If you are anything like me, you’ve spent time online trying to figure out how to make some money. Actually, how to make some serious money, not just pocket money, but a living which allows for the freedom and lifestyle you dream about.

I’ve downloaded files, paid and free, until the most I’ve got to show for them is gigs of space used up on my hard drive. Some I’ve read, some I started to read and then got distracted to the next ‘shiny coin’ and some never even got opened before I got distracted.

The problem was first off that I hadn’t yet developed the mindset which I needed. I needed to embrace a business model, plan and implement it, and then work on it until it either succeeded or showed me why I failed at it.

If it failed, then pick myself up and get on with refining what I was doing until I got it right. Instead, I kept looking for that one magic new bullet that was going to make it all work.

Doesn’t exist. There might be variations on techniques that will boost your results a bit. For the most part, none of them are new, they are variations on something that has already been done before.

So, I’ve finally reached a conclusion. I need three things to make my online business work: a blog, a list and traffic. Will that give me overnight success? No. Will that give me a base to build longterm success. Yes. So, as of this post, I have stopped chasing overnight success and embraced doing what will give me longterm success.

The content on this blog will share with you what I’m doing to establish the base I’m seeking. The techniques I’m going to use are not fancy, miraculous or ground breaking. They will provide me with the financial base I want and need.

So, if you want to settle down and establish that online business you’ve been racing around trying to find. Come on along for the ride. Subscribe to my newsletter so you never miss a post. I am planning on sending some material to my list that will not appear on the blog. There has to be a perk for joining, right?

How’s your business plan going?

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Keeping it Simple

This site is currently undergoing some revamping. I’ve finally reached a better sense of where I need to go with it and have some great content coming. Stay tuned!

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Site Changes Coming

Knowing what not to do helps to give a clearer picture of what to do. Here are seven mistakes you should never make when writing sales copy.

1.  Being slow to get to the point

• impressions are made in moments
• mention the main benefit and incentive right out of the gate
• your opening should be impossible to ignore
• tell the reader  “what’s in it for me” (WIFM)

2.  Not giving the reader some WIFM at every point

• use headings, illustrations, videos and captions to communicate prominent benefits wherever the reader’s eye might land
• repetition is okay just vary the point each time

3. Failing to do a complete selling job

• give every sensible reason why the reader should respond
• overcome those objectives
• omit nothing relevant

4. Failing to prove your statements are true

• use testimonials
• when possible use photos of those giving testimonials and their letters in original form — don’t edit them

5. Failing to connect as people

• show your own picture or pictures of customers
• people look at and relate to people

6. Failing to cut the fluff

• every element of your message must contribute to the result
• don’t distract the reader
• don’t belabour the details
• balance between effective repetition and overkill

7. Failing to guide the readers response

• a strong opening with a weak close leaves the reader feeling more frustrated than motivated
• make it easy for the reader to respond
• close persuasively — repeat all the reasons your reader should respond
• guide the reader to a yes/no choice
• have more than one call to action

Anything I missed here? Please let me know in the comments.

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7 Deadly Copywriting Sins

Just finished reading a neat article over at Search Engine Land on some search tools. The article is part of a series on PPC (Pay Per Click) they have been running. The article provides an overview of search engine tools; social monitoring platforms like Twitter, Technorati and Social Mention; SEO tools includes an overview of who SEOMoz’s tool suite can be used for paid search campaigns and industry intelligence sources like eMarketer, comScore and Marketing Sherpa.

Google Wonder Wheel

What really grabbed my attention was the pointer to the Google Wonder Wheel. All this time I’ve been using Google for search and never knew this little gem was there. The wonder wheel provides a visual display of some other search terms which your search results contains. A great way to drill down to more specific data when exploring for article ideas for example.

How Do you find the Wheel?

• Go to Google
• Do a search for a topic
• Click “Show Options”
• Scroll down to “wonder wheel” on the left hand menu
• go explore

You might also want to read through the article, never know what treasures you might find that I missed.

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Google Wonder Wheel & Other Search Fun

I love it when I read an article which actually leads me to learn something. Search Engine Land reports today that Google now includes page speed as a factor when ranking your site. How important a factor speed is, isn’t yet determined.

As much as possible, I’ve always tried to keep page speed as quick as possible. What you might not notice on a broadband connection, your visitors on dialup or slow satellite connections sure will.

I’ve done some web design in the past so I’m tend to remember to pay attention to things like optimising graphics or trying to keep them to a minimum. On most of the blogs I have, I avoid using pictures unless there is a value added element to them. I know, some of the gurus will tell you to use pictures on most of your posts.

So, how do you find out what your page speed is like? This article will point you to resources that Google offers in their webmasters toolkit which includes a plugin for Firefox which will analyse your page speed.

Even without page speed being a ranking factor. Think about your visitor’s experience. If they have to wait around too long for your site to load, they better really love you or they are going to move on to something they can get to sooner.

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Speed Matters With Google

The oft repeated phrase in SEO is “content is king”. It is, consistent, well written, targeted and useful content is sucked up by the search engines as quickly as it can be written.

My brother often talked about how my mother would spend hours chasing quarters in business while the dollars flew by over her head. It was true, she spent more time rearranging the stock on the shelves than worrying about getting the stock sold to customers or giving the customers something to come into the shop for.

It is true for many trying to make a dollar online too. We design and redesign, tinker and tweak while the job of writing content continues to beg for attention.

So how do we crank out this targeted, well written and useful content? We need to:

1. Get stuff out the door.
2. Focus on keywords but make it natural
3. Get input from coaches
4. Group your assignments
5. Protect your hands
6. Develop and refine your system over time
7. Hire writers if you can’t do it yourself

For more information on each of the above points view this article at Solo SEO.

I’m as guilty as the next person for not getting consistent content written on my blogs. In the coming weeks, it is my intent to change that. Come on for the ride.

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7 Steps to Cranking Out Content