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| Posted: 27 Feb 2011 08:49 AM PST Delta Airlines offers Wi-Fi internet connectivity on most of its domestic daily flights in partnership with Gogo Inflight Internet access. Gogo Inflight Internet connection speed is just like the one you get with most wireless mobile broadband services on the ground. You can get online as soon as your flight captain gives the okay to [...] Those who liked this article, also read these:
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“Two Six Figure Strategies to Help You with Your Next Product Launch” plus 1 more |  |
| Two Six Figure Strategies to Help You with Your Next Product Launch Posted: 26 Feb 2011 06:32 PM PST Earlier in the week I wrote a post about two factors that played a significant part in the growing of my own blogging business over the last 2 years.
I mentioned Jeff Walker’s Product Launch Formula (PLF) in that previous post and recommended you check out some videos that he’s recently released (as well as a free report that gives a great blueprint overview of how to release products). Today I want to share a couple of strategies that I use today that I learned from Jeff’s PLF that have been a part of my own recent success. I’d estimate that together they’ve been well over ‘six figure’ lessons. 1. Using Events to launch ProductsOne of the key elements of Jeff’s teaching is that he gets you to think about the launches of your products as ‘events’. This concepts has become increasingly important to me in my own product launches but also in some of the affiliate marketing that I’ve done. One of the best examples of this from my own last 12 months as the 12 days of Christmas promotion we ran on my photography blog. Simply by thinking about it as a 12 day event helped a lot both in terms of my own planning and execution of the event – but also in terms of how it was received by readers. I was very nervous at the start of the promotion that readers would become sick of it – but framing it as a 12 day event connected with people – we even had readers emailing us asking where our daily promotional emails were if we ran a little behind schedule. Effectively what we try to do now with our ebook launches is take people on a journey rather than send them a series of ‘buy my eBook’ type emails. 2. Perpetual Product LaunchesLaunching a product (whether it be an eBook, a course, a piece of software or something else) is a big effort. Typically now when we release an eBook at dPS we do so over a 2-3 week period (1 week of prelaunch stuff and then two weeks for the launch event). However once the initial launch is over many bloggers then move onto developing their next product and preparing for that launch. Business tends to revolve around a series of events – spiking in revenue along the way. This is how things were for me for a while – but in doing the Product Launch Formula teaching I came across the idea of the ‘Perpetual Product Launch’. This is where you effectively launch a product to a segment of your readers every single day. An example of this is my first photography eBook – the Essential Guide to Portrait Photography which I initially launched almost 2 years ago with a big launch. After that initial launch sales dried up to a trickle. So I decided to experiment with a perpetual launch and added to the auto responder sequence that I’d already developed for the site an email to new subscribers that would go out about 7 days after they subscribed offering them the same discount that we offered during the initial launch of the eBook. The email is not very ‘salsey’ – it simply thanks the person for subscribing, introduces the eBook and tells the story of its initial launch at 25% discount and passes that same discount on to readers with a limited time offer. Every day this email goes out to a segment of new readers automatically and every day it generates numerous sales. While the daily sales are nothing like our initial product launch – over time they’ll exceed that product launch’s total sales numerous times over. So without the concept of perpetual product launches I’d have been leaving significant money on the table. Grab the Product Launch Formula Blueprint TodayThese are just two of many strategies that Jeff teaches. There are many more (so many that I’ve not even implementing them all yet). To get an overview of his launch strategy Jeff’s put together the ‘Product Launch Blueprint‘ – a PDF report accompanied by a 45 minute video walking you through it. It walks you through many of the strategies that Jeff teaches in the full PLF course and whether you go on to do the course or not it’s going to give you ideas that will translate into increased success with your own product launches. The cost of this report is simply your email address which will put you onto Jeff’s list to receive further teaching videos (and which you can unsubscribe from any time). Grab the report here today. Post from: ProBlogger Blog Tips Two Six Figure Strategies to Help You with Your Next Product Launch |
| Accepting the Blogger’s Social Responsibility Posted: 26 Feb 2011 05:03 AM PST This is a guest post by Bryan Cassidy of Endless Bucket List. On a daily basis we bloggers are bombarded posts about so-called unique methods of making money, getting new advertisement opportunities, and how to increase revenue streams. It becomes so deeply ingrained in our minds that the end goal, if we care about monetizing our blog, is to become the next millionaire blogger. For some of us, blogging is our job so we truly need the revenue. But based on the inherent characteristic that bloggers enjoy helping each other, shouldn’t we bloggers have a social responsibility to give back to society? Darren mentions the five "Cs" of blogging include content, community, points of connection, cash, and contributing something of value to the world and the blogosphere. As blogging allows us to easily share ideas and connect with individuals around the world, we shouldn’t be relying on corporations and philanthropists to help those in need. Proactive or passive?Bloggers can be classified in two groups when it comes to giving back to society: we’re either proactive or passive. A proactive blogger will more than likely actively assist charities by offering direct assistance. An example would be Darren’s travels in Tanzania with a charity to assist with a project and capture the story. A passive blogger is more likely to place a widget on their blog sidebar, enabling a reader to navigate to a third-party site to make a donation if they feel inclined. It truly doesn’t matter what group you fall into, as both provide human or monetary resources to a specific cause. I personally feel that bloggers should try to move into the proactive group, as the conversion rate for a charity or non-profit button will most likely be lower than what you can achieve by proactively giving back to society. Six ways you can give back, starting todayI’m not talking about posting helpful information on a blog as being your gift to society. I personally can’t recall anyone in world history who has mentioned helpful information that has changed society without specific action by someone else. What I’m talking about here is donating monetary resources to a charity in desperate need, donating your own time to personally help a charity, donating technical skills to help promote a charity, or helping educate those who cannot attend a place of learning. While ideas and information may spur innovation to help in the long run, sometimes direct contribution can be the better solution for immediate impact. Here are a few ideas on how you can start to give back on your blog; 1. Donate a percentage of revenue (e.g. affiliate revenue, ebook sales, etc.) to a specific cause. Finding a correlation between your niche and a charityNow don’t get me wrong: I personally feel that a donation to any charity, even if it doesn’t directly tie to your blog, is a good thing for society. But we are taught to keep our blog ideas tied tightly together, and a blogger should be able to look at the overall mission of their blog and identify a possible opportunity to “pay it forward” to society. Once you start looking, it’s not difficult to find a cause that aligns with your blog’s niche. Here are a few examples. A couple that blog about renovating their house at Young House Love donate surplus children’s toys and clothes to Goodwill and almost every piece of furniture, lighting, cabinetry, door, window, and fan to the Habitat For Humanity ReStore. Matador Network, an international travel magazine blog, is a member of the 1% Of The Planet charity, which asks its members to donate 1% of their sales revenue to the natural environment. My own site, where my partner and I blog about our bucket list journey and inspire others to start their own list, donates a percentage of affiliate revenue to the Make-A-Wish Foundation to for children with life-threatening medical conditions. Can my actions make a difference? |
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| How do I Connect to Internet when Traveling ? Posted: 25 Feb 2011 12:27 PM PST A laptop connect card will allow you to access the internet on your laptop while on the go, anywhere. Mobile Laptop wireless internet service that can go anywhere with laptop connect card. A laptop connect card is a device that is setup to be inserted into the PC Card slot of the laptop that uses [...] Those who liked this article, also read these:
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ProBlogger: Eliminate 21 Reputation-Crushing Writing Mistakes from Your Blog | |
| Eliminate 21 Reputation-Crushing Writing Mistakes from Your Blog Posted: 25 Feb 2011 05:04 AM PST This is a guest post by Stefanie Flaxman of Revision Fairy® Small Business Proofreading Services Writing mistakes happen. Unfortunately for you and your readers, writing mistakes are like speed bumps on the blog post open highway. They slow down the reader and remove her from your world—the created reality that you share through your text. Since you only have a few seconds to impress new readers, it's critical to make all facets of your content flawless. If your writing confuses readers or hinders their experience because of a glaring error, you've failed. Here are 21 common writing mistakes that turn off new readers. Eliminate them to demonstrate that you are an authority on your subject and get new subscribers. 1. You have no proverbial welcome matDisplay your personality on your Home, About, and Contact pages to attract and retain readers. Avoid generic descriptions. Your content is hardly the only item on a reader's to-do list. Immediately entice viewers and offer them something of value if they stay. Let's use ProBlogger as an example. Darren has a brief bio at the bottom of every page on his site, as well as a current video on the Home page. New readers quickly know the person behind ProBlogger. Darren looks happy in his bio photograph because he makes money blogging. He also wears glasses. Perhaps a new reader wears glasses and likes that he and Darren have something in common. The bespectacled reader decides to read Darren's blog instead of another blog advice site. (You get the point.) Inviting tag lines and snazzy logos can also work well. What makes you different from the other bloggers in your niche? 2. Your posts look like Wikipedia articlesContent can reveal your individuality and remain professional. Don't mindlessly spit out facts. 3. You don't answer "W? W? W? W? W? H?"Give your readers a complete story that they'll want to share. Answer "Who? What? When? Why? Where? How?" in your content. The art of effective blogging strikes a balance between traditional journalism concepts and the casual, interactive tone that is characteristic of new media. 4. Your posts don't include imagesPeople like visuals. They go to the movies, watch television, and look at art in museums. Photos complement your text and improve a reader's experience. Think 360 degrees of SEO. Use the main keyword that you're promoting in your post for the name of a photo file and its alt text (title tag). You may also provide a descriptive caption with the photo to offer the reader a synopsis of your post. All effective writing isn't necessarily in the headline and body text. 5. Your paragraphs break the four-line ruleAvoid redundancies and edit paragraphs to four lines or less. Structure your posts for short attention spans. 6. Your headlines break the goldilocks ruleIf Goldilocks was on a search for the best headline (not a perfect bed to sleep in), she'd choose one that is not too short, not too long, but "just right." Do you want people to retweet your headlines? Keep them succinct and juicy. 7. Each post does not have a bylinePost bylines give readers information about you if they haven't first viewed your bio or About page. They introduce you and build trust with a potential new subscriber. Use the space at the bottom of every post to connect with readers. Bylines are an excellent opportunity to link to products or services that you offer. 8. You use too many incomplete sentencesIncomplete sentences, abrupt tangents, and parenthetical thoughts can be disruptive. Use them sparingly. 9. Your posts include obvious factual blundersMake sure that your links correspond to the proper, active URLs. Check the spellings of names/titles. Is "Wednesday, March 9" really a "Wednesday?" Inaccuracies in simple elements of your posts are only a result of laziness. 10. You make "actual word" typosMany pubic relations firms (oops, I mean, "public" relations firms) are familiar with this type of error. Spell check won't alert you when you type an incorrect word that is spelled correctly. There's no prize for proofreading fast. Examine your text so that each word is the word that you intend to write. The occasional "actual word" typo even appears on ProBlogger. (In the fourth paragraph of the ProBlogger guest post, the word "A" should be "At.") 11. You use incorrect or excessive punctuationYou can express your voice and tone without distracting eyesores, such as "?!?!", every time that you're flabbergasted. Simply end sentences with periods, instead of transitioning with ellipses. Learn the specific functions of each type of dash: hyphens, en-dashes, and em-dashes. If you're not sure how to use a certain punctuation mark, look it up. 12. Your blog has inconsistenciesIt's easier to spot inconsistencies when you follow the four-line rule for paragraphs. Be careful with:
13. You use vague wordsEdit words from your first draft until they are refined and specific. Each sentence should be crisp and clear. 14. You confuse plurals and possessivesI've even written "letter's" in first draft copy when I intended to write "letters." Pay attention to apostrophes and plural words when proofreading to double-check that they are used correctly. 15. You include too many links in postsLimit links to relevant, useful articles that supplement your writing. Set links to open in new browser tabs or windows, so that readers don't navigate away from your post. 16. You misuse double and single quotation marksUse single quotation marks for quotes within double quotation marks. 17. You smother direct quotesGive direct quotes space, rather than cluttering them within a paragraph. Use block quotes to highlight important information or quotes that you analyze. 18. You make word choice errorsDo you know the difference between the words "compliment" and “complement?" "Premier" and "premiere?" "Stationary" and "stationery?" Unlike "actual word" typos, you may be unaware that you continually make these writing mistakes. Regardless of your niche, if you don't use the proper words, you're going to look like an amateur writer. 19. You use too many bold, italicized, and upper-case lettersThey're unattractive, at best, and look like spam, at worst (similar to excessive punctuation). 20. Your blog’s font is too small, big, or fancyWhen I get too aesthetically ambitious, I remind myself of the KISS principle: Keep It Simple, Stupid. I'm launching a new blog soon and recently had fun browsing Genesis Framework themes for WordPress. (No affiliate link here. Just good stuff!) There's a style for every taste, yet all design aspects are simple and straightforward—which ultimately enhance your writing. 21. You publish first-draft copyA sloppy rant may have been appropriate on your LiveJournal in 2003, but first-draft copy does not always communicate your message effectively. All blog content is an opportunity to demonstrate your superb writing ability. Perform every step of the writing process: writing, editing, proofreading, and more proofreading. Treat your blog like a professional publication, not a hobby. How do you keep your blog and your reputation spotless? Share your techniques with me in the comments below. Stefanie Flaxman is an online proofreader who corrects business, marketing, and educational documents in 24 hours. Check out Stefanie's free report, Business Proofreading Tips Other Proofreaders Don't Want You to Know, and connect with her on Twitter. Post from: ProBlogger Blog Tips Eliminate 21 Reputation-Crushing Writing Mistakes from Your Blog |
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| Posted: 24 Feb 2011 03:36 PM PST American Airlines offers Wi-Fi internet connectivity on all Boeing 767-200 aircraft and some of the MD80 and 737 aircraft with Gogo In-flight Internet. Inflight Internet is best compared to mobile broadband service, all you need is a Wi-Fi enabled device like iPhone, Android device, Ipad, SamrtPhone etc. You can access web, email, VPN and more [...] Those who liked this article, also read these:
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“Why My Accountant Thinks I Robbed a Bank” plus 1 more | |
| Why My Accountant Thinks I Robbed a Bank Posted: 24 Feb 2011 02:33 PM PST My accountant just called and asked me if I’d robbed a bank. She just saw the figures from the last few months of blogging and, as I mentioned back in my December earnings update, we’ve had some very good months lately. December was my biggest month ever, but January and February are shaping up to be great, too. There are two main reasons for the improvement in revenue:
Today, when my accountant rang to check whether the reports I’d sent were real, I tried to explain what had happened. She understood the above two reasons, but dug a little deeper and wanted to know why. Her reflection was that about 18-24 months ago something changed in my business that seemed to tip earnings up a notch. Understandably, she wanted to explore the cause of that change. I struggled to answer her at first, but in the end I put it down to two things: 1. I made a mind shiftA couple of years back, I switched my business focus away from relying purely upon advertising and affiliate revenue and decided to get serious about creating some products of my own. 2. Invested in LearningTwo years ago was also the point at which I decided to get serious about learning how to market and launch these products that I’d begun to develop. I knew that simply deciding to have my own products wasn’t enough—I needed to invest in my knowledge of marketing them. It was at this time that I started to do two things:
Overnight success?I wish I could say that this switch in thinking and gaining of knowledge flicked a switch and helped me gain overnight success—but of course it didn’t. The increase in revenue didn’t happen straight away after making the mind shift or getting the training, although there have been some great spikes in revenue over the last two years. But that marked the beginning of something that seems to be snowballing for me now, some two years later. Make the mind shift and get the training for yourselfOver the next couple of weeks, you’re going to hear a lot about Jeff Walker and his Product Launch Formula. Can I suggest you take some notice of what Jeff’s got to say? I know some will be put off by some of the hype surrounding this launch—sometimes the affiliates promoting these launches build them up into a frenzy. But Jeff’s one of the guys who has helped me make the mind shift I mention above. His course was the main one that worked for me, and is something I’ve come back to numerous times. Some of the principles he teaches in PLF have really connected for me, and have been instrumental in skyrocketing my own product launches. I’ve also applied some of them in promoting other people’s products—the Christmas launch I mentioned above used the classic launch strategy that Jeff teaches, and led to my biggest month so far. Jeff is currently releasing a series of videos in the lead up to re-opening the doors of PLF. While some people’s pre-launch strategy is simply to build buzz before a launch, the great thing about Jeff’s strategy is to provide value in the launch process. Whether you buy PLF in the end or not, his videos will help you make the transition I talk about above. They’re both inspiring and educational. If you do buy PLF, you’ll get some great teaching, but do yourself a favor and at the least watch the videos over the coming days by getting on the list. You can register for the first video here; the second is here. Update: you can also download his full blueprint for launches here (it’s got amazing teaching). Post from: ProBlogger Blog Tips Why My Accountant Thinks I Robbed a Bank |
| Nine Ways to Spice Up Any Blog Post—Fast Posted: 24 Feb 2011 05:04 AM PST This guest post is by Ali Luke of Aliventures. Did your latest post get all the readers, comments and tweets that it deserved? Probably not. You wrote a great piece, but somehow, it seemed bland. Your ideas were good, but the post lacks a little something. What you need is more spice. Here are nine ways to add some heat to your post, and grab readers’ attention. #1: Add a snappy title and subtitlesYou know that posts need great headlines. Often, the headline is all that a potential reader can see before clicking through to read the whole post—on Twitter, for instance, or in a CommentLuv link. When you’ve got a post ready to go, though, it’s easy to just hit the Publish button, leaving it with whatever title first came to mind. Don’t do that. Give yourself time to pause and rethink. Is every word in the headline pulling its weight? Further reading: How to Craft Post Titles that Draw Readers Into Your Blog #2: Introduce powerful imagesYou might think images don’t really matter. After all, you’ve written great content—surely no-one cares whether or not there’s a pretty picture with it? The thing is, images are eye-catching. They can make your posts look more polished and professional. And a great image can even set up the mood or tone of a post. You’ll want to include at least one image per post—probably at the top. But if you’ve got a longer piece, it’s often worth adding several images to help break up the text. You can see how I did this in a huge post, Freelance Writing: Ten Steps, Tons of Resources, with ten images, one for each step. Further reading: Blogosphere Trends + Choosing and Using Images #3: Tap into readers’ concernsYour readers don’t just want interesting information. They want posts which solve a problem. That could be something simple and basic (“How do I hold my camera?”) or something huge, like “How do I get out of debt?” If you know your readers well, you’ll know what their common worries and struggles are. You can use these in your post, by empathizing with how they feel and by showing them the way forwards. Further reading: How to Create Reader Profiles/Personas to Inspire and Inform Your Blogging #4: Add a personal anecdoteThis isn’t a technique which you’ll want to use in every single post, but it’s very powerful when used sparingly. Readers love stories, and they love to feel a sense of connection with another person. By telling a brief story from your own life, you hook the reader on an emotional level, not just an intellectual one. My favourite example wasn’t originally a blog post at all. It was live, from Darren speaking on stage at BlogWorld Expo. He retells the story in the video post What My 4-Year-Old Son Taught Me About Successful Blogging. Further reading: The Power of Being Personal on Your Blog (which also includes an anecdote!) #5: Offer “take home” or “action” pointsSometimes, you’ll have a great post packed with useful content—but without anything for the reader to really grab hold of. To help your reader engage, offer “take home” points, summing up the post, or “action” points: something that gets the reader thinking or some next step they can take. I’ve noticed that when I do this with posts, I get more comments and retweets than otherwise. This is particularly crucial if you’ve written a post which is heavy on theory. There’s a great example here in Charlie Gilkey’s The Four Key Dimensions of Business, where he ends with four straightforward questions to help people start using what they’ve just read. Further reading: How to Create Compelling Content by Inspiring Action #6: Get readers to reactSometimes, bloggers aim to use the power of reaction in quite a cynical way. They post rants—angry pieces which are just intended to start an argument or to get attention. But when you encourage thoughtful reactions, you help readers to share their ideas—and to share your content. You turn them from passive consumers of your content into active engagers with it. Getting readers to react might be as simple as asking “What do you think?” In most cases, though, you’ll want to pose a question or ask their opinion on something specific. Further reading: 7 Questions to Ask On Your Blog to Get More Reader Engagement #7: Include quotes from other bloggersWhen you’re reading blogs, you might come across a great quote—a sentence or a paragraph which really resonates. Why not share it with your readers? Including quotes from other bloggers can help you to back up your own opinions and facts: it proves that other experts in your field are saying the same thing as you. Plus, quotes help break up a long blog post. They allow you to introduce a different voice into your piece, and can provide a starting point for discussion. Further reading: Blogosphere Trends + Effectively Using Quotes #8: Use an analogyMaybe you’ve written a great post that explains exactly how something works, in painstaking detail. The problem is, your readers aren’t engaging with it—they’re not even reading it. Can you come up with an analogy that helps the reader to understand? A good analogy gives your reader a picture in their head, based on something familiar. It can give them that “Aha, I get it!” moment. It can help them look at something in a fresh way, like Starting a Successful Blog is Like Planning an Invasion. You can keep the analogy going as a running metaphor using language that relates to it (like “allies” and “skirmishes” in that post). Further reading: Blogging is like… #9: Make your language punchierYou’re a blogger—which means you’re a writer. You need to make every sentence and word work for you. By “punchier”, I don’t mean you should be aggressive. I mean that your words need to be strong and engaging. Cut out unnecessary words and phrases, like “it may be the case that” or “In my opinion” or “it’s quite probably true that”. You don’t need these wishy-washy qualifiers, and your sentences will reader more strongly without them. Use everyday language. Short, simple words can convey your points far more effectively than grandiose, convoluted ones. Further reading: Blogging is About Writing I’ve given you nine ways to spice up your posts. Now it’s your turn! What’s your number 10? Ali Luke is a writer, blogger and writing coach. She’s just launched The Blogger’s Guide to Freelancing, a fully updated and expanded version of her popular Staff Blogging Course. Grab your copy today for $29, and start using your blogging skills to make serious money. Post from: ProBlogger Blog Tips Nine Ways to Spice Up Any Blog Post—Fast |
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Sorry for the lack of updates - I was on vacation the previous week and was mostly offline during that period. Well something interesting happened on the 24th of February when this email from Facebook hit my Inbox:
