March, 2013

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How to Create a Workshop From Your Ebook

Men With Pens

So you wrote an ebook… now what? Most people just slap their ebook up on their website and offer it to blog subscribers as a free download. A few others stick a price tag on their ebook and try to make a few bucks. And while there’s nothing wrong with that, passive action leaves potential on the table collecting dust. Want an idea that turns your ebook into your best business asset ever?

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7 Strategies for Growing Community on Your Blog

ProBlogger

This week on ProBlogger we’ve been looking at the topic of building community on a blog. We started by identifying 9 benefits and 3 costs of community on a blog and then looked at 5 stages of building community on a blog. Today I want to dig deeper into some specific things to DO to build community on your blog. 1. Write in a Conversational Voice.

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My Top 3 Fiction Writing Books and Why You Should Read Them

Men With Pens

[A note from James: "Wait - what?! Fiction?! On a blog for businesspeople?" You bet. In many interviews, I've mentioned that learning how to write fiction can definitely boost your copywriting skills - the two skill sets cross over more than you'd think. So when Kari pitched me the idea for this post, I was all for it. You don't need to go off and write a novel, but you should definitely pick up one of these books to learn better writing skills that help you sell.

Writing 82
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How ‘Same Old, Same Old’ Can Make You a Successful Writer

Men With Pens

In July, I moved into a farmhouse in Montana on 20 acres of land. It’s a dream I never seriously thought I’d realize – a home in the country. And in almost every way, the dream has met its promise. I said almost: The dream didn’t provide much guidance on Internet access. Turns out that there’s no cable or DSL at my new dream home. So I relied on my wireless hotspot and for about two weeks, life was good.

Writer 78
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How to Leverage Behavioral Science Insights for Direct Mail Success

Speaker: Neal Boornazian, President and Nancy Harhut, Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer - HBT Marketing

Direct mail has consistently remained a powerful tool in the marketer's arsenal, but in an age of digital dominance, its effectiveness hinges on the strategic integration of behavioral science. 💡 When you incorporate powerful behavioral science principles into your direct mail marketing strategies, you can prompt the hardwired decision-making shortcuts your audience relies on — and that automatically unlocks new avenues for engagement, conversion, and brand loyalty.

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The Proven 3-Step Formula for Success

Men With Pens

If there’s one thing that devastates us, that stops us from doing what we’re truly capable of and prevents us from achieving our dreams, it’s fear of failure. Many of us go through our lives never knowing what we could have done… if we hadn’t given up our dreams. What if you had given up on learning to talk, walk, read, ride a bike, or any other achievements before you were even 5 years old?

Writing 70
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Why You Should Join a Critique Group

Men With Pens

Six years ago, I moved across the United States, from West Virginia to Colorado. I didn’t know anyone except my husband. And I was lonely for my friends back east. I needed to find a way to connect with new people – preferably ones who cared about the same interests I did. I found a critique group for fiction authors. That critique group turned out to be exactly what I needed… and then some.

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How to Make Your Ebook Workshop a Win

Men With Pens

Last week, I wrote about a sure-fire way to maximize your business potential: Just turn your ebook into a workshop , and get ready to impress the socks off new prospects. But exactly how should you set up that workshop? How can you make sure it’s a win? I’ll tell you that too. Keep reading… No matter what type of freelancer, consultant or business owner you might be, and no matter what sort of product or service you sell, hosting a workshop is a great idea that could bring huge

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7 Simple Steps to Writing Great ‘How To’ Content on Your Blog

ProBlogger

Yesterday I announced our ‘How To…’ group writing project and issued readers of ProBlogger with the challenge to go away and write a ‘ How to ‘ post for their blog. On Twitter a number of people told me that they were having a little trouble with writing a ‘how to…’ post because it wasn’t their normal style of writing on their blog so I thought I’d jot down a few tips for writing ‘how to…’ content (something I’ve been creating for

Writing 55
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The 5 Stages of Building a Culture of Community on a Blog [Case Study]

ProBlogger

Yesterday we looked at some of the benefits and costs of building community on a blog – today I’d like to move onto some of the ‘how to’ by examining the stages of building community that I went through on Digital Photography School. Build a CULTURE of Community – Not Just Engagement. Let me start by repeating the advice I gave yesterday that building community and reader interaction on a blog takes time.

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9 Steps to Creating a Successful e-Course

ProBlogger

It seems so effortless from the outside: Record some audio, shoot a little video, schedule a few emails, throw in a live call. Shaazam! You’ve got an e-Course. But when you dive in to actually create your own course, you may get: frustrated – ‘What do people actually need to know to get started on Pinterest? I thought I knew:,’ or. overwhelmed – ‘I know so much about eating paleo.

Sales 52
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SME Relationships: Proven Solutions for Seamless Collaboration and Success

Speaker: Tim Buteyn, President of ThinkingKap Learning Solutions

💢 Do you find yourself stuck in never-ending review cycles? Are you wondering if your Subject Matter Expert actually got that last review request? Are you having trouble trying to decipher impractical or conflicting feedback? 💢 If any of these scenarios sounds familiar, you may benefit from a crash course on managing SME relationships!

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I’m not Technical Enough to Blog [Misconceptions New Bloggers Have #4]

ProBlogger

A couple of years ago I wrote a series of posts here on ProBlogger that looked at ‘Misconceptions New Bloggers have’ We covered: Blogging Takes Super Human Effort vs Blogging is Easy. You MUST post Every Day! You Have to Write About Making Money Blogging to make Money Blogging. Today I’d like to add another misconception – that you have to be technical to be a successful blogger !

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How to Build Community on a Blog: 24 Must Read Articles from around the Web

ProBlogger

This week we’ve published a series of posts on the topic of building community on a blog with these posts: 9 Benefits [and 3 Costs] Of Building Community On Your Blog. The 5 Stages of Building a Culture of Community on a Blog [A Case Study]. 7 Strategies for Growing Community on Your Blog. Today Jade Craven continues this series by looking at what others around the web have written on the topic of building community on blogs.

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Broaden Your Blog’s Reach Through Innovative Content [Case Study]

ProBlogger

This guest post is by Tommy Walker of Inside The Mind. . Back in November last year, we ran a crowd funding campaign to bring back Inside The Mind for a second season. Even though we didn’t reach our overall campaign goals, we learned two very important things: 1. Unexpected success. Our campaign converted at 5.6%. Our goal initially was to raise $100,000 and even though we didn’t reach that, what we did learn was that the people who were watching were very happy to support the sh

Content 47
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Group Writing Project: Write a ‘How To…’ Post

ProBlogger

Years ago here on ProBlogger we used to run ‘group writing project’ where I’d nominate a style of posts and then all readers would go away and write a new post in that style to practice their blogging… and then would come back here and leave us a link to the post. The Project had a few benefits: first and foremost it gave us all a chance to practice a certain style of writing. secondly it was an opportunity for bloggers to show off what they could do. bloggers reported seeing m

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The Resurgence of Direct Mail as a Growth Marketing Strategy

Speaker: Jeff Tarran, COO, Gunderson Direct & Margaret Pepe, Executive Director of Product Management, U.S. Postal Service

Learn the secrets to direct mail success for growth marketers! Industry veterans Jeff Tarran and Margaret Pepe are here to delve into how direct mail has completely evolved in recent years, and has rightfully earned a seat at the table alongside the email and digital marketing plans of SMBs, enterprise companies, and agencies as they look into strategy for 2024 and beyond.

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Group Writing Project: Write a ‘Discussion’ Post

ProBlogger

Over the last week here on ProBlogger we’ve been digging deeper into the topic of ‘building community’ on a blog. See the series at: 9 Benefits [and 3 Costs] Of Building Community On Your Blog. The 5 Stages of Building a Culture of Community on a Blog [A Case Study]. 7 Strategies for Growing Community on Your Blog. How to Build Community on a Blog: 24 Must Read Articles.

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What’s Your Reaction to the Retirement of Google Reader?

ProBlogger

Yesterday Google announced the retirement of their Google Reader RSS reader product. I’ve tweeted a little about it but thought it might be interesting to see the response of readers to this news. it seems at least some people are concerned (with thousands signing this petition already ). For me it is annoying to lose the RSS reader that has become a part of my daily reading of new content on the web – however what is of greater concern to me is the impact it could have upon blog rea

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Making Money Online – The NEW Standard

ProBlogger

A Guest contribution from Nick Thacker from www.LiveHacked.com. I’ve been a leech for most of my life. By “leech,” of course, I mean I’ve basically existed online as the type of person who consumes considerably more than I’ve created. But this year things changed. I was, and still am, a student of the Internet age, and I hope to always be. But in January of 2012, I decided to begin giving back to the world that’s educated me for the past ten years.

Sales 42
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ProBlogger Challenge: Create a Pinterest Persona

ProBlogger

I struggled a lot when I first started managing the Pinterest account for Digital Photography School. I knew that I wanted to focus on visual curation, and that I wanted to provide a comprehensive overview of techniques and tools. There were so many possible boards I could create and I didn’t know what was the best tactic or idea. Should I spin this topic off into a separate board?

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Lets Get Physical: How to Blend Direct Mail Marketing with Your Digital Strategy

Speaker: Akeel Jabber, B2B SaaS Investor and Growth Marketer at Horizen Capital

⭐ Are you ready to boost campaign success? Consider the untapped potential of integrating direct mail marketing seamlessly with digital marketing strategies. Combining the physical, tangible impact of direct mail with the dynamic reach of digital marketing can be a game-changer, significantly increasing your ROI when done right. Direct mail grabs attention, making it great for reaching your target audience 📩 Digital marketing keeps the momentum going, driving action 📲 So.

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What Progress Have You Made on Pinterest? [Discussion]

ProBlogger

This week has given us a chance to look at Pinterest from a few different angles. If you’ve not had a chance to get into Pinterest, I hope that our Complete Guide to Pinterest got you inspired to set up an account and start pinning. If it didn’t, EcoKaren’s story of Pinterest success should have convinced you of the pulling power of the network.

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9 Benefits [and 3 Costs] Of Building Community On Your Blog

ProBlogger

Do you ever feel – as you blog – like you’re talking to an empty room? Day after day you publish posts only to have them greeted by…. If that is how you feel – then you’re not alone. In fact one of the most common questions that I hear from bloggers is: “How do I get my readers to interact with me?” Over the next week I’d like to suggest some ways to increase reader engagement and would love to hear how you do it on your blog too in comments below.

Blog 52
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Do You Need a Pinterest Consultant? Interview with Jade Craven of dPS

ProBlogger

Back when Pinterest was brand-spankin’-new, we heard the same cry from a lot of Problogger.net readers: “Not another social network! Who has time for all this?!” Who indeed? Each social network is different, and they all require slightly different approaches and skills. One potential solution for more than a few bloggers is to hire someone to help develop and implement a Pinterest strategy.

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The Wave System: How to Get Your Facebook Page Updates Seen By More People

ProBlogger

Did you just write a killer blog post? Or do you have an event/product to promote? The Problem of Sharing Links on Facebook. If so, you probably rely, at least partially, on linking to your webpage through Facebook. But lately Facebook is showing outbound links to such a small percentage of your page followers, that it’s potentially detrimental to blogs and businesses alike.

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Is Training the Right Solution?

Speaker: Tim Buteyn

Let's set the scene: you’ve identified a critical performance gap in your organization and need to close that gap. A colleague suggests training, but you suspect there’s something going on that training can’t address. How can you determine if training is the right solution before you commit your budget and resources to a new training program? In this webinar, you will learn how to determine if training is the right solution using the Behavior Engineering Model.

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Financial Planning for Bloggers

ProBlogger

We all strive to have our personal finances in order. Managing our financial resources wisely brings peace, security, and allows us to utilize our financial resources on in ways that are important to us. Proper financial planning requires work and diligence and tends to be more of a continuous process rather than a one-time event that you can check off your list and be done with.

Blogger 41
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11 Tips to Breaking Bloggers Block Through Solving Reader Problems

ProBlogger

Have you ever had bloggers block? If so – you’re not alone. Almost every blogger I’ve ever asked has admitted to having it at least once! Below is some practical tips on how to break through it (including a little homework to action it). Recently I was speaking with a blogger of a ‘ how to ‘ type blog who told me that he’d been struggling over the last few weeks with coming up with things to write about.

Blogger 51
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The 3 Emails You Must Send During a Launch … and a Fresh Alternative for Bloggers

ProBlogger

Are you ready to launch a product from your blog? Not an affiliate product, but something you created with your own flesh and blood? After many late nights spent honing that ebook, ecourse, or coaching program? Whatever it is, if you’re ready to release that puppy, then it’s time to commit to it and launch it. Launching is going to disrupt your normal blogging lifestyle.

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ProBlogger Training Event: A Last Release of Early Bird Tickets Today

ProBlogger

This post was intended to let you know that last night we released a round of Early Bird Tickets for our upcoming Training Event on the Gold Coast in Queensland (Australia). However the 100 tickets we released yesterday all sold within an hour of us releasing them (without really us promoting it beyond the email list of people who’ve attended before and who expressed interest a couple of months ago).

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Revitalizing Dry Content: A Lesson in Engagement

Speaker: Tim Buteyn, President of ThinkingKap Learning Solutions

We’ve all been there. You’ve been given a pile of dry content and asked to create a compelling eLearning course. You’re determined to create something more engaging than the same old course that learners quickly click through, but how do you take this “boring” content and create something relevant and engaging? Many instructional designers will say, “Boring in means boring out.

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The Key to Producing Outstanding Content

Men With Pens

The other day, someone asked me this question: “What’s the key to produce outstanding content?” My eyebrows rose, and I couldn’t resist a glib mental answer: A direct line to The Muse, the strength of Hercules, the cunning of Hades and a really nice magic wand. You see, there’s a problem with “the key to whatever” advice – it implies there’s a single method of gaining entry into a place you’d love to get inside.

Content 72
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How My Old Blog Post Got Half a Million Pinterest Views [Case Study]

ProBlogger

There’s a lot of information on the web, including ProBlogger, on how to maximize Pinterest to get traffic to your site. Between tutorials on how to optimize Pinterest as part of your social media marketing strategy, Darren’s own experiment on Pinterest , how to create Pinterest-worthy graphics , and how to run a Pinterest contest , there are some great tips out there.

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84 Must Read ‘How to’ Blog Posts (and 3 Winners Announced)

ProBlogger

Last week here on ProBlogger I ran a ‘ Group Writing Project ‘ where I invited readers to go away and write a ‘ How To ‘ Post on their blog and then to come back and show us a link to it. The response was fantastic (we’ll do it again in the weeks ahead) – 84 people wrote and submitted a post (although a few of those didn’t completely follow the instructions and submitted old posts – naughty!

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How to Get More Content for Your Blog

ProBlogger

This is a guest post by Kristi Hines. One of the biggest challenges that bloggers face – whether they are blogging for themselves or their business – is creating enough content. Most people can’t just write a blog post in 15 minutes. Creating quality content takes a major investment of time and resources. If you’re struggling to create enough content, then here are some great ways to get additional content for your blog.

Content 53
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Brain Fog HQ: Memory Enhancement Techniques for Professional Development

Speaker: Chester Santos – Author, International Keynote Speaker, Executive Coach, Corporate Trainer, Memory Expert, U.S. Memory Champion

In October, scientists discovered that 75% of patients who experienced brain fog had a lower quality of life at work than those who did not. At best, brain fog makes you slower and less efficient. At worst, your performance and cognitive functions are impaired, resulting in memory, management, and task completion problems. In this entertaining and interactive presentation, Chester Santos, "The International Man of Memory," will assist you in developing life-changing skills that will greatly enha