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Getting Started with Smart Passive Income

10 Creative Ways to “Level-Up” Your Presence on Facebook

I love Facebook – not only because it helps me remember when to wish my friends a “Happy Birthday”, but also because it has been an extremely effective tool for my brand.

For example, over the past year Facebook has overwhelmingly been the number one site for referral traffic to SPI:

Again, this is for traffic coming to the blog – not necessarily the method that new visitors have found out about me (which is, as I’ve recently found out, through my podcast). In fact, if you look across the row you’ll see that Facebook actually has the lowest percentage in terms of new visits, at 19.05%.

This means that most of the traffic that comes from Facebook is returning traffic, which is important because it’s one thing to get people to come to your site for the first time (and for some, that’s the easy part), but it’s a whole new ballgame trying to get those first time visitors to come back.

Over the past year, I’ve shared a lot of tips from my own experience about Facebook:

All of these tips are helpful for getting you up and running, but what about tips for interaction and engagement?

How about tips for keeping eyes on your brand and getting people to click through to your website?

That’s what I’m going to share with you today.

Below are 10 creative ways to “level-up” or supercharge your presence on Facebook so that you can get more people involved in your brand, stay better connected with your readers and customers, get more traffic coming to your site and have Facebook become an integral part of your marketing campaign. Click Here to Read More About How to Level Up Your Facebook Page

56

Reader Challenge Roundup: Tell a Story and The Next Challenge

I’m here not only to give you as much information as possible on my blog, but I’m also here to help you take action.

One of the ways I love to do that is through reader challenges, where I challenge you to do something specific that I know will help you and your presence online.

Last November I asked you to write a Pillar Article, which yielded a total of 51 posts, tens of thousands of additional visitors to your blogs and one person even landing a book deal!

In January of 2011, I then asked you to write a List Post, which resulted in 1,003 “things” in a total of 63 posts that were shared (and are still being shared) all around the web.

In March of 2011, I then asked you to step out of your comfort zone and post a YouTube Video. There were 44 participants, most who have never recorded or published a video in their life. The most viewed video now has over 25,000 views since then and is ranking #1 in YouTube for its particular keyword!

In May of 2011, I asked you to create a mini-product – some kind of eBook or report that could be given away for free to help expand your brands and, if applicable, earn more subscribers. 20 submissions later, a few people emailed me to let me know that this particular challenge has changed the entire course of their blog, which is fantastic!

And finally in September, my latest challenge asked you to simply tell a story.

So what’s the point of writing a story? Click Here to Read More about Telling a Story

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SPI 028 : How to Be Everywhere – Building a Profitable BRAND by Thinking Outside the Blog

The Smart Passive Income Podcast

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In this special session of The Smart Passive Income Podcast, I share a re-recording of the presentation I did at Blog World Expo in Los Angeles last week.

I also include a YouTube video that has the slides that I had prepared as well, although if you’re going to listen to the audio you don’t need the slides in order to get the message I’m trying to share.

Again, this is not the actual recording of my session at Blog World Expo. As I mentioned in my last post, and at the beginning of this podcast episode, things didn’t go quite as planned during the live presentation. You can learn more about exactly what happened (and have a nice laugh too) by clicking here to see exactly what went wrong.

My presentation is all about Being Everywhere, expanding outside of the blog to bring new eyes into your brand and business. I share some very compelling data from a survey I did on SPI a few weeks ago, and I also share a ton of tips and strategies for all the platforms I discuss.

If you’ve ever felt like the growth of your blog has hit a plateau, and you’re looking for information about how to get off of that pleateau and get back into growth mode, this presentation is for you.

In this session you’ll hear me talk about:

A homeless man who changed my view on branding and doing business online.
The top three ways that people have found me who are now reading my blog – and it’s not Google, Facebook or Twitter.
Three things that should absolutely be happening on your blog first before reaching out and finding new audiences.
How to tap into untapped resources for bloggers like iTunes and YouTube.
A ton of tips and tricks to make sure you give yourself the best chance to stand out of the crowd and be found.
How social media and your email list play a role in Being Everywhere.
The power of The Content Trifecta.
And a whole lot more…

There is over an hour of content here, and I’m super stoked to still be getting compliments about my presentation from those who attended my session at Blog World Expo. I hope those of you were were unable to make it enjoy it as well.

(Click here to Watch How to Be Everywhere on YouTube)

Right click here to download the MP3

Items mentioned in this podcast include:

Please subscribe below to the podcast to get automatic updates:

Thank you so much for your support!

And lastly, thank you to those of you who voted for the SPI podcast for The Podcast Awards. The results came in and I did not win any awards, but just to be nominated by you was such an honor. Congratulations to the winners, and maybe we’ll get ‘em next year!

Please leave any comments you have about the presentation below, and if you liked this podcast session, please feel free to share it!

#BeEverywhere

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Why I Almost Left the Room While Speaking at Blog World Expo

I had attempted to record a dual podcast episode and video slideshow of the presentation I did at Blog World Expo to include in this post, but 5 minutes into the recording my voice went hoarse.

I guess I still need a couple of days to recover.

I am, however, happy to write a recap of my speaking experience at BWE in LA last week.

Now – you might be wondering why I would need to re-record my presentation.

The reason is because something unexpected happened during my presentation at BWE, something that on the inside, for a brief moment, made me just want to flee.

Let me tell you the story leading up to it… Click to continue…

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My Monthly Report – October 2011

passive income Welcome to my October 2011 monthly report!

Each month I share the income I’ve generated online – down to the penny.

I do this for several reasons:

To help me keep track of my progress and focus on improving the numbers each and every month.
To help you understand the kinds of ways one can generate an income online.
To share what has and what has not been working for me. And most importantly…
To be transparent and real about what I do.

As you’ll see, this report isn’t just about the numbers – it’s about education and learning from my past experiences.

Remember, success online does not happen fast, and it doesn’t not happen to everyone. I’m here to help and give you the best chance to succeed.

I hope you enjoy this month’s report. I apologize for its lateness – I just got back from Blog World Expo in Los Angeles and am still in recovery mode. Staying up late most of the nights to work on my presentation and network has really taken a toll on my body – but it was all totally worth it.

I’ll be posting more information about my Blog World Expo experience very soon, and I’ll be sure to include my presentation for those of you who were unable to attend. Thanks for your patience!

Click to continue…

68

Los Angeles, Name Tags and Blog World Expo!

Wow, is it really November already? Crazy!

Speaking of crazy, this week is nuts! I’m currently writing to you from my hotel room in Los Angeles, which I’m now calling SPI Headquarters (smartpassiveincomehq?) as I prepare my presentation for Blog World Expo this Friday.

I’m here a bit early with the family because we’re doing the touristy thing around LA before the expo begins. The weather is nice and the smog isn’t too thick, so we’re excited, especially for the little one who is just talking up a storm now and points out everything he sees. It’s awesome.

Now how’s this for a coincidence? Click to continue…

43

Follow Up: How Do You Know When It’s Time to Move On (From the Readers)

On Wednesday, I asked the SPI community to share their answers to a very important question, a question that most entrepreneurs come across at least once during their journey:

How do you know when it’s time to move on?

Nearly 100 comments came in and I must say, I’m very impressed with the knowledge and experience that my readers are willing to share.

After reading through all of the responses, I noticed a few common themes throughout:

Knowing when to move on is never an easy thing to do, and it’s something that a lot of us struggle with at some point.
The “when” is different for everyone. There’s no definitive answer, no universal “golden rule” and most people have their own personal set of criteria for when it’s time to move on.
Moving on does not necessarily mean failure. Several people see it as an opportunity and a learning experience instead, and I completely agree.
Before moving on it’s smart to re-examine what your goals are and ask others who may be able to help or at least give you some advice or an outside perspective first.

Here are a few comments (or parts of comments) that really stood out to me: Click Here to Read Some Stand Out Responses…

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Ask the Reader: How Do You Know When It’s Time To Move On?

Ask the Reader When I wrote about my failures last week, my intention was to show you that failing is perfectly normal and if you dig deep enough into any success story, it will be a journey full of failures and mistakes.

One thing I didn’t touch on much, however, was the idea of knowing when to move on – when to scrap an idea, consider it a learning experience and move to the next.

How do we know?

It can be extremely difficult to let go of an idea that we once had a ton of excitement for, especially if we’ve already devoted so much time and effort (and possibly money) into it.

Also, how do we know if all our idea really needs is just a little bit more time?

Today, I’d like to hand the baton to you and see what you think.

In the comment section, please share your thoughts and on Friday I’ll highlight some of the responses in a round-up post. If you have a website, please be sure to add it to the “website” field (not in your actual comment) so that I can link to it if your comment is featured.

This is a very important subject that I know is on a lot of people’s minds, so please share what you think because we’re all here to help each other!

Thanks, and I look forward to reading your responses!

170

How 9,900 Exact Match Searches Equate to $1,500 Per Month

As most of you know, last year I publicly built a niche site from scratch that is now ranking #1 in Google for the target keyword “security guard training” and is consistently making about $1500.00 a month.

You can read all about how I found this niche and built the site on The Niche Site Duel Hub.

Since revealing my niche site and my results, the number one related question I get via email goes something like:

“Pat – I don’t believe you. There’s no way a niche site targeting a keyword with only 9,900 exact monthly searches can make as much money as yours does. Something isn’t right here…”

At least 20 people have emailed me with this basic message in the last 3 months. Many of them are actually a lot more “angry” than what I wrote for you above (a couple of people called me a liar), but the core of the message is the same: how does a site with 9900 exact searches make $1500 a month off of Adsense ads?

I don’t blame people for being curious though. Based on the math, I can definitely see why my results are a bit perplexing.

The screenshots from Market Samurai and the Google Adwords Keyword Tool below both confirm that the keyword does get 9900 exact searches for the keyword per month: