Table of Contents 1 INTRODUCTION..6 2 HOW IS ADVERTISING DIFFERENT IN 2018?7 STAND OUT OR NEVER BE KNOWN...7 IMPORTANT MESSAGES IN 2018......8 CREATE AN ADVERTISING PLAN.....10 AN EFFECTIVE ADVERTISING PLAN FOR 2018 TACKLES A WIDE RANGE OF MEDIUMS AND IT DELIVERS A CLEAR MESSAGE. IT ALSO PROVIDES CONSUMERS WITH A CLEAR SOLUTION TO THE EVER-POPULAR QUESTION, “WHAT DOES THIS BUSINESS DO FOR ME?”..11 3 WORD OF MOUTH IS STILL KING...13 #1: FOCUS ON CUSTOMER SERVICE......13 #2: LOCAL OFFERS....14 #3: BE ACTIVE IN THE COMMUNITY......14 #4: SPONSOR LOCAL ACTIVITIES..14 #5: ASK FOR THE RECOMMENDATION...14 #6: ASK CUSTOMERS TO COMPLAIN......15 #7: KEEP THE PROMISES YOU MAKE.....15 #8: DO MORE THAN THE MINIMUM15 #9: SATISFY THE UNHAPPY CUSTOMER15 #10: AS FOR REPEAT BUSINESS LATER, TOO......15 #11: LOOK THEM IN THE EYE..16 4 FREE WAYS TO ADVERTISE YOUR BUSINESS......17 # 12: GOOGLE LOCAL17 #13: GOOGLE COUPONS...17 #14: CHECK OUT YELLOW PAGES ONLINE....18 #15: GET ON YAHOO LOCAL....18 #16: GET REVIEWS ON YAHOO LOCAL...18 #17: SEND OUT PRESS RELEASES...18 #18: TRADE WITH OTHER BUSINESS OWNERS. . .18 5 BUILD A WEBSITE....20 #19: BUILD A WEBSITE....20 #20: GET YOUR WEBSITE LISTED IN SEARCH ENGINES..20 #21: USE SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION..21 #22: KEYWORD RICH TITLES..21 #23: WRITE AN EFFECTIVE META TAG...21 #24: LOCAL.COM21 #25: CRAIGSLIST......22 #25: GET A BLOG22 #26: SET UP A NEWSLETTER...22 #27: REGULAR EMAIL CAMPAIGNS.22 #28: ALERT EVERYONE THROUGH A PRESS RELEASE...23 #29: RUN A CONTEST23 #30: GET IT PRINTED23 6 SOCIAL MARKETING AS ADVERTISEMENT...24 #31: LINKEDIN..24 #32: FACEBOOK.25 #33: MYSPACE....25 #34: VISIBLEPATH....25 #35: SOFLOW.....25 #36: ORKUT.25 #37: TWITTER....25 #38: DIGG.COM..26 #39:YOUTUBE.COM...26 7 FOCUS ON SEO..27 #40: HEADERS...27 #41: KEYWORD PLACEMENT....27 #42: KEYWORD DENSITY.27 #43: HYPERLINKS.....28 #44: WEBPAGES.28 #45: FOCUS ON THOSE KEYWORDS28 #46: GET LINKS IN....28 #47: LINK YOUR SOCIAL NETWORK SITES...28 #48: LINK HOW TO ARTICLES.29 #49: HUBPAGES (FORMER SQUIDOO)...29 #50: HUBPAGES.29 #51: NETWORK FOR LINKS.....29 #52: EZINEARTICLES.COM......29 #53: OTHER ARTICLE DIRECTORIES......30 #54: FORUMS YOU VISIT.30 #55: ANY PLACE ELSE......30 #56: DO NOT FORGET EMAIL...30 8 WORK THE BLOG......31 #57: POST REGULARLY.....31 #58: INTERACT WITH OTHER BLOGS....31 #59: WRITE A GUEST POST.....31 #60: BE UNIQUE.32 #61: PLACE A BOOKMARK TOOL.....32 #62: BECOME A RESOURCE......32 #63: CREATE AN EFFECTIVE LANDING PAGE32 #64: INTERACT WITH OTHERS32 #65: PAID SEARCH....33 9 HOW TO STAND OUT34 #66: GET ON TELEVISION34 #67: GET ON RADIO..34 #68: OFFER LOCAL DISCOUNTS......34 #69: WRITE FOR THE PAPER...34 #70: AVOID THE GRAPHICS, BUT GO BIG.....35 #71: DO GO FOR MEDIUM.35 #72: FOCUS ON LIVE CHAT......35 #73: OFFER A FREE SERVICE...35 #74: EXPAND YOUR SERVICE AREA35 10 TIPS FOR ADVERTISING YOUR BUSINESS LOCALLY FOR LESS...37 #75: THE BASIC BUSINESS CARD...37 #76: FLYERS STILL WORK37 #77: USE YOUR CAR..37 #78: CHECK OUT YOUR CHURCH.....38 #79: GET LISTED IN YOUR CHAMBER OF COMMERCE......38 #80: GET INVOLVED IN SCHOOLS..38 #81: PAPER COUPONS WORK..38 #82: CHECK OUT TRADE FAIRS......38 #83: USE THE CLASSIFIEDS....39 #84 USE PROMOTIONAL TOOLS.....39 11 NETWORKING TIPS THAT WORK.40 #85: LOCAL BUSINESS NETWORKING...40 #86: WRITE A DIRECTORY......40 #87: BUILD YOUR BLOG WITH OTHER BUSINESSES...40 #88: TWITTER ABOUT OTHERS41 #89: CHECK OUT YAHOO GROUPS..41 #90: GO WITH THE MOMMY BLOG..41 #91: NETWORK WITHIN GROUPS...41 #92: PULL TOGETHER FOR A CONTEST..41 #93: CHECK OUT INTERNET RADIO42 #94: FLYERS EVERYWHERE.....42 A CONCLUSION WITH MORE......43 #95: DO HIRE A PRO43 #96: DO NOT FORGET THE SALES PAGES......43 #97: GET ELECTRONIC IF YOU CAN43 #98: RESEARCH WHAT’S NEW.43 #99: GIVE A SEMINAR......44 #100: TALK ABOUT YOUR BUSINESS.....44 #101: DO NOT HIDE IT: ASK FOR THEIR BUSINESS...44 Sample Content Preview WORD OF MOUTH IS STILL KING Word of mouth advertising is one of the oldest forms. Simply put, it is the means of one person telling another person something about your business. It has always been one of the most powerful tools to have as an advertising medium. Ask yourself, are you more interested in listening to what a commercial has to say or what your best friend has to say? Who is more believable? As a business, part of your advertising plan should focus on word of mouth advertising. OF course, it is important to point out that today; word of mouth advertising is not just one person telling another of a product, as in one woman telling another woman about a product they love. Rather, there are many online and off line methods for delivering a word of mouth experience. In this chapter, we focus on a few methods of advertising that can help you to pull out those recommendations that you want to get from others. How can you get recommendations and referrals from the customers you already have or the ones that you will be getting? #1: FOCUS ON CUSTOMER SERVICE The first and most important element of advertising is not spoiling the business that you have. Each customer that comes into your doors needs to be a customer treated as if they are the most important customer for the business. Although this may seem difficult to do, it is all about delivering a quality service and smiling. Customer service is important to business success. If you have a bad experience at a restaurant, you tell your family and friends about it, and stop them from going there. Not only does the business lose your business but that of your family and friends, too. What you want to create, on the other hand, is an atmosphere in which the words being passed on are top quality recommendations to visit your establishment. If you are not sure what you can do to improve your customer service, go right to the source: your customer. Find out from them what you can do to improve your overall experience. #2: LOCAL OFFERS If your business is a locally based one, as opposed to one that is Internet based, focus on local offers that can help bring in customers. For example, a customer comes in to your hair salon. You know they had a great experience and so you offer them a discount card and one for their friend. If they pass on the card, you have an opportunity for them to tell the potentially new customer about your salon. This is easy advertising! #3: BE ACTIVE IN THE COMMUNITY Another way to generate more word of mouth advertising is to let others know about your business by allowing them to get to know you. Be an active role player in the community. Churches, community organizations as well as government offices are great ways for you to grow your local popularity. Introduce yourself to your customers. Shake their hand. Be present in your place of business. #4: SPONSOR LOCAL ACTIVITIES It does not have to cost you much to sponsor a group of local baseball players or to buy the t-shirt uniforms for the school’s soccer team. It does not cost you anything to host a fundraiser for a local person who is ill where you donate your profits. However, these types of actions get your name in front of the masses. They are all instances that you can show that your business is the business in town to be involved. #5: ASK FOR THE RECOMMENDATION Unbelievably, one of the best ways for you to get the customers to respond to you is to ask for a recommendation. For example, you have saved someone $250 off his or her car repair bill. That is nothing to be shy about. As the customer is happily paying their now discounted bill, you can easily say to them that you are looking for new clients. Would they please recommend your service to their friends and family? When you ask for business, even if it is simply by asking for a group of customers to come back again, you allow those customers to feel welcome within your business. More so, they are happy to tell others about their experience, especially when asked to do so. More ideas: Here are a few more, short and easy ideas for building up your business through word of mouth advertising. #6: ASK CUSTOMERS TO COMPLAIN Did you know that most customers who have a bad experience never report that experience to the business? However, they do tell family and friends about it, or even worse, they get online and start talking about it. Ask customers to tell you of the problems they have with your business. #7: KEEP THE PROMISES YOU MAKE As a business owner, if you promise to do something for a customer, you had better do it. The negative word of mouth advertising this will cause is enough to cause any business to struggle significantly. However, when you do keep your promises, customers will respond to that as well. #8: DO MORE THAN THE MINIMUM Next, work on going over the expectations of your clients. You do not want to do the bare minimum or to get the basic level of acceptance. Rather, you want to focus on beating their expectations so that your business can flourish when they come back repeatedly so you can take advantage of what you have to offer. #9: SATISFY THE UNHAPPY CUSTOMER The customer is never wrong, even when you know they are wrong. It happens within every business. A misunderstanding leads to a confrontation. You do not want to stand down or to lose business. How do you handle the angry, unhappy customer? Do what you can to satisfy them. In fact, many studies show that when an unhappy customer is satisfied, they become a lifetime customer of the business, simply because the business listened to them and fixed the problem. #10: AS FOR REPEAT BUSINESS LATER, TOO At first, you may ask for a customer’s repeat business when they are leaving your establishment or even through your invoice online. However, in a week or so, give them a call. Send them an email. Send them some mail. Ask them to come on back to experience what you have to offer again. #11: LOOK THEM IN THE EYE When you are working with customers hand in hand, shake their hand, look them in the eye and let them know how important they are to you. This establishes a bond of trust and it helps to develop customer loyalty. Reach out, ask for their business and thank them for visiting you. This will make a difference. As you will notice, virtually all of these word of mouth advertising methods are free or inexpensive. They make sense. They should be part of your advertising plan without fail. If they are not, add them in to the mix to ensure that your business has the foundation it needs to excel in 2018. FREE WAYS TO ADVERTISE YOUR BUSINESS We just spent a chapter working on word of mouth advertising. It is what people need to know and need to use as the foundation of their business success. However, every business needs to do more than that to get into the eyes of the customer. However, most businesses, especially the startups will find it hard to pay for these advertising methods. If you could afford to hire a professional advertising company, you would still see some of these free methods for promoting your business. However, many people do not put in enough time to learn them. The following are a few free ways to advertise your business. Some are offline while others are online methods. Use as many as makes sense for your business. # 12: GOOGLE LOCAL Google Local is a local listing service on the web for local businesses. You do not have to do much but contact Google Local and provide your company name, address, phone number and website address. You will need to verify this information through a postcard but it is easy and gets you listed on Google easily. #13: GOOGLE COUPONS Have you considered coupons? Why not mesh coupons with Google. If it sounds like something that is interesting to you, the good news is that it is easy to do. You are able to bring in new customers and bring the old customers back to you. All of this occurs through Google’s free coupon tool that you use to get your business on local searches that are relevant to your website. #14: CHECK OUT YELLOW PAGES ONLINE While it does cost a fee to get your website listed in the big Yellow Page book, it is free to do so on the web. Remember, people come to the web to learn about stuff long before they actually buy from a business. Therefore, being in the online Yellow Pages makes sense. #15: GET ON YAHOO LOCAL Just like Google Local, Yahoo Local offers the same type of benefit. Of course, it benefits those who are using the Yahoo search engine instead of those who use Google. Yahoo is the second largest web search engine and highly important to any online search. It is free to get listed on Yahoo Local, too. #16: GET REVIEWS ON YAHOO LOCAL One of the things that Yahoo local does that Google Local does not is to allow customers to review your service. It takes only a few minutes to set up this process, but encouraging your customers to visit the website and to write a review is an important step in advertising local businesses. It is free to do and takes moments, but it could mean the difference in a customer choosing your business over another company’s business. #17: SEND OUT PRESS RELEASES You can send a press release to a news organization. This is a better option than sitting around and waiting for them to come to you. Be sure that what you have to say is newsworthy, and it should not be a blatant advertisement of your business. For example, it could be a press release announcing your collection of food for a local charity. It could be your special fundraiser for a sit child. You can use online press releases in the same manner, but be sure they are newsworthy before you try to have them sent out.

Table of Contents INTRODUCTION3 OVERVIEW OF THE PUBLISHING INDUSTRY....4 Traditional Print Publishers..4 Self Publishing4 Electronic Publishing....5 Getting Started.....5 THE WRITING PROCESS – AN OVERVIEW....6 FINDING IDEAS.....6 WHAT WILL PEOPLE BUY?.7 WHAT TO CONSIDER WHEN CHOOSING AN IDEA. .8 STICK WITH WHAT YOU KNOW...10 ALL ABOUT AGENTS....11 WHO NEEDS AN AGENT?..11 THE BOOK PROPOSAL12 REPRESENTING YOURSELF....13 HOW TO LOCATE AGENTS13 CONTACTING AGENTS.....14 CHOOSING A GOOD AGENT....15 ALL ABOUT PUBLISHERS...17 BEHIND CLOSED DOORS..17 Sending In Your Own Submissions.17 When An Agent Submits to Publishers..18 THE PITCH MEETING.18 THE OFFER…WHAT A DEAL!...19 The Offer19 The Advance.20 Royalties20 Book Delivery and Publication Dates.....21 NEGOTIATING THE CONTRACT....22 MARKETING A BOOK...24 PRE-PUBLISHING MARKETING....24 POST-PUBLISHING MARKETING..25 ON THE ROAD…NEAR AND FAR....26 SELF-PUBLISHING AND ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING ..28 CONCLUSION..31 Sample Content Preview GETTING STARTED With so many great options available today in the publishing industry, it’s easy to get confused. It is important to keep in mind that most of the publishing concepts are the same. Many of principles behind the writing process, editing, finding a publisher, and marketing apply whether you are talking about a traditional print book or an electronically published book. The principles are the same but the process may differ. For example, marketing principles underlay the strategies for selling a book but the actual tactics can differ if the book is only available electronically. In the following sections the principles that are discussed assume a book is being published in print form. In the chapter Self Publishing and Electronic Publishing the process for publishing and marketing eBooks and other electronic book versions are reviewed. THE WRITING PROCESS – AN OVERVIEW This is an eBook about publishing and not about writing per se, but you will have a much greater chance of getting your book published if you choose your idea carefully and keep your ultimate goals in mind. Your idea should not be strictly driven by the desire to get published, but you also do not want to write a book that only five people will read. For most writers coming with the desire to be published is the desire to make some money too. As you will learn later the amount of money you will make will be dependent on the number of books you sell and the negotiated contract. FINDING IDEAS So where do you get ideas for a book? The answer is you get them everywhere! If you want to know what sells and what people are interested in reading, you can start with a visit to the bookstore. Just simply visit a neighborhood bookstore and look at the prominent displays. What are the tables displaying? What types of books are present in the largest quantities? With the internet it is also easy to search for lists of the most popular books that are selling. Bestseller lists provide a quick view of the book market and what the public is reading. There are even lists by type of book. If you are determined to write a nonfiction book then look at the nonfiction bestseller lists. The ideas you get from the bookstores and the library are just the beginning. There are many other ways to get ideas. - Talk to friends and family and ask what they enjoy reading - Quiz co-workers or the chat with people at the gym - Brainstorm and make a list of where your thoughts take you in the way of ideas - Think about your hobbies and any areas of expertise you can claim - Consider your unique skills or abilities - Recall the times you have told yourself someone should write a book about…. - List the topics you find interesting like politics, sewing, caring for the elderly and so on Once you have listed the ideas you can then sort the list into a descending list of topics that hold the most interest for you. You are almost creating a funnel into which you pour all your ideas and coming from the narrow tip will be those that have the most interest. You can work your list over several times and eliminate the topics you do not feel qualified to write about. Eventually you will find yourself with 2 or 3 topics and from those you will find one that has potential to be turned into a full book. At this point other considerations come into play. You have a good idea for a book, but will it sell? At this stage you must match your idea to the market. This is where your visit to the bookstores, the bestseller lists, and the market needs are matched to your book idea. Does your idea fit? That is the question you must answer. WHAT WILL PEOPLE BUY? The process of writing a book requires a significant investment of time and creative energy. If your goal is to express that creativity in a way that will enable your book to get published, then you do not want to fashion your book into a tome that few people will read. Realistically you will probably not write a best seller on the scale of a Stephen King book the first time you are published. It can happen, but it is just not likely. Yet the goal is to write a book that will be published and sell. Publishing a book that does not sell really does serves no useful purpose to anyone. To determine the type of book people will buy, is necessary to understand the audience that will be the most likely to the book. Is it going to be stay-at home-moms, nonprofit organizations, golfers, teenagers, mystery lovers, or any of the hundreds of others who read books. Once you decide what the most likely audience will be, you then must decide if it will be large enough. Once again you are back to the question of how to publish a book that will sell. Selling five copies will probably leave you in debt even if you decide to self-publish. There is a bigger consideration to keep in mind also. Publishers will only assume the risk of publishing a new author if it believes the book will sell a minimum of 5,000 copies. That is the absolute minimum and many of the large publishing houses will expect many more than that to sell. In the publishing business, sales estimates assume that approximately 5 percent of the potential reading audience will actually invest in the book. It becomes much clearer at this point as to why you want to write to a large audience! The book you write will have to meet a need or a desire for information. People who buy a self-help book need answers to life questions. People who read mystery books have a need for a mental challenge. Those who buy diet books need to lose weight. People who buy romance books need to have the satisfaction of knowing romance is alive and well in the world and may even be living vicariously though the book. Of course all of this is speculation because there is no way to prove exactly why people buy a certain book to read. But people will buy a book that captures their interest, inspires the spirit, conveys information, lets them travel to exotic places, or enables them to experience adventure. Your goal is to match your talents, interests, and writing abilities to a market need. Once you succeed at this task, the chances of your book getting published have greatly improved. WHAT TO CONSIDER WHEN CHOOSING AN IDEA Surely you need to consider a lot more than just what books are sitting on the bookstore tables by the front door and what you enjoy doing or talking about. To choose a marketable book idea there are several concepts to keep in mind.

Table of Contents Chapter 1 . 3 Right Into The Strategies 3 Running with the giants ..... 3 Getting started 4 Marketing Tips ..... 5 OTO (One Time Offer) Marketing . 6 A Few Good Markets . 8 Free publicity.... 9 Not quite free publicity. 11 Pay-per-click strategies ..... 17 Affiliate strategies .... 20 Chapter 2 The Startup Phase .. 23 Free instant Internet business: Just add blog .. 23 Website words of wisdom ..... 26 Budgeting basics..... 28 More on traffic ... 31 Chapter 3 The Most Common Mistakes . 33 Chapter 4 Getting The Recurring Signup .. 36 To charge or not to charge ... 36 Free subscriptions .... 36 Paid subscriptions .... 37 Chapter 5 Your Affiliate Program 39 Multiple affiliations, multiple paychecks .. 39 Top tips for affiliate success. 41 Sample Content Preview Affiliate strategies If you have ever read anything about Internet marketing, you've probably heard a little about affiliate programs. With an affiliate program, you host a banner or text ad from another website on your site. When your visitors click on the affiliate link, you get paid. Sometimes affiliates pay per click (a few cents). Other affiliate programs offer a commission (percentage of sales) if visitors from your website purchase something on theirs. Many Internet marketers enroll in a number of affiliate programs, because in most cases they only earn a few cents per click for each program. Enrolling in carefully selected affiliate programs that complement but do not compete with your business can be a good way to make money online. However, an even better way to make serious money is to start your own affiliate program, and enlist other websites to advertise your products and services for you. It's like hiring a sales force that works cheap, but effectively. As long as you offer a decent commission for your affiliate program, you will attract several people interested in becoming affiliates. Of course, the higher the commission you offer, the bigger "sales force" you will amass. It's a good idea to look at other affiliate programs that are related to your business area and find out what their commissions or per-click pay rates are, then offer a higher payout if you can. You'll need to write an affiliate sales letter that outlines your program. This letter should be just as compelling and persuasive as your sales letter for your products or services. As you create your affiliate program, try to think of things from the potential affiliates' point of view. What are the benefits to them when they enroll in your program—outside of profit, of course? Are you offering quality products or services their customers will enjoy? Do you have bonuses for top performing affiliates? If you create an affiliate program, you will also have to design your own banners and text ads for your affiliates to place. Not only is this more convenient for your affiliates, it is also more effective for sales. You know your products or services better than your affiliates will, and so you are the best person to craft compelling ads that will draw visitors from your affiliates' sites to yours. When you are ready to set up your affiliate program, there are a few options available to you. If you have a decent level of computer skill, you can purchase affiliate software program that will allow you to design and track your program yourself. Another option is to "hire" a third-party affiliate tracking company. There are benefits and drawbacks to each program. With affiliate software, you have complete control over the design of your program, and you keep all the profits. However, you must be prepared to invest more time in the program, as you will be handling all of the tracking, enrollment, and issuing of commission checks yourself. If you use a third-party company, you must pay them a commission (normally this fee is subtracted from your affiliate profits, and the balance is forwarded to you). However, you won't have to worry about sign-ups, tracking, and commission payout, so you will have more time to devote to other areas of your business. Remember: Do your homework before signing on with any affiliate marketing program! Each program is different, and the commission and payment structures vary from program to program. Make sure you read the agreement carefully and look for the following information: • How is a "click" counted? • How is a "lead" factored? • How will you be paid (check, PayPal, electronic transfer), and how often? • Does the company have a good reputation (are other affiliates satisfied with the results)? • Are there any reviews about the company? Good or bad? Whether you enroll as an affiliate in several different programs or start your own affiliate program, there are profits to be made from affiliates. Once again, when it comes to affiliate programs, strategy is key. Take the time to determine which programs or methods will work best for your products or services, and you will see a sharp increase in traffic to your website! Chapter 2 The Startup Phase Now that you know why you should market on the Internet, where to find a great online business that will work for you, and when to start your business and marketing campaigns, it is time to learn how you can go about doing it! Free instant Internet business: Just add blog You should now possess a basic understanding of the key ingredients for successful Internet businesses. You need a product or service, you need customers to target, and you need a website to reach them. If you already have a website, you're one step ahead of the game. However, if you don't yet have your own business website, you can get one that is free, easy to maintain, and can be set up in about thirty minutes with a specialized website form called a blog. What in the world is a blog? The word is short for "web log", and refers to a website that is set up like an online journal: you can "post" to your blog as often as you want, and you can add pictures, sound, and graphics to your posts. Blogs are one of the most interactive media forms available online—with the comments feature, visitors can leave notes on your blog to let you know what they like or dislike about your products or services, and what they would like to see in the future. Blogs are not used only for business. In fact, there are millions of personal blogs that Internet users have created just to connect with other like-minded souls. The popularity of blogs has spawned a whole new subsection of the Internet that is commonly called the "blogosphere" and involves bloggers (people who blog) linking to other blogs, reading and commenting regularly on other blogs, and enjoying many visitors and commenters in return.

Table of Contents GETTING SETUP .. 4 BLOG PLATFORMS: AN INTRODUCTION .. 4 CHOOSING THE RIGHT BLOG PLATFORM FOR YOUR BUSINESS 4 BASICS OF BLOG SETUP... 5 USING BLOGGER .. 6 Steps to Create Your First Blog Post with Blogger ... 7 USING WORDPRESS. 8 Steps to Create Your First Blog Post with WordPress ... 9 USING TYPEPAD 11 OTHER CONSIDERATIONS . 12 HOW YOUR BLOG SHOULD BE ORGANIZED ... 13 LAYOUT AND BASIC COMPOSITION ... 14 PICKING APPROPRIATE COLOR THEMES AND PALETTES 15 CHOOSING THE NUMBER OF COLUMNS .. 17 FONT STYLES AND YOUR BLOG .. 18 FORMATTING TEXT 18 DESIGNING A CUSTOMIZED BLOG TEMPLATE 19 A FEW NOTES ON SQUARESPACE FOR A CUSTOMIZED BLOG . 20 WHY A FREE TEMPLATE MIGHT BE A BETTER CHOICE 20 BLOG LAYOUT AND PAGEVIEWS: UNDERSTANDING THE CONNECTION . 21 BUILDING SOCIAL AUTHORITY . 22 ELEMENTS FOR CREDIBILITY: WHAT YOUR BLOG MUST HAVE . 23 BLOG CREDIBILITY AND SEO . 29 HOW VISITORS DETERMINE CREDIBILITY 29 GETTING THE WORD OUT . 32 DEVELOPING RELATIONSHIPS WITH OTHER BLOGGERS 32 TOP BLOGGING COMMUNITIES .. 33 BRAND IDENTITY AND ITS VALUE FOR BUSINESS . 36 SUMMARY OF MARKETING ESSENTIALS FOR PROMOTING YOUR BLOG 37 PROMOTION AND PUBLICITY ... 42 DEVELOPING BLOG CONTENT THAT WORKS .. 42 USING TAGS CORRECTLY .. 46 CATEGORIES VS. TAGS: KNOWING THE DIFFERENCE 46 TYPES OF TAGGING ... 47 LEARNING FROM TAG CLOUDS ... 48 THE BUILT-IN SEARCH BOX ... 48 HOW DO I IMPLEMENT TAGGING IN MY BLOG? . 48 TAGGING AND MARKETING: EFFECTIVE MARKET RESEARCH . 50 Sample Content Preview Using powerful color combinations is very helpful when choosing the layout of your blog, and most blog platforms offer ‘color combos’ so you make the right choice. If you are designing your palette from scratch, just remember the principles of each color’s psychological impact and proceed accordingly. Choosing the Number of Columns The number of columns in a blog has been debated time and time again, and there are both advantages and disadvantages of each. All blogs are set up in as one-column, two-column, or three-column structures. The best way to pick one is to simply choose something that suites your blog’s purpose. For example, if you plan on linking out to partner sites or other blogs, you’ll need a three-column structure. This will give you enough space to create a blogroll and relevant links on the right sidebar, include your blog commentary down the middle, and then put advertising and other links on the left side bar. A two-column blog is most advantageous for a blog that has limited advertising. You will still have space for an extensive link roll and perhaps some contact information, but all reading will take place on the left side of the page. A one-column blog is very basic, and is a good place to start if you want the blog to stand alone and not link out to different areas. This will help you create immediate interest to the content itself, and will definitely be less distracting for most web visitors and readers. Sometimes a minimal look works better, especially if you have a lot of content that requires attention. Font Styles and Your Blog Unless you are using a customized blog template, there are only a few standard font styles to choose from. This is not necessarily a bad thing, since most web users are becoming with the typical font styles such as Arial, Times New Roman, and Verdana. These are easy to read, and can help people ‘scan’ blogs much more easily. Choose a style that complements your website and company image, and you’ll easily avoid using something that may not even download correctly on all web browsers. Just keep in mind the impact and readability of the text on screen, and you’ll be making it much easier for all readers to continue reading. Formatting Text Blog posting works under a similar format as writing articles, and the more SEO-friendly you can make each entry, the higher the chances of reaching the top of the major search engines. When you are writing your headings and titles, be sure to include keywords as often as possible. Each title of your blog will become an extension of the URL, and this is what search engines can find and rank accordingly. A well-formatted blog entry will also include bullet points and headings. Even though blog posts are generally much shorter than articles, developing a well-organized post will help increase readership and be more favorable to search engines. It’s a simple step that many startup bloggers overlook, and can help significantly as you make your presence online. Making sure that you tag and organize all blog entries is another important element of your blog site design and overall layout. Archives of each blog entry are automatically created for review, but you can organize each entry by adding ‘Categories’ and posting each item into the appropriate section. This makes it easy for people to find specific keyword-based posts, and will also help with search engine rankings. Designing a Customized Blog Template If you decide to do something a little more creative, you may want to pursue a customized blog template instead. Customized blog template services are offered by many web designers and companies, and give you the chance to pick exactly the colors you want from your own website’s color palette. If you want to include a special font, logo, or other artwork of your own, this is your best choice. If you have web design skills, try developing your own blog template with the basic layout elements in mind. A customized template can be made with the same elements of a typical blog, but you will have the freedom to place and organize it as you would like to. Alternatively, there are upgraded versions of blogger platforms available. A Few Notes on Squarespace for a Customized Blog Squarespace is another valuable blogging and content management system platform. Squarespace is very similar in setup to WordPress, but gives you more freedom to set up your basic blog layout, include specialty items such as catalogs, media galleries, and discussion forums, and works with a simple drag-and-drop format. If you’re new to web design, this is a great choice when you’re looking for something professional but unique. Squarespace offers different packages depending on the bandwidth and customized options you need, but even the basic plan is comprehensive enough to develop something that will stand apart from your competitors. You don’t need special software to use it, and everything is very clean and efficient. Why a Free Template Might Be a Better Choice Still, if you’re new to blogging or simply can’t decide how the color scheme and layout should come together, a free template will save you time and upfront investments. You can always change your color choices later, and can try different types as you go along. WordPress, TypePad, and Blogger make it very easy to switch between themes as you start publishing, but you’ll want to settle on something well before you start marketing and promoting your blog. Changing themes and colors too often may lead to confused visitors, so be sure to make some final decisions before you move ahead with promotions.

Sample Content Preview Backlinks In Marketing When we think of Internet marketing, the word “backlink” doesn’t automatically come to mind. In fact, most people who aren’t involved with a website would not even know what a backlink means. To put it simply, a backlink is any URL link from another website that will take web surfers directly to your website. So, a backlink is like a business card (in the form of an Internet address) that you gave to someone who then refers other people back to you. Using this metaphor, one can see that the more backlinks you get the more business you get too. However, that’s not the sole reason why backlinks are important in Internet marketing. While a backlink is a type of referral, it also can be a measure of your website’s reputation. This is why major search engines use backlinks in their search algorithms. They catalogue the number of backlinks and the strength of the people who are backlinking to your site and use this in their algorithm to determine how well you rank amongst other sites that deal with your website niche. Using backlinks you can raise the visibility of your site by getting your site highly ranked in the search engine. This, in turn, will lead to more people visiting your site and thus more business. As if that weren’t enough, the backlinks are also used to determine the worth of the website should you decide to sell the domain later. So, backlinks can turn into dollar signs, even if your site happens to be a blog, instead of a full website. That’s how powerful backlinks are! NOT ALL BACKLINKS ARE THE SAME Being the Internet, of course, nothing is as straightforward as it seems. It’s simplistic to suggest that anything that is a backlink will enhance your site’s value or search engine ranking. Tech wizards invented the Internet, and many of those geek geniuses ended up in search engine companies. So, even though a standard HTML URL is easy enough to understand (once you get the hang of it), search engine optimization is quite intricate and often a very secretive business. After all, if we knew exactly the algorithms that major companies use to rank the sites in their listings, than anyone could fool a search engine and the entire industry would collapse overnight. So, while you can learn as much as you want about how to code a backlink, you probably won’t get the finer points of which backlinks are worth more than others to your website, unless you read this eBook. In these pages, you will find out what specific aspects of a backlink are important in Chapter 2. We will discuss the importance of the anchor text that is linking back to you and the types of sites that link to you. This is just one of the elements that can affect your search ranking, but it appears to be a strong criterion in how you rank, at least in the Google search engine. You will also learn how the context and positioning of a backlink has a great effect on how useful it is to improve your page rank in search engines. Of course, you will want to get backlinks from sites with good page rank, as they will be weighted more. The higher up you are in the page listing (home page being the best page), the more the backlink is weighted. You will learn why link referral pages are no longer as good a strategy as getting your link on relevant pages with few other backlinks. Also, it may surprise you to learn that where the link appears on the page (top, middle, and bottom) can also influence how strong a backlink it is perceived to be by the search engine-ranking algorithm. BUYING BACKLINKS: PROS AND CONS Once you understand the dynamics of a sound backlink, you still have to figure out how to persuade the right people to backlink to your site. You can spend an inordinate amount of time locating sites of similar content to your own and emailing webmasters for reciprocal links, but you will quickly find that you do not get many replies. The process is also time-consuming. So, you may find yourself somewhat stymied about how to generate backlinks without having to do too much upfront work. If you can pay someone to create your site, you may reason, why can’t you pay someone to backlink to your site? And, the answer is that you can! There are search engine optimization companies that can help you establish sufficient backlinks to raise your page rank for a minimal expense. There are risks involved, however, as Google doesn’t like the practice of rigging your site to look good in search engines. And, since the algorithms are kept secret, you can inadvertently trip a red flag that sends your site automatically to the bottom of the heap if you end up paying to be included in link farm pages. Despite this risk, many people do use companies to help them change the ranking of their site by buying backlinks. CHAPTER 2:BACKLINK BASICS A BREIF HISTORY Backlinks have always had some bearing on how well a site ranked in search engine result pages (SERPs). However, in the past, the algorithms were not designed to take into account people trying to cheat the system by loading up on backlinks from sites that had nothing but links on them, no content of any real relevance. These sites quickly became known as “link farms” and were used by webmasters to increase the ranking of their multiple sites. In addition to this practice, webmasters often created one web page specifically to house reciprocal links called a links page. It was used by people building reciprocal links to better leverage their site in search engine results but provided no real content. Sometimes, reciprocal links were even exchange between sites that had no direct relevance to each other too. So, in a links page you might find a link to a toy site when the website hosting the link had to do with the elderly. It obviously made no sense to reward this type of behind the scenes ranking manipulations! Google was one of the first major search engines to start looking at how to reward good quality links that had relevance and added content to a site instead of rewarding savvy, but somewhat unscrupulous practices of cheating the search engine results with backroom deals and black hat tricks. They kept using backlinks as a determinant of reputation, but also strengthened the algorithm to look for specific quality links and penalizing link farms and other black hat maneuvers.

Table of Contents 1 INTRODUCTION .. 4 2 WHAT BRANDING CAN DO FOR YOUR BUSINESS .. 6 INGREDIENTS FOR SUCCESSFUL BRANDING . 6 BLOGGING IS JUST 1 PRONG IN A CAMPAIGN ... 7 3 JUST WHAT IS A BLOG ANYWAY .. 9 TRAITS THAT DISTINGUISH BLOGS .... 9 OTHER FEATURES FOUND IN BLOGS . 10 4 WHO CAN BENEFIT FROM BLOGGING? . 11 HOW THE EXPOSURE CAN PAY OFF ... 12 THE ADVANTAGES OF BLOGGING . 13 5 GETTING ONE SET UP . 15 COMMON PROGRAMMING OPTIONS .. 15 Getting A Web Address For A Blog 16 DOING IT YOURSELF 17 HIRING A PRO 17 Tips For Hiring Pros 18 6 MESSAGE IS EVERYTHING .... 20 KNOW YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE .. 20 Tips For Setting The Tone And Style .. 21 THE ABCS OF SEO 22 Selecting The Right Words . 22 Why SEO Matters ... 23 CONTENT PITFALLS TO WATCH OUT FOR .... 24 7 MAINTAINING YOUR BLOG ... 25 OPTIONS FOR MAINTAINING YOUR BLOG ... 25 THINK MULTIMEDIA . 26 FREQUENCY OF POSTS MATTERS .. 27 8 GETTING THE WORD OUT 28 PAY-PER-CLICK ADS TARGET READERS .. 28 INCOMING LINKS CAN BOOST NUMBERS .... 29 FULL ADVERTISING FLIGHTS .. 30 AFFILIATE MARKETING HAS ITS PERKS . 30 GIVEAWAYS AND CONTESTS ... 31 9 A FEW WORDS IN PARTING .. 32 Sample Content Preview Blogging is an effective, low-cost way to gain attention for a particular brand. The audience on the Internet is potentially endless as more people get online and it stretches well across international boundaries. This means companies can reach out and literally grow their businesses on a global level using this high-tech, low-dollar tool. The versatility of blogs makes them perfect for any branding campaign. From international corporations to individuals working on at-home businesses, blogs are fast becoming a highly prized vehicle for communicating brand messages and building relationships with clients. To truly tap into the potential power a blog has for supporting branding efforts, the first step involves creating the platform. 5 GETTING ONE SET UP GETTING ONE SET UP GETTING ONE SET UP Now that you know what a blog can do for marketing efforts, chances are getting one set up is sounding very appealing to you right about now. The process involved in establishing a branding blog is pretty straightforward. It does require a little bit of technical savvy, but in most cases, individuals can launch their own blogs without too much effort. It is also possible to hire professional programmers, designers and writers to launch a blog and create its format. This option is often selected by companies that are after a 100 percent professional looking presentation. Don’t worry though; you do not technically have to hire pros to get the job done right. Most blogging programs available on the Internet will walk you through their own distinct process for creating a blog. Just follow the instructions carefully and you can be online in no time. As you work on setting up your blog, you will have to make a number of decisions along the way. The first will involve selecting the program to go with for hosting the blog itself. Blog programs do vary, but most provide the basic tools you need for writing and editing your posts and publishing them online. In most cases, blog programs will also host your pages on the Internet if you do not already have a Web site in which to include a blog presentation. Should you have a Web site in place, you can add the blog as a plug in and use your own Web site address to direct readers to your pages. This means you’ll use the blog program to write and format your posts, but they will technically publish directly to your existing Web site. COMMON PROGRAMMING OPTIONS There are a number of different programs available on the Internet that enable people to easily and automatically set up their own blogs. These programs are typically offered for free or at a low-cost charge. The technical savvy behind these programs is so high, in fact, that many professional programmers use them instead of reinventing the wheel when a customer wants a blog built into a company Web site. Some of the more common blogging programs available include: - Blogger – Located online at www.blogger.com, this is Google’s own vehicle for blogging. This program is offered free of charge and is even equipped to easily accept paid ads from Google. It provides bloggers the ability to design their own blogs and supports a number of add ins like photos and videos. Because of its flexibility, it is often selected by professionals to serve as the “back end” program for a custom designed Web site that has a built in blog. - Word Press – Located online at www.wordpress.org, this is an independent blogging program offered free of charge. It also offers a lot of bells and whistles that other programs may not and does adapt to enable users to fully customize their blog appearance. Like Blogger, Word Press does work extremely well as a back end program included in the makeup of a professional site. The flexibility of this particular program has made it very popular with pros. This is the blogging tool used by such companies as Yahoo! and The New York Times. - Others – There are many other blogging programs available on their own or offered directly by Web hosting companies. Most Web hosting companies, in fact, offer the ability to “plug in” a blog during the design phase of a personal or business Web site. Some companies make sure their Web site design programs specifically support Blogger or Word Press. Others provide their users with different programs, which offer similar functions. GETTING A WEB ADDRESS FOR A BLOG Once a blogging program is selected, a home must be created for it on the Internet. There are two major options here. They are: - Using the assigned name from the blogging program – Most blogging programs will assign a URL or Web address to a new blog at no cost. This is a great way to get started with a trial blog, but the option does have some disadvantages. The URLs of blogs completely housed within the blogging program’s servers tend to be extremely long. This can make it very difficult for readers to find your blog again, which is bad for branding efforts. - Creating your own Web site to host the blog – This is a more time consuming option, but it does provide a way for you to have your blog reside on a URL of your choosing. In this case, you would create your own Web site and use the blog as a plug in on it. Most Web hosting companies can walk you through the necessary steps to make it happen. When this option is exercised, your URL might be www.YourCompanyName.com. The advantage is a shorter, easier to remember address for readers to find. This also lends itself much better to other branding and marketing efforts. Basically, a cleaner, shorter Web site address is simply easier for people to remember and it can be particularly beneficial if the brand name is used in the address. It’s just one more way to get your brand name out to the public.

Table of Contents 1. Using Clickbank 2. Preparations 3. CB How To 4. Reputation Management 5. Pros & Cons 6. The World Of Social Media 7. The Active Internet 8. How To Be Social Sample Content Preview FINANCES ClickBank has pay periods that end right after 12:00 midnight Pacific Time on the first and sixteenth of each month, and chooses to pay by check only, said checks to be void 90 days after the date of issue and mailed within 15 days after the end of each pay period. Any checks for amounts over five-thousand ($5,000.00) USD (United States Dollars) are sent at ClickBank’s expense by US Priority Mail and amounts over ten-thousand ($ 10,000.00 USD) are shipped overnight by FedEx when possible. You are allowed to set a predetermined minimum for which you are willing to have a check cut, ranging from ten USD to ten-thousand in your preferences. The default setting is one-hundred USD. Once the minimum payable balance is reached and a payment date occurs the amount minus a $2.50 fee is issued and will be shipped as described above. TRANSACTIONS ClickBank obtains products from publishers at a 7.5% discount plus a $1 stocking fee, and can also collect EU VAT taxes if required. If the sale is generated by an affiliate site then the wholesale price is split between the publisher and affiliate according to the percentage set by the publisher and credits are generated as appropriate at the moment of the sale. Should a return occur due to a customer dispute the customer received a 100% refund and the payouts are debited back from the accounts and the publisher will also be charged $1 for returned online check sales but not for credit card refunds. If a ‘charge back’ or revoked sale is caused by a customer’s bank there will charges as appropriate and should any product generate more then 1% charge backs in any 90-day period a $35 penalty will be assessed and the product may be delisted. GET PAID No delivery service is perfect, and sometimes deposits are not made before a check is expired or a check may even be stolen – all of which can result in payments that have been issued not being received. ClickBank handles this in a fairly standard manner: should you wish to cancel a check and have it reissued there is a $20 cancellation fee and said check will be cut on the next twice-monthly issuance date. Requests received by the 10th of any month will be handled in the order they are received. Should a check grow ‘stale’ that is expire and need to be reissued marking it VOID and sending it to the Paycheck Department will allow a new check to be issued. As required by US law ClickBank will withhold payments until sales made with five or more credit card numbers including at least one Visa and one MasterCard account have been made. Should you ever wish to close your account any balance less then ten USD ($10) will be forfeited, or if you wish to transfer or move your account to another name or payee this can be accomplished with a signed authorization statement via certified mail and a fifty ($50) fee. Accounts that have no earnings for an extended period may be deemed ‘dormant’ and a fee of $1 a pay period ($2 a month) or $10 a period ($20 a month) after 365 of dormancy may apply. A WORD ON THE IRS It is recommended that you obtain an IRS issued Employer Identification Number (EIN) to use as your taxpayer ID number from the IRS site noted HERE. This will help simplify the 1099 reporting requirement and if you earn more then $600 you are required to have some form of Taxpayer ID affiliated with your account anyway, and your social security number is often considered too private to list. This details most of what ClickBank is about, how it’s contract works and payment methods are determined, who is responsible for which elements of the sale and advertisements etc. – now only you can know if this particular affiliate is right for you and your business, but some key elements to consider include: I. Do you have product of your own to sell and if so what is it? ClickBank for instance is an excellent place to market eBooks, software or downloadable goods but they don’t handle physical products. II. How much exposure does your web site have and does your average viewer seem the type to purchase information and eBooks or software online? If so, linking to affiliate sales and eBooks from your site can be a good revenue generator with little to no risk by participating in ClickBank’s affiliate program. III. Is starting to sell your eBook, software etc. at a low cost or becoming a vendor site for others at no cost something that appeals to you? Selling some products such as eBooks can be as low as a $49.95 setup fee and fees of about 8% on each sale and they handle collections, refunds and paying of affiliates. Whether you are a creator and writer of eBooks, software, video or music that needs a cheap and easy way to market your products or just a website owner seeking to link to various information to sell to your visitors and obtain a piece of the profit ClickBank is custom tailored to your needs. If however you sell physical products or need a lot of marketing and advertising done for you then this venue may not be optimum for your considerations. The next section will give you the exact steps you need to follow in order to get your ClickBank website setup for maximum profit… Preparations This section is dedicated to a fast, low down & dirty system for making sure that you get your account running without much hassle or time requirements… Not everyone has the know-how to create online scripts and secure credit card processing. That is one reason why companies like ClickBank have flourished and why they can be such a great resource to so many individuals – but a little knowledge and some careful application of the right types of feature sets can go a long way into making your online marketing and sales capabilities for your ClickBank product or affiliate links go further and do more to increasing your bottom line. First and foremost ClickBank requires that you not list your product on any ‘free’ web sites, and that you own the domain name in use. This requires understanding a little about domains, how to register a domain name, how to best select and choose a name etc. so let’s go over a few of these details of online commerce to make certain you are currently set up for an optimal ClickBank experience, and if not how to prepare your site correctly. Online commerce or ‘ecommerce’ as it is often referred to, is the process of accepting payment for goods and / or services sold across the World Wide Web, or Internet. In many cases, as with ClickBank or other affiliate sales the goods are downloadable products in the form of information or software, but ecommerce refers to any sale even of physical goods that are shipped from a location or locations when ordered online. There are many aspects to ecommerce but the most important success or failure associated with online businesses is the look and ‘feel of the web sites and associated pages related to the business in question. Having extravagant and showy features while often popular and considered ‘cool’ by many web page designers has proven not to be of much benefit to increasing customer sales and in fact polls have shown most customers prefer a non-showy but quick and easily navigated site over the more elaborate displays, especially on sites they visit a lot. Having a quick-loading and easy to work-through site is more important then having one that impresses when you are trying to sell something. Of course if you are selling flash media objects and custom design then examples and flashy entries may be just the thing – as with all ‘rules’ there are exceptions and you need to tailor your site to the types of customers you have and their level of knowledge and understanding. In any case the first step in creating a web site once you understand the general layout and market segment you wish to get into is identifying and obtaining a domain name.

Table of Contents Introduction . 5 Chapter 1 – Step One: Understanding Productivity and Finding Your Why ... 8 Finding Your Why . 10 Discover Your Core Values .. 11 Determine What is Most Important to You 12 Chapter 2 – Step Two: Identifying Your Goals ... 14 What Do You Want Most in Life? .. 14 Why Do You Have These Goals? . 15 Converting Your Goals Into Concrete Milestones 16 Determine What You Can Do to Achieve Your Goals .. 16 Determine if Any of Your Goals Have Changed ... 16 Chapter 3 – Step Three: Improving Your Time Management Skills to Become More Productive .. 17 Declutter Your Spaces .. 18 Declutter Your Mind .. 19 Keep a Time Diary 21 Analyze the Diary Entries . 22 Draw up a Must-do List . 23 Create a Schedule 24 Be Flexible 26 Chapter 4 – Step Four: Dealing with the Possible Snags in Increasing Your Productivity ... 28 Work Out Your Priorities ... 29 Eliminating Distractions 30 Avoid Multi-Tasking .. 31 Working with a Lack of Confidence .. 33 Working Without Breaks ... 33 Lacking Motivation and Inspiration ... 34 Trying to Do Too Much at Once 34 Not Acknowledging Your Achievements ... 35 Not Making Use of Your Downtime... 35 Allowing Clutter to Build Up .. 35 Chapter 5 – Step Five: Overcoming Procrastination, The Biggest Hurdle to Productivity 37 Identify the Unpleasant Tasks .. 39 Plan for Consequences 39 Get Help from A Friend or Colleague ... 40 Tell Everyone Your Goals . 40 Create the Right Environment .. 41 Make Friends with Go-Getters .. 41 Conclusion . 43 Sample Content Preview Finding Your Why When it comes to becoming more productive, you have to be able to find your why. Your why is what gets you out of bed in the mornings, it’s the reason why you work hard at the office, and it is why you spend the extra hours studying. It is your motivation, your drive, and your reason for wanting to get things done. Everyone's why is different, but it is essential that you find out what yours is and keep it close to your heart. Before you can begin to become more productive, you need to make sure that you have discovered your why, and that you put it into practice. If this isn't something that you've ever heard before, it might be a bit confusing and challenging for you at first. You may be wondering how exactly you find your why, and how do you know when you've found it? When you find your why, it will resonate deeply within you. It will be a clear, guiding beacon of motivation that will remind you to stay on course, remind you why you are choosing to work instead of play. You will know it when you find it, and it will stick with you. If you have been honest with yourself, then you will know your why when you find it. It can be tricky at first to find your why. However, there are several steps that you can take to determine your why. Discover Your Core Values The first step to discovering your why is to figure out your core values. Do you value honesty? Are you motivated by love, duty, or something else? What values do you live your life by and carry with you in your heart? The chances are high that you have never had to try and articulate your core values before, so it can be challenging to put a name to these feelings, but it can be extremely helpful in making sure that you achieve what you've set out to do. Take some time to write down what you value. Remember, this is for your own personal use. Don't put anything down that is false, or things that you think you should value. It is vital that you are true to yourself, even if you find it challenging because you will be far more successful in your endeavors. Consider what you spend most of your time doing. Think about what you would like to spend your time doing. This can provide you with a strong indication of where your interests lie and what might be motivating you to continue Increase Your Personal Productivity forward. For instance, if you spend all your time working, but want to spend time with your family, then you have gotten closer to unlocking your motivation. You don’t have to worry about tracking the exact minutes you spend on each activity, but it is good to have a basic idea of where your time is being spent and how you would like to spend it. Write down your thoughts and feelings on this topic. Take a good look at your core values, and where you spend your time; considering them carefully. Out of these two things, you should be able to narrow down your focus. This is your why. This is why you are working so hard. Focus on this and keep it in the front of your mind and your heart as you move through your journey. It is one of the essential tools that you have for improving your productivity. Determine What is Most Important to You Next, you need to determine what is most important to you. Are money and security necessary to you? Or is it freedom? Do you value your time or your comfort? What about both? Take some time to consider what is valuable to you and what you are striving to accomplish. Perhaps you feel that your family is Increase Your Personal Productivity more valuable to you than your time and that their security and comfort comes first. Maybe you are seeking to make sure that you have a future that is brighter than your past. It doesn't matter what is valuable to you, what matters is that you know what it is. Take a good, long look at your life and at your past. Who do you want to be, where are you looking to go? What is the most valuable thing that you have? This is going to vary from person to person, but before you move forward with the more practical steps to increase your productivity, take a moment to consider this. If you ignore these things when trying to boost your productivity, you’ll continue to find yourself sliding backward and watching as your productivity continues to drop. You will only make real progress when you focus on your core values and what is most important to you. This is one of the most important things that you can do if you want to increase your productivity and get more done. Chapter 2 – Step Two: Identifying Your Goals The first thing that you need to do on the road to being more productive is to choose the right goals. These goals should be both personal and professional goals and all the things that make you a complete and comprehensive individual. Once you’ve discovered your why, you need to identify your goals. What Do You Want Most in Life? There are many areas of your life that you, no doubt, want to excel in. For example, you may desire to have a successful career or want to find someone you can share your life with and start a family with. Or, you may want to find a way to spend more time with your friends. Take some time to identify your goals and write them down. Why Do You Have These Goals? Once you've identified your goals, you need to understand why they are on your list. You might think that being more successful in your career is important to you because you love your job and the fulfillment it gives you.

Table of Contents Introduction ....... 5 Chapter 1 .. 7 The Mindset of a Champion . 7 Unwavering Dedication . 9 Fight Distraction ......... 10 Finish What You Started ......... 11 Build Positive Mental Habits .. 12 Push Yourself beyond Normal Limits .......... 14 Chapter 2 .......... 16 Workout Routines for Increasing Muscle Mass ........ 16 Choice of Exercises ....... 17 Number of Sets . 18 Resistance ......... 20 Rest between Sets ........ 22 Chapter 3 .......... 26 Power Building Lifestyle ..... 26 Mix Your Workouts ..... 26 Adequate Sleep . 28 Schedule Regular Recovery Time ...... 30 Hydration ......... 31 Chapter 4 .......... 35 Diet for Increasing Muscle Mass .. 35 Eat at Home ...... 35 Plenty of Protein .......... 36 Snack Often ...... 37 Best Foods to Bulk Up . 39 Chapter 5 46 Supplementation for Muscle Mass ......... 46 Importance of Supplements for Body Building ....... 46 Creatine . 48 Beta Alanine ..... 50 BCCAs .... 52 HMB ...... 53 Chapter 6 .......... 56 Cardio for Muscle Building 56 Importance of Cardio in Muscle Building .... 57 Dos of Cardio .... 58 Don’ts of Cardio 61 Chapter 7 65 Tracking Progress...... 65 Keep a Journal .. 66 Weighing Scale . 68 Body Fat Composition . 69 Measurements .. 70 Take Pictures ..... 71 Chapter 8 .......... 74 Best Fitness Apps to Measure Progress 74 Nike Training Club ...... 74 Garmin Fit ........ 76 JEFIT Workout Tracker ......... 77 Fitness Pal ........ 78 IMuscle .. 79 Workout Trainer .......... 80 Conclusion ........ 82 Sample Content Preview Chapter 6 Cardio for Muscle Building Many bodybuilders flinch at the mention of the word “cardio” as they know that cardio burns fats. If the whole point of your tough exercise and diet regime is to gain muscle, why would you want to do something that burns fats? It just defeats the whole purpose, doesn’t it? There is scientific evidence to back up this fact. A study was published in the Journal of Applied Physiology which touched on this topic. The study included a group performing 10 weeks of intense training along with cardio. It was found that cardio burnt more fat as compared to only weightlifting. The downside was that cardio also reduced the strength gains. There are also other studies to prove that cardio does cut down the muscle gain when integrated with resistance training. Importance of Cardio in Muscle Building So cardio becomes a controversial topic when trying to bulk up. The question remains does cardio counter muscle gain? Well, it certainly can if you do it wrong. But it’s not all that bad if you know how to do it properly. When you work out to gain muscle, think of cardio as conditioning. It’s the means through which you can improve your heart health. A healthy heart means better blood flow to the muscles which further means a sufficient supply of oxygen and nutrients to the musculature. But it’s important that you do cardio without losing any muscle. According to Joe Holder, a Nike coach, you need to train both your aerobic and anaerobic systems if you want your cardio to complement your muscle building routine. Your anaerobic system provides energy for a short span of time, ranging from a few seconds to a minute. In this time, no oxygen is involved. The anaerobic phase is further divided into the alactic and lactic phase. Lactic acid is produced in the lactic phase while it is absent in the alactic phase. On the other hand, the aerobic system involves oxygen and provides energy for long-term use by breaking down essential nutrients in the body. Dos of Cardio If you plan on integrating cardio into your existing exercise routine, you need to do it properly and with extreme thought. First of all, you need to consider the number of days you’ll be doing cardio for. Experts suggest that you should do cardio only for two days a week if you don’t want to lose muscle. The maximum number of days could be three but if you exceed that, you’ll end up losing muscle. Sprint exercises are the best kind of cardio that you can do to preserve your muscle mass. You may have seen professional runners being so buff despite running all the time? Well, it’s because sprints work your anaerobic systems which means the energy comes from short spurts rather than burning of any major nutrient in the body. Also, sprints help improve recovery. They give your body time to build itself and repair any torn muscle. It will also help you in the gym because sprinting exercises increase your work capacity and give you massive energy. Do 10 rounds of sprints on a treadmill at a speed of 10mph. Make each round 10 seconds and take a 10 second rest between each round. To skip the part where the treadmill is accelerating, it’s good to jump on the treadmill when your desired speed has been achieved by it. It might seem very easy when you read it here but this routine really pumps you up. Try to take shorter breaks. Limit your cardio to less than 20 minutes. It’s been seen in different studies that cardio done longer than that actually burns muscle mass. Low intensity cardio is much better if you want to preserve muscle mass. During low intensity cardio, your body burns less fat as compared to high intensity cardio. Also, it builds endurance so you have a better performance during your gym routine. At the same time, low intensity cardio is easier on the joints. This is also a considering factor for bodybuilders as they don’t want to get injured doing cardio. This can easily render them unfit for their actual muscle building exercises. Another smart way to incorporate cardio into your routine is to use it as a warm up for your strength training. Limit the cardio time to 10 minutes so that it doesn’t interfere with your workouts later. Performing a longer low intensity cardio session before intense training not only burns more fat but also interferes with increasing gains. Don’ts of Cardio High intensity cardio is good for a lot of things, but not necessarily for bulking up. In fact, it’s one of the don’ts when you want to build or maintain muscle mass. It’s been seen in studies that high intensity cardio is better at burning fat than low intensity. It gives your body the ability to burn fat even hours after the workout is done. Also, it increases the aerobic capacity of the body. This means the body goes in an aerobic phase where it burns nutrients for energy in the presence of oxygen.

Table of Contents Introduction 04 Chapter 1: Do These First before You Start Marketing on Twitter 07 Chapter 2: Get Ready to Go Manual or Full Auto 17 Chapter 3: Manual Twitter Marketing 25 Chapter 4: Manual Tweeting: Pros and Cons 29 Chapter 5: How to Find the Right Niche Influence Leaders on Twitter 35 Chapter 6: Follow and Engage 39 Chapter 7: What Happens When You Reach High Engagement Levels? 45 Chapter 8: Always Optimize Your Content 51 Chapter 9: Leverage the Power of Questions 55 Chapter 10: Twitter Marketing Best Practices 58 Conclusion 62 Sample Content Preview In fact, a lot of them think that they just need to buy a system that somebody else has built and they will make money. What they’re really saying to themselves is that they're too lazy to think through their online business. That’s always a dangerous proposition because when you let another person do your thinking for you, you're going to have to deal with the consequences. You have to understand that when people build systems for others, they’re usually trying to cut corners. They’re trying to make the most amount of money with the least amount of effort. Do you think they have your best interest in mind with that attitude? Of course not. This is why it's a bad idea to let somebody else pick your business for you. You have to do it yourself. You have to know what you’re doing. You have to know who you're going to be marketing to, what exactly you’re going to be pushing and how you’re actually going to be making money on the Internet. You can’t just buy some sort of “business in a box” and expect everything to work out smoothly. That happy ending that you may have been dreaming of may be a very distant and even impossible dream. Why? You just didn't step up. You have to do all of this yourself. The most important is to pick a niche. A niche is a subject matter category or some sort of category for whatever collection of needs you are trying to address. What kind of problems do the products you are promoting or the website you are building address? Pick that niche. Understand how that niche compares with other niches. Understand whether it fits your amount of resources and your expectations. Build a Site You can outsource this. You can create a site that addresses your niche. When you're building a website, you're not just putting up a nice-looking online destination. It must do something. It must convert the traffic that you drive to that site into cold, hard cash. Create a Mailing List Next, you have to create a mailing list. This is crucial. Your mailing list is actually the payload of your website. Sure, you may be putting up affiliate ads on your website. When people click these and they land on the sales or landing page, they may buy something. When they do that, you get a commission. That's nice and everything but if you really want to make money over the long term, create a mailing list. Why? Whatever credibility, respect or trust you create with your website, you maintain with your mailing list. When you have an update on your website, you just publish the link on your mailing list and invite people to click through, and you have yourself a nice burst of traffic. I've got some bad news to share with you. The vast majority of people who visit your website will never come back again. That's the harsh reality. When you have a mailing list, you get to retain some of that traffic. You only need to set an update, and you get a nice little surge of traffic because people saw your e-mail and clicked on your link. This enables you to retain some of the value of the hard work and time you put into branding and promoting your website. To create a mailing list, you have to offer a premium. It’s some sort of freebie. It’s some sort of incentive for people to join your mailing list. Of course, you make this case on your squeeze page. You advertise the value of the freebie you're giving on a page called a squeeze page. This is where people enter their e-mail addresses to subscribe to your mailing list. Please understand that there is a big danger here. This is a warning. Don't go overboard in promoting the freebie because if you do that, people will sign up for the free booklet, the free course or the free book. They couldn’t care less about the updates your mailing list will send them. In fact, if you push the freebie too hard, they might even think that the updates you send are some form of spam because you caught them by surprise. Do you see how this works? There has to be a healthy balance between getting people pumped up to join your mailing list because they’re getting something for doing it, but also letting them know that they are getting a better value by being on your list just because you will be sending them information that would enable them to solve all sorts of problems in their lives that are related to your niche. Do you see how this works? Do you see the balance? Create an e-Book or Report or Some Sort of High-Value Giveaway When you create a mailing list, there has to be some sort of incentive for people to sign up to your list. I wish it were as easy as saying that your website is so awesome that your visitors owe it to themselves to sign up to your list. I'm telling you if that is your strategy, you’re probably going to get very few list members. Why? People need a push. They may be impressed by your website, they may like what you're doing but this may not be enough to get them off the fence.