Here we are again, another new year is upon us.  The most important thing that any of us can do is to nurture our relationship with our spouse, children, parents, friends.  This will always be number one in my life.  In addition to this,  I have compiled 11 things that I plan on doing in 2011.  Feel free to add to the list!

1.  Make a Plan.  This is obvious and yet so many people feel that their business is just going to happen.  One habit that has proven very effective for me is to take a couple of hours every week, perhaps Sunday evening, to plan out the week.  This plan can be flexible but it gives me a road map of what I want to get done, need to get done, to move my business forward.  At this time of the year, I make a plan for the next three, six, nine and twelve months.

2.  Set Goals.  The goals that I set are based on the Plan that I have created.  Take time to set both business and personal goals.  I review these goals monthly.  It helps to keep me on course.  This site has a good goal setting sheet that you can download for free.

3.  Spend Time Brainstorming. This can be the single most important thing you do for your business.  Taking time, at least monthly, to brainstorm can bring a fresh prospective to your business.

4.  Take Time for Yourself.  If you are working full time, taking care of a family, trying to start an online-business, chances are you have very little time for yourself.  By taking time every day for yourself, even just a short walk, a long shower, a few minutes alone, can refresh and invigorate both your mind and spirit.  Don’t let your busy-ness consume you!

5.  Take Time to Learn.  Set aside time each month to learn one new thing.  It may be a new business model or technique, or something for yourself like scuba diving or crocheting.  Learning new things keeps you engaged in life and it is often during these times that new ideas spring forth.

6.  Use Your Time Productively.  You can spend the day reading forum posts and email, or you can spend the day moving your business forward.  Not enough time?  Dennis Becker of 1K a Day fame has written a fabulous blog post about how you can move your business forward with just 30 minutes a day.

7.  Surround Yourself with Positive People. I did not realize what a drain being surrounded by negative people was until I left my job in April.  Within about a month I felt so darn good — and it wasn’t simply being away from a toxic job.  Several months after leaving that job I was talking to one of my colleagues from that job and as I hung up the phone I felt engulfed with anger, sadness, depression.  Just from that one phone call, my empathy for my friend had brought me to a deep funk!  It took several days to shake off that feeling.  Surrounding yourself with positive people keeps your energy high.

8.  Join a Membership Site.  Joining a membership site will keep you surrounded by like-minded, positive people.  If you join a membership site that has to do with your business, it will help your business.  I currently belong to three membership sites:  1K a Day, Wealthy Affiliate and WP Classroom.  By doing so I am connected to people who can answer my questions, partner with me, give me knew ideas.  Internet Marketing can be a lonely business, but it does not need to be.  I have earned far more since joining these membership sites because the people I have met have motivated me as well as have given me information that I would not have found otherwise.  Whether it is for business or for personal interests, joining a membership site can help you meet your 2011 goals.  Most have introductory offers of a few dollars so you can see if it is right for you.

9.  Get Active.  This does not mean ‘be busy.’  Everyone is so busy.  But when was the last time you played a game of tennis, swam a lap, or went for a walk — just for fun?  Taking time to exercise keeps your mind and you body active and ready to tackle the day.  I find that my best ideas come when I am taking a walk.

10. Find a Mentor.  This can tie in with joining a membership site.  I have met so many incredible people through membership sites — people I know I would not have met otherwise.  You can also find mentors on forums, or through products you have bought.  Most people are very open to answering questions about their products or ideas that you may have.  Of course you don’t want to stalk them!  I have also gathered mentors without the evening knowing it.  I find Jason Fladlien to be a mentor.  I have bought many of his products, read all of his free reports, and through the information I have received I feel like he has mentored me in my business.  I have learned a lot just reading Jason’s blog!   I also subscribe to Tony Shepard’s monthly newsletter, which has also been a great source of mentoring.

11.  Find Joy! Don’t forget the reason why you have created your business.  Whether it is to become more financially secure, spend more time with your family, create a business you can be proud of.  Find joy in what you are doing.  Don’t let setbacks get you down.  With every setback you are learning and moving forward, even if it feels you are moving backwards.  Finding joy in what you do will make your success all the more sweet!

I hope you have a happy and very prosperous 2011!

Until next time,

~Norene

In the next several blog posts I will go over some of the more common business models for making money online.  Which is the best?  It all depends on you.  I suggest you research them.  When you do this, one or two will resonate with you.  You will think, “Yes that makes sense.  I can do that.”  If you dig deep enough, you will just know.  And when you become successful with one model, you can either grow it, or branch off to another business model, or both.  But the important thing is to choose one and stick with it.

In the next few blog posts, I will discuss article marketing, membership sites, product creation, blogging, site flipping, and freelancing.  Feel free to comment below on what business model has been successful for you!

Until next time –

~Norene

Today I want to talk about creating quality. There are so many blogs in every possible niche, you may be focusing on how to get traffic to your blog. If that is your focus, you may want to read some of my other blog posts such as, Ten Ways to Promote Your Blog, and Weekly Wrap-Up: Link Building.

But today I want to focus on how to create a following on your blog and how to keep folks on your blog longer, reading what you have worked on so hard to express. Obviously there are many reasons why you want your visitors to visit often and to stay on your site longer. One factor that I have noticed over the past six weeks of testing, is that my Alexa ranking (which is a rough estimate of how popular your blog is) seems to be more directly impacted by how long folks stay on my blog than how many visitors I have. And how do you get visitors to stay on your blog longer? You give them quality; you answer the questions they have come looking for, you entertain. By doing this you create posts of interests, post that others will Digg or Twitter, creating more visitors, more repeat visitors and visitors that stick around longer to see what else you have written.

This week I would like to recommend several blog posts that speak to the importance of writing quality blog posts. The first is from, as you probably know by now, one of my favorite bloggers and internet marketers, Kim Roach. Her blog post, Case Study – 1 Article = 7,640 Visitors takes you step by step through the process she took to write a blog post that attracted visitors like crazy.

In her blog post Kim says,

The first thing I did was actually write the article. This is actually THE MOST IMPORTANT part of the process because the quality of your article is going to determine how far it will spread and how much traffic it will end up attracting. Promoting the article is definitely a critical piece of the puzzle but you MUST start by creating a truly exceptional article.

I love this paragraph because it makes two thing crystal clear! You must first WRITE, and second, what you write must be quality.

The second blog post that I found that speaks to this issue is Seth’s blog post, The Importance of Writing Good Content, where he talks about “Pillar Articles,” which are a set of articles that bring a constant flow of traffic to your blog. His take on quality blog posts are similar to Kim’s in which he says:

Well written content is linked to, twittered about and Digged by online users because it is useful, funny, insightful or maybe even odd. Good content increases the value of your blog and likelihood that visitors will return to see your next article.

My third recommendation from this week is Daniel Scocco’s post titled, Checklist for Writing a Quality Blog Post. As the name suggests, he outlines a list of what is necessary to make a blog post top quality. One of his check points specifically is the quality of the content. Says Daniel:

This is one of the most important questions you need to ask yourself. Will your content actually create value for the reader? Is it original and unique? …

People want to learn new things, solve problems, become more productive. They want to know how stuff works. Practical tips. Tutorials. Reviews. Can you help them with that?

It takes time to create quality, but I have found that it is much more important to blog less and write high quality then to blog more and create posts of lesser quality.

Have you done any testing about this yourself? Have you ever been surprised by posts that you wrote that were extremely well received or not well-received? I know that I have found that those posts that I feel most connected to seem to attract the most traffic.

Until next time,

~Norene

One of the biggest misconceptions on the internet is that if you simply post to your blog, you will get visitors. So much has been written about SEO and ranking high in Google in order to get traffic to your site. There are, however, so many additional ways to get highly targeted traffic.

Today I would like to share with you ten traffic generation tactics. I have used some of those listed below and have read about others. In the next few weeks I will be using all of the strategies to test which ones work best for me and will post back about my results. If you would like to try, or have tried, any or all of these strategies yourself, comment below and let me know how they work for you.

1. Commenting on Other Blogs.  By commenting on others’ blogs you can obtain traffic in two ways.  First, the person whose blog you post on will notice and oftentimes will come to your blog to see what you are up to and comment on your blog as well.  This will increase your credibility. Second, others who visit the blog will see your comment and may come to see your blog as a result. It is important to make your comments something of value, not just a “like your blog” comment.  You can find blogs similar to yours by typing blog + [your niche] into Google.  If you consistently comment on others blogs, you will increase both your visitors and your backlinks to your site quickly.
2. Guest Blogging.  Another twist to commenting on others’ blogs is to become a guest blogger.  This can give your name and your blog huge exposure.  When you visit your favorite blogs, check to see if they allow for guest bloggers.  If so, approach the owner of the blog.  When you post as a guest, make sure that your post is the best quality that you can provide.  Not only is this important for your relationship with the blog owner, but it also may be the first impression of you that others will see.  Make sure it is a good impression!
3. Article Marketing.  There is nothing new about article marketing, except the fact that so many marketers minimize the impact that article marketing can have on their traffic.  To get the biggest bang for your buck, submit your articles to high profile content syndication blogs, websites and article directories.  By placing your articles in the line of sight of readers who are specifically interested in your content, quality traffic will flow to your blog.  Again, you can find a list of these places by Googling article submission + [your niche].
4. Create a .pdf from your articles.  This idea came from Kim Roach.  She talks about this method of generating traffic in her fabulous product Instant Payday Formula. Once you have created your .pdf document you can submit it to www.free-ebooks.net and www.getfreeebooks.com
5. Video Marketing.  More and more, people are turning to sites like Youtube to acquire the information they need.  By posting videos of your information in addition to article writing, you will get twice the exposure.  If you, like me, are a little nervous about creating videos, check out Joshua Bartlett’s Video Marketing Classroom.  It is a series of free videos that take you step-by-step how to create videos for internet marketing purposes.
6. Commenting on Forums.  This is often discussed but just as often overlooked.  Hundreds if not thousands of people read forums regularly for information and camaraderie.  (It is also a good place to find Joint Venture Partners).  If you answer forum-goers questions with solid, good information, you will begin to become the go-to person for information in your niche.  By putting your blog url in your signature line, people will be drawn to your blog for more information.  You can find all of the forums you would ever need to post in by Googling forum + [your niche].
7. RSS Feed.  Blogs that have RSS Feeds enable the readers to stay informed by retrieving the latest content.  It is important to have an RSS feed on your blog.  A good video to learn more about setting up RSS feed on your blog can be found on Yaro Starak’s Blog.
8. Emailing Your List.  Many people do not sign up for RSS feeds, but you can periodically email your list to bring their attention to your best posts.  This will keep them aware of what you are up to, and perhaps get them into the habit of checking your blog regularly. If you do not have a list, I will be blogging about how to grow a list in a future blog, but to get a head start you can check out Alex Jeffrey’s List Building ebook.
9. Link Round Up.  This is another technique that I learned from Kim Roach.  (If you haven’t signed up to her  email list, you should.)  Bloggers post their favorite links and articles each week in what’s called a Link Roundup.  In this technique you Google “Daily Link Roundup” + [your niche].  You can also use “Weekly Link Roundup” + [your niche].  By doing this you will get a list of blogs who participate in weekly link roundups.  Once found, you contact the blog owner and send them a link to your best blog post.   If the owner likes your post, they will link to you in their weekly link roundup, giving you and your blog huge exposure.  (The underlying theme that you should take away from this blog post is that it is critical that you create top-notch content).
10. Creating a Free Product.  One great way to get targeted traffic to your blog is to create a free product to give away.  Although this may be time consuming up front, there are many benefits to creating your own product.  First, you can use it to help build your list.  In your ebook, or product, you can post your blog url.  Mention that the reader is free to pass the link to the ebook to others.  Over time this will create a viral explosion, and people will read your ebook and come to your blog to see what else you are writing about.  Again, it is critical to take your time and create a good product.

So…you built a fabulous blog.  Now go promote it using any or all of these tactics and they WILL come.  Add a comment and share how you are getting traffic to your blog!

Until next time,

~Norene

Whether our business is just taking off, or has been established for years, how great would it be to not only get a second opinion, but a third , forth….up to 53 opinions….for FREE!

That is what Rich Schefren and Jay Abraham have created in the League of Extraordinary Minds.  Their goal is to help every entrepreneur and business owner become successful, and it is completely free.

Since becoming an Internet Marketer, by biggest success came only after I acquired mentors.  You can check out my blog post Over-Delivering, The Key to Success for more information on my mentors.  I will now be adding Rich Schefren and Jay Abraham to that list, and I hope that you will too.  There may not be bigger names in Internet Marketing than these two, and they have gathered more world-class experts in business, internet marketing and entrepreneurship in one place than ever has been done before.

When you join for free you will receive a 36 hours of content-rich, non-selling, expert panel interview series.  Each expert that they’ll interview has the distinction of being THE absolute “top”” mind in their field.  These are not lightweights.  They earn seven, eight figures for what they know.  They’re respected buy the biggest leading company, the world over. They each have either identified, uncovered, deciphered or invented more business breakthrough strategies, concepts, techniques or approaches than anyone else in their space.

These 53 experts include:
Jay Conrad Levinson, Stephen Covey, Brian Tracy, Tony Robbins, Michael Masterson, Michael Bosworth, Dr. Paul Schoemaker, Lou Adler and John Kotter. Check out the League of Extraordinary Minds website to see the rest of this business all-star lineup!

Does your business suffer from any of the following:  Poor marketing * No distinction or preemptive advantage * Ineffective sales efforts * Poor marketing message * Lack of credibility, trust in marketplace * Limited capital to market?  Jay and Rich have purposely put this group of extraordinary business minds together and focused each expert’s content on ideas and advice that will quickly help any business out there that’s suffering from any of these problems.

I joined the League of Extraordinary Minds because I have seen the benefit of having mentors for my business.  I know that adding 53 more to my list of mentors can do nothing but help me to skyrocket my business to further success.

If you think you may need a second opinion about the direction your business is moving, take a moment to check out the League of Extraordinary Minds and let me know what you think!

Until next time, keep moving forward!

~Norene

This past week I came across several blog posts about link building. On seomoz.org Rob Ousbey recently wrote a blog post called A Link Building Rule to Cut Out and Keep about how to get a website ranked higher in Google. He speaks of advice that he gives to all who ask. It is simply:

“The most valuable links you can get, are those which your competitors will never be able to have.”

He goes on to explain how to tap into links by discovering what your blog or website has to offer that is unique. By being proactive in this regard, you will find links that others will not even be looking for. You can read more about this interesting prospective by checking out his blog post.

Another great blog, also posted on seomoz.org was by Jennita. The post was called Followed Links From Four Unexpected Sources and it discusses how social networking from sites such as Panoramio and Zillow can provide links to your site.

Finally, I know that motivation is always a big issue with folks in the internet marketing business. I found this blog post that I really enjoyed. It was written by one of my favorite bloggers, Paul Norwine and is called Eliminating Self Doubt and Beating the Bogeyman at His Own Game. Paul talks about three strategies that he uses to keep himself motivated: Focusing on the Present, Taking Action and Fail Forward and to Condition Yourself. It is a great read, and very sound advice!

If you have come across any great posts dealing with Link Building or Motivation, leave a comment below!

I hope you have a great week — Keep Moving Forward!

For me, however, journaling never took off. I just couldn’t sit down and write about what I had done in the past, and I couldn’t write about what I was doing as I was doing it — it just messed up my momentum. However, I always saw the value and so I tried to figure out a simple way to incorporate this into my day.

What I came up with is quite simple indeed. I have a text file on my desktop. In it is a simple to-do list. This list contains my daily, weekly and monthly plan. As I check off an item on the to-do list, I cut it from that list and paste it into another text file called “Done”. In this way I can monitor what has been done and what still needs to be done easily. My done file also accomplishes the role of creating a template of the steps of what has been successful.

Having these files on my desktop, I can easily see the progress that I am making (or not). I have noticed that this has increased my productivity as I want to get items out of my “To-Do” file and into my “Done” file as quickly as possible. It is also easy to add to the “To Do” list as I come across ideas that I want to implement. In this way I never spend time thinking about what my next project should be — I just look at this file.

Wishing you great success and productivity,

~Norene

It wasn’t until I started the coaching program with Alex Jeffreys that it dawned on me one day that I Was Having Fun! The reason I was having fun wasn’t related to making money, as I hadn’t made any money yet, it had to do with the networking that was occurring as a result of the coaching program. Through forums and blogs I was learning more and more about Internet Marketing and these wonderful people that I was meeting along the way were making what had been overwhelming for years, doable. I had heard many times that Internet Marketing was simple but it was not easy. And I let that thought really paralyze me. What I found was that once I started networking with other internet marketers, all that I thought I could never do, really was easy. One step at a time.

Reading other people’s blogs, you really get a sense of the person’s personality and strengths. I came across so many really good, helpful, instructive, motivating posts and I wanted to share some with you. Today I will share some of my favorite blogs that were written in the areas of Blogging, Traffic, and Motivation/Attitude/Goal Setting.

I hope you find them helpful as well.

Blogging
If you are having trouble blogging or want to improve your blog, Matt Wolfe is truly one of the most knowledgeable bloggers that I know. One of his blogs that really shortened the learning curve for me was his blog post about plugins called The Best Plugins for WordPress. He also has numerous short posts that are extremely valuable to the both the new and advanced blogger, making everyone who visits feel comfortable and competent due to how easy to understand his posts are. One such post was about scheduling blog posts in the future called How to Schedule Posts for Later. This was a simple post, but it gave me immediate information that I hadn’t known previously. Matt’s blog is just a wealth of information and he has a free course called WordPress Classroom that is outstanding.

Another blog post that I found really helpful was Lee Berlemann’s pinging post, Follow Up to My Additional Pinging Post. In this post he lists tons of sites that will ping your site bringing in more traffic. I would have never found and compiled this list on my own and I’m very grateful to him.

Traffic
Getting a constant stream of traffic is critical to an internet marketer’s success. The following blog posts were extremely useful to me.

Rob Willis lists 13 different tips for getting traffic to your website or blog. His list is detailed with how to set up these traffic generators easily.

Kim Roach lists 21 ways to get traffic in her blog post titled, 21 Untapped Traffic Sources. I have written more extensively about Kim and her traffic generation strategies in a previous blog post.

Another very extensive description of ways to increase blog traffic can be found on the problogger.net website. Additional information on what might be causing a decline of traffic to your blog can also be found on the problogger blog.

Motivation/Attitude/Goal Setting
One of the most important part of an internet marketing business is to maintain a positive attitude and to keep motivated. I found several excellent posts about this topic.

One of the best posts I have read about goal setting I have mentioned before. It is Paul Norwine’s blog post titled, Goal Setting for Dummies. In this post he explores being specific about your goals and how to whittle down your goals to one main goal to focus on.

Another excellent post is Rob Willis‘ blog post titled, Simplify – Prioritize. Rob lists 5 action steps to help prioritize to make attaining your goals achievable.

A fun blog post was created by Huddson Lee titled What I Learned From My Dog about Online Marketing. It is a post about setting priorities and living in the moment. Well worth the read!

Heine Wentzel writes about his method for always staying positive in his post SOTOFOT.

Finally, a huge part of goal setting and moving your business forward is to remember the importance of continuing to learn. Many people, especially those who are comfortably successful, slow down or even stop learning new ways to use the internet. This attitude can quickly leave you behind. Daniel Scocco talks about this in more detail in his post, Always Be Learning New Skills.

The internet is a big place. Learning from others, networking with like-minded folks, this is what makes this business fun!

What are some of your favorite blog posts about Blogging, Traffic and Goal Setting/Motivation/Attitude?

What I discovered was that oftentimes people lack focus in their business. They read a little, apply a little, fail and then give up. They do not treat their internet business like a business.

Early on in creating my business, as I was learning more about blogging, Darren Rowse of problogger.net stated in his ebook, 31 Days to Build a Better Blog, that the first thing a person needs to do is to create an ‘elevator pitch’ for their business. An elevator pitch is one to two sentences that state clearly what your business is all about. Short and to the point — what you might say to someone on an elevator. If it is a catchy phrase, all the better. This does not simply apply to blogging — it applies to your entire business. You need a focus and your elevator pitch makes that focus clear to yourself and to your clients.

The benefit of creating an elevator pitch is that it focuses your potential clients and it focuses you and your business. Your clients know exactly what your business is all about. It focuses you because everything you do should revolve around the intention of your business. If your business is about teaching others how to drive traffic and your elevator pitch is directly linked to this goal, then you will not be distracted by products that deviate from this goal. It allows you to stay focused and staying focused is what will propel your business forward.

After much thought, I created my elevator pitch for my blog. Norene Broyton’s Blog ~ Internet Marketing Tips, Tools and Strategies: what have you learned today to increase your productivity, paydays and play?

Taking the time to create an elevator pitch helped me to determine in detail the direction I want to take my business. Since creating it several week ago, I have noticed a shift in my energy, motivation, creativity and productivity. It is helping me to keep my focus on what I want my business to be about.

I’m curious. How many of you have an elevator pitch for your business? Have you found it helpful as well?

Until next time,

~Norene

Has this ever happened to you? You plan, you set goals, you feel all pumped up and you start working toward your goals and then you are sidetracked. Before you know it, you are somewhere, but not where you had planned. And often not in a good place at all.

When this happens to me, it is often because I did not have my goals planted firmly in my mind to remind me of where I was going. Or I kept hammering away a goal that no longer suited my purpose. I didn’t take time to re-evaluate the plans and the goals periodically as I was moving forward. When this happens I often become derailed or overwhelmed or stuck.

This is why I have begun to re-evaluate on a weekly basis. The benefit of this is that if things begin to go off-track you can get back on track fairly quickly. It also allows you to relish, if only for a moment, all that you have accomplished that week and celebrate any and all successes you have had.

I recently read an excellent blog post by Paul Norwine called, “Goal Setting for Dummies Part Two — Honing in on the Target.” In this post Paul talks about the importance of “whittling all the numerous (and sometimes overlapping) goals you may have down to the ONE main goal that will most improve the quality of your life,” an epiphany that he had after reading a post on ZenHabits.

What happens when you get stuck? Overwhelmed? Tired and confused? How do you refocus and get back on track?

I found this great, short video from the GoalGuru on youtube that talks about just moving forward. If you get confused or overwhelmed, just take action, even if it is just a small step toward your goals.

The only way you can truly fail is if you just stop trying. By moving forward, even a little, you will get the momentum to keep going. Taking the time, weekly, monthly or whatever best suits you, is critical to keeping on track and monitoring and adjusting to what is working for you and what is not. It also gives you a great perspective on where you have been to recharge you to move forward.

I hope you enjoy the video as much as I did.

Let me know — what you do when you feel that your are stuck or your goals are not materializing fast enough?