Welcome to the Trenches
Are you looking to start an online business but feeling a little lost?
It’s okay! Getting started with building a website and creative passive income the dream of many — but you need to know how to get down into the trenches and do it.
Check out the Online Business Quick Start for an overview of the basics you need to get started, and get successful, online.
Broadcast vs. Follow-Up Emails to Your Mailing List
Once you’ve decided why you have a list (to create loyal fans who buy stuff from you), you have to decide how to communicate with those fans – either via broadcast emails, follow-up emails, or a mix of both. Both emails have a valuable place in your business. Broadcast Emails Broadcast emails are sent in the moment. You write these then go into your mailing list host and send send them off to your entire list (or some list programs let you send to a segment). This kind of email is ideal for sending one-time news, sending a periodic...
read moreGiving Great Stuff Away is Not the Purpose of Your Email List
Everybody gives lip service to having a mailing list. When I say everybody I mean everybody. Where you go with your list from there, however, differs. Some bloggers, site owners, and marketers send out a weekly newsletter here and there. Some have a sequence of emails they send out automatically for awhile after you subscribe. Some mail relentlessly, promoting affiliate offer after affiliate offer, or product after product. Some send nothing at all, then blast an offer out of the blue. Then of course there’s a mix of all of the above...
read moreCreating a Coaching Program
Writing for this blog has been a struggle. I’ve gotten back to a fairly regular publication schedule with my other sites, but this one has been tougher. I have a series that I want to write, but my heart just isn’t in it yet. I’m not quite ready for it! It hit me this week that I should just write from where I’m at right now, and I’ll get back to that series in a few weeks. I wrote last on passive income streams, and how I’m planning to build one out over this month. Right now I’m debating if I want to...
read morePassive Income Streams
Money coming in while you sleep — it’s one of the most intriguing thoughts out there. Tons of people fall for “get rich quick schemes” in the hopes of building an automatic money machine. But even though there many scammy programs to designed to make other people rich at your expense, passive income is real. I’ve been making passive income from my websites for years. It tends to ebb and flow in amount, with the largest amount coming from my large authority site. I make money via advertising and affiliate...
read moreComing Out of a Slump
I was in a slump – a big one – for a couple of months. A slump happens for many different reasons. I’ve learned some preventative measures, but in this article I really want to cover what to do when you’ve gotten into a slump. How do you get out? I can happily say that I’ve been in the clear – out of the slump – for several weeks. I’m still not completely up to speed (for instance, this is the first post I’ve written for this blog in ages), but I’m ramping up my productivity and I...
read moreKeyword and Topic Research
I had an idea for the niche that I wanted to dig into with this little test site. I’m already in the natural fertility niche, and this was a spin-off of that niche that I’d toyed with already and gotten some good response to. I wanted to take it further and create a stand-alone site that could really delve into it. The first thing I needed to do, though, was keyword research. Passion vs. Profit I’ve covered this fully in my post on Profitable Keywords vs. Passion but I want to mention it again here. It’s really...
read moreYou Don’t Have to Work
Work. Hard Work. That’s how you get ahead — that’s how you create change in your life. That’s how you get to where you want to be. Stop whining, stop complaining, and start doing. That’s when things change. That’s my philosophy, at least — so why would I title this post “You Don’t Have to Work”? It’s hard for me to sit around and do nothing to work towards a goal. I’m a planner and a do-er. As soon as I know something may be a possibility, I start planning. The...
read moreHow to Get Free Pics for Your Blog Posts
Do you use pictures in your blog posts? You should – pictures capture attention immediately and help draw your reader into your subject matter. The problem is getting the pictures. Stock photos are great quality, but can quickly get very, very expensive, especially if you’re producing a lot of content. I recently discovered a great resource for photos, however, that doesn’t cost any money. You just need to credit the photographer for his or her work. There’s an almost infinite pool of photos to choose from, and...
read moreHow to Ditch Regret and Finally Start Taking Action
Everyone tells you to do something different. You’re on a dozen different marketing lists, read a few different forums, and you have a few books floating around the house. Wait, don’t tell me — you also have that big-ticket internet business course you bought. With so much information your biggest tendency is just to shut down… not do anything at all. Think about that for a minute, though. If you sit down today and do nothing but say “there’s too much to do here,” how will you feel tomorrow? How...
read moreOn Dandelions, Ink, and Winning the Game
Scott and I watched a movie last night called Like Dandelion Dust. I thought it was a really good movie. Compelling story, all characters had very real flaws. Just one that left you with tears in your eyes and thinking about the characters. I went and looked up the movie after we finished and saw it was based on a book. The author who wrote the book, Karen Kingsbury, has had several New York Times bestsellers (TEN actually!) – but I couldn’t help but notice that she’s authored more than 50 books. Have you noticed how...
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I'm Kristen - a wife and mother in a house that's always rocking (literally!)
