I’m in DC this weekend at Yanik Silver’s Underground Seminar 6. This is my first time attending an Underground event and I’ve been impressed with the quality of content and the caliber of people that it draws.

This is definitely an event I would recommend if you’re looking to take your online business to the next level. Both for the content and the networking.

That’s actually what I’m here for myself…

One of the key points that I’ve been getting out of this event is the structure of systems and processes. How a successful 7-figure business operates. And by the way, from the poll that was taken prior to the event- more than 40% of the attendees are already earning more than $100k/year with their online business.

Earlier today I tweeted a quote from one of the panels, that sums up my focus here this weekend:

“fire yourself… and hire someone that can take your business to the next level”

Tomorrow we’re going to hear from Susan Hill, deemed “The Outsource Enforcer” here at UG6. I am looking forward to her presentation, which is about outsourcing and also how to dominate a niche. I just looked her up on Google and found her guide titled Elance Made Easy -which I am ordering and downloading as we speak. (expect a full review from me on that soon )

I’m interested in strategic outsourcing, but also in finding those few special people to work with as I take my business to the next level. I am starting to get a very clear picture of what they look like and what role they play.

So that’s my objective this weekend, but I’ve also been jotting down a lot of cool notes from various speakers and conversations. I thought I’d share some of those notes with you. And I haven’t had a chance to organize them yet, so I’ll just give them to you as I have them:

• The number of Twitter followers you have will never bring in as much revenue as the same number of email subscribers.

• Where/How are you spending most of your working hours?

• For project management: Basecamp or Central Desktop

• Recommended by several speakers & attendees for higher level business coaching: www.StrategicCoach.com

• Use Twitter search to do keyword searches in a specific area. Go to http://search.twitter.com and use the search syntax “near:zipcode keyword” (without quotes, and where “zipcode” is the actual zipcode of the preferred location.

• Consultants/Service Professionals: Never back down from your strategy or specific offer. It weakens your brand and your reputation to give the client what they think they want, at the expense of results. Don’t give your clients what they want. Educate them on what they need.

• Ask yourself: What does a 6/7 figure business look like? How does it operate, what am I doing? Now ask yourself: What am I not doing now to not be at 6/7 figures?

• Leverage Your Time. Make a list of everything it takes to run your business. Then create a plan to delegate about 95% of it.

• There’s 3 times to sell (a business/website): too early, too late, or the right time.

I’ll work on getting my notes organized, and share some of these points with you in more detail in upcoming posts.

I’ll close now, as I am heading into the next session. I am really glad I attended this Underground Seminar. I’m getting a lot out of it, and I’m having a fabulous time hanging out with @KristenArnold…

Best,

p.s. I enjoyed hearing Gary Vaynerchuk speak this weekend. He definitely crushed it I ordered 10 copies of his book Crush It! just last week, one of which I have with me. I’ll have my review up soon – where I’ll be giving away the other 9 copies. You can sign up below to get notified of new posts so you don’t miss the giveaway:

Brainstorming is one of the most powerful creative techniques ever devised. When used properly, it can produce more and better ideas than any other process. It’s based on the concept that two heads (or three, or four, or more) are better than one.

Many would argue that you can’t create by committee. I agree. Writing and other creative acts are best performed by individuals. Creating by committee, well . . . sucks.

But brainstorming is not about executing ideas. It’s simply about coming up with ideas. And it is almost always more productive as a group activity. The result of a brainstorming session should be a long list of potential ideas which you can evaluate at a later time, acting only on the best.

Sure, you’ll come up with a ton of dumb ideas, but so what? Once you get the ideas flowing, the great ideas will float to the top. And some of those ideas that seem dumb end up being pretty smart — once you try them.

It’s like panning for gold. You have to sift through a lot of sludge to get to the shiny nuggets.

How to brainstorm with other bloggers

If you interact with other bloggers frequently, you probably do a little informal brainstorming already. It’s not just a good way to solve problems, it’s a great way to keep your blog fresh and interesting.

In fact, I’m thinking about brainstorming for bloggers specifically because more and more bloggers are beginning to work together to write blogs, create products, promote each other’s content, and feed off of each other’s energy and ideas.

If you’ve had bad luck with brainstorming, it’s probably because you did it in a stuffy corporate environment where no one feels free to really open up. But if you can assemble the right group of people who feel comfortable with each other, a brainstorming session can be like throwing a match into a room full of firecrackers. There’s a sudden and powerful chain reaction.

What can you brainstorm?

Anything that will benefit from sharper ideas is good fodder for a brainstorming session. Try brainstorming ideas for post topics (or perhaps a series of posts), product ideas, marketing angles, positioning for your business, contests, link building strategies . . . the sky’s the limit.

Here are a few suggestions for creating some fireworks of your own. These guidelines are intended for in-person sessions, so if you plan to brainstorm by Skype, chat, or other means, you may want to adapt the rules a little.

Before your session . . .

Select a leader. When I conduct a session, I often serve as both leader and participant. It works for me, but you may want to select a leader who will remain fairly quiet while the others let their imagination go wild. The leader also needs to keep the group on track and on a time schedule, stifle negative statements, help the group develop ideas fully, and assure that each member contributes.

Define your problem. The leader should write a clear definition for the problem the group will address. All you need is a sentence or two that clearly outlines the situation.

Create an agenda. Outline what topics you want to cover. Prepare a few ideas in advance to get things started, and be prepared to suggest questions to keep the ideas flowing.

Set time limits. How much time you spend depends on the group’s endurance and everyone’s schedule, but it’s usually best to keep it short — 15 to 45 minutes. If you go longer, take frequent breaks to keep people fresh.

Set quotas. The idea is to work fast and produce lots of ideas, which will be evaluated at another time. So decide on a quota, such as a minimum of 100 ideas. This isn’t as hard as it sounds. If you come up with just two ideas a minute, you’ll have 120 in an hour. You can set an overall quota or individual quotas for each topic.

Select your group and announce a session. Choose a mixed group whose blogs are at about the same level to participate. Avoid control freaks and people who need to monopolize the conversation. When you set things up, don’t call it a “meeting.” That conjures images of big oak tables and idiots in neckties. Call it a “session.”

Circulate background information. Prime session participants with a simple statement of the problem, background information, and examples of the kind of ideas you’re looking for.

During your session . . .

Review the problem and background information. Don’t put people to sleep, just quickly go over the problem, background data, and what you hope to accomplish. If there are questions, answer them before you get started.

Establish the ground rules.

1. Each session participant must contribute ideas or add to another’s ideas.
2. No one may criticize or evaluate any idea. Alex F. Osborn in Applied Imagination said it best: “Think up or shut up.”
3. No one will hold back ideas. When something comes to mind, say it.
4. The group will encourage wild, out-of-the box thinking.
5. The goal of the session is quantity, not quality. Quality will be evaluated later.
6. Develop ideas fully. Participants should hitchhike ideas on the ideas of others to produce more and better ideas.
7. Once an idea is developed, the group will move on.

Take detailed notes. Whether written or typed, someone needs to rapidly capture the flow of ideas as they occur. One option is to record the session and transcribe the recording. I’ve found that a combination of note taking and recording works best. The notes serve as an outline of the major topics covered and the recording fills in the details.

After your session . . .

Allow for the incubation of further ideas. If you’ve had a productive session, ideas will continue to occur to people for hours or days after the session. Ask everyone to write down these ideas and submit them later to record along with the main session notes.

Type up and circulate all the ideas generated. The final product of a session will be a multi-page document that lists every single idea created. Nothing should be edited. Organize or classify these ideas for later evaluation. Don’t be surprised if you have literally hundreds of ideas.

Evaluate your ideas and choose the best. The same group can evaluate the ideas or another group can. It’s often best for those responsible for the problem to evaluate the ideas, but you can run into “idea ownership” problems. On the other hand, another group may not be able to grasp the significance of many of the ideas generated. You’ll have to experiment.

When the dust settles, you should find yourself with some surprisingly good ideas. And the whole process often energizes all the participants.

Don’t get discouraged if it doesn’t work perfectly the first time. It usually doesn’t. Assembling the right group, creating an open atmosphere, and producing the best results often takes time. As with so many other things in life, practice makes perfect.

For more tips on being creative, read 10 easy ways to instantly energize your creative powers at my Pro Copy Tips blog.

About the Author: Dean Rieck is one of America’s top freelance copywriters and publisher of the Direct Creative Blog and Pro Copy Tips, a blog that provides copywriting tips for smart copywriters.

Earlier this year, Brian and I created a course called Freelance X Factor.

It was designed for the “typical” Copyblogger reader. (Smart, interested in writing, pretty savvy about social media . . . but possibly “not there yet” when it comes to packaging all of that up and turning it into income.)

The course is designed to give you a “business model in a box,” to take what you’re great at and start using it to make a better living. Our focus was to take social media writers and turn them into effective businesspeople.

While we were at it, we included a lot of content to help you become a social media rock star, if you weren’t there already.

And, in honor of the worst global economy since the Great Depression, we packaged all of this up at an incredibly attractive price.

Why bring all this up now? Because everything that made the course so valuable remains true. But we’re just about to raise the incredibly attractive price to something that’s merely “very attractive.”

We’ll be taking the offer down before the end of the month. In early January, we’ll be raising the price for Freelance X Factor from $87 to $147. Which is still, frankly, a hell of a deal.

If you’re a writer and you think the Copyblogger business model could help you re-position yourself for more income, fewer hassles, more respect, and more fun, well, you’re right. Click here to find out how to do that for the best possible price.

A lot of people think that social media is a trend. A fad to fade. Or at least that was the whisper up until this last year… when it became obvious that social media was here to stay.

There’s a lot more to social media than collecting friends and promoting your blog posts or products. Social media is changing the way we do business, and the way we live.

See this quick 4+ minute video by Erik Qualman discussing whether social media is a fad – or the biggest shift since the industrial revolution…

I picked up a copy of Socialnomics by Erik Qualman (aka @equalman on Twitter) last month, and have been reading it off and on for the last few weeks. I’d love to just sit down and read it all the way through in one sitting, but it’s been a busy month so I’ve been absorbing half a chapter here and there every chance I got.

You can get Socialnomics on audible, get it for the Kindle, or you can get a hardcover copy at Amazon for only $16.47. It comes in just about every flavor you could want. It has a 5-star rating on Amazon, with all but one review giving it 5 full stars.

(I still prefer to curl up with a good hardcover book)

Fresh, Engaging… and Thought-Provoking

There’s something super cool about a book so fresh that it references things that just happened earlier this year, and change that is happening right now.

Erik puts it all in context in the first 3 chapters and explains how social media is not a “time suck” or an insane distraction – as some of us initially thought, myself included – but rather a more efficient and deeper way to communicate.

I found myself nodding along the whole way, and really seeing the bigger picture – outside of online business and internet marketing. How social media is changing the way we talk, shop, learn, share… and even vote.

I can say firsthand that social media has changed my relationships with my friends, my children and even my mother. We still talk on the phone or sit down to dinner together, but it’s no longer a conversation of “how was your day?” or “what’s new in your life?” – because we already know.

Even if you barely know me on a personal level you probably know that my house got rolled on Halloween, I just bought a 4WD Jeep (and what color it was), that I have a good sense of humor , I’ve been reading Socialnomics, etc.

So what, right? The big argument has been… who cares what everyone else is doing, and how can I possibly keep up with everyone else’s life and their daily updates?

You don’t necessarily. Care or keep up, that is – or not with everyone at least, and not every minute. But you can filter updates by relationship, check in any time any day and see what your friends and family are up to via their profiles & update streams, or do a 2-second search to find specific conversations.

There’s a sense of transparency about social media that opens a million doors. Not just for marketing purposes, but for communication and relationships.

My stepdaughter knew that I was out dancing with her English teacher (oops!), I know who my teens are dating or talking to, and relatives who live far away get a daily glimpse into our lives without the hour-long phone calls every week.

“It’s not a 9-to-5 world, it’s a 24/7 world.”

In Chapter 3 Erik discusses “the fluid schedule” and finding balance between gadgets, updates and real life. While some may feel this makes you less connected and less productive, it’s actually exactly opposite.

You no longer have to sit in front of the television for an entire hour twice a day to get the news. You can select what type of news you want, and have it delivered to you instantly the minute the story breaks.

You no longer have to research products online for hours – you can get recommendations and links to peer reviews in a matter of minutes.

You no longer have to go it alone. You have the entire world at your fingertips – no matter where you are, no matter what time of day it is.

Social Media Marketing: Embracing The Change

I’ve really enjoyed Socialnomics from a personal perspective, but it also addresses brand marketing and social media success stories. Erik gives very specific examples of social media campaigns – and why they worked (or flopped).

How do you get loyal raving fans, and get them to talk about your brand online? That’s exactly what you’ll learn. “Consumers are taking ownership of brands, and their referral power is priceless.” (page 97)

Traditional marketing methods simply don’t work in the social media space. And in addition to changing the message and the method, there’s a whole new world of possibilities available thanks to this changing landscape. Be sure to check out what Erik has to say about Ebooks in Chapter 5…

The entire book is chock full of thought-provoking idea generators, from how to harness the power of the growing social media graph… to integrating advertising and monetization seamlessly into your content.

Socialnomics is fresh, current, and a must-read for anyone marketing anything online – less than 20 bucks, and definitely a smart investment in your business and your social media marketing plan (especially if you don’t yet have one!).

My opinion? You’re going to LOVE this book.

If you’ve been feeling out of the loop, or frustrated by social media options and opportunities that you don’t really understand, sit down with a copy of Socialnomics and enjoy the ride… You’ll be up to speed in no time.

Best,

p.s. You can read editorial reviews and consumer reviews on Amazon.com, and also flip through several pages of the book using their Look Inside! feature.

Grab a copy for yourself, and make sure you subscribe to the Internet Marketing This Week podcast as we’ll have Erik Qualman on as a special guest next week.

Another video by Erik, on the ROI of Social Media Marketing… Enjoy!

Bloggers spend a lot of time on their computers. They’re posting, reading, commenting on other blogs, sending Tweets, checking half a dozen social networking sites, and generally being web-geeky.

They find something interesting or random, and then clue in other people to that interesting or random thing.

This is how blog posts gain steam on Digg or go viral. This is how we find out about new YouTube videos. This is how we communicate now.

Except we don’t.

We were people before we were bloggers

Think about the blogs that you like the most. Like, to pick a totally random example, mine.

Do you like them because they told you something weird or peculiar that you didn’t know about before? Or do you like them because you enjoy what the post says? Because you like the way the article was written? Because you like the style of the author, the blog’s sense of humor, the way the blogger turns a phrase?

Great bloggers become great because they have a unique style and way of thinking. Here’s the kicker, though: They were that way before they ever became bloggers.

Dave Navarro over at The Launch Coach? He was a pretty great dude before blogging was even invented. He was funny. He was helpful. He had kind of an attitude, in a good way. He was all the things we love him for today as a blogger.

But he wasn’t blogging. Not his fault; blogging didn’t exist back then.

If you want to become a better blogger, you need to have a style and a voice of your own — and you can’t find that sitting at your computer desk. Not enough of a voice, anyway, to make you really great.

You’re not going to develop your blogging awesomeness by re-posting what other people have written or riffing off thoughts they’ve had, or setting up endless list posts pointing to someone else’s content.

Those things are fine once in awhile, but they’re not enough to build a great blog.

Forget blogging for a while (but keep it in the back of your mind)

To become better bloggers, we need to get out in the world.

Start conversations with more people. Find the kind of jokes you like to tell. Listen to the rhythm of your voice as you speak. Pay attention to the way people react when you talk. Notice how they seem more interested when you speak in a certain way or when you discuss certain topics.

Pay attention to what attracts your interest. Does color catch your eye? Do you peek around street corners to find out who’s playing that music? Do you slow down to eavesdrop on people who seem to be having interesting conversations? Do you help people on the bus or pick up things they’ve dropped? Do you go talk to storeowners or to the others standing in line with you?

This is how you’ll find a style of your own, a personality that makes up who you are as a blogger.

Find some activities or events around the subjects you like to blog about. Naomi at Ittybiz wrote a great series about marketing and branding campaigns she noticed while walking around town.

Why? Because she’s into marketing and branding. That’s what she blogs about. It was interesting. It made her interesting.

And she wrote these posts from her own unique perspective using her own voice. There are a couple of really spiffy posts that she would never have written if she hadn’t been thinking of her blog posts as she bought paint from the hardware store.

That’s how you can be a better blogger. You find new things to write about just by getting away from the computer so you can explore the world.

So walk away from that keyboard (after you comment on this post, of course). Get outside. Go interact with a real, live, flesh-and-blood person. Communicate with that person. Observe. Watch. And come back when you’ve found out what sort of blogger you really are.

Then write a blog post that rocks that person’s socks off.

About the Author: James Chartrand is rockin’ socks off over at Men with Pens, thanks to a unique voice and plenty of time away from the computer. Check out his blog, then go get some fresh air and sun.

How’d you like to learn how to get a massive amount of comments on one blog post?

Better yet, what if you could use those comments to convince your readers to buy your products or services?

Because you can. In this post, I’m going to take you behind the scenes of a strategy Laura Roeder showed me to pull in 294 comments on my post and eventually attract more than 30 consulting clients.

It uses all of the copywriting techniques and psychological triggers that we promote here at Copyblogger, but it combines them in a unique way that generates a lot of buzz.

Here’s why that’s important:

Why buzz is essential for selling anything

Have you ever hesitated to buy something because you didn’t see anyone else interested in it? You were genuinely interested in the product — you just didn’t want to be first?

We all do it. It’s a well-documented phenomenon that psychologists like Robert Cialdini call social proof.

The question is: how do you deal with it, if you’re trying to sell something?

If you’ve watched any of our product launches here at Copyblogger, you’ve probably noticed that they generate a lot of buzz. People are talking about them on Twitter, course members write about them on their blogs, and many of the influential bloggers in our niche help us promote the course. Altogether, it’s a huge amount of buzz.

And it’s far from accidental. We prepare for weeks or even months before the launch date in order to make sure everyone is buzzing about the product all at one time. We want to give prospective customers as much social proof as possible, so that they can feel comfortable with buying it.

Except . . . what if you don’t have a big blog like Copyblogger? What if you’re just getting started, and you have hardly any readers at all?

Is it still possible to create buzz?

Yes.

Creating fans out of thin air

A few months ago, I noticed a lot of buzz on Twitter related to a video from Laura Roeder about creating fans out of thin air.

After speaking on a panel at South by Southwest, working with celebrities like Brea Grant from NBC’s Heroes, and creating some stellar results for small businesses of all kinds, Laura is quickly becoming a preeminent social media expert, and her video lays out one of the best strategies for generating buzz that I’ve seen.

Here’s how it works:

1. Hold a competition where the winner gets a free sample of your product or service
2. Build buzz with social media (Twitter, Facebook, your blog, etc.)
3. Use that buzz as social proof, convincing folks that didn’t win to pay you for your product or service

The only problem with her approach is that it’s a little simplistic. You can tell Laura is targeting business owners who are inexperienced with social media, and she’s trying to make it as easy as possible. Instead of using a blog to showcase the competition, she shows you how to create a simple website with Google.

But can this strategy work just as well for bloggers?

You bet. Let me show you how I modified it to take advantage of the powerful social proof from comments.

How I launched a consulting service here at Copyblogger

Imagine this.

A reader stops by your blog and sees that you are giving away 20-30 free consultations. All they have to do to have a chance to be chosen is leave a comment with their biggest frustration. So, they take a few minutes to jot one down.

Later, they see that there are 100s of other comments, and they’re not surprised when they don’t win. The demand is enormous!

But then what happens? A few days later, you announce that you were absolutely overwhelmed with the response, but you’re willing to do a limited number of additional consultations for $95 each. The first people to email you get them.

How do you think your reader is going to feel?

Sure, some of them might hold back because they figure they’ve already lost their chance. Others will have no interest in your services, so they’ll go on their merry way. But after seeing all of those comments, none of them will doubt that your services are in demand.

The social proof in the form of comments helps people see the value in the offer you’re making.

It may seem a bit sneaky, but it works. I’m spilling my secrets here, because the above scenario is exactly what I did to launch my consulting services here at Copyblogger, and I’ve been booked solid ever since. The demand was so high that I had several people offering double or even triple the normal rate if I would move them to the head of the line.

The key. of course, is to offer true value. But beyond that, there are plenty of people offering great value in obscurity.

Don’t be one of them.

It’s the power of social proof that makes the difference, and you don’t need a huge blog to harness it. Here’s how to launch a product or service from your blog, even if your audience is still fairly small:

How to launch a product or service from your blog

Step 1: Watch Laura’s video about Creating Fans Out Of Thin Air. It’s the foundation for this approach.

Step 2: Write a post announcing that you’re giving away a limited number of free samples of your product or service to readers who leave a comment describing their biggest frustration with a certain topic. If your audience is small, don’t do 20-30 free consultations like I did. Start with 5 or 10.

Step 3: Use the competition to create lots of buzz on Twitter. Get all of your friends to tweet about it. Also, ask the winners to tweet a testimonial for you, helping you create even more buzz.

Step 4: Offer a special deal on your product or service to everyone who didn’t win. I didn’t even follow this step, and I was still overwhelmed with clients.

Step 5: Write another post on your blog pointing to all of the comments on your first post and telling everyone how you’re overwhelmed with entries, so you decided to go ahead and put the product up for sale.

That’s it.

I used this process to launch a consulting service, but really, you can use it for anything. In fact, Laura has several more videos about how anyone can harness the power of social media to help get customers talking about their business.

Click here to check them out. If you’re interested in learning how all of this social media hoopla converts into money, I really think they’ll help you.

On Monday, Laura is following up with a post about how she helped Brea Grant (Daphne from NBC’s Heroes) use social media to build her career. I think you’ll get a lot out of it, but don’t forget to sign up for the other videos as well.

About the Author: Jon Morrow is Associate Editor of Copyblogger and Cofounder of Partnering Profits. Get more from Jon on twitter.

As often as I recommend the SEO Fast Start guide, it’s high time I published a review. The fact that I would take the take time to write a detailed product review on a free product should tell you just how high a value I place on it.

I’ll be so bold as to say that SEO Fast Start should be required reading for anyone with a website or an online business. Even better if you have not yet set up your first website, as this guide will help you do it correctly right out of the gate.

It is written by Dan Thies, well respected SEO and lead developer of StomperNet’s own SEO course. There have been 9 editions since 2001, with the latest edition released in June 2009. The guide is current, it teaches all white-hat methods (ie you won’t get penalized), and it is under 100 pages.

Did I mention that it’s free?…

The Importance of Learning SEO

A lot of people are under the impression that SEO is hard work, or that it’s a waste of time because you’ll just get “slapped” or penalized eventually and it’s just too hard to keep up with the algorithms. That is FALSE.

If you do SEO correctly, you’ll enjoy consistent top rankings and high quality traffic. I have web pages that I put up 3 years ago or more, have never touched since, that still bring in sales every single week.

The key word there was “correctly”, and that is the reason I recommend Dan’s guide.

I use 3 main sources for the majority of my traffic: SEO, Social Media, and short reports. Pay special attention here because this is important. If your website or online business is fairly new, you probably don’t have much of a ‘following’ on social media sites. You also don’t have an audience to use the short report strategy. While you can build on both of those, your time and energy is better spent with SEO.

Once you properly optimize your website and all of your online content, you can then connect with those visitors through social media and short reports. The same goes with List-Building. How are you going to build a mailing list with no traffic?

So first things first… SEO.

Why SEO Fast Start?

There is a lot of misinformation floating around the web regarding SEO. Some of that misinformation can do you much more harm than good. Ask anyone who has been through a Google Slap.

If there is anything going on with Google, or in the search industry, Dan Thies is on top of it. Erase everything you think you know about search engine optimization, and download this one guide. Stay on the mailing list as well so that you get notified of updates. A new updates just came out less than 90 days ago, for example.

Dan Thies is not going to teach you spammy strategies, or tricks & tactics. He errs on the side of caution, white hat as it’s called, with a major focus on VO – or Visitor Optimization. He explains it all in detail, and in order, so his guide serves as a blueprint and an action guide that you can refer back to as you go.

Highlights & Features of SEO Fast Start

• Companion Website & Free Community
• Framework: How to Manage SEO Projects Easily
• Step-by-Step Actionable SEO Plan
• Dispels Misinformation & Complication
• Information Applies To ALL Search Engines
• Easy to Read, Easy to Understand
• Current, Up-to-Date Training
• Stops to Define Terms & Explain Concepts
• Recommends Free Tools
• Helps You Create Websites Visitors AND Search Engines Love

Dan Thies confirms many of the things I have been doing and sharing over the years – about content & site layout, the 3-click rule, tiered keyword structure, etc. He explains it all in great detail, but not to the point of oblivion. He intentionally kept the guide under 100 pages and at a level that anyone can understand and implement.

Not only should you download it today, you should print it out, put it in a 3-ring binder, and start reading it through one good time. Then go back and follow the steps… and implement them. You’ll thank me for this one when your pages are ranking well and you are making sales in your sleep.

http://www.seofaststart.com/download

Enjoy!

Best,

p.s. I am also reading another SEO guide (not free) and will publish a comparative review later this week. Subscribe below to receive notification so you don’t miss it:

Hi. I’m Lynn’s friend, Nicole Dean, and I’ll be guest blogging here this week

The topic of this series is Easy Ecourse Profits for Busy Marketers.

We’ve covered a lot of ground this week, and I sure hope your brain is swelling with ideas. I’ve got two more for you today.

Repurpose your First Message.

I’m a huge fan of repurposing your content. I write something once and use it over and over again, if possible. And, I recommend that you do the same.

For instance, in your new ecourse, if you’ve written it yourself, why not use the first message in your ecourse to draft an article that you can submit to the article directories? If the ecourse is written in a series, then the logical thing to do would be to share that first message as much as possible – and encourage people to sign up for your ecourse at the end of the article.

People really get uncomfortable when they don’t finish something. I know, for me, eating half a plate of food is nearly unbearable. I want to finish it! Plus, we all like samples. Picture walking through the food court in the mall and someone offers you a taste of curry chicken. You’ll take it and want to dive in for more. Hmm… I must be getting hungry for dinner with all this talk of food.

So, use those two things to your advantage.

Submit one or more of the ecourse lessons (or messages) to the article directories. In your author bio, say “This is just one way you can lose 5 lbs in a week (and it’s not even my best tip). To get totally free access to six more ways to lose weight without going hungry in the process, go to (insert your URL here).” Easy as pie.

Create Something Buzz-Worthy.

I’ll give you one more way that I’ve used to get subscribers… (Click through all 15 of the comics below.)

If that just flew right over your head, let me know. I’m on day two of a migraine, so my poor head is feeling bleh. I’ll be happy to clarify if anything is unclear.

Now, I’m off to bed. Hope you enjoyed this!

Warmly,
Nicole Dean

PS. Remember, you’ve got to comment to win prizes…

Also, if you enjoyed this post, I’d really appreciate some Twitter & StumbleUpon love. Thank you!

Well, that’s not news to a lot of you. But let’s not assume everyone knows.

So what’s the benefit of following Copyblogger on Twitter in addition to your existing subscription to free content updates?

Well…

• Cool links to related content from other sources.
• Cool quotations that kick your business in the underpants.
• Cool moments when Brian tweets drunk.

Now that’s a compelling offer (if only for my drunk tweets). Join us on Twitter!

Bruce Clay, who has been in the search engine optimization game since 1996 (before Google), sat down with WebProNews to discuss how the search industry has evolved over the years. Discuss search industry changes with WebProNews readers.

More WebProNews Videos

Things Clay mentions as good ways to keep up with search industry changes include:

- Training
- Attending Conferences
- Reading the right blogs
- Following Matt Cutts and reading all the stuff he’s ever written
- Paying attention to the videos

"If you listen to experts and follow experts’ advice, you’re probably going to do much better than if you read a forum, and it’s misleading, and you think you understand, but don’t quite," he says.

Among other things, Clay talks about some elements a lot of SEOs are missing, and should be paying attention to. Watch the above clip.