Barbara Ling - Cutting Edge of Making Money Online

3 Screamingly Simple Ways To Discover WHAT People CRAVE To Buy From You

Barbara — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 16:34:08 +0000

You know, if there's one thing that frosts my petunias….it's idjutness.

I mean REAL idjutness…the kind of idjutness that makes you keep slamming your head against a brick wall because it feels so darned nifty when you stop!

In other words, the amazingly brutal lack of common sense of…..selling to your audience what people CRAVE to buy.

I was thinking about this when I began today's free class:

What do your followers crave to learn? Finding what your audience will buy Part 1

So often I see online the following agonizing reality.

People THINK they know what their customers want.

People then spend days and weeks and months crafting the most perfect solution imaginable!

Then people finally begin selling it…and cry vast rivers of sopping tears when nobody buy nobody decides to buy from them.

Truly it's painful, and truly it's something that does NOT need to be a stepping stone for your own bottom line!!

The facts are…it's FAR easier to sell to an audience who WANTS what you have to offer, than it is to pour your blood, sweat and tears into a project that ends up causing less sparks than a sodden dishtowel that's flung into the Pacific Ocean.

And here's some ways to go about it.

1.) Poll Your List

You DO have a list, correct?

If so, why, have you ever considered simply sending out email to said list and ASKING them what they'd like to learn?

It's easy to do! You can build a page with the nifty neat plugin Dagon Design Form Mailer, ask a few questions and then send it on out! To encourage people to respond to your survey, you can offer a discount on your products or a free giveaway, etc. I did this myself with my posting

Tell Me What You Crave

People who respond get a 50% off coupon for my most popular products. Offering such a goodie can work very well indeed.

2.) Lurk and Analyze at Forums

I'm sure you know popular forums that center around your niche, right? Well then, you can lurk at these forums and see what questions come up again and again…and tailor your products to exceed future customer expectations as well.

Need to find good forums? Check out BoardReader, Omgili and and AskSutra for starters. Search for your niche (or even just go to Google and look for forum, ie, dog forum, recruiter forum, copywriting forum, etc.

3.) Create a Twitter Poll or Survey

Don't have a list? Don't want to tackle forums?

You can use instead

and create your own Twitter-based survey or poll! Make sure to use a relevant hashtag as well so it will appear in the streams of people who follow your niche.

Neat, eh?

Remember…time is money, and your time is the most valuable of all! Don't be an idjut and expend it in futile adventures that will lose you more money than you care to imagine….instead, ASK your list, friends and network what THEY want to learn. Your future bottom line will thank you for it.

Enjoy,

Barbara Ling

Post from: Barbara Ling. Thank you for your time! If you've already subscribed to my feed, please download your FREE copy of 24 Hour eBook Digital Product Creation at http://www.barbaraling.com/Ace/24HoursLite.zip - I think you'll find it most useful indeed. -- Barbara

How Do YOU See YOU Will Make Money in YOUR Niche?

Barbara — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 07:36:27 +0000

Anyone can start a niche site or blog online.

But only a fraction of those people will end up actually making MORE money than they have spent (in other words, making a profit online).

You want to be in this select group.

That's where I come in.

Making money online is about building a huge trusted following in your niche, NOT simply sharing incredible content.

In short, you make people love you, you make people tell their friends about you, you make people want to contribute towards your success.

You've probably seen it already, right?

Absolutely fantastic sites, amazingly insightful content provided every day, and yet…zilch visibility online. Virtually zero comments on the posts.

Or an subscriber base LESS than a baker's dozen.

It's a cryin' shame, it is. Because when you put out your very best effort, you deserve a terrific monetary return. But plain and simple, that will come ONLY when you put yourself first.

There, I said it.

Put YOURSELF first.

Simply put, you deserve to profit from your niche site. You deserve to profit from your niche blog.

But the facts are…you will not make good money UNTIL you:

Construct your niche groundwork (automate key niche social networking aspects)
Build your reputation in your niche
Become known as the expert resource in your niche
Methodically grow your list from dozens to thousands
Share your knowledge but….
Put a PREMIUM on your wisdom

My 13+ years of being a successful online marketing entrepreneur has taught me it all….and that's what YOU will be learning from me.

Right here, right now…you can smash your learning curve and get IMMEDIATELY the knowledge you need to jump-start your online niche profits. See what works best for you:

21 Easy Steps To Putting YOUR Niche Business Online

Every single step perfectly outlined in an easy to follow, flowing method that even your Aunt Bertha could follow.

No technical skills necessary!

Covers everything from how to shortcut building a site to completely building one from scratch.

More….

Expert Groundwork – Mastering the Art of Social Traffic Attraction Basics

Extremely quick yet fulfilling read that walks you through how to set up Twitter, Facebook and the like so that when you're ready to promote your knowledge in your niche, your fanbase grows automatically.

This is something so many aspiring entrepreneurs, bloggers and marketers miss, and it's truly a shame!

Easy to do, easy to set up, and easy to profit from.

MORE….

Remember, you can either:

Spend days and months researching what you NEED to do….

or…

Take advantage of my hard-earned knowledge and put it to profitable use for yourself TODAY.

Gift yourself with the shortcuts. Your business deserves it.

Why Twitter? Mastering Twitter Marketing Part 1

Barbara — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 09:30:40 +0000

Do you like Twitter?

Would you like to learn all about Twitter Marketing?

If so, you'll love the free class we're starting today over at:

Why Twitter? Mastering Twitter Marketing Part 1

While Twitter might make lots of sense for everyone who has been using it for the past 2 years, it really does appear quite bizarre to newcomers. So, every day this week we'll be offering a new class on another facet of Twitter…and how it can help build your business today.

See you there!

Enjoy,

Barbara Ling

What really IS a list? – Building a List, Part 1

Barbara — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 12:26:15 +0000

Ever want to build your list?

Ever have questions about how to do it?

If so you'll love today's free class:

What really IS a list? – Building a List, Part 1

We're going to cover everything about list building, from what really IS a list (you'd be surprised at what people think it is!) to how you can store your list to how you can increase your list to lots of things indeed!

Do feel free to join in – it's free! Click here to dive in.

Enjoy,

Barbara Ling

Writing an eBook? Free Class on profitably narrowing down your ideas!

Barbara — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 14:55:59 +0000

Writing an eBook?

Want to give yourself the BEST possible way of selling the most ebooks?

If so, you'll want to dive into today's class over at our Inner Expert forums, entitled:

Luscious Secrets for eBook Ideas! Part III – Adoirtly narrowing down your niche topic

It's free to participate and the conversation is rockin'

Got questions? Join the community for free and post away! Guaranteed…you'll get lots of great suggestions to help you profit in your specific niche as well.

So far, we're walking everyone step-by-step on how to take a niche and smoosh it down to a manageable size. The parallels we draw are most useful indeed!

Enjoy,

Barbara Ling

3 cold-hearted reasons why your money-making sales are TRULY pathetic…and how to start fixing that today

Barbara — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 19:37:58 +0000

Morning!

Ever want to make money on the Internet?

Okay okay, stop throwing virtual coffee cups at me…making money is something we all like doing!

It doesn't matter if it's via selling your freelancing services, or the products you've built or the ebooks you've created or the design you offer….getting people to proactively pull the trigger and buy your materials is always a Good Thing Indeed!

So…what's going wrong? Why aren't more people buying from you?

You're doing everything right, right?

I mean, you have your blog or site, right?

You post useful how-to articles that AREN'T canned content that's been reposted a bazillion times, right?

You've been faithfully providing stellar information to people in your niche, correct?

So then…..why HAVEN'T people been flocking to buy what you have to offer?

I'll tell you why…..

It depends.

Ha ha, got you there, didn't I? I'll bet you were expecting me to solve the issue by a simple word followed by a simple application of success, right??

Nope, not from Barbara Ling! You see, EVERYONE has difficulties online…but what might be soul-searing to me might be child's play to you! So let's now examine some of the reasons why your sales are lousy.

It could be because:

Problem #1 – People Don't Trust Your Recommendations.

Are you the kind of blogger who ONLY posts about things that will make you money (ie, affiliate products)?

Do ALL of your emails center upon ridiculous pie-in-the-sky canned copy sales pitches that even a drunk beetle could see through?

If so, that's probably one reason why your sales are more tepid than leftover orange juice that rotted in the sun. You've made a reputation, all right…a reputation for someone who will push ANYTHING so long as a possible commission could be made.

==> Solution – Start afresh. I don't mean, start a new blog, but start sending out or posting valuable content whose ONLY benefit to you is the good-will of the readers. Give of your knowledge freely! And then, after a few weeks…send out an affiliate product post in which you write your own UNIQUE copy. By then you should have a feel for what your readers want…shun the canned copy and write from the heart.

Problem #2 – People flock for your free content but never BUY.

Gosh, I hate that, don't you? You spend days and weeks and months and even years providing superb wonderful helpful free content…and people are willing to take that and take that and then ask for more (so long as they don't have to pay).

==> Solution – Charge for your premium knowledge.

James had a superb post about this over at MenWithPens – to wit:

"…you’ve most likely read that thrice-weekly posts, free downloads and viral reports are a must-haves. Give it away! Free is good! Free brings success!

Well, did you ever stop to think and ask, “What kind of success?”

Blogging does achieve some measure of fame, notoriety and credibility, if what you write about is good. Good content and rising fame shows potential customers you’re worth hiring.

But loyal blog readers who help you get famous aren’t your customers. They come back day after day for what you give them already – free stuff. If you’re giving it away for nothing, nothing is exactly what you get back in sales….MORE…"

If that's not brilliant, I don't know what is!! Remember…showcasing your knowledge…TO AN EXTENT… is a Good Thing.

Giving everything away for free is not! (that's one reason why I wrote Income Fitness … teaching is how I myself make money).

Write teasers about common desires within a niche. For example, on my Virtual Coach blog, you'll see teasers about fixing naked WordPress sites, teasers about making eBook covers…but to GAIN that information, people have to optin to my free Income Fitness Prelaunch.

They get the goodies, I get a bigger list, and they also see the value I deliver for free (making them wonder, gee, if she shares THIS for free, how great will her PREMIUM stuff be!)

Problem #3 – You're UNKNOWN in your niche

Sure, true, people will buy from unknown peoples….but ask yourself. From whom would YOU prefer to buy…some fly-by-night who might not be there tomorrow, or someone who has consistently proven they're a subject matter expert in their chosen niche?

Hmmmm?

==> Solution – Get vocal within your niche and DOMINATE it.

Find targeted niche forums and blogs within your niche and visit there regularly. I myself post at the Warrior Forums; back when I was in diet/weight loss, I would post at

Weight-loss.fitness.com

and several others.

Back when I was training in Internet recruiting, I was a popular poster at ERE.net and other recruiting venues. I also made sure to comment intelligently at other blogs/sites/etc. and gave interviews for the Wall Street Journal and other venues as well.

In other words…I got my name out as THE subject matter expert of choice. It worked beautifully.

I go into becoming an authority figure quite a lot in Income Fitness ; you'll be able to see that for yourself next Tuesday afternoon! If you have yet to sign up for the prelaunch, I urge you to do so – you'll get some rather excellent free hotsheets that can help your business today.

Remember…you can be doing everything right (ie, what everyone tells you to do) and your sales can still imitate a vacuum cleaner. Take a long hard look at WHAT it is you're doing…and turn on a dime to improve your situation. Your future income's fitness will thank you for it indeed.

Enjoy,

Barbara Ling

ps – Is YOUR income as fit as it can possibly be? Click below to find out..AND grab your FREE bonuses today!

Dramatically increase your typing and keyboard skills Part 1

Barbara — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 19:36:23 +0000

Do you use a keyboard?

Do you type as well?

DO YOU DO BOTH AT THE SAME TIME???

Well heck, of course you do!

But…ever wish you could easily increase your accurate typing speed and words per minute…not to mention master keyboard shortcuts and the like?

If so, you're in luck! There are some excellent free resources online that will assist you in this endeavor, including:

You'll uncover in all of the above resources scores of free lessons that let you teach yourself how to increase your speed and accuracy to boot.

And don't forget such tutorials like:

All it takes is practice…and because the lessons online are free, all it REALLY takes is you sitting down and making it so.

Why not take advantage of that today?

Enjoy,

Barbara Ling

Friends have constant pain? Reveal AIS (Activated Isolated Stretching) to them

Barbara — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 15:58:35 +0000

Everyone always has some pain at some time in their lives, wouldn't you agree?

But…what happens when the pain becomes chronic?

Certainly there are surgical ways you can approach this….but there's also what YOUR friend can do themselves.

One helpful resource you can point them to is AIS (Activated Isolated Stretching).

This type of stretching, used often by therapists, involves you holding the stretch for only 2 seconds, multiple times. In many athletic and other forums, you'll see people comment how useful these techniques were for them. It's only another short step to apply them to civilian pain issues as well.

One FAQ for AIS can be found at the, appropriately named, AIS FAQ. You can also research up:

Activated Isolated Stretching Exercises

Livestrong Activated Isolated Stretching

Facebook Activated Isolated Stretching Group

You can find bunches of seminars on this topic online….or dive into Amazon for things like:

Amazon.com Widgets

And don't forget the video tutorials as well!

If your friends have pain, true, cookies can help….but perhaps showing them the above resources can help even more! You never know….they could thank you for it indeed.

Enjoy,

Barbara Ling

Great Deal – 25% off Ultimate Footer Ad!

Barbara — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 21:12:52 +0000

Have you ever seen The Ultimate Footer Ad?

It's a nifty product that lets you…oh heck, let me just refer to the magnificent copy:

Announcing Killer Conversion-Boosting Technology For All Website & Blog Owners… This Page Has The Power To Change Your Fortunes Today…

"Discover The 1 Minute Addition To Your Website That Converts More Visitors To Subscribers and Buyers…Guaranteed!"

If You're An Affiliate, Product Owner, Blogger, Or Listbuilder, Then Don't Miss A Word Of This Important Message…

"126 Extra New Subscribers To My List Just In The Past Week…"

"I've been testing Ultimate Footer Ad over the past week. It has added 126 extra new subscribers to my list just in the past week I wouldn't have picked up any other way…and that's just with minor testing of the default included graphics. Wait till I get some custom graphics installed and use it on more than just one of my sites!"

Terry Dean – Internet Business Coach

http://www.MyMarketingCoach.com

From: Graham Cox

Re: An important message for all serious website owners & bloggers

Dear Site owner,

Are you happy with your website's conversion rate?

I'd bet money you aren't…..

Click HERE to see it in glorious action!

I rotate it myself with various other list-building thingees and have found it most beneficial indeed!

Over at the site above, the price is $47. However, guess what – I have permission to offer it at a 25% discount for inly $37!

Thus, check it out above…and then save your money below. Your list-building will thank you for it.

Disgustingly obese? TRASH the excuses and dive into these easy resources to fix yourself instead

Barbara — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 12:14:49 +0000

Are you fat and obese beyond all sanity?

I was myself one time (3+ years ago or so). And I was reminded of how icky it was by reading the following:

Link between inactivity and obesity queried

The basic premise mentioned is:

They found no indication that doing more physical activity had any effect on weight, but they did find that children who put on weight did relatively less exercise.

and

The paper suggests that overweight children may perceive their body image negatively, and as a result choose not to join in sports and exercise. It also argues that children who put on too much weight may suffer discomfort and pain during exercise more quickly.

Well pardon me as I cry into my cup of double-octane coffee.

My initial response (both as a parent and as a formerly fat person):

Big freaking deal – deal with it and do what you NEED to do to stay healthy. Hate the whining about something one can control…..

I mean, let's be serious here. Of COURSE the fatter you are, the harder it will be to exercise! Golly gee jeepers! What a shock THAT is….NOT!

But it's also try that if you choose NOT to do anything, it will NOT get easier at all…instead, you'll find yourself on a rapidly smooshilating avalanche of increased pain and immobility and fatness and all the lousy stuff that comes from that.

Thus, it's up to YOU to put a halt on your obesity.

Nobody else will do it for you!

And sure, yes, it's tough. It's hard. It's difficult and painful beyond all comprehension!

But here's a clue for you – if you do nothing, nothing will happen.

And it will only get worse and worse…and more difficult to finally start.

Your body simply DO NOT CARE that you're huge and can barely move.

It's content just to sit there and increase like a squat flabby mushroom….and, like said squat, flabby mushroom, do nothing of any importance whatsoever.

But you know something?

You're worth FAR more than that.

And you owe it to your family first (and you second) to have the courage to tackle your fatness, take ownership of your lousy condition…and make it better, one step at the time.

Hence this posting.

Back when I was BaH (big and huge), I lied about my weight on my online weight loss journey:

IAMFire's Diary

I was really 177 pounds at that time. And forget about any sort of traditional cardio exercise – my exercise started with just plain simple walking. Heck, it was the only thing I could do!

But it was *something.* And it got me started on my weight loss of 50+ pounds over the next 3.5 years.

It's all a question of turning the key in your mind.

I do NOT want to hear about how tough it is for you – it's tough for EVERYONE. Yes, you can feel pity for yourself (I did, quite a lot, it felt great), but AFTER you go thru your whinefest, YOU have to accept the way you are and make it better … nobody else.

One of the best ways to fix your obesity is to get constant encouragement from other fat people who are on the same journey. Here are some excellent forums/communities for that:

Richard Simmons Clubhouse (paid community and worth every penny – my husband got me a membership during my first year of weight loss).
3 Fat Chicks
Obesity Discussion
Low Carber Forums

Start there and see which site appeals the most to you!

It all begins with having the courage to admit that you ARE fat, you ARE obese, and NOBODY else will fix that….except YOU.

I wrote a whole lot about my own weight loss; you'll probably enjoy:

and don't forget

How to Lose Weight….GUARANTEED

Remember…the more you give yourself excuses, the tougher it's going to be.

And you deserve 'way better than that…but YOU have to be the one to make that first step.

So make it today, okay? Your body will thank you for it.

Enjoy,

Barbara Ling