What’s Working Now – Secrets From The World Of Affiliate Niche Blogging

How would you like to learn how to use simple little WordPress to literally deposit hundreds of dollars a day into your Clickbank account?

Did that sound…. spammy?

Probably.

But, give me a minute. Because, what I have to tell you is indeed the real deal.

See, there are two ways to go with affiliate marketing as a blogger:

#1 – Build an authority blog and go big.

(This is the way I do it, and what I usually teach.)

or…

#2 – Build an ARMY of smaller blogs targeting tight little niches.

Even though I don’t do this personally (yet), the truth is…

It DOES work.

It doesn’t involve you being an authority. In fact, often your name isn’t even attached to the sites you build.

I have a friend locally here in the Tampa Bay area who generates his income online in this way.

His name is Ryan Magin. He comes mostly from the fitness niche.

I knew Ryan before he started hitting in big with affiliate blogging. In fact, I remember him when he was selling a little DVD on BMX biking. We were meeting with a bunch of dudes at a Panera Bread and, in the middle of the meetup, Ryan excuses himself, goes outside, and does a live Ustream broadcast over Panera’s free wifi.

And he sold some stuff and made some money!

Today, Ustream doesn’t factor into what he does. Things are more automated now, and he’s scaled up like crazy.

But, that story shows… he’s a hustler. He does what it takes.

So, I’ve invited Ryan to come do a webinar with me. I want him to tell you more about what he does…

And how.

And, he sure does have an interesting story on how get got to this point.

What’s Working Now – Secrets From The World Of Affiliate Niche Blogging
(click that to RSVP and save your spot)

On the webinar you will learn…

• What makes a super affiliate and how to think to succeed as an affiliate marketer in todays ever changing IM world
• How to find proper money making keywords that will make you sales for year to come.
• Simple SEO tricks that will have your sites ranking in Google in no time flat
• A little known secret that all super affiliates do to cash in from affiliate products daily (most fail at this miserably)

I even convinced Ryan to do A live Q & A at the end of the call to help you guys start profiting today from your blogs.

Make sure you sign up for this webinar.

Even if you don’t know if you’ll be available when we do it live, be sure to RSVP since I’ll be making sure to give you guys priority to the recording.

One more time…

What’s Working Now – Secrets From The World Of Affiliate Niche Blogging
(click that to RSVP and save your spot)

See ya there.

Weekly Round Up: SEO Tips, Writer’s Block, Adsense for Chrome

It is one thing for me to blog and share my own stuff here on DavidRisley.com. It is another to share the love and point out some great stuff I’ve come across in the last week – on OTHER people’s sites.

And, so… I am starting what will probably end up being a new weekly feature (probably on Fridays). I’ll share out some stuff I’ve come across during the week.

5 Mini SEO tips to Help You Get an Edge on the Competition
Pat  released a Youtube video that is definitely worth watching. The title says it all. What the title doesn’t say is… Pat is SO making my videos look amateur. Dude!

10 SEO Blog Post Publishing Steps that Most Bloggers Forget
Nicholas, over at IncomeDiary (nice guy, BTW… had the chance to do an interview with him recently. Anyway…) posted a great writeup of the major factors to consider before publishing your blog post – in terms of SEO. I know a lot of bloggers get confused by this. Or they just publish, cross their fingers, and hope somebody notices. Well, check this out.

4 Blogger Tools For Breaking Your Writer Block
This one is from Social Media Examiner.  They cover some tools to help jog some idea on what to write about. 3 of them are clever uses for keyword research tools.

Facebook graphic cheat sheet
Want a template to guide you on the sizes of those images on Facebook (profile, timeline cover, etc.)? He haz it.

Why Google+ is an Inevitable Part of Your Content Marketing Strategy
Brian, over on Copyblogger, has a great post on why you shouldn’t be ignoring Google+. I know I was. Until recently. Funny thing is, I somehow amassed over 7,500 followers on G+ before I realized I need to not be so damn silent over there.

AdSense Release Toolbar for Chrome Users: Ideal for Stats Junkies
Darren (from Problogger) posted this one. A (new?) Chrome add-on which lets you check out Adsense stats all quick-like. I installed it. Convenient.

Get More Done Faster With These 6 Tips
Michael Fortin posted some pretty good advice on productivity. I especially liked the Law of Contraction (point #2). Worth the read.

How I Reached #1 on Itunes: A Guide to Launching A Podcast
You may have seen this one from Glen Allsopp (Viperchill).  I read it.. because I’m very strongly pondering starting a podcast of my own. In Glen’s usual style, he poured on some massive value on this post. Check it out.

And lastly, I’ll leave you with a video. This is a video put together by Jonathan Mead as a trailer for his new program, Trailblazer. I actually may be having Jonathan come on as a guest on a webinar with me in the very near future, so stay tuned for that. But, I thought this trailer video was simply awesome. And, in terms of launch videos, I think it is perhaps the best I’ve ever seen.

OK, my friends. I’ll see you next week.

5 Things Blogging Doesn’t Teach You About Running a Real Online Business

This is a guest post by Henri Junttila from Wake Up Cloud.

NOTE FROM DAVID: 
This is a great post from Henri that I think every blogger who truly wants to go full-time with blogging needs to understand and apply. These 5 lessons speak right to the core mindset which marks the line between hobby bloggers and pro bloggers. With that, I’ll leave you in Henri’s hands…

If you’ve been into blogging for any amount of time, you know that blogging alone doesn’t guarantee an income stream.

You may have all the comments and community in the world, but it doesn’t automatically translate into a real online business.

It just means you have a blog.

And if you want to make a living online, starting a blog is not enough. In short, you have to avoid the blogger cycle of stupid.

Let’s fill the gaps and look at what blogging doesn’t teach you, but what can help you turn your blog into a solid business.

1. Who Do You Help?

It all starts with who you help. Most blogger’s never determine who they help.

In fact, it’s something most businesses fail to do. They communicate to a mass of people. It’s bland, boring, and unremarkable.

How do you figure out who you help?

You pick a specific target market. But you also pick one specific person within that target market.

And it should be a real person, a client you enjoy working with.

Why one person?

And why real?

Because you can’t interview personas or pen portraits you’ve conjured up in your mind.

You can’t ask them for feedback, but with a real person you can.

With the internet, you reach a global audience. Even when you focus on one person’s problems, you’ll still be able to reach millions of people like that all around the globe.

And they’ll love you for it, because they’ll land on your blog and think, “this is EXACTLY what I’ve been looking for.”

But knowing who you help is not enough, you also have to know what you help them with.

2. What Do You Help Them With?

When you have one person, you know exactly how to talk to him, what to offer, and what not to offer.

Now, does this mean that you only cater to this person?

No, you can be in contact with several different people, but the journey starts with ONE person.

When you know who you help, you can figure out what you help them with.

Most blogger’s are all over the place. I was, too, when I started my blog. So it is to be expected.

You have to zoom in on what you do for your people. What problem are you solving? It cannot be a vague statement like, “I help people live more positive lives.” There’s no specificity in that, and it doesn’t grab anyone’s interest.

Figuring this out can be tough, so how do you figure it out?

That’s where the problem comes in.

3. The Art of the Problem

When you’ve picked one person, you interview them.

Yes, you get on the phone with them and you ask questions until you understand what’s going on.

You can ask them what they are struggling with. Often people will give you a whole list, which will give you amazing insight into their world. But, you want to get this down into the biggest problem.

And how do you get to one problem?

You work with them and you ask questions. You have to be willing to keep asking questions until you know what it’s like to be in their shoes.

When you have a real person to talk to, you get laser-focused feedback that will allow you to create laser-focused products, and services.

And if you want to run an online business, you cannot be up in the clouds with vague solutions, you have to deliver transformations, which means providing solutions to problems.

4. Selling the Transformation

Let’s take a quick example.

If someone wants to sell me on a trip to Australia, they’re not going to do it by selling me on the planet ticket.

They’re going to do it by describing what awaits me in Australia.

I don’t enjoy sitting in an airplane for hours, but I do like having fun, relaxing at the beach, and exploring a country I’ve never been to before.

If you help new moms lose their baby weight, you don’t sell them a fitness solution, you sell them the destination, the transformation, which is what they’ll look like when they get there.

You sell their life without the problem. What will it look like, feel like, and sound like?

And it doesn’t have to be a big problem. It could be as simple as a course on how to create your first ebook without the overwhelm.

Obviously, there’s much more to selling than this, but this is a big part I see people leaving out.

5. The Business Boogie Man (i.e. Your Mind)

Last, but not least, running an online business is scary.

It means you have to put yourself out there, and it means you have to be willing to get out of your comfort zone.

You can stay in the comfort zone, which is writing blog post after blog post and never selling anything, but it does not a business make.

I’m not going to lie. This isn’t easy, but it’s worth it. You can create an amazing lifestyle business through blogging if you do it right.

And it all starts with who you help and what you help them with.

Always remember that.

Henri writes over at Wake Up Cloud, where he shows you how to build a lifestyle business around your passion. If you’re interested, check out his free report: 7 Steps to Building a Lifestyle Business Around Your Passion.

SOPA Protest – My Support

Today (Jan 18th) is a large-scale protest day to SOPA/PIPA. No doubt, you’ve heard all about it.

Many large websites are going black today in protest of the bill, including Wikipedia, WordPress and Google (in the form of a censored logo).

If I had more time available, I might have set things up to black out DavidRisley.com and PCMech.com. But, I don’t really have the time to set it up in the right way.

I am, though, in full support of the protest.

SOPA is a legislative reaction to a powerful lobbying group who is threatened by the very nature of the Internet. Namely, the likes of the MPAA and RIAA. These groups are feeling their control wither away as a result of the Internet. They have a lot of influence in Washington and they are trying to use that influence to put the power of the government behind achieving their aims. When you combine this with the fact that people in Congress have basically NO understanding of how the Internet works – AT ALL…. we have a dangerous situation where a law which purports to be a measure against piracy could indeed have a widespread and VERY negative effect on the very nature of the world wide web.

Not to mention that there are plenty of people in Washington who would love NOTHING MORE than to be able to censor a website on cue. The world (and history) is rife with government being able to censor the press and free speech. Wherever this happens, human rights have suffered. And, each and every time, the government had an excuse claiming it was better for the public good.

On the surface, it might seem like a decent idea to some. After all, piracy sucks and it is indeed a form of theft. I don’t believe anybody is arguing to the contrary. However, the “solution” is far worse than the problem. And it is being created, as I said, with very little knowledge of how the Internet works. The last thing we need is some group of weirdos who sit in a bubble – who have only a 13% approval rating with the population anyway – creating stupid laws that would cripple the freedom of the major communication medium of our era.

And that’s my position.

I’ll end off with a fantastic video put together by Allison Boyer, over at Blogworld. The video happens to have several of my buddies in it, too.

How I Rank The Top Social Media Sites For Business Purposes

Facebook was (and is) huge.

Then, Twitter was supposed to be a potential “facebook killer”. People flocked to it. Social media gurus and marketers all went into hyperdrive to add as many followers as possible.

Then, Google+. A new “facebook killer”. People flocked to it. The social media gurus and marketers all went into hyperdrive to…. yeah, you guessed it.

As a blogger, we sit here, heads shaking, wondering where to dedicate our energy.

I mean, we don’t have TIME to be active in all these of these networks. At least if you want to accomplish anything else, too. Honestly, some of these folks who are posting things all day… I don’t know how the HELL they do that and manage to get anything else done. Perhaps they don’t.

I’ll tell you how I see these networks today.

Facebook > Google+ > Twitter

And, depending on your market, I’d probably even throw LinkedIn in there… but BEFORE Twitter.

Twitter

In other words, I now look at Twitter as the least effective social network, in terms of time spent. Today, I primarily use Twitter to share cool blog posts (including my own) and keep in touch with people I already know in my niche. I am not actively trying to expand my network there. If people want to connect with me – cool! I’ll get into conversations and reply to anybody.

But, I don’t really look at Twitter as an effective BROADCAST tool. And I say that because I know many bloggers take to Twitter as if it is going to be their ticket to fame. The truth is… the noise level is so high over there now that it is really only effective for communicating to core groups (aka lists).

Today, your best use of Twitter is to connect with individual people. Broadcasting on Twitter still has its place, but the noise level has made it much less effective (and a bit of an echo chamber).

• Follow @davidrisley on Twitter. Be sure to reply and say hey.
• If you’re still in the dark on Twitter, you can check out this free Twitter manual I wrote some time ago.

Google+

Google+ has been, for me, like that weird todo list item that I know I need to do, but I keep forwarding it to the next day.

Like many, my first reaction was… “You mean I have ANOTHER place I’m supposed to be?”

And, so, I haven’t been that active (at least until recently).

But, I believe Google+ is a very effective social network in terms of ROI on time. The level of interaction is much better. There’s none of that stupid Edgerank stuff to deal with. And, especially with some of the recent changes to the Google search results, building up your influence on Google+ is likely to help you with your SEO, too.

So, I’m now making a more concerted effort to be active on Google+. I’ll at least check in on it once or twice per day now. If only they would release a freakin’ API!

• Circle me up on Google+
• If you wanna learn the ropes, you might want to check out Chris Brogan’s book, Google+ For Business. The guy has been kicking ass on G+, so he knows his stuff. Probably a good Kindle read. Plus, he calls me “handsome Dave”, and that deserves a shout out.

Facebook

Ahhhh…. Facebook. Face it, we’ve all been “zucked”. Quickly approaching the 1 BILLION registered user mark, Facebook is the big kahuna. But, it isn’t just about registered userbase… it is also about engagement.

See, the truth is that most people who have a Twitter account simply tweet a few things, then get bored and never return. With Facebook, most of their userbase is actively engaged. A huge chunk of them go to the site each and every day. Pretty much regardless of what niche you’re in, your readers are on Facebook. The same can’t be said about G+ or Twitter.

For this reason, building your presence on Facebook is also a very effective use of time for any blogger. Building your community on a Facebook page or opening up your personal profile to subscribers is a good idea. You can also experiment with Facebook advertising. The audience is there and they can be targeted quite nicely by Facebook’s system.

• Connect with me on Facebook.
• To learn some really effective ways to build your community, I highly encourage you to register for this webinar with Lewis Howes and Amy Porterfield. It has been making the rounds online (due to their launch), but I attended it and it is indeed info-packed. Definitely worth an hour of your time if you’re AT ALL serious about building your biz on Facebook. Which, considering almost 1 BILLION people on there… you can do it.

Your Own Approach

So for me, I focus on Facebook, then G+, then Twitter. Honestly, I’m probably dropping the ball on LinkedIn… I know it is valuable, but I guess I just don’t have the throughput. But, I check in on it every week or two.

So, what’s the priority for you?

How do you find yourself dealing with all these social networks now? Are you getting in on G+?

Post your comment below and let me and the community know. See ya down there.

Standing Up At Your Desk: Insane Or… Not?

I’ve been on a little “office hack” roll lately.

First, it was my little feng shui remodeling. Then, I hung up a big whiteboard on a small budget. The office was shaping up pretty nicely, if I do say so myself.

But, then another idea hit me…

See, around the turn of the year, my lower back was bothering me. While eating like hell over the holidays probably didn’t help any, I also noticed something else…

Whenever I sat down, the back would start to bother me. When I stood up, I was fine.

Now, I am using a Herman Miller Aaron chair in the office. It is ergonomic and quite a nice chair. That’s why I bought it. BUT… for all that special ergonomic-sauce to actually help, you have to sit in the chair correctly. In my case, I had this nasty habit of hunching forward. So, I wasn’t letting the chair’s back do the support. Instead, my lower back was being stressed as I hunched forward.

During some of my random musings about my office on Facebook, my friends Erica Douglass and Brian Fryer were talking to me about how much they love their stand-up desks.

What? A Desk That You… Stand Up At?

Now, I had certainly heard of this idea before. Honestly, it sounded a little…. well, crazy.

But, once you start researching it a bit more, you realize it isn’t so crazy.

A lot of entrepreneurs use stand-up desks. But, it goes all the way back to Thomas Jefferson, who also used a standing desk.

The health benefits of it are many, including:

• Helps you not rot. I mean, the human body wasn’t designed to sit for 8-10 hours per day. Being upright and moving is what our bodies were designed for. Sitting for long periods not only causes your ass to expand (obviously), but it slows all the bodily functions of your body… including metabolism, digestion, blood flow, etc.
• Helps you lose weight. You burn more calories while standing. Your heart rate is actually a little higher. Plus, standing will counteract all those slower bodily functions.
• Helps your back. This one speaks to me, seeing as my lower back was the primary reason I decided to look deeper into this idea. My back doesn’t bother me AT ALL when I’m standing up. However, sometimes when I’m sitting I find myself trying to adjust in my chair in order to find a comfortable stature.

So, I was convinced.

Getting A Stand-Up Desk

My office space is big enough to accommodate more than one desk. And, needless to say, I like my regular desk. Alot. So, I wasn’t willing to get rid of it and switch exclusively to a stand-up desk.

I did my research into different options. Come to find out, you can drop some serious coin on a stand-up desk if you wanted to. For example, a well-known one is the GeekDesk.

The GeekDesk starts out around $800. It looks to be really solid and well-respected. And, one of the selling points is that it is motor-adjusted so you can adjust your desk to stand-up or sit-down position, depending on your mood.

Seeing as I wasn’t going to use this desk full-time, I didn’t want to drop $800 on one of these. So, I looked for other options.

One uber-cheap way to go is simply to jerry-rig your setup to turn a regular desk into a stand-up desk. Some people will stack books or shelving onto the top of a desk in order to artificially raise the work surface. Check out this one from the blog of Melissa Douthit:

Some people will even put their desk on stilts in order to raise the thing higher.

But, I wanted a real desk. Just not a pricey one. So, I looked into Ikea.

You’ll find that there is a desk called the Ikea Jerker that was very popular. I say “was” because the model was discontinued. It was missed so much, though, that it even has fan sites and, apparently, a Facebook group to try to petition Ikea to bring it back.

The successor to the Jerker is the Ikea Frederik. And, to end the long story, this is the desk I ultimately bought.

My Part-Time Stand-Up Desk: The Ikea Frederik

Here’s a quick photo of my setup. In fact, I’m writing this very blog post while standing at this desk.

The desk has three levels on it. Usually the two skinnier levels are seen above the larger desk surface. But, in order to accommodate my height, I simply mounted the desk surface between the two smaller shelves. When I’m standing up, the keyboard is now at elbow level.

I set up my old Mac Pro at this computer, along with a couple of monitors I already owned. Works QUITE NICELY. And the desk costs me $149. Certainly a lot cheaper than $800. Plus, if I actually use it and it helps me get more done (and ultimately make more money), then $149 is a drop in the bucket.

My Findings: Does It Work?

I now go back and forth between my two desks – depending on my mood. However, I’ve been spending quite a bit of time at the standing desk…. enough to the point that I’ve even pondered the idea of moving my iMac (which is my newer and much faster computer) over to it. Not sure if I will, however.

The test, though, is whether this works for me. Well, here’s my findings after having this for a couple of weeks now:

• I am much more focused when I’m standing. I don’t know what it is, but I don’t find that I’m as easily sidetracked when I’m using the stand-up desk. Over at the other desk, I have to employ more self-discipline to keep myself on task. So, I find I get more work done. Sweet.
• My back thanks me. I have zero back issues while working at this desk. Yet, I still have to be careful that I don’t hunch forward when I’m sitting at the other one.

As far as other health benefits, I haven’t been using this thing long enough to tell. But, for me, the increased focus alone means that it was worth it for me to set this up.

A word of warning, however. You will find your feet hurting. Your body eventually gets used to it and the problem goes away, but expect that as you are just starting.

So, perhaps you want to give this a try. As it turns out, it isn’t insane. In fact, I rather like it. And perhaps you will, too.

If you have any experience with this – or comments – I’ll see you below in the comment section.

Recovering Lost Revenue By Automatically Turning Outbound Links Into Affiliate Links

We’ve all heard the phrase “no-brainer” enough times that the meaning is all but lost. Some marketer will call something a “no-brainer” and we’re left thinking, “Yeah, right.”

However, today, I want to tell you about something which I think truly is a no-brainer. Because the cost is FREE and yet it can make you money.

I want to tell you about VigLink.

VigLink does one thing and does it very well. It is an ad network (essentially) that works by turning any outgoing links to merchants into affiliate links automatically. It is totally hands-off. It doesn’t even modify the appearance of the link on the site. It just works.

There are two ways to go about it:

1. Link to a merchant manually and VigLink will automatically monetize it.
2. Using their link insertion, VigLink will dynamically insert affiliate links to things even if you forgot to link it up by hand. So, for example, if you mention a book and forget to link to it on Amazon, VigLink can do it for you.

My Personal Experience with VigLink

I don’t recommend things I haven’t tried. I’ve actually been using VigLink for many months now.

In my case, I am using it over on PCMech.com. As of this writing, I have generated about $5,300 in extra income with VigLink. Considering that this is essentially “found money”, that’s pretty decent. VigLink is basically monetizing links for me which probably would not have been monetized otherwise. Note, too, that if you manually link to something with your own affiliate link, VigLink leaves the link untouched.

One of the biggest helps of VigLink for me has been in my PCMech forums. In that environment, people are talking about new PC hardware all the time. NewEgg happens to be a favorite among many in my forum audience. I certainly can’t expect members to use my affiliate links whenever they link to Newegg (obviously). So, I have VigLink in place to automatically take care of it. Any time a member links to something on NewEgg, it is turned into an affiliate link automatically.

On the average, this setup has been generating around $400/month in extra income for me. And this is without me even trying.

Now, as you can tell, this is very non-strategic on my part and it still brought in $400 in December. But, it was also a LOT of clicks to pull that off. Certainly, if I were actually trying, I could pull off a lot more revenue out of 8,400 clicks. But, Newegg has a pretty crumby payout (as do most computer hardware companies). I’d be better off pushing Amazon a lot more. Their payout is better plus there is commission on residual sales.

But, this brings me to the idea of how to make the most money with VigLink…

Maximizing Income With VigLink

Obviously, the revenue generator with VigLink is essentially your readers buying things. It is no different than any other affiliate marketing, except that we’re primarily talking about real-world things (not info products).

So, the way to maximize revenue is to be in a niche where talking about things like this would be natural. I have a tech blog, so linking to hardware and software items only makes sense. Another niche that pops to my head might be digital photography, seeing as that is a great niche for linking to all kinds of equipment.

VigLink has relationships with a LOT of merchants. Amazon is obviously a big one. But, to give you an idea, here are some of my top merchants for PCMech:

• Newegg
• AVG (anti-virus)
• Geeks.com
• Kaspersky
• Ebay

I’ve never formed an affiliate relationship with any of these companies, but it is just being done for me by VigLink.

VigLink also provides handy analytics so you can see which merchants are performing best for you, which of your posts are driving the most revenue, which products people are buying, etc.

For example, here’s part of a graph showing my best merchants for a particular week:

The top two are Newegg and Amazon. The third one is the free AVG anti-virus. Considering the high per-click rate for that, it tells me it is converting pretty well and that I should probably talk more about that on the site.

So, by monitoring stats and strategically working in product links to top merchants, you can maximize the revenue from VigLink.

This also has the potential (if worked properly) to out-perform Adsense. And, I believe that there are a lot of bloggers out there who might be limping along with Adsense who could probably do better with VigLink because of the nature of their content. Relevant links in content always perform better than banner ads off in the sidebars.

Give VigLink A Try

It is absolutely free and I bet it will generate some revenue for you. How much is going to depend on the nature of what you write.

Now, full disclose: I am writing about it because I am paid a small referral percentage if you sign up through me. I would, of course, appreciate it. But, as I said, I’ve been using VigLink myself for close to a year now. Not only that, I’m here to help you make more money. So, its only natural.

They will help you recover lost revenue potential. If you manually link to something with your own affiliate link, they won’t touch it. But, if you just forget, VigLink will take care of it and you’ll make residual income. And if you work it, you can make more than residual income.

Sign up for VigLink for free and implement this on your site. There is simply no reason not to.

How To Get A Big Whiteboard On A Small Budget

So, I wanted a whiteboard. A big one to go into my new office. But, I didn’t want to get a second mortgage to afford it.

So, I did some research. I got some advice from some internet marketing friends. And I arrived at a solution. For less than 10% of the cost of a comparably sized whiteboard pre-built, I got the job done.

Why A Whiteboard?

Whiteboards are a favorite tool among many internet marketers I know. Many others have hung them with the best intentions, only to rarely (if ever) actually use it. So, the question is… What use is a whiteboard? Why would I want one?

• Diagramming A Sales Process. When you’re planning out a sales funnel, it is nice to diagram it out visually. This includes the landing pages, thank-you pages, upsells, downsells – you get the idea. And even though you can do this with flow chart software, hashing it out on a whiteboard often works better. Plus, you don’t get mired down with trying to figure out the software or some compulsion to make it look pretty.
• Videos. Recording yourself on video talking about something, but in front of your whiteboard so you can draw out what you’re talking about, all professor-style.
• Projects and Planning. Obvious.
• Model a product launch. There can be a lot of moving pieces to a product launch. Map it out on the whiteboard.

You get the idea.

Whiteboard On The Cheap

Small whiteboards are easy to come by, but their size is usually a limitation. Hell, my computer monitor is bigger than some of those things.

Once you move up to something of decent size, you have to pony up some serious scratch. The larger (usually commercial-grade) whiteboards can cost several hundred dollars.

Then, you have paint options. For example, companies like IdeaPaint or Whiteyboard have paint-on options. You literally just paint your wall with this material and it turns the entire wall into a dry-erase whiteboard. This is probably your best option if you truly want wall-to-wall whiteboards.

Whiteyboard also has adhesive options. You buy the whiteboard material in a roll and you, well, roll it on.

As convenient as these options are, the problem is that you need a very smooth service. A standard texture on drywall should work OK with paint because the paint will even out as it dries (in theory). Some walls, though, have a more pronounced texturing to them. That would make the whiteboard surface bumpy and that’s annoying. Same problem with the adhesive.

The other thing to consider is removability. Paint-on whiteboard is, I would imagine, pretty much a bitch to remove. So, if you’re in an apartment or in a rental house (as I am right now), it might not be a viable option. You want to be able to move out and leave the walls undamaged.

So, This Is What I Did…

I went to Lowes and picked up an 8′x4′ white panelboard. This is the kind of board which would be wall-mounted in a cheap bathroom or something. It happens to make a pretty decent dry-erase board, though.

The price of the board (at Lowes) was $11.87 per panel. If you wanted more than one, I bet you could afford it.

The biggest problem is fitting in in your car. You pretty much want to have it inside the vehicle. A flat item like this would act as one HELL of a sail if the wind caught it, so roof-mounting it might prove problematic. I couldn’t even fit this thing in my wife’s SUV, so I actually had to have the folks at Lowes cut the board for me. I had them cut it right down the middle, so I had TWO 4′x4′ boards.

To mount it to the wall, you have a couple different options. One is, of course, adhesive. A simple tube of liquid nail would do it. Just keep in mind that this would screw up the wall if you try to remove it.

The way  I mounted it? Velcro. Industrial stength velcrow tape, as shown here: (link to Lowes)

Since I had two separate 4×4 panels, I cut up the velcrow tape evenly and stuck strips in each of the 4 corners of each board. I actually placed the strips a few inches inward on each corner, not right at the edge. This velcrow is more than adequate to hold up the weight of this panel.

Don’t worry about measuring it precisely and trying to match it up on the wall. I’d recommend pre-fastening the velcrow before wall-mounting it. Then, you simply position the wall panel and stick it onto the wall. Then, pushing inward to really stick those things to the wall. This saves a lot of hassle from trying to match up the locations of the two sides to the velcrow.

The End Result

There you have it.

The ONLY problem with this is the fact that I had to cut it in half to even get it home. I now have this seam (which is pretty visible) in the middle of it. In practice, I doubt it will be any problem. Worse case, I could probably reduce the seam with some chaulking or something.

All in all, though – pretty dang swanky. And, panel and velcro, my total cost was only about $20 or so. When  you consider what a whiteboard this size would have cost pre-built, pretty sweet.

Kicking Off 2012 The Right Way – Webinar

Lots of things to do in 2012. Get more traffic, make more videos, write more blog posts, build the list, maybe start that membership site….

But, a lot of people end up feeling STUCK about it.

Just confused.

Overwhelmed, even.

You might not even know where to start, or exactly WHAT you should be doing first.

For many, it even gets to the point where you start to distrust yourself and your ability to make any real headway.

The natural desire is to dive head first into all the details, but the usual result is just more confusion and overwhelm.

And, so… what happens is that little forward movement actually happens. The technical things become big hurdles. And, excitement turns to apathy.

So, let’s back it up.

They say that insanity is making the same mistake over and over again.

Well, if you didn’t feel all that efficient in 2011, how is tackling 2012 the same way going to get you any further down the road?

Answer: It won’t.

Now, I decided that I’m going to be doing a lot more webinars in 2012.

And it seems only appropriate that the first one I do for 2012 address these issues first. Before I talk about any of the marketing, the product stuff, the blogging – ANY of that.

It is a simple matter of “first things first”.

So, I’m doing a special, free, public webinar: Kicking Off 2012 Right: Solving Overwhelm, Focus Issues, And Getting Organized.

In this hour, I’m going to be giving you some specific strategies and tactics that I’ve been using – and YOU can use – to avoid the overwhelm, the focus issues, and be able to tackle these things you want to do with a sense of order.

This webinar will be held LIVE on Monday, January 9th, at 2PM EST.

That means the webinar is in a few days.

But, you know what?

Time is ticking. If we’re going to make 2012 kick ass, we can’t let grass grow under the feet. We’ll do it on Monday. Early in the week. Then, the stuff I go over can be put to use immediately, starting next week.

So, here’s what I want you to do now…

Kicking Off 2012 Right: Solving Overwhelm, Focus Issues, And Getting Organized
[Click that link to reserve your spot]

You’ll get an automatic email from GotoWebinar with the details for the event. Set an alarm for Monday, just before 2PM EST.

See ya there.

5 Failures and Take-Aways From 2011 [A Retrospective]

As we launch into 2012, many of us begin to think about our new year’s resolutions. And, if you’re on my mailing list (subscribe here), I gave some advice a few days ago about how to make sure those resolutions don’t end up in the dustbin of failed ideas.

Looking forward comes naturally. But, what about looking backwards? What about reflecting on the year we’re coming out of and seeing what you can LEARN from it to apply to the upcoming year?

So, I’m going to look back on 2011. And, here’s my take-aways…

#1 – Don’t stop doing what was successful before.

Most of us have done something in the past which worked out REALLY well. Then, we went and enjoyed the fruits of our labors, got comfortable, got lazy, then failed to do it again.

Why NOT do what worked before?

I’ll give you an example from me. One of my most successful actions in the growth of my business was doing a large scale product launch (in this case, of Blog Masters Club). The last large launch I did of it, I added several thousand people to my mailing list and ultimately brought in close to $80,000.

But, I haven’t done it in awhile. Why? Honestly, it is because I dropped the ball.

Now, I have legit reasons for not wanting to do those kinds of launches all the time. When a business depends on things like a launch, then it becomes like crack. You need your next hit otherwise things curl up and die. I don’t want my business in that situation.

That being said, there are aspects of a launch which need to be kept going all the time – EVEN IF you’re not doing an official launch. Things like actively working with affiliates. Being “out there” on other people’s sites. Being preeminent.

So, one of the things I resolve to do in 2012 is be a lot more “out there”. And, maybe throw in a launch or two in the mix. You never know.

#2 – Don’t let your connections go stale.

I have the honor of knowing most of the “players” in this niche. We’ve hung out at conferences and talk on Skype/Facebook and the like.

But, looking back on 2011, I think one of the things I didn’t do well ENOUGH is maintaining those active connections even when I’m not at a conference.

This reminds me of Christian Russel’s “Power Rule of 100″ – which he outlined in this guest post he wrote for my blog awhile back. It is the idea that you make 100 personal contacts every day. Whether it be an email to somebody, a Skype chat, a tweet reply – whatever – it is the idea that you make at least 100 contact points every day. I’ve remembered this rule a few times in the last year (good job, Christian!)… because I believe there is a lot of truth in that.

I tend to be more communicative than most when it comes to email (for example, I actually make a point to reply to every reader email I get… even if I’m late)…. but I’ve got friends out there (you know you are) I’m not in contact with enough. I might see them at conferences, or perhaps the occasional Skype interaction… but that’s about it.

Gonna have to do something about that.

#3 – Be An Executive

Readers of Michael Gerber’s E-Myth Revisited will be familiar with this idea of the 3 roles in a business. There’s the entrepreneur, the manager, and the technician. The entrepreneur is the “big picture” guy, the manager oversees day-to-day operations and balances out strategic and tactical plans, and the technician does the nitty-gritty work.

Now, I personally like to call the “entrepreneur” role the “executive” role. I personally think it communicates the idea better.

… but, the idea is that these are three distinct, SEPARATE roles. The executive is like the brain, and the technician is like the limbs of the body.

Now, many of us end up being stuck in the technician role. And, many times in 2011, I’ve found that to be the case with me. I’d find that I felt the most productive when I had fairly brainless work to do…. tasks with an obvious beginning and an end to them. What I didn’t do as well on in 2011 is maintaining my eye on the bigger picture and devising real STRATEGY to do it.

See, to a large extent, I let the “executive” hat drop off my head. And, seeing as the “manager” post is the bridge point, when there isn’t any executive defining broad strategy, the technician works in a rather aimless fashion. Kind of like a body writhes after the head is cut off (yeah, I know… what a fantastic image )

This is what leads to being BUSY, but not a whole lot of real forward progress.

See, even when we KNOW these things, sometimes the lack of discipline means we do it anyway. Yikes!

So, one of the things I’m doing in 2012 is to actually SCHEDULE time to be in the “executive” role. Work ON the business rather than IN it. A bunch of dropped balls are being picked back up again. And I’m jumping back into the role that I SHOULD have been doing without stopping – EXECUTIVE.

#4 – Take Care of the “Whole Package”

It is REALLY easy for us entrepreneurs to get so into our businesses that it basically defines us. We end up letting other things go.

But, we all have other drives in life. Our health, our family and friends, groups we belong to, etc.

My family took up a lot of my time in 2011. It just goes with the territory. My wife and I have two young children and they need us both. And, generally, I let my family take priority (as I believe it should be). The side effect of that is that – MANY times – I felt like I didn’t have ENOUGH time to actually work. It is the usual tug-of-war that I would imagine most parents have dealt with.

Problem is… the end result for me was that I let other things go. Namely, my body. No, I don’t have any health problems or anything like that… however I pretty much suck when it comes to exercise and eating well. And I fell into this short-term thinking when it comes to eating. You know, “oh, this one meal of Taco Bell isn’t going to hurt me”. Sound familiar? I also started enjoying alcoholic beverages in the evening. But, we’re talking stiff ones. Vodka straight-up. That kind of thing. It isn’t every night (by far), but when you combine something like that with not exercising much…

Yeah.

The end result is that I currently weigh about 240 pounds (well, I did as of a few days ago). My ideal weight, given my height, is probably between 190 and 200.

One could say that I let the “executive” role on my health drop off, too. The thing is… as AWESOME as this internet business lifestyle can be… it PLAYS HELL on your health unless you counter-act it.

So, as we move into 2012, I’m beginning to take care of the whole package. What do I mean by that?

Well, business, family, health, groups – ALL of it goes together to form an overall picture of how well we’re doing. And it is all inter-mixed. I FIRMLY believe that you can’t live up to your full potential in business if your body isn’t up to par. And I’ve pretty much decided that I will never see my business to the next level as long as I ignore my body. It just won’t happen.

I’m now on a dedicated program to get into better shape and lose the weight. I’m watching what I eat. I quit the evening drinks. I’m actually tracking it in an app on my iPhone. I’m not a big believer in calorie-counting diets, but that being said, using an app like this forces me to pay attention and be aware of what I’m eating. You can’t manage what you don’t track. Its an old business rule that I think applies equally well to our diets.

#5 – Build For The Future

This final lesson from 2011 goes hand-in-hand with #3 above.

See, one of the important roles of an executive is to build up the business and plan for the long-term viability of the business. In addition to that, the role of the executive is to build that business so that it lends itself to the lifestyle that the owner wants.

Good ol’ lifestyle design.

When I consider the other things I want in my life, I realize that as long as my business is running like it is now, I won’t be able to do those things. Why? Because my business is still very dependent on ME. It depends on me to do most things. It depends on me to promote things, drive sales, send emails – yada yada.

It is one thing to make money… but when you think about it, TIME is the most important resource we really have. It is the one thing that, no matter how rich you are, you DON’T have more time than somebody else does. We all have the same 24 hours in the day.

So, really, when you think about it… if I’m spending most of the day in my office 5 days a week, what have I really created for myself? I’ve created my own J-O-B. And I won’t have time for other things.

Now, of course, I don’t really compare what I do to a regular job. I don’t have to answer to anybody but myself, and I CAN take time off whenever I feel like it. But, even when I do take time off, I’m still thinking about the business to a degree. And, if I’m going for awhile, I have to attend to some work because… like I said… things still depend on me.

The great part about an online business is that things can be automated, outsourced or systematized to degrees not as easily doable in other lines of work. But, it also takes the EXECUTIVE to purposely build the business in that way.

For example…

• Making optimum use of autoresponder sequences for automated followup. Less manual emails, but more valuable for people because the campaign have structure to them.
• Making a point to document internal procedures as I go so that it CAN be done by somebody else.
• Building up processes and resources for people to promote on your behalf (i.e. affiliates). This combined with some other traffic building techniques (including paid traffic) to build a consistent flow of prospects into the sales funnel… without the need for me personally to continually promote the things to my list manually.
• Building more passive income streams.

Doing things like this will build a flourishing business that I CAN walk away from (even if only partially) without the stats crashing through the floor.

.

.

So, there we are. These are some of my own personal lessons from 2011.

Comment below with your thoughts. Plus, I’d LOVE to hear about your own personal lessons from 2011.

After all, if we don’t learn from our time and experience, how are we going to make the new year any better than the last?