Blog Family,

I am writing late on a Sunday night because it has been a long day, yet I must get my accountability in for the week. I feel accountability is what every entrepreneur needs.

Many entrepreneurs go into business for themselves to avoid having to be accountable to someone else. You know that is the polite way to say having a boss all over your back and up in your business. If you have a job or work for someone else, then you are going to experience some of this.

The fact is having someone you are accountable to makes you more productive. It is true. Let’s just face it. To bring out your very best, you must set high goals and be accountable to them.

So how does the entrepreneur get that accountability they need?

They have to go get it. You can get a mentor. This is a great idea. That mentor would be better than a boss because there are there to help you learn and grow. Mentors have been a key asset of successful people for centuries. Don’t neglect the power.

You could network with a group of like minded people that will hold you accountable. You have to network and meet people that you respect enough to work with them and trust them enough to share your goals and dreams with them. Everyone in this group could share the ir weekly or monthly goals and hold each other accountable for their goals. Moral support and not letting the group down can be powerful motivators for you.

Or you can be creative.

The route I chose was to be accountable for a large weekly goal in my business and life. I know this is different, but why not? It is interesting and I know there are people in my Blog Family that will do a great job at holding me accountable. And that is what you need. We all have the potential for greatness inside of us. Sometimes we just need it dragged out of us. You are going to help me get over that feeling.

Last Weeks Goal

Last week, I wanted to write 50 articles for my niche sites during the week. This was a follow up goal from the week before where I only completed 40 articles. 4 0 articles was outstanding, but I wanted the entire fire. So, I set the goal one more time. This time I was determined to hit it.

Last week, I hit my goal. I wrote 50 articles for my various niche sites. I am so excited. I know that each one of those articles are going to move their way into SERPS that can generate traffic. It just felt good to hit the goal of 50 articles.

This Weeks Goal

This week,  I have to complete the taxes. It has to get done.

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Blog Family,

As you might expect, I have been thinking about goal setting and goal attainment, moving forward with my plans. But as I do my daily and weekly, mental round up, I am forced to notice all of the areas that I have fallen a little short. The goal was a little higher than what I accomplished for the month. That space between what was planned and attained. Does this amount to failure in your mind?

What is failure?

Failure means many things, depending on who you are talking to. Some think failure is not attaining every little goal you set out to achieve. To others failure lies in disappointing other people. Still to more, failure is making yourself look foolish.

I think failure pigeon holds many people from reaching for and attaining all that they could in their life time. Somehow these setbacks, changes in the plans, and differences paralyze many people into not acting at all. As though their lack of attempt isn’t a failure or a set back it’s self. You cannot simply shelve a dream and think that you are playing it safe. You are failing in the worst way because you are not trying at all.

Redefining Failure

As of today, failure has a new definition.

You cannot be a failure until you have given up on a thing and have gain no value from the pursuit.

Since you cannot pursue a thing without gaining some type of value and insight from that pursuit, you cannot ever be a failure so let’s stop thinking of it all together. And if you are still in pursuit of a thing, then it is not over, you have not quit, then you still have a chance of attaining it. Stay in the game.

Failing Yourself to Success

My entire life has been lived with a spirit of adventure, exploration, and commitment to live the dream of an entrepreneur and do it on my terms. At times, this hard headedness has gotten me into some real pickles, but I forge ahead. This is the mentality that is absolutely needed to be an entrepreneur and actualize your dreams, or in this case my dreams. I have to move forward.

I didn’t pass every test with flying colors while pursuing my MBA. I wasn’t the valedictorian, so in the eyes of some I may have failed, but I failed forward. It seems that with every adventure that I have I am able to build upon it and continue my journey.  As an entrepreneur, I have opened and closed more businesses than I care to remember. Each one taught me a valuable lesson that carry forward with me to this day knowing that these experiences are the reasons that I am in the position that I am in today.

Today, I own my own business work from home everyday, am there for my family when I need and want to be, and have the chance to go full time on the Internet. Maybe this isn’t the most ideal place to be. Afterall, I don’t have an abundance of money to through around and I could live in a better neighborhood, or whatever. But this is what I have.

Classic Example from my Sunday Accountability #23

This past week, my goal was to write 50 articles for various niche sites on mine. Yes, this was an ambitious goal for the week considering everything else that I had to complete, but I set it anyway. I set it to stretch myself to see if I could accomplish it and get the duel benefit of building those articles for my niche sites that are going to raise my traffic and rankings.

Well, I didn’t reach 50 articles last week. I only completed 40 articles. Am I a failure?

If you would call me a failure, that is fine because the reality is that I know have 40 fresh articles moving towards gaining me more SERPs, search engine rank positions, to gain more traffic and potential revenue for me long term. That is awesome.

Ok, there could have been 10 more articles if I would have hit my goal. That would have been great. But the truth is if I would not have reached for that goal of 50 articles that I knew was going to stretch me, I would have written 15 to 20 articles thinking I did something special. This goal of 50 articles that I fell short of taught me a lesson. The lesson was that when I put my mind to it, I can produce a lot of material for my websites. Afterall, this material is going to lead to traffic and traffic is what I want.

Last Week I Failed Forward

So, last week I failed forward by completing 40 out of 50 articles for my niche sites. This week, I plan to do much of the same, write another 50 articles. This time I am going to hit this goal, but I relax knowing that I am going to advance my niche business strategy and get closer to my overall income goals via the Internet.

I hope you are failing forward as well.

First in the mind, then in Reality!

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1) Askismet - This one is a no brainer because everyone hates spam on your blog. The wild thing is that you don’t really realize how much spam you get until you install this plugin and actually see what it catches. Amazing! Simply a must have for all blogs and bloggers, period. No link because Askismet comes on your blog automatically.

2) Comment Luv - If you have a desire of building a community on you blog, then Comment Luv is a must. This plugin encourages readers to participate by listing their most recent article post (most of the time) beneath their comment. It gives them a better chance of receiving traffic from their comments because their latest article may intrigue another reader enough for them to visit. Thus the increase in potential readers means an increase in comments for you. Besides, I think the Blogosphere basically expects you to have this plugin by now.

3) Keyword luv - This is basically an extension of the comment luv feature and allows your users to include keywords that relate to their site and hyperlink them back to their site. This is again great for community building blogs. But to be honest, I rarely use this feature when I am commenting because I am usually just trying to engage the blogger or get a link back to my site, so sometimes it appears to be a bit of over kill for me.

4) Related Post – If you ask me this is a must for all blogs. The related post plugin provides a list of post that might be similar to the one that the reader is reading. This is great because if the post was eye catching and enjoyable, the reader may want something similar to that one. This plugin gives that to them. You can put this plugin into your side bar or footer, but my favorite place for it is at the bottom of individual post, or on the Single.php page, usually. That is the optimal place for it because if a reader gets all the way through the post, then it may mean that they liked or was intrigued by it….maybe even enough to stay on your site to read something similar or related.

5) WP Print – This is a standard plugin that allows all of your readers to download and print your articles in a printable format. If you are taking the time to produce quality content, many of your readers are going to want to print them out to read later. Everyone doesn’t like to read on a computer screen believe it or not.

6) Sociable – I love the sociable plugin because it allows your readers to spread the word about your great post anytime they want. Usually, you will find this plugin at the bottom of an article so when the reader makes their way through it they will be able to click a button and Digg, Propeller, Stumble, Redd it, Mixx and more your article to all of the best social book marking websites out there. And believe me, all of them are included in this plugin. You can mark a check box next to the ones that you want to utilize or not.

7) Tube Press – This is a great plugin for grabbing relevant YouTube videos and putting them into your blog. I use this plugin a lot when flipping websites as it ads great content, looks very professional, and does the job very well. Did I mention how simple it is to install? No, well, it is and you should be sure to check it out.

8 ) WordBay – Here is another simple plugin that I use on flip sites as well. It could be great for niche sites if you are into them as well. All that is require is you download the plugin, get a free ebay developers account, plugin your account number, and use the WordBay plugin to display relevant ebay auctions right inside your website. When a browser clicks on a listing, they are taking to the ebay website and if they make the purchase, you get the credit. Simple, easy way to cash in on the power of ebay.

9) AW Stats – Yes, everyone and their mother are using Google Analytics, but sometimes you might want some stats that are a little different and right there on your server. AW Stats give you that option. And you can use it as a check to see how accurate GA is from time to time. It is free, so check it out.

10) Contact (cforms) - How are you going to have a blog without a contact form? What if you readers want to contact you? After all, blogging is a contact sport. Download this plugin and you will be amazed how easy it is to implement a customized contact form into your website. There are so many websites out there that do not have a contact for that it is sickening, especially when it is so easy to get. It will take two minutes to put a form into your site and that is if you are being picky!

11) Google XML Site Map – Download this now! Don’t ask questions about what it is, just do it! If you have any desire at all to gain search engine rank positions, SERPs, then this is a must for search engine optimization. Google XML site map keeps the Big G, Google, updated on the site map of your website site. Very important plugin, even if you are not really into plugins.

12) My Page Order – This is a nifty little plugin that allows you to change the order of your web pages. Sometimes you might want more important pages to the left of your page navigation and this plugin will allow you to do that as well. Moving around the pages is so easy with this plugin that I highly recommend it if that is what you are looking for. This is great for personal blogs and interest blogs as well.

13) All in One SEO - Here is another plugin that you should just download right now. Don’t worry about it, just get it. Again, if search engine optimization is anywhere in your future, then you need this plugin. It is the best for updating your title and description tags automatically based on the nature of the content. You got to love that. You can customize further if you need, but this plugin really takes the work out of SEO work in my opinion. It goes into every blog I produce. Must have!

14) Head Space – Head space is another one of these SEO plugins that you can use. I have been using it less and less since really understanding the functions of All in One SEO, but it is another option as well for you to use when customizing the head section of your blogs.

15) Random Post – Random post is great for creating addition internal links within your website and even keeping the reading interesting for your readers as it will suggest random post that they may not have  ordinarily clicked in the first place. Typically, you will find the random post plug at the end of an article, enticing the reader to take another round through your material.

16) Subscribe to Comments - If your blog is about community building and your trying to encourage participation amongst your readers, then you have to take a moment to install this plugin as it will allow your readers to subscribe to comments and receive an email when someone else has said something on a post them might have interest. Again, great for building the community and keeping the participation going.

17) Ozh-Admin Drop Down Menus – This is a must have. You might be thinking drop down menus on a blog is no big deal, but this is drop down menus in the WP-Admin area for your internal use!!! I got hip to this plugin by Joe from ImWithJoe.com and have been addicted to it every since. There is no blogs that I own that don’t have this plugin into it because of how it will increase your work flow and time spent on a site. You might not understand now, but download this one and you will quickly  wonder how you ever got along with out it. Trust me on this one, I will never blog again without it.

18) WP Back Up – Got to back up your material. All it takes is one time to lose everything you have been working on to understand the importance of this plugin. The idea is to never experience that pain in the first place, so download this one now.

19) OIO Publisher - Ok, this plugin cost a little money to use, but if you are after advertisers on your website, then you got to have it. OIO manages the advertising for you and ensures that you are paid before ads are posted on your website, freeing you to move on to bigger and more important issues concerning your blog. Get the OIO publisher today.

20) Easy Pay Pal - If you wan to sell items on your blog, you might have found it impossible to link to PayPal with WordPress. Well this plugin does the trick for you.

However, since I have started this list, I discovered a way to make this happen without the use of a plugin. If you are interested in that, then check out this article I wrote entitled, How to Link to PayPal Payment from WordPress without a Plugin.

21) Feedburner Feedsmith - Feed burner Feedsmith is another way to integrate your feedburner and Rss material into your site and syndicated around the world. There is no need doing all of this typing if you are not going to make it as easy as possible for people to use it and enjoy it. Give this one a shot today.

22) Technorati Incoming Links – Technorati has become an important part of the blogging world. If it has taken over your life as well, then consider using the incoming link monitor to help determine how many links you are generating that is coming into your blog that Technorati will give you credit for.

23) Top Commentator Plugin – Community style blogs must have this plugin. It rewards people that communicate in your blog by commenting with a listing on the your site and a backlink to their blog. This back link is counted by Technorati and is a way to generate traffic to the commentors blog as well as encourages participation in your blog. It is a win-win for all parties involved.

24) Gd-Star Rating – Often times, your readers like to rate various comments and your blogging as well. GD star rating allows them to do this. If you are producing practical and useful articles, then you might want to allow your readership to rate your work, but if you are producing crap, then I would suggest that you spare your feelings cause your readers are going to be honest with you.

25) What’s your suggestion? - I like to hear from you. What plugins not on this list would you recommend for bloggers to use? Let’s continue the conversation and I will post some of them here.

Closing Comments

At the end of day, there are hundreds even thousands of useful plugins available for your to utilize. My suggestion would be to find the ones that are doing the most for you and the growth of your blog and try not to use them all. That is the think about the plugin market, there are so many, but too many on your blog will begin to slow it down. Keep this in mind when you are adding every plugin you find to your blog that you need to focus on the ones that will bring you the most benefit and get you closer to your goals. There is no prizes for using plugins, only prizes for using them effectively.

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Greetings Blog Family,

Another week has come and gone. How did you do this week? Did you move closer to your goals? Well, I hope you did and hope you continue to fight forward and make it happen.

Last Week Goal: 50 Niche Articles

This was a great goal that I came up a little short on this past week. I wrote 40 articles for niche sites and fell just 10 articles short. I could have made it, but didn’t for a variety of reasons that I like to call EXCUSES. And let me tell you, excuses are going to get you no where fast, so don’t used them and I won’t either. The best thing I can do, you as well if you fell a little short, is to dust ourselves off and try, try again. If you hit your goals for this week, then good for you, plan yourself a small mini celebration of a cookie or something and GET BACK TO WORK!!! We got goals and dreams to actualize here people.

This week’s Accountability Goal: 50 Niche Articles

Even though I fell a little short, I still added 40 articles to my niche sites that have grown in number, which is outstanding. I purchased a few more sites this week. I have a total of 15 niche sites that I am operating. 7 of the 15 sites don’t have material on them yet or have very little and not pulling in many SERPs, search engine rank positions, but their time is coming.

As I am writing these articles, I am focusing on the sites that are having the most success and slowly building the others by trying to bring them on board as far as making money, which Adsense is the main money maker for these sites. Although, I know own two sites that are solely dedicated to selling original products that I am developing and will be making in to Click Bank products for the marketplace to sell as well. Stay tuned, but one of those products is an appraisal, real estate based educational product, but it is coming. The other product is a secret for now, shhhhhh.

Adsense Updates:

One of my goals is to pay some bills with my Adsense earnings, which is why I am writing so many articles for my niche sites and trying to bring them online as earners. They say content is king, so let’s continue to build and push the content. As for Adsense, I have not been doing bad although yesterday sucked and I only made $0.44, which is going to bring my average down for the month that was getting close to $3 a day. Here are my earnings over the last few months just so we can start to gauge my progress and determine if the writing is paying off or not.

Daily Adsense Averages

December 2008 = $0.97 / day

January 2009      = $1.79 / day

February 2009    = $2.69 / day

As you can see, through the first 7 days of February, the additional article writing seems to be paying off in terms of daily Adsense earnings. I will continue to update these figures so you can watch my progress as we move forward and bring more and more websites online and earning income. The way I see it is if all I have to do is write articles to make more and more money through Adsense, then watch out now cause I am going to be blazing content out like it is no body’s business.

One thing that I am thinking about is using the same simple designs on all of my sites and maybe I need to switch it up a little bit for some of the niche sites. I have been using WPTwo by Adam from Creadiv.com for the majority of my niche sites and I plan to continue using it, but maybe some of these niche sites need to be a little more functional for the viewing public. I will keep you updated, but be sure to check out Adam’s theme if you are into Adsense earnings cause it works.

One of the major things I have since building my Adsense revenue was change my niche sites over to his theme and it is working out as you can see from the increase in Adsense revenues. Hopefully, that trend will continue. It has to continue because my goal is no where in site, but we are moving in the right direction.

As for these earnings, the majority of the earnings are made from one site, Invest With Passion my real estate investing site, and one other that is gaining ground. The idea is to get these other sites consitently earning as well to increase revenue and make it happen.

Closing Commitmment

Blog Family, I know you are going to hold me to my accountability goals of 50 articles and I will not let you down this week. But my question to you is, what is your major goal for the week? Will you share it with me and allow me to hold you accountable? Don’t be scared. What is the worst thing that could happen? You get motivated to reach your goal and get closer to your dreams.

At some point in your life, Blog Family, you must step outside your comfort zone in order to strive for the things that you wish to attain. And here is the kicker, if you would just venture out….you will be successful.

Let’s go get’em!

First in the Mind, then in Reality!

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Greetings Blog Family,

Let’s get  down to business as we have a lot to get done in the coming week. January 31 is just around the corner and there is no time to play if we are going to stay on course with our goals and get it done.

Last Week

Last week was a good week. I wasn’t able to complete all of my goals for a number of reasons. The main one being that I didn’t complete the goals. No excuses. The reality is my appraisal work really picked up. I guess the reduction of the interest rates have sparked a mad rush by home owners to refinance their existing loans and lock in these low rates. This has lead to an increase in appraisal orders I have received taking away from my time to build my Internet empire.

I got the major stuff completed like posting a site for sale and loading four more sites to ready for launch. An exciting piece of news is that I am parting with two different people to create one site with each. This is a great experience working with someone to complete a site flip. Both are excellent people and have design skills and savvy. It is their first flips, so I get to share this revenue stream with them.

EasyOrganicHealth.com sold for $227 last week, so that puts me on my way to reaching my goal of making $1,000 this month from site flipping. That was great because I was worried about that niche, but it worked out well for me. I have 5 more sites that are ready to go up for auction or near completion, so I am definitely going to make a run at this goal. But let’s get into goals for the coming week.

This Week

This week is more of the same, BIG GOALS, BOLD ACTION! I have to keep moving if I am going to make my January 2009 goals a reality. These are the most important goals of the year because your end of the year goals are based on us hitting these early ones. Let’s get it!

1) Site Flips - $1,000 in January is my overarching goal for flipping and I am on my way to making that a reality. TheObamaMethod.com is currently on the market for sale. The BIN price is $497, but there are no bids as of today. We will see what happens. Here are my goals to make my January $1,000 a reality.

a – Write 15 articles – This may sound like a lot, but I have been blasting out articles for these site flips. Writing these lasts 15 will complete the next 6 sites I have for sale as far as the articles go. That is going to be great.

b – Tweak sites – There are 6 sites in total that are coming to the market for sale and they all need to be tweaked with color scheme, logos, and the rest to make them ready for sale.

c – Post 4 sites for sale – Sounds like a lot, but last week I started 4 sites to sold, while I had 2 a little further along in the development, so this has left me set for the coming week to dominate. Just got to push through all of my critics and reasons to turn back…and flat out get it done. Let’s go!

d – Transfer site – I have to transfer the EasyOrganicHealth.com to the buyer. He paid promptly, so I need to return the favor. Besides, I want to continue to build on my reputation as someone that does business the right way.

2) Invest With Passion website – I have work to do on this niche, real estate investment website. The time has come to really continue pushing this site. It is too much potential to not dominate.

a – Write 3 Blurbs for newsletter – IWP is launching it’s news letter to subscribers, so I have to fill the next three with a little bit of appraisal knowledge. My partners are contributing information as well to make it well rounded. They are from the realtor, investor, mortgage lending side of the business. They are awesome people, so this is going to be great.

b – Post Articles through June 2009 – I have a mountain of material to pour into this site and schedule the articles for 3 post per week. The issue is I would like for the titles to be key-worded to attract traffic to the website, so it is going to  take me some time to research for each post. However, it is important enough to make it happen. Let’s get it!

3) Niche sites – Growing my niche site revenue is important to me this month as well as I want to get off to a great start. My goal for the 1st Quarter of 2009 is to have 10 niche sites earning a total of $15/day. What I didn’t notice was that I already have 8 niche sites. Therefore, I don’t need to be dreaming about what sites I need next, I must focus on making these sites as effective as possible. Therefore, I made a bold action last night.

a – Watch Garry’s Video – Last night, I purchased Garry Conn’s video on Niche blogging. I think Garry is a great guy and I have learned a lot from him on his free site, so I thought he would really get behind his work and put out something special, so I jumped on it. 

Well, I bought the video, but didn’t watch it yet. I will. I got to get this passive income stream crackin!

b – Write 10 articles – That is right! I am writing more articles. I have these niche sites, but they don’t really have a lot of content on them, so I need to pull out my WordTracker account, find the monster keywords, and get to writing. This can be done with a little focus. Let’s get it done!

4) Post 3 to 4 times on FT.com - I have been neglecting this site a little bit, but want to turn the volume back up and share what I am learning in the process of growing with my Blog Family. This is why I started this site to share my experiences with you as I shed the garments of my offline business and embrace my Internet business mastery on a full time basis. 

Let’s get it crackin!

The time has come Blog Family to put down the pencil paper, the dreaming and thinking in favor of ACTION! Our dreams are not going to fall into our lap, but let’s do the best to ensure that they walk into our lives by becoming the people that are deserving of them. I wish you nothing but the best.

First in the Mind, then in Reality!

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Greetings Blog Family,

I wanted to take a quick moment to share something with you that I discovered and had been trying to figure out for some time now. How to link from your WordPress blog to a PayPal payment option?

Why would you want to do this?

If you are actually asking this question, then making money with your blogging efforts might not be your main focus. And that is fine, but there are people out there that are interested in doing such a thing. These individuals might want to sell goods, products, ebooks, ideas, consulting, or even accept donations through their blog, but Paypal doesn’t work the regular way with WordPress.

Why not just use a plugin or a landing page?

Cause I am tired of loading 500 plugins to my sites and using one less will help with my sanity. Ok, maybe it isn’t that bad, but using less plugins than necessary couldn’t hurt. Besides, this method is actually easier than using the plugins that are available.

As for landing pages, well that is another possibility, but it also creates extra work as well. You have create, design, layout, and tweak the landing page to make sure that the branding is consistent with your blog and then upload the PayPal html to make the link work. What a hassle when you can just link directly from your WordPress blog and have all the branding and everything in tact already.

How to link to WordPress to a PayPal Payment.

First of all, go to PayPal and follow these instructions.

1 – Log in to your PayPal account

2 – Click Merchant Services

3 – Click Buy Now Button, or whatever is necessary

4 – Customize your purchase experience

5 – Click on Create Button

6 – THIS IS THE CRUX OF THE MATTER - You will have two options, one with HTML code for Websites & the second for links in email. Even though you are linking from your website, you want to use the Email option, believe it or not.

This is where my problem was in the past because I wanted to use the code for Websites. However, the code for websites is a form and  you are not allowed to use these functions on WordPress. So, use the email link.

7 – Search for a PayPal button that you would like to use & upload to your WordPress blog

8 – Insert the PayPal button in the location you desire, switch to HTML view and create a link from that PayPal button to the email link that you generated from your PayPal account.

9 – Save and Publish!

10 - Smile because you just created a link to your PayPal payment from your WordPress blog and didn’t have to use a plugin or landing page.

Hope this tip is useful for you in the future. I know it is going to help me take my blogging, site flipping, and niche site building efforts to the next level by allowing me to link directly to my PayPal payment pages and not having to use plugins or landing pages.

First in the Mind, then in Reality!

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This past week was great. Not from the stand point of this blog, but life. I got an opportunity to dwell in the presence of my parents, which is always a great treat. I respect them on so many levels, now that I have been married for seven years and have two children. My parents are awesome people. 

In addition to that, I got to seem my family and friends that I grew up with. I haven’t seem many of them since the summer for a few days. It was great. One of my childhood friends and I have a running battle in NBA Live for the Playstation. Every time we see each other, we get it on. He beat me most of the games we played, but I did get a victory in towards the end. My real victory is catching up with him and just having a good time. There is a comfort level of being around people you have know your entire life that cannot be replaced anywhere else.

As far as my goals for last week on the blog, it just didn’t happen. I was too busy having fun with my boys, my wife, my family, and my friends to even think about any of this stuff. Maybe business can take a back seat in my life afterall. Who would have known? Nevertheless, I had a blast.

This Week

As for the upcoming week, I have some very ambitious goals. However, I am going to keep them for myself. I realize this is going to be another crazy week with me because it is new years in the middle of the week, my wife’s birthday was yesterday, and we DON’T HAVE OUR CHILDREN FOR A WEEK. LOL, I capitalized that because this is the only time of the year we don’t have our children because they stay with my parents during their school break.

My wife and I really take this time to reconnect, have fun, and enjoy each others company. Besides, her birthday was yesterday and there is no way one day will justify the party we want to get down with. LOL, I love that woman.

Anyway, I do have some goals that I will just share. Many of these are background things that have needed to be completed for sometime that I will seek to complete.

1) Build a site for a friend – I had promised a friend of mine that I would put my site design skills to use for them, so I need to get that completed. It has dragged out long enough. Time to finish. The order is for a simple blog that can begin to serve as a presence for an organization. I think I am going to use the Revolution Church theme for them. Will give me a change to get more intimate with this theme and they will be happy with it as well.

2) Write 13 Articles – No, I haven’t completed my goal of 30 articles for my niche site yet. I just have to make a strong push this week. What can I say? The goal hasn’t been reached, but we have a few days to go. You don’t expect me to just give up do you?

3) Edit Picking Comps – This is a product that I produced, but need to update. This is probably going to take longer, but I have to get some quality work in on this project this week. More than likely, I will be slow in my appraisal business, so that time can be dedicated to the completion of this product.

Closing it out.

There you have it, Blog Family. I have a lot of work to do this week, but will make sure I enjoy the moment. This week will see the birth of another year and the excitement it brings. I am bringing in the new year with some wonderful friends at an house party. It should be sweet and filled with friends, fun, beverages, and a good time. I hope you do the same.

Either way, Be safe and prosper!

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Greetings Blog Family,

Another week closes as another begins. Excellent! We got a new slate and opportunity to prove to ourselves and the Blogosphere that we are serious about attain our goals and dreams. Each day gives us an opportunity to lay out desires, courage and ambition on the line to attain our ultimate goals. Let’s get into it.

Last Week

Last week took me by storm. I had some fairly ambition goals in mind to complete, but didn’t respect the fact that there would be tons of close out work in my appraisal business to complete before I go out of town. I am leaving to visit my parents in Michigan for the holidays. I will be gone from Monday to Friday, which I will be returning with just my wife. My children will be spending the break with their Grandparents. They will be in heaven and my wife and I get to enjoy spending time alone with one another.

I can tell you we love our children very much, but look forward to this time as it is our only alone time during the year. We don’t have any babysitters in Chicago, or maybe we don’t want to have any sitters because we love to be in their lives daily. Nevertheless, the wife and I will be having a great time this week doing all the things that are not allowed when the boys are around. LOL.

So last week, I had some pretty ambitious goals that didn’t get done. Let’s just be honest. I didn’t plan very well last week. I was suppose to comment on 15 sites per day for 5 days, but only managed to get this done twice for my niche site. I did do some solid commenting for FT.com, but not my organic site. Also, I was to write 7 articles for that niche site as well. I wrote 2, but one is ranking on the second page of Google already for it’s main keyword, so that isn’t all that bad.

I did order my directory back links for $13.99 and am happy with them. Also, I was able to create the mini-site for Blogosphere Bigshots, but just have to create and add the video presentation I am planning to it. You can view it here, BlogosphereBigshots.com. It is almost ready to go!

This Week

Blog Family, I am just going to take it slow this week as I am going home and will be visiting family and friends during this time. Nevertheless, we have goals to attain and things to accomplish, so I cannot abandon my dream all together.

1) Upgrade Layout on FT.com - That is right. I will be doing some upgrading here on FT.com. I have some ideas that I have been wanting to implement for some time, so I will be doing that. It involves adding some things to the header and reorganizing a little bit.

If you notice, there has been some changes already where I have taken a lot of stuff out of the side bar and moved it to the footer of the site. The footer still needs some work as it looks like I just threw the stuff in there, which I did. So, I will be adjusting that as well in due time.

2) Write 10 niche articles - Although this is a break, I have to have 30 articles to this niche site by January 1, 2009. Therefore, I have to suck it up and make it happen. I have 17 articles now and this will put me very close to finishing it out.

Recently, I started a Chicago Tribune subscription to my house and have been finding some outstanding articles about my niche site in there. So this is going to serve as a great reference to many of the articles that I am going to write. It is amazing that this came into my life at this time, but just as amazing as if you go with your gut feeling how it will lead you to places you need to be. That was great and I am happy that I did it.

3) Post Site Flip – My Father has recently become interested in my site flipping, so I figured that while I am visiting I will build and post a site flip in front of him. He should get a kick out of that and hopefully, I will make some more Christmas money. We will see how that goes, but I am building on a flip niche that I think I discovered a few flips back. We will see.

4) Blog Commenting – I don’t want to put a number on this one because it is going to be tough to get the computer outside of the other goals that I am trying to complete, but have to start back commenting regularly to keep in touch with my Blog Family. Part of our relationship is me coming to your sites and checking you out and adding my input where I can as well. I have been neglecting this aspect of our relationship and want to ensure that I get back to there. I am coming to a blog near you soon.

5) Enjoy Vacation – Alright Blog Family, this is the point of my retreat. To relax a little bit, hang out with the friends I grew up with, and visit my family. I love all of these people and cannot wait to see as many of them as I can. They always get mad at me because they know that I will only be in town for a few days.

I hope you have a great holiday, new years, and everything in between. It is a great time of year where people seem to be at their best. Soak it up, enjoy it, contribute to the jubilation, and have some fun!

First in the Mind, then in Reality!

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Greetings Blog Family, 

The last couple of weeks I have wanted to launch my next experiment. Now that the first IME #1: Creating an eBook with Help is winding down, IME #2 can come to the forefront.

IME #2: The Power of Crowds

Like many of you. I am infatuated with the power, opportunity, and possibility of the Internet. It is exciting. Everyday I learn something new and grow in my understanding and experiences in the world of Internet Marketing and blogging.

Social networking has become a phenomenon in the online and offline world. The Blogosphere utilizes the concepts of the social networking daily. Then I came across this book. 

“We Are Smarter Than Me” by Don Tapscott explores the power of crowd sourcing. Crowd sourcing is essentially outsourcing to the Internet multitude. Basically, this boils down to creating a community and having them participate in the creation or establishment of your venture.

In the book, Tapscott illustrates how involving the outside world, businesses are able to make giant advancements. Examples come from R&D experiments, customer sells, to banking. Some of the companies discussed in the book were Netflix and Amazon.  The crux of the matter is harnessing the crowd or community’s collective intelligence to move forward.

The Experiment: is Crowd Sourcing Effective at the Development & Monetization of a Blog?

My plan for this experiment involves utilizing my Blog Family for ideas on the design, marketing, and monetization of a blog. I will be opening a niche site to you, Blog Family, in the hopes the crowd plays a part in the success of the site. The request is for specific ideas, tactics, and opportunities to maximize this niche. This experiment will be an open book. I will report on the findings and share the tactics. We all will learn and grow during this process. You are encouraged to take the ideas generated for your blogs. Get it, Take it, & Make it work!

The site: INVEST WITH PASSION! – Real Estate Investing Resource

I have owned this site since late 2005. The blog was added early 2008. yes, it took me that long to realize I needed a blog. Worst is this business began as a physical magazine. Production stopped in June 2008. It has been on and poppin in the blog world since then.

My Challenge is to craft questions for you in a forum to express yourself. I am going to take the weekend to think about it and re-read the book. It has been a while since I read it last and I want to brush up on the details of this book and get this right. It is going to be a great experience for all of us, I think. And I am very excited about kicking it off.

A Question:

After you check the site out a bit, will you consider joining experiment?

It will not require any registration. Just your reading this FreddieTaylor.com, examining InvestWithPassion.com, and placing your ideas and suggestions in the comments below or you can reach me directly through the contact page. I will temporarily summarize the suggestions and ideas that arise during the experiment in future post.

So, who is in and would assist in this undertaking??? Let me know your level of interest in the comments below.

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#1- New Themes – Bloggers are unique creatures. When they see a theme that is perfect for their site or a niche, it’s like the heavens opening. And don’t let it be a free theme, they might not sleep for days.

#2 – Increasing Subscribers - There is nothing more motivating, than finding out people are really appreciating what your doing. This is most evident when they subscribe and you see that Feedburner chicklet getting bigger and bigger. It fuels bloggers to push on and continue to build their blog.

#3- Comments – Getting those emails asking you to moderate comments on your blog can bring more motivation to a blogger than Mom’s apple pie.

Alright maybe that was a slight exaggeration, but you get the picture. Don”t act like you don’t get excited to see a laundry list of people interested enough in what you have to say that they took time out of their busy schedule to bless you with a comment. You better treasure that. Imagine what your blog would be like without them…the commentors that is.

#4 – Statistics – Bloggers can act like kids on Christmas even when it comes to stats. They can be down right ridiculous obsessing over every page view, Alexa ranking, and Technorati Authorty ranking. Going to bed early so the next day and stats will come sooner. They dream of Google Analytics and have Woopra on their wish list. Stats are the Nintendo Wii when it comes to bloggers.

Now, I will be back…got to check my stats.

#5- Another Blogger Showing a Check – The moment a blogger sees that screenshot of someone holding up a five or six figure check, they are ruined for life.

I remember seeing Shoe Money’s now infamous check and thinking, “That could be me!” It still motivates me to this day. Let’s see it again…ahh…excuse me, I got to get a blog posted. LOL, tell me that doesn’t get you fired up. If not, check your pulse. You may have already checked into that great Blogosphere in the sky.

#6 – Comment Luv - Admit it! When you see that little link at the end of a blog, you feel a little warm inside. you know this gives you an incredible opportunity to drop a great post, get a link back to your most recent post, maybe some traffic, when readers click your name or post title.

Comment Luv has a sweet feature if you sign up for the free service. It will allow you to select the  post you want to reference, so you are not forced to use your last post. This allows you to make your post more relevant to the readers of the blog you are commenting on. For example, if you are commenting on a blog flipping website, then you may want to use a post about blog flipping as opposed to search engine optimization.

#7 – Top Commentator Plugin – By nature, bloggers are competitive. The prospect of another win excites them. Only this competition has a great benefit. Links from Top Commentator Plugins are counted towards your Technorati Authority. This is big if you are tracking your authority. if not, why not? What are you waiting for…Christmas?

#8 – A Great Post with No Comments – Being the first commentator is special for a number of reasons. Bloggers appreciate it because of the additional exposure it gives them. After a reader finishes a blog post, the first comment they read is the first one, which could be yours. This is great.

What’s better is when the blog post is awesome. Think about it. Great post that provide real value, or is a resource gets more traffic, ping backs, stumbles, diggs, and tweets. Why? Because of the great content, usefulness to the readers. And there your comment is, at the top, #1. Tell me that doesn’t motivate you to keep searching the blogosphere for more.

If you get that chance to comment first on a great post, be sure to take a little extra time to craft an intelligent response.

#9 – More Twitter Followers – If you are not hip to Twitter by now, realize it is only a matter of time before that little blue bird bites you. I am relatively new to Twitter, but am coming to understand its power.

Bloggers using Twitter knows that each Follower is a potential reader, client, mentor, friend, JV partner, information source, or a new networking source. I am a big fan of Twitter.

Follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/thinktaylor.

#10 – A Social Submission – Meaning, someone reads your blog post and feels it is worthy to be shared with others. They take their precious time out of their schedules to click Digg, Stumble Upon, Mix, even Twitter and share it with their netwroks. These social media outlets generate leads to your site, sometimes noticeable amounts of leads. It is not uncommon to notice huge traffic spikes to occur in your Google Analytics reports. This elicits a great feeling of euphoria amongst bloggers and motivates them to continue.

#11 – Private Advertising Sales - It’s ok to admit it. Closing a sale feels good. But there is nothing better than when some voluntarily share their hard earned money with you for advertising on your site. I use OIO and when I get that email stating payment is confirmed, it provides a lift to my spirit and a bounce to my blogging. This motivation drives me forward and I am sure you feel it as well.

#12 – High Commission Affiliate Programs - To have a great niche website with an affiliate product is good. But having a niche website with an high paying affiliate product is better. Bloggers tend to get very motivated when they discover a product that they can see being practical and useful to their niche…and people will want to buy it. To have a high commission split of 50% or more can cause extreme motivation to a blogger.

#13 – Discovering a Great Niche for a Site - It is weird, but you can watch a blogger do keyword research for 4 hours at the end of a long day at work. They could be falling asleep at the time, but the moment they discover a great keywords and ultimately a niche for a website, they will be wide awake. Ready to take on the day, build and promote the new website. It is an amazing thing to watch and have happen to you. After all, if you go to sleep, someone else might discover your niche, right?

#14 – Receiving Link Love – Firing up your computer, checking email and logging into the admin panel of your blog is a typical routine for any blogger. This by itself doesn’t really get them all that excited or motivated. However, when you reach that admin panel of your blog and there is a new incoming link showing. Great, there is a new link back to our site, but who is it. You click the link and it is someone in the Blogosphere that has read your last article and thought enough of it to share some link love with their readers, recommending it to them. It is always a great honor and bloggers appreciate when someone shares the love with you. (Consider sharing some link love with me for this post.)

#15 – Guest Posting Opportunity – Recently, I received two opportunities to do guest post on two fantastic websites. The motivation for this entry was derived by those opportunities. First of all, the honor that someone else wants you to share your knowledge and experience with their audience is great. Second, you get the opportunity to introduce yourself totally different audience and possibly gain some additional readers. Exposure always motivates the blogging community.

#16 – Great Post Ideas – Content is king in the world of blogging. If you have great content you can attract more readers, visitors, search engine traffic, link backs and more. Therefore, when a great post idea hits a blogger, they get extremely motivated. If they know what is best for them, they will quickly make their way to a pen or computer and get that idea on paper as soon as possible. The post ideas can be very motivating to a blogger. Not to even mention they will have to opportunity or fun to input appropriate keywords, which everyone knows is big time blogger fun!

#17 – PPC Payouts – Pay Per Click campaigns are good source of potential revenue on the web. And once a blogger opens their earning or the mail to find more money than they had before, then the realization that a PPC campaign that they have been running has reached payout level, extreme motivation can set in. This could lead to the purchasing of several new domain names, the building of a few new sites, or instant euphoria as their emotions of victory, happiness, and success flow through their body. Needless to say, I feel a new level of motivation takes over.

#18 – Useful Plugins – Good bloggers are always on the lookout for ways to improve their existing websites and ways to build ones that only exist in their head. Joy and motivation comes to the blogger that either by a friend, new blog post, or stroke of the search engines finds a brand new plugin that is going to take their business to the next level. Ok, it doesn’t have to be brand new to the market, just new to the blogger. I know once I discovered the TubePress plugin to insert YouTube videos into the pages of my blog, I was extremely motivated to build sites to flip for sale and build niches to keep forever. What a discovery and I know that I am not the only one that feels this way.

#19 – Chance to Tell Someone You Are a Blogger – There is never a lack of motivation that comes from the opportunity to tell someone about your blogger exploits. What a feel to talk to a common civilian about the your online ventures. The look of bewilderment on their fact and the pride in a bloggers eyes is enough to spur one on for the next five days running on pure adrenaline. Tell the truth, don’t you love telling and talking about being a blogger and hopefully making money online? How cool is that?

#20 – Request for Paid Review – Getting paid is something special at any moment of your blogging or Internet Marketing career. But when someone takes a moment and request a review from you of their site or product, it is really an endorsement that you are arriving on to the blogosphere scene as someone to be respected and admired. Why? Because this individual found your website, information, and following compelling enough that they would pay to be associated with you. If you are building a quality blog, website, and following, this is coming for you and you should be prepared for that moment.

#21 – A Surprise Review of Your Site – There is no feeling like login into your WordPress administration panel for your website to notice a new inbound link. Once you click that link to find that another blogger has taken the time to review your site for their following an extreme since of joy, pride, and motivation to continue sets in. Now, if that review is negative, I guess it could bring you down a bit, but why in the world would someone give a negative review about your blog? I know, that is a silly thought, but it could happen. And I believe this one of the secret motivations of the blogosphere and keeps them motivated to not only pump out quality content, but to ensure site design is respectable as well.

#22 – Their “Why” – A bloggers “Why” is the reason or the reasons that they feel it is necessary to succeed in this world of Internet Marketing. This “Why” varies largely from person to person and is a private matter. This “Why” boils down to the individual and their reasons or motivations to be successful. This could range from just wanting to make more money to raising money for a specific goal like buying a car or adding addition funds to your retirement account. But if I know most bloggers, they are trying to generate funds to purchase a new online resource like WordTracker or something. You got to love the blogosphere!

#23 – Keyword with a High KEI Rating – If you are a WordTracker user, you are familiar with the term KEI Rating. Essentially, this is the ratio of searches for a particular keyword to the number of sites that are competing for visibility of this particular key word. A high KEI Rating means that a site has more searches for a particular phrase as compared to the number of competing sites. This means opportunity for the blogger that makes this discover and potentially more traffic to their website, which means instant motivation and opportunity again.

#24 – PayPal “You’ve Got Cash!” emails – Come on, Blog Family! You got to love these emails from PayPal that says someone believed in your product, pitch, affiliate program, or whatever enough to share their hard earned money with you. What isn’t here to celebrate or become motivated by. After all, most people are in Internet Marketing to make money, so once the moment comes (or hopefully keeps coming) it is very encouraging and motivating to the Blogosphere and who could blame them, right?

#25 – A New Product Idea - New product ideas leads to new product sales, which turn into more money and profit for the blogger who had the revelation. Yes, you have to create a quality product, promote it well, and convert visitors to sales, but there is no rule that sales that this new idea cannot bring instant motivation. Well, it can, will, and will continue to do so. Bloggers get excited from some of the simplest of things and this is no exception. Again who could blame them when this new product idea could lead to the residual income stream they desire.

Bonus – FreddieTaylor.com’s Monday’s Motivational Moments – That’s right Blog Family, I put my own site in here. Wouldn’t you put yours?

But seriously, here at FreddieTaylor.com, I am committed to providing you with the motivation and enlightenment necessary to complete all goals and dreams, not just your online goals and dreams. This website represents my journey in the world of Internet Marketing, but also many of my passions and motivations as well. It is very exciting to know that many people in the Blogosphere can identify and be motivated by the experiments, exploitations, and expansions of a blogger like myself. I am humbled, honored, and motivated to continue you bring you the best of what I have to offer.

Conclusion
That’s it, Blog Family. Now you have the 25 Blogger Motivations, plus my bonus offering for your understanding and benefit. I am sure you have noticed many suggestions or motivations that gets you fired up and moving towards your goals and dreams in the list above. If there is anything that I missed, please be sure mention them in the comments below and the best additions will be added to the list as amendments. If you are feeling the vibe, share a story or two as to what gets you motivated as a blogger.

Find your bliss, be motivated, and go for it!

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