follows are some of my favorite, and most used resources…

Write That Report

This report by Jonathan Leger is only $7, and is one of my personal favorites. It provides an outline for writing reports, which is the style I work best with, and also teaches you how to come up with topics and the technical side of publishing and selling (or giving away) your reports.

I sell short reports to make money and to build targeted lists of buyers, and I use free reports as part of my affiliate marketing strategy. I have also been creating rebrandable reports lately, which is great for those who have affiliates – or for viral marketing campaigns.

Article Marketing for Beginners

Don’t let the title fool you – this tutorial is not just for beginners. In fact, there are several of us way beyond beginner stage taking and loving this course. It’s by Jeff Herring (THE Article Marketing Guy), and you can read my review here. See the comments after too, to hear other people’s thoughts on it.

Article Marketing is incredibly important to your overall marketing strategy, and is one of the easiest ways to get high quality relevant backlinks to your website or blog (or your individual posts or pages). Considering how successful Jeff Herring is at this particular strategy, from titles to bylines, it pays to study from the best.

PLR Secrets (Free Report)

Another great resource that I read, and found a lot of inspiration in, is PLR Secrets by Jimmy D Brown and Nicole Dean. This is a great free starting point if you’re interested in exploring PLR and/or the idea of creating your own short reports. A great companion to Jonathan Leger’s guide (above).

Easy PLR

This is Nicole Dean’s PLR site, and it’s one of my personal favorites (yes, I’m a customer!) because she offers such a variety in niche content. You’ll find PLR content for niches like fitness, diet, holidays, blogging, frugal living, membership sites, pregnancy, ecommerce, Feng Shui – you name it. She also offers a variety of formats such as ecourses, articles and reports. I do a lot of mix and match there…

Internet Marketing Special Report Club

Another great source that I use is Melissa Ingold’s special report club. She has some quality PLR reports & articles, and often runs special offers. Check out her Free PLR Package here for a test-drive.

Nicheology

This is one of the original PLR sites, and has been around for years. I was a member when it was originally started by Jimmy D Brown and Ryan Deiss. It is now operated by Paul Evans and Mark Thompson – and you’d be hard pressed to meet two nicer guys. Not only do they offer tons of exclusive content with private label rights, but they also offer a lot of training and tutorials as well.

They recently instated a $197 sign-up fee due to the wealth of content and resources available immediately once you join, but this link will give you back door access to join without paying the sign-up fee.

Need-an-Article Writing Service

You can have content written for practically any purpose, including: articles, press releases, blog posts, website content, etc. And you can have this content written for as little as $5. They even offer re-write services for your PLR content. This is a very cost-effective writing or re-writing service for those of you that prefer cheap outsourcing.

I also want to recommend two blogs you should follow – and these two blogs are written by members of my own private mastermind group:

Web Copy Results by Trish Lindemood. She is currently doing a 90-Day Content Marketing Challenge. Also, Affiliate Treasure Chest by Susanne Myers.

Both of these ladies are currently running a content challenge and their blogs are chock full of resources and ideas for developing consistent content. Susanne’s latest post is How To Come Up With Article Ideas That Are Perfect For Deep Linking, for example. Great stuff!

I hope these web content writing tips & resources proved helpful for you, and sparked some new ideas you can use to create fresh content for your blog or website. These are the same ideas and resources that I use every single day across my own blogs and websites.

Best,

p.s. My next post in the Web Content Writing series is a Q&A. Feel free to leave your own questions on creating great content below for potential inclusion. You may also want to sign up for my upcoming report titled Easy Unique Content.

"

June Holley and The Art of Being Rhizomatic (The Practice of Network Weaving)

June Holley and The Art of Being Rhizomatic (The Practice of Network Weaving): "

Meeting June Holley for the first time!

Last week, as part of my work at the Packard Foundation as visiting scholar I had the opportunity to participate in a face-to-face convening of the 'Network of Network Funders,' facilitated by the Monitor Institute. The most exciting moment for me was to meet June Holley face-to-face - the guru of network weaving.

What the heck is network weaving? Here's a good basic definition from a blog post titled 'The Power of Network Weaving' from the Network Weaving Blog

Network weavers are people who intentionally and informally - and often serendipitously - weave new and richer connections between and among people, groups, and entities in networks. They also weave new and richer connections between among networks.

Note that the definition uses the plural form, network weavers versus network weaver. That was one of my ah ha moments from June's presentation and subsequent discussion. You want everyone in your network to do network weaving on different levels. Take a look at June Holley's list of characteristics and you'll quickly see that network weavers wear a variety hats - networkers, project coordinators, facilitators, and guardians. I might also add 'technology stewards.'

June urged us not to think narrowly about Network Weaving as a specific job description, but rather as a role. 'You don't hire someone to be a network weaver. You want someone who is open to learning and a good listener and can teach others network weaving skills. You want to spread the capacity throughout the network.' You extend networking weaving skills by using a peer learning model not a traditional training model.

June Holley used the metaphor of 'Being Rhizomatic' and explains it as where every bud contains the nourishment for other buds. She used an image of a single tree. A single tree can be cut down or die from lack of water. But in a bamboo forest (a unique rhizome) -- the trees are connected through the roots and if one tree gets nutrients and supports others.

The image that came to mind for me was from the movie Fantasia and the scene in The Sorcerer's Apprentice when many brooms come to life from the one chopped up broom. (Go 5:49 in the clip)

Source: Flickr Photos

June Holley emphasized the importance of self-organizing, she said 'Network weavers catalyze small joint actions between groups of two or three people. She talked about the importance of online collaboration and project management tools as a way to support those self-organized actions. (My single next action step is to set up a sand box with June and others to explore some of these tools in the context of network weaving.)

She also introduced a new (to me) concept: Network Guardian. This is someone who isn't doing the day-to-day work, but thinks about how the network could be more than it is. They think about the network structure, evaluation, communication, training, opportunities, and reflection.

June also described some of the tasks that network weaving may include. One might be drawing the map of the network's connections and facilitating a discussion about what the network looks like. Angus Parker from Wiser Earth recently blogged about this in 'How To Weave A Tighter Network.'

One connection I made is that nonprofit social media strategists like Carie Lewis from the Human Society, Danielle Brigida, NWF, Wendy Harman from the Red Cross, Apollo Gonzalez from NDRC, Constance DeCherney from Planned Parenthood, and others are doing some form of network weaving - whether it be their Facebook or Twitter networks or possibly internally between departments. It also made me wonder whether there might be a hunger for a professional peer group of social media network weavers.

I took that idea into a small peer assist session. My question: Is there a network of peers who do network weaving for nonprofits to support external communications? For starters, I'm going to ask Holly Ross at NTEN that we have a birds of a feather table at the NTC10 or if I get ambitious I will sign up to lead an affinity group meeting. As we discussed this, I realized that perhaps the frame was too small.

Maybe we need to do some field building for nonprofit network weavers in general as well as consultants who work with Network weavers. And while this would include those who work for nonprofits on social media strategy for external communications, it would include network weavers more broadly. There might be a sub-group or interest area on technology. Maybe this conversations could take place on an existing community of practice (Iscale).

• Are you practicing network weaving skills in your nonprofit or network?
  
• What are you learning about network weaving?
  
• What inspires you about network weaving potential?

"

Why Companies Shouldn’t Block Social Media in the Workplace

Why Companies Shouldn’t Block Social Media in the Workplace: "Over half of U.S. businesses block social media sites at work, yet 94% of businesses are acknowledging the importance of social media and are starting to invest in it? It’s kind of like being a retail business that doesn’t let its employees buy anything."

Creating Facebook Fan Pages – by Monique Cloutier

Creating Facebook Fan Pages – by Monique Cloutier: "*These videos were created today as a response to immediately helping out a new facebook friend and fan Chris King. She is a great friend and I recommend that you also become her friend and fan on facebook ( http://www.facebook.com/chris.king1 ) and beyond. *



Here is a video in 2 ..."

Social Media for Small Business

Social Media for Small Business: "

Here is my presentation from today, helping to kick off Small Business Week. It was an early morning breakfast with the Summerside Chamber of Commerce and only about 20 minutes long. Enjoy!

Social Media for Small Business

View more presentations from Kerr Consulting.

"

The Leader in You by Dale Carnegie - Free eBooks Download

The Leader in You by Dale Carnegie - Free eBooks Download: "

Gary Gray The Leader in You by Dale Carnegie - Free eBooks Download - http://www.ebook3000.com/The-Lea... 14 hours ago from Facebook - Comment - Like

"

The Course in Mastery – Day 5 – The Power of Associations

The Course in Mastery – Day 5 – The Power of Associations

The Course in Mastery – Day 4 – Taking Responsibility

The Course in Mastery – Day 4 – Taking Responsibility

The Course in Mastery – Day 3 – The Slight Edge

The Course in Mastery – Day 3 – The Slight Edge: "The Course in Mastery - Day 3 - The Slight Edge"

The Course in Mastery Day 2 – The Power of Goal Setting

The Course in Mastery Day 2 – The Power of Goal Setting: "The Course in Mastery Day 2 - The Power of Goal Setting"

The Course in Mastery – Day 1 – The Psychology of Success

The Course in Mastery – Day 1 – The Psychology of Success: "The Course in Mastery - Day 1 - The Psychology of Success"

Vaynerchuk: Use Social Media to "Crush It" in Business

Vaynerchuk: Use Social Media to "Crush It" in Business: "Gary Vaynerchuk, aka @GaryVee, says being successful doing what you love is now much more possible, provided you are willing to work tremendously hard - and leverage sites like Twitter and Facebook."

Fulfillment Solutions for E-Commerce

Fulfillment Solutions for E-Commerce: "For e-commerce business owners, product and marketing are typically core competencies while managing inventory and shipping solutions often are not. But not focusing on these parts of a business can often result in a poor consumer experience. This is where fulfillment companies step in as partners with expertise to allow merchants time to focus on...



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Our Canada

Hi

An example of how doing business in today's world of web 2.0 (social media) technology is changing.

"Our Canada magazine" Part of the Readers Digest Canada family.



The business world is changing. Are you?

Smiles :o)

Gary

Only 12 Percent Leverage Video in News Releases

Only 12 Percent Leverage Video in News Releases: "Despite the growing use of online video among U.S. consumers, businesses have yet to fully leverage the use of video in press releases, according to a new report by PRWeb. The results of a new PRWeb survey showed a huge disparity between those who find it valuable to implement video in press releases and those who actually do it. Of the 1,817...



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Making the Transition to One-to-One Marketing

Making the Transition to One-to-One Marketing

Shared via AddThis

One-to-One Marketing on the Web

One-to-One Marketing on the Web

Shared via AddThis

Must-Have Skills For IT Leaders

Must-Have Skills For IT Leaders: "Seven tips to help you manage effectively."

Creative Facebook Page Marketing

Creative Facebook Page Marketing: "

I like to find creative ways people promote their Facebook fan Page (see the Bath and Body Works Facebook Page - just started this month and over 60,000 fans already).

I went to Bath & Body Works recently (amazing marketers — they get you in for a free product and before you know it you’ve spent $50 on lotion you didn’t even need!), and on the bottom of the receipt…

Facebook marketing

You can see their pitch for being a Facebook fan and to sign up for text messaging. I think they call this receipt marketing.

The other is from an NPR show called, “In the Loop with Jeff Horwich.” He sings a charming song about his Facebook Fans.

What creative ways have you seen people promote their Facebook Page?

"

10 useful video sites to teach you new tech skills

10 useful video sites to teach you new tech skills: "Here are 10 video sites that will improve your tech knowledge, starting from amateur tips and tricks at the top, to more advanced techniques and tech skills towards the bottom of the list."

5 Types of Web Content That Readers Love

5 Types of Web Content That Readers Love: "

There are 5 types of web content that your readers will love - that are also very easy to write.

This quick list, with tips & examples, should get your creativity flowing with fresh ideas for new web content you can add to your blog or website.

A consistent combination of these 5 different types of content will keep your readers interested and coming back for more…

• HOW-TO

How-to Content is instructional, and teaches your readers how to do something specific. This content will usually end up being your most read and your most linked-to posts or pages.

Tip: To find ideas for how-to content, add the word “how” with your main keyword when you’re doing keyword research. For example, if you sell curtains online you could type how curtain into your favorite keyword tool.

Using the ‘how’ qualifier in your keyword research will tell you exactly what people want to read: how to make curtains, how to hang curtains, how to measure curtains, etc.

Example: How to Write A Blog Post

• REVIEWS

Product reviews are the first thing that come to mind, but you can publish a review on practically anything: popular websites in your niche, new blogs or a blog post series, news stories in the mainstream media channels, discussion forums, magazines, meet-ups - basically anything of interest to your readers that you can write an opinion about.

Example: 7 Small Business Ideas Most Likely To Fail

Tip: While you may worry that you’re sending your readers to your competitors, they will actually start seeing you a go-to source for cool new things to check out. Keep an eye out for new or interesting things to share with your readers.

Writing Product Reviews is a great way to monetize your site or blog. Check out that link for the 7 elements that go into a great product review that will help your readers make their buying decision.

Example: Article Marketing For Beginners Review

• QUICK TIPS

Not every piece of content you write has to be a thousand word essay. Sometimes a simple paragraph or two, maybe 300 words minimum, will suffice to share something interesting or to get a simple point across.

Example: New Free Video From John Reese

This works particularly well with blogs or email newsletters, and can be mixed in between your longer meatier types of content. It’s helpful when you need to write in a hurry, and still gives your readers something new and interesting to check out.

Sometimes, if I’m in a real hurry, I’ll simply pick an interesting video to share from YouTube. Example: Internet Marketing Humor

With a blog, you can also use these shorter pieces of content to ask a question and open a topic up for reader discussion.

Example: What do you use to create a website?

• LISTS

Lists are very popular and make for very easy content. You can list a number of resources on a particular topic - such as other people’s blog posts about a particular subject - and just write a short description in a sentence or two for each.

Example: Content Marketing: How To Write For The Web

Lists are fun & easy to write. Some examples to get your ideas flowing: 10 ways to get your ex back (which - that could have more than one meaning), Top 3 children’s gifts for Christmas 2009, 7 best grilling recipes, 20 best short jokes ever, etc.

Tip: To find ideas for lists, try adding the word “best” or “top” to your main keyword when you’re doing keyword research. For example, if your website or blog is all about software you could type best software or top software into your favorite keyword tool.

This will tell you exactly what type of lists your readers want to see most, such as: top 10 antivirus software products, top video editing software, best dvd burning software, best photo editing software, etc.

Example: Magazines for Writers

• INTERVIEWS

Interviews make for great easy web content. You can start with just 3-10 questions, and the person you interview basically creates the rest of the content for you. They’ll be willing to do this for the exposure to your readership, and for the relevant backlink to their website.

Tip: Poll your readers to find out who they’d love to hear from, and what they would most like to know from these people.

Write out your questions. For long answer type questions, 3-5 is a good number. For short answer type questions go with 7-10. You can send an email to potential interviewees worded something like this:

Subject: Hi Nancy - Quick Email Interview?

Hi Nancy,

I follow your work and love what you do. I know my readers would love to learn more about you. If you have a moment I’d like to publish this Q&A with you on my blog. It’s 7 quick questions. Please include a photo and the website URL you would like for me to share with my readers.

You can also record audio interviews over the phone or Skype, with video or at BlogTalkRadio. Get interviews transcribed to turn them into text content as well.

Example: Interview With Social Media Link-Building Specialist, Nathan Ketsdever

—

That should give you plenty of ideas to get started writing great content. All 5 of these types can work well on your website, on your blog, as guest blog posts, as content for a squidoo lens, or for writing articles for article marketing.

If you still need a bit of help getting past that blank page, see my tips for How to Write Really Great Content.

Best,

p.s. Want even more great web content ideas? Sign up to get notification about my new guide at Easy Unique Content.

"