Archive for October, 2005

Having a blog for your business makes good marketing sense. So now you have to start creating some content for your blog. Here are a few tips on business blogging. I’ve taken these from Debbie Weil’s Top 7 tips to Write an Effective Business Blog. Download her pdf for more information and tips on writing an effective blog. She’s the queen of business blogging!

• Start with a topic you are passionate about
• concentrat on shorter, more frequent entries in your blog
• Let your authentic “voice” emerge
• Use correct grammar and syntax
• Write for the web: purposefully organize the content of your blog (I’m definitely going to do some more reading on that subject!!)
• Post at least once a week, preferably two or three times a week
• Include your key contact information

Using Debbie’s techniques will help boost your blog interest and readability. If you want to learn more about Debbie, visit her site www.BlogWriteForCEOs.com

Why would you want to add a blog to your business website?

A blog has natural search engine optimization features. By posting on a regular basis, your blog can help your business in many ways:

• create new, fresh content for your site
• each post is a new html document that the search engine spiders love
• you can share information with your readers
• you can solicit feedback on a product, question or book

If you don’t have a blog, or are unsure of what a blog is, why don’t you join the women of San Diego Women, Inc. on October 27th. I’ll be sharing why small business owners should incorporate internet marketing and blogging in their marketing efforts.

Additional Reading: Business Blogging and Blogging

1. Make a commitment to write!
   Schedule an appointment with yourself. Make some quiet time start by deciding what you want to write. Do you want to write an articles? An ebook? Maybe a novel! Grab a piece of paper and a pen. Look at your watch. Complete this sentence in one minute: “I would love to write —” Done?

   Please don’t read on until you’ve done the exercise. OK. Now, before your left brain kicks in with a huge pile of negativity, commit to this thing that you have your heart set on writing. I’ll count down, from three to one, and at the count of one, please take a deep breath and say: “I commit to writing (whatever it was that you wrote in the exercise above).” Three, two, one . say aloud: “I commit to writing —-”

2. Take Five
   How much can you write in five minutes? Let’s find out. Start with five tips. I know you can write five tips about your subject. Now that you have your five tips, take some time to expand each tip. Take five to write content for your current project. You can do this. It’s only five minutes. Just write, don’t think, just write. Think if you spend only 20 to 30 minutes a day writing and/or expanding on your content, your project will be completed in no time at all!

3. Need a Buddy?
   You can share your writing with someone. After all this can really keep you accountable. Find someone who wants to write something. You can each check the other’s work on a scheduled basis. Maybe you check in once a day, twice a week, etc. The objective is to keep yourselves writing. Don’t worry that the work is still in the rough stages. It’s only to keep you accountable and moving forward in your writing. All you need to do is find someone as committed as you are to completing your project.

4. Make writing the first thing you do every day
   Block out specific time each day for writing. If you are a morning person, write first thing. Decide for yourself when you are the most productive. Set the stage for your writing. Do you want some nice soft music, scented candles, a quiet room. Create the atmosphere that will help you be the most productive during your writing time. If the environment is inviting, you’ll look forward to spending this time writing your project.

5. Give up your attachment to the outcome
   Just relax. You can always revisit your copy and revise it at any point in time. For this exercise, you just need to get the content out. It’s always easy to look at your first draft and think it’s not up to par. It’s just the first draft. Once you get past that, the editing will be a piece of cake. You can analyze your content, rework the copy, buff it out and make it outstanding, after you get it out.

Now, just make the commitment to sit down, take five and let the words pour out of you. Have fun!

Recommended Reading: How To Write An Ebook

There is nothing better than being able to sell your own product. The problem is, how do you create a product that is actually sellable?

With the advent of the internet, product creation has taken a whole new aspect. Whereas in the real world, creators vie for ideas that are tangible and physically deliverable, the web allows creators to package information as profitable merchandise. It is the age of information after all, and information is one of the primary factors that drive online dealings.

Information products can take many forms. You could publish your own e-book. Or if you wish to come up with something less daunting, you could distribute your own special report. Electronic magazines, or e-zines, can also be sold through subscription. All of these are effective methods of conveying novel information.
The best thing about it is that you don’t even have to write them. If you simply don’t have the time to come up with an e-book, a special report or any information product, you could hire someone to write them for you. Ghostwriting services are abundant on the net.

But we’re getting way ahead of ourselves.

In creating a product, the businessman is confronted with many questions that more often than not derail the creation process. Hence, here are five answers to the five most common questions that an internet marketer encounters in information product creation.

1. What’s the first step in creating a product?
   The answer is simple: you need an idea. Coming up with that idea, however, is the difficult part.

   You have to realize that everything is a product, as everything is information that, when packaged correctly, is desirable to certain people. Try to update yourself with the latest trends. Read a lot of books and newspapers. Be on the lookout for things that might inspire a deeper study.

   Also, think in terms of titles. For example, you’re reading the papers and an article therein reports of unique wedding ideas. Think big. Think flamboyantly. Apply these thoughts to titles. You should come up with something as grand as “Ten Truly Magnificent Ways To Celebrate Your Wedding,” or “Ten Enchanting Ideas To Make Your Dream Wedding A Reality.”

   Remember, product creation is partly driven by packaging. Titles add so much to the overall feel of the product. And conceptualizing a title would assure that you would be able to keep your focus during the rest of the creation process.

2. Where do I get content?
   Information products are naturally carried out through content. If the content is good, the information would be excellently conveyed. There are three ways to get good content.

   First, write the product yourself. If you have the time to do so, then no one is better suited to convey the idea than you.

   Second, hire a good ghostwriter. Ghostwriting services abound on the web. Look for a good and affordable one.

   Third, you could try public domain information. These are free to use, and they are easy to find for those who actually try to look for them. Basically, all works before 1923, and some works before 1978, are considered public domain information. You could reproduce these without having to pay any royalties.

3. How do I package my product?
   Selling them as mere .doc or .txt files would seem amateurish and unattractive. The usual format used for information products is .pdf or .exe. Of the two, .pdf is more widely used, but .exe offers more eye-grabbing features.

   Converting your products into .pdf is simple. There are many free resources available on the net that would allow you to do this. Creating a .exe file, on the other hand, would need some programming skills.

4. What price should I put on my product?
   Basically, there is no limit as to how much you could price your product. If you feel it is worth $500, then sell it for $500.

   Some are afraid that by pricing their products at a high amount, marketability would suffer. The truth of the matter is, it could go either way. Assigning a high price for your product may give the impression that it is something valuable. This would attract potential buyers.

   Additionally, you could add more value to your product by packaging it with freebies. An e-book with two accompanying software programs, for example, would perfectly justify a high price that is attached to it.

5. What if my product has run its course?
   Even if you feel that you have squeezed every possible profit from your product, you could still earn from it.

   Try selling its master resale rights.

   This simply means that instead of selling your product, you’d be selling the authority that would allow others to re-brand and resell your product any way they see fit. This shouldn’t concern you anymore as you’ve exhausted all the markets that would buy your creation. Let other people worry about marketing it for further profit, but do take their money as parting gifts for a product that has served you well.

Two Ebook programs I recommend are Ebook Gold and Ebook Starter