The Smart Passive Income Blog » motivation

SPI 031 : Seeds of Opportunity & Pat Goes Hollywood

Pat — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 08:23:19 +0000

In this session of the Smart Passive Income Podcast, to kick of the new year I share something special that happened to me that happened as a result of producing the SPI podcast.

This is session is a little different than the rest in that it’s more inspirational and motivational (as opposed to stuff that you can totally take action with right now), but the message and lessons behind it are still extremely important.

I’ve hinted about this a couple of times in the past, but last year I was hired by a Hollywood Producer to help him with an upcoming film. As a result I was able to fulfill a life long dream of mine, which I talk more about in the show.

Even though I tell a story in this session, I do my best to try to include some tips for your online business or blog, including my overall web and social media strategy to help promote this film.

I’m extremely proud to be a part of this project and share it here with you today !

If you’re at work and cannot listen to the audio or you just aren’t into podcasts, I recommend you open up the transcript at the bottom of this post so you can read through the session instead. The transcript is already available for you.

Right click here to download the MP3

Items mentioned in this podcast include:

Please let me know what you think of session #31, and if you enjoyed this episode, please share it!

Thank you all for your support, and once again, Happy New Year!

Cheers! :)

Please subscribe below to the podcast to get automatic updates:

Transcript:

Click Here to Download the Transcript for Session 31 (PDF)

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SPI 031 : Seeds of Opportunity & Pat Goes Hollywood
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Pat FAIL – My Past Business Ideas That Didn’t Work Out So Well

Pat — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 00:30:29 +0000

I’ve had a lot of success online, but I’ve probably had even more failures – and I’m very thankful for each and every one of them.

Without my failures, I would not be where I’m at today.

As Winston Churchill once said, “Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.”

It’s a lot like dating actually.

We date people we like and are interested in, and sometimes it just doesn’t work out. We take those experiences, what we liked and disliked about our previous relationship, and that shapes who we are in the next.

Things That Just Didn’t Work Out For Me

No – I won’t be talking about my ex-girlfriends today, but I will be talking about some of my past business ideas and ventures that just didn’t pan out the way I had hoped.

Why?

To show you that sometimes your business ideas will fail, but that doesn’t mean you should give up – it just means you have to try something different and keep going.

To disclose, I know that some of these ideas were just not that good or even profitable. Something made me decide to give these a shot and just see what happens, and that’s the beauty of doing business online – it’s relatively inexpensive and low-risk to just try something out.

I’d happily try 9 stupid ideas if that meant the 10th one is a homerun.

Here are a bunch of ideas that just didn’t pan out:

A Couple of Thoughts

When GreenExamAcademy.com took off and I started to realize the power behind publishing content online, I thought it would be interesting for my fiancee (now wife) and I to do a relationship blog together where we’d talk about the things leading up to our wedding and beyond.

The idea behind the blog was to pick a debatable and interesting topic each week and we’d both write an article about it. They would show side by side on the homepage and it would provide an interesting male vs. female perspective on things. We’d each have a chance to respond to each other’s articles too and people could comment, respond and pick sides (maybe vote) and that sort of thing.

I purchased acoupleofthoughts.com, got a customized “side-by-side” theme from Elance and we wrote a couple of articles.

After a few drafts we decided that it just wasn’t going to be as much fun as we had thought. Plus, we hadn’t set any goals or envisioned really what the purpose of this project was.

From this experience I learned that there needs to be some kind of goal and vision for what you want a site to become. Even though things may change, having a vision and goals definitely helps (and may even help you decide something is not a good idea in the first place).

Brain Tees

This was the name of a store I setup on CafePress.com, a website where you can create unique t-shirts (among other things) and sell them for a profit. They handle the delivery and customer service for you, and all you have to do is come up with ideas that will sell.

The idea behind Brain Tees was that it was going to sell nerdy and geeky apparel, like T-shirts that say “I love pi” and other things that made you think.

Like a brain tease. (Get it?)

Anyways, I setup braintees.net as the storefront, designed a couple of t-shirts and started to “market” by showing family and friends my creations. After a month or so I had no sales, was not feeling inspired to create more designs, and I just let the domain and store expire.

From this experience I learned that I enjoyed blogging and providing information online more so than e-commerce and retail.

How to Memorize Anything

This was my first attempt at a niche site, although I didn’t even know it at the time. It wasn’t based off of keyword research though (like in my niche site duel), it was based on the request of several of my existing customers who were studying to pass the LEED exam:

How can I train myself to learn and memorize all of this information?!

To help, I built a website (how-to-memorize-anything.com) that included training and exercises to help one be able to memorize things like facts, lines (like in acting) and names.

The unfortunate thing was…I’m not that good at memorizing things!

I really had no business being in the space and no real training and knowledge to share with others.

Knowing the LEED material and presenting that information in a way that can be easily consumed and memorized is what I was good at, but as far as the actual mechanics of memorization and tapping into the potential of one’s brain…yeah – not so much.

From this experience, I learned that even though there may be good ideas for sites out there, sites that would actually help people, that I don’t have to always be the one to create them. I learned to focus on what I’m good at and stick with that.

Review Websites

For a while, I was really excited about creating niche user rating and review websites, sort of like Angie’s List but for things related to what I knew about – like architectural firms, architecture schools, design software, and green building materials. I had this whole master plan of creating one of the sites and using that same exact structure or template for the others.

It was a great idea, and I still think it is, however once I got going I just wasn’t into it. Those types of sites really take the “me” out of things, and I think the reason why I love working on sites like GreenExamAcademy.com and SPI, and even SecurityGuardTrainingHQ.com to an extent, is that they are blogs and I can put my personality into it, if not through sharing stuff about who I am, then at least in my writing style.

From this experience, I learned really what kinds of sites I enjoy working on this most, and so this is where most of my attention and focus is now given.

WordPress Plugins

Old-school SPI fans will know that for a while I was talking (a lot) about a couple of WordPress plugins that I was having developed. They were plugins that were going to fulfill a need that I had and I was going to either give them away or sell them for a small price to create a new income stream.

One of them is on hold now just simply because it’s a huge undertaking and I’m still in need of someone to design the user-interface.

The other one was completed, but not to my liking so it was never released. This is my fault because I didn’t do a good job of explaining exactly what I wanted and exactly how I wanted it to work, and even though it’s done and it works I’m not going to put anything out there under my name and brand that is subpar.

When you’re working with developers you really have to give them as much detailed information as possible.

The sad thing is that I already knew this. My iPhone application company hires people to develop our apps all of the time, but the “I need to get this out as soon as possible” mentality actually set me back and made for a less than stellar product.

From this experience, I learned that if I do anymore software development, to make sure that I give the developer exactly what I want, and to make sure I know what I want in the first place too so I don’t make it up along the way.

I’m Proud of My Failures

I don’t feel any shame in sharing what I’ve tried and failed at because they all made me stronger as an entrepreneur.

I hope this encourages you as you work on your own businesses and helps you realize that you just have to keep trying. If something doesn’t work out, that doesn’t mean you’re not destined to succeed, especially if it’s your first go at it.

Every failure is one step closer to success – as long as you learn from your experiences.

Oh, and I almost forgot! If you have 20 seconds to spare I would love to know how you found out about me and SPI. I’m conducting a quick one question survey that will be used in my presentation at Blog World Expo on November 4th.

Please Click Here to Help Me Out

Also, if you will be attending Blog World Expo I was able to get an SPI 20% off discount code. You can sign up through this link here and use the discount code BWESPI20 to receive the discount.

Thanks again! Cheers, and all the best to you!

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Pat FAIL – My Past Business Ideas That Didn’t Work Out So Well
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You Are Now at Point A

Pat — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 19:50:38 +0000

Taking action is important – you know this.

Without any doing, there can be no getting.

But, there’s a difference between working on something and working towards something that must be realized.

Many people, including myself at times, work just to stay busy – to give ourselves the illusion that we’re actually getting somewhere when really we’re just running on a treadmill – expending energy only to end up exactly where we started.

A treadmill is good for increasing endurance, but from getting from point A to point B – not so much.

You are now at point A.

Do you know where point B is?

There could be a point C, D, and E – all the way to Z and even more…but what’s important now is point B and consciously knowing that what you are doing – the action that you are taking now, will actually get you there.

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You Are Now at Point A
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How to Find a Mastermind Group

Pat — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 07:50:12 +0000

A mastermind group is mandatory to achieve online success.

I wholeheartedly believe this statement because I would not be where I’m at today if it weren’t for the mastermind groups that I’ve been a part of since I began doing business online.

Sure, you can make progress without one, but in order to quickly get to that next level in your business, where things can really begin to accelerate, you need to join a mastermind group.

If you’re serious about wanting to achieve high levels of success, you need to join a mastermind group.

What is a Mastermind Group?

For those of you who don’t know, a mastermind group is just a fancy term for a group of people with a common goal that meet (in person, on the phone, via Skype, chatrooms, meeting software, etc.) to share and learn to improve what they do. Think of it as a show and tell (and ask) for highly motivated individuals who want to get things done.

In these meetings, members of the group share their ideas, questions, triumphs and downfalls. Members with questions get immediate feedback from the others, while everyone learns from everyone else’s experience and wisdom.

Most mastermind group meetings are held in a very formal matter (as outlined below) probably because it’s the most effective structure for the sharing and learning process:

Beginning: Each person, one-by-one, talks briefly about their goals from the previous meeting.
Middle: A predetermined person in the “hot seat” shares, in detail, any number of issues, complications, questions and concerns about his or her own situation. The rest of the members then respond and contribute to the discussion by offering suggestions or comments based on their expert knowledge and/or experience.
End: Each person, one-by-one, talks briefly about the goals that they want to accomplish by the next meeting. Also, the next “hot seat” person is determined so he or she can be ready with questions for the group.

Depending on the mastermind group, the structure may be a little different, however the general idea is the same.

What’s really nice about this format is that because it is so formal, everyone gets to participate and learn from everyone else. I’ve been in non-formal business meetings before, and there’s always a few people who never speak up and don’t get anything out of it. I was one of those people.

The One Benefit We Can All Use

The primary benefits from participating in mastermind groups should be obvious:

You can get any questions you have about what you’re doing answered, or at least talk through how to solve any problems you may be encountering.
You can get a lot of new ideas that you may have never thought of to improve what you’re doing.
You get a second (or third, fourth, fifth, etc.) opinion about any decisions you make with your business. While doing business online, we often experience “tunnel vision”, where we think something is good because we’re so involved in it. But, we sometimes fail to step back and see how things really are, or that it should be approached in a different manner. Your mastermind group can help you step back and see what’s best for you.

Besides those three benefits, there is one extremely important benefit that is rarely mentioned about mastermind groups, and that is accountability.

When you talk to others about what you want to do or what your goals are, you are far more likely to achieve them. Just imagine sharing your goals with a group each week and how much more you would want to accomplish because of it. Maybe it’s because we don’t want to let others in the group down. Or, maybe it’s because we don’t want to seem lazy in front of them. It could even be a subconscious thing. Whatever it is, talking to others about what you want to do will help you achieve success.

How to Find a Mastermind Group

Below is a list of several different ways to find a mastermind group:

Start One Of Your Own: Surely you know others with common interests who also love to improve their businesses or blogs too. Why not get a few of them together on a weekly or monthly basis, and start your own mastermind group?
Ask Other People: Many people are a part of, or have been a part of mastermind groups that may be looking for new members. It never hurts to ask someone in your niche if they know of any that you could participate in. You might be surprised.
Meetup.com: Meetup.com is a fantastic site that connect like-minded people with a number of different interests, from scrapbooking to online business and blogging. You can easily search for groups that are already meeting in your area and when the next meeting is scheduled that you can attend. Some of the internet business meetup meetings I’ve been to have been a great learning experience (not to mention great for networking), while other meetings I’ve been to have been just okay.
Craigslist: Craigslist may have a number of people with similar goals as yours that you might be able to easily connect with.
Internet Business Mastery: I have to credit Sterling and Jay from Internet Business Mastery here because in their Academy, they have a section in their forum that is dedicated just for hooking people up locally for the specific goal of starting a mastermind group. I’ve met with people in San Diego from the Academy and have built long lasting business and personal relationships with these people which have directly helped my businesses. Crazy stuff.

All mastermind groups are different, and it make take a few trials in different groups to find the one that works for you. Good luck with your search, and I hope you find them as useful as I have.

If you have ever been a part of a mastermind group, please share your experience and whether or not you feel they are valuable. Also, do you have any tips to help others who may be looking to join a mastermind group find one?

Cheers!

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Strength in Numbers With Goal Setting

Pat — Mon, 31 May 2010 08:47:26 +0000

What images comes to mind when you hear the phrase “strength in numbers”?

Maybe a school of bait fish trying to play the numbers game and avoid being eaten by a predator? Or how about a battle between two sides, hoping for the advantage over their adversary? A “power play” in hockey?

Generally speaking, when there are two sides involved with something, there is definitely a “strength in numbers”, but I’m going to pull a fast one on you and ask you this:

How does the phrase “strength in numbers” come into play when there’s only one side involved? How can it help you?

“Strength in THE Numbers”

Here’s how it can help you.

Whenever you want to set a goal for yourself, it’s always best to set a quantitative goal – with numbers! It may seem obvious to you, but it surprises me how many people don’t grasp the power behind actually setting quantitative goals.

A number can motivate a person because a number has a defined meaning that cannot be changed or misinterpreted. It is what is it. Also, by defining our goals as much as possible (with numbers), we can determine a clearer path to get there.

A blurred goal can only blur ones path to get “there”.

Here’s an example of a goal that I know a lot of my readers have:

I want to have a successful blog.

That’s a great goal to have, but unfortunately it’s also terrible.

Why?

Because what does “successful” really mean? How will you know when you get there? If you leave it at that, chances are you will never feel like you’ve succeeded, no matter what, which doesn’t bode well for our self-esteem.

Here are some other “terrible” goals:

I want to lose weight.
I want to save more money.
I want to have more clients.
I want a large email list.

Again, please don’t misinterpret my use of the word “terrible” with these goals. I only say they are so because they are not quantified.

Beyond the Numbers

There’s another crucial element to goal setting that we should also never fail to include:

A specific time.

A quantifiable goal is great, but without any set time or date to go along with it, it becomes very easy for us to “put it off” or make excuses that “we’re getting there”, although it may be at an undesired snail’s pace.

Like a number, a date and/or time cannot be messed around with. It is exactly what it is, so it further defines our goals, and therefore our actions towards those goals.

Lastly, try to stay away from a general time frame to complete your goal, i.e. “in a year”, or “in a couple of months.” Your goals should be as specific as possible. That way, you’ll understand not only what needs to be done, but also when.

Just a Number?

Recently, when people ask me, “Pat, what’s your goal for SPI?”, I’ve been responding with, “10,000 RSS Subscribers by the end of the year.”

Usually, I get a follow up question asking, “Why 10,000? It’s just a number.”

And the truth is that it really is just a number. It has no true significance to the blog, which will be no different than when it had 9,999 subscribers.

However, even though it’s just a number, I hope you can understand why it’s important that this number exists. It actually gives me many things that I can use:

It gives me something EXACT to work towards. It’ definitely motivating, especially when I see the subscriber count tick closer and closer to the goal.
I can break it down into smaller goals or “installments” that lead up to 10k. For example, I can say that this leaves me 6 months to earn about 3600 subscribers. That’s 1800 in 3 months, or 600 per month.
After breaking it down into smaller goals, I can actually figure out what actions to take to get there. It’s a lot easier to think about how to get 600 subscribers then it is to get 3600.
If for some reason I’m not “on schedule” based on how I’m progressing on the smaller goals, I can make adjustments as necessary to make sure I stay on track.
After I reach this goal, I can make a new quantifiable goal to ensure the continued growth of the blog.

Not So Terrible Goals

Now, let’s bring back our “terrible” goals from earlier and see how they look now:

I want to lose 20 lbs. by July 15th, 2010.
I want to save $150 a month for 3 years.
I want to have 5 new clients in 30 days.
I want an email list of 15,000 subscribers by March 24, 2011.

Looks good to me!

Now that you’ve read this post, what’s one of your goals? It can be about anything you care to share.

Cheers everyone!

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Strength in Numbers With Goal Setting
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The Realization That Enabled Me to Make a Living Online

Pat — Wed, 05 May 2010 07:05:53 +0000

This is a guest post from Glen Allsopp of ViperChill.com. If you’ve been around on my blog for a while, you may notice that I refer to Glen and his blog quite a bit. Why? Because his content is just that good, and this guest post is no exception.

When I built my first website at 15, I honestly didn’t know too much about what I was doing. I used a free site builder so didn’t have my own domain, used the built in templates so I didn’t have to mess around with HTML and used image generators online so I had no need for Photoshop. When I started looking at how to make money online and everyone I spoke to recommended that I should get my own domain, I felt totally lost.

For the next year I tweaked my MySpace pages as a way to help me learn HTML (and impress my friends. Sad, I know), I purchased domains as people had recommended and used a friends hosting company to get my website online. After struggling with databases and FTP software for a few months, I started to get a hang of what I was doing.

Though I had some initial success when one of my websites was featured in a popular book and I built and sold some websites for a few hundred dollars, I really wasn’t making that much money online. I was even building websites around the things that I loved, but just didn’t seem to be getting anywhere.

After much frustration, I went…

In Search of the Magic Bullet

If you’ve been trying to make an income online for a decent amount of time then you’ve probably came across the thousands of guides offering you tips on how to get rich overnight. The “secrets nobody is telling you about” in the form of an instant download or how one man “went from nothing to working from a beach in Thailand in just six weeks”. These are just some examples, but I’m sure you know what I’m talking about.

Lured in by these promises, I spent what little money I had trying to gain knowledge in the area of making money online. I had built my skillset in terms of creating websites and getting them hosted online, but I thought there must be something missing that nobody is telling me if I couldn’t seem to get further than a few hundred dollars per month.

One product turned into the next, and that one led me to another, until I ended up with piles of useless eBooks that had left me in a worse financial situation than I was in before. I was supposed to be learning how to make money, not getting other people rich by buying their products.

If it wasn’t for my successful stint as a freelancer and my sheer determination to “get this down,” I think I would have given up my internet income dreams a long time ago. Product after product and promise after promise left me nowhere.

The magic bullet was nowhere to be found.

Today, I’m making a very healthy living online building websites around things I love and helping thousands of people around the world do the same. I don’t make a living by teaching other people how to make a living online but I do try my best to help.

The last two years have been very instrumental for me, and they also helped me find the magic bullet. That’s right, there is one. And it’s much closer to home than you think.

My Realization

My realization is fairly simple, but once you grasp and internalize it, the results from your internet endeavors are sure to skyrocket. The realization was simply this: You are the magic bullet. Instead of looking for some genius idea or a secret that it seemed everyone was keeping away from me, it finally clicked that maybe, just maybe, it was the actions I took rather than the knowledge I seeked that would allow me to finally make money online.

Instead of buying another product, I bought a domain. Instead of looking for instant results in an eBook, I looked for a niche I could target. Instead of wondering why so many people besides me where making money, I decided to focus on one thing until I was the person making money.

And guess what? Things actually started to happen.

I built one affiliate site and a few months later it started making a great income. I used the same steps in another industry, and did well in that one too. I then went on to build a blog as I love writing and having an audience, and through nothing more than right action and a lot of determination, that also became very successful.

I will now say that it is very, very difficult to get out of the groove of looking for the secrets of the magic pill if you’re already entangled in buying make money online products. I have a friend who is doing exactly that right now, and no matter how much advice I give him, he’s still clicking the ‘add to cart’ buttons on the next “can’t miss” product launch.

For some people, the only way this lesson will click is when they go through the spiral themselves and realize it isn’t taking them anywhere. Fortunately, you do have the opportunity to see that everything you really need to make money online is out there; you just have to start putting that knowledge into action.

What To Do Now

If you’re still looking for some hidden information that you think I might have missed from this post, then you’re still in the mindset that someone else has the knowledge you need to succeed. Sure, there’s great advice out there (especially on Pat’s blog, here) but it isn’t going to take you anywhere unless your main focus is not that of a seeker, but one of a doer.

With whatever web properties you have right now, or the ones you’re planning to build, commit to actually seeing them through until you start to see a return on your time investment. Decide that you wont buy another internet secrets guide until you’ve actually made the money to afford it via your income online.

The process may be slow, and it may be tough, and you might even fail.

But I guarantee you’ll learn far more from the process and your mistakes than anything I, Pat, or any course online can teach you.

You are the magic bullet. You just have to put yourself to good use.

Glen Allsopp is the writer behind ViperChill, a blog on Viral Marketing. If you run a blog, he’s also written an extensive guide to WordPress SEO that you may find useful.

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The Order of Operations for Online Business and Blogging

Pat — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 07:55:42 +0000

“Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally.”

Does that phrase sound familiar to you? If it does, that’s because our grade school teachers used it over and over again to help us learn how to do math in the proper order.

Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally = Parenthesis, Exponents, Multiplication, Division, Addition, Subtraction.

This is the order of operations. It’s important because it helps us solve our math problems correctly. If you have an equation such as this…

[(2 + 3)^2] – [(6*5-3) / 9] = X

…using the order of operations makes it relatively simple to find that X = 22. Without any particular order, we would never find the correct answer, and the world would end.

For those of us in the online business and blogging world, there’s a specific order of operations that we must follow too. If we don’t, it will be much more difficult to reach our goals.

The Order of Operations for Online Business and Blogging is something I just came up with, but it sums up (pun intended) everything I’ve done since I started doing business online.

Here’s the mnemonic (you can make up your own, but I like this one for obvious reasons):

“In comes Dr. Flynn.”

Get it? “Incomes”?

Anyways, here is what it stands for:

In Comes Dr. Flynn = Intention, Content, Design & Follow-thru

Intention

Everything you do online must have intent. In fact, it should start with it. There must be a reason and motive behind every action you take - even all the way down to the headline that you write on your next blog post.

Without purpose or goals, there will be no passion, no excitement, and you will see no results.

Why are you doing what you’re doing?

Content

With a purpose and intention in mind, content must come next. Remember, content is King.

Your content is the information that people absorb, it’s the text that search engines find, and it’s exactly the vehicle you’re going to use to achieve your goals.

There are some debates between quality vs. quantity when it comes to your content, but really what it comes down to is how much value you’re providing to your audience. Provide tons of value and you will find success.

Design

Design matters. Whether it’s the look of your site, how people flow through it, what’s on it (or what shouldn’t be on it), it’s all important.

It’s not as important as content, but it’s the next most important thing.

You’ve heard me say this before: design without content is useless, but content without design is dumb.

The thing about design is that it can have a major impact on what you’re trying to do. Take the same content, illustrate it in two different ways, and you’ll have two different results. If that’s not a reason to make sure you optimize every single part of your website (by testing, experimenting, redesigning, etc.), then I don’t know what is.

Follow-thru

Last (but definitely not least), is your follow-thru.

If you’ve ever played golf or basketball, you know what “follow-thru” is all about. Even though it’s being applied physically in these sports, it plays the same role here in business.

For those of you who don’t quite understand, when taking a swing in golf or shooting a basketball with your wrist, it’s the follow-thru motion and action that you make after you swing or shoot that make sure you:

Don’t lose speed and keep accelerating.
Stay on target and maintain accuracy.

We should always be following through, because “just enough” isn’t good enough.

It can be really easy to stop or to give up – but that’s just like taking a golf swing and stopping the club right when you hit the ball. You’ve done a lot of work already, so you’ve got to keep going and make sure you’re doing what it takes to make sure you don’t lose speed, stay on target and maintain accuracy.

And remember, this doesn’t mean you have to work harder – it may just mean you have to work smarter.

For You

1) Do you agree with the Order of Operations for Online Business and Blogging? If not, what’s missing or how would you change it?

2) Do you have a different mnemonic? (This is just for fun).

3) Please retweet or share if you have the opportunity. Thank you! Cheers!

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51 Blogging and Online Marketing Tips for the New Year

Pat — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 14:01:18 +0000

Here are 51 blogging and internet marketing tips that you can use as inspiration for the upcoming year.

Mindset

1. Revisit your goals. Take a moment and rewrite your goals. You may find that they may have changed since the last time you really took a good look at them. If you don’t have any goals, than what are you working towards?

2. Remember where you were. Where was your online business or blog at one year ago? Are you seeing any improvements? If yes, be proud of how far you’ve come along and the fact that you haven’t given up. If you haven’t seen any improvements, why do you think that is?

3. You can always do a little bit more. If you’re up to it, try this 2-step exercise:

Raise your hand as high as you can.
Raise your hand even higher.

If you do this exercise, you’ll notice that you can always stretch your hand a little higher, even though you were told to put it as high as you can at first. When I did this exercise as a teenager, it changed how I thought about everything I did after that moment. It made me realize that I can always do a little bit more. Apply this to what you do online.

4. Take action. As I mentioned in my first law of business and success, every business in a state of motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it. With that in mind, you can read and get inspired all you want, but nothing will happen unless you take action. Become the external force that is required to get your blog, business and life to exactly where you want it to be.

5. Flaunt your unique. In other words, know what makes you stand out from the crowd, and milk it. In order to succeed, especially online, you can’t blend in and just be another blog or website that talks about X. Your site can still be about X, but you should be one of the only ones that does Y, or Z.

6. No fear. Fear kills progress, and it kills business. When you’re reluctant to take an action or do something new, take a minute and think to yourself, “what’s the worst that can really happen?”. The worst usually isn’t as bad as you might think.

7. Failing is okay. We all want to succeed, but we shouldn’t ever be afraid of failing. Failing is part of the process and teaches us valuable lessons along the way. Learn from your mistakes, and improve on your next attempt.

8. Don’t work more, work smarter. When we think of putting in the extra mile to get things done, we often think that means just putting in more hours of work. Instead, think of ways that you can work smarter, which will accomplish the same (or even more), in a considerably less amount of time. It may take a small investment of time in the beginning to figure out how to work smarter, but you’ll make up for that time (and stress) soon enough.

9. Give back. I truly believe in “online karma”. The more you help others and the more you give back, the more success you will find. If your primary motivation is just to make as much money as you can and do things just for yourself, you’re only going to see a limited amount of success, if any.

10. Just freakin’ enjoy what you’re doing! If you enjoy what you’re doing, it doesn’t become work anymore. You’ll accomplish more, and be happier. If you’re not doing something you enjoy, why not?

Blog Content

11. Be consistent. Write new content on a schedule. Whether it’s once a week, three times a week, or every day – pick a frequency and stick with it. It will not only help your readers know when to expect a new blog post, but it will help you consistently put content out there that Google will crawl to improve your site’s ranking and authority.

12. Be different. In most niches, there are a number of blogs talking about the same thing. Like I mentioned in tip #5, if you do what everyone else is doing, and talk about what everyone else is talking about, you’re just going to blend in. Give people a reason to notice your blog over the rest.

13. Use keywords in your title. It’s cool to have a clever title, but it’s inefficient to leave out important keywords. One of the top things the search engines look at when determining how relevant your site is to certain keywords is the title of your post. This is why so many bloggers who understand search engine optimization rank higher in the search engines for topics that online newspapers and companies write about, because they are so concerned about catchy headlines, with no keywords.

14. Use relevant anchor text for your links. When linking to another website or blog within your posts, don’t link to them in words like “click here for…”, or “which you can read here.” Use the phrases or keywords that are relevant to what you’re writing about. As far as SEO is concerned, it will help you a little, but for the websites you’re linking to, it will help a lot. It’s good practice.

15. Break up your post with different text styles. If you write an entire blog post in the same text the entire way through, it’s going to be difficult to read and hard to scan. Use different sized headers, bullet points, and numbered lists to separate your content and make it easier for your readers to consume.

16. Emphasize parts of your content with different text styles. If there’s a particular word or phrase within your paragraphs that you’d like to emphasize, make it bold or italic so your points are even more pronounced.

17. Use stories. People love stories because they can connect and relate to them. It makes what you’re writing about more real, and it often serves as proof for your points as well. Are you just telling people what to do, or are you illustrating how it worked for you? I believe that my internet success story is part of the reason why I’ve been able to amass a considerable amount of subscribers in such a short period of time.

18. Use data. Other people are more attracted to data and logic, rather than stories. Support your content with raw data, and your arguments will seem that much more believable. I use data all of the time, for example when I talk about my success from writing on eHow.

19. Write for your readers, not yourself. Unless you have a strictly personal blog, one of the biggest mistakes you can make while writing content is writing for yourself. Your audience should be your first priority, and you should do what you can to write about topics they are interested in. In the process, you’ll get more comments, more subscribers, and have more people linking back to you as well. Now who doesn’t want that?

20. Enjoy what you write! Believe me when I say that your readers can tell when you are just trying to finish a blog post versus really enjoying the writing process and having fun with it. I hope you can tell that I’m having fun writing this one

Blog Design

21. Perform the squint test. Go to your blog’s homepage and squint. By doing this, you’ll notice which parts of your design stand out the most. If the things you notice first aren’t the most important pieces of your website (featured content, opt-in/subscriber areas, about, etc.), then you have have to redesign a little. Advertisements are okay, as long as they aren’t the very first thing people notice (in which case, they’ll probably leave).

22. Work on your blog’s “elevator pitch”. Can new visitors to your blog understand exactly what your site is about in the first 10 seconds without clicking on anything? If they can’t, then more than 70-75% of people will leave almost immediately. In your web stats and analytics, check your “bounce rate”, which is the percentage of people who visit your site that leave without taking any action. To improve your bounce rate, work on your tagline and/or include an “about me” area on the homepage.

23. Make it easy for people to subscribe. People are lazy, so the more searching, clicking, and scrolling have to do before they can subscribe, the more chances they have to skedaddle. (I love that word.) Put your RSS feed button (and any other buttons you want them to click on) on the homepage, above the fold, at the top where it can easily be found.

24. Avoid clutter. I know you’re trying to make a buck with all of those advertisements and affiliate links, but seriously – there is a thing as too much clutter. People are becoming smarter and smarter as more and more people go online these days. They aren’t just going to click random ads that blink, turn and twist anymore. Keep your site clean, and people will be more likely to stick around and respond to what you have to say.

25. Show yourself! If you’re hiding behind a logo, or even a caricature, I can’t help but wonder why. Your blog is yours, and you shouldn’t be afraid of showing your face. If your blog took off and you were asked to do an interview for a television station, would you hide your face behind a cardboard cutout of your logo or a caricature during the broadcast? You want your blog to take off, don’t you?

Getting Noticed

26. Comment on more blogs. Find other blogs in your niche and leave useful, insightful comments on posts that interest you. You probably comment on a few already, but look for other “rising star” blogs that seems like it has good content. Many of these blogs will appreciate your comments and begin to notice who you are. Kind of like how I’ve started to notice Howie, Ms. Freeman, and Azad on mine. Thanks guys!

27. Write guest posts for other blogs. This is probably the best technique for getting lots of traffic and subscribers, in the shortest amount of time. Write a killer blog post on other blogs in your niche, and you’ll begin to become a part of the network and community yourself. In addition, you get some nice search engine love from any links back to your own site, which most host blogs of your guest posts will allow.

28. Participate in forums related to your niche. Here’s a quick tip. Type in “forums:keyword” into Google, and you’ll see a number of forums related to your niche, usually listed in the order of most popular at the top. Join them, because part of the community, and be sure to include your link in your signature so people can click over to your site. If you become a knowledgeable authority for a particular topic in the forum, chances are people will head to your blog for answers too.

29. Do interviews. There are tons of people who host shows and podcasts, and some of them are probably related to your niche. Contact the hosts (contact info is usually on their main page, their itunes page, or through a voicemail line in their show), tell them a little bit about yourself, and offer to do an interview if they are in need of content for a show. Now, you will be speaking live to this person and they will be asking you questions, so you may have to step out of your comfort zone for a bit. It’s good practice, and again – what’s the worst that can happen? If you have a website about something, you obviously know a lot about it, so don’t be afraid, and get some exposure!

30. Write about something controversial. One way to get noticed is to go against the norm. Not all websites may be fit to do this, but if you can spark up a heated debate, you can get your readers involved and grab some new ones at the same time.

Networking

31. Join a mastermind group. If you hang out and chat with like-minded people with similar goals, you can’t help but improve what you’re doing online. Every mastermind group I’ve been in has been such a blessing, and I attribute a lot of my success to ideas that came directly from those meetings.

32. Utilize meetup.com. Meetup.com is an awesome site where you can type in any topic and find groups of people in your local area who are interested in the same topic, and when and where they meet next. I’ve been to a few meetup.com meetups for “internet business” here in the San Diego area, and I’ve met some great people, all doing different things online. It’s pretty cool!

33. Go to a convention. For almost any topic, there are conventions where mass amounts of people gather who are interested in that topic. For comics and fantasy stuff, we have Comic-Con. For LEED, there’s GreenBuild. For bloggers, there’s the Blog World Expo. Although there are usually speakers and experts who present new ideas, the biggest benefit from attending these conventions is the networking that takes place between the attendees. You can be sure I’ll do my best to buy my ticket for the Blog World Expo next year.

34. Online Groups. Many of you may not live in an area where you have easy access to groups of people interested in what you’re interested in, so a live mastermind group or a meetup.com meeting is out of the picture. But, there are online groups that you can utilize to get your networking on. You can get connected with people in forums related to your niche (see #28, above), you can find groups on yahoo, Facebook, or even pay to join a like-minded community like I do with the Internet Business Mastery Academy.

35. Utilize Social Networks. Social networks, like Twitter and Facebook, are excellent ways to connect with people in your niche. A lot of deals and joint ventures sprouted from connections from within these social networks. If you aren’t utilizing either Twitter or Facebook for your blog or business (or both), why not?

Twitter

36. Get Targeted Followers. So you’re on twitter, and have 10 followers (2 of them happen to be family members). That’s ok. Here’s the trick for getting targeted followers for your niche, if you didn’t know it already. Find a top player in your niche by doing a twitter search, and follow that person’s followers. That’s it. Some of them will automatically follow you back because they have auto-follow on, but others will visit your profile, and if they like what you’ve tweeted so far, and your bio, they will follow you back too.

37. Twitter Bonus Trick. Using the method above, you can use this bonus Twitter trick of mine (3:36 YouTube video) that I use to increase the amount of people who end up following me back.

38. Use a nice, personal photo for your profile picture. If you’re on Twitter and haven’t changed your profile picture yet, you’re using their little default birdie picture, which just screams “PLEASE DON’T FOLLOW ME OR READ ANYTHING I TWEET!”. If you have a logo, that’s better, but most people will respond to you (and click on the links that you tweet), if you have a nice picture of your face.

39. Use a custom Twitter background. If you visit my Twitter profile, you can see a custom twitter background in action. It’s just a background picture, so you can’t have anything clickable on it, but it’s perfect for quickly showing any new visitor to your profile exactly who you are and what you’re about. Some people put all kinds of text in their background, but personally I like to keep it clean and simple. If you’re a designer out there, my background is simply 259?×?1707, and the right edge of the vertical image matches the twitter background, which you can customize as well. One of my favorites is Darren’s from Problogger.

40. Track your links and test your copy. Use a url shortener such at bit.ly, to not only shorten huge urls that you don’t want to eat up your 140 character limit, but also to track the links you tweet as well. Test different kinds of copy each time you tweet any links to see how your particular group of followers responds to each.

Facebook Pages

41. Setup a Facebook page. If you haven’t explored Facebook as an extension for your blog or business yet, I would definitely do that as soon as you can. I don’t want to make any predictions, but I think Facebook has a lot more in store for us as they begin to cater towards businesses and non-personal type accounts. Although everything you need to know about how to setup a Facebook page is already written on my blog, I will reiterate a few important points below.

42. Utilize a Facebook landing page. If you’re trying to get fans for your page and you don’t have a landing page, you’re wasting your time. A landing page will drastically increase the number of people who become fans. Without it, visitors will end up on your “wall”, which is ugly and doesn’t tell people what they have to do. Trust me.

43. Engage in conversations. Because of the way Facebook works, it’s really easy to engage in multiple conversations, with multiple people at the same time. This is why I like Facebook better than Twitter, and the people who click over to your webpage from Facebook generally tend to have a lower bounce rate and stay on the site longer as well. Ask questions, write compelling thoughts, and your audience will respond. Some of the comment strings on my Facebook page are 30-40 comments deep at times.

44. Encourage others to post links and start conversations too. Another cool thing about the Facebook page is that your fans can post links and start their own conversations as well. This is a nice way to reward those who are your fans who may have something to add from their own sites, or who just have questions they need help with. You have full control of what’s shown and what’s not, so if anyone posts something naughty, you can simply remove it from your wall.

45. Don’t get lost in Facebook. Although I love Facebook, it’s really easy to get lost in it, especially if you have a personal account where you can see that your friend from high school has just gotten engaged. Remember, it’s important to engage with your fans, but your blog or website should be your primary focus. It is where you will be linking to from your Facebook page anyways from time to time.

Take it to the Next Level

46. Expand into other forms of media. So you have a blog. Have you ever thought about expanding your content into other media types, such as video, audio, or even going live? If you really want to take yourself to the next level, you’re going to have to branch out. Even just one episode or video a month is great practice.

47. Create information products. So you have a blog. Have you ever thought about expanding your content into information products that you can either giveaway or sell for an extra income? Now’s the time. You can create eBooks, audio, video, or a membership website, all of which are great information products you can use to expand your brand and increase your reputation and authority in your niche.

48. Hire some help. As one person, we can only do so much. Even if we put in more hours and work more efficiently, we’ll eventually reach some kind of plateau. Hire some people to do some of the mundane work that you don’t really enjoying doing to get to that next level. For example, if you spend a lot of time editing and submitting videos, or social bookmarking your blog posts, you can easily find cheap help from places such as Elance.com or oDesk.com to do those kinds of things for you. Soon, you’ll end up with your own virtual assistant team you can go to for anything when you need it.

49. Work 1 hour extra for yourself a day. Maybe you work a 9 to 5 job, maybe you don’t. Either way, try and devote at least an extra hour a day to you and your online business. Yes, finding an extra hour a day may be close to impossible, but if you really want to “crush it”, you’re going to have to hustle and sacrifice a little. Gary Vaynerchuk suggests working in the late hours of the night if you have to, and I totally agree with him. Do what it takes to get to where you want to go. Even just an hour a day would be huge for the growth of what you do online, especially if you know exactly what to do with it, which I hopefully have given you some ideas for in this post.

50. Be confident with every decision you make. Excuse my language here, but if you go into something half-ass, you’ll see half-ass results. Whenever you make a decision, small or big, go into it knowing that it’s the right decision, because you made it. Even if it ends up being a wrong decision, at least you know that it wasn’t from putting less than all of your effort into it. You can then learn from your mistakes, and put confidence into your next decision. You don’t want to end up with a

And Lastly…

51. Shoot for the stars. Seriously, try to be the best. Wait, let me rephrase that…

BE THE BEST.

Know that you have what it takes to be a top player in your niche, and don’t think anything less of yourself, ever.

Here’s to your success in the upcoming year.

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I Give You Permission to Succeed

Pat — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 09:54:08 +0000

I Give You Permission to Succeed, By Pat Flynn

You might be wondering to yourself, “Who are you, to give me permission to succeed?”

“Who are you, to tell me when I can do things?”

“Who are you, to grant me any kind of permission to do anything?”

As soon as we begin to comprehend and understand the world around us as little boys and little girls, we’re taught that it’s proper, and polite, to ask for permission. We’re taught to raise our hands before speaking in class. We’re taught to ask our parents before going out. We’re taught to ask, before borrowing something. Ask and ye shall receive.

Often, we’re granted permission without even asking for it, and sometimes we get to a point where we wait for it instead.

Permission is good, because a permission-less environment would be a chaotic place. Parents of children, teachers of students, and kings of countries understand that permission is necessary for control.

When it comes to our hopes, our dreams and our successes in life, permission is still necessary. However, there is only one person in this entire world that can grant you permission to reach your goals…

You.

Are you taking initiative, or are you waiting for others to tell you what to do?

Are you taking action, or just reading about it?

Are you giving yourself permission to succeed, or are you waiting for someone else’s permission?

So who am I to give you permission to do anything? I’m nobody.

It’s all you.

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I Give You Permission to Succeed
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3 Ways to B*tch Slap Fear in the Face and Laugh

Pat — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 19:52:20 +0000

I’ll admit it. When I started my online adventures one year ago, I was scared. I had just been laid off from my architecture job, and to top it off I was engaged and getting married a few months later. Just to clarify, I wasn’t scared of getting married, I was scared of not being able to provide for my wife and I after we were married. I feared failing, and letting down not only my family, but myself too.

It’s okay to be scared though. Fear is one of the most primitive human emotions that’s built into us so we can survive. You can’t really get rid of something like that, you can only learn how to deal with it by first understanding why it’s there and then saying to it, “Hey Fear, thanks for the heads up. I know you’re trying to protect me, but I’m all good.”

Of course, there may be situations in your life where you should listen to fear, but when it comes to you wanting to achieve something that you really want, you can’t let fear stand in your way. Here are 3 ways that I’ve learned to overcome fear, which can be applied not only to your online adventures, but life in general too.

1. What’s the Worst That Can Happen, Really?

Fear has a funny way of blurring out reality. One thing that has helped me overcome many fears, from starting my online business to speaking in front of large crowds, was to think to myself, “what’s the worst that can happen, really?” You’ll often find that the worst thing that could happen in reality isn’t that bad at all.

So, you’re thinking about writing an eBook and selling it on your blog, for example. What’s the worst that can happen, really?

Well of course, the worst thing that could happen is that you get sued for copying another book word for word, but of course you’re not going to do that. The worst thing that could happen in reality is that you spend a considerable amount of time on your eBook, sell it, and end up with zero sales. Is life over after that? No way. You take what you’ve learned, and apply it to your next project. Failure is not being unsuccessful. Failure is not learning from your mistakes.

Here’s a personal example:

A while back, I had to give a speech in front of nearly 300 people. I was scared, but then I thought, “What’s the worst that can happen, really?”

Well of course the worst thing that could happen is that as I’m speaking my pants fall down, and then I knock over the mic stand, which triggers a spark that ignites the gas that’s been leaking into the room for the last hour and we all explode and die, but of course that’s not going to happen. The worst thing that could happen in reality is that I stumble with a few words, or maybe even pause at awkward moments. Is life over after that? No way. Oh, and after that particular speech, I was elected the Student Director of the University of California Marching Band.

Don’t let fear change reality.

2. Know What to Expect.

Many of us fear the unfamiliar. This is why we’re afraid of the dark, why we don’t like change, and why we’re scared to do business online. One of the best ways to overcome fear is to familiarize yourself with what you’re unfamiliar with.

You can read as many books as you want to try and familiarize yourself with something, but nothing beats fear to the ground more than talking to someone about it who has been there before.

I’ve never skydived, but I’ve definitely thought about it. If I ever seriously consider doing it, you can be sure I’ll be asking all of my friends who have done it before what it was like and what to expect.

When you’re starting out online, know that it’s okay to ask for help, especially from those who you admire and want to emulate. Many of those people will be more than happy to share their experiences and help you know what to expect. That is partly the reason why I created this blog.

Here’s another personal example:

I’m having a baby boy soon. He’s due on January 22nd, 2010. I’ve NEVER held a baby before in my entire life. To familiarize myself with this whole experience, I’m taking a Basic Training for New Dads class here in San Diego before our son is born. It’s held by experienced dads, and there will actually be real babies there to practice holding and changing diapers with. This way, when little Keoni is born, I’ll know exactly what to expect.

Counter fear with knowledge.

3. Just freakin’ do it!

I’m sure you know this already, but the best way to overcome fear is just to do whatever it is you’re scared of. Of course, that’s easier said than done – but it’s true.

You should always take time to do the proper research before you get into any kind of business, but there comes a point where you should just do it and stop wasting time trying to figure everything out. Here’s a quote that I love from Jason Van Orden, co-host of the Internet Business Mastery Podcast and someone who I really admire:

Breaking through to the next level always takes a leap of faith. You calculate ROI as best as you can, then make the jump.

In addition to that, you have to think about the possibilities you’re opening up for yourself by breaking through. Although I was scared, I now have a 6-figure income from my online business and can spend time at home with my family whenever I want. If I was too scared and didn’t make the decision to do business online, I don’t know where I’d be today.

Up next

In an earlier post, I mentioned how I was sort of spreading myself thin with the multitude of projects I have going on at the same time. I’m now focusing my energy on something much bigger while putting aside some of the other things I’ve been working on. I’d like to share with you in my next post exactly what I’m up to. It’s going to be a fun ride.

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3 Ways to B*tch Slap Fear in the Face and Laugh
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