Please see Part 1 from 12 March 2007 of Scott Allen’s interview with Christopher Knight.  Allen runs the entrepreneur’s section at About.com and Knight is the founder of EzineArticles.

SA: Tell me about your entrepreneurial background – did you start young or later? What, if anything, in your upbringing led you to entrepreneurship?

CK: When I was in grade school, I bought bags of Kit Kats and sold them individually on the playground during recess.   I saw a market need and filled it.

At age 16 I started a professional DJ service to spin music for proms, homecomings, weddings, sock hops, company picnics or any type of party event.

My father is a farmer / entrepreneur and, while I didn’t join him in the farming family business, I did learn many lessons about how to work with customers, vendors, employees and eventually, banks or financial institutions.

I really think entrepreneurs are born and not made. It either comes naturally or it feels completely foreign to you. To me, I have a knowing of certainty that this is what I was meant to do, and I love it.

Who have been your role models, mentors, or other inspiration for you, both in your personal life and public figures?

Tony Robbins helped me get into massive intelligent action, Dr. Wayne Dyer helped me order and focus my intentions/thoughts, and Strategic Coach Dan Sullivan coached me on how to better organize my time.

Personally, I’m inspired by great athletes who rise to the top of their game. Too many to list here, but I track top athletes in business and in sports to better understand how to create even higher performance in my life.

What specifically led you to start your current business(es)?

I really like the advertising-based revenue model and as I looked at all of the web properties I had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars acquiring between 1995-2001, I asked myself this question: “Which web property is succeeding the most despite no investments of time or effort on our part?” When I identified that EzineArticles.com was that project, I organized a plan to invest tens of thousands of hours of attention to find out how big the project could become. I’m still working on figuring out where the ceiling is on this project.

How has the business been funded? What has been the upside/downside of how you’re funded?

In 2002 I had sold SparkLIST, an email list hosting service provider business to Lyris and, upon the closing of that transaction, I concurrently bought out my VC partner on a failed advertising-based revenue project called List-Universe.

I was left with no money, no revenue, and a bunch of domain names or websites of near useless content. My pride was somewhat in tact as I did the right thing for my former customers and found an exit for my VC partner at the time that was amicable.

Borrowing against my home mortgage, I invested a few hundred thousand to get back in the game and hired a small team of former employees who helped forge the start of the current business we’re in.

Upside of being self-funded is that I answer to no one externally for how profitable or not we are.  This brings the responsibility to find a return on capital on myself. VC’s have been knocking on our door, but they are going to need to bring something more than just capital to the table, such as key partnership relationships or exclusive long-term advertising deals.

What has been your biggest challenge and how did you overcome it?

Convincing my family to stick with me during the lean years.

I overcame this by ignoring any doubt they brought to my attention.

What motivates you every day when you go to work?

My life is on purpose. How much more excited can you be when you know you are doing exactly what you are suppose to be doing with your life and time!

I’m humbled at the expertise our collective author community brings to the table and honored to work with a very innovative team of web developers and highly efficient editors who take care of daily operations.

Further building our management team also motives me because they free my time up so that I can work on further innovations or creative marketing solutions to reach our goals faster.

What is the best advice you have for new or future entrepreneurs?

“Do it and stop talking about ‘doing it.” Get into massive action. Learn and read like mad every single day. Listen to your stakeholders and earn their respect by taking an enormous amount of action that proves you heard what they had to say. Create and design a business that allows you to step out of daily operations. If you are running your business, you are a manager and not an entrepreneur. Nothing wrong with being a manager or even an ‘entrepreneurial-spirited manager’, but true entrepreneurs in my mind unlock the creativity and innovation in market potential for their business and industry — they can only do this if they are not involved in daily operations of the business.

Popularity: 5% [?]

I think that writing and marketing articles is a great way to get free publicity for your business.  If you haven’t looked into it before, you should.  The below is an interview with Christopher Knight, the founder of EzineArticles.com, one of the premier article publishing sites on the Internet.  Another article site you may want to check out is ArticleCity.

Guest Article:  From Scott Allen, Your Guide to Entrepreneurs at About.com

Christopher Knight is founder of EzineArticles.com, the Web’s largest community and content distribution system for articles by expert authors, with over two million monthly visitors. He is widely considered one of the top experts on the practice of “article marketing.” I got some time this week with Chris to get his perspectives on how entrepreneurs can best make use of article marketing to grow their business.

SA: I think the term “article marketing” is sufficiently self-explanatory, but if you want to have an actual meaningful strategy, rather than just kind of tossing out an article randomly every now and then, what does that consist of? What does a good article marketing plan strategy look like?

CK: There are two types of “Article Marketing” strategies that I see every day:

1. Intentional and consistent distribution of quality original articles every month to a small list of highly relevant publishers.  About 15% of the market does this.
2. Stab, stick and blast. In other words, they take a stab at writing articles without a plan, they stick it anywhere they think they should and when this doesn’t pay off in traffic attraction dividends, they blast it to everyone (relevant and not so relevant sites).

A good Article Marketing plan really depends on what the end-outcomes are . . . and how many qualified leads or qualified visitors an author or expert wishes to attract.

If a business person was serious about achieving results via article marketing or the distribution of quality original articles, they would write the content themselves or hire someone to write original articles that would be exclusive to them, meaning, no PLR (Private Label Rights) content. The articles would be 300-700 words and they would be distributed to two different select tiers of sites:  Tier 1, high traffic distribution sites such as ourselves and Tier 2, highly-relevant niche publishers that won’t have the same high-level of traffic as the first tier, but they will have a highly relevant and qualified visitor base to refer to the author.

For infopreneurs or consultants, the benefits of article marketing may be more readily obvious. What about other businesses? What if I’m, say, a restaurant owner, retailer, etc.?

Article writing and syndication or marketing can be applied to any industry, but it is true that there are a few industries that won’t benefit the same.

Example: A B2B highly complex multi-million dollar paper-machine manufacturer who wants to write about the inner workings of how their paper machines operate. It’s not that they couldn’t, but that their market normally expects white paper PDFs that go into great depth and detail that just can’t be done in a less than 500-word article format.

Another example: Anyone who needs to cite references or source material for their article . . . isn’t a good candidate for article marketing. You want to limit and control your exposure to risk and I’ve found that footnotes in an article are better left for article content that is not syndicated in full.

What if my business is local only? How can article marketing help me? And how can I get my article seen and re-published by local-oriented publications?

Restaurant owners and local retailers can benefit from article marketing, big time!

In fact, about six months ago I did research into how entrepreneurs/marketers could leverage the growing trend of localized search. The solution is to include your locality in the article title and near the top of the article and you’ll increase your chances of being found by those who are searching for localized content. This market is just getting started and is at the foothill of an emerging market that is only going to attract a larger audience.

Your chances of getting competitors from your industry to run your localized article content are pretty slim . . . so I’d recommend focusing on the intelligence of your article titles as they relate to what your local audience is searching for.

How does a service like EzineArticles differ from conventional web or print publications? What are the pros and cons of each approach, and can they work in complement to each other?

We’re quite a bit different than print publications because, in most cases, we don’t go very deep in any of the articles. This is not about writing a book and giving away all of our expertise, but rather Article Marketing or “educational marketing” is about offering a sliver of your expertise and a resource box at the end of each article to tell the reader how they can learn more if interested.

A major differentiator of article marketing vs. conventional print or web publications is in the level of syndication that accompanies the article content. The standing order in the conventional world is that no content is to be reprinted without written permission, whereas in the article marketing world, full reprint rights permission is granted for anyone to use the content provided the follow the reprint rules as outlined on the website.

Conventional non-syndication published content reaches the audience it was written for only in the time frame it was released while article marketing content takes on a viral nature and drives qualified visitors for many years to come.

The major con to article marketing is that a very small percentage of unscrupulous publishers will use your content without giving you proper credit or an active link in your resource box at the end of each article.  Our seven years in article marketing has taught us that the positive avalanche of traffic each author receives from article marketing activities far outweighs the losers who don’t follow the reprint rules terms of service.

Let’s say I’m not much of a writer myself. I’ve got good ideas, but just don’t know how to put them together effectively. Can I get help with that? And how much will it cost me?

If you want to be the originator of the content, then I’d recommend hiring a local college student with a journalism or similar major to help clean up, put in order, and organize your thoughts. Many can be hired for $6-$12/hr USD. Another option is that you could create an outline for yourself and then speak into a microphone for 15-20 minutes per article.

Transcription specialists charge about $40-$90 USD per hour to convert your MP3 to written transcripts that could be converted into excellent article marketing content.

You could also outsource the entire project to either an in-house part or full time editor/writer, or you could outsource to an article ghost writer. Expect to pay between $4 to $40 per article for quality original content, and make sure you get an exclusive right or license to use that content under your name or a pen name.

I’ve learned the hard way that publicity does not automatically equal lead generation. Do you have any tips on how to generate more leads from article marketing? In that regard, is it more important what you write, how often you write it, or where and how you distribute it?

Some short tips:

• The article headline will determine 90% of how much traffic and viral distribution your article will receive. Be sure to optimize this with relevant keywords that your potential reader will be searching for.
• Be sure to include at least two active URLs in your resource box and make sure they include the full http://your-company-name.com/ format instead of an anchored text link – this will maximize your ability to get active links back from publishers who reprint your content.
• 100 articles distributed to five sites or ezine publishers will normally produce far greater results than five articles sent to 100 sites.
• Consistency is key. You market or advertise your business every month, right? So why not write articles and distribute them monthly also?

How do I get started?

Identify the web publishers and/or ezine publishers who have an audience that you want to attract. Study their websites or ezines, read their editorial guidelines, check to see if they have an editorial calendar (to increase your chances of writing timely relevant content) and create an account with them to send in your first set of article submissions.

Of course, I’d invite you to submit your best articles for massive exposure to our high-traffic EzineArticles.com project. When you submit your articles to EzineArticles.com, your articles will be picked up by ezine publishers who will reprint your articles with your content and links in tact, giving you traffic surges to help you increase your sales. To submit your articles, set up a free basic membership account today: http://EzineArticles.com/submit.

 

Popularity: 5% [?]

NB:  Please don’t confuse this article about business success with success in life.  They’re not the same.  These are things that worked for me in business, and some apply to life . . . and many apply to getting and keeping your dream job, but being successful in life does not equate to being successful in business.

Here goes . . .

I made a bunch of money creating and running a business.

The business was software and Internet publishing and the money was quite a lot.

I believe that I can attribute my success to seven things that I learned; through books and from watching others, but mostly just from trying ideas out and flopping on my face the first couple of times.

Now, mind you, I didn’t come up with those seven things at one time and I didn’t “discover” them in some sort of a Eureka moment.  They just evolved.  In fact, it took me about 10 years to get my company to the point where I could sell it for the amount I was expecting.  And, it took me 8 of those years before we were even making a decent profit.

Despite what many purveyors of schemes (offline and on) might have you believe, there really is no special product, program, or plan that’s going to put you over the top.

Believe me, along the way I’ve tried some of the most highly praised get-rich-quick schemes in the business.  I do think you can learn a lot from many of them but,  in and of themselves, as complete programs, they’re not worth a lot.

Mind you, I don’t claim to have the answer to everyone’s future.  But I do have a series of key
elements that I know work for me.  They helped me make it in my last business, and I’m employing the very same keys in my current growing business.

1. Forget the money. If you’re even remotely doing something for the money, it’s not going to be successful in a big way.  I am not sure of why this is so true; but it is.  If you’re thinking about all the great things you’re going to do once you’ve made the money, you’re doing the wrong thing.  But, if all you dream about, and all you can think about when you first wake up in the morning is how anxious you are to get back to work, you’re on the right track.

2.  So, follow your passion.  Figure out what you love to do, I mean REALLY love to do, then do it.  There’s money to be made everywhere.  If you love something, chances are you’ll be pretty good at it; and if you’re better than most others around you, you’ll be successful.  Of course, I’d like to think that you’ve been striving to be the best in your field, but don’t forget that there are a few million quite happy and wealthy and successful number 2’s and 3’s around as well.

3.  Then create a product or service that matches your passion.  Don’t resell something somebody else makes. Make your own.  You’ll get into it and you’ll love your business because it’s truly yours.  My passion is teaching; I get a real buzz by explaining stuff to beginners . . . so, I love to run seminars, write books and articles, creating teaching and learning products and services, and run Internet businesses that relate to all that.  Whatever your passion, there are books, videos, seminars, and software that need to be made for it. Go, make stuff of your own.

4. Don’t be a perfectionist.  One of the biggest and earliest stumbling blocks to my own success was that I couldn’t let go of anything until it was perfect.  Phooey!  Make it fast, get it on the market, and let your customers tell you what’s good.  Then fix what needs to be fixed and move on.

There’s an old adage that goes something like this: “it’s better to be first than better.”  I think that’s true, and although most of us can’t really be first, we can be sooner!

5.  Drop what doesn’t work.  Fast.  And, do more of what does work.  There’s a sign that hangs in one of MIT’s engineering labs that I just absolutely love, and it says this:

-Do simple things first.
-Learn to do them flawlessly.
-Add new layers over the results of the simple tasks.
-Don’t change the simple things.
-Make the new layer work as flawlessly as the simple.
-Repeat, ad infinitum.

So, don’t screw with what works.  Just do more of it.

6.  Do not give up.  Ever.  I’ve never met anyone who achieved any real level of success quickly (Okay, okay, I know . . . those YouTube guys that sold out to Google for a couple billion in less than two years . . . but, know anyone else?).  It just doesn’t happen. Maybe it appears to outsiders like it has, but it doesn’t.  Come on, every single great leader, writer, business person, and motivator in sports, politics, business, and life tells us this simple truism:  Don’t quit.  So, why is it so hard for many of us to believe them?

Sure, I almost quit.  A dozen times.  It was only through the ongoing support of my partners (business and spouse) that I didn’t.  So, suck it up once in awhile.  How will you ever know if tomorrow’s mail or the next telephone call brings the order that will nudge you forward if you quit?

7.  And, finally, learn to trust your gut.  If you have a passion, it’s there for a reason.  Don’t do stuff because that’s the way it’s always been done, just because.  Do it because you believe in it.  Do it because it makes you feel good inside.  And, do it because, in your own private world view, it just feels right.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Guest Article

Have you ever wondered what teleclasses are all about? And have you ever wondered how exactly you could use them to grow your business and make money?

Do you remember the last time you decided to schedule a workshop in your diary? If your diary is anything like mine, it probably needed military precision. The kids may have been shipped off to your neighbors to allow you beat the morning traffic. You may have spent an hour or so on Google maps, trying to make head or tail of the one-way system and figure out the best place to park. Not to mention the indecision of what to wear (“Should I wear a suit or could I get away with jeans?”)

I know for a fact that a few ladies I have spoken to recently admitted to being “too busy” to make the time for learning something new. “Frankly, Karen, I just lack the confidence to go to a workshop where I may have to admit in public that I don’t know very much” was one comment I got. But surely that is why this lady needed to go and learn about what it was she felt she knew nothing about.
And I believe this is why teleclasses are proving more and more popular in today’s business community. A workshop or a class that is held via the phone allows us to fit in an hour here and an hour there without all the organization of childcare, traveling time and dress-stress.

I am not suggesting that teleclasses will ever replace the need for face-to-face human interaction. Human connection is essential when you are running your own home based business — we would go mad talking to the cat all day, wouldn’t we? But teleclasses are appearing more and more in businesses’ offerings and many of you reading this may be able to think about how to use the teleclass structure to help promote yourself AND make additional revenue streams.

These are my top 10 ways of possibly using teleclasses to help get you clients and make money.

1. Offer a free introduction to your services. What better way of reaching out to groups of people without the need to hire rooms, spend money on refreshments or even handouts. Invite your newsletter readers to phone in at a particular time to listen in to your “Top 10 tips on — whatever your expertise is.” This is especially useful for the coaches and consultants out there who are selling themselves on a one-to-one basis.

2. Record your teleclasses and build up an audio library to have on your website. Great for reputation building and getting Web visitors to hang around.

3. Go that one step further and sell your audio recordings as downloadable products. A simple passive revenue stream that can be automated.

4. Interview a leading expert in your field and invite your prospects to listen in. If you are running a wine tasting business, your client base may be interested in a quick 20-minute interview with one of the top wine growers in the country. And why not charge for it?

5. Offer quick 30 minute How-To Guides on your latest products. You may be running an online community magazine or local advertising directory and by giving a group guided tour over the phone, directing them through a website possibly, you could be bringing your product to life and people may understand the benefits better.

6. Hot Seat Sessions. These are great for experts who may be PR specialists or website designers. Invite your prospects to phone in and you will be there to answer all their burning questions about the problems they may be experiencing. You may get a few freebie hunters, but by sharing your wealth of knowledge, people will trust you and be more inclined to spend money with you to buy the full service that you offer.

7. Get your audio recordings transcribed. Wow — instant ebook!

8. Design accessible group programs. If you are selling one-to-one support, for example as a nutritional therapist or image consultant, you may like to consider group programs that could be delivered by phone. It can bring your rates down to capture prospects who couldn’t afford your one-to-one fees as well as dramatically increasing your overall hourly rate. Design a workbook to run alongside if you still want to work with visuals.

9. Get podcasting. We often talk faster than we can write. So if writing articles isn’t your thing then record yourself talking on a particular topic for 5 or 10 minutes. Bingo. An instant downloadable audio recording that can be fed through your blog, by email or direct to someone’s MP3 player.

Actually, I only intended to have a top 5 and I can’t quite believe that I came up with 9. Writing this article has just proved to me that there are plenty of opportunities for you to use teleclasses to promote your business and make additional revenue.

So, what’s next? Where do you go from here?

If you want to take action but the how-to aspect of running teleclasses is proving overwhelming, then check out this Step-by-Step Guide to Running Your First TeleClass.

Karen Skidmore is a business coach and mentor for women starting up in business. She created CanDoCanBe in September 2004 because she was frustrated by the lack of business support choice for women who wanted to build their own business. CanDoCanBe offers networking events, business coaching and mentoring.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Hey Dream Jobbers . . . have a special for you today.

With almost 70 full pages of  descriptions, links and tips on resources for advertising free on the Internet, the Encyclopedia of Free Online Advertising is a must have ebook! This valuable guide reviews all of the best free online advertising tactics and techniques that everyone who markets on the Internet needs to be aware of. Meticulously organized and categorized, each resource is fully described, analyzed, and even effectively rated on suitability for your purpose.

Read more »

Popularity: 7% [?]

There are some reviewers, literary critics, and traditional publishers who believe that self-publishing, in all its varieties, is for the unprofessional and untalented author. Self-published authors have not faced any critical review of their work, and the companies that do self-publishing are motivated by money rather than the quality of the work! There is definitely some truth to this, but it applies equally to some of the traditional publishing houses. These houses have, over the last 10 years or so, maintained an unhealthy fixation on “Best Sellers” and on the “bottom line” — none of them have said they are not interested in making money. Many in the publishing industry are concerned about this trend and about the trend that the bigger houses have become too removed from the general writing population.

Clearly there are differences between self-publishers and the major publishing houses. The major houses have editors who edit the books. The major houses pay for the production costs, start to finish, for their authors. The major houses have good distribution systems and will heavily advertise books they feel will break through and become “Best Sellers.”

It is naive to think that authors taken on by the major houses are not paying for their books to be published. These authors do pay to get their work published — and pay and pay and pay. They receive royalties (as low as 10%) on actual book sales. The author also loses a great amount of control re copyright, editorial, graphic, and marketing decisions. The accounting practices of some major houses have left some authors waiting for months to be paid or to have recalculations and holdbacks on their advances. It is not until you become an important and saleable author that you can negotiate to make the traditional publishing house deals more equitable.

After sorting through all the debate, there are some valid criticisms that can be directed at self-publishing authors and firms. Those valid points are: unprofessional editing, formatting, and printing.

Who Should Self-Publish?

** Authors who want to receive a higher financial reward and maintain control over their material (i.e., not signing away copyright to a publisher). Traditional publishers, as mentioned above, are notorious for paying low royalty fees and for slow payment.

** An author who has written a book that will appeal to a very small but important audience. Traditional publishers have no interest in esoteric and overly specific books — the economics of their distribution and pricing system make them a non-sector from the start.

** People who have specific expertise and offer consultations and/or seminars to their clients. Usually the volume of sales, in this case, would be too low for traditional publishers. It is an excellent way to reinforce your “expertise” and make additional money after the seminar.

** Authors of books that deal with subjects or material considered too controversial for traditional publishers. Traditional publishers are litigation-shy and have a big stable of titles to defend. They don’t want to jeopardize their stable for a book that is too close to the edge.

** Authors who have talent and a good product but haven’t been able to match up with a traditional publisher interested in new talent. Most publishers are mega-corporations and, like such beasts elsewhere, adopt formulas of success (i.e., “best-seller syndrome”) and are very reluctant to try out an untested author.

** Authors who want to avoid the bureaucratic and slow machinations of the large publishers.

Who Should Not Self-Publish?

** Authors who firmly believe they have a book of wide appeal and great salability. The backing of a large publishing house partnered with extensive distribution makes this a virtual no-brainer for the confident. The economics of self-publishing favors small production runs, reducing the availability and eventual profitability of a successful book.

** Authors who are unable or unwilling to champion their own work. Believe it or not, there are writers out there who would be afraid to ask their own friends, relatives, and colleagues to buy their books.

** Authors with limited financial assets. The cost of self-publishing does not have to be high; it can be less than $500 if properly set up by the author. (The usual cost will be around $1,500.) Some struggling authors would not have this cash; JK Rowling, who was on social assistance when she wrote the first Harry Potter book, is a good example.

Author:  Alex Landels at A.G. Landels.

Source:  WordPreneur

Popularity: 5% [?]

[Note from Michael:  The following is a guest article.  To get a syndicated feed of Dream Jobs Dialog, select your format at the bottom left of our home page.]

You don’t have to look far to find the initials RSS on many of your favorite websites. Maybe you see the term “RSS Feed” and wonder if this is a special agricultural product for livestock or possibly something you’d purchase at an electronics shop.

The initials RSS actually stand for ‘Really Simply Syndication.’ Some in the technical field also use the initials to correlate with ‘Rich Site Summary’ or ‘RDF Site Summary.’

No matter what you call it, RSS is a means of reducing online searches for regularly desired information in articles, stories, blogs or other specialty information sites.

RSS, as we know it, was unleashed just after Christmas 1997 and has been improved upon many times since its inception.

The World at Your Fingertips

In the simplest of terms, RSS allows you to select categories of interest and you will be alerted when new content has been discovered. This information is collected and sent on to you for your consideration.

For instance, if you have a site you regularly review, an RSS feed allows you first-hand notification when new material is available.

Those who do not use RSS feeds are forever conducting online searches to find the information they desire. An RSS feed eliminates the frustration.

In order to use an RSS feed you need a feed reader. In most cases this software application will appear similar to an email account. While the software can be purchased, it is also possible to find free versions online.

One of the benefits for the end-user is that, unlike email, you do not need to receive unwanted material. With email you have to opt in and opt out. With an RSS feed you can change the settings whenever you want and receive only the information you desire.

Most RSS readers also provide the requested material in a simplified text format allowing the material to be read without photos and unwanted formatting.

Typically a cut-and-paste of an appropriate website link and a list of predetermined topics is all that is needed to have your RSS reader search for articles related to your interest.

An RSS feed allows you to opt in and opt out without the service you are interested in having to manage a list. An RSS feed also allows you to be as specific as you need to be in the subject matter you want to read.

While RSS feeds are becoming more readily available you should know that not all websites are equipped to provide this service. Look for the orange box with the RSS inside to ensure availability.

Scott Lindsay is a web developer and entrepreneur. He is the founder of HighPowerSites and many other web projects. HighPowerSites is the easiest do-it-yourself website builder on the web. No programming or design skill required. Get your own website online in just five minutes with HighPowerSites.com at: http://www.highpowersites.com
 

Popularity: 3% [?]

Are you selling something online?

If you’re not, you might want to think really hard about doing so.  Whether it’s hard goods (you know, stuff) or soft goods (intellectual property; brain food) that you’re most adept at, there’s a world out there waiting for you.

In fact, the October 2006 issue of Entrepreneur magazine says that online sales are growing 20-25 percent per year.

Something to think about, Dream Job Pals-O-Mine.

 

Popularity: 1% [?]

You have a website and you want it to grow?  You better make sure Google knows about you, because nearly 70 percent of all searches today go through Google.

There are hundreds of resources that will help you optimize your site for Google searches (actually, just go to Google and search for search engine optimization, and you’ll see them), but few places that tell you what not to do on your site.

So, here, courtesy of Google themselves, are the things to avoid when working your site to get it Google-ready:

1. Avoid hidden text or hidden links.
2. Don’t employ cloaking or sneaky redirects.
3. Don’t send automated queries to Google.
4. Don’t load pages with irrelevant words.
5. Don’t create pages that install viruses, trojans, or other badware.
6. Don’t create multiple pages, sub-domains, or domains with substantially duplicate content.
7. Avoid “doorway” pages created just for search engines, or other “cookie cutter” approaches such as affiliate programs with little or no original content.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Do you use mini-courses in your online marketing? If not then maybe you should. Mini-courses are an important part of Internet marketing. A mini-course is a tool that enables you to provide valuable content to your subscribers and promote your own or affiliate products at the same time.

A mini-course is free information on a specific topic. It is normally distributed as multiple articles in e-mail format over a defined period of time. The mini-course also goes by the name eCourse, free report, or autoresponder course.

Before attempting to write your mini-course, identify a “niche market” that has a unique need for information. A niche market is a small segment of the total general market. It is a group of individuals with a common interest that have specific wants and needs. Individuals in a niche market may also have a common problem that needs a solution.

Creating a mini-course is similar to creating an ebook but on a smaller scale. You need to select a “killer” topic that is of interest to your niche market and satisfies a want or need or solves a problem.

There is an unlimited amount of information that can be used in a mini-course. The key is to know what information to use. What information do most people want? Individuals look for informational products that satisfy their most important wants or needs. This includes information on: how to do something, money, time, work, health, self-improvement, entertainment, hobbies and sex.

How can you find your killer topic?

• Listen to your customers. Look for problems they are experiencing when they communicate with you.
• Conduct a survey of your customers and the visitors to your website and ask for comments.
• Join niche discussion boards and chat rooms. What items are discussed on a repeating basis?
• Subscribe to article announcement lists in your niche and identify the key topics being published.
• Next, look for common issues or problems in the information you have collected. Can you solve any of them? If not, locate an expert that can help you.

Identify creative and useful solutions to the issues or problems. Develop an outline to be used as a guide in writing your mini-course. Perform the necessary research to obtain the information you need for the mini-course. Present your information in a manner that satisfies the wants and needs or solves the common problem of your niche market.

You need to have a killer title to grab the interest of your visitors. Select a title that compels your visitor to want to see your report. You want your visitor to request the report, download it, read it and purchase your product offerings.

All of your work in creating the mini-course is of no use if nobody reads it. You want a title that reaches out and pulls the individual into downloading your course. Instead of using a title like “My Report on Golf” use something like “How to Take Strokes Off Your Golf Game.” Which title is more likely to grab the interest of the high handicap golfer?

Once you have the attention of your audience you want to be able to keep them. The opening paragraph must excite your reader and make them want to know more. Use an opening sentence that pulls them into your report like “Everything you ever wanted to know about improving your golf game and more!” Your opening paragraph also needs to define the main objective that will be presented in your mini-course.

The course content is the most critical part of your mini-course. Make certain your information is presented in an organized and meaningful manner. Content can be presented to your readers in many different writing formats.

Some of the most common formats include:

1. How-to-do something tutorial
2. List of ways or tips to accomplish a desired objective
3. Interview of one or more experts regarding your topic
4. Narrative discussion of the issues at hand.

Whatever format you select, it must be easy to read and understand. Do not use difficult words or long sentences and paragraphs. Write in a straightforward manner. Let your personality show in your writing. People that are comfortable with your writing are more likely to buy from you.

Be careful in promoting your own products or affiliate products in the mini-course. The products and services promoted need to relate to the content you are providing. Blend the product or service promotions into your content so that it supports the content. Find ways to weave your product or affiliate program information into your content in a low-key manner.

Avoid outright blatant advertising except in the top sponsor, bottom sponsor and other designated areas of your articles. Blatant advertising in the wrong section will be a quick turn-off. Your mini-course will be viewed as a sales letter and probably not read. Keep your audience in focus. They are reading your mini-course primarily for the valuable content you promised to deliver in the beginning.

The last segment of your mini-course needs to provide a conclusion or closing section. Pull together what you have presented in the course and present your findings. It should satisfy the original objective of your course or provide a solution to the stated problem. Finalize the mini-course with words of value to your readers. Direct your readers to utilize the information you provided. Instill in them the desire to get involved and follow through with your conclusions or implement your solutions.

Organize the information into article segments of roughly 700 to 1,500 words per segment. Keep the length of the mini-course in the range of 3 to 8 segments. Try to avoid information overload and unnecessary padding in your articles. Determine the distribution cycle of the articles. In general, one segment should be delivered each day or every two days. Personally, I prefer once every two days to avoid overloading the recipient with too much information if they don’t check their e-mail on a daily basis.

The best way to distribute your mini-course is by autoresponder. Set up the autoresponder to automatically distribute your articles according to your defined time schedule.

Use the mini-course to promote yourself, your business and your products. It is free advertising. You can use the following methods to promote your mini-course:

• Include in the resource box of an article you wrote
• Include in your newsletter
• Include in your signature file
• Provide as a free bonus on the purchase of your product
• Place in an advertisement
• Provide as a promotional tool for your affiliates to use

In conclusion, your mini-course should deliver valuable content to your audience with the side benefit of promoting your ezine and products. Create your mini-course with a clear picture of wants and needs of your audience. You have wasted your time and effort if the report has little or no value to your reader. Produce a quality mini-course and both you and your subscribers will benefit.

Best of success in your online business activities.

Author:  F. Terrence Markle has worked for over 20 years with public and private companies. He has an MBA in marketing and finance, and has been involved with Internet-related businesses for over 3 years. His primary focus is the marketing of affiliate programs. Check out his free 8-day Internet Business Mini-Course.

Source:  Wordpreneur

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