Article Contributed by Eric Gruber
Do you ever find yourself staring at a blank screen or a blank sheet of paper when you’re supposed to be writing articles for your blog, for your ezine or newsletter and for article submission so you can promote your books, products or services?
How would you like to find ways to tap into a limitless supply of article ideas?
Yes, our imaginations run thin every now and then, and no, it isn’t easy to come up with article ideas sometimes. But, I promise you that there are ways to tap into a limitless supply of article ideas. No matter what your expertise lies in, you can always generate new and interesting ideas for articles IF you follow these guidelines…
5 Ways to Never Run Out of Article Ideas
1) Get inspiration from magazines covers.
Find a magazine that is as close as you can get to your niche and look at the titles on the magazine cover. Look at the titles that jump out at you and make you say, “That looks like it would be a good article–I want to read that!”
Many times you can bounce an article off of a title you see on a magazine cover. Can you convert that title to apply to something in your specific niche?
Now, notice I’m saying, “find a magazine that is somewhat in your niche.” Many of us have websites that are in niches that do not have their own magazines. For example, there is no magazine that I know of about Article Marketing.
But I sashay a short distance from my specific niche and look in related niches, such as Writing, Creativity, Productivity, and possibly even SEO. These are all issues that lie at the heart of article marketing, so they work as inspiration launching pads.
2) Don’t forget about the newbies.
When we’re writing on our area of expertise, sometimes we can overlook the obvious. We want to write helpful, educational articles, and our minds quite often go to topics that are more advanced.
Have you ever considered that someone reading your article might not even understand the basics of what you’re talking about?
I have to remind myself of this all the time–not everyone knows what article marketing is, and not everyone even knows the reasons why it’s a popular online marketing tool.
Could the same thing be true in your niche?
Think about it–although our articles are not sales oriented or promotional in any way, when we educate our readers on some aspect of our niche, we are increasing the likelihood that they will one day be our customers.
So, don’t forget about the newbies who are in your target market but aren’t knowledgeable about what you do. Try to think back to questions you had when you were first starting out. Think about what confused you. Think about the very basic things that you wish someone had explained to you before you became the expert.
3) Think about: “What are the 10 questions that my customers (or potential customers) most frequently ask me?”
Write those questions down and address each one of them in a separate article.
By completing this writing exercise, you’re letting your target market tell you what to write about. This makes perfect sense since you’re trying to appeal to them anyway.
4) Use template titles and fill in the blanks.
Here are some of mine:
* 10 Great Reasons Why ____
* How To ____ in 7 Easy Steps
* 3 Secret Tricks For _____
* How To Conquer ______
* The Top 10 Mistakes People Make When ____
* Reader Question: “[insert question here]”
You may notice that these titles are all List articles (any article that has a 1,2,3 etc list in it), How-To articles, and Question articles (articles that answer a question that is stated in the title).
These are my go-to article topic stimulators. Just seeing the format for the title gets the wheels of my brain moving (which helps creativity!)
Try filling in the blanks for the template titles listed above, and I bet you can come up with a compelling title to base a new article on.
5) Use Instant Article Writing Templates
You want to model proven article writing formats, such as those found in my Instant Article Writing Templates Kit. I did the hard work for you and identified more than 40 different formulas that will help you write your articles in 30 minutes or less – even if you think you can’t write articles.
Here are some of the article-writing templates that will help you…
* Myth Buster
* Top 10…
* How-To…
* Quiz
* Failure to Success
* Timeline
* 7 Things You Need
* What’s Hot, What’s Not
* 3 Stages
* Problem/Solution
* Differentiate Yourself – this template made PR Leads more than $10,000
* Plus many, many more
By following the five strategies above, you will:
· Gain the confidence to write articles whenever you want
· Banish writer’s block forever
· Remove all the frustration out of writing articles
· Develop ALL THE CONTENT you will ever need for your website, for your blog, for your newsletter and for article submission
So, are you ready to start writing your articles faster so you can get maximum exposure for your books, products and services?
About the Author
Article Marketing Expert Eric Gruber uses the power of articles to create online opportunities for Internet marketers, small business owners, authors, entrepreneurs and speakers who want more publicity, prospects and profits. Now, you can get his instant article writing templates that will help you write your articles in 30 minutes or less. Get 3 of his favorite article writing templates for free at: http://www.TryMyFreeArticleTemplates.com
Category: Online Business
Members of my Easy Office Organization program and my private clients know that I’m a die-hard Outlook fan. I’ve tried many email and contact management systems over the years, but keep coming back to this one tool. Why?
Because it does everything that I could possibly need in order to effectively run my business. It’s my:
* Email manager
* Contact manager
* Calendar planner
* Task scheduler
* Notes space
In short, it’s my command central for running my business.
If you’re not fully utilizing Outlook, in other words if you’re only using it for email management and nothing else, then today I’d like to share with you five ways in which you can utilize Outlook to effectively run your business too:
1. Create email templates
If you find yourself sending the same email more than once then it’s time to take that email and create an Outlook template, which is simply your email saved in the special Outlook templates folder. This saves you time as next time you need to send the same email you simply retrieve it from the templates folder; ‘tweak’ as needed, and hit ‘send’. Some examples of what you can create templates for are:
* Thank you for requesting more information
* Confirmation of an appointment
* Requesting a client testimonial
2. Set up recurring tasks
This is a great way to build into your schedule those tasks that you do on a regular basis, such as:
* writing your ezine article
* updating your bookkeeping system
* submitting your articles
* or any other regular task
When you create a new Task, simply set it up to recur automatically and next time that particular task is due it will pop up in your task list – reminding you. What a great way to automate your To Do list!
3. Create reminders for follow-up appointments
By creating reminders for follow-up appointments you’ll never miss important deadlines again. There are two ways I utilize Outlook to create reminders for me to follow up with clients & contacts. The first is by right-clicking on the item and choosing Followup from the menu; and the second is to create a task and specify the date the task needs to be completed by. Either way works well.
4. Create Post-It Notes
The Notes feature in Outlook is the same as using the sticky post-it notes, so rather than have them stuck all over my desk I simply utilize Outlook’s Notes feature in the same way, and have them stored in one place in my Notes folder.
Use notes to jot down questions, ideas, reminders, and anything you would write on a sticky note or note paper. You can leave notes open on the screen while you work. This is especially useful when you’re using notes for storing bits of information you may need later, such as directions or text you want to reuse in other items or documents.
5. Create Rules/Folders for filtering emails
This is probably the single most used feature in Outlook for me – having the ability to create rules to handle my incoming emails. By creating rules in Outlook you can filter and sort your email automatically as it comes into your Inbox. For example you can set up your rules to tell Outlook that if you receive an email from Client A automatically put this email in Client A’s Inbox folder – what a huge timesaver!
So now you know how you can use Outlook to effectively manage your business, increase your productivity, and save you time, what’s stopping you?
Article Contributed by By Eric Gruber
The whole point to article marketing is to put your business on autopilot. You want to get your articles published on top websites, ezines and article directories that direct traffic to your website. You want to be able to capture prospect’s names and email addresses so you can promote to them over and over again without lifting a finger.
Now, the problem is most people have greatly increased their website traffic with articles, but they have NOTHING to show for it. No one is signing up for their newsletters. No one is buying anything. And, the prospects are lost forever.
It does NOT matter how much traffic you get from articles, if your website doesn’t convert.
Why Your Website Isn’t Converting
Most article marketers link to their homepage in the bio box. This home page has a small little newsletter sign up box in the corner that is so hard to find. There are times that you need a magnifying glass to find the newsletter opt-in box mixed up in all the clutter.
The page itself has so many links and calls-to-action that it confuses prospects that are at your site to receive a free newsletter, special report, ebook or whatever your offering is. Confused prospects become frustrated prospects who leave your site and are never to be found again. That’s why you need a focused squeeze page.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term squeeze page, it is a web page that is specifically designed to compel visitors to opt in to your list. A well-designed squeeze page can convert as many as half of the people who visit it, into opt-in email list subscribers.
How to Make Squeeze Pages Work for You
In order for the squeeze page to be able to do its work most effectively, there must be no other way for the visitor to get into your web site without opting in first to your opt in email list.
For example, check out:
http://www.TryMyFreeArticleTemplates.com
http://www.RestrainingOrder911.com
Notice to get to any of the other pages in the website above, including the sales pages, you must have to opt in to an email list first.
Now, you may be thinking, but what about all the others that didn’t opt in to the list? What if they would have bought something from me?
Well, let me ask you this. If they don’t trust you enough to opt-in to your list, to give you their name and email address in exchange for a free gift, do you really think that that person is going to whip out their credit card and give you their credit card number? Of course not!
Proof That Squeeze Pages Work
Now, the current conversion rate on the Restraining Order 911 sales letter since putting up a squeeze page is 20%. Before he created a squeeze page and auto-responder system that would continually educate his list and promote his product, Ron Lasorsa’s conversion rate was around 1%. So with my help, Ron has created a 2000% increase in revenue by sending his article marketing, video marketing, social media marketing and pay-per-click advertising traffic to a squeeze page.
Don’t you think it’s time that you setup a squeeze page to send your article traffic to? If so, check out my free video on squeeze pages at: http://www.livewebsitereviews.com/youtube
About the Author
Article Marketing Expert Eric Gruber uses the power of articles to create online opportunities for Internet marketers, small business owners and entrepreneurs who want more publicity, prospects and profits. Now, he invites you to check out his squeeze page – and in return for your name and email address Eric will send you 3 of his favorite article writing templates. Claim your free instant article writing templates at http://www.trymyfreearticlewritingtemplates.com
Time for your best Dr. Evil voice… Why? Because YouTube is now streaming ONE BILLION videos per DAY! Want a piece of that incredible audience? Here are 5 easy ways to get a video on YouTube fast…
1. YouTube “Quick Capture!” – Just below the “upload” button on YouTube is the cleverly hidden “quick capture” function, which allows you to record your video “live” and on the fly with just your webcam. Give it a try!
2. Quick Flip – If you’ve got a Flip Video camera (get one at www.GetYourFlip.com), then uploading to YouTube is as simple as plugging the Flip into your computer. Flip gives you a direct upload button for one click posting.
3. Phone it in – If you’re an iPhone 3G owner, you’re in luck. The new iPhone with video not only lets you record video, it gives you the option to send your mobile video directly to YouTube – again with one click convenience.
4. Go Mobile – Even if you don’t have an iPhone, you can still send video to YouTube right from your mobile phone. Just look for the “Upload from Mobile” button, and YT will provide you with a custom address you can use to “call your video in!”
5. Animoto Mojo – With Animoto.com, you don’t even need a video camera to get a video on YouTube! Just upload some photos or text, select some music that Animoto provides, and the website mixes a slick video ready for YouTube.
So there are 5 easy ways to get in on the Online Video Revolution, and begin to market and promote your business to GAZILLIONS of viewers! Want someone to do it for you? Then be sure to check out my new, soooo easy solution at http://www.Good2GoVideo.com! See you online!http://www.Good2GoVideo.com
About the Author
Lou Bortone is an award-winning writer and video producer with over 20 years experience in marketing, branding and promotion. As an online video expert, Lou helps entrepreneurs create video for the web at www.TheOnlineVideoGuy.com. In addition, Lou works as a freelance writer and professional ghostwriter, with a ghostwriting site at www.GhostwriteForYou.com and a blog at www.GhostwriteGuru.com.
Attention is mediated by a structure in our brains known as the reticular activating system. The reticular activating system (RAS) extends from the brainstem to the midbrain and is the primary controller of arousal and motivation in humans.
The RAS has afferent and efferent pathways, which means it sends data up the brain, and transmits data down the brain.
When sending information up the brain, it is functioning as a processing pathway. When sending information down the brain, it is driving action and behavior.
As the social media space becomes noisier and more crowded, getting attention is going to be more of a challenge.
The best way to get attention is to be relevant.
Adults focus almost exclusively on messages and information which will help them reach important goals, or which are immediately applicable to their current life or career situation.
The best way to get attention is to provide content and information which helps your viewers, visitors, or listeners make a behavioral change.
Whether you want them to start doing something, or to stop doing something, the more you can gain their attention, provide relevant and compelling content, and then make a recommendation for them, the easier it will be to create behavioral change.
And when you’ve been able to create behavioral change- whether it be in the way a person thinks, feels, or acts- you have gained influence with that person, and they are going to see you as much more relevant from then on.
Then your only goal is to remain relevant, which you can do by continuing to share powerful and useful information.
And so on.
Dr. Rachna Jain is Chief Social Marketer at The Mindshare Corporation. Rachna works with speakers, consultants, authors, and small business owners to develop and execute effective social media marketing strategies. Her proprietary persuasive social media process (sm) focuses on building influence, credibility and visibility online. This translates into greater recognition, increased website traffic, faster lead generation, a shorter sales cycle, and more opportunity for her expert clientele. She blogs regularly at The Mindshare Blog