Internet Marketing Creative Freefalling

photo credit: whatleydude

 

That creative feeling doesn’t come on demand.  Oh no, it sneaks up on you and if you don’t notice it or invite it to take up temporary residence in the guest room of your mind, you’re going to lose a great opportunity to be, well, creative.

I’ve got it going on right now.  So what do I do?  Drop everything else and let my ADHD attach itself to my creativity.  I know it’s not going to last, so I want to milk all the ideas and writingness that I can.  I call it Storming my creative brain with brainstorming.

So this is what it looks like when I’m “in the flow”:

1.  I’m planning out ideas for blog posts for my newest blog at allstarplr.com/blog. Wow, I didn’t think I could come up with that many blog post topics right off the bat.  I’m going to have lots to share there!

2.  I’m starting this post for my peggybaron.com/blog about striking while the creative iron is hot.  I’m not going to finish it now though; I’ve got a great start and I can round it off and bring it to a close later when I’m not feeling so gifted and happy about writing.

3.  I’m starting another post about Ways to Monetize Your Face-Time.  Cool name huh?  The idea came from a conversation I’m having in my head with a blogger who has asked me some questions.  I was thinking about the best way to answer him via email, rather than in the blog’s comment section, and how it could be a profitable endeavor for both of us. 

4.  Outside my make-money-from-Internet-marketing world, I’ve got a dream to publish a book about Raising Teenagers.  I started writing these 1-2 page stories/chapters about my interactions with my teens based on true happenings in my (hopefully) funny, yet witty way.  I just came up with a good one prompted by this past weekend and the subsequent grounding that struck me as hilarious – the chapter, NOT what happened.  So I wrote that up.

5.  Next up – I will outline a new article I’d like to write for the article directories.  I already have my keywords so I’ve got to figure out what I’ll say.  What I should be doing is writing the family Christmas letter instead of letting that sit over my head until Dec. 23rd.  I guess I’m not feeling that creative.

I’m not trying to toot my own horn here, I’m trying to tell you that when the creative urge hits, allow yourself to go into freefall.  Don’t be afraid to open lots of new Word docs and start in on several things at once. 

I believe a true creativity bender doesn’t lend itself to just one project, but many.  Because ideas for one project lead to ideas for another, and so on.  It’s important to capture all this so try to allow each one some time and write it down or record it.  Then when the mood leaves you, and it will, you can then take each thing to completion.

I say, don’t hold yourself back!  What do you think?  Do you do anything different when you’re feeling on fire? 

Next up… how to force your creativity when it’s nowhere to be found.  This will be about where to find ideas for articles that I, ahem, promised to blog about this week.

Blogging For Fries or Blogging For Money?

 

 

Picture yourself as a pimply teenager working for minimum wage at the nearby fast food joint.  You stand at the counter, with your feet aching, and take orders during your 4 hour shift.  The only thing you’re thinking about is getting out of there and hopefully snagging a bag of fries on the way out.  You do just what you’re asked to do and nothing more. 

After all, you’re only working for minimum wage, why should you put out more than you have to?

If you’re smart, you’ll start stocking up the condiments, wiping down the counter, and suggesting desserts to the customers.  You’ll become someone people can count on to do a little extra, with consistency.  Why?  Because that’s what gets you a raise and a promotion!
 

 

So let’s apply that minimum wage job experience to your blogging experience…

Are you only doing what’s expected of you?  Are you blogging for fries or blogging for money?  You post every now and then with no consistency.  You give others the bare minimum and nothing else.  You don’t go the extra mile and make your blog as interesting and helpful as it could be.  You’ve got the working for minimum wage attitude. 

But it’s a funny thing, you have to step out and do more… before you get rewarded or compensated, so it’s going to feel like you’re doing all this extra work for no return.  That’s a little short-sighted though, because if you do more than what is necessary now, you’ll surely reap the rewards before too long, even if you can’t see it now.
 

Here are some qualities that someone looking for a promotion, i.e., a blogger who’s blogging for money needs to have:

1.  A plan for your blog that incorporates elements of getting new traffic and retaining old traffic, that encourages commenting, allows you to show off your expertise, promotes only high quality products that convert well, increases your rank in the search engines, and makes your blog… well… the best darn blog in town that everyone wants to visit.
 

2.  The ability to focus on your plan and work it constantly.  There’s no doubt it’s going to take some hard work and you have to be willing to commit.  Turn down the dial on the all-day/all-night online radio station, 102.overwhelm, and focus on what you want to accomplish each day and why.
 

3.  The willingness to blog often, consistently, with valuable content that helps people.  Take the extra time to write each post as if it’s going to be the next popular post gone viral.  Instead of looking at it like it’s a chore, have fun with it.  Remember, you’re ultimately blogging for money, even if you don’t see much of it quite yet.

 

4.  The determination to try something you haven’t done before.  Yes, it can be scary to write a guest blog post for someone else, toot your own horn on Twitter, offer a strong opinion post, or blog about something you’re not exactly an expert on.  It will also make you uncomfortable trying different mediums – podcasts, videos, screencasting, interviews, etc.  But that’s how you find out what people like and want, and what gets others talking and linking to you from their blogs.

 

5.  The nerve to ask questions.  If you hit a snag, it might be is a lot quicker to swallow your pride and ask for help.  Maybe you want to know what theme or plugin someone else is using.  Ask!  People will help, they’re hardwired that way.

The choice is yours, you can do the bare minimum and get what you’ve always got – a backache, minimum wage, and a bag of fries or you can take your blog up a notch and do what’s necessary to be successfully blogging for real money.

One Email Marketing Tactic Learned, More Money Earned

Here’s another lesson learned or insight discovered.  Maybe this should be added on to my last post, but it seems easier to just make it a new post.

Here it is:

It’s okay to send a reminder to my list.

In fact, it’s a great idea.

One reminder is not bugging them, it’s reminding them, and it’s helpful.

I make more sales of my product with the reminder email than I do with the initial email.

That’s it.  Not earth-shattering or anything, just the next level of marketing awareness for me.

Okay, this is not a new concept, but one I was afraid to try because I didn’t want to come across as pushy and annoy people.  But then I saw behind the scenes how well it worked when an affiliate who was promoting one of my products sent a second email about the product to his list.  He didn’t even use a scarcity tactic… just a friendly reminder.  He made quite a few sales the first time around, but really took it to the bank with the second email.

I may be a little thickheaded sometimes, but I got it!

So I tried it and it worked great for me too.

Do you send a reminder to your list? How is it working for you?

New- Blogging 101 eCourse

I’ve finally finished up a project that I’ve been working on and wanted to let you know about it.  It’s called Blogging 101 eCourse (got a theme going here, don’t I?)  and you can get it here for free.  There’s also a link to it over in the right column, and also on my main webpage.  Did I leave out any spots to put it? 

Blogging 101 is mostly for people who are just starting out with blogs.  I’ve also included a free PDF called 31 Blogging Ideas at the end of Part 1 of the eCourse.  So even if you’ve been blogging a while, go ahead and sign up to get the PDF with Part 1. 

I’ve got 2 more things in the works but before I can work on them, I have to work on my taxes.  Sigh…

Well, at least I’m taking tomorrow off to go skiing.  I didn’t chose to live at the foot of the Rocky Mountains for nothing!

Lead Supreme

I just signed up for Lead Supreme’s trial contest to learn how to build my list fast.  I can’t figure out who ends up with the leads – me or them.  I want to go after the $10,000 prize for the most leads generated in the 10 days (10/13 to 10/23) but the timing is not good.  My kids are off school for fall break for the week.  Oh well, we’ll see just how good I am at multi-tasking and organization.   

However it turns out, I think it will be $20 well spent for all that I’m going to learn.

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