Just a quick update on Red Cross Charity Challenge … posting now as this needs to be submitted but I still have 6 hours left to raise more 
… reproduction is not the best …. total collected as of 5.43 pm Pacific May 11 (with 6 hours to go) = US$55.00
May 9
To Moms Everywhere …
Welcome to Sunday Morn Musings. This is my weekly free fall – writing about whatever it is that occupies the mind on a Sunday Morn. The idea of a “no topic” posting is the stepchild to a blog I used to write: Four O’Clock Thursdays which is still up there if you want to check it out – more likely, I will repurpose and republish some of those posts here over time. On Sunday Morn Musings the topic may be about blogging but just as likely it may not.
Last night I was listening to a radio talk show – a money talk show. I like to tune into this show as a way of keeping myself somewhat current with what is happening in the world of finance. This is a show that is targeted to the average person, people like you and me; not bankers, not economists. Tuning into this show does not make me an expert but at least I get a good layman’s perspective on the world economy and how that impacts my country on a larger scale of things and me on a minute scale of things – I also get some good tips on how to manage money. It’s my way of improving my financial IQ.
On yesterday’s show the host challenged us to create our own economy.
Create my own economy?
As I listened I realized how powerful that challenge was.
I also realized that without knowing it I was already creating my own economy and could do a lot more to make it a much healthier one.
The more I listened, the more the idea of a personal economy appealed to me. The imagery is far more powerful than the one that comes to mind when you say budget.
But an economy is more than just a budget.
Creating your own economy is just another term for personal finances which includes income, budget, asset growth, net worth, wealth preservation and that most sought after position of all: the cashflow. Cashflow is the money you have left over after the bills are paid.
The talk show host went on to say that in your economy, everything you own should cashflow.
Well, there it was. Pure and simple. That is why my net worth suffers from anemia. Most everything I own drains and costs rather than contributes and that it seems, is also the main problem with the world economy right now, but there are bright spots, countries like Brazil and China are enjoying good economies compared to most other countries; he posited these two countries vs what is now being termed as the Greek Tragedy.
You can’t do much to make a difference to the world economy, but you can to make a difference in your own.
To create a healthy personal economy you have to turn the tables and start thinking differently.
Whether you are employed or are in business for yourself, how much of your money do you put to work for you? For that matter how much do you pay yourself? You see it appears that most of us don’t do a good job of our income and outgo. We get the money and pay bills. We may contribute to some sort of a retirement plan and perhaps put a few dollars into a savings account. The reality is that most of us don’t even do these bare minimums, let alone grow our net worth. Even high earners are up to debt in their alligators. Now according to the talk show host, debt does not necessarily have to be a bad four letter word, there is such a thing as good debt, and that is when the debt incurred actually produces cashflow. Most personal debt produces outgo.
That got me thinking. The concept is not new to me and I am sure it is not to you. But it got me knoodling.
I wrote out my financials.
Not a pretty picture.
Too much red ink.
Now in my case a lot of the red ink is tax deductable. Items such as communication, transportation, insurances, accommodation and utilities are partially if not completely tax deductable as my businesses are run from my home office and each qualifies as a home based business. Still, when examined with microscopic attention the economy on the home front needs a lot of restructuring.
The biggest gaping hole was that the “economy” was not set up for preservation of capital. That according to the talk show host should be job one because preserved capital grows, and as it grows it can be put to better and higher use so that the resulting cashflow is passive rather than linear.
Aha! But isn`t that what you and are trying to do with internet marketing?
Yup!
We’re on the right track.
But don’t you just love the concept of creating your own economy?
Somehow the sound of “creating your own economy” has a much more powerful ring to it than budgeting
Are you ready to set out and create your own economy? A buoyant one? Let’s go for it.
May 1
Exciting day today – yes, it’s the monthly review and I’ll get to that in a minute, but what I am so jazzed about is that today is the first day of the Super Blogger Reality Show. Alvin Phang kicked it off last night via a live video stream. The first step is that we need to post daily May 01 – 04 inclusive so this is my first entry. Now a “ review of the month that was” may not be the best way to get off the starting block but it just so happens that the moon, the stars and the sun conspire for this to be so.
So what happened in April?
1. Don’t know. April is a total stalemate. Granted, the time devoted to Blog Income has been scaled back. What this means is that the automatic growth engine needs a lot of stoking yet cause it certainly isn’t steaming on its own energy.
2. Traffic via Twitter is now noticeable. This is a mixed blessing as the bounce rate is now in the 70% range. Gulp!
3. Average time on page is 4.38 minutes – OK, those that stay read. Thank you.
4. More and more pages are getting pushed up in rankings both on Google and Yahoo (I don’t check the stats for the other search engines). This is encouraging.
What’s up for May?
FUN. Not just for May but for June and July as well … participating in Alvin Phang’s Super Blogger Reality Show. We will be given tasks each Wednesday and have to report on results every Tuesday. Results are then awarded points. The higher the points, the further along towards winning the prize. The challenge starts today. The first set of tasks that need to be accomplished is to post daily on a blog of our choice. I have decided to work on Blog Income as the blog of choice for the challenge.
SIMPLIFY. I have way too many blogs that are just sitting around doing nothing. Some of them have commercial value so they are going up on the auction block. I can always expand again when the time is right.
COMMITMENT. Playing 100% in the Super Blogger Reality Show. I think it would be cool to win, but more importantly I will have to exercise discipline to keep up the pace. That will do several things for me, not the least of which are:
a. Increase speed of critical thinking
b. Improve efficiencies
c. Learn new things and implement
d. Focus
I look forward to swerving out of the stall and to reporting much better results for the month of May.
Apr 28
No, no, no. Not the Blaaahs – yes, those should be banished too, but the “blands.” What are blands? Oh, I think I just made that up as a noun – you know, when something is bland? Well the blands are just a lot of bland.
While blog hopping earlier this week I ended up at Mars Dorian’s where he writes a thought provoking blog and shoots an equally wicked vidlog … all in one.
Just as someone tells you that the blogosphere is saturated and that it’s going to be a long slog to just get traffic and get noticed and have visitors leave comments and never mind about the money because those that are making it aren’t going to tell you how and how the hell do you think you’ll be different from the millions and millions of other blogs out there ….???
Along comes like Mars.
I chanced on his post on setting yourself apart. . It was a good intro and the video was an excellent watch. Hop on over there and watch it, it’s worth it, then, if you like please come back here. Mars talks about being yourself when you write and how if you are just part of the noise, no one will hear you. In other words, put some spice and don’t be bland.
I can tell you there is nothing bland about Mars.
That’s when I got the idea of banishing the blands. Like there ought to be a place in cyberspace where anything bland on the internet is banished to, sort of like living in exile in the sphere of Blandistan – sorry Dave, borrowing from your Blogistan. Those in exile will need to work on their unique and true self and present themselves in that way and not try to be like someone else.
Of course bland is very subjective. It’s like the color beige, no one – at least no one I know – gushes and coos about how they “… just love beige, I mean don’t you?” Beige on the other hand can exude elegance and class if styled “just so” whether it is a coat or a couch, and it is not just in the eye of the beholder, when something is done right, you just know it.
So who is going to be the judge of bland and how is that going to be handled? Who else? Surely Google would be the obvious arbiter of whether a piece of work is bland or not. The spyder bots can be trained to recognize bland when they crawl and quickly, just like that, a bland piece is banished to Blandistan.
Hmmmm….. there are holes in this thought, but it’s got merit, it can be worked out,. Stay with me. What do you think?
Writing a series of related posts is a great way to market your blog. Sometimes it’s a bit of a stretch to get the content all lined up so that it flows and stays on target.
At last night’s InternetMasterMind meeting, we were introduced to a really neat Google tool: the Wonder Wheel. It was presented as another tool to your keyword research arsenal but I looked at it and thought that it is an excellent tool for scoping out and planning out your post series on a specific topic.
To show you what I mean, below are the screencasts for Blog Income:
1. Just above the number one spot, there is a plus sign and a “show options” button. Click that on.
2. The resulting drop down will look like this:
3. Click on the Wonder Wheel – this is the result I get for Blog Income. See all the possible related topics that are an expansion of “blog income?” To go even further, you can click on one of the “spokes” and generate another wonder wheel to expand on that topic.
How you can apply this to your own blog is to search the keyword of your blog and go through this process. What I really like about this is that you can do this for every keyword and come up with a lot of different “series” … and that should keep you busy for some time to come.
I think this is an excellent way to make progress on your own blog and to cluster series on a given niche within your topic.
To Your Awesome Blog Income Life!
It has been my practice here to post a weekly review. It was typically published on a Saturday. I’ve changed it to Monday.
Why?
It is my belief that things flow better when things are in alignment. I found that with my Saturday weekly review I was at sixes and sevens. Here is what was happening:
You can see what I mean – I was all over the map. As of this week The Week That Was will be published on Mondays. That could mean that on some Mondays there will be two posts … the operative word being “could.”
This was a good week. For time management I have returned to my previous practice of blocking time and I find that it is a model that works for me. I plan my week on Sunday night. It supports my plan for the month. Tasks are written out for the week in order of importance. These tasks are separated into the proper business and listed according to priority. Then I block time for each business for the week from Monday through Friday. Weekends are free fall and may or may not include working on a business or two, more likely if I’m not hanging out with friends I spend the time on my internet marketing “studies” and implementing what I learn – the only scheduled task is the Sunday Morn Musings. What this means to me is that the important tasks for each business are handled. Taking a suggestion from my coach Steve Keough I now allow time for unscheduled daily time because sure as there are little green apples, something is going to disrupt my schedule. No disruption? Great. The low on priority tasks get handled.
Here is the summary of new posts since the last Week that Was:
Sunday Morn Musings: On Overused Words – 11/04/10
It’s time to retire certain words and phrases from the English language – or at least, give them a rest, a long rest. Perfectly good, honest, strong and hard working words that have become hackneyed through overuse … time to give some of them a rest. I list some of my pet peeves, you’re welcome to add your own. Full article on overused words
Blog Hopping to Success – 14/04/10
Blog hopping is a smart thing to do. It’s fun. You meet good bloggers. It helps you to establish your online presence … and it’s just plain good business.. Today I met Maren Kate. Never heard of her before. I met her on my blog visiting route over at Pat Flynn’s Smart Passive Income … it’s what I call blog hopping and in this article I share my views on its importance to your blog income business
What Does a Blog Income Life Look Like? 17/04/10
“What does a Blog Income Life look like?” People have read and heard that there are bloggers out there who are living the life of Riley, drinking fine wines, dining on epicurean delights, travelling to exotic destinations and living in the house of their dreams and they want to know if this. What they are really looking for is a validation, they want to “know” someone who is … the article on what does a blog income life look like is my answer
Sunday Morn Musings: Living the Life of Riley 18/04/10
Who was Riley and why do we want to live like him? Songs, WWI, Reilly coins and a real life spy by the name of Sidney Reilly factor in this Sunday’s morn musings
Wishing you a great week of blogging!
“What does a Blog Income Life look like?”
This is a question I often get asked.
The real answer is that it differs blogger to blogger. But that’s not what the question is about. The question is about my blog income life. It’s not stated that way but I know. So I answer accordingly.
I think that there is some disappointment when my answer fails the litmus test. People have read and heard that there are bloggers out there who are living the life of Riley, drinking fine wines, dining on epicurean delights, travelling to exotic destinations and living in the house of their dreams.
The answer is that yes, there are bloggers who do pull in the big bucks and enjoy a lifestyle to which many aspire – bloggers or otherwise. The disappointment is in my answer.
Amongst my friends I am living the life of Riley – now wasn’t he the real life spy after whom Fleming supposedly modeled James Bond? – after all I ditched the 9 to 5 a long time ago, have the luxury of doing what I please during the week as opposed to leaving things like mountain hikes and day fun trips to places like Whistler for the weekends.
Actually I probably put in longer hours than my 9 to 5 friends. Not all my time is devoted to blogging. I have several businesses and each needs my time. Internet marketing is a new venture for me and so far the ROI, both in terms of money and time invested is miniscule. So if I do drink a fine wine even if only now and then it is not because of my blog income – not yet.
The question that goes begging then is why do I persist with blogging if my other sources of income are sufficient to buy me that fine wine – even if only now and then?
The answer is passive income and living the life of Riley – eventually. Fine wine any time I want it!
Most of my business activities are linear – that is, produce the results and make the money. There is no recurring income for having done something one time and having a check arrive in the mail on a regular basis. No, actually I do have one such business in network marketing and it is the reason I looked at internet marketing in the first place – to market it online.
I got hooked.
Internet marketing had a lot of intuitive appeal to me. I dove in head first.
After taking several courses the penny dropped – the best place to cut your teeth on internet marketing is in blogging. Hard costs are minimal. Expertise is gained on the job and progress is largely dependent on time available and general comfort level with the internet.
So perhaps the proper question at this point of my blog income life is
“What does the time you spend on blogging look like?”
On average I put in four hours a day. Not all those hours are devoted to Blog Income Life as I have other blogs which I market online. Ironically it is these others that make bank for me. Here are the activities that make up the four hours a day on blogging:
These activities are what I would term as high gain, their function is to ultimately make me money.
In addition to high gain activities I also schedule at least an hour a day to continue my internet marketing studies. I still buy courses that I think will help broaden my knowledge and more importantly online experience – it`s what I call muscle building. Confession: sometimes this part of the day does not get done.
Sorry … the blogging money truck may have left but it has not arrived at my doorstep yet. The little guy, the tonka truck makes frequent stops though.
What do you think is at the core of the question of “What does your blog income life look like?“
Curiosity for one.
But I think the question is deeper than that. I think that the real question is `
“Is it true about what they say about blogging – that you can make a lot of money in no time flat and with little effort?”
They have seen the ads, read the long sales letters, watched the videos. What they take away is that this is a piece of cake and anyone can have the cake and eat it too. Overnight success is shouted from one guru to another. The questioner wants me to validate this with an affirmative, that yes, I make gobs of money blogging.
The truth is that overnight success can and does happen – most often after months and months, even years of continuous effort. Ask any guru – most have put in the time in some way or another on the internet. Even John Chow who started to make $40K per month in less than two years on his blog already had another online business. To hear him tell it, his John Chow blog kind of just happened. It appears that way, but John has smarts and had already built up his internet muscles and when you already have muscles, the heavy lifting isn`t so heavy.
What I find enormously rewarding with my internet marketing in that for the first time in many years there is a learning curve to scale. Too often we get into a groove that has become comfortable and that groove provides us with what we need. We don`t need to learn new things to perform well. For me internet marketing was completely new. I had to engage my brain and apply.
On this blog I write about things I have learned and experienced in my blogging career. I hope that the content is of value to you, my visitor; that you can take a nugget or two away with you and that it will help you in your own journey to a profitable blog income life.
An unexpected bonus. Well you could have knocked me over with a feather as I never would have thought that I would enjoy studying but I find the challenge of learning invigorating, it’s like feeding your brain that has been starving all this time. Feels good.
So for now my blog income life is mostly about learning, applying and measuring … and a whole lot of satisfaction with the progress I am making. Financial success? Promise, I’ll let you know. If there is one piece of advice I can give it is simply this: stay the course, correct, continue.
Here’s to your blog income!
Apr 14
Blog hopping is a smart thing to do. It’s fun. You meet good bloggers. It helps you to establish your online presence … and it’s just plain good business.
Today I met Maren Kate. Never heard of her before. I met her on my blog visiting route over at Pat Flynn’s Smart Passive Income. She is a guest blogger there and her article is about how to turn an active income into a passive income , I’m not going to go into the details here as you can just hop on over there and read the whole original article, it’s what I would call PDG – pretty damn good.
Of course after reading the post I took the time to visit Maren’s own blog – Escaping the 9 to 5. Impressed me all to bits – of course I subscribed to the RSS. But that’s not the point here, the point I want to make is that if you are an aspiring professional blogger, blocking a bit of time for blog hopping is a smart thing to do.
I admit that for the longest time I was an online hermit. Staying at home at my Blog Income. Write and they will come was my modus operandi. Then some kind visitors left a comment here and there. That got my curiosity up. Who are these people I thought. Why don’t I find out more? Why don’t I go and visit their blog and find out what they are all about?
Timidly I ventured out. First I just hung out – then one day steeled up enough nerve to make a small comment and that is how I discovered a whole new community of awesome bloggers. Now I go blog hopping several times a week – and daily if I can.
Here is how blog hopping helped me:
FRESH CONTENT
By fresh content I don’t mean that the blog is original in thought, topic or presentation. No. Fresh content is the first sign of a good blog and by that I mean that the blog owner has taken the time and effort to write the article herself. There is nothing new under the sun after all, but originality in perspective is compelling.
I was once on a tour in a foreign city. The tour guide showed us where to stand and click for the best photo shots of famous landmarks. I was pleased that when I had them printed they looked just like the postcards I bought and sent home.
But the group I was with was made up of journalists and photographers. The photographers snapped from different angles, played with shadows and lens filters and created a view of the same scene that was so very different.
That is one of the major reason I like to visit other blogs. To read about the same topic as seen through the lens of another.
GOOD CONVERSATION
Blogs are set up to be interactive. Readers are welcome to leave comments on the post. Often the comments present yet another aspect of the topic at hand. This opens the mind, broadens not only your knowledge but also introduces you to the way others think. Sometimes the comments are thought provocative and take you to places you would not have visited on your own, sometimes they pose a question or answer one and sometimes they prompt you to write a comment of your own.
It won’t be long before you recognize the regulars and just like in real life you’ll “bump” into them as commenters on another blog. You bond. Each blogger brings something unique to the table and I have found that the community of bloggers is a generous lot, sharing and offering to help.
LINK JUICE
When you finally get out of your shell and start to post comments, there is a section in the comments format to leave your blog URL, this is a backlink. Backlinks are desirable to have – the more the better. Somehow they factor in the algorithms when search engines rank your site, moreover when a spider crawls a site with your URL as a backlink, it will go and crawl your site as well.
One point to consider here. Many sites are “no follow” which means that there is a message to spiders not to follow the backlinks back to the commenter’s site. Some people won’t leave comments on “ no follow” blogs. Frankly, if I like the blog and its content and wish to comment I will whether it is a “do” or a “no” follow blog. The link to your site is live no matter whether it is a “do” or a “no” follow and often other commenters hop on over to your blog.
You might be interested in reading in these related posts:
Link Building Part I
Link Building Part II
BLOG ETIQUETTE
Remember when you are visiting someone’s blog you are a guest. When you join in the conversation and make a comment make it relevant to the content on the post, and please, please, please do not leave throw away lines like “cool stuff dude” … that smacks of milking for link juice and is spamish.
Comment spamming is on the rise and many bloggers have posted their policies as to what will and will not be approved for publishing. Generally speaking Akismet or similar plugins catche most spam and it never sees the light of day but I have had a spate of spammy stuff recently that is why it is a good idea to configure your own comment section so that comments need to be pre-approved before publishing.
When someone has taken the time to visit your blog and leave a comment, it is common courtesy to acknowledge the commenter. A return visit to the commenter’s blog with a comment of your own is a nice touch.
Here’s to Your Awesome Blog Income Life!
I’ve long forgotten what it’s like to have a long weekend. For the entrepreneur who calls the spare bedroom the office, days and nights and weekdays and weekends often blur. This is particularly true of those of us who are internet marketers and earn our incomes online. Last weekend, Easter, I decided that the 9 – 5 may have a point: take some time off. And so I did. Four glorious days of it.
You know what was so good about it? Yes, spending time with family and friends, but the truly surprising part was that it was really invigorating to get back on the computer and get moving again. I got a surprising amount covered. The brain seems to think faster and I think you waste less time, because, well there is so much to make up for. I think I’ll do that more often.
I was intrigued that one of my posts this week was not only indexed , but actually got a Google Broad position of 98 and Phrase position of 48 – OVERNIGHT! I’ve never had anything like that happen. The post in question is This Too Shall Pass. I think it’s the video which I embedded into the post . Now I don’t think that any video would garner that kind of attention, but this one is really tops. You just gotta watch it.
Summaries of articles posted since the last review
Blogger Reality Show Challenge 05/04/10
The World’s 1st Reality Show For Bloggers To Challenge Each Other Each Week To Win The Ultimate Prize To Be Alvin Phang’s Apprentice!
Sooner or later it had to happen – a Blogger Reality Show and Alvin Phang of Gather Success is the man to have put it together. Everyone can participate. The show starts April 30 so hop on out on over there and register. It will be fun.
What is your Blog’s USP? 06/04/10
Do you know what your blog’s USP (Unique Selling Proposition) is? What sets your blog apart from the others. Some things to consider and apply to your blog that will have your tribe growing and following you consistently. Read the whole blog post
This Too Shall Pass – 09/04/10
This was my first attempt at embedding a You Tube video. I think I missed a step or something as after you click on the video it asks you to click again … but the video is so hilarious. You really do have to watch it. I then drew some parallels from the video to blogging.
The gloves are off. Two of my fave bloggers Dave and Pat seem to be duking it out in the blogosphere or so their posts seem to suggest. They’re both sharp dudes though and even though the titles seem to be at polar opposites, there is some common ground there. Definitely a must read.
Pat Flynn - Its Dumb Not to Dumb it Down
Dave Doolin – “Dumb it down” they say… No! I say, “Smarten it up!”
I’m not going to even give a summary – honest, just go read both posts.
Tomorrow Sunday Morn Musings returns. Adios!
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