Sure you do. How many hours a day do you have? Multiply that by seven and that's your weekly allowance of hours. Still flat out? Cut out some time-killing diversions or some sleep, just a little bit, and enjoy creating something in that time. In case you actually do have every single hour tied up in a week, and may you never, feel free to create a few posts during your spare time next week and schedule them to show up during your next super-busy time. Generating content doesn't have to be done at the worst times in your life to do so. In fact, this post was written in Halloween.
Nobody wants perfection. Your audience just wants a pulse: to know you're alive and still passionate about what you do.
I have about 9 minutes left for posting today, aside from summing up Podcast #3.
What do I do after the text is written up? Just a few minutes worth of tidying up:
1. Submit the site to Google (don't overdo it, but once per major article/update works for me).
2. Share on the relevant social media site: pictures especially on Instagram/Pinterest/Tumblr as well as Twitter/Facebook, articles on Twitter/LinkedIn/Facebook.
3. Create the relevant keyword tags (using the words of a question often helps), and if you have the option, describe your content for SEO. Most of the time there are ways to do so.
Well, I have 57 seconds out of 15 minutes, so it's time to submit to Google. Catch up soon!
Friday, October 31, 2014
No Twit! Must-Haves For The Beginning Marketer
If you've spent any amount of time watching TV, seeing offline ads, or surfing the web, you'll see #hashtags and references to Twitter. If you've never had an account, it's time to get one.
Sign up at Twitter.com. Also sign up if you haven't at Facebook.com, Instagram.com, and Pinterest.com.
Stumped for a good name for your social media accounts? Entrepreneur can help you with this basic brand name guide.
For the psychology of marketing, visit Unbounce.
Good luck and if you have any questions please leave a comment!
Sign up at Twitter.com. Also sign up if you haven't at Facebook.com, Instagram.com, and Pinterest.com.
Stumped for a good name for your social media accounts? Entrepreneur can help you with this basic brand name guide.
For the psychology of marketing, visit Unbounce.
Good luck and if you have any questions please leave a comment!
Intellectual Barbed Wire
Life is too short.
I never believed that earlier when I had my own national catering directory site.
I'd been toying around with the site in Drupal 6, which was a cumbersome but reasonably powerful platform. I made everything perfect. People could search by state, their favorite dishes, price range, type of caterer, you name it.
But the cost was time. I must have spent two months fine-tuning the site. With one last addition...
... I made a four-line error message show up on the front page. I asked around on forums. No one knew or cared about the error. All that time meant nothing. That error message just sat there in the middle of all my work, taunting me.
On your way to success, don't wrangle with a little detail that will turn into a behemoth and derail you. If you feel like you're walking through barbed wire, turn around while you still have time and momentum in your hour or day to do something. If you have to, delete what you're working on, and let it go. Make simple things that express who you are and what you want to do.
Like this post.
I never believed that earlier when I had my own national catering directory site.
I'd been toying around with the site in Drupal 6, which was a cumbersome but reasonably powerful platform. I made everything perfect. People could search by state, their favorite dishes, price range, type of caterer, you name it.
But the cost was time. I must have spent two months fine-tuning the site. With one last addition...
... I made a four-line error message show up on the front page. I asked around on forums. No one knew or cared about the error. All that time meant nothing. That error message just sat there in the middle of all my work, taunting me.
On your way to success, don't wrangle with a little detail that will turn into a behemoth and derail you. If you feel like you're walking through barbed wire, turn around while you still have time and momentum in your hour or day to do something. If you have to, delete what you're working on, and let it go. Make simple things that express who you are and what you want to do.
Like this post.
Thursday, October 30, 2014
Lessons from Smart Passive Income Podcast 2
A lot of times, podcasts, especially affiliate marketing podcasts, become dry and worthless in the marches of time and technology and time. Checking out Podcast 2 from SPI turned out a pleasant surprise. I have heard that "bum marketing" - churning out articles for cheap traffic - has mutated a bit, if not died outright since 2010, which I doubt - so I'm holding pending my own research on that tool, but here's the rest of what I'm applying:
1. Have a posting schedule. I've been dogged by setting up galleries on my memes site at http://musicmemes.com. I love making up the memes, but getting 10 memes at a time drawn up and labeled is a bit time-consuming. Starting tomorrow I'm going to just post one meme at a time, schedule them seven at a time, and have a weekly auto-publish of them all.
I'm also posting here daily, just a few minutes at a time, based on my free time. No fancy images, no social media sharing (yet, aside from G+), just text I hope you can use. If you come across this blog, simply coming back for new content will be appreciated!
2. Don't fault yourself for small results. Just try to learn how others are doing better. Currently I am making $0 for running this blog and under $10 a month on MusicMemes. Still, it is a great improvement over seething over a penny at a time coming in in ads for a new blog with little traffic so far. Using Amazon has been a nice reward so far, relatively, and I look forward to results when MusicMemes matures and starts getting a lot more traffic.
3. Rank the importance of your business in life. Is dubbing around consuming all your brainpower and time? Cut it for your business, or just give in and don't be a marketer.
4. Niche affiliate marketing is a good starting place.
6. For the successor site to MasonWorld.com, you can visit LateNightIM.com.
Below is a blog feature called My Marketing Checklist, which will show how much I practice what I preach. Results on anything lacking will be updated to the best of my ability here with brief summaries.
My Marketing Checklist:
1. Have a posting schedule. I've been dogged by setting up galleries on my memes site at http://musicmemes.com. I love making up the memes, but getting 10 memes at a time drawn up and labeled is a bit time-consuming. Starting tomorrow I'm going to just post one meme at a time, schedule them seven at a time, and have a weekly auto-publish of them all.
I'm also posting here daily, just a few minutes at a time, based on my free time. No fancy images, no social media sharing (yet, aside from G+), just text I hope you can use. If you come across this blog, simply coming back for new content will be appreciated!
2. Don't fault yourself for small results. Just try to learn how others are doing better. Currently I am making $0 for running this blog and under $10 a month on MusicMemes. Still, it is a great improvement over seething over a penny at a time coming in in ads for a new blog with little traffic so far. Using Amazon has been a nice reward so far, relatively, and I look forward to results when MusicMemes matures and starts getting a lot more traffic.
3. Rank the importance of your business in life. Is dubbing around consuming all your brainpower and time? Cut it for your business, or just give in and don't be a marketer.
4. Niche affiliate marketing is a good starting place.
- Do keyword research first.
- Try to register an exact keyword match in the form of a .com, .org or .net.
- Provide valuable info plus your product link.
- Try ranking for "best (brand) (product)". Consider AdSense for this.
- If you're doing affiliate marketing, convert people for the sale on your home page. For an AdSense blog, get them off your site ASAP via a high bounce rate.
6. For the successor site to MasonWorld.com, you can visit LateNightIM.com.
Below is a blog feature called My Marketing Checklist, which will show how much I practice what I preach. Results on anything lacking will be updated to the best of my ability here with brief summaries.
My Marketing Checklist:
- Posting schedule: check
- Don't fault myself: check
- Rank the importance of my business: check
- Start in affiliate marketing: must do
- Research Nicole Dean: must do
- Visit LateNightIM: must do
Wednesday, October 29, 2014
Pre-Podcast: Getting My Work Atmosphere In Order
In an upcoming review of podcast #2, I'll be mentioning some effective time management tips I picked up.
However, here's an overview of what I'll be doing to get into a good frame of mind while working:
1. Exercise before working
2. Set time limits for everything (I have about 4 minutes left on this post)
3. Use the Firefox Tab Delimiter, LeechBlock and/or Simple Site Blocker add-ons to cut out extra windows and unnecessary sites, both throughout certain times in the day or in general
4. Set up a Google doc listing the things to accomplish today
5. Shut the cell phone off and configure messaging without sound notifications through the computer
6. Cut gaming & TV to an hour a day
Hope this helps... dinner's ready!
However, here's an overview of what I'll be doing to get into a good frame of mind while working:
1. Exercise before working
2. Set time limits for everything (I have about 4 minutes left on this post)
3. Use the Firefox Tab Delimiter, LeechBlock and/or Simple Site Blocker add-ons to cut out extra windows and unnecessary sites, both throughout certain times in the day or in general
4. Set up a Google doc listing the things to accomplish today
5. Shut the cell phone off and configure messaging without sound notifications through the computer
6. Cut gaming & TV to an hour a day
Hope this helps... dinner's ready!
Welcome To Flynn Wins
Hello and thank you for visiting Flynn Wins!
My name is Lionel Houde. I've been trying to get into long-term affiliate marketing since 2005.
My first taste of real success came in that year. I was delivering pizza, and the owner, a regular frugaltarian, didn't want to pay monthly hosting fees; after all, he was giving me food discounts! None of the other drivers getting discounts were doing web work for him, so I took down the website, which had had a huge cable TV affiliate ad, my first ad ever, on the home page of the site. I also applied for another job and quit on a Friday. I still remember the satisfaction of turning down phone calls from drivers who didn't know where a few hard to find places were.
Things didn't go well as a baristo the next week. It was hectic, deafening, and annoying. At one point I must have thrown away three gallons of milk for one customer who wanted her drink exactly at 140 degrees.
I woke up one morning that week, dreading the noon shift, and stumbled toward my PayPal account. My affiliate company had paid me $500 for 5 cable TV sales! I called the store and quit that day. The next month I still got $300 more.
But, without the pizza site to advertise from, my money began to dry up. I made the mistake of stumbling into PPC advertising. "If you have to spend $100 to make $120, wouldn't you spend as much as you could?" breezed one expert, who really did do a good job, but had a wealth more experience doing PPC. I tried my first online ad campaign, and my commission money dwindled down, with a lot of uninterested people soaking me $5 when they clicked my ads.
After that, with my remaining money, I bought a few marketing guides. The affiliate marketing gurus I studied were effective, but only with a ton of the tools they were using. Sometimes it seemed like the only way they were making a living was giving out (or sometimes even selling!) e-books that handed out affiliate links like Halloween candy.
Eventually my daily demands called me away from online marketing, and my dreams of making good money for providing legitimate services online faded into the background.
When my fiancee (now my wife) got me an iPhone, I got into podcasts. Most of it was vintage horror shows, but soon I realized how much time I wasting, and started looking into the business section of Apple's podcasts.
Enter Pat Flynn and the Smart Passive Income Podcast.
I was skeptical about who he was. Anyone could have set up a spammy podcast, put a few tinyurls up, and left listeners to invest and fail.
All it took was one podcast to realize I was dealing with an excellent teacher and his very helpful, carefully chosen guests.
The past two years, after settling into married life, I've finally come to have the time I want to follow my goals, and apply what I can from over 130 of SPIP's episodes.
This website is not and will not be a competitor to Pat, giving away the full contents of his podcasts, or trying to sell the tools he does. There will be a link to each podcast in each post, and all you will see is how I apply Pat's and Pat's guests' main strategies to my own non-competing businesses.
Again, thank you for coming by, and I hope this will be a blog I can keep up alongside Mr. Flynn's excellent series for years to come. If you have any questions, comments, or other observations, please let me know!
Cordially,
Lionel Houde
Affiliate Marketer
My name is Lionel Houde. I've been trying to get into long-term affiliate marketing since 2005.
My first taste of real success came in that year. I was delivering pizza, and the owner, a regular frugaltarian, didn't want to pay monthly hosting fees; after all, he was giving me food discounts! None of the other drivers getting discounts were doing web work for him, so I took down the website, which had had a huge cable TV affiliate ad, my first ad ever, on the home page of the site. I also applied for another job and quit on a Friday. I still remember the satisfaction of turning down phone calls from drivers who didn't know where a few hard to find places were.
Things didn't go well as a baristo the next week. It was hectic, deafening, and annoying. At one point I must have thrown away three gallons of milk for one customer who wanted her drink exactly at 140 degrees.
I woke up one morning that week, dreading the noon shift, and stumbled toward my PayPal account. My affiliate company had paid me $500 for 5 cable TV sales! I called the store and quit that day. The next month I still got $300 more.
But, without the pizza site to advertise from, my money began to dry up. I made the mistake of stumbling into PPC advertising. "If you have to spend $100 to make $120, wouldn't you spend as much as you could?" breezed one expert, who really did do a good job, but had a wealth more experience doing PPC. I tried my first online ad campaign, and my commission money dwindled down, with a lot of uninterested people soaking me $5 when they clicked my ads.
After that, with my remaining money, I bought a few marketing guides. The affiliate marketing gurus I studied were effective, but only with a ton of the tools they were using. Sometimes it seemed like the only way they were making a living was giving out (or sometimes even selling!) e-books that handed out affiliate links like Halloween candy.
Eventually my daily demands called me away from online marketing, and my dreams of making good money for providing legitimate services online faded into the background.
When my fiancee (now my wife) got me an iPhone, I got into podcasts. Most of it was vintage horror shows, but soon I realized how much time I wasting, and started looking into the business section of Apple's podcasts.
Enter Pat Flynn and the Smart Passive Income Podcast.
I was skeptical about who he was. Anyone could have set up a spammy podcast, put a few tinyurls up, and left listeners to invest and fail.
All it took was one podcast to realize I was dealing with an excellent teacher and his very helpful, carefully chosen guests.
The past two years, after settling into married life, I've finally come to have the time I want to follow my goals, and apply what I can from over 130 of SPIP's episodes.
This website is not and will not be a competitor to Pat, giving away the full contents of his podcasts, or trying to sell the tools he does. There will be a link to each podcast in each post, and all you will see is how I apply Pat's and Pat's guests' main strategies to my own non-competing businesses.
Again, thank you for coming by, and I hope this will be a blog I can keep up alongside Mr. Flynn's excellent series for years to come. If you have any questions, comments, or other observations, please let me know!
Cordially,
Lionel Houde
Affiliate Marketer
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