Repurposing your blog posts into an ebook is a fast, fairly simple tactic for you to get more visibility for your business, build your list and make more money. That's why I've decided to give away my program, From Blog to Kindle eBook, for a limited time. It usually sells for $57.
For a limited time you can get the program for FREE - through January 26, 2013. Claim your gift now to get started creating a new stream of income using the world's largest ecommerce site!
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You've probably heard a thousand times that your blog is the foundation of your online presence (heck, I've said it at least ten thousand times!).
Another way to think about it is that your blog is the heart of your business...
...the place where you deeply connect, share your message, engage your audience and have the opportunity to transform the lives of your ideal clients.
Well, if your blog is the heart, then your list is the life blood of your business, pumping your message consistently into the hands, head and heart of the audience you wish to serve. Without a list that is consistently growing, your business could be on life-support soon.
Continue reading "Your Blog is the Heart of Your Business" »
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This is a guest post by Linda Dessau of ContentMasteryGuide.com
Are you worried that the tips, suggestions and advice that you're posting on your blog will take away the need for clients to hire you directly?
Don't worry, because that is NOT the case!
First of all, people who are looking for do-it-yourself solutions because they're not ready, willing or able to pay for your services were not going to hire you anyway. They do, however, have wide networks of people who may. Providing valuable content to those people and their networks will improve your visibility as well as your credibility.
After all, you are a highly trained expert. Always remember that the personalized services you deliver to your clients can never be replaced with information on a blog.
Let's use a reader named Sarah as an example. Sarah would be an ideal client for you – she lives in your area, she's dealing with an issue that you can solve and she's online actively looking for solutions for that problem.
Sarah finds her way to your blog and reads a post about that very issue. Maybe a friend posted one of your links on social media, or maybe she found your website listing in a local networking directory (maybe you even got lucky when she did a Google search).
No matter how she found you, what's important is that Sarah loves what you've written. It makes sense, it seems doable and she trusts you enough to try your suggestions. Good job. You've obviously made a powerful connection – even though you may never have even met! Let's carry out this scenario with four different conclusions, each of which can lead to new clients for you:
Remember that there are hundreds of prospective clients who need your services right now who are never going to see or read your blog post. So there is no need to hold back on posting your best ideas. You're not giving away the farm by posting valuable, high-quality helpful content. You're sowing the seeds to a long and fruitful relationship with your prospective client and their network of contacts.
Linda Dessau is the author of Write Your Way to More Clients Online and the founder of Content Mastery Guide. Visit her site today for more do-it-yourself blogging tips and hands-free blogging services.
What's your experience been with giving away content on your blog? Do you feel you have gained or lost clients? Post your thoughts about giving away your best info in the comments below.
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A recurring theme discussed among bloggers is how to make money from their blog -- how to package and profit from their expertise.
Well, I'm very excited to announce that the speaking proposal my colleague Rich Brooks, of Flyte New Media, and I submitted to Blog World and New Media Expo has been accepted and we'll be presenting a session on...
I've attended three out of four BlogWorld Expos and it's by far the best conference going when it comes to education and networking with peers involved in business blogging, social media and new media (podcasting and video). So, I'm thrilled to be speaking once at again at this premier conference. In fact, Rich and I co-presented at both the first and second events so this will be our third time sharing the stage at BlogWorld Expo.
Now, here's what I'd like to know from you...
What is your #1 challenge or burning question about packaging, promoting and profiting from your expertise?
We plan to create a killer presentation and want to deliver maximum value in the 60 minutes session. As Rich told me when we were hashing out a theme...
"I want to teach the average blogger who has a job to put together a workable, sustainable program."
What would that look like to you?
What strategies, tactics and details would you want to get out the presentation so you felt ready, willing and able to take action?
Please post your presentation wish list in the comments. Then, register for BlogWorld Expo (November 3-5 in Los Angeles) and we'll see you there! Right now you can save 30% with early bird registration AND get an additional 20% off with the special speaker discount code I was able to wrangle for your: BLOGSQUAD20
If you cannot make it to BWE, you may be able to twist our arms to share our presentation on a webinar...no promises though since I haven't talked with Rich about that yet!
See you at BlogWorld!
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You know how I love repurposing blog content? Well so does my guest blogger, Daniel Hall. In this post he shares how a repurposed blog post became an Amazon Kindle bestseller! And, how you can learn to do it too!
Your Blog Becomes A Bestseller?
By Daniel Hall
I have been blogging for about five years. Not consistently. Just anytime I had something to say or contribute or promote. Often times - because I am all about getting the biggest bang for my buck - I will take my blog posts and re-purpose them.
That is, I will turn posts into articles and distribute them in the article directories. I will also arrange to republish the piece as a guest post. Sometimes I will convert the post into a PowerPoint and make what is in effect a video article which is then posted on youtube and other video portals.
So, as you can tell, I love re-purposing content.
Along the way I learned how to publish books through Print on Demand technology and soon after I mastered how to publish content through Amazon's Kindle. In fact, I started to write and publish a bunch of original Kindle books. It was about this time that it dawned on me, why not republish some of my best blog posts as separate Kindle books.
The results of my first attempt astonished me... here's what happened.
I wrote what I thought was a really good Fourth of July post called "Book Marketing: The Long Tail of Freedom". It was a long post (for me) and I thought it might be a great piece to publish on Kindle. I changed the name of the post to "Information Product Marketing: The Long Tail of Freedom" and did some light editing. I then published the piece to Kindle.
To my amazement it started to consistently sell and before I knew it the book popped on to the Kindle bestseller list!
So what's the lesson in this?
You're a blogger. You have great stuff. Get it out there and working for you on Kindle. You never know what's going to gain some traction and really start selling. Maybe even make your post (Kindle book) into a bestseller. At a minimum you'll create a residual income source and disseminate your message to a larger audience.
The question now is how do you master publishing through Kindle? Good news! Denise is hosting a webinar training with me called "Publish Your Ebook Today Using Amazon's Kindle - The Complete Step-By-Step Instructions" on Tuesday, November 30 at 3 pm ET. Register here - https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/547078297. Although the webinar is free the content is solid gold and you WILL learn how to publish your blog content to Kindle the night of event. That's my promise.
Daniel Hall is an author, speaker, consultant, coach, lawyer, nurse and sometimes blogger. He is also the creator of the popular Real Fast Book program, designed to help people crank out high-quality, highly profitable books real fast. He gave up a lucrative law practice to earn his living online 5 years ago and has never looked back.
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When the price on the Amazon Kindle dropped by $70 recently, I decided to go for it as I had been curious for some time about the electronic reading gadget. When I turned it on and went to the Kindle Store, I noticed that there is an option to subscribe to thousands of blogs, each for $.99 month.
That piqued my curiosity. I have no idea how many people actually read blogs on the Kindle or if anyone is making money from their blog being available on Kindle, but why not list it?
Finding out how to submit your blog is not obvious. I did a search, found a forum post asking that very question and followed the thread to find the answer >> https://kindlepublishing.amazon.com
You must set up a publishing account (different from your Amazon account), fill out a few fields, upload a couple of images and submit. Easy.
Here's the info you need to have in order to submit your blog in just a few minutes:
Save. Preview. Publish.
Your blog will be reviewed and added to the Kindle Store in 48-72 hours (so they say).
Even if no one ever subscribes to my blog on the Kindle, it doesn't really matter. It's there when people search both on the Kindle AND on Amazon - a great place to get more visibility for your blog and your business! Plus people can get a 14 day free trial and may get hooked on your great content.
NOTE: Just found the easy way to submit your blog >> On Amazon, go to the Kindle Store, then click on Blogs. You'll see a link to take you to the publishing site in the left column.
Is your blog listed on the Kindle? If so, post the link to your listing on Amazon so we can check it out. And, let us know how it's working for you. Are you making any money?
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Do you have a business success story that you can attribute to blogging? I frequently speak at conferences, on teleseminars and give interviews and always love to share success stories from blogging. I would love to share YOUR story - with full attribution and link to your blog, of course.
If you have success in your business that you can directly attribute your blog, let's hear it! Some things to consider:
If you have a blogging success story, please post it in the comments below and don't forget to include a link to your blog!
Remember, be specific about the results you got with your blog. Here are a few questions to consider:
I look forward to hearing your blogging success stories and introducing you and your business to my audiences (with permission of course!).
Blog on!
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I had a good time this weekend looking at some pretty silly blogs...and guess what. they are ones that have landed big book deals with publishers. So don't scoff. These blog authors are laughing themselves all the way to the bank. The kicker is that most of them get their content from blog readers...they don't even write original stuff.
Thanks to this NY Times article, I had a few chuckles with these sites:
Apparently certain themes attract millions of eyeballs and publishers are betting they will love the material so much they'll shell out a few bucks to buy a printed book. Who says we're in a recession?
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Just have to share this email (with permission of course) that arrived in our email box last night, from client Mark Siegel. We frequently point to Mark Siegel's business blog success when we present to groups and we love that he sends us unsolicited progress reports from time to time. Here's Mark's latest business blog success story...
Hi Denise and Patsi,
The Thailandgolfzone is 3 years old today and still remains the single best investment I have made in marketing and client communications, by a long mile. From your excellent set-up work and encouragement my blog has grown to over 387 posts (and counting), generated new leads that resulted in $2,000,000 US dollars (yes 2 Million!) in new business, and even catapulted me into becoming the “Thailand Golf Guru.”
For the latter I have been asked to write for Asian Golf Monthly, a major golf publication here, invited to speak on golf tourism at the Asian Golf Business Summit, interviewed by Forbes magazine along side of billionaire Herbert Kohler, and even contracted by the Thai government to be Thailand’s golf ambassador to the world! Wow, now the fun really starts!
Who would have imagined that a small one man operation like Golfasian armed with great service and a Blog Squad business blog and a customized newsletter to get the word out could have achieved so much success and fame in just 3 short years, and this is in spite of the world’s economic and equity crisis.
Well once again I have to thank you, Denise and Patsi, for your initial consultations, advice, and encouragement. I am 100% convinced that without your assistance on the Thailandgolfzone, these accomplishments over the past 3 years would have not been realized.
Keep up the great work, count me in as a true believer in your services, and feel free to use me as a reference for business blogs as well as your current venture, social networking for business success.
Best Regards,
Mark Siegel
Managing Director
Golfasian Co. Ltd.
+66-(0)2-714-8470
http://www.golfasian.com, http://www.vietnamgolfvacation.com, and http://www.thailandgolfzone.com
The golf experts in Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia!
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The evidence keeps adding up by market researchers: content marketing wins over readers more than advertising. This means business bloggers have the clear advantage since blogs are the best way to communicate stories.
According to an Adfusion survey, article-based advertising is preferred by 51% of respondents who are “very likely” or “somewhat likely” to read and act upon the material.
The survey asked respondents to rate their likelihood to read and act upon five types of online advertising: banner ads, pop-up ads, e-mail offers, articles that include brand information, and sponsored search engine links. By ad type, respondents said they were “very likely” or “somewhat likely” to read and respond to:
* Articles that include brand information: 51%
* Email offers: 47%
* Sponsored search engine links: 39%
* Banner ads: 25%
* Pop-up ads: 13%
Thanks to Chris Baggott from Compendium Blogware for the heads up on this survey.
Continue reading "Business Blog Content: Telling Beats Selling " »
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