How Is Product Creation Like Gift Giving?
December 22, 2010
photo credit: LittleCrazyButterfly ♥
As I was wrapping and wrapping and wrapping presents last night, this thought occurred to me… Product creation is like gift giving.
How? you ask?
When you go shopping for a gift to give someone else, how do you pick out a present? Do you give them what YOU want to give? You pick out something big and bright and absolutely wonderful. It's something they need (even if they don't know it) and it's exactly what you'd want to get yourself if you were in their shoes!
You're so pleased with the present that you go all out on the wrapping. You grab some beautiful shiny paper and a huge bow plus some ribbon and take more time meticulously wrapping the present than you did in picking it out.
You then hand them the gift on the special day with a flourish and they ooh and aah over the wrapppings and you can tell they're excited to open it.
But, after they've opened it you get the feeling it's not what they were expecting or hoping for. Where did you go wrong? You picked out a wonderful gift!
Did you ask them what they wanted?
It's no use thinking you "know" what they want or what's best for them. Or picking out something you'd like for yourself. My spouse might think I need a new iron, and I do, but that's not something I want. He might think tickets to a monster truck rally would be a cool gift, but I certainly would not! [He really wouldn't, I'm just trying to illustrate my point.]
Perhaps a better idea is to ask them what they want, ask for their list of desires.
Giving a requested gift is probably not as pleasurable for you; you might have to work a little harder to find it, but the end result is worth it!
It's the same with product creation.
You don't want to create a product because you think people need it, or it's something YOU would like, or it's fun for YOU to create (guilty of that one). You should ask them what they want. Ask for a list and use that as your guide. Otherwise, what's the point of creating a product that no one wants to buy?
True, producing products that your customers want might not be as pleasurable for you. You have to work harder at it, do further research, go places you're not familiar with, but the end result is a product that customers want to purchase and it makes them happy!
I am always open to product requests. 
I love creating products, but I want to create ones you're interested in. I've had several requests lately about how to set up a PLR business, so that's what I'm working on now.
But then what?
What product would you like to see me come out with?
Internet Marketing Creative Freefalling
December 10, 2010
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.
More Interesting Results From WF Articles Forum
December 3, 2010
So the other day I wrote an article called Blogging For Fries or Blogging For Money? It was originally going to be part of my new Blogging PLR article pack, but I decided to keep it and post it on my blog. But I remembered something Tiffany Dow said in my previous WF Articles Forum test and decided to submit it to EzineArticles and Warrior Forum Articles.
As soon as it was approved in EZA, I scurried over to the WF and posted it there. When I did a quick search later for the title (not my keywords) just to see if it was indexed, this is what I saw:
Of course this isn’t conclusive, but it does look favorable to me!
It’s too early to get a good picture as far as traffic, but I will be watching those numbers too.
Now I’ve got to get to work doing some more article marketing and submitting them or my findings won’t mean much. ;)
Testing The New Warrior Forum Articles Forum
November 11, 2010
The last post I put up here, Several Reasons To Use PLR Articles was a test. You see the Warrior Forum just added a new sub-forum for Articles. Now there are some reasons why you might want to post there:
- To strut your stuff – be seen as an expert in your niche. [BTW, all articles have to do with online or offline marketing.]
- Get the people on the Warrior forum to click on your links and join your list or buy your stuff.
- Get your article indexed quickly and ranked high in the Google search engine so everyone else can find you too. Traffic is the game-changer.
So I’m testing #3 above. I quickly wrote an article and posted it on the WF Articles Forum and this is what I see:
It was indexed by Google in less than 11 minutes.
The article ranked #4 for my primary keyword phrase (no quotes) out of 542,000.
It ranked #22 for another keyword phrase I only stuck in the article once – not in the title or opening or closing paragraphs – just to see how it would do. That was out of 842,000. Wow! Just think if I’d used it more in the article.
Now to compare that, I also posted the article, Several Reasons To Use PLR Articles, here. It’s my post previous to this one. These are the results:
It, too, was indexed quickly. I forgot to check right away, but it was there when I checked at 17 minutes.
The article/post from this blog was ranked #190 for my primary keywords (as opposed to #4 via the Warrior Forum Articles Forum).
As for the secondary keyword mentioned once in the article, I searched through 30 pages of Google search and did not find it. Pffft.
I think these results speak volumes! I know it’s better to show up in the search engines with the link pointing to your own site, but if it’s a competitive keyword you’ve tried to get on page 1 to no avail, then having them find you via the WF link is the next best thing, IMHO.
The article has my author’s bio with links to my site, plus readers will see my WF signature which includes a nice clickable banner now.
As far as traffic stats on this experiment, I’ll let you know.
* Oh, and another added bonus to this whole thing… I can write articles about PLR, which is HUGE for me since EzineArticles won’t accept any articles that even have the word PLR in them.
PLR Articles, Oktoberfest, and New Computer
October 26, 2010
Whew, just getting serious here after a week of confusion with my son home on fall break. It’s interesting how you can just do what you need to do and discard the rest (like playing Spider Solitaire) when you don’t have all day to do it. As I try to get my head together, I’m going to mention what I’m currently working on Internet marketing-wise.
But first, a picture from my weekend in the Rocky Mountains for Oktoberfest at the end of September.
I know, I know, it has nothing to do with Internet marketing but the fall colors were gorgeous!
Okay, here’s how my present and near future’s shaping up:
1. I came up with a great idea that helps PLR ATM owners out and I got it up and running. I sent out a JV request to someone who could really do this justice and I’m writing this post instead of sitting and watching my in-bin for a response, which is really what I would rather be doing. I’ll tell you more about it in my next post.
2. I need to at least unpack my new harddrive and stare at it a bit before I attempt to boot it up and replace my ailing and almost dead harddrive.
3. I came up with another idea that puts a new welcomed twist on the next set of PLR articles I’m going to write. Today I’ll do a little reseach on the idea and put my plan into motion, i.e., start writing the twisted PLR articles.
4. I will continue uploading PLR articles onto a test blog. It’s a case study and I will be happy to share the results with you when I’m done and have all the results.
5. One two of my websites are sorely in need of updating and I’m going to do that so it won’t continue to nag at me. It’s like when you were in school and you had homework to do but you did something else instead – you got that little niggling feeling. Or maybe that was just me?
6. Not high on my list, but I shall continue to improve the SEO on one of my sites. It’s obviously not this one as I keep forgeting about writing it for search engines and just write it for people. 
That’s a wrap!
Care to give any teasers on what you’re working on?
Leave a comment below.
