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3 Brand New Podcasts You Should Be Listening to in 2012

Starting The Smart Passive Income Podcast was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

With nearly a million downloads (including over 100,000 in December of 2011), I definitely don’t plan on stopping.

In the year and a half since going live, the podcast has already done so much for me and the SPI brand:

Based on a survey, the podcast is the #1 way people have found out about SPI.
It rounds out my Be Everywhere business strategy and allows me to connect with people no matter how they prefer to consume content – text through my blog, audio through my podcast, and video through my YouTube Channel. (aka. The Content Trifecta)
Hosting the podcast has tremendously improved my comfort behind a microphone and overall presentation skills.
The podcast was nominated in two categories for the annual Podcast Awards, and although I didn’t win I still get a ton of recognition from being nominated.
It connected me with a client (a Hollywood Producer) who I am now working with for an upcoming movie this Spring. More on this coming soon!
It has provided me several more opportunities that I’ve had to turn down for different reasons: JV partnerships, job opportunities, speaking gigs, etc.

I’ve always encouraged others to start their own podcasts, which is why I’m extremely excited to see three people who I highly respect recently publish their very first episodes too:

Adam Baker from Man vs. Debt, Derek Halpern from Social Triggers, and Glen Allsop from Viperchill – all bloggers who I’ve mentioned several times here on SPI before who each produce amazing content on their blogs, and now we have the pleasure of listening to them on their own podcasts too.

Even after just listening to each of their first episodes, I’m really excited for what’s to come.

What a wonderful gift to start off the new year!

Below are links to each of their first podcast episodes, in the order that they were published:

Man Vs. Debt Podcast – Episode #1 – Your Big Why and Defining Your Freedom : Adam’s blog and podcast are primarily for those looking to get out of debt, but he often touches on a lot of important lessons that can be applied to all of our lives outside of the debt we incur. At the same time, he’s growing like crazy in the online business and marketing space too, so I won’t be surprised if we’ll see some aspects of that in his podcast eventually as well.

Social Triggers Insider: How to Get Major Press with No Connections : Derek’s Social Triggers Insider is not on iTunes yet, but that’s okay. It will be soon and he tells me that he already has 8 more episodes recorded. The first one, which features special guest Jonah Berger, professor at the Wharton School of Business, is incredibly informative. Visit the post because it’s not just a podcast – it’s sort of in a master class format.

Viperchill Episode 1 – How I Would Make Money Online if I Was Starting from Scratch : A perfect title for a first podcast episode from Glen, because we all want to know how Glen does what he does, right? This is a quick listen (20 minutes), but it provides a ton of insight on what he does and what he would do right now. One thing is for sure, this intro will make you wish it was longer.

Congrats to Adam, Derek and Glen for taking the next step with their brands this year – it’s incredibly motivating and I’m excited to see what’s next for them.

Enjoy!

p.s. If you’re interested in starting your own podcast too, check out Learn How to Podcast - a completely free resource (no emails required either) created by Cliff Ravenscraft of PodcastAnswerMan.com.

What I’m Reading and Who I’m in Love With Right Now

Every once and a while I like to feature posts from other bloggers that I’ve been reading lately.

There is SO MUCH awesome content out there, it’s unbelievable – so instead of reading something from me today, please choose one or two of the articles below from people who I’m pretty much in love with right now because of what they’re writing.

The Secret Danger of Public Logs and Public Accountability

This guest post by Danny Iny on ThinkTraffic.net is listed here first because honestly I wish it was published on SPI. It talks about how we have to be careful when reading people like myself and Corbett Barr who publish logs, income and traffic reports and very public case studies online. Danny explains that this information should be seen as more of a compass - not a roadmap – and I completely agree. Definitely a good and thought-provoking read, and I’d love to hear your thought about it.

Adsense Account Organization – How to Keep Your Adsense Account Structured

Justin and Joe from AdsenseFlippers.com, a site that I’ve recently gotten very familiar with, are totally killing it with micro-niche sites. They seem to have mastered building and selling their sites for some GREAT profit, and after some quick conversations with Justin I can tell these guys are legit and seriously just really kind and down to earth people who share a lot of the same thoughts that I do about online marketing and integrity. They have so much great content on their site, it was hard to pick and choose an article to share, but this one really hit home for me because I always talk about testing, testing, testing – and this article shows exactly how one should organize an Adsense account to easily understand what’s happening with their campaigns and what could be done to improve and increase earnings. I took notes on this one.

The Secret to Happiness…and Why It Has Nothing To Do With Money

Todd from FinancialMentor.com is a really good friend of mine. He became financially independent at the age of 35 through investing and has recently been educating me about investing, how it works and making wise financial decisions in my personal life. We actually got to meet for the first time at the Financial Blogger’s Conference earlier this month, which was really special to me. Todd doesn’t blog about making money online, blogging or niche sites or anything like that – but he does have some very relevant articles on his site, like this one linked to above, that are good for anybody to read. My favorite quote from this article is, “The decision to be happy is actually the decision to stop being unhappy.”

Year to Date Income Report – September 2011 (Niche Pursuits)

For all of those who say niche sites aren’t profitable, think again. Spencer from NichePursuits.com, who is quite possibly one of the nicest and smartest guys on the web, shares his income from his multiple niche site empire. He built 22 in August alone and one of them is already banking $30 a day (he’s already at 6 figures for the year). Very inspiring and it’s making me think hard about possibly going even further with niche sites here on SPI. I’ve had great success with the 8 niche sites that I’ve built so far, but after reading Spencer’s stuff I think I could possibly do a whole lot more. I’m working on some things right now, but we’ll see what happens in 2012 Definitely check out Spencer’s work at NichePursuits.com if you have a chance.

It’s a busy day here in the Flynn household and my wife and I have a mud-run tommorow, so that should be fun. I hope you have a fantastic weekend and all the best to you!

Cheers!

5 Posts That I Wish I Wrote

There is so much talent in the blogosphere – it blows my mind.

Below you’ll find 5 posts, all from the blogs of people who have recently left a comment here on SPI.

Yes – I read your content too, and along the lines of what Corbett and I discussed in SPI Podcast Session #23, epic content does not go unnoticed.

In no particular order…

The Ultimate Guide For Writing Great Blog Content

Chris from Bloggeritus spent 9.5 hours writing this post, and it definitely deserves much attention. He goes into great detail, dissecting exactly what makes a blog post great and how to approach writing for your audience on your blog. As he says, “How well you write your content will decide the future, and fortune, of your blog’s growth.”

I couldn’t agree more.

I Left My Job Because Of My Blog

It’s content like this that really inspires people.

Leslie from Learning With Leslie shares (in a podcast episode), how his Interactive Biology Blog has allowed him to leave his day job. It’s such an amazing story, especially since I’ve been following Leslie since he shared his biology blog on Entrepreneurs-Journey.com.

This one is definitely worth checking out. The podcast is 35 minutes in length.

Feel the Fear and Do it Anyways

Benny from Get Busy Living, who I’ve gotten to know recently by seeing his comments here on SPI and on my Facebook Page, sums it up nicely by saying, “The worst possible scenario is to not even try at all.”

In my experience with online business and blogging, the best things that have happened have always come out of times when I had the most fear. Some specific examples include: starting my first online business after getting laid off, writing an eBook, and starting my podcast.

Even Bloggers Need a Strategic Business Plan

If you want to make money from your blog, having some kind of plan will give yourself the best chance to succeed. Christine from Christine.biz gives us a reality check and she even examines some of the top bloggers in the blogosphere and points out something interesting that many people tend to overlook when it comes to exactly why they are successful.

I’d like to add that although planning is ultra-important, a plan does no good until you implement it.

Human Spammer | How to Lose Reputation As a Blogger and Get Banned the Easy Way

Brankica from Live-Your-Love.com posts about spam, something that I’ve gotten very familiar with lately, as discussed in The Dark Side of Successful Blogging. We both stopped using Akismet and started using the Growmap Anti-Spambot Plugin, which is fantastic at eliminating automated spam comments from bots – however it also highlights who exactly is a human spammer.

This is definitely an interesting post with some dialogue between Brankica and an actual spammer, so check out what she does about it and what you can do too.

Last Reminder

A big thank you to the community here at SPI, not only for your support but for contributing great content to the blogosphere too. You’re making the internet a better place, which is always the best thing to do.

As a final reminder, today is the last day to jump on Traffic School with Corbett Barr before he closes the doors to his course. If you purchase through my affiliate link you will be given special access to a Bonus Webinar with Corbett and me in the near future. He will contact you with the details later.

Thanks again and have a safe, happy and healthy weekend!

Cheers!

One of the Best Action Taking Posts I’ve Read in a Long Time

I love to feature great content that other people have written here on SPI. I know that I have a rather large and active community, and I feel that it’s my job not only to write excellent content for you, but also to point you to excellent content written by other talent online as well.

Typically, I feature maybe 8 to 10 articles in one post when I share what I’ve read, but this one deserves it’s own endorsement.

Corbett Barr from ThinkTraffic.net recently posted 21 Quick Actions You Can Do Today to Set Your Blog Up for Massive Success, and I encourage you to read it right now.

It’s a post that I selfishly wish I had written myself.

After you read the post, leave a comment here and tell me why you think I featured it today. And no – it’s not because Corbett is a good friend of mine, although he is.

Check it out and let me know what you think. If you have extra time, you’ll notice that it goes hand in hand with the second most popular post on this blog, The Only 100 Words You Should Read Today.

New podcast session coming Friday – stay tuned.

Corbett if you’re reading this – well done man.

Cheers!

10 Gold Nugget Posts I’m Glad I Didn’t Miss

I hope you all had a safe St. Paddy’s Day (Yes – Paddy, not Patty. I was corrected several times on Twitter…and I’m a quarter Irish too!)

Today, I wanted to share 10 outstanding posts that I’m glad I didn’t miss. Some I found in my RSS feed, some I found from some of you on Twitter, and some I just found by clicking on your name in the comment section in some of my own posts and reading through your blog.

Here are some gold nuggets of content I recommend checking out when you have the time: Click to continue…

The Recipe For A Popular Post

Recipe For A Popular Blog Post I’m on a mini-vacation taking advantage of the snow that just recently hit the slopes here in Southern California, so I won’t be around to answer comments until later this week. I wanted to throw up a “what I’ve been reading lately” type of post which I normally do every couple of months, but I thought it would be cool to put a spin on it. Enjoy this post and pray I don’t hurt myself while I’m snowboarding!

We all want to write popular posts, the ones that drive massive traffic to our blogs and produce a ton of interaction within our audience. Some posts we write are obviously going to be more popular than others, but what is it that really makes a post popular?

To answer this question lets take a closer look at some of the most popular posts from blogs around the web and see if we can make some connections.

Below you’ll find 3 popular posts from each of the blogs listed below. Really take some time to see if you can find any commonalities between them. Click to continue…

8 Hot Posts From Around the Web

Every once and a while, I come across some amazing blog posts and articles around the web, and when I do, I bookmark them to make sure I have a chance to share them with you in posts like this.

Here are 8 awesome posts that I couldn’t wait to share with you today.

How Authors Really Make Money: The Rebirth of Seth Godin and the Death of Traditional Publishing – Tim Ferris, author of The 4-Hour Work Week, always has some great content on his blog, but this post was amazing because it shed some light on the publishing process which I am very very interested in. Maybe I shouldn’t write that print book that I always wanted to. Oh, and what a sweet headline.

Blogger Gems – Part 2 Released! – This isn’t really a hot post, but more like a hot announcement along with a hot free gift. Srinivas Rao and Sid Savara over at BlogcastFM have interviewed a ton of successful bloggers and have complied the gems from each interview into an eBook. If you’re wondering about how to potentially monetize audio, doing what they did is a fantastic idea – but these guys are actually giving it away for free. Sweet.

23 Entrepreneurs Reveal How They Have Built Their Communities – Rob from Robswebtips.com has compiled a compendium (yes, a compendium!) of killer responses from 23 of the top online entrepreneurs, all answering the question: “What initial step did you take to form your own, unique community of supporters and followers?”

Dominating Viral Marketing with Viperchill.com Founder, Glen Allsop – A lot of you have told me that my Podcast session with Glen from Viperchill.com (session #3), was one of the best sessions ever. Since I know a lot of you can’t get enough of Glen (like myself), here is another fantastic podcast interview with Glen by Chris Ducker from VirtualBusinessLifestyle.com.

5 Extraordinary Blog Post Types that Will Grow Your Audience Faster - The title says it all. Corbett Barr from ThinkTraffic.net, who is seriously one of my favorite people right now, never ceases to amaze me with his excellent content. I really hope to get him in an interview for the podcast soon, because I know we’re all looking for ways to increase traffic on a small budget.

[EXPOSED] 6 Figure Blogger Screws Up, Tells All – David Risely from DavidRisely.com has been on my radar lately, and this post will show you why. He’s honest, knows his stuff and is willing to share his mistakes so that you and I can avoid them. Good stuff.

Unbelievable Stories of Niche Market Success - With all of the niche site talk going on here on SPI, I thought this post by Murray from Murlu.com would be appropriate to share. There are truly millions of niches to choose from, so don’t think there’s no room for you anywhere.

Search Engine Optimization FAQ (Warrior Forum) – This is required reading. I’ve linked to the Warrior Forum before and I just had to do it again because this probably the most comprehensive, free guide (no opt-in necessary) about SEO available on the web. I mean, just check out the table of contents on the first post of the thread. Thanks for the link Toby!

Have a great weekend everyone! My September Monthly Income Report will be posted on Monday, so look out for that.

Cheers!

5 Great Reads From Around the Web

As much as I love to write blog posts and give away content here on SPI, I also enjoy reading other posts from a number of different websites around the blogosphere. There is so much great stuff out there, I know it’s impossible to catch it all, so hopefully I can help you out by sharing some of the things I’ve read lately.

The Secret to Growing Your Blog Twice as Fast with Half the Effort - My buddy Glen from Viperchill.com bring us yet another fantastic post where he shares a secret that I also use to help grow my blog.

How to Build Trust In A Skeptical Online World – Yaro Starak from Entrepreneurs-Journey.com tells us how to build trust in a world where people usually lean towards thinking most things are scams. A very valuable post that anyone doing online business should read.

The Third Product: Build a Business Around Your Blog – James Tayo from Entrepreneur Blog’r writes a guest post on Paul Cunningham’s BloggingTeacher.com about what you can do to make money on your blog if you’re not into creating eBooks or membership websites.

Seven Friends That You Need in Life – Karen Ruby, a personal development writer for AMeaningfulExistence.com, outlines the types of friends that we need in our lives that help us live happily and help us reach our goals.

What It Means to Live the Internet Lifestyle – Rob, a really smart (and profitable) 16 year old blogger from RobsWebTips.com (man, I really wish I started doing this when I was 16!), who I recently befriended and had the chance to speak to a lot recently, gives us some thoughts about what it really means to live the internet lifestyle.

Thanks, as always, for your support for SPI and everything I do. Monday’s post will be my monthly income report for May – which has some interesting numbers I’m excited to share with you.

Until then. Cheers!

A Valuable Resource for Bloggers and Internet Marketers Alike

I love podcasts. They’re a great way to consume useful (and often entertaining) information when I’m doing things like driving, running, or working out at the gym. That’s why I’m excited to start my own podcast soon, which I hope you’ll be a fan of once it is finally launched.

You’ve heard me talk about the Internet Business Mastery Podcast before – it’s really what motivated me to venture into the online world to make a successful living. It definitely deserves it’s ranking as the #1 Internet Business Podcast since 2005.

However, while on an iTunes search for more “blogging related” podcasts, I really wasn’t impressed with the results I found…

Until now.

A couple of months ago, I was contacted by a couple of guys to do an interview for a podcast that I had never heard of before. In preparing for the interview, I did some research about their podcast and what their mission was, and I was really impressed. I’m excited to share that resource with you today:

BlogCastFm: A Podcast For Bloggers, By Bloggers

BlogCastFM was started by Srinivas and Sid (readers of SPI who you may have seen in the comments section before), and they interview bloggers at all levels of experience and expertise who provide fantastic information and blogging tips for everyone to listen to.

During my interview with Srinivas, I was really blown away by the quality of questions that he asked and the overall flow of the conversation we recorded. It was fun, and I know anyone listening to any of the 33 recorded interviews in their archives will find them useful one way or another.

You can subscribe to their podcast in iTunes if you’d like, and if you have the time and you feel the content is useful, leave them a kind review.

Thanks again Srinivas and Sid for your hard work, and the great interviews.

Wishing you all the best, and have a great weekend! Stay tuned for my March Monthly Income Report this coming Monday!

Cheers!

10 Killer Reads From Around the Web

I don’t do these kinds of posts as often as I probably should, because there is a lot of killer posts out there that people cannot afford to miss reading. Here are a few notable posts (in no particular order) that I’ve recently read that have struck a chord with me and may do the same to you too. Enjoy!

17 Traffic Building Tips From Some of The World’s Most Popular Bloggers: The title explains it all, and I’m honored to be included in this list with my own tip. Thanks Corbett!
Find a Hole and Fill It: David Turnbull talks about a Buddhist Newsletter and the principles in it which we can apply to business and in life.
WordPress SEO: The Only Guide You’ll Need: Glen from Viperchill.com offers us an extensive guide to optimizing your WordPress blog for search engines. A must read for beginners and anyone looking to improve the SEO of their blog.
Why Unreasonable, Unrealistic People Win Big: Maren Kate sums it up with this awesome quote, “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” – George Bernard Shaw.
5 Keys For Running a Successful Part Time Internet Business: This is a fantastic guest post from Mark Mason on Internet Business Mastery, that is a must read for those of you with day jobs who are trying to make it online too.
Horizontal or Vertical Business Models: Which Is Right For You?: The Master, and one of my idols, Yaro Stark, breaks down the differences between horizontal and vertical business models, and tells us exactly why he prefers to go vertical.
Anxiety Is Nothing: This 31 word post (including the title) comes with a powerful message. Man, Seth Godin is awesome!
Optimize a Single Post On Your Blog for SEO: Darren from Problogger shares with us what he tries to do once a month. What do you do with the posts in your archive?
22 Ways to Find Advertising For Your Website: I like to create products, but advertising can be just as profitable. Here’s a great post from Daily Blog Tips that you can use to find advertising for your website.
Switch: Ok, this isn’t a blog post, but it’s a book that I recently picked up, and it’s seriously one of the best reads ever. I highly recommend!

Thanks everyone for your support, and have a wonderful weekend! If you’ve recently read something awesome (from a blog other than your own!) that you think would be useful to the SPI readers, please feel free to leave a link below in the comments.

Cheers!

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