More and more successful marketers are telling you to be yourself, but they also tell you to be different. It can sound like a contradiction, and in some ways it may be. But, being you IS different. There is no one out there that’s just like you. That automatically makes you different. So, how can you also BE different? Do you find this “being different” thing as elusive as I do? Or maybe I just look too hard?

The only thing I can do is present things like I would present them and hopefully that makes me different. I’ve struggled with this blog for quite awhile. Yes, my own damn blog. (yes, I used the word damn.)You would think it would be simple. It’s Patti Stafford. That’s who I am, but yet, the blog struggles. Why? Because “they” have told me I need to be pick a topic, I need to be an expert and build a target audience. Well, I AM an expert. I’m an expert at being Patti Stafford. She’s full of questions, has very few answers in a lot of things and a lot of answers in a few things.

“They” say you/I should answer questions on the blog. What if I have more questions than answers? Why can’t I just ask questions and maybe a gazillion other people have the same questions and they need to feel like they aren’t alone. They need a place where they can say, “Hey, I have the same questions and the same struggles. I’m so glad I’m not alone in this.” People need that too.

Tiffany Dow has been talking about this a lot lately too. I haven’t let many comments at her blog, because it would turn into a blog post. And, I wanted to share it here.

The truth is, I’m all over the place. I don’t have a specialty (except being me.) Some days I’m into list building, some days it’s salesmanship, some days it’s marketing and some days I’m just a writer with my head stuck in a computer screen. There’s nothing in online business or marketing that’s jumped out, grabbed me by the throat and said, “This is it. This is you. This is what you have to do.” You know what? I’m fine with that. I’m fine with that all day long. The only time I’m not fine with that is when “they” tell me I shouldn’t be fine with that. I need a niche, a field of expertise. Blah! I’ll just be me and post what I want. I hope it helps someone or gives them a laugh or helps them not feel so alone, but I have to be the only expert I can be, and that’s being me.

If you’re struggling to find your niche and your specialty, I have a solution. You be you. I’ll be me. Let’s see if we can’t rock this online world with awesomely cool, real people. (Yes, I do still use words like awesomely cool…but that’s another story from another book I was reading the other day.)

There is one quote I love:

“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” ~ Howard Thurman

Will this lead to great success or great failure? I don’t know, but it sure beats the heck out of trying to be someone I’m not. If being the real me doesn’t win you over, being a fake me sure won’t do it. The same goes for you.

What are your thoughts? I’d love to hear your comments or your struggles. If you’re subscribed by email and don’t feel like you want to follow my many directions, I completely understand. There’s an unsubscribe button somewhere. ;)

You can also read my last blog post and see that these things have been on my mind for quite some time: Complacency, Direction, Playing Small, Playing Business

Well that’s some title isn’t it? What does it all mean?

The past few days I’ve been thinking about business, comfort zones, goals, drive, direction, where we’re going or not knowing where we’re going.

Let me give you a little back story to begin with. I’ve “played” at business for quite awhile. This year I decided to get serious and I have made steps forward. I do step out of my comfort zone, but I never really push it. I haven’t taken the time to create a solid business plan, or an actionable plan. It seems I’m always too busy “playing” business to do business. I feel like I have to spend most of my time writing—which is “working” my business and not really “running” it.

Even though I have gotten more focused in recent months, I feel I’m at that stage of being lost again. I need definite plans. I need structure. I need drive.

I was talking to Kevin last night and I was probably berating myself to a point—although I’ve learned over the years not to do that. I was telling him that I don’t push myself. I don’t take massive action. I don’t throw myself out there. And then, more as a side thought and a bit under my breath, I said, “Maybe I’m not desperate enough.”

His reply shocked me a bit, but also solidifies what an awesome husband I have who pays attention to what I do. He may not know about my business, but he does pay attention.

His reply? He said, “That’s what Lynn Terry said. I listened to that show months ago and that comment stuck with me.”

So, my awesome husband watches Lynn Terry TV. How cool is that?
Here’s the video that Lynn made on the subject of complacency—which can be translated as not being desperate enough to go for what you want.

I’m being a bit complacent right now, but I am thinking (and reading about) getting a solid foundation in place. I’ve found some good resources on creating a business plan over the weekend  and for playing a bigger  game.

I recently read, The Barefoot Executive, and while it inspired me, it also started my line of thinking this week; why I don’t play big, or have a solid plan, or know exactly where I’m going (or where we’re going, Kevin and I are a “life” team.)

By not doing that much work related stuff this week, I feel like I’m losing traction, but I also know and feel like I will be more empowered when I actually sit down and create these plans—work through them. Make big decisions. Follow through and take more massive action.

Where are you at in your business? Do you have a solid plan? A solid foundation? An actionable plan? What do you need?

Share your thoughts so we can help each other out. Or feel free to leave some advice—we love advice too.

To your success!
~Patti

P.S. No writing sprints today. We’re being complacent, remember? LOL

Product review sites have been growing in popularity over the years and right now they are hot property. I never really got into it because I was always chasing something else or doing so much freelance writing that I didn’t have the time. Now that I’m a PLR provider and see that this is the type of content people are wanting, I’ve decided to take the time to learn about creating product review websites, as well as deliver the content for those who are short on time or don’t want to spend all their time writing. I’m also creating my own site to use as a case study.

Many people make a full time income with these types of sites. There’s no reason you can’t do the same with your own niche product review website or blog. Look at sites like Yelp!, Angie’s List, Epinions, and more. Product review sites sell products and make money both for the site owner (publisher) and for the product owner (vendor). But, with so many product review sites already available how can you create a money making product review website?

Have some passion!

For the best success, you should choose a niche that resonates with your own life. If you’re a mother, choose a mommy niche because you’re likely already an expert. You can promote products that moms who are like you will want, use and enjoy. If you’re a breastfeeding mom you can create a niche site devoted to all things breastfeeding. You can review breast pumps, nursing shirts and bras, creams, lotions and even vitamins. As long as the products are related to breast feeding you’ll attract the right audience.

It doesn’t stop there either. Maybe you love photography, crafting, scrapbooking or cooking. All of these are great niches and all offer products that you can promote.

Focus and Honesty

The specific niche isn’t as important as the fact that it should be focused, comprehensive and honest. You can’t beat around the bush, or lie to people about a product. If they buy it, they’ll return it, in which case you won’t get the cash for the product review anyway. If they don’t return it, they still won’t come back to your product review site for information on which products to buy. You’ll have lost the reader’s trust and nothing is as important as your reader’s trust.

Even if you haven’t used a product, you can still be honest. Let the reader know that it’s on your wish list or if you know someone who has used it. Chances are, if you’d buy it yourself you can recommend it to others. Gain the trust of your audience. Don’t just throw up a website that isn’t personal. A lot of big time marketers have created impersonal review sites and had a lot of success. But, times are changing and people are returning to the fact that they want a personal experience. They may be shopping online, but they want to read recommendations by real people.

Here’s a few pointers to get you started:

• Create a product review website that is super focused on one niche catering to people ready to buy.
• Choose a domain name that has search terms in it.
• Create content containing those search terms.
• Load it with products that have descriptions containing search terms that your target market is looking for.
• Don’t try to be ironic with domain names and headlines. (A review site is not a newspaper, use keywords spelled correctly that promote products that your target audience needs.)

Your Platform

Don’t settle for anything less than hosting your own website and using WordPress. Do not go with a free site. You leave too much in someone else’s control when you do that.

WordPress is a free open source platform that can be modified in so many ways using free and custom themes as well as plugins, and widgets that you can create a very unique website for each niche product review site that you want to build. It’s also very easy to understand and the WordPress community are among the kindest and most helpful of all the website and blogging technologies there are. If you don’t want to understand it, there are many service providers to help you at reasonable fees.

You don’t have to start with a paid theme, but at some point you may want to consider one, but there are tons of nice free themes out there. You may be better off investing money in some awesome plugins, especially Amazon plugins, to begin with. This is not necessary, especially if you are just starting out. I have listed some professional options below for your convenience.

Professional Resources

However, if you have the budget and want to get started off with a more professional looking site, I suggest using a theme like ProReview. I’m not using a review theme on my site at this time, because it’s in the home niche and I want it to have a homey feel. I could pay someone to give it a homey look with a pro theme, and I may do that later on, but that’s not a huge deal in the beginning. I did invest in a nice little plugin, Affiliate Product Comparison Tables. It’s very easy to use and allows you to highlight several products at once.  You do need to have an Amazon Web Services account to get access keys.

Magiczon is another pro theme that I’ve looked at and I am considering buying it if I decide to create more niche review sites.

I’ve put together a quick guide to help you with writing your own product reviews. Be sure to grab a copy of, “How to Write Product Reviews,” and read over it.

Also check out the list of Tools I Use for domain, hosting and email solutions.

To your success!
Patti

P.S. If you’re in the home niche, or considering it, check out my new product review membership with partner, Sue Fleckenstein.

Welcome to the Wednesday Writing Sprints.

Wednesday writing sprints are here! Feel free to jump right in. It doesn’t matter which genre you write in, all are welcome. Fiction, freelance, lyrics, poetry—just be a writer today.

This event happens one day per week. It’s when you dedicate the entire day strictly to writing sprints. Try to turn off email, social media–anything that distracts you and just write.

The time can be spent outlining characters, plots, scenes, etc. or it can be spent using it for a writing marathon or getting caught up on freelance work. The focus is to simply devote more time to your writing.

Enjoy and share your progress throughout the day in comments.

• If you don’t have a timer, be sure to download something like cool timer. That’s the one I use. I love it!

• You can race the clock for however long you like; 30, 45 or 60 minutes. I prefer 30 minutes. I get more done if I don’t give myself too much time. See what works best for you.

• Post your progress in the comments section.
• It’s not about word counts–not a daily count, at least.
• It’s about planting your butt in the chair and being a writer and writing as many words as you can in a 30 minute race against the clock.

The most important thing is….HAVE A BLAST & KICK SOME WORD ASS!

Happy Writing Sprints!

Major Tom to Ground Control:  I’m in position, what is the target?
{Silence}
Major Tom to Ground Control : Do we have a target? Awaiting further orders.
{Silence}
Major Tom to Ground Control:  Are you there, Ground Control?

A lot of people start firing their content without taking aim or even finding their target. I’ve been seriously guilty of this myself. Firing at will can be a lot of fun. Unfortunately, it rarely hits the broad side of the barn.

Do you have a content strategy? Or are you like thousands of other website and blog owners who just wing it? If you want to achieve better results with your blog or website consider creating a content strategy.

Defining a Content Strategy and World Domination

Okay, maybe you aren’t planning world domination with your content, but a  content strategy is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a plan to create, organize, market and maximize your content. You can plan a week in advance, a month, a quarter or even a year in advance. When you have a content strategy in place the process of creating content for your blog or site becomes much easier. It’s also easier to outsource it when you know exactly what you need.

Tips and questions for creating your content strategy

Where oh where, will you publish your content?

This probably seems like an obvious question, but we often overlook the obvious. The answer is most likely – on your blog or website of course! However, you may also want to guest blog, publish on article marketing sites and submit content to other newsletters or magazines. Think about where you want to publish your content.

But there’s soooo many options. What shall I do?

What types of content will you publish?

Blog posts? Articles? Reports? Downloads? That’s the first question and then you want to take a look at the formats or styles that your readers respond to. For example, maybe you find that lists are your reader’s favorite articles or that they love downloadable checklists. When you know what they like you can include it in your plan.

I have a dream… and a goal and a purpose, right?

What’s the goal or purpose for your content?

To have extremely effective content you want it to have a goal or a purpose. For example, do you want to drive traffic to your website? Do you want to promote an affiliate product? What about driving traffic to your opt in page? Create a purpose or goal for every piece of content you create.

There’s just not enough time! Plant butt in chair and write (or outsource)

When will you write your content?

Now that you know what you’re going to publish and you have a goal for it, it’s time to schedule it. Some people write all their content at the beginning of the week or month. Others write a little bit every day. There’s no right or wrong way to do this but you do want to schedule it so it gets done. If you’re outsourcing or using PLR then decide that now too.

No time like the right time

When will you publish your content?

For example, will you write the content for the week on Monday and publish it on Tuesday? Blogs allow you to upload content and schedule it for publication. If you’re using article marketing sites or have a website then you’ll want to schedule publishing time into your day.

Maximum overdrive. Using the hell out of your content

How can you maximize your content?

Next, plan how you can repurpose and reuse your content. For example, can you tweak the article and publish it on your newsletter? Can you share it on a social networking site? Can you collect articles and create a short report? Plan how you can use your article in other ways to make the most of your time and energy.

To market to market to buy a fat pig…or at least off to Twitter to tweet it

How will you market your content and use your content to market your business?

Last, but certainly not least, how will you make readers and prospects aware of your content? Will you link to it from Facebook? Will you create a weekly wrap up blog post or email and highlight your new articles for the week? The more people who are aware of your content, the more readers and traffic you’ll have.

Once you get the hang of it, creating your content plan will be a quick and easy process. You’ll have a steady stream of valuable content and will be well on your way to building the website or blog you dreamed of.

For more tips, you can refer to Tips to Maximize Your Content and Grow Your Business. You can also grab my free Content Planning Calendar.

To your success!
Patti

If you’re like a lot of people, you’ve read a few guides on making money with product review websites and think you can throw up any old website to review products and see results. The truth is, there are mistakes that can guarantee failure. Here, we will discuss some of the mistakes and how you can avoid them or fix them.

Mistake #1 -NOT DOING RESEARCH — Doing research on your niche is one of the first things you should do before you start any product review website. You should know your target audience intimately enough to know their demographic information so that you know what products to review and what words to use to review them.

However, many people have started a review website on sheer passion and made a success of it. So, passion does go along way, but if you want a truly successful site, do some research.

Mistake #2 -LAME CALL TO ACTION — Even product reviews have a call to action, or they should. The call to action might not be as clear, but every word you use is important. Do not use the word “If” when you should be using the word “When”. This is true in all your copywriting when it comes to product review pages or product sales pages.

Mistake #3 – AVOIDING SMALL NICHES — Many product site review publishers focus on huge niche markets because there is money there, but micro niches are perfectly profitable too. If during your market research you discover some untapped markets with products that they’re not finding you can fulfill that niche.

You may not offer as many products as a broad niche, but your site will be more personable and will lead to trust from your readers.

Mistake #4 – AVOIDING LARGE NICHES — A lot of “gurus” will tell you to avoid the really large niches, but  going after a larger niche is perfectly acceptable. You may not be able to afford to purchase pay per click ads for the majorly competitive keywords, but you can still go after a large niche like Apple Computers if you want to create a product review site for all things Apple. People love hearing the view of real people over the corporate propaganda. If Apple computers is your passion, that can put you ahead of people just seeking money for their reviews. You can be an authority AND make money from your recommendations.

Mistake #5 – POOR OR MISLEADING CONTENT— Once you’ve done your research and are focusing on a particular market, it is a huge mistake not to deliver. If search engines bring a reader to your site, and your site delivers something other than expected due to poor choice of keywords, or trying to fake users out, they will take note and simply bounce right off your site. Never use trickery, just give your target market what it wants.

Mistake #6 – USING ONE TYPE OF CONTENT –  Aside from blog posts, sales pages, and text you can also promote products with videos and podcasts. Create videos showing yourself using the product, or others using the product. Interview people on a podcast who are using the product. Have a webcast with the creators of the product. There are many ways to review a product. Get creative!

Mistake #7 – HIGHLIGHTING FEATURES INSTEAD OF BENEFITS — In marketing class you may have learned that it is important to sell benefits over features to your audience. This also includes product reviews. In a product review, list the features but use words that show the benefits of the feature.

Mistake #8 – NOT BEING COMPLETELY HONEST — All products have good and bad features, you must be honest and listen to all of them. You don’t have to completely trash a product, but do list the negatives when they exist. It will make your review more real, more honest, and create trust between you and your audience.

Not everyone has the same complaints with a product. What one person finds detestable may not even be an issue for someone else. Most people know that products can malfunction or be defective. However, they need to know before hand if this has been a big issue.

Running a product review site can be a full time job and can leave you feeling lost and alone. Grab this free guide on Writing Product Reviews if you need more help.

This can be a great way to earn an income. Be sure to avoid the mistakes listed above and create a site that you can be truly proud of.

To your success!
Patti

Up until last year I was the world’s worst about getting free content or buying PLR content and not using it. Luckily, Alice Seba ran some monthly contests in her forum and this helped several of us use our content. I actually won the contest a few times and my reward was a ton of content. I can’t say I’ve used all of it, but I am slowly using bits of it, at least.

And, I’ve “almost” trained myself to only make new purchases IF it’s something I need and will use within a week. I haven’t mastered this yet, but I have done exceptionally well with it. I still have a lot of content that I may never use because my interests have changed, but at least I am getting a grip on my purchases.

So, if you have tons of content that you need to use, or if you’re on a tight budget and can’t afford more content, these tips will help you out.

Cut it up

This is a great way to get more use out of several pieces of content. Simply use snippets from your content and publish them as tips on social networking sites. For example, a single article might have five to ten tips. You can schedule them to be posted on Facebook and Twitter with links to your website.

You can also take 2 or 3 pieces of related content and create a new article or blog post. You may even get several new pieces of content by doing this.

Collect it

Collect like articles and/or blog posts to create a larger downloadable product. For example, you might collect ten articles on the topic of organizing your closet and create a report for your visitors. It’s a nice way to offer something for free and provide your readers more value.

Piecemeal

This is another one of my favorite things to do. Since I do have a newsletter, I use bits of larger reports (PLR I’ve purchased rights to) and separate them into smaller articles or blog posts and share them. You can do this  on your ezine or blog too.

Weekly wrap up

This isn’t one I do personally, yet, but I see several other people doing this. Create teaser paragraphs for each article or blog post you’ve published the past week and create a weekly wrap up. You can post it as an article and/or send it to your subscribers so they don’t miss a word.

Reuse social networking efforts

If you’re using social networking to grow your business consider pulling comments you’ve made or content you’ve published and use it on your blog or as an article marketing piece. Often, we provide valuable information to others on social networking sites. It’s a shame to not provide that same value to your blog readers or website visitors.

One seemingly small piece of advice you’ve given or received can turn into a great article or blog post.

Answers

You can also use any questions you’ve answered via comments on your blog or social networking sites and publish them on answer sites like Yahoo answers.

I don’t do this one yet either, but it is very valuable and if you’re good at answering questions and helping others, use this to your full advantage.

Link Love

Always strive to include a link. You can link to your website to drive traffic to a specific page. Or you can link to an affiliate product that relates to your article.

Ezine

Repurpose or expand on articles or blog posts you’ve written to provide your subscribers with more information and value. You can also use reports or ebooks to run a series in your ezine.

Syndicate it

Consider syndicating your ezine content (not your website content or blog content because it’ll cause duplicate content issues). Syndicating your ezine content can help drive traffic to your website or blog and build awareness.

Rewrite it

Rewrite any and every article or blog post you publish and use it for article marketing purposes. Republish it on article marketing websites or as guest blog posts. Make the most of your writing efforts. In fact, you can hire a Virtual Assistant to rewrite your existing content and double the results.

There are many things you can do to maximize your content and grow your business. These are just ten of the hundreds of ideas. When you sit down to plan your content this week or this month, look at ways to make the most of it and generate traffic and profits.

If you still need more help using or repurposing your content, check out my content ecourse and see if it’s a good fit for you.

Content will always be king on the Internet. There is no way around that. If you provide useful and informative content, you don’t have to worry about Google slaps. Learning to get the best mileage out of your content will save you time and money…and you’ll never be left wondering what to write about. ;)

Welcome to the Wednesday Writing Sprints.

Wednesday writing sprints are here! Feel free to jump right in. It doesn’t matter which genre you write in, all are welcome. Fiction, freelance, lyrics, poetry—just be a writer today.

This event happens one day per week. It’s when you dedicate the entire day strictly to writing sprints. Try to turn off email, social media–anything that distracts you and just write.

The time can be spent outlining characters, plots, scenes, etc. or it can be spent using it for a writing marathon or getting caught up on freelance work. The focus is to simply devote more time to your writing.

Enjoy and share your progress throughout the day in comments.

• If you don’t have a timer, be sure to download something like cool timer. That’s the one I use. I love it!

• You can race the clock for however long you like; 30, 45 or 60 minutes. I prefer 30 minutes. I get more done if I don’t give myself too much time. See what works best for you.

• Post your progress in the comments section.
• It’s not about word counts–not a daily count, at least.
• It’s about planting your butt in the chair and being a writer and writing as many words as you can in a 30 minute race against the clock.

The most important thing is….HAVE A BLAST & KICK SOME WORD ASS!

Happy Writing Sprints!