We come to Week 13 of Partnership to Success.  This is a big week, the one where you start writing your own product to sell. Here is where you put all your hours of research and learning into something concrete that will hopefully help someone else accomplish a goal in their life.

The idea is not only to be able to make some money for yourself but to answer a need and help others to improve their own situation.  I have a head start in this area because, as mentioned before, I took a previous course and started to create my own product then.  Unfortunately it got put aside and nearly forgotten.  Thank goodness it is on my computer and I do not have to remember where it is.  So I will take it off the virtual shelf, dust it off and see if I can actually complete it this time.

With the passing of time I have learned more in the area that I am writing about and once again realize how difficult it is to stay on track and keep your goals and resolutions.  I am writing a product in the weight loss area and I am well aware of how difficult it can be to lose weight, keep it off, and change your lifestyle to stick with it.  I have also spoken with many others in the same boat and know lots about what works and what does not.

Enough of being sidetracked.  Back to writing your product for marketing.  John Thornhill recommends that you create a folder on your computer to keep everything in one place.  In this folder you would put your mind map, your graphics, your written product (or what you have written so far), your sales page, any worksheets, videos or audios, etc.

The next big thing to remember is to save it in more than one place.  Imagine how you would feel if your computer crashed or you accidentally deleted instead of saving your work.  Don’t laugh, I can easily see something like that happening to me.  John suggests a minimum of three different places.  I am thinking I will use my desktop, my husband’s laptop and a memory stick.

I find that writing is not my best talent but I think as I do more it will become easier and maybe even better quality.  A suggestion was made that if you really, really do not think you can write your own product that you could outsource it but I feel that it will mean a lot more to you and to your customer if you can do it yourself.  Maybe I will feel differently if I get too stuck while trying to write my own.

Here’s to product creation for online marketing and a helpful relationship with others.

Jenny Wren

So a few months later and I am back to product creation with Partnership to Success.  Weeks 11 and 12 introduce you to mind mapping.  To me, this is a more organized way to approach compiling your thoughts and ideas for your product.

You start out with an idea and branch out to general topics to cover within that idea and then again each topic can be branched out to more specifics.  I have written out outlines and ideas on paper and that works as well but I think for me, doing it on the computer will help keep me a little more organized.  And couldn’t most of us use a little more organization in our lives?

I tried using one of the sites mentioned in the lesson.  This site is called ‘Free Mind’ .  As the name implies, the site is free and seems to be easy enough to use, at least for basics.  There are a lot of different options in the toolbar that I have not tried yet but the early basic use is easy enough, even for someone mostly technologically illiterate like me.

If you own and ipad, it is suggested you might want to get ‘iThoughts HD’ to use as your mind mapping program.  I can certainly see the usefulness of having a tablet to use for mind mapping.  It is portable and easy to keep with you but then there could be the issue of misplacing it.  It would probably be a good idea to keep a copy of your mind map on your desktop as well.

I had already started a product and have gone beyond the mind mapping stage but have a couple of other ideas rolling around in my brain and put one of them down on the mind map.  This will be good so that when I have additional thoughts about it I can just add them to the mind map and not worry about losing the piece of paper that I might have jotted it down on.

My husband tells me I should make lists and write things down so I have been trying to do so.  Unfortunately I seldom can find where I wrote it down so I think using the computer to mind map will be a good thing for me.  I haven’t yet lost or forgotten where the computer is!

Happy mind mapping,  Jenny Wren

Week 10 of Partnership to Success is all about research and gathering information.  We were given ideas of where to go to do research and places to gather information and ways to become knowledgeable about our chosen subject.

To start with, you can always ‘google’ your keywords and find all kinds of articles and websites dealing with your chosen topic.  The more you can find and read, the more knowledge you gain.  I would recommend always having a pen and paper handy to jot down ideas and even quotes that you might be interested in including in your own product.

Researching ideas includes going to Clickbank and finding products in your niche.  Not only will you find information products here but you will also get a good idea of what topics are selling better than others and it will give you an idea of product titles being used.  Getting a clickbank product will, of course, cost you some money but could very well be worth having a starting point for your own ebook.

Other ideas include going to blogs and forums that talk about your chosen niche.  Here can find out what people are most interested in at the moment.  What things they are wanting to find out more about.  What questions they are asking and needing answers to.  By participating in the forums and commenting on the blogs, you can also create your own presence and hopefully build back links to your own site.

Another source of information and help can be found in PLR materials.  These are products you can use as your own.  You can revise them, add to them, change them how you wish and create your own ebook from them.  This can be very helpful if you are not very adept at writing your own ideas and making your own creation from scratch.  Kind of like having a cake mix instead of making it from scratch.

Another part to lesson 10 was a suggestion to download and read ‘Operation Ebook’ written by Paula Brett.  You can get a copy of it from her website if you are interested in doing so.  Her website is www.paula-brett.com

As for me, I have finally made the decision on what my first product will be.  The research is mostly done and I am in the process of writing my first ebook!  I have completed the first draft and first revision.

I am hoping a couple of more revisions will complete the written portion.  I will then add some worksheets.  I am not quite sure how or what to add in the way of graphics or media.  I guess I will need to do some more work on that area.  I am thinking maybe a couple of interviews might go well.

I have let myself get quite a ways behind while making my decision and will need to make some concerted effort to get back up to speed.

Meanwhile I am already getting some vague ideas about more products or projects. lol

Jenny

Why do some people succeed at making an income online while others fail miserably and many others just bring in a few dollars a month at best?  Is it talent?, knowledge?, courage? persistence? or what?

I have been working on the Partnership to Success program with John Thornhill and it has been very easy to follow.  Up until I got to the product creation.  At this point I have become stuck and have been practicing procrastination in a big way.  The idea is to create a product in the ‘online marketing’ field and then he would help you market it.  My problem is that I do not feel like I know enough or have enough experience to create such a product.  I am failing at getting more than a little chimp change from monetization and as of now, do not even have a list to offer a freebie to.

I recently saw a Hewlitt Packard (HP) add that had the statement: “If you’re going to do something, make it matter”!.  This statement hit home and caused me to stop and think about a lot of things.  One being, what am I trying to accomplish with online marketing?  If I am going write an ebook that matters, then it should probably matter to me as well.

I previously took the One Month Mentor program, again with John Thornhill and got ‘stuck’ at the same spot.  Though I did get underway with a product but not one in the area of online marketing.  It is a health related product, which I feel much more at home writing about.  I have decided that this getting ‘stuck’ is going to become a habit if I do not do something soon.

I think the best choice is to finish my first product, though it is not about marketing.  It at least will be a start.  I will have actually created a product I can try to sell and can learn from it and then maybe use that experience to build on and even transfer to the online marketing area.  I have way more knowledge and experience at trying to lose weight and become healthy.

I think this will be a good start and this is something that matters to me a lot and hopefully to others as well.

Jenny Wren

For those online marketers involved with ebooks, kindle and other digital products, you might be interested in a news article I recently read.  This article talked about Google’s possible plans to become a content provider.  They have begun stringing fiberoptic cable for internet service, beginning in the city of Kansas, USA.

This cable will enable users to increase their upload and download times by 100%.  They say they will have speeds up to 922 mb/sec for download and 883 for upload.  To me that is amazing.  Kind of makes me feel like I really do live in the sticks with download speeds of .4 mb/sec.  Not sure I am ready to move to Kansas yet.  I did just make a recent visit though and was favorable impressed with the area.

With internet speeds that high, Google could digitalize more than music.  They could provide movie content in HD and blue ray.  Apparently they have been talking with Disney, Time Warner, and Discovery Communications about offering their content using their new fiberoptic Google Fiber.

This could give Google the ability to distribute TV programs, movies, you name it.  Along with this content would be the opportunity to have targeted ads to run along with them.  Google does know how to monetize after all.  Along with the good comes the bad.  This would potentially lead to bigger problems with pirating hitting Hollywood as hard as it has recording artists.  Why is it that there are always people who twist a good thing and turn it to the ‘dark side’?

Alas, for most of us, Google Fiber will only be a dream.  The cost of stringing this fiberoptic cable is astronomical and will not be coming our way any time soon.

The idea of digitalized movies lends itself to possible markets in the not too distant future.  Anyone for emovies?

Anyone with a website has likely heard the term SEO or Search Engine Optimization.  We are all focusing on ways to use SEO to get out websites and blogs found and noticed.  It is a very lonely feeling to be lost in space, web space that is.

Search Engine Optimization techniques are used to get your site ‘ranked’ high in the search engines.  If you do not appear on the first page or two of Google when someone searches for the product you have, you might as well forget about success in the online market.

There are millions of search engines seeking out information on what people are searching for and what websites they visit.  They use keywords, (the words used by people to search for something), to find this information.  Typically the search engines might look for a keyword included in the domain name,  listed in a title tag, included in a header tag, or used in the content.

Sometimes sites have been ‘stuffed’ with keywords to get them a higher ranking.  The search engines are aware of this tactic and may ban such a site.  Not only that but the search engine algorithms can change frequently making some techniques obsolete or at least of minimal value.  Keeping your keywords  to less than 2% of your content is the best way to prevent these problems.

Keywords is just one of the techniques of SEO.  There are others to be considered, like indexing, linking and pinging your site.  If you use WordPress, you can get plugins to help you with your seo methods.  Some are free and of course some are not.  The one I see most often recommended and the one I like is Easy WP SEO.  This one is not free but worth the money spent.

Important as Search Enginge Optimization is, I still think that content is king.  You, as a reader, are not interested in seeing a ton of keywords without much meaning in the post.  It is most important to write something that is interesting and that will be of benefit to the reader.

After you have written your and before you publish it, you could then use the SEO wordpress plugin of your choice and with a few minor tweaks, have your posting seo optimized without losing content.  At least that would be my recommendation.

My time passes quickly.  During week 6 of the P2S program we were given a widlink to help link our blogs with other members of the program.  This is to help create some backlinks with our blog sites and hopefully increase the number of visitors to our own blogs.

Traffic is a huge factor in the success of a blog and especially for marketing.  If your only objective is just to have an outlet for some of your thoughts and ideas and you don’t care if anyone else reads them then you don’t have to worry about traffic.  But then why use a website and not just use a journal.  The idea of a website if for sharing and hopefully inspiring others to do the same.

One never knows if something you say might spark and idea in another that could lead to a new twist on an old idea.  I went to a seminar where a young man made a suggestion to the presenter.  The presenter was quite excited about the idea and was going to use it in his own marketing presentations.  He made that comment that this type of thing had happened before.  He was beginning to think he might need to hire some ‘young blood’ for their new ideas and different outlook on things.  I guess we are never too old or know too much that we can not learn something more.

Week 7 showed us a few ideas on adding photos, videos and such to our posts as well.  As the saying goes, ‘a picture says a thousand words’.  It also adds a lot more appeal.  In fact videos are even better for catching attention.

Week 8 and 9 are about choosing a niche topic to write about.  The first step in creating your own product to sell.  This is the most difficult part for me so far.  I feel woefully unprepared for this.  I am not as knowledgeable as I need to be to create a product about online marketing.  I just need to remember that no one is born and expert and it just takes time and research and experience to change from a novice to an expert.  Fortunately I can research and I can learn without too much difficulty.

I will be very busy for awhile as I learn a new ‘trade’.  Just what will that trade be?!!!

I was reading in this weeks Bloomberg Businessweek Magazine about how it appears that Facebook is going to improve its search engine and possibly be a rival for Google.  Though it’s search engines would not likely be able to rival the mass searches that google can handle, Facebook would be able to search the more popular sites, those that have been ‘liked’ by web surfers.

So far about the only searches Facebook is good for is finding other members and friends.  A new and improved search engine would help users sift through status updates, articles, videos and such that other members ‘like’ using the thumbs up button on most web sites these days.

Could this possibly be a counter strike on Google for their expansion into social media with the Google+ network?

Then there is the future potential for obtaining advertisement income.  The ability to sell ‘adwords’ and keywords, pay per click advertising and such.  For a company contemplating going public on the stock market, this could be a possibility to help appease investors and stockholders with new revenue ideas.

Will this rumor increase Facebook’s chances of raising the $5 billion dollars they want in their IPO?  To possibly have the largest IPO in technology history?

I wonder how this might affect the facebook experience.  Though there has long been ads on the side of the facebook pages, will we now be seeing links in the posts and comments?  The technology world seems to be a never ending cycle of change.

I just start to get used to how to navigate the facebook site and then they change it and I have to relearn a bunch.  If it changes much faster I may never get caught up.  lol.  I will soon be an empty nester and then what will I do? Without one child or another to call on for help, I guess I might have to invite the grandchildren over more.  At least when they get a little older.

I can’t blame Facebook for making changes.  In the world of technology, static means death so they have to keep changing and growing.  This will bring challenges to some of us and may even give Google some competition.  Maybe John Thornhill will have to revise his facebook like page builder again!

The future is always an adventure waiting to happen.

Week 4 of the Partnership to Success program involves a couple of things.  One is to let yourself be known through social media.  In other words, marketing yourself.  This has been a challenge for me and I have not yet signed up for accounts across the channels of social media.

I am somewhat familiar with facebook.  It is a big part of my children’s lives and they use it frequently.  I think my first exposure to it was a game called farmville.  I actually had my daughter sign me up on facebook in order to play the game with her so she and I could have more neighbors.  I have to admit to playing several computer games with my kids over the years.  Now I go on facebook to see pictures of my kids and grandkids and to see what is happening in my friend’s lives.

I anticipate setting up a facebook like page in the near future and will probably expand to some of  the other social media sites as well.  It will be a challenge for me to push out of my comfort zone but could be a great experience.  You can never have too many friends, right?

The other concept covered this week was building a list.  There is a common saying that, ‘It is all in the list”.  As I progress through this course, I am realizing how true that is.  Without a list to share your information with it is impossible to market anything.  The list building software site that was recommended was Aweber.  It seems to be pretty easy to use though I will need to keep the videos on hand.  I hope I will be needing them in the future as I set up more areas that will need list building.

Week 5 involved more of the same or actually putting a monetized pop-up ad on the blog site to help with getting traffic and maybe some affiliate income.  I also had to set up another list and such with Aweber.  Now I guess I just need some traffic to come a sign up, lol.

Now, in week 3, begins the monetization of my blog.  I have learned to put Google Adsense ads on my blog and will potentially make some pocket change from visitors clicking on these.  Feel free to do so, lol.

A nice thing about adsense is that you can choose which ads you want to block from being seen on your website.  I appreciate being able to do that because there are some ads that I do not want associated with my blog.

I have also learned how to incorporate links into my posts and such to be able to promote other websites or products that I think are worthwhile or good value.  I have advertisements on my blog but I do not personally recommend them all.  Those things that I have tried and know they work I will put in my recommended category or will put a link in the blog post indicating I approve of it.

I have been doing a little research on my own and found a few plug-ins that can further monetize a website by adding clickbank ads and amazon ads.  I am guessing there are hundreds of choices out there but I am still very new and not ready to go too far with it at this point.  Knowing me, I could end up with only ads and no content, then where would I be?

I believe the most important part of a blog is the knowledge, experiences and fun you can share with others.   The monetization just helps cover the web hosting costs and such.  Stay tuned for week 4 coming very soon.