You’ve probably heard that commenting on other people’s blogs is a good thing to do. But do you know why it’s so important?
Yes, it can get you traffic. People see your blog comment, like it, and click on your name to go to your website. But that’s not the biggest reason to comment on blogs.
Leaving blog comments might also give you backlinks, which could potentially increase your standing in the natural search results. But again, this isn’t the biggest reason to leave comments on other people’s blog posts.
Leaving blog comments also gets you seen by others in your niche. Leave enough great comments and people might start to remember you and your brand.
But again, that’s not the biggest benefit to leaving well-thought-out, interesting blog comments.
The biggest benefit? Whether you realize it or not, consistent blog commenting builds relationships with other bloggers.
Think about it – you go to Joe’s blog once a week and leave a well-thought out comment on Joe’s latest post. Joe keeps noticing you, and pretty soon the two of you are building a relationship that can eventually lead to:
Guest posts
Product endorsements
Joint ventures
Introductions to other movers in your niche
And so forth…
Here’s how to be effective at blog commenting:
Post on blogs in your particular nicheRead the entire post thoroughly before commenting
Share your specific thoughts and opinions
Don’t be general or vague. “Nice post” doesn’t cut it
Use a great avatar – a photo of your smiling face is usually best
Use your real name, not “Mary6504”
Never be rude and never be mean
Be genuine and thought-provoking – Add value to the conversation
Use Google Alerts to be alerted to new posts so you can be one of the first to comment – more readers will see your comment this way
Subscribe to RSS feeds and to email lists of your favorite bloggers – again, this helps to alert you when someone makes a new post
If you’re not the first to leave a blog comment, then scan the other comments to make sure you’re not repeating a thought or comment
Use personal stories where applicable
Quote the post itself in your comment – for example, “When you said ____ it gave me a great idea”
It’s okay to disagree if you do it in a way that totally respects the blogger’s opinions and thoughts
Ask questions of the blog owner. This will get you more engagement and shows you’re interested in their opinion – very effective for relationship building.
Always double proofread your comment for spelling and punctuation before submitting
And remember to be patient – you don’t develop a relationship with a blogger over one blog comment. Continue to come back and comment on new posts and you will gradually build real relationships with these bloggers.
Once an online marketer gets to a certain income level, that marketer almost invariably gets stuck. They can’t seem to make any more money, even when they pour more and more of their time into their business. Why? Because they are working IN their business rather than ON their business.
That’s why it’s so important to begin outsourcing as soon as you can afford to, which is actually a whole lot sooner than you probably think. If you believe you need to be bringing in a hefty six figure sum before you can get yourself some help, think again.
The fact is, the sooner you begin outsourcing some of the more mundane and time consuming facets of your business, the sooner you can begin growing your business in a truly substantial way.
You’ve only got a fixed number of hours in the week. Do you spend them doing:
A: The tasks you don’t like to do B: The tasks you don’t mind doing, but they could easily be done by someone else C: The tasks that you’re brilliant at doing and that you enjoy performing D: Planning and strategizing to take your business to the next level
Obviously you want to delegate A and B as fast as possible so you can focus on C and D.
Are you doing your own support? Are you answering your own emails and phone? Is it taking your entire morning just to do support, answer emails and so forth?
Next question: Exactly how much do you earn each time you work your own support desk or answer your own emails and phone? What’s that? Nothing? Maybe it’s time you hired someone to do it for you.
In fact, if you do it correctly, hiring someone to perform your support tasks for you can pay off from day one.
That’s because it frees you up to do the things that MAKE YOU MONEY.
Ah-hah! Imagine that – devoting nearly ALL of your working time to those tasks that make money, rather than doing support.
In the military there are two distinct areas of operation: Front line and support. The front line wins the battles while the support does just that – support those who are out there winning the battles.
In sports, you’ve got offense and defense. The defense is crucial for stopping the other team from scoring, but they generally DON’T SCORE any points themselves. The offense does that. If you’re spending all of your time on defense (answering emails) then you’re not devoting any time to offense (making sales.)
Here’s how to hand the bulk of your email tasks off to your new assistant: If you don’t already have a private email address, create one. This is the address you give to JV partners, fellow marketers and your mother. The people who matter most to your business and your personal life.
Once a day you check this address and answer these emails personally.
Everything else – EVERYTHING else – goes to your support address or support desk where your support person checks it daily or even several times a day.
This includes payments, autoresponder emails, hosting emails, questions from customers, complaints, testimonials, affiliate requests, etc.
Your support person has access to your accounts, too. Your hosting account, autoresponder account, PayPal account, etc. I know – it seems like a big leap of faith to give access to your PayPal account to someone else, but no worries. You can limit the PayPal functions your support person has access to. For example, they can issue refunds but not withdraw funds.
Your support person or team is basically going to run the day to day operation of your business for you.
When training your support staff, you can write out step by step procedures on how to do things, record videos or audios, or simply have them contact you when something comes up they haven’t handled before. In other words, there is a learning curve. But after the first week you shouldn’t have to spend much more time on training, especially if you’ve got the right person for the job.
You can also have your support person or team do all those other things you don’t like to do such as analyze stats, clean email lists, install websites, social media, etc. Whatever it is that you prefer to hand off, go ahead and do it.
If you hire someone for 2 hours a day, that frees up 2 hours of your own time. If you pay them $12 an hour, that’s $480 a month – quite possibly more than you currently pay for programs and how to info.
And it’s 40 hours per month that you’ve just gained. Imagine if you use that 40 hours each month to create and market a new product – that’s 12 new products in a year. If each product were to make you just $3,000 initially, and then just another $500 a month – well, you do the math.
If you’re still hesitating, then think about this: If you strike a deal with your support person to pay them monthly, then you’ve got 30 days to use your new found time to make more than enough money to cover them for the first month.
30 days and 40 new found hours. But that’s not even the biggest benefit of bringing someone in to help you with your business.
The biggest benefit of all is what it will do for your mindset, because suddenly you ARE a business person. There’s no more wondering if you’re just dabbling in a hobby. This stuff is REAL and you are now responsible for someone else’s income. This is the motivator that will kick you out of bed each morning and ensure you have a productive, successful day.
Use one of the freelance sites to find someone. Yes, it’s going to feel like a big step, because it is. A big step in the right direction, that is. Because the rewards are going to prove that it was totally worth it to take this next, logical step in your business evolution.
Two things are surprising about the technique I’m about to teach you for selling affiliate products…
First, it’s surprisingly easy. In fact, it’s so simple you might be tempted to dismiss it. Don’t. This method has been proven effective and it’s one you definitely want to put in your marketing arsenal.
Second, while it doesn’t take much time, it can be a real money maker. In fact, if you choose an affiliate product that pays instantly and if you have a traffic source (such as your own list, social media, etc.) then you can potentially put money in your pocket in less than 3 hours.
Here’s how it works: Choose an affiliate product you like. It needs to be one that you have, one that you can get from the seller for free, or one you buy. Regardless, you must have a copy of it yourself. Also, it’s better if it’s a product you personally like and use, although that’s not required.
Read the sales letter carefully and choose the biggest benefit. This might be in the headline or it could be in the bullet points.
Write a short report – 5 pages is fine, 10 pages is super and you don’t want to go any longer than that. In the report, detail how to do this one technique that you’ve pulled out of the product that provides this benefit. For example, how to get 10,000 visitors a month to your blog would be a good benefit.
If you don’t want to write the report, outsource it.
Create a squeeze page and use this big benefit as your title. “How To Get 10,000 Visitors a Month To Your Blog.”
Once they enter their email address and press the opt-in button, they are redirected to your affiliate page for the product. Not many will buy at this point, but it’s important that they see the page.
At the end of the report, send them back to that affiliate sales page. You might write something like this: “I hope you put this into action, but if you’d like to take a massive shortcut and reduce the time it takes to get 10,000 visitors a month to your website, then click here to get the complete fast-track system.”
Use your own wording. Your message is that what you just taught them works, but to do it quickly without the trial and error and mistakes, they can simply get the fast track system because it’s so much easier and faster. Plus they get tons of other benefits, too.
So what you’re doing here is building a list, giving them real value and then immediately marketing to that list the exact benefit they’re looking for. Plus of course you can follow up with those that don’t initially buy, plus you can also market other products to them in the future.
Once you get good at this, it shouldn’t take you more than 3 hours to set up and you can use your system for as long as you like. Send website visitors to it, tell your lists, offer your free report on social media, buy ads, etc.
Does it sound too easy? Often times it’s the simple techniques that create the biggest results. Making a couple of thousand dollars on each one of these systems that you set up is not unheard of. And depending on how much traffic you send and the product you choose, it could be even more.
And if you like, you can outsource the entire thing for a reasonable fee. Imagine if you just set one of these up a week. It might not be glamorous, but the path to wealth and riches is frequently a simple process applied consistently. The method described above can be your path to financial freedom.
Derived from the German language, ‘doppelganger’ roughly translates to “ghostly double,” or someone who nearly or completely resembles another but has no biological relation. When we choose a business partner, we often look for someone who is just like us – someone with the same ideas, same interests, same skills and so forth.
www.homebusinessideas.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/doppelganger.jpg” alt=”To Make More Money, Partner with Your Anti-Doppelganger”>
But that’s just a marketing doppelganger and not the person you want to partner with at all. What’s the point in having two of yourself? There’s no added benefit, yet now you’re splitting the profits.
Instead, partner with your anti-doppelganger, the person who isn’t like you but instead brings complimentary skills and viewpoints to the business.
For example, if you’re really good at creating content but bad at the technical stuff, find someone who’s great at everything technical but isn’t a writer. If you’re great at setting up joint ventures and writing sales copy but you hate creating products, partner with someone who’s a product creating wiz.
If you find the right partner, you can make far more money than you can alone. But you’ve got to partner with someone who fills in your gaps and can do what you can’t.
And having differing opinions isn’t a bad thing, either. Instead of blindly plunging ahead when you assume you’re right, you’ll now have to justify your plan to your partner. It’s during this process that you’re far more likely to find the holes and prevent the mistakes. Plus you’ve got a second head to problem solve and to look for opportunities.
Do you see how powerful it can be to find the right person as your partner? And not only do you each fill in the gaps of the other, but there are added benefits as well.
For one, courage. When you’re going it alone, it can be scary to launch a new product. Is this the right time? Did you get everything set up correctly? Will it work? Will it SELL? But when there are two of you to succeed or fail, you know you’re not in it alone.
Another reason: Two heads are better than one, and also more available than one. You have an emergency and have to take a day off – who’s going to cover for you? Your partner. And when you have a problem or need a new idea, it’s guaranteed the 2 of you can generate 3 times as many ideas as either one of you alone.
Yet another reason: You’ll stretch yourself to keep up with your partner. He has a lot of experience in building software solutions and you don’t so what happens? You’re in the software business with a capable partner. You know how to create online events that bring thousands of people and she doesn’t? She’s learning a new skill just by being your partner.
So do you have to partner on everything? Of course not. You can have your own business, your partner can have her own business and then you create a third, separate business in which the two of you share equally in the work and in the profits.
This way you’ve got the best of both worlds: Doing your own thing in your own business and blazing new trails with a trusted partner.
One last thing – your partner does not have to be in your hometown. Plenty of online partnerships have enjoyed success across the country and across the world. In fact, there is an advantage to having a partner on the other side of the world and it’s this: They’re available to put out any fires while you’re asleep, and vice-a-versa. Not to mention your company will have much more of a world perspective when it comes to creating and marketing new products, which is always an advantage.
Keep your eyes open – your future business partner might be someone you already know, or it could be the person you’re about to meet. You never can tell when opportunity will knock.
The easiest way to go full time is to BE full time. That is, quit your daytime go-to-work type job and begin working full time online. When you’re full time online you’ll discover opportunities that otherwise would have passed you by. And you’ll be able to create a lot more opportunities as well, by having the time to forge relationships with other marketers, time to work on your own social media, blog posts and products and so forth.
But the problem for many is their online business isn’t making enough money yet to enable them to leave their job. And until they leave their job they won’t have the time to grow their business into a full time income. It’s a catch-22 situation that holds a lot of marketers hostage for years.
So how can you get some extra money coming in immediately? By offering services online. When you offer a service, it’s fairly easy to get clients and get paid. You typically won’t make a fortune, but you can make enough to replace your income from your job. And then you can use your extra time to create your own products, build your own sites and so forth.
Here’s a list of services you could offer:
Being a personal assistant to another marketer. This job is doubly great, because you’ll also learn as you earn. You’ll need a good variety of skills to land a VA position, but never underestimate the power of Google, either. Anything you’re required to do but don’t know how can be found on Google and YouTube.
Freelance customer service. Many marketers don’t want to hassle with support tickets, but they can’t afford to hire someone full time, either, because their own business isn’t big enough yet. Offer to do support 1 hour per day, 5 or 6 days per week for $10-$20 per hour. Get 3 clients and you have a nice little side income. And best of all, you can do these support tasks as you have time throughout the day from the comfort of your computer or even your mobile device.
Writing. This could be anything from simple articles and emails to full blown product creation. Content is hugely important and every marketer needs more great content. If you can write in a conversational manner and do good research, you can make money freelance writing. You might even ghost write books, too.
Copywriting. This is a little trickier than simple writing, in that your job is to sell with the written or spoken word. However, it can pay quite well if you’re good, and copywriting is a skill you’ll need to hone for your own business anyway.
Proofreading and editing. If you have an eye for details, you can be a proofreader. If you’re good at taking rough copy and turning it into something coherent that flows well and makes sense, then editing is for you.
Ebook formatting. Getting a book ready for Kindle or even to make into a sharp looking PDF takes skill. Can you do it? Then there are tons of marketers who need you.
Graphic design. Are you good at Photoshop? Can you make headers, product covers, logos and so forth? Then this is a great way to make some extra money.
Website design, maintenance, security, SEO and so forth. In other words, anything and everything technical. If you’re good at the technical side of online marketing, you’ll always have work because the majority of marketers really don’t want to bother with it – they’d rather hand the work over to an expert such as yourself.
And anything else an online marketer needs…
In the course of building your own business, make a note of the many things you’re having to do. Ask yourself, “is there a market for this service? Do I enjoy performing this service?” If so, then you’ve got a skill you can sell to others to make ends meet until your own business is running full steam ahead.
Do you have domain names sitting around idle? Maybe you bought them with the intention of doing something in particular, but you just haven’t gotten around to it yet.
Here’s a cool idea: List them for sale on sedo.com and then forget about them until one of two things happen…
You decide to use them or…
… you get an email from Sedo from someone who is offering to buy one of your domain names.
You never know if or when this might happen, but why not at least give it a shot? One marketer I know of did this with his domains. Six months later, he got an email from Sedo saying someone was offering $100 for one of his domains. He wasn’t interested in taking such a low offer, so he countered with $2,000 just to see what would happen.
The buyer countered with $300, he countered with $1800, and several emails and counteroffers later he sold it for $950. Not bad for a $9 investment. Sedo took a cut and he got the rest.
And while he did have plans for that domain name, he figures he can just choose a different but similar name when the time comes – no big deal.
There’s no guarantee you’ll sell your domains this way, or that if you do, you’ll make a lot of money. But as you know, domains have sometimes sold for ridiculous amounts. There’s no harm or fee for listing your domains, so why not give it a shot and see what happens? You’ve got nothing to lose and potentially a nice fat return for trying it.
Plus, if you’re creative and do some market research on hot topics and keywords, you could potentially start registering new and marketable domains that have a high chance of selling when you list them in a domain marketplace like Sedo, and turn this strategy into a full-time business. Some people are already doing this now… Why not you too?
You might be thinking that you are not qualified to coach anybody on anything. After all, what kind of an expert are you to be telling others how to run their business or their life, right? Actually, the odds are you couldn’t be more wrong. I’ll show you WHY and HOW…
When we think of coaching, we think of it on a grand scale. For example, helping someone to turn their entire life around, or to start and run a brand new business from scratch.
But those are just two types of coaching and not what we’ll be talking about here.
When you get into online marketing, what is one of the first pieces of advice that you receive? To choose a particular niche, and then narrow that niche down to a profitable target market you can help.
Coaching can work the same way. Instead of trying to be all things to all people, or to teach someone every facet and nuance of starting a business from scratch, why not coach them on that one thing you are very, very good at?
Maybe you’re excellent at writing, or at getting ghost writing assignments. Maybe you are terrific at website building, or at SEO, or at getting traffic.
Or maybe your specialty has nothing to do with online marketing, but instead you are a master at meditation, or organizing your life, or at prioritizing or dealing with ADHD. There are infinite possibilities. And if you think about it for just a moment, you will realize that you are really, really good at a certain something that others want to learn.
It’s by getting so specific that you can become a very successful coach starting right now.
Maybe you are a master at deciphering a holy book. Or you are amazing at helping people over 50 lose weight and get fit. Maybe you’re terrific at helping people find their sense of direction in life and discovering what they are meant to do. Or perhaps you can help someone present their business in a way that makes it stand apart from all others. The list is endless.
What skills do you have? Do you want to share them with others? Would you enjoy honing those skills even more as you teach them? Because when you become a coach, a side benefit is you become even more skilled and proficient on your subject. You get better and better at teaching it. And thus you can charge more and more as you progress and as you get positive testimonials from your clients.
Getting back to the online marketing realm, forget about trying to coach a new marketer into building their 6 figure business and instead focus on just one aspect, such as adding 1,000 subscribers a week to their list, or on creating amazing content, or on using social media to become a star in their niche.
There are tremendous gaps in the coaching realm, and if you can fill one of those gaps you can get more clients than you can even handle.
To do: Once you have chosen your coaching niche, you might create a simple information product on the topic that sells for a low price of perhaps $10 or $25. Then offer your coaching as the upsell.
Write guest posts and do interviews to talk about your specialty. Give lots of good info, but make it clear that if they don’t want to go it alone, you can coach them, too. Spread the word and those folks who need your coaching will step up to claim a spot before they all disappear.
Since the actual coaching can be done through Skype and email, you can coach anyone anywhere in the world.
And once you get really good at teaching your specialty, then you can create a big ticket course that teaches everything you would teach a coaching client. You can then sell this course for $100 to $1,000 as a alternative to your coaching services.
Don’t dismiss this concept thinking that you have nothing to offer. Worse case scenario, you might need to bone up on your skill before you start coaching. But one week of concentrated study can make you more of an expert on your topic than 99.9% of the people on the planet.
You can do this. You can become a coach. And it’s as simple as doing what every good marketer does – finding your specialty that appeals to a small but zealous segment of the market who want what you offer.
