Thursday, November 24, 2011

Getting the Own Website is uncomplicated with Xsitepro Templates

In recent years, website templates and designing has taken the world by hurricane. Although myriad people around the globe are proficient enough designing their very own website, designing graphics and honing your current skills in producing from the box designing solutions is altogether another thing. Also, most of the web templates have restrictions and limited choices to go by which might just be practical but not cater your current desires.

Fortunately, XSitePro 2 with their xsipro templates, users don't have to handle this issue at all. With XSitePro 2 templates, choosing a great place for the website is not a new matter of limited possibilities to chose from nevertheless a matter of what you actually require. There are more as compared to 300 packages available and tailored to cater all you will probably have your website to incorporate. Moreover, XSItePro 2 templates are usually contemporary, latest in design, easy to use, and most of all SEO friendly.

Internet marketing is a new lucrative but highly gratifying business. If you are relatively a new comer to internet marketing and you have been looking for some assistance to help bring your business ahead, then it’s about time that you just check out xsitepro templates. Xsitepro is a beneficial tool to provide many opportunities for your users. The readily available templates for xsitepro are really easy to use that you don't even need to possess prior knowledge in website design to design your own site now.

Advantages of Using Xsitepro Web templates

There are a lot of advantages when getting your Xsitepro full package or maybe the Xsitepro template. A number of Xsitepro templates come with purchasing Xsitepro. This makes your 1st venture at designing and creating your own personal website as easy as learning how to draw. Of course it is important that you know first and primary how your Xsitepro templates look like. If you do have no idea about the lay-outing concepts, it is wise that you should first acquire the skills and knowledge. This will help your first website design project become more profitable. Although, as mentioned earlier, there are a lot of Xsitepro templates that accompany the package. If you do not have time to buy a lay-outing training, maybe you can first stick to these generic templates pertaining to Xsitepro while studying basic principles.

Another advantage in taking your Xsitepro templates is the easy doing several websites if you are given a short time. Whether or not you might be using templates for Xsitepro to further improve or improve your very own website’s rating or if you are doing this for the money, Xsitepro is a very useful site.

Having someone do your site design needs may sometimes cause higher expenses for you in comparison with getting the kit and working on the design by your self. Again, as adsense templates for Xsite pro already are included, you can do your own personal trial design first without unnecessarily investing on the web designer which could wind up costing you an arm and a leg. By simply populating among the ready-made templates for Xsitespro, you are on your path to starting your website design career.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

The common Cost of Rhinoplasty

A number of factors should be looked at while estimating the charges of rhinoplasty. This procedure requires a professional and highly skilled beauty surgeon. Rhinoplasty is more associated with an art and the surgeon should visualize the impact with the changes he is going to make during surgery. Hence the skills and expertise with the surgeon is an essential factor in rhinoplastic surgeries plus the same can influence rhinoplasty charges drastically.

The cost difference involving “hard” and “soft” rhinoplasty is fairly high, as soft surgery bargains only with cartilage with the nose and hard surgery is done on the bones inside the nose and hence the chance is high. In the case of revision rhinoplasty, that is, additional procedures done with a nose which has previously undergone some cosmetic methods, the costs are more likely to increase as the risks and complications involved are extremely high.

A rough break upwards of cosmetic surgery rhinoplasty costs may be given as anesthesiologist price, hospitalization costs, consultation costs, surgeon fee, travel costs, and accommodation costs. If the procedure can be medically needed, then the costs are likely to increase even more. Rhinoplasty costs largely be determined by the extent of medical procedures needed, which can differ via case to case. The cost of medications post-surgery must also be factored in.

SmartRhinoplasty.com says that the cost of rhinoplasty surgery falls in the range $3,000 to $12,000. According to this website, the cost of primary open rhinoplasty ranges from $3,200 to $6,500 and to that of secondary open rhinoplasty is between $7,000 and $9,000. Also, the cost of primary closed rhinoplasty and secondary closed rhinoplasty reportedly range from $3,000 to $6,000 and from $2,800 to $10,000, respectively.

The average rhinoplasty cost in the us, according to the rhinoplasty internet site, is $4, 500. Out of this amount, upto $3, 000 can be the fee for a plastic surgeon, $800 will come under facility charges, and about $700 would be the fee for the anesthesiologist. The American Society of Plastic surgeons claims that in the year 2004, the average surgeon’s fee to the rhinoplasty procedure was $3, 332.

According to a internet site called usefulrhinoplastyinformation.com, the average cost for primary open rhinoplasty surgery is $4,800 and that of primary closed rhinoplasty procedure is about $4,400. The site also says that revision rhinoplasty (open) procedure will cost around $8000, as the level of expertise required is very high, and revision rhinoplasty (closed) will cost on an average $6,300, but again depends on the extent to which revision needs to be done.

The above figures include the surgeon fee, anesthesiologist fee and hospitalization charges. As already discussed, post surgery medication will add to these costs. Apart from all this particular, a contingency fund could be maintained to tackle just about any unexpected costs. A good deal of research about rhinoplasty nose surgeons will help in finding one who suits your financial allowance and cosmetic needs as well. It is a usual practice to travel to Europe for rhinoplasty procedures as it is cheaper there.

Sunday, October 30, 2011

The supreme Word Search Poster

There are a wide range of fun games that you can do with pencil and papers, and one of probably the most fun is free phrase search puzzles. Word search puzzles vary from crossword puzzles, in that you don’t have to determine what the word can be, you simply have to locate it and circle that. If you look round the Internet, you can find a number of free word search producers, free online word research puzzles, free printable word research puzzles, and more. You can even locate a giant word search poster for sale if you genuinely wish to dive into word puzzle games. Making your own phrase search puzzles can be a powerful way to have fun at birthday celebration parties, make great gift ideas, and can even be considered a challenge to the total classroom. They can challenge little ones on spelling, vocabulary, and with the utilization of the right categories, you can challenge these people on History, Science, Geography and more.

The Ultimate Word Search Poster could be the definitive king of phrase search puzzles, and is one of just of the many gifts for geeks you'll find on searchwordpuzzles. net!

Packed with an amazing 264 words, the Ultimate Word Search Poster can be a giant word search puzzle that will most likely provide the ultimate impact being a gift, prize, or personal conquest, for anyone in your family - kids, dad, mom, grandma or grandpa.

Our giant word research poster also makes a terrific addition to your pupil’s course load. Not only is that excellent practice for educating spelling, grammar, and for broadening a new student’s vocabulary, but with a wide variety of categories like Ough. S. Presidents, Scientific Elements and World Deserts, The Ultimate Word Search Poster is fantastic for challenging the entire class room on multiple subjects at one time.

The Ultimate Word Search Poster is also a perfect enhancement for day care centers, doctor’s waiting rooms, or a child’s play area in a grocery store.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Receiving Free High PR Do-Follow Once a week Backlinks

Building free backlinks is really a tremendous way to increase your blog rank and authority, but also it's the best way to keep Google happy and provide you with vast amounts of traffic. The reason why a lot of people lose page 1 or never make it happen is because they spend some money buying backlinks.

By the end on this article you will understand the benefit of getting quality backlinks and why should you not buy them. When you do backlinking correctly you'll have a huge amount of traffic, leads and income for many years to come.

Many people believe if they go out buy thousands of backlinks from companies that they'll hit page 1 of Google and stay right now there. This is not necessarily the case; in fact it are able to do you more harm as compared to good as Google likes to see things happen naturally.

In the list down below I will explain a number of the reasons you should choose free backlinks to discover the results your desire.

  • If you buy them they cost money! I have looked and a few places charge $500 for a 100 backlinks per 30 days.
  • With the free backlinks you might have control over where those links turn out and on which web sites. You want to link to other relevant sites as part of your niche.
  • You can over backlink in a short period of time. Google like to notice linking done naturally, by humans and not by a machine.
  • You can get other people to share your content that may create a backlink to suit your needs. Just add share buttons for your blogs and websites.
  • You will generate a huge amount of link to your website as your content gets shared around the world wide web. All you links inside article must stay intact so that means more links to suit your needs.
Let's just look within the points in more fine detail. The first one I think is essential, I mean 100 backlinks in a month, come on. You can easily make it happen with some sharing tools and about 2 minutes of your time.

That is a lot of cash to be spending out to have that many links. Which brings us in the second point about knowing where you backlinks are going. How do you know it isn't really just some random websites containing no relevance to your personal?

If you are buying thousands of backlinks in one struck and sending them out Google will be aware that the links are not to arrive from humans. I have had page drop from page 1 to site 6 before through relating to fast. It takes a wide range of work to get them back up there again.
If you have a blog then add share buttons and encourage people to share you content by asking these phones do it. If you post to article publication sites then you links will stay with the article, so link back to your relevant blog post using the keyword of that submit. Very powerful strategy as Google sees that you will be serious about your area of interest.

Get backlinks from free sources is straightforward to do and it's also better for your lasting relations with Google. You don't want to accomplish anything that will injure that relationship and harm your blogs credibility.

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Event Marketing 101 - Having the Word Out

You really should get sophisticated which has a website that allows online registration, email reminders to registrants and email blasts to prospective attendees, but event marketing is centered on obtaining the word out.

No matter what size event, there is absolutely no shortage of tools to assist you realize that goal. Whether it's a quarter-page or perhaps full-page ad within the newspaper or possibly a multi-page brochure.

Providing accurate information on the attendees is just about the primary ingredients to success. Other marketing ideas like direct mail, email marketing, blog marketing, event sponsorship etc. is usually appropriate and effective.

Marketing Software

Marketing software plays a vital part in communication globally, and in addition between your different teams of staff sometimes necessary when launching a substantial event. It assists to you stay organized by keeping on top of multiple tasks, providing lists and forms, even blank contracts for handy use.

There are software applications which are specific to particular tasks like providing detailed schematics on the event space and that is great for event management, event planning, caterers, audio visual and production companies.

Other software is usually turnkey packages addressing all facets of event planning and management, both online and offline.

Event Invitations

The prudent planner will usually send invitations no less than 30 days or two prior to the presentation. The who, what, why, when, and where information as well as the design, and printing need to be flawless.

Invitation style will give a signal regarding the nature on the event, whether casual, formal, academic, etc.

Marketing Tools

Marketing tools consist of brochures, ads, publicity, formal invitations, flyers, posters, press releases, registration forms, websites, emails, interoffice memos, etc. They are available in all colors, shapes, and fashions, even sounds and video, which could get the job done of getting your message across to your target audience. You have access to imaginative with what you use and the way you apply it.

Direct Marketing

Direct marketing means that you can track your marketing multiple ways. Testing and tracking is critical to your marketing efforts. Utilizing the resulting data properly can assist you obtain clients by abandoning useless campaigns and expanding successful ones.

People that tend to pride themselves on being a member of an elite group and highly value membership and association will be the sorts of clients that will produce repeat business. Enjoying this trait and targeting that audience with surprise bonuses, and nurturing communication, can greatly enhance your event attendance.

Direct Mail Marketing

Direct mail marketing can be a proven marketing medium which has a long reputation delivering results. It provides advertising circulars, catalogs, business cards, along with other commercial merchandising materials and incentives (similarly to types of promotional products).

Depending on the profile of one's target audience, your marketing medium either can be delivered on location by teams in the pub distributing handouts or mailed using pre-selected mailing lists.

Event Sponsorship

Event Sponsorship can be a give-and-take relationship which might be philanthropic or contractual in a manner that all involved will benefit.

Most large corporations, for profit or non-profit, have set budgets to sign up in event sponsorship as being a marketing strategy to reach great numbers of their clients, users, audiences, clients, in a short time.

The sponsors get brand or product recognition, promotion, along with perhaps qualified leads. Case could get more money, products and donations to lower your expenses.

Attendees get informational products to work with, or free gifts and product samples. It's really a win-win relationship.

Promotional Marketing

Promotional marketing can be a business marketing strategy built to motivate a person to take action towards a buying decision. Using coupons, contests, promotional products, giveaways and samples can boost sales on your event.

Social Marketing

Social marketing endeavors to inspire social behaviors, not to ever benefit the marketer, but to profit the prospective audience or group.

Social Marketing can be a new breed of marketing, for the reason that it will take paying attention to the requirements, trends, and desires on the target prospects and catering to them, rather than dictating a marketing and advertising message.

This requires putting your finger around the pulse and receiving an understanding for market trends through thorough research and constant re-evaluation of each and every facet of your marketing initiatives.

An excellent spot to consider for such marketing would be ezines, blogs, forums, groups, social bookmarking sites, social networking sites, etc.

Blog Marketing

Blogs are just like graffiti, after you stick something up there everybody sees it. For this reason it provides good clues about market trends because doing so becomes a tangible record of everyone's a reaction to your idea, product, service, etc. and allows corrections of misconceptions that impede their success.

Starting a blog is simple when working with sites like Squidoo, Hubpages, and Blogger.com etc.

Generally, you want to blog with what your audience has an interest in. This can be tied to members or groups, or be a totally open forum - marketing agency nyc.

Quite simply, use everything for your use to get your products or services, service or idea in the right hands, installing the best manner, but most importantly, inside a socially acceptable manner. Then, you'll see the results of one's efforts skyrocket. Be sure to record and track whatever you did, or you'll kick yourself for not having the ability to repeat your event marketing success in the future.

All you need to be aware of Event Planning and Management, including ideas for marketing your events, is found at: marketing agency nyc.

Monday, September 26, 2011

Luxury travel - Planning the ideal Vacation



Vacations are supposed being fun and relaxing, right? Then why does getaway planning seem so demanding? Take the stress from preparing the perfect getaway by considering three essential ideas: why do you want to travel, what is your budget, and what do you have to bring.

Why you want to visit

Your motivations for traveling affect your destination choice more than you think. Here’s how to switch your travel reasons directly into travel plans:

  • Are you hoping for you to relive a memory? Go for places you’ve previously visited, or try new places to have similar experiences. You went skydiving in Cape Town for your honeymoon? Revisit Africa, or try skydiving in the Himalayas!
  • Do you seek for you to sample the exotic? If you usually strike the beach or lakeside to the annual family vacation, try Fiji for a new taste of something incredible.
  • Looking to escape it all? If you need to get away from the busy, second-to-second lifestyle for a little, try an all-inclusive escape or a cruise to help you let someone else concentrate on the details for once when you sit back and take it easy.
  • Traveling for business? Your destination may happen to be decided for you, but unless every 2nd is accounted for within your trip, your travel consultant can help you find exciting hotspots, fabulous nightlife, and even hotels with all the best amenities, including complimentary workstations, wireless internet, and car service.
What is your budget

Considering all costs and making use of your travel consultant’s extensive knowledge may save you from wallet shock. Here’s how to get the most out of your travel dollars:
  • Be aware of almost all charges, and budget for all expenses beforehand: Did you remember for you to renew your passport? Did you check together with your airline or travel specialist about luggage fees? Run a budget checklist, making sure to include cost of transportation, lodging, meals and snacks, souvenirs, activities and excursions.
  • Figure your budget and cost estimate prior to deciding to book travel: Consult your travel expert before you attempt to accomplish this yourself! Use your consultant’s expertise and information about your destination to be sure you have all facets covered. There may be fees or savings opportunities your consultant knows about thanks to experience as well as affiliate vendors, but you will only discover these if you discuss budgeting and costs together with your consultant.
  • Consider cost-saving options: use miles or points from bonus programs for you to book flights or risk-free free upgrades, use calendar-based fare resources to book travel upon lowest-cost days, book in off-seasons to try out incredible savings, or book an all-inclusive cruise or vacation hence the budget is predetermined as well as controlled.
  • Choose activities that are certainly not available near home to take full advantage of your activities budget. For example, if there is an unbelievable zoo within an hour out of your house, don’t bother visiting the zoo for your vacation destination, unless it is phenomenally completely different from your own.
What should you take

We all remember to bring our toothbrush, but did you make sure to pack a parka for your beach vacation? Ease your mind and keep yourself safe with these things:
  • The perfect clothing: know if you should bundle up or outfit lightly, and bring at the very least one opposite-climate outfit for when you’re inside a climate controlled area (think air-conditioned stores in the dead heat of summertime).
  • Personal and safety requirements: Find a good guidebook that also includes locations for hotels, banks, restaurants, and shopping. Also, don’t forget hygiene as well as health items, including sunblock, sunglasses, bug spray, prescriptions and basic first aid, such as pain reliever as well as waterproof bandages. Check the most updated list through the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to find out which items you may cause a plane and which you may have to purchase for your destination.
  • Essential electronics, and a way to hold them running: if you need your mobile phone, camera, laptop or PDA, be sure to bring all chargers and maybe even a backup battery pack. Sharing photos via social media sites is the best way to keep colleagues and loved ones up-to-date on your location and show what a fun time you are having, but be sure to check on messaging rates and service availability together with your providers for your vacation spot, especially if it is overseas or over a cruise.
  • Avoid over-packing: bring the essentials and a few emergency items, and leave room inside your suitcase for souvenirs. Avoid the urge for you to pack so much that you must sit on the suitcase to obtain it to close.
The travel specialists in Luxe Travel make vacation organising a breeze. To make your vacation better still, get insider perks as well as complimentary value-added amenities a person can’t get anywhere else by signing up for Luxe Travel Agency Privileged Entry. Members receive special access to exclusive offers with over 900 luxury hotels, cruise lines, and tour companies.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Canada sees strong rise in agro-food exports to Vietnam

Canada has achieved a remarkable increase in its agro-food exports to Vietnam, said a senior trade commissioner at the Canadian consulate general in HCMC.

Nadin Nanji demonstrated that Canada’s agro-food exports to Vietnam last year jumped to US$69 million, a stark increase from US$17 million in 2004. He provided the Daily with this figure before the launch reception for “The Great Taste of Canada” - a food promotion featuring the gastronomic quality ingredients of the North American country.

Nanji said the Canadian consulate organized the event to introduce a variety of seafood including live lobster, geoduck, oysters, Dungeness crab, mussels and scallops, as well as Alberta beef, wines and cherries. He added that the Canadian menu would be offered to the public at the Reflections Restaurant of the Caravelle Hotel from September 15 to 25.

Canadian consul general Audri Mukhopadhyay told the reception on Wednesday evening that agro-food accounted for a major part of Canada’s exports to Vietnam.

Canada’s two-way merchandise trade with Vietnam has increased steadily over the past decade, and now stands more than four times greater than in 2000. Nanji said the Canada-Vietnam bilateral trade reached an all-time high of more than US$1.43 billion in 2010, with that country’s exports registering over US$264 million.

Last year saw Canada’s merchandise imports from Vietnam exceed US$1.17 billion worth of textiles, manufactured articles, footwear, machinery and mechanical appliances, and animal products.

Nanji said besides agro-food and agriculture, Canadian companies had found opportunities in other sectors in Vietnam, including education and training, forestry, information and communication technologies (ICT), machinery and mechanical appliances, and base metals.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

How to get traffic ? Rank for target keywords ? Serect is link building - backlinks

Many people think that having a good blog/site is all you need to get tons of visitors. Wrong answer. If you are promoting one or more blog/sites, you already understand the need for quality backlinks.

Where and how can I get backlinks ?

Links from major social bookmarking and content publishing sites are considered a vote of confidence. If you have enough of them, your site will rank well. Once you rank, you will get traffic. At this, if you have a good blog/site, visitors will stay there for a long time.

There are 4 steps help you have quality backlinks:

  • Step 1: Submit your article/content to blogging networks or WordPress self-hosted and link back to your main site (it's backlink). Advanced of this step is link wheel: each post will be link each other and also link back to your main site.
  • Step 2: After the successful, collect all URLs of postings and you have a list full URLs. Ping all of them to get indexing of Search Engineer.
  • Step 3: Go through URLs list to bookmark to top social bookmarking sites.
  • Step 4: Combine all of URLs into an RSS Feed to submit to the RSS submission sites.
Unfortunately, these steps are very time-consuming. Social media always takes time. You would be able to outsource to link builder, but now it was an impossible.

Automation Saves Time

Exactly! Most of social media have API (application programming interface) support publish content. Based on that, we developed www.WeOnTech.com - a service help you easy manage and work with your social networks.

With one button, you can build advanced link wheel on your WordPress self-hosted and Web 2.0 properties of different powerful free hosts like Blogger, WordPress, Posterous, Tumblr, Typepad..., each permark link will be bookmarked, pinged and generated RSS feed.

advanced link wheel

Move on and save your time: www.WeOnTech.com

Monday, September 12, 2011

Creating a Business in 5 Easy Steps

Many people, who decide to start a business, often have no idea where to begin or what steps to take. However, we’ve devised a set of 5 general steps that will set your business on a path to success. We will cover topics such as naming your business, obtaining web hosting, establishing a business space with an online fax service, legal structuring, and provide you tips on how to obtain more clients.

1. Your Businesses Name

The first impression your business will make on the public is its name. When future business owners sit down to create their business name, they often spend too much time trying to come up with the perfect name. This is a mistake. It’s not necessary to spend a lot of time on this because it can always be changed in the future. Just make sure that your business name is unique, easy to spell, and has a simple pronunciation.

2. Getting a Domain Name

Once you have your business name, setting up a website is a good idea.  To setup your website, you will need to have a domain name.  Ideally, your domain should be the name of your business or something that tells people what you do.  Once you have a domain name, you should go to a web-hosting site and check for availability.  If the name is available, then you should look at any additional customizations that you want to add to your domain.  For example, some of these customizations can include bandwidth, private registration, and variations of the domain.  After you fully customize your domain, simply pay and the domain becomes your “web property”.

3. Setting Up Your Business Space

Once you have the domain and the website is in development, you need to start setting up your business space.  To setup your business space properly, you will need a business phone line, a business address, and a business fax number.  When first starting a business, many people setup their personal and business space as one.  This is fine, but if you ever want to move or separate the business from the personal then you may have some problems. The most common examples include business document reprinting, legal document editing, and client information loss. In addition to the physical space, you will need a virtual space. More specifically, your business will need to setup an email inbox. There are two ways to do this. You can go to a free email website such as Gmail, Yahoo or Hotmail. The other option is to direct your emails to your web-hosting site.

4. Forming a Limited Liability Company

When you thought about starting a business, you probably thought briefly about legal protection and benefits. One of the most common business legal structure that people choose is a Limited Liability Company (LLC). Some of the benefits of becoming an LLC include favorable tax treatment and limited liability.  When your company becomes an LLC, it’s eligible for an Employer Identification Number, which allows you to open a business bank account, take out a loan, and buy insurance.  There are other legal structures that may fit your needs better than an LLC. These structures include sole proprietorships, limited partnerships, general partnerships, and corporations.

5. Networking

Every new business must work hard to get clients.  A strategy that is used by many people is email marketing.  To do this type of marketing, you can get an email marketing service like GetResponse or MailChimp.  The prices will vary depending on what you want.  It’s recommended that you compare a few services before you buy, so that you may receive the best service for the best price.

After you have worked through these 5 easy steps, you should be set on a path that will allow your business to flourish and become successful.

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

A Few Tips That Will Help You Quit Smoking

The negative effects of smoking are actually taking their toll and a growing number of people want to quit. Although non-smokers may believe that if a smoker wants to quit they can just quit, smokers know differently. You must comprehend that smoking is so addictive that for some people, quitting without help is impossible. You will see that in order to stop smoking many people have even had to be hypnotized, and there is still no guarantee that they will not go back. You will even find that many people who used to smoke belong to support groups to assist them to not go back to smoking. In this article we are going to be covering a few tips to help you break the addiction.

To begin with, you aren't addicted to smoking. Even though the habit of bringing your hand to your mouth is one thing that makes giving up smoking hard it's just a habit and habits can be broken. In fact, it is the nicotine within the cigarettes that make people want to smoke them. And because your brain is aware that it gets this nicotine from cigarettes, people just assume that they are addicted to smoking. One thing that can make giving up smoking easier is to grab a pack of nicotine gum or you could even use the patch to get the nicotine your body needs. Although this can help people to be successful when stopping smoking one thing you should understand is that if you really don't want to quit then they truly won't help that much.

Another thing that can help to curb the desire to smoke is toothpicks. This will help you to deal with the actual habit of bringing your hand to your mouth, while the nicotine may help curb the chemical urge. Although this is only a habit and can be broken a lot easier than the nicotine urge it is always good to have help with it. If you do a search on the internet you should be able to find cinnamon toothpicks. And when you desire a cigarette all you have to do is put a toothpick in your mouth instead. The main reason I recommend the flavored toothpicks is because for some reason the flavor helps to make the toothpick chewing less boring.

Another big thing that will help you to quit smoking is to find some type of motivation. One of the greatest motivators that people use advice on how to stop smoking is their families. I am certain you don't want to die before your time, leaving your partner or even children with out a parent figure. And when it comes to motivation you will find that your loved ones can be one of the best motivators.

Even using the suggestions above you may find that giving up smoking for you still seems impossible. If that is the case, and you actually want to quit, you should try seeing a hypnotist or a doctor. Hypnosis is one thing that could be very helpful and many individuals have successfully quit with this technique. And there's medication which a doctor can prescribe that will also be able to help you advice on how to stop smoking. Having said that, I would truly only recommend this as the final thing you try.

For more information, check out here: websites to stop smoking

Monday, September 5, 2011

Beauty treatments, which are the most effective?

There are many ways a women can make herself feel more beautiful, however truth be told you already are probably beautiful, whether that be inside or outside. It is only recently that the government in the UK has tried to stop the craze of companies offering cosmetic surgery as a prize of competitions, and cosmetic surgery is the last step in trying to get yourself to look how you’d like, but what other means are there to making yourself feel more naturally beautiful?

Popular methods women undertake to make themselves feel prettier and to boost their self-esteem are to use self-tanning agents, try out new shower and skin rubs, use clay masks, use anti-ageing creams and also re design their wardrobe and dress younger than they really are. Other popular methods in the beauty industry which are popular include nail extensions, eyelash extensions, manicures, pedicures and hair extensions.

One of the most effective ways to draw attention to your face and eyes is to seek out professional eyelash extensions which can come in daily use and semi-permanent forms, as these cost effective beauty methods stay in for a number of weeks and are perfect for all occasions such as birthday parties, nights out and other occasions where you want that extra ‘wow factor’.

It is always important that whilst undergoing any treatment near very sensitive areas such as your eyes that the treatment is done professionally and by an experienced practitioner as not only will this allow for a better level of service and expertise, but it will also make you feel safer and the quality of the work carried out will be higher and last longer within a time frame.

As with all non-permanent beauty treatments it is important that you take in to consideration that any strenuous activities can cause treatments to fade much quicker than normal (swimming and excessive sweating / sports) will trigger your treatments to possibly end prematurely which is never good, however if you are going on holiday and swimming / excessive perspiration is unavoidable then you can always purchase some accessories which allow some treatments to last that little bit longer.

Overall there are a few treatments which will allow you to take full advantage of your appearance right now without the need for anything over drastic such as cosmetic surgery, and as noted above, nail extensions and eyelash extensions are very popular indeed.

Lyndon is a keen author and has a particular interest in the beauty industry. His latest projects surround kent eyelash extensions and beauty respectively.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

How to Get Blog Traffic That Sticks

One major priority of bloggers is getting traffic to their blogs but a lot of people make a great mistake nowadays, not because they don’t know how to get traffic but because they don’t know how to make their traffic stick. It doesn’t matter how many visitors you’re able to get to your blog there is no point in it if you’re unable to make them return.

While it is important to know that you can’t make 100% of the visitors to your blog stick you should also know that there are some things you can do to increase the likelihood of your blog visitors sticking.

Give Them What They Want

People are not visiting your blog for fun or because they want to make you happy but because they believe they can gain something from you. While it is possible for you to spend a lot of money on advertising your blog or to try several marketing strategies you can think of you should know that this won’t help you if your visitors don’t find anything valuable on your blog. The first step to making sure your blog visitors stick is by giving them what they want: this means you also have to know where they came from and why they’re reading your blog. If people are reading your blog because they want more information about home insurance you won’t have any luck giving them information about blogging and if people are visiting your blog in order to know about the latest fashion in town you won’t be able to make them stick by trying to teach them how to make money online.

Try to have a crystal clear understanding of what your readers want from your blog, if you aren’t sure about this you might want to survey them or even contact some of your major commenters to ask them what they’d like to be seeing more often on your blog. You will go really far if you can understand and meet the needs of your readers.

Get Them into a Funnel

Another sure fire way to make sure your blog visitors stick is by getting them into a funnel. This means you should try to know how they react to information and what is the best way they love to consume information. If your readers are tech savvy the best way to get them to continue to read your content might be by making them subscribe to your RSS feed and if you’re in the marketing niche or in a niche where people aren’t that tech savvy the best way to make sure your readers keep reading your content might be to make them subscribe to your email list.

Don’t rely on the thousands of daily visitors you’re getting because the source of that traffic may crumble: Google might stop sending you traffic one day and that big site that keeps sending you tons of visitors might one day stop, the only way to make sure you enjoy is by being in control. Start building a mailing list now and always ensure you do the best to make sure your readers always come back to your blog.

Related Articles

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

The Jersey Shore Guide to Irresistible Personal Branding

image of New Jersey postage stamp

The Jersey Shore is back and up to its old antics again.

My guess — you being a respectable content marketer who finds that sort of display crude, irresponsible and embarrassing — is that you’re not tuning in.

Hey, I hear you. But do you know who isn’t offended by it?

The 8.4 million people who tuned in to the season premiere last month, making it the network’s most-watched series episode ever.

Whether you’re a true fan of Snooki, or you credit her with single-handedly hammering that last nail completing the Decline of Western Civilization, it doesn’t matter.

The fact is that each member of The Jersey Shore cast has gone on to create a recognizable and profitable personal brand in the 14 months the show has been on the air.

Not too shabby. And tucked inside the show’s success are personal branding lessons that any marketer can benefit from. Even if you’re not spray-tanned to a disturbing shade of orange.

Get a pen and paper because personal branding school is in session, Jersey Shore style.

Lesson 1: Own your oddities

If there’s one marketing principle reinforced by The Jersey Shore it’s that your oddities are what make you watchable.

Five minutes into checking out what’s going on in Seaside Heights this season and you’ll notice that most of the Jersey Shore cast barely looks human. They’re walking Halloween costumes, tanned, oiled and gym’d to the max.

And it’s their oddness that makes them interesting and what drives millions of people to tune in each week.

In an earlier Copyblogger post on branding and belly dancing, I spoke about the importance of creating a character — one that allows you to show off a heightened version of yourself to attract the right people to what you’re selling.

You’re probably not 4’9″ and God knows the world doesn’t need another Snooki, but what’s kooky and stand-out about you?

Figure out what it is and how you can make it work to your advantage.

Identify it. Use it. Become it.

Lesson 2: Polarization is a good thing

It doesn’t matter if you’re big, little or fall somewhere in between. Most of us are afraid to be a polarizing figure by taking a hard stance.

Just look at what happened to Groupon after the Super Bowl.

We hold back from going too far left, too far right or too far in our own direction in fear that we’ll be isolating our audience. And I get that – because you very often will be. But that’s not a bad thing.

The Jersey Shore kids are good examples of that. You’re either appalled by their train wreck or you’re mesmerized by it. And that’s why it works.

A post on the OK Cupid blog last month touched on the same concept, bringing up the mathematics of beauty. Specifically, it showed how playing up what some people don’t like about you allows you to attract the people who will.

It’s why edgy Meaghan Fox is more attractive than wholesome Kristen Bell, or why guys with tattoos are rated better looking than the average prepster.

If you want to be memorable, create a contrast. Going the safe route and trying to be everything to everyone won’t win you fans, it’ll only bring in people who don’t have an opinion about you either way.

Those people aren’t going to buy your stuff, and they won’t remember your name in the morning.

Lesson 3: People want a little drama

Season 3 of The Jersey Shore came with one promise -– that it would be the most drama-filled season to date.

So far, it’s lived up to the hype, with cast members getting into scary physical altercations, getting arrested, and with sudden character exits. The drama keeps people hooked because everyone wants to see what’s going to happen next and who is going to do what to whom.

If you’re working to build your personal brand, I wouldn’t recommend going out and getting arrested tomorrow, but do look for ways to create a little spice.

Maybe it’s Groupon releasing controversial commercials or you deciding to take an unpopular stance on your blog.

Associating your brand with a splash of excitement will help keep it top of mind and always relevant.

Lesson 4: You’ve got to build your platform

It’s easy to hate on The Jersey Shore kids for what they represent, but at the end of the day, they’ve created a platform that extends far past the show.

Snooki is a New York Times Bestselling author (wrap your head around that).

“The Situation” is said to have made $5 million from appearances and products (including his own vodka line and garment bags).

Jenny aka “JWOWW” has a book and bronzer, Ronnie endorses a popular weight loss drug, Angelina has a music single, Sammi has a perfume, and Vinny and Pauly D both have clothing lines.

Not bad for 14 months in the spotlight.

Sure, it’s ridiculous, but they created it.

The personal brand you create means nothing if you don’t have a business model. If you’re spending an hour a day on Twitter talking to people without finding a way to bring them back to your site or direct them somewhere else to do something, you’re leaving money on the table and you’re wasting your time.

Decide what you want these channels to give you and then create a plan for how you’ll be accomplishing that.

While The Jersey Shore certainly isn’t doing our younger generations any cultural favors, they are giving smart marketers some branding lessons worth tuning in for.

And now you have an excuse for the next time you’re caught watching …

Related Articles

Outsourcing: the Secret to Blogging Success

This guest post is by Mark Collier is the author of Link Building Mastery.

As an Internet entrepreneur, it’s easy to develop this sense of single mindedness—the if-I-can’t-do-it-no-one-can attitude. I call it RTODIY (refuse to outsource; do it yourself). Although the name does need a bit of work. Maybe I should outsource it…

The symptoms are: excessive DIY, penny pinching when you could outsource for little or nothing, and learning the basics of advanced theories in a vain attempt to save money.

RTODIY is also the major obstacle between your self-created job and a successful business that runs independent of you. As Keith Cunningham puts it, job is just an abbreviation for Just Over Broke.

Overcoming RTODIY

I have certainly done my fair share of RTODIYing, most recently with my experience in launching my relatively new website and writing and launching a new ebook.

I wrote all the content for my website myself and learned all I needed to know to create a website myself. While this is pretty common, this was only the beginning. I decided to write an ebook, and once it was finished, I knew I needed to create a sales landing page for my product.

Now for those who don’t know about landing pages, let me fill you in. Landing pages are designed to make all your ebook sales. Sure, promotion is crucial, and you need a great product, but without a great landing page, you’re wasting your time.

I recognized the value of a landing page and went about buying a template and customizing it, after, of course, I learned the basics of CSS.

This is what my landing page looked like:

That’s exactly what I expected would sell my $47 ebook! And I actually believed it would sell.

That was until I received the best business advice I have ever received from Glen Allsopp. I sent out an email to the 15 people I interviewed for the ebook, informing them of the new sales page. Glen said, “I hope you don’t take offence, but I really don’t think you’ll get a single sale with that landing page.”

And he was right. Not a single sale came from the first 300 people who visited the page.

So I decided to go and outsource—yes, I said outsource—the sales page design to a professional and the results were and are absolutely incredible:

What a turnaround! I certainly would be more likely to buy from a sales page that looked like this.

The results

When I talk about results, I mean money. While the orders certainly haven’t been unbelievable, they are far better than nothing, which is what my original page generated.

In the month since I launched the ebook—and I have no reputation or marketing budget—I have made seven sales. Okay, that’s not a mind blowing amount, but it’s $327 in sales, and the email sign up box has captured 120 email addresses.

I am more than happy with these results, having had no experience in launching a product, and no email subscriber list that I could promote the launch to. In fact, I didn’t even bother having a launch.

I expect sales to continue to grow, and my initial investment in that web designer to continue to pay off.

My learnings, your learnings

My reluctance to outsource to a professional web designer for $150 would have cost me $327 today, and what could be thousands in future earnings. I’ve learned that spending that extra bit up front distinguishes you from the competition, and is well worth the investment.

But I understand that not everyone will launch an eBook or create a sales page. So how can these learnings be applied to your blog, especially if you are a solo blogger?

If you find yourself doing all the work—and I literally mean all of it—you’re a class one RTODIYer, and you may need help. You need to learn the art of delegation and to commit to investing that extra bit into your blog that will come back and reward you many times over.

You need to stop acting like a one-person blog and starting acting like ProBlogger. After all, that’s how ProBlogger has been so successful: outsourcing and hiring (for free or otherwise) the best to do the work for them. Guest posts are just one example of that.

You wouldn’t have seen W.K Kelloggs out in the field growing the corn for his Corn Flakes, you wouldn’t see Michael Dell personally handling customer complaints against Dell, and you wouldn’t see Richard Branson micro-managing the 200 companies he has controlling stakes in.

All these great business people have committed to outsourcing. They have committed to investing in and trusting others, and ultimately they have overcome a human’s natural instinct to Refuse To Outsource and Do It Yourself.
That’s what your blog is, right? A business?

As a blogger, you should give up you RTODIY ways and move forward with your business in a more profitable direction. Trust in others and be prepared to invest in your blog, and you will reap the rewards. Here are a couple of ideas I know you’ll like:

  • Open your site up for guest posts. It’s a great, free way to take the writing pressures off you, while retaining full editorial rights.
  • Get a custom design made by a designer, or at least have a blog brand with logo and color scheme that’s consistent throughout your blog, Twitter, and Facebook page.
  • If you really want to step up to the next level and be an outsourcing master, why not hire a part-time writer or regular columnist? You can pitch their work to the big names in your industry and get a lot of exposure from them.

The general rule of thumb is to try to outsource your weaknesses (my big one is design), and give yourself more time to focus on your strengths. To control of your RTODIY and your blog will only go from strength to strength.

Have you outsourced any part of your blog, or are you a RTODIYer? I’d love to hear about your experiences in the comments.

Mark Collier is the author of Link Building Mastery, the best ethical guide to link building available on the web. With 86 powerful link building strategies and 15 interviews with link building interviews, including an interview with Yaro Starak (the owner of this blog). You can join the ethical link building revolution now.

Related Articles

The Easiest Way to Make Money Online

This is a post by contributing author Bamboo Forest.

I’ve been blogging for a couple years now and except for a few affiliate sales from ads, consulting is the only way I’ve made any money from blogging.

Ways to make money that might make you cry

If you told me that to make money I’d have to build websites, acquire thousands of emails for my list, have a hundred thousand monthly unique visitors for Google ads, or write an amazing eBook that must compete with the zillions of other eBooks already on the market, I’d cry.

I’m not saying you can’t use the above methods to make serious money. But these methods are some of the most difficult ones with the steepest competition.

There’s just got to be a better, more immediate way to make money from blogging.

And there is.

Method to make money that won’t make you cry

To be a consultant all you need is a website and a PayPal account.

I’ve recently become a consultant through a website called Email Life Coach. This site is an extension of one of my blogs.

People hire me to help them with their life issues.

I reasoned that there are zillions of life coaches out there, but how many email life coaches are there? After all, there are definitely people who don’t feel comfortable chatting on the phone but still want advice for their life. And I decided to fulfill that demand in a compelling and elegant way.

And while I haven’t gotten rich from this business yet, I’ve certainly made far more money than anything I’ve ever done online to date.

What kind of consultant you could become

For starters, there needs to be a demand for the kind of consulting work you want to begin. Other than that, the sky’s the limit.

You could consult others on how to improve their copy and tweak their site so they get more subscribers.

You could consult people regarding their relationship issues.

You could consult people on how to make it in Hollywood.

You could teach people Japanese.

The possibilities are endless and it’s up to you to find something that’s in demand that could gain you profit.

It goes without saying that your blog needs to be focused on the subject you’re going to consult on. Your blog will act as a funnel to your business.

What mediums you can use to consult

The number of mediums you can currently use is really exciting.

You could be as simple and low tech as I am and use email.

Or you could do something more sophisticated such as making a client a YouTube video or chatting with them online and using a camera so you both can see each other face to face.

There is even software available now where your client can see everything on your computer, which could work well for tutoring or teaching web design.

What’s required to consult successfully

While it’s really easy to start a consulting business, you can’t be mediocre at what you do and expect to get lots of customers or repeat business. Trying to do the aforementioned just isn’t honest when people are paying you money.

I don’t recommend you put a ‘Hire Me” on your blog until you feel completely confident that you can offer what your service will advertise.

For example, I read a book that I found particularly helpful multiple times before I started my Email Life Coaching service because I knew I needed to become more knowledgeable about personal-development before I could help people on a higher level.

How to set your price

I recommend that when you’re starting out you keep your rates low. The reason for this is twofold:

1. When starting out you have zero experience, and you’ll get better at consulting as you go. In the early stages you’re not qualified to ask for a higher fee.

2. Having a lower fee will help get your business rolling. Get enough business and do a good enough job and word of mouth will soon become your ally.

Why consulting is so enticing for potential customers

Because nothing beats the allure of personal attention.

For example, if you read an eBook, as amazing as it may be, it’s covering a subject as a whole and not being laser focused on your specific needs.

But when people hire a consultant they’re getting their exact concerns catered to.

You always hear A-List bloggers say that you need to solve people’s problems if you want your blog posts to go viral. Well, as a consultant, you’re in the business of doing nothing but solving people’s problems and in the most intimate way possible.

The down side of consulting

While consulting is the easiest way to make money, it’s not without challenge.

Daniel has already made the point that selling anything online is difficult and selling consulting is no exception.

Consulting is not the kind of profit model where you can make money in your sleep. On the contrary, with consulting, any money you make is the result of you working directly with a customer which is time consuming.

While you by no means need a popular blog to make money with consulting, you do need to have some kind of an audience. Having a strong presence in the search engines can also help you find clients. Additionally, consider having a YouTube channel to showcase your knowledge which can help you tap into an even greater audience and more potential customers.

Tips to help your consulting business thrive

Always give a money back guarantee. When offering a full money back guarantee you’re removing a huge barrier to entry. Potential customers will feel secure that if they hire you and aren’t satisfied with your service, they can easily get their money back.

Since I’ve launched my email life coaching service I haven’t had a single person ask for a refund. I doubt I would have had any business at all had I not offered a full money back guarantee.

Think about it… would you hire someone you’ve never worked with if you knew that even if you had a terrible experience you could never get your money back?

I wouldn’t.

It has been said in the business world that you make most of your money with repeat customers. It requires significant effort to find new customers, and much less effort to maintain the customers you already have.

You should reward repeat customers with a discount to promote repeat business.

Currently I charge 35 dollars for new clients and just 30 dollars for repeat clients for my month of change package.

If you’ve been trying for a long while to make money from blogging and haven’t seen much more than a few dollars trickle in, maybe it’s time to give consulting a try.

About the Author: Bamboo Forest is a professional Email Life Coach, helping people work on something in their life over the course of a month through email.

Related Articles

The Ethics of Pay Per Post

Suppose you ask me to write something nice about your company. I do it and you give me a $10 bill. If I work for you, then it’s a paycheck. If I don’t work for you, then it’s Pay Per Post and that’s a whole different bowl of noodles. . . or is it?

If I disclose the fact that you paid me the money to write the post as required by the FTC, then I’m in good shape, right? But if I disclose the fact that you paid me, maybe the value of the post decreases because now people aren’t sure that I told the truth.

A few weeks ago, a mommy-blogger was outraged by a proposal from a marketing company that offered to pay her if she wrote nice things about a big name brand who was having an image problem. I can’t be any more specific about the incident because I’ve since found out that the the entire affair was drummed up by an industrious wannabe PR pro and was never sanctioned by the company. Still, it brings up an interesting point. How is asking a blogger to write something nice about a company for pay any different than offering a blogger a free product in return for a review?

You could say that a review requires an honest opinion, which could be good or bad. But what if I agree with the positive statements I’m asked to write? If I believe that, despite recent reports to the contrary, ABC Inc. makes the safest product in its category, is it wrong to say so and get paid? What if I write it and ABC pays me afterwards as a thank you, then do I have to disclose it?

Many years ago, I tried one of the Pay Per Post companies, wrote the required text and was quickly dinged by Google who dropped my page rank two points. I was devastated. If that happened today, I wouldn’t care. Page rank is passe. But I do care if people think I’m a shill, writing half-truths about window blinds in order to make $6.00. In the spirit of full disclosure, I do occasionally Tweet for pay but I’m selective about which offers I put through.

The question here is about drawing the line or if there even should be a line? It’s my blog and if you want to pay me to write something and I agree to do it, then are we all good?

KMart announced today that they’re looking for gamer bloggers to send to the E3 convention. It’s all expenses paid, travel, accommodations and entrance to the show and in return all they ask is that the bloggers write about the experience and post links to KMart’s gamer blog (who knew KMart was so big with gamers?). Is that the ultimate in Pay Per Post or what? A several thousand dollar trip to video game heaven? Sure beats a $10 Starbucks card as thanks, doesn’t it?

This is where you come in. What are your thoughts on Pay Per Post? Have you ever paid a blogger to write about your company? I’d like to hear about your experience and where you think companies should draw the line.

Related Articles

Are You Too Busy to Write? Seven Ways to Blog More Productively

Office Work #jpg365 Is finding time to blog something you struggle with? A number of people have asked me how they can find time to blog on top of everything else that I have going on.

Writing content is vitally important for your blog. It is your source of direct visitors, plus the meat of what you share in social media, the combination of which is essentially all the marketing many of us do. Your content attracts and maintains a relationship with your subscribers, and it is also what prompts readers to take action, even if that action is simply a blog comment.

Without regularly added, fresh, original, useful content … well, your blog becomes the web equivalent of the Pacific Junk Patch.

One thing you might have noticed though is that I don’t stick to a rigid writing schedule. This helps me find time to work on my blog around other commitments, but is only possible for me because of a few factors:

  1. I already have a reasonably sized, engaged audience. You might say I have some “credit in the bank”.
  2. “Traffic” is not something I rely on for my income. Providing I help enough people work towards their own goals then I will attract “few but enough” customers to pay my bills.
  3. My philosophy is that you are only as good as your last post. Given the choice between “phoning it in” to keep up an arbitrary schedule and waiting to post something I am happy with … well, you guessed right, I wait.

You might not have these luxuries so need to balance your schedule a little more in favour of keeping in touch with subscribers more often but without making it too taxing a job for you.

My approach is to offer my loyal audience content you will want to bookmark, give you actionable tips via the benefit of my experience. If I succeed then I get more subscribers and clients, and really, unlike many bloggers my subscribers and customers are the only people I need to worry about where my blog is concerned.

I have no advertisers to keep sweet, and I don’t intend ever selling my blog, so I have no need to inflate my page views. Providing I do well with keeping my readers happy then my peer group and potential partners will also be happy.

If however you make money from impressions or ad clicks then you will need to get your traffic up and maintain that high level. That makes having a more rigorous publishing schedule a priority.

At the same time you can’t let your quality suffer because you are pushing quantity, making your productivity even more important.

Most of my readers are individuals, professionals or small businesses, so it might be well within your reach to shift your online business model to be more about authority than page views and clicks. If that is the case for you then focus on one solid article a week rather that try to achieve an unrealistic schedule – that might be all the solution you need. If you do want to eek out a few more hours in your week though, read on for some more tips!

How can you find time to not just write but create great content?

  1. Set time aside – preferably quiet, focused time with zero distractions. I recommend actually putting this time in your diary and sticking to it. If you try to “catch 10 minutes” then you are going to either keep pushing the task back or you are going to find that time just vanishes altogether. Also setting a specific time allows your subconscious to prepare.
  2. Write in Batches, and if possible schedule your posts in advance – Most blogging software such as WordPress allows you to write articles in advance and set the date and time when they should go “live”, visible on your blog. Publishing in advance allows you to write in quieter times and have the articles visible at busy times. While I no longer do this on chrisg.com I have always done this when writing for clients (when you have a contract for a certain number of posts per month it is not a good idea to write them just before they are meant to be sent out to subscribers!). Writing in batches allows you to get into a flow and you will find the writing process far more fluid than trying to task switch between your main job and being a writer. Darren often has cafe days where he will sit and batch write a whole raft of posts, and he ran away to a hotel to complete his work on the Problogger book!
  3. Jot down ideas as they come to you – When you relax your brain or think about something else is when some of your best ideas will come to you, so make sure you store those ideas on a notepad, in your phone, or on some scrap of paper! A really cool aspect of the WordPress is you can use multiple tools, even email, to send a draft of a post to your blog for later use. I have a whole bunch of draft posts that are just headlines and some bullets waiting for me to complete them.
  4. Repurpose content – “Repurposing” is taking your content and using it in a different location, in a different way, or re-packaging it. So I might take a series of posts and create an ebook, or I might expand an article into a presentation. Someone might request they republish my article in their newsletter. It can work the other way though, and it can be a great way to fill your blog. Take points from your presentations and write them up as blog posts. Maybe you have a transcript that you can copy and paste as a starting point? Have you got a section of a report or ebook tat you can use? Emails to customers? Existing content is an asset to be reused if you are creative!
  5. Answer questions – Taking the last point further, my customer, coaching client and audience questions are my best source of content. This post came from a question I get asked a lot and was asked in interviews twice last week. When you answer a question in email, on a forum, in a chat, blog comment, or in an interview with a transcript, then you can copy, paste and edit to create a post. The best part? You KNOW it is on-topic and relevant.
  6. Have a system – My coaching clients know that I have a writing system that allowed me to write for at one point twelve different blogs at once. This has meant I have written thousands of articles, and to be honest was probably too many because people were telling me I was getting over exposed! In brief, use headline formulas, write an outline, create without stopping, turn off the internal editor until you have a first draft. People try to write the whole thing at once and get stuck switching from creating to editing and back again. Don’t do that – split the creative part from the editing part and you will work with your brain rather than against it!
  7. Failing all that – outsource! If you still struggle then get guest writers, pay writers, or what I think is a really smart move, get an editor to take your thoughts and ideas and polish them into finished articles.

These might not be silver bullets but they do work. While my family is watching TV I can sit with them with my laptop tapping out outlines, drafts, or editing. Some times it will take three or even four days for a post to get to the point where I am happy to hit publish but I have also had articles written in under half an hour that have been big hits in social media and in terms of traffic.

The big difference though is when you make time.

How do you find time to blog? Do any of my tips work (or not) for you? Please share your thoughts, experiences and tips in the comments …

Talking of being more productive … I want to tell you about my latest course …

Make More Progress: Quickly implement effective tactics to get more done and achieve more in your business.

Increase your productivity without any rigid organisation systems that cause even more work, rapidly create and launch information products in record time, and get more done with less effort.

Go ahead and click here right now to find out more!

Related Articles

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

The New York Times’ Pathetic Case for the Decline of Blogging

If you feel that the New York Times has the pulse of the Internet then the answer to our headline would be yes. In fact, the Times article which ran on Sunday is titled “Blogs Wane As Young Drift to Sites Like Twitter”. That’s a pretty heavy statement especially when you are saying even the shortest blog post idea can be just as effectively conveyed in 140 characters or less. Maybe TweetDeck will end up being the “Anti-Twitter” by allowing over 140 characters?

The article is provocative for sure and focuses on younger Internet users (at least initially).

Like any aspiring filmmaker, Michael McDonald, a high school senior, used a blog to show off his videos. But discouraged by how few people bothered to visit, he instead started posting his clips on Facebook, where his friends were sure to see and comment on his editing skills.

“I don’t use my blog anymore,” said Mr. McDonald, who lives in San Francisco. “All the people I’m trying to reach are on Facebook.”

Blogs were once the outlet of choice for people who wanted to express themselves online. But with the rise of sites like Facebook and Twitter, they are losing their allure for many people — particularly the younger generation.

First off, nice job by the Times using Twitter as the catch for their story then shifting gears to Facebook (which actually makes more sense from the get go but who’s counting?). But back to the premise.

The notion is that blogs are losing much of their ‘shine’ to Facebook and Twitter. This ‘conclusion’ is reached based on the following bit of research.

The Internet and American Life Project at the Pew Research Center found that from 2006 to 2009, blogging among children ages 12 to 17 fell by half; now 14 percent of children those ages who use the Internet have blogs. Among 18-to-33-year-olds, the project said in a report last year, blogging dropped two percentage points in 2010 from two years earlier.

This is where I call BS. How can you infer that blogs are ‘in trouble’ when you are looking at numbers relating to 12-17 year olds? Kids in this age range can’t pay attention to much anyway just because they are simply kids in that age range! It’s certainly not because they have found the better way to get their thoughts across. It’s because they found the easiest way, for now. A quote from a young lady proves this point.

Kim Hou, a high school senior in San Francisco, said she quit blogging months ago, but acknowledged that she continued to post fashion photos on Tumblr. “It’s different from blogging because it’s easier to use,” she said. “With blogging you have to write, and this is just images. Some people write some phrases or some quotes, but that’s it.”

As people grow and mature in how they think, the inevitable happens which is that you cannot usually get a point across or make an argument or defend a position in 140 characters or less. Even Facebook has limits. This idea that blogs are fading based on the findings about teens and blogging is pretty silly. In fact, the Times shows it’s engaging in some sensationalistic journalism because if you read on the stance about blogging being on the decline softens and pretty much goes away. That’s why this whole thing is nonsense really.

The blurring of lines is readily apparent among users of Tumblr. Although Tumblr calls itself a blogging service, many of its users are unaware of the description and do not consider themselves bloggers — raising the possibility that the decline in blogging by the younger generation is merely a semantic issue.

Ok, New York Times what is it? Are you pushing the beginning of the end of the blogging or are you jus trying to use headline journalism to get a few more pageviews? Hey, even if blogs are going the way of the dinosaur it looks like you guys picked up a few tricks along the way, huh?

Let’s look at what is really happening. People who are blogging because they are looking for an outlet of some kind are losing interest mainly because people are not reading their posts. There are usually two reasons for that; 1) they are not promoting the blog so the idea of “if you write it they will come” is in effect and that doesn’t work and 2) it’s very likely that their writing is awful or what they have to say isn’t interesting to anyone but themselves. Don’t blame the platform if you can’t write.

Finally the article looks to blogging in older folks and reports

While the younger generation is losing interest in blogging, people approaching middle age and older are sticking with it. Among 34-to-45-year-olds who use the Internet, the percentage who blog increased six points, to 16 percent, in 2010 from two years earlier, the Pew survey found. Blogging by 46-to-55-year-olds increased five percentage points, to 11 percent, while blogging among 65-to-73-year-olds rose two percentage points, to 8 percent.

Here’s my conclusion. Right now, as the world exists today, with all of this still being relatively new to the masses, we like to think that everyone who is growing up on 140 character bits of communication and piecemeal updates via Facebook and location based services will continue to do so. I say they will but they will also embrace the fact that real communication requires more ‘meat on the bone’.

As a result you will see young people who really have something of substance to give to the world will come back to a blogging platform or one that resembles it. They will do it because they are thinking more analytically and realizing the limitations or annotated communications.

So if you are thinking that blogging is truly waning take a look at the reality and ignore the headlines. At least those from the New York Times.

Related Articles

7 Mistakes that Lead to Guest Post Failure

image of train wreck

Guest posting! The highway to unbridled blogging success! Nab yourself a spot on an A-List blog and suddenly it’s your name in lights. Traffic, engagement, the undying adulation of the unwashed masses!

Sounds great, right?

Well, it is, actually.

But what about those of us who really crave a bit of failure? The ones who like to start every anecdote with “One time I almost” or “I was this close …”?

What does guest posting offer for us?

Well, fellow failure-chaser, you’re in luck. Because writing and submitting a guest post offers some real opportunities for spectacular failure.

So start taking notes, because you’re going to be able to tell your friends about the time you nearly wrote an amazing post for an A-Lister that almost took your own blog to a whole new level.

1. Be as timid as humanly possible

The first opportunity for failure is the pitch. Confidence carries the day when it comes to guest posting.

So if it’s failure you’re looking for, don’t show any confidence. Try not to sell your idea, and make sure you don’t actually write the post you’re proposing. Be hesitant, and make it apparent that you’re wasting your host’s time. With a bit of luck, they won’t you send so much as a read receipt.

2. Don’t startle the readers

Maybe the A-Lister you’ve just pathetically pitched has taken pity on you, and asked you to draft up your post.

What he’s looking for here is some competence. So make sure you don’t show any. Starting with a bang and grabbing attention leads to success, so don’t do it. Write cautiously and quietly, so as not to startle your audience into action.

3. Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery — so shamelessly copy content

Your lukewarm opening should have dissuaded all but the most persistent of writers. So it’s going to take some real incompetence to screw this up now.

The quickest way is to do something that’s been done before. Retread old ground — but not in a new and interesting way. No, simply regurgitate your host’s best piece with some added spelling mistakes and grammatical errors.

Be very cautious with this, as covering old topics in a fresh way is actually a terrific way to write a popular guest post. Make sure not to add your own twist or fresh angle and you should be fine.

4. Shamelessly plug Unmemorable Title your own blog

It’s now time to look over the content you’ve just haphazardly thrown together.

To hit the dizzying lows of total failure, you need to employ an ancient SEO technique known as “spamming.” In other words, drop your link into the post so often that the page becomes nearly unreadable.

This is going to fail for two main reasons. One; it’s going to make your host even less likely to publish your piece. Two; it doesn’t work.

5. Make your ending as flat as possible

If you’ve done everything wrong up until now, you should be faced with a pathetic piece of trash, where every second word is a link to your blog.

Congratulations. You’re nearly done with the writing. All that’s left for you to do is cobble together an ending that peters out. And whatever you do, don’t forget to leave out effective closing techniques like a strong call to action.

6. Treat your host like you’re one of The Sex Pistols

The chances are that you’re going to have to interact with your host, as they attempt to polish the steaming post you’ve just deposited in their inbox. So now’s the time to channel some old-school punk.

Just like The Sex Pistols in their first TV interview, start swearing at your host, avoiding giving direct answers, and give the impression that the conversation is beneath you. With luck, this should be enough to make sure you don’t get published …

(If you want to really nail it, you could try throwing up on their desk. The blogging equivalent of this is publicly trash-talking bigger blogs. This works spectacularly well at ensuring you won’t get your guest posts published.)

7. Run like mad and don’t ever look back

If after all of this, by some horrible stroke of luck you do get published, there’s still one more opportunity for failure.

Demonstrate a complete lack of commitment to your guest post. Don’t reply to comments, don’t promote it on Twitter or Facebook, and certainly don’t write a post on your own blog to take advantage of the new traffic that your guest post provides.

And with that, you’ll have blown your big guest posting chance.

Complete and utter guaranteed failure as a guest poster in just seven short steps. Not for you, the benefits of seeing your name alongside the luminaries in your niche. No, because to do that, you’d need to be confident, competent, and committed.

Far easier to just take my advice and slip quietly into obscurity and mediocrity.

Related Articles

My 6 Favorite Blogging Locations

Where do you blog from?

One of the most attractive parts about blogging as a profession for me is the independence and flexibility that it brings.

I can work from anywhere that I can find an Internet connection. In fact, I don’t even need that at all times—I just need some kind of device to capture the content that I produce (something to type on, a camera, and/or a microphone).

This flexibility, and the opportunity to be location-independent, are wonderful things. They’ve meant I’m able to travel and work from the road; they’ve enabled me to be quite hands-on with my family (particularly useful when your kids are toddlers!), and they’ve also cut down the dreaded commute that I used to have to do when I worked a “real” job.

The other great thing about this type of work—combined with the ever-increasing array of portable computing gadgets that are around—is that from day to day, I’m able to work in all kinds of locations. This variety can be both fun and make life a little more interesting, but it can also help stimulate all kinds of creativity.

Someone asked recently what were my favorite places to blog from. Here’s what I said (and I’d love to hear your favorites below):

1. Cafes

cafes.jpeg

The combination of coffee, a computer, and the white noise of those around me is a very productive mix for me. I spend at least four mornings a week in my local cafe, just a short stroll from our front door. The staff greet me with ‘Blogger dude!” and bring me my drink of choice (a skinny latte with one sugar) without needing to be asked (and a second one 30 minutes later, or on the nod of the head—whichever comes first!). They even installed WiFi just for me.

Other patrons ask how I ever get anything done with all the noise, but for me it’s a strangely productive place where I find myself getting lost in my work. I also enjoy the fact that there are others around—snippets of overheard conversation or interactions with others in the cafe often produce ideas, stimulate blog posts, and even generate product ideas.

2. Shopping centers (the mall)

A variation on the cafe approach has been a semi-regular visit to a local shopping center or mall. The one I go to is among the biggest in Melbourne, and has a great range of cafes, a food court, and several hundred shops—including an Apple store. I enjoy working there partly for similar reasons to those mentioned above (white noise, coffee, etc.), but also because I find the environment quite stimulating for ideas.

I have a little routine that I use: an hour in one cafe; a 15-minute stroll through the shops, where I get all kinds of marketing ideas; an hour in a second cafe; another stroll through shops; then I settle down in the food court or a resautrant for lunch. The combination of all this is surprisingly productive (and I keep the Apple store in business with my regular stop-offs there).

3. The library

library.jpeg

I don’t get there as much as I used to since we moved further away from the city, but I always found the big library in the center of Melbourne to be an inspiring place to work, and I used to head there at least once a month. I found just being in a place where others were working and reading used to help me still myself and focus.

Having a vast array of books, magazines, and newspapers on hand for little breaks was also quite stimulating, but the real treat for me is the reading room pictured above, which is just an inspiring place to hang out.

4. Flying

One of the most memorable work sessions that I’ve ever had was on a recent flight from Melbourne to Los Angeles. While I never used to enjoy that flight (14 hours cramped up next to a stranger with not much to do? Not fun!), the last few times I’ve flown, I’ve found myself being particularly productive

Perhaps it’s the altitude or the oxygen they pump around the plane (do they do that?) but I often get a lot done flying. This could also partly be because this is one of the few times in my life that I’m disconnected from the Web (those international flights don’t have WiFi yet). It might also be because I’m traveling to and from conferences that I find to be stimulating experiences.

5. On the couch

couch.jpeg

Most weeknights you can find me sitting in our lounge room, next to my wife, on the couch, in front of the TV, blogging. I’m not sure how much of the TV I actually watch, but I find the experience to be a good way to wind down at the end of a day.

There are times where my wife needs to tell me to put the computer down so we can connect (although she often sits there surfing too), but all in all it’s usually a reasonably productive time. I tend to use it mainly for admin-type tasks—email, social media, comment moderation, etc.—rather than creative ones, but occasionally I’ll find that something from the TV also stimulates ideas for my work.

6. My desk and office

This is where I do the bulk of my blogging. While I like to get out of the house in the morning to write (mornings are generally more about writing content and creative tasks), I spend the bulk of my afternoons in my home office. This is where I create multi-media content, do interviews, take calls, and do most of the admin and editing tasks that I do.

I did a tour of my office a few years back—not a lot has changed in terms of layout, although I now mainly work from a laptop rather than the desktop computer.

What about you?

Where do you spend most of your time blogging? Which places do you enjoy blogging the most? Do you find different places are better for certain tasks more than others? Interested in your thoughts.

Related Articles