How To Boost Traffic To Your Blog: SEO for Bloggers

Let search engine index your blog and let people come to your fresh blog. Though you're in World Wide Web, nobody knows you're there. You need to pull kindly those who are potentially waiting for you but don't know where your are. This objective is related to generally known as search engine optimization (SEO). It's too broad to address all. But the most important things will I talk about. Though they're not all but more than enough will be covered. They are about...

• How to use keywords as a SEO technique
  

• What to consider when you choose blog templates
  

• How to construct your blog search engine friendly
  

• Ping your blog
  

How to use keywords as a SEO technique?


As long as SEO is concerned, the keyword comes at front line. You have to find the target keyword/keywords or niche keywords.

What to do with the keyword/keywords? Please read on.....

• Enter keywords in your blog name: If you named your blog for example, "Ryen's blog", it's not a good idea in the view of SEO. Instead name your blog something like "keyword blog". You need to substitute "keyword" with your "target keyword", for example "mountain bike blog", if your blog is about mountain bike.
  

• Enter keywords of your post in title tag: Actually most of bloggers don't need to concern about "title tag" because most of blog hosting applications such as blogger, typepad, wordpress, movable type, drupal, etc... care this for you. But you have to use the keyword in your title and then they will include it in the title tag for you.
  

• Enter keywords in meta description tag, if possible: This may be difficult for most of bloggers because most of blog hosting system don't support this. If this is your case, don't bother with this. To make it possible is almost impossible for the people like me who are not techie at all. But don't worry there is other solution: care your first sentence of the first paragraph.

• Enter keywords in the first sentence: Nowadays many SEO experts say that most of search engines don't look meta description tag. Instead they look for the few words in the first sentence. So care your first sentence to include the keywords, make it fit to describe your whole post and attractive.

• Repeat your keywords in your post: With this an English grammar teacher may not be happy. But as long as SEO is concerned, it's necessary: frankly to say, you have to. General rule says the keyword density should be about 2-3% of whole words in your post
  

• You may complain "heck, how do I know keyword density." Well, you don't need to count it manually. There is a free tool to check the keyword density. And actually I don't even check it all the time. I just keep in mind 2-3% and check only for some posts that I think worth checking. Having this in mind, the free tool is here. Type the URL of your post, keyword and click "analyze" button. It'll return you the keyword density of your post. If the keyword density is too low, consider repeat the keyword more but don't repeat too much (more than 3%)
  

• Use your keyword in your blog domain: This improves the ranking of your blog and hence more traffic come to you. If your blog is about "anniversary gift", for example, include it in your domain name so that your blog domain looks like "anniversary-gift.yourhost.com"

• Use your keyword in the link title: Many blogger don't know about this!

• Which one do you think better, "anniversary gift" or "anniversary-gift.your host.com" as your link title? The former is better. The reason? Because search engines value more. So keep in mind that whenever you get link try to enter your keywords in the link title
  

• Enter keywords in your file name: When you save your blog, use your keyword
  

• Which one is better, "mypost98.html" or "anniversary-gift-how-to-choose.html"? This time the latter is better because it includes keywords and hence get better chance to be listed in high rank in search engine.

• Enter keyword in alt tag: If you use images in your post, don't forget to put your keyword in alt tag. A 2 cent-tip related to this is that if your Google Adsense doesn't seem to show matching ads with your content, check your alt tag. Maybe it's because you put unrelated words in alt tag.

What to consider when you choose blog templates?

Certainly there is a search engine friendly blog templates. To know whether your blog template is search engine friendly designed, go to Crawler simulation (It's free.) Enter your blog URL and then it'll show you how it looks like when a search engine spider visits your blog site. If you see a lot of html code or java scripts before you see main content, it means your blog is not well designed in the point of search engine optimization. There is a way to hide unnecessary code from spiders, using CSS or div class "hide". Try to make your title tag immediately after head tag and to show up your body content as near to head tag as possible.

How to construct your blog search engine friendly?

Make your blog site structure as simple as possible. This may not be a big issue for bloggers because unless a blogger can design her/his blog system, they have to use a default system. What I mean by this is that most of blog system make permalink be for example, "www.blogcom.com/user/archive/year/month/date/apost.html". See how far the final "apost.html" is from root. It's 5 step further. This is not so good in terms of search engine optimization. You can reduce those steps but you only can do so one or two step because database recognition is concerned behind this story. So the bottom line is that try to make your blog simple but if it's not possible, focus on writing good content. I observed many top bloggers have a bit complicated permalink system yet have lots of traffic.

But if you can make your blog structure simpler without problem, please do so because it is much better for the reader and search engine as well.


Ping your blog

Do you ping? Many pongs will come,then. :-) This may not be an issue if you're using Movable Type, WordPress, Typepad, or Drupal 4.6.0. But consider pinging to Ping-o-Matic!, if your system is not configured to do so. Because it pings to most of important blog search engines and directories in one spot. If your blog application doesn't support to ping automatically to "Ping-o-Matic!", you can do so manually by visiting Ping-o-Matic! Once you type your blog name, blog URL, check where to ping and click "submit ping" button, and don't forget to bookmark. It gives you a convenience because you don't need to type blog name, URL and check where to ping again.

By pinging you make search engine spider crawl you more frequently and make your reader notified faster.

So far you have the most important SEO techniques for your blog. Say, how to use your keywords and where to enter, search engine friendly blog template design, structure and finally ping to "Ping-o-Matic!"
But one thing is missing!

Get inbound links!

The MLM Dilemma

Does this sound familiar...?

You have taken ALL of the company training, listened to the tapes, recorded phone calls and live conference calls, read all the company materials and tried the products. You bought some inventory, made business cards, set up the web site that the company provided for you.

You have purchased leads, set up an e-mail campaign and told everyone you know about your awesome company, the cutting edge products and the lucrative compensation plan...you were exited, motivated, dedicated, enthusiastic, positive and committed and yet...your results are dismal.

If all of that sound familiar, I have news for you...you are one of the roughly 95% of people in MLM that have been completely wasting your time, money and infinitely more important...your life! Keep reading...there IS hope!!

I know that there are people in your company who are doing well...making tons of money...but here's the question...can you REALLY duplicate what they are doing??

What is it that the people who are on top have that you don't have? Well, there's bad news...and there's good news!

The bad news is that if you were to take a close look at the top performers in your company, you might notice a few things such as:

1. They have above average communication skills. They can walk into a room or stand in front of an audience and command attention. They just have that skill. Most people can't do that! In fact, the number one fear in North America is public speaking!

2. Maybe they are able to work 22.5 hours per day without sleeping. Some people just have the metabolism that allows them to do far more in a day than others. Most people can't do that either!

3. Maybe they had money to begin with and were able to purchase a position in the company which allowed them to maximize their income potential...most people can't do that either!

4. Maybe they are great salespeople. Maybe they don't mind getting 100 rejections in order to recruit one person, but most people can't do that either!

The point is that there are any number of things that allow some people to just outperform others and usually it's because they really do have some quality, characteristic or skill that others just don't have. This allows them to build enormous organizations only a VERY small percentage of those people actually earn them the big money, and it's normally people who happen to have the same outstanding skills.

After I studied this over many months of failing miserably in MLM...I asked myself this question; ”Where the heck does that leave an average guy like me??" That brings us to the good news!

The good news is that there are people just like me; average people with average skills making a substantial living with Network Marketing, and so can you.

You don't need the "gift of gab" or tons of money to buy your position and you don't need to work 22.5 hours per day or to withstand an onslaught of rejection. So what does the average person need to make a fortune in Network Marketing?

You need only two things:

1. A System that can be duplicated by anyone
2. Education as to how to properly deploy that system

The system can be either automated or not as long as the process takes the prospect through specific steps and brings them to a point where they can decide weather or not they are interested in seeing more.

A good automated system will walk the prospect through the following steps:

1. Attention: I have found that the best way to catch attention is to reduce the flashiness of the presentation. The best attention grabbing tool is a very well written introduction abut YOU, the marketer.

2. Interest: Maintain the prospects interest by providing something with which they can relate. Claims of riches tend to alienate most qualified prospects who are not interested in the hype…they are interested in content. Your system needs to provide strong content which allows the prospect feel that they know you a little.

3. Education: The prospect should learned something new. Some actual valuable information that makes them understand that you have a legitimate business opportunity. Education regarding Network Marketing would be best because it can help you pre-qualify your prospect and eliminate that “pyramid” objection.

4. Desire: By the end of the presentation, your prospect should want more information from you. If your system gives away to much information, the prospect will have no reason to speak with you again.

This is where most people drop the ball, especially when using automated systems. Most people think that their on-line system is going to do the recruiting for them.

I have seen many times when a marketer considers the flash presentation on their company website to be their entire automated prospecting system. The problem with this is that the company website gives away the entire story and rarely leaves the prospect in a state of desire. The prospect can make a final decision without ever having to get to know the marketer. This puts the company, product, or compensation plan in the forefront of the prospect’s mind, instead of the exciting potential of the Network Marketing business itself.

A strong automated prospecting system is just that…a prospecting system, not a recruiting system. We can not exclude personal relationship building from the Network Marketing equation. Which brings us to the second requirement for success in Network Marketing…training.

Training is perhaps the most neglected part of our business. Rule number one is that you should never ever lead with your company, your product or your compensation plan...the reason is very simple...NO ONE CARES!!! Here's why...

When you lead with your business, your products, your opportunity or your comp plan, you are talking about what is important to YOU, not to the prospect. They might listen to you out of courtesy or respect for you, and you might sign up a few people along the way, but your chances of building a solid business in the manner are slim because this approach is not “duplicateable” by most people.

In order for the prospecting process to be effective, you really must build a relationship with your prospect before you introduce your company. This can be done using a combination of your automated system and personal follow-up.

Network Marketing success requires that you deploy a balance of properly designed automation, and training on how to develop a personal relationship with the prospect.

If the automated system is properly designed, and the training is effective in teaching the basics, then the average person can do exceptionally well in Network Marketing.

Clickbank Vendors: Two Simple Ways You Can Help Affiliates Protect Their Commisions

1) How To Remove Your Affiliates Clickbank Id From The URL.

As a merchant, you can hide the clickbank affiliate id for your affiliates by creating a redirect page and pointing your default hoplink to the redirect.

When some uses your hoplink http://hop.clickbank.net/?affid/yourid, the cookie will be set and they will land on your redirect page.

The redirect will send them to your domain without adding the ?hop= information. The cookie is already set and does not need to be shown.

This will help protect your affiliates commission and give your site a more professional appearance.

In the code examples below, you will need to replace [ and ] with less then and greater then symbols.

Create a file called hoplink.php

Add the following code

[?php 
header("Location: http://www.yourdomain.com"); 
exit; 
?] 

Upload hoplink.php to the root of your domain.

Login into your clickbank account.

Click to view or modify your account settings.

Click to modify your account.

Under Business Info, change the url of your website to be http://www.yourdomain.com/hoplink.php

Click on save changes.

Now when a visitor clicks on a hoplink, it appears that they came directly to your site and the affiliate's id is no longer exposed. For this technique to be completely effective, the affiliate needs to cloak the hoplink as well.

2) How to Cloak Your Clickbank Vendor Id Using PHP

Most clickbank affiliate theft is caused by the fact that is easy to rebuild a hoplink and get credit for your own purchase. All you really need to know is the vendor id.

All you have to do is look at the source code of a typical sales link and you will see the vendor id.

For example: http://www.clickbank.net/sell.cgi?YourVendorId/1/Product_Description

To rebuild the hoplink you simply use http://hop.clickbank.net/?AffiliatesId/YourVendorId

Now when you click on the hoplink and the original affiliate has lost a sale.

As you can see, without knowing the vendor id, you can not successfully rebuild the hoplink and the affiliates sale would be protected.

Below is an example of how to do this in PHP.

You will need to replace [ and ] with less then and greater then symbols.

Create a file called order.php

Add the following code

[?php 
header("Location: http://www.clickbank.net/sell.cgi?YourVendorId/1/Product_Description"); 
exit; 
?] 

Just replace YourVendorID with your Clickbank ID

Replace 1 with your product number

Replace Product_Description with your Product Description

Upload order.php into the same folder as your sales page.

Now link to order.php instead of using the raw order link and your Vendor ID is never exposed

This will make it very hard for affiliates to rob other affiliates of their commissions.

I encourage you to make these simple changes to protect the commissions of your affiliates.

The BIG Dream Life

In Network Marketing one of the single most important keys to success is simply having a dream. Unfortunately most people lose sight of this dream due to the harsh realities of life and therefore fail miserably in this industry. On the other hand those who never lose sight of this dream seem to have what takes to stay the course and learn the ropes until and one day find themselves living a life better then they could have ever imagined it.

Today I’m going to give you a picture of The Big Dream Life. Please, if you are struggling in this industry, take hold of it, mold it into your own, and one day you too will be a living, breathing testimony to the life changing power contained inside a few thoughts.

The Big Dream Life

It’s 9:36 am when your eyes suddenly pop open. You sit up in bed with a smile on your face and thank God for all the many blessings he has given you and your family. After a yawn and a good stretch, you give your sleeping beauty (Wife) a kiss on the cheek then head to the kitchen. In no hurry, completely content and relaxed because you don’t have the stress that 90% of America has called “A JOB”. On the way to the kitchen, you find your little ones peeking around the corner in attempt to give Daddy a good morning “BOO”. You decide to play along and act really surprised when they jump out even though this is the everyday routine. At this point, you see your wife walking down the hall with a smile on her face and greet her good morning with another kiss. You have breakfast with your family then head to the office (first door to the left). You check a few emails make a few calls then call it quits for the day. After this hard days work ( ha ha) you decide to take your family on a surprise trip to Sea World. They are excited when they hear the news and begin packing for the trip. On the way out you decide to check the mail and find a nice check made out to you for $18,578.63. You hand the check over to you wife; she looks at it and says “not bad for a weeks work”. You both chuckle and head to your destination.

Now that’s what I call living! Please take this dream and expand on it, don’t let the ups and downs of life come crashing down on your dream and kill it forever. You deserve to live it so LIVE IT.

How Not To Fail In Network Marketing

My friend Mike said that, 'people fail in mlm, network marketing, internet marketing, or home business opportunities for two main reasons.

1. Most people start with a shoe string budget, but since they don't know how to effectively advertise and promote their businesses, they run out of money without having the opportunity grow and explode their business.

2. They pitch their mlm, network marketing, internet marketing, or home business opportunities to their family, friends, and co-workers. Then they run out of people to talk to, and out of money to advertise.' That's a sad scenario.

The key to not fail in mlm, network marketing, internet marketing, or home business opportunities; is to implement a franchise system with a proven marketing strategy that works. Sort of like Mc Donald's, the casinos in Las Vegas, movie theaters, and others.

For intance, do you think Mc Donald's is in the hamburger business? How about Las Vegas' casinos? They advertise, "what happens in Vegas stays in vegas." Movie theaters, Do you think they could stay in business by merely selling admission tickets?

Let me tell you why Mc Donald's can afford to sell a burger for a $1 dollar. Because it knows that when you buy that extra slice of cheese, fries, and soda, it will make a huge profit margin on them.

Las Vegas casinos lure you with their entertainment advertising, but they don't tell you that they want you to lose all your money in gambling which is where the real money is made.

The same with movie theaters, you take your family to watch a movie, and you easily spend $40 bucks in popcorn, sodas, and candies, not including the admission tickets!

Do you see what is going on here? Do you see the marketing strategy at work? If these businesses did not a have a game plan, they would go out of business or they would have a hard time staying in business.

The question that must be popping in your mind by now is, what does that have to do with my mlm, network marketing, internet marketing, or home business opportunity? It has a lot to do with it, if not all of it! The strategy is based on the ABC business model. Once you understand it and apply it to your mlm business, network marketing business,internet marketing business, or home business opportunity__viola! Your business will explode!

What is this ABC business model, and why is it vital to your, mlm business, network marketing business, internet marketing business, or home business opportunity? Let's just say that part A, part B, and part C, all three parts compliment each other.

Part A is the most important of the three parts, yet most people only use part B and C. Especially if you are advertising your business on a shoe string budget! Do you see now why people fail in business? Can your mlm business, network marketing business, internet marketing business, or home business opportunity survive on parts B and C only? Sure it can, but it will cost you a fortune in advertising, and I guarantee it!

Part A is designed to help you fund your advertising, and generate prospects for your business.

Part B is designed to put quick cash in your pocket to pay bills or to invest to further grow your business, and part C is your long-term residual income.

How does part A help you fund your advertising so you don't run out of money? Simple. Sell a low cost high volume item that is closely related to your mlm business, network marketing business, internet marketing business, or home business opportunity. Something easy to sell whether you are an expert or not. It could be a nutrition product, a service, or an affiliate program, but it has to be closely related to your mlm business, network marketing business, internet marketing business, or home business opportunity. The reason for doing that, is that it is a lot easier to sell $500 dollars in retail products than it is in building a $500 residual income, do you follow?

Just to give you a perfect example, as a network marketer, would you buy a business that is worth $1,000 to $2,000 dollars without thinking about it,or would you be more inclined to buy an inexpensive book that shows you how to be successfull with that business? If you are like me, you would buy the book and educate yourself first. A book like this would be a retail product that sells easily.

By implementing Part A which will lead to Part B and then to part C, your mlm business, network marketing business, internet marketing business, or home business opportunity will always be up and running, and no longer worried about running out of advertising funds.

Part B in mlm business, network marketing business, internet marketing business, or home business opportunities comes in the form of fast start bonuses aka "bread and butter." As you continue to implement part A it will not only fund your advertising campaings, but also will generate endless prospects for your business. Remember, Part A has to be closely related to your main business.

Do you see now why part A is so vital for your business?

When you do your advertising, vary your advertising. Do not rely solely on one form of advertising. My wise friend Mario said, "a table can not stand on one leg, (a conventional table) and neither will your mlm business, network marketing business, internet marketing business, or home business opportunity be able survive on one form of advertising alone.

Apply this ABC business model in your mlm business, network marketing business, internet marketing business, or home business opportunity and you will never ever have to worry about running out of money,or failing in this industry again.

Scams, Pyramids, Powerlines and Ponzi

What are pyramid, powerline and Ponzi schemes? They are all different versions of the same thing... Illegal business ventures. They are illegal, and have the potential to financially devastate participants when the compensation system collapses. And it always collapses.

To understand why the pyramid is inherently flawed, you have to understand how it works. Most people confuse pyramid schemes with legitimate MLM (multi -level marketing) programs, because the difference between the two can be quite fuzzy.


Just because a compensation plan is based on a matrix does not necessarily mean that it is a pyramid. With a pyramid, the entity at the top always makes more money than everyone else is the program. It is impossible for any other person in the pyramid to even make as much as the person on the top.

Typically, pyramid schemes require an initial investment, usually substantial, and earnings are based on recruiting new members to make that initial investment as well.

Those participating in a pyramid program are lead to believe that they are at the top of their own little pyramid, when in truth, they are somewhere at the bottom of the grand pyramid. The program owner is at the top of the pile; therefore the creator of the program is the company. The company always gets a percentage of the new members' initial investment, and the remaining portion is distributed to the person responsible for the new membership. So, as the pyramid grows, the guy at the top, the "company" gets richer and richer for doing next to nothing, and your earnings are completely dependant upon how many new recruits you can come up with each month, whether it be based on a once off membership fee, or a monthly subscription to the program. If you don't bring in new members, you won't get paid.

Now here comes the major flaw in the system... Commissions are paid based on members recruited. There is a finite number of people who can be recruited. Therefore, once the program has maxed out, and there are no more people to recruit, those at the bottom of the pyramid will never recover their initial investment, let alone make a profit. The pyramid collapses and the guy at the top, the one who got stinking rich, takes off for the Bahamas and is never heard from again. Meanwhile everyone else is wondering what happened, and why they're not getting paid. He gets a nice tan, while you're wearing egg on your face, and all the friends and family that you brought into the program are hating you.

So what makes MLM different?

Legitimate multi-level marketing programs provide customers with a tangible, physical product, or a usable service. Commissions are based of the sale of actual products and/ or services, not membership fees. You can sell an infinite amount of products to a finite amount of people; therefore the system maintains itself; it won't self destruct, and people will make money.

MLM programs are based on a matrix, but since there is an actual product being bought and sold, the company receives a percentage, so it can produce more product to sell, and the member/ distributor earns a commission based on the actual products sold. As long as the company continues to produce a product for resale, the distributor has the ability to earn an income. Even if you stop referring new customers, if you keep your existing ones buying, you will continue to generate an income.

The key to making a large income in an MLM is to encourage existing customers to make repeat purchases in addition to finding new customers.

Consider this example from a traditional sales business:

Your father purchases a car from Dealer X. He gets a good deal on the car, and likes the product and the service he receives. So, the every time he wants to buy a car, he returns to Dealer X. (This means repeat sales and commissions for Dealer X.) In the meantime, your dad recommends Dealer X to a few friends, who buy cars. Dealer X, appreciating the referrals your dad has provided, gives your dad an extra discount on his next car purchase.

This sounds like a fair and equitable business dealing right?

That's because it is totally fair and legal.

Now, think about this multi-level marketing situation:

Your mother belongs to a catalogue shopping club. As a member of this club, she is entitled to savings on the products she buys, and in-home delivery of her purchases.

Mom shops there every month without fail, because she enjoys the products and the service she receives. She deems it a good value.

Mom is so delighted with her shopping club membership that she tells her friends about it. Some of those friends also join the shopping club and begin shopping there month after month. In appreciation for your mom's referrals, the company pays her a commission each month, based on the products her referrals purchase.

If one of Mom's friends refers someone to the shopping club, the company will give the friend a commission on products purchased by the new customer, plus they will give a smaller commission, from that sale, to Mom because she referred the friend who referred a friend. This is called an override commission. This is where the matrix comes into play. The matrix allows Mom to earn override commissions to a certain level for indirect referrals, generated by her direct referrals. This is how the company shares its income with its customers...

Example of a 3 x 4 multi-level marketing matrix:

Mom introduces Aunt Sally to the company. Each time Aunt Sally spends money with the company, Mom earns a 10% commission on what Aunt Sally buys.

Aunt Sally refers Cousin Meg to the company. When Cousin Meg shops, Aunt Sally earns a 10% commission on Meg's purchases, and Mom earns a 5% override commission.

Let's say that Aunt Sally also refers Uncle Bob and Cousin Sue. Uncle Bob's purchases and Sue's purchases will generate another 10% commission for Aunt Sally, and another override commission for Mom. This process continues, allowing Mom to earn an override commission up to 4 levels deep. Click here for an illustration.

Again, because the sale of actual products are involved, the commission structure is solid. The only way that Mom would stop earning commissions would be if:

A. The company stopped producing products and closed down.
B. Every referral in Mom's matrix quit buying products on their own.
C. Mom terminates her relationship with the company.

Each multi-level marketing business has its own compensation plan. The above is just an example of how an MLM marketing plan can work, to demonstrate the difference between a pyramid scheme and a legitimate network marketing business.

Pyramid schemes have given network marketing companies and their business opportunities a black eye, because they disguise themselves as a multi-level marketing income opportunity, in order to draw people into them.

Here is an example of a so-called one up program, where you pay the company an membership fee, and they promise to do all the recruiting work for you. The first member the company recruits for you pays their fee to the company (your sponsor). The company then promises that you will make 100% commission of the next sale and every other sale that the company makes for you. All you have to do is advertise the web site they give you and some automated system the company has in place, will do the rest for you.

Sounds great... right? WRONG!

The way this scheme really works is that your sponsor aka the company, only recruits at two levels. The first level, where they receive 100% of the money collected, and on the second level, where they also get 100% of the money collected, based on the one up marketing scheme. The company grows wider, not deeper, so everyone on the the first and second levels never see a second sale. They lose their initial investment and spend the rest of their lives waiting for the second sale to come in just to break even. Meanwhile, your the company/ your sponsor makes buckets of money and laughs all the way to the bank. Click here for illustration.

There are plenty of legitimate network marketing business opportunities available, and twice as many schemes. You must do your due dilligence and investigate a company before handing over your money. Find others who are involved in the business and find out if they've made any money. And, stay away from programs which have no product or service for sale. If the only way to generate commissions is from the membership fees paid by others, then you are looking a a pyramid scheme, and you will eventually lose, even if you make a little something out of the gate. Pyramid schemes always fail.

Get Your Book Done … Now!

I don't believe in writer’s block. (I can hear the gasps of disbelief already.) Listen: If you hire a plumber to come to your house and fix a problem, do you expect him to say, "Sorry, I can't figure out what your problem is. I think I have plumber’s block"? Probably not, and if he did, you'd toss him out and call another guy faster than you can say Drano. Not that plumbing can be compared to writing, but if we follow the proper steps to get the job done, I find that writer’s block melts away, the drains are unclogged, and the words start flowing like water from a faucet. But what are these "steps"? Well, a big part of my job as a book marketing specialist is to help people create something they can actually market: a finished book. Many of us have ideas aplenty but not a clue how to get them down on paper.

Unlike other professions, authors operate under a whole different set of rules. We often can't just sit down and pound out a story, and those who do have created their own formula for doing so. We see this huge story with all sorts of directions we want to take it, we see the cover, we see the characters, we see the market potential. Then we see Katie Couric or Oprah smiling and holding up our book for the whole world to see. Then we glance back down at our monitor and see a tormenting blinking cursor and blank screen. And we are again reminded of what a failure we are. We have all these stories and nothing on paper. We are idea generators. We have zillions of them running through our minds, but none of them on paper. Unless you make your money in a think tank, operating this way probably isn't getting you any closer to your goals.

When a project looms before us, it’s like this big elephant -- huge, overwhelming and ready to stomp us flat any minute. There’s an old saying: "How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time." The same is true for writing. You finish a book, one step at a time. But to create these steps, you first have to break down your book into manageable, bite-size pieces. This can be accomplished by creating a TOC (table of contents) that can guide you through the book. My reasoning behind this is as follows: You'd never think of driving from California to New York without a map, right? Well, how can you expect to finish your book without one? Your TOC is your roadmap, guiding you through your book. If your chapters don't have individual headings, then write a 2-3 sentence description of what the chapter encompasses. Don't get too elaborate on this. Remember, it’s not going in your book; it’s just a brief descriptor. Once the TOC is outlined, you'll have a vision of your book from star! t to finish. A few things that creating this TOC will do for you: It will show you any gaps in your story that might need to be fleshed out, and it will give you a sense of completion, of seeing the book or project actually done, and this is a serious psychological turn-on for most authors, because we often live in a world of half-completed projects. Sometimes this step alone can propel an author enough to get their book done, or at the very least give it a darned good kick-start.

Once you've developed your TOC, you'll want to go through it and create a "to do" list. Regardless of what genre your book is, you will always have a to-do list. Whether it’s getting endorsements, doing research, or getting approvals for quotes or excerpts for your book, this to-do list will become yet another item that will help propel your book toward completion.

Once the to-do list is done, set it aside. Now you should have your completed TOC with a vision of the entire book and a growing list of items that will need to be handled for the book to get done. Now the real fun begins.

Some books on writing will tell you to set aside a day or two a week, or an evening here and there to get your book completed. I disagree with this theory, and here’s why: You need to stay dialed into your topic. When I was working on an upcoming book, I would often put the project aside for days or weeks at a time, promising myself to schedule time "as soon as I could." Well, that rarely happened. What I found is that if I set aside some time every day to do something on the book, I got it completed a lot quicker. The more you keep your hands in your project, the more it will stay at the front of your mind and on your radar screen, and the more energy you will invest to finish it. I won't tell you to set aside hours of your time each day -- in fact, you don't even have to set aside an hour. Take 15 minutes, or even five -- whatever your schedule permits. If this seems like a ridiculously short amount of time, consider this: You now have your to-do list and your outlined TOC! . If you are short on time one day, pick a quickie item from your to-do list and get it done. If you have more time, then pound out a chapter or two. The idea behind creating the to-do lists and a TOC is to not only give your project a structure, but to also eliminate any and all excuses for getting it done. Don't feel like writing today? No problem. There’s probably a mountain of research just waiting to be traversed. Get the picture?

But let’s say you can't even get through the TOC. "My book has too many layers," you lament. "Too many back stories, tons of stuff going on. I can't possibly be expected to filter it down into a neat little TOC." Yes, you can, and you must. If your book has no focus, your book will have no focus. It’s as simple as that. But it doesn't stop there -- if your book is all over the place and you do actually manage to get it done, you'll never be able to keep a reader interested because you will be the only one who will get it, and what’s the point of that? What you'll need to do in this case is find the "core" of your book or the focus of your story. Ask yourself this: What’s the one thing this book cannot do without? What’s the one thing this story circles around? That’s your core. If you're still coming up with three or four things that your story circles around, you aren’t focused enough and neither is your book. Find that one thing and build your story or book
around it.

If you follow these steps, your book will get finished quicker than you could have ever imagined. And the once-dreaded writer’s block will go from a stumbling block to a building block.

The Art of UpSelling: Three Tips to Generate More Sales Effortlessly and 3 Ways People Blow It

Here is the good news. The hardest sale you will ever make to a customer is the first one. With the first sale, if you deliver on your promise to the customer, you establish a mutually-beneficial relationship. The customer gets what he or she wants, and you get what you want. Also, once you have received a "yes" commitment from a customer, it's easier to continue the positive pattern of continued "yeses". The customer finds it hard to break the affirmative sequence. You then will have the opportunity to Upsell them.

Upselling refers to when you help a customer decide to buy a little extra or “up-grade” slightly the final purchase. A car dealer, for example, might inform customers at the time of ordering about upholstery protection and undercoating. A shoe salesperson might suggest that when you buy a pair of shoes that you also use some weather protectant spray. These are usually small purchases that the buyer doesn’t have to put a lot of thought into. The bonus is they can be extremely profitable for you as the sales person and for your organization.

Following are three key tips to effectively upsell your customers.

1. Up-sell where it makes sense. Say a customer purchases an e-book from your website. Instead of trying to upsell your customer on a $3,000 seminar, ask if he'd considered purchasing a $97 teleclass that teaches the work from the e-book.

2. Use sales incentives. Once you've received the first sale, offer a discount on the second item. Give the customer a 10% discount off their first teleclass. Sometimes a very small price break is enough to get that extra sale.

3. Identify buying patterns. Take note of how many customers who purchase e-books also buy teleseminars. This kind of information tells you what items to pitch and when. Your grasp of market research will impress potential buyers as well: telling consumers that 90% of the people who buy e-books from you also buy seminars might tip them towards making that extra purchase.

The best part of upselling is that it’s practically effortless. Since it’s done after the customer has decided to go ahead with a major purchase, the hard part of the sales conversation has already been done. You’ve already established rapport, identified needs, summarized, presented benefits, asked for the order and handled objections. Upselling is just presenting the information in a “by-the-way” assumptive manner.

Also, make sure that you include an upsale opportunity in your autoresponder within your shopping cart. For example, someone buys an e-book. In your autoresponder, thank them for their purchase and ask them if they would like to register for the teleclass on the same subject for a discount.

So if it is so easy, you might be asking, how can I go wrong?

The 3 biggest mistakes in upselling:

1. No attempt is made to upsell. I can hear it now as I write this article. “I hate to sell”, “I don’t want to bother people”, and the ever popular “They are probably going to say no”. This upselling business might all sound a bit contrived, but let me introduce another perspective to look from assuming that you only provide top notch products and services that can make your customers life easier and more enjoyable.

If you had information or a product that could help people improve the quality of their life, wouldn’t you actually be doing a disservice to them to not offer it. You would actually be withholding valuable information from them. And here is the thing… they do have the right to say no. AND you are in business. If you don’t offer or ‘sell’ your services or products to prospects, you won’t have a business much longer and then all the people who need you won’t have access to you.

2. The salesperson comes across as being pushy. How can you avoid this? Being assumptive is the key. You’ve got to assume that the customer will naturally want your product or service. Begin the upsell with a brief benefit, and then if possible, add something unique about what you’re selling. To avoid sounding pushy, particularly if the upsell requires some elaboration, ask for the customer’s permission to describe it.

3. The upselling is made in an unconvincing manner so the customer generally refuses. This issue really links back to the objects made in number one, which is you don’t feel comfortable ‘selling’, so you don’t really make an effort. If you believe in your products and services, let the buyer see your passion. If you don’t…it is time to go back to the drawing board.