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Personal question: Is it possible that you already know everything you need to know to be successful online – but something other than knowledge is holding you back?

If it’s as simple as the mechanics of online marketing – setting up websites and so forth – you can always hire someone to do that part for you.

But if it’s a lack of confidence, or fear of failing that’s holding you back – then it’s up to you to squash that particular bug, or at least quarantine it to the furthest corner of your house.

And if the thought of failing is enough to keep you from starting your online empire, then welcome to the club. Fear of failure is one of the biggest stumbling blocks to success. Fear of failing is so oppressive and destructive, it can cause you to willingly set aside your dreams – forever.

So why do we fear failure so much? It goes back to life experiences that inadvertently taught us it’s better not to risk, than to risk and lose. When you fail at something, it’s natural to worry what other people will think about you and if they will lose interest in you. You worry about how smart and capable you are, and whether you can effectively pursue future endeavors. In fact, when you fear failure you’re actually worried about an entire host of possible outcomes, most of which will never come to pass no matter how many times you fail.

But the mind isn’t rational, and simply talking yourself out of being afraid doesn’t work any better than trying to manifest an iron will.

The secret to overcoming fear of failure? There are several, but I’ll give you one here that you can use right away.

Experiments in the 1970’s showed that there are two distinct groups of children when it comes to learning new skills. There are the “ego oriented” children whose main concern is to not lose face in front of their friends. Some of these children fear failure so much they invent ways to get out of the activity, do the activity in such a way that they cannot fail, or make it impossible to succeed so that failing doesn’t hold a stigma.

The second group of children is what they term “mastery oriented.” These kids don’t care as much about losing face as they do about acquiring a new skill. In fact, they realize that initially failing is simply a part of the process of learning and take it in stride. These kids are happier and succeed much faster than those who fear failing.

Thus, if you can change your focus to acquiring a new skill and deciding that no matter what happens along the way, you’re going to enjoy the process – you are on the way to overcoming your fear of failure.

Gradually Overcoming Your Fear of Failure

You might start small with something that doesn’t hold a great deal of significance, such as learning a new game. Let’s say you’re going to take up billiards for the first time in your life. Your focus would be on learning how to hold and shoot the cue, the angles to use, the rules of the game and so forth. When you miss a shot or scratch, it’s no big deal because you know that’s part of the process and you’re just learning.

You might be astonished at the difference it makes. You’ll be happier, you’ll have less stress, and you’ll learn your new skill much faster.

From here you might stretch yourself further by doing things that scare you. For example, if you’re a shy person you might ask 15 strangers a simple question (“Do you have the time?”) in the space of 30 minutes. Note how you feel after the exercise. Odds are you’ll not only have conquered a fear of talking to strangers, you’ll also get a boost of confidence, which leads us to our next point…

Are You Lacking in Confidence?

You’ve got a great idea for a new business, but frankly you just don’t have the guts to go for it. Or maybe you do decide to go ahead with your idea, but then someone says it’ll never work and you chuck the whole thing. Why? Low self confidence. This goes hand in hand with the fear of failure.

So why doesn’t someone have enough confidence in themselves? Usually it’s because they judge themselves unworthy, or they see major disconnects between what they think they’re capable of and what they’re actually doing.

Growing Unshakable Self-Confidence, Step by Step

The good news is, self confidence can be raised with every new challenge met, no matter how small. Remember the exercise to talk to 15 strangers? I can almost guarantee your self-confidence to talk with strangers will be significantly raised after you do this.

In fact, if you will make it a habit to do one thing every single day that is out of your current comfort zone, you will find that your confidence improves immensely within just a few short weeks.

Make yourself a list of all things you’d like to do that you’re not doing. Maybe you’ve wanted to join a group, take up a new hobby, try a different sport or go to a fancy nightclub. Maybe you want to get better at talking with the opposite sex, or at making friends, or get better at making online contacts. Maybe you’ve wished you could get 5 minutes with the big guns in your niche, or regularly post to forums and blogs.

Whatever it is that you’ve been wanting to do but haven’t, put it on the list. Even small stuff like taking a walk around your neighborhood and ringing doorbells of neighbors you haven’t yet met can go on the list, as well as chatting up that stud or beautiful woman who works in the supermarket. Write down everything you can think of that you’ve been holding back on. Add in skydiving if you’re inspired to do that kind of thing, and keep adding to this list daily as you think of new things.

Now that you’ve got your list, pick one thing and do it right now. That’s right – do it now, or at least before you go to bed tonight.

Notice a difference in how you feel about yourself? You should.

When we don’t do the things we wish we would do – for whatever reason – we lose self-esteem. But when we finally do those things, not only do we become more self-confident, we also find we’re happier, more fulfilled and more ready to take on even bigger challenges.

You’ll notice that most of the examples I’ve given haven’t been IM related. That’s because raising your confidence in any one area can help you in all other areas as well. When you have success learning tennis, you can use that boost in confidence to tackle website building or product creation. And when you overcome your fear of talking to strangers, it gets easier to network on Facebook with people you don’t know.

One last thing – it’s far better to take multiple baby steps than try to overcome the world in a day. Making slow, steady progress anchors your triumphs and makes it that much easier to achieve a little bit more tomorrow.

You know it’s smart marketing to place a signature file in your emails, in forum posts (where allowed), and at the end of guest blog posts and so forth. But what is your sig file saying about you? That you’re boring? That you and your business look like every one of your competitor’s businesses? Or does it stand out and grab attention? If getting more clicks and visitors to your offer is what you want, you must have a compelling signature…

Here’s an example of boring:

“For The World’s Best e-Course on Driving Traffic to Your Website, Go to: sameoldsameold.com/wake-me-when-its-over

Sure, you’ll get a trickle of traffic. Maybe.

Instead, let’s apply some imagination and make a signature file that creates burning curiosity.

If your website is about weight loss, you might use:

“Click here to see a picture of my wife’s abs”

“Click here to see a photo of my ex when he saw me in my new bikini”

Notice in these examples we say to “click here to see a photo.” This phrase works really well at attracting clicks.

If your website is about building muscle, you might use:

“Click here to see me try to bench press my girlfriend”

“Click here to see me try to bounce a brick off my abs”

“Click here to see my wife try to beat a loud-mouth male body-builder in a push-up contest”

Notice all of these use the word “try.” That’s because we’re building suspense – Did I manage to bench press my girlfriend, or not? The reader has to click to find out.

Maybe your website is on dog training:

“Click here to see my dog chasing the mailman”

“Click here to see my dog greeting guests with a cold beer and a bag of chips”

“Click here to see my dog herding chickens into the living room”

Notice all of the verbs in these examples end in ing, as though the action is happening now, not in the past.

Using these techniques you should get far more people clicking the link in your signature line. Your job is to fulfill your promise on the landing page, thereby building rapport and credibility. Once this is accomplished, you then entice them further into subscribing to your list to get your outstanding freebie.

At the risk of stating the ridiculously obvious, Internet Marketing is changing. Just because you’re making money today won’t guarantee you’ll still be making money tomorrow. There are the obvious examples: Possum, Penguin, Fred and what not. But then there’s new regulations, new technologies, changing interests and priorities of consumers, more competition (sometimes bad, sometimes good) and so forth.

Without a doubt, the money is still there to be made – but you might have to get creative and expand your horizons to find it. And when you do find it, don’t rest on our laurels. Don’t think you can set a funnel up and just ignore it and it will continue to deliver forever. You might wake up in a month or two and be shocked to find your account balance hovering near zero if you do.

That’s why you’ve got to always be on the lookout for great ideas, and even mediocre ideas that are profitable. Make it a daily practice to write down at least 3 or 4 new ideas for making money and growing your business.

What happens if you don’t walk for a week? Your legs atrophy. And your brain works the same way. Either work your brain relentlessly and it will get stronger, or don’t use it and it’ll harden into something useless.

The economy has been having it’s own set of challenges for years and while it’s better now for many people, there are still millions of people who are out of work or not making the money they used to make. So what are they doing? Many are turning to Internet Marketing. You might think this is bad because of increased competition, and it can be. But if you make a list of ideas on how you can capitalize on this, what will you discover?

First, these people will need training on how to do online marketing. That covers an entire realm of possibilities, including step-by-step courses and coaching.

Next, these folks will need help. They’re not going to be experts at everything from building websites to creating products to getting backlinks to designing product covers. So if you’re willing to perform services, there’s money to be made.

Remember the TV detective Columbo? He would be asking the suspect questions, always very polite, very nice, acting like he needed help in figuring out what happened. Only he was smart – he was playing the suspect right until the end. My favorite part is when he would be leaving the room, and the suspect would be breathing a sigh of relief. ‘Whew! Dodged that bullet’ the suspect is thinking. But then Columbo pauses at the door, or even walks out the door and then comes back in, and he puts his hand to his head like he just remembered something, and he says, “Oh, you know, I almost forgot, one more thing…” And then he’d nail the suspect with the real question, the one the suspect just didn’t have a good answer for.

This should be you. You’re a detective, always on the lookout for that “one more thing” that will make your campaign more profitable, that will increase your subscriber rate, that will double your conversions and so forth. Always be searching for the questions your prospects ask that lead to a breakthrough product. Always be asking, asking, asking “What do people want? What problem is keeping them up at night? What would they pay to fix, improve or eliminate?”

Get in the mindset of a detective and you’ll view the world differently. You’ll see things you missed a hundred times before. People will start to think you’re psychic or something. You’re not. You’re just asking questions and paying very close attention to the answers. And you’re using your brain – something a lot of people are too lazy to do.

Bottom line: Things are changing and they’re going to change a whole lot more. Fall asleep at the wheel and your business will crash. Rely on what worked before and you will go broke. Continue to provide the same old products and the same old solutions and you’ll find yourself standing still in the middle of a very fast race.

Be a detective like Columbo and you’ll always get your paydays.

One of the hazards they never bother to tell you about when you become an online marketer is brain fog. You know what I mean… you’ve been sitting at your computer for 10 minutes or 10 hours when you realize your brain is moving slower than a herd of turtles stampeding through peanut butter.

And you know if you could just get your brain in gear, you could get a ton of work done today. But despite that 5th cup of coffee you still can’t seem to focus. What’s a marketer to do?

I take a cue from Nelson Mandela when this happens and I take a walk. If the weather is good, I get some sun on my face, too. Taking even just a 10 minute brisk walk outside can do wonders for your brain, and 20 is even better.

Did you know that making a habit of writing backwards with your non-dominant hand can create an abundance of new connections in your brain that make it work better, faster and more creatively? Leonardo Da Vinci filled entire journals with mirror writing – and you have to admit, the guy was no slouch when it came to intelligence or accomplishments.

Doing things that you don’t normally do, such as taking up a new interest or hobby, will also awaken sleeping parts of your brain. Make it a point to learn a new skill so well, you can teach it to others.

Try going to bed earlier. Most people don’t get enough sleep, and this is one of the biggest causes of brain fog. Sleeping in until noon isn’t good, either. As they say, moderation in all things. Get up at a decent time, drink water and exercise, and then get straight to work.

Take a mid-afternoon nap. Thomas Edison was a prolific napper and look at what he accomplished. And Winston Churchill – despite running a powerful country during a world war – set aside hours each day just for himself to nap, bathe, dress and eat in peace.

Take risks. If you’re taking a risk, it’s going to be something important to you. If it’s important, you’re going to have an enthusiasm for it. And if you’ve got enthusiasm, brain fog tends to vanish. Henry Ford believed that if you’re going to fail, you should do it fast and learn from it. In other words, stop dreaming and take some action. No one who base jumped off a bridge ever felt like they had brain fog at that moment.

Cut out the sugar. The more sugar you eat today, the more tired you will be later today and again tomorrow. It’s not worth it. No doubt you’ve seen the studies that suggest sugar is as addictive as cocaine. It makes for a great headline, but the bottom line is sugar is addictive and as we’ve known for years, it’s bad for you, too. Go 21 days without your favorite sweet tweets – whatever they may be – and see how you and your brain feel.

Bonus: When you cut out the sugar you’ll not only feel better, you’ll look better too. They did a double blind study where men were asked to rate the attractiveness of women. Those women who did not eat sugar the previous day were rated as being more attractive than those that did. Sugar not only makes you and your brain sluggish – it can also make you less beautiful or handsome.

Make health such a big priority in your life, you end up creating a product in the health niche and sell 100,000 copies. Why not? It’s been done before and it will be done many more times because there will always be people who are willing to pay to get their health and energy back. So let them pay you.

See what happens? I start out by writing a few ways to combat brain fog when you’re stuck behind a computer for too long, and I end up creating a new product.

It’s good to be an online marketer, don’t you think? The ideas are everywhere and the market for solutions never ends.

Now put away the candy and go take a brisk walk to clear your head. Then come back and get to work on building your online empire!

It’s important to realize that with the exception of creating a video purely for entertainment purposes (cute kitten videos fall into this category) or simply to inform, in nearly every video you make, you are selling something.

Oftentimes you’re selling a click. You want them to click a link in or below the video that takes them to where you want them to go, whether it’s a squeeze page, a sales page, a blog or whatever.

Sometimes you’re selling them on picking up the phone. Sometimes you’re actually selling your product on that very page where the video appears. The point is, you’re selling something, and this is the common point for all videos and the basis of the video script I’m about to share with you.

NOTE: Even if you are making a purely informational video, I suggest you use at least a portion of this script because YOU ARE STILL SELLING. Now then, I can hear your thoughts:

“I’m not selling, I’m making a video to convey info only.”

But if you think about why you are creating a video ‘for info only,’ odds are one reason is because you want to appear as the trusted authority you are. Thus you are selling your viewers on YOU.

You’re also selling them on the material you are presenting. After all, what good does it do to teach something or demonstrate something if no one uses the information you’re presenting, or even believes that it’s true?

Thus when you are making videos, you are almost always selling something.

With that said, here’s the 9 steps to make a video that SELLS LIKE CRAZY…

Your first step is easy – decide what you want your viewer to DO. Do you want them to click an affiliate link? Go to a squeeze page? Make a phone call? Buy a product? Everything else is built on this, so if you’re not clear on what you want them to do, get clear.

The second step to creating your video is to know WHO you are creating the video FOR. Let’s say your video is promoting an affiliate product, and you want them to click a link that takes them to the sales page. (Not really recommended – You should try to capture their email address first and then show them the sales page on the exit regardless of whether they give you their email address.)

But in our example you want them to click your affiliate link. Ask yourself: WHO ARE THEY? Are they a 40 year old woman who needs to lose weight? A 65 year old man concerned about his health? A 22 year old college grad looking for a job? Figure out who it is that you’re targeting and get detailed. You might even create an avatar of this person, with age, gender, income, location, fears, desires, etc. The better you know your prospect, the better you can tailor your video to them.

Here’s where I see people go wrong: “I’m targeting all parents of all children.” That’s not targeting, that’s trying to throw a net over 3/4’s of the entire planet and it doesn’t work very well. Instead, choose to target specifically, such as young middle class parents of preschool children. Your video will be better for it, and parents of older children will actually respond BETTER than if you tried to target every parent on the planet.

This has been proven to work. Narrow down your niche and TARGET. Write down who your viewer is and then every step of the way, imagine you are targeting this video for that exact person because you are.

Third step: Research your visitor. Let’s say you’re targeting new parents – go to forums and find out what they’re saying, what they’re asking and how they’re asking it. Copy and paste some of their best quotes. Now go to Amazon and read the reviews of products similar to the one you’re promoting and again copy the best quotes. If you clean these up and use them in your actual video script, you will sound as though you know and understand their biggest concerns, worries, fears, dreams and desires.

And everyone wants to feel as though they’re understood. In fact, it’s crucial that you come across as someone who is very much like them, because people TRUST those who have a lot in common with them. Don’t believe me? If someone is a Republican, who are they going to trust – a Republican or a Democrat? The more you can sound just like they think, the more influence you will have on them.

Fourth step: Make the promise complete with a hook. You want them to watch your video but they’re not going to do it out of charity. You’ve got to make them a big promise in the beginning that will entice them into watching.

Let’s say you’re promoting a weight loss product – you might grab their attention by revealing the 4 So-Called ‘Healthy’ Foods That Are Secretly Making Them Fat, or the 1 Weird Exercise Trick That Burns 3 Times As Many Calories.

If you’re doing a product review, it’s not enough to say, “Here I Give My Honest Review of ABC Product.” Everyone does that, which is exactly why you SHOULDN’T do it. Instead, reveal “The diabolical technique on page 42 of the product that should be illegal.”

Which video would you watch – another boring review, or a video that actually reveals something you don’t know?

Mind you, if you use this technique in lieu of a typical review, you’re not going to reveal all of the contents of the product. But you can let a detail or two slip out, especially if you’re telling them WHAT to do and not HOW to do it.

This tells your viewer that you’ve actually looked at the product and you have inside information as to what’s inside. And it’s a great way to wet their whistle and get them wanting to know more.

So regardless of whether you’re selling a click or a product, lead with a big promise that contains a hook. What’s a hook? “22 Ways to Improve Your Golf Score” is a big promise, and “22 Ways to Dramatically Improve Your Golf Score Using Chicken Eggs” is a promise with a hook. The hook in this case is the chicken eggs – who wouldn’t be curious to know how the eggs come into play with improving golf scores? Even I want to know that, and I don’t golf.

What if your video is actually selling a product? Then you still want a big promise with a hook to get them to watch. You can’t really tell people, “Hey, go watch my sales video!” because no one wants to be sold. But you can certainly say, “Hey, here’s my video on the 7 foods that make you lose weight faster than a snowman in Florida.” I’d watch that video, and I bet you would, too.

Fifth step: Lead with a story. You’ve made your big promise with a hook, and you’ve targeted it to the exact person you want to reach. Now before you reveal your great info, it’s time to tell your story. Maybe you’re promoting a program on how to raise amazing kids. Your story could be how terrified you were that you were going to thoroughly screw up your own kids. Use quotes you found from the forums and Amazon reviews to help you write this.

Your story might be: “I researched and struggled and tried to find the answers but everyone just told me, “Hey, do the best you can.” And it was hard because I couldn’t seem to get through to my son and he was driving me crazy. But then I made a discovery and that’s when everything changed, and now I get comments all the time on what a terrific, confident parent I’ve become. Now my son listens to me and our relationship is amazing, and I want to share what I’ve discovered with you because I know it’ll help you, too.”

Sixth step: Next you tell them the secrets you promised in the big promise. But also tell them that those secrets are just the tip of the iceberg, and all the best stuff is found in the course you’re promoting or selling, or the free report you’re giving away.

See how easy that is? If you’re thinking, “Hey this is a lot of work,” then let me clue you in – the entire process can be done in an hour or two if you know your market. And what you’ll end up with is an impressive video that CONVERTS. So hang in there – we’re not quite done yet.

Seventh step: Educate – this one I actually covered briefly in step 6 – fulfill your big promise. If you said you would show them 3 ways to increase their bowling score by 20 points, then do it. But here’s the thing – as much as possible, tell them WHAT to do and not HOW to do it. You’re walking a line here, revealing some info but not too much info. You want to get them interested and excited to know MORE but not satiated. You’re building a hunger in them that can’t be satisfied until they take the action and get whatever product you’re promoting.

An example: Your big promise is 3 ordinary spices that speed up weight loss. In this case, you tell them the spices, but you let them know they have to be combined in such a way and at a certain time of day to be truly effective.

Or maybe you’re promoting a physical product and your big promise is to add points to their bowling game. You tell them they can instantly do this by simply wearing a special wrist cuff, but of course they have to buy the cuff for it to work.

Eighth step: Proof. The best way to use proof is to weave it throughout your presentation when possible. “Emma Jones of New Jersey has been an avid bowler for 14 years and was certain this gizmo couldn’t possibly improve her score. But ever since the day she put on the Wonder Wrist Band, her average has improved by 19 points and she refuses to bowl without it.” “Bill Heisenburg reports he was a total skeptic, until he used just the technique on page 142 to get a date with 3 gorgeous women in one night.”

Ninth step: Call to action. This one’s easy – tell them or suggest to them what to do. I don’t know how many times I see people forget to do this in their videos. It’s simple: “Click the link to discover how to ___” Whatever it is you want them to do, ask them to do it. It’s best not to get too pushy on this, by the way. Calls to action like, “If you want to know how a one legged golfer cut his golf score in half in two weeks, click here” tend to work well because you’re not actually telling, you’re enticing.

That’s it – the recipe to make an effective video that converts like gangbusters. Of course you’ve got to add your own special sauce, whether it’s your personality, your fun quirky nature, or whatever it is that makes your videos unique.

Use this script in good health, and it’ll make you plenty of money.

There’s a ferocious killer that halts success more than anything else. This one success killer has ended the hopes and dreams of countless entrepreneurs. No, it’s not the lack of a great idea, inadequate funding or not knowing how to pull it all off. So… What is it?…

It’s waiting to get started. Waiting for the perfect moment. Waiting until everything is just right. Waiting for permission from the marketing Gods to begin building your business.

Waiting has killed more businesses and deprived more entrepreneurs of their fortunes than anything else.

Which is why I propose this: Start now, BEFORE you are ready.

When you come up with a new idea, do you feel like you need to get everything just right before you can get started? Most people do – but the problem is you’ll never get everything just right. You will always find something else that needs doing before you can begin, and so you will never start. Or eventually, one day months from now, you will finally get started only to realize you’ve run out of steam and no longer have an enthusiasm for your venture. It’s too late.

So why not start now? When you wait you get sidetracked and distracted. You listen to feedback from people who tell you it’s a bad idea. You talk yourself out of it. Sometimes you just forget about it completely, and there’s another opportunity lost forever.

Worse still, when you wait someone else can get the jump on you. Realize this – every time you have a great idea, there are other people in the world having that same idea. Do you want to be the first, or do you want to be an “also ran?” Take action and you’ll be a prosperous leader instead of a follower begging for crumbs.

Be impatient. Figure out how to get your idea out there sooner rather than later, even if you’re not ready. Are you writing a book? Give away the first chapters or the first version and ask for feedback. Gather email addresses to let people know when the book is ready. Launch the first version as an inexpensive Kindle book, get more feedback and re-release it as a hardcover. You could have waited until you thought it was perfect and released it as a hardcover to start with, but you would have missed out on the buzz you created and the feedback you received to make it even better.

If you wait to start, you’ll go through the entire process of writing and perfecting and publishing the book before you even know if there is a market for it, before you know how it will be received and whether or not people will buy it. By waiting you could spend the next year of your life on a project that yields nothing but frustration. Had you started marketing it immediately, you could have course corrected along the way to create a product the market truly wanted.

No matter what you’re doing, you can start right now. Even the act of starting gives you a momentum that can carry you through to the end. Take the book – with all the feedback you receive along the way, you’ll write a book people love, so now you can start a coaching program based on the book. Should you wait until you get the coaching program just right? No! Start now and perfect it as you go.

One more benefit of starting now – enthusiasm. When are you the most enthusiastic: When you first think of an idea, or 6 months later? When you’ve already experienced some success, or when that idea has been sitting on a shelf? By starting today you immediately make progress and get feedback, thus building your enthusiasm even further. When you work in a vacuum getting ready to start, you lose enthusiasm.

All the greats start now, whether that means writing the business plan now, writing the first chapter now, setting up the website now, getting feedback from social media now, etc.

Whatever your new idea is, start now and in 30 days you will be well on your way to seeing your idea not only begin to come to fruition, but also succeed in dramatic fashion.

It’s a mantra you’ve heard time and time again – write great, interesting, exciting, sharable content. But what if you’re in a boring niche? Or working for a boring client in a boring niche? How do you get readers excited about mundane topics like locksmiths or plumbing, or even icky topics like personal injury lawyers or rash creams?

Here are 10 tips to help you create interesting content ideas for even the most boring of niches.

1. First, change your perspective before you write anything. If you think it’s boring, your readers will, too. Everything is interesting if presented in an interesting manner. It’s simply a matter of finding the right angles to present your content. And the first step is to get fascinated in your topic so your enthusiasm will show in your writing.

2. Find the golden number nuggets. Dig out the industry statistics and find the fascinating bits that pull people into your story. Do you sell nails? How many nails go into building the typical house? Is your niche floor coverings? If you took all the carpet made in one month, how big of a city/state would it cover? Numbers fascinate when used in a way people can easily grasp and share with others.

3. Use stories and anecdotes. Let’s say you sell instructions on how to refinish furniture. “14 year old Annie was always the shy type, afraid to speak up and withdrawn, lacking confidence to do even the simplest of things. Then she got our beginner’s instructions for refinishing simple antique chairs. Within a month she’d finished her first project, and now a year later she’s refinished over a dozen pieces, resold 9 of them for substantial profit that she’s put away for college, and kept or given away the rest of the pieces. Most important of all, she’s gained a new sense of accomplishment and confidence which has spilled over into other areas of her life.” Wow, that’s pretty exciting!

4. Do a daily question and answer. Each day create an “ask an expert” blog post or video in which you answer one question. Create interaction, likes and shares by getting real people to ask questions through social media such as Facebook.

5. Talk about what’s wrong in your niche. Maybe legislation is pending that could hurt your industry, or someone in your niche is ripping people off. Be the leader and speak up about it. You’ll not only capture the attention of your readers – you’ll likely get links from other sites as people join the conversation.

6. Promote a cause. Sometimes when you run out of things to say about your business and your niche, it’s time to look outside of your business and find a cause to make your own. For example, a personal injury lawyer who’s helping homeless puppies and kittens to find new homes – that’s not only unexpected, it’s even warm and fuzzy – literally. And if your business is strictly virtual, you can still choose a cause and make it your own. Put real faces on it – furry or human – and tell why you and your business strongly support this cause. If you can choose a cause aligned with your business, so much the better. For example, a food niche might choose a program to feed the hungry, while a remodeling/building/decorating business might choose something like Habitat for Humanity.

7. Hold content contests. Get your readers to create content for you, based around the keywords you choose. The better the prize, the more entries you’re likely to get. Pick the top entries and then get them to get their friends to vote for the best one with retweets and Facebook shares. Publicize the contest to get more entries, more press and more backlinks.

8. Become a hub for industry content. Who says you need to write all of your website’s content yourself? Ask other industry leaders to contribute if they like.

9. Use images. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – people stay on your blog or website longer when you use interesting, compelling and relevant images.

10. Stretch. Okay, so your niche is car accessories – why not do an article on the top coolest cars in movies? Or maybe your niche is math tutoring – again, find the movies that use math and talk about those. It’s a great way to get your audience to relate to your products.

Even the most mundane of topics can become interesting – you’ve just got to find the right angle to write about.

Anthony Burgess was just 40 when he was told by his doctor that because of a brain tumor, he only had less than a year to live. It was 1960 and he was broke and worried because he didn’t have anything to leave his wife Lynne.

But for as long as he could remember, there was a nagging little voice in his head that said he could be a great writer.

Unfortunately, Anthony had never listened to that voice before. But now that was dying, he hoped he could write a book that would create royalties for his wife.

So for the next 9 months Anthony wrote day and night, finishing a whopping five and a half novels. That’s more than many professional writers create in 10 years, or for some in a lifetime. And that isn’t even the exciting part.

While he was busy doing what he had known he was meant to do for his whole life – while he was busy being creative and productive, his cancer quietly disappeared.

In his long and prolific life as a novelist, Anthony Burgess wrote more than 70 books, including the famous “A Clock-work Orange.”

But without his death sentence, he may never have written at all.

Just imagine for a moment that you have less than a year to live. What will you do with it? Whether it’s one year, or a lot more, if you are not doing what you were born to do, isn’t it time for a shift in that direction?

You’ve either got a blog already, or you’re just about to start one. Congratulations! You are one of only 500 million. Now then, knowing that your blog is (statistically speaking) less than a needle in a haystack, how are you going to get it NOTICED and read?

In one word, the answer is BRANDING. You can either throw together a blog and hope it somehow gets found, or you can carefully craft a brand that captures readers’ attention and keeps them coming back for more.

To throw one together, just do what 99.9% of other bloggers do – wing it. Fly by the seat of your pants and hope for the best. In six months (or sooner) you’ll likely be so discouraged you’ll give up.

Building a brand is obviously the way to go. Think Google, Coke, Apple and Nike to understand the huge potential branding holds for your blog. Brands stand for something, mean something and create loyalty in their customers. They stand apart and often far, far above the competition. And best of all, really good brands get remembered and are sought out by consumers.

Here then are 10 tips for building your blogging brand:

Who are you writing to? Exactly who is your blog meant for? Create a clear picture of your ideal reader, including age, profession, family, worries, problems, hobbies, etc. You’ll be writing to this one person rather than trying to talk to everyone. Remember, when you target everyone, you interest no one. But when a certain segment of the population believes you’re writing just for them, you’ll build a loyal following.

Why are you writing to your specific readers? What is your goal? It might be to educate, to persuade, to motivate, etc. Keep your goal in mind at all times.

What are you writing about? This is your topic. It might be physical fitness, marketing, dating, etc. Decide in advance what your message is going to be.

Choose a brandable name. If you’re creating a fitness blog, for example, then you might choose a one or two word brand name that people are likely to remember, rather than a keyword laden name.

HowToGetHealthyAndLoseWeight.com isn’t really brandable – it’s too generic and too keyword rich. Think in terms of “Google” – now that’s a brand. You might try things like FitMonkey.com or SkinnyCakes.com – those are brandable and memorable.

Create a snappy tagline. A name generally isn’t enough – you also want a tagline to help brand yourself, to clarify what you do and to make your blog more memorable. If your blog is on bacon recipes, your url might be DeadPiggy.com and your tagline might be “Bacon lover’s recipes for the non-chef.” See how the tagline not only defines that the site is about bacon recipes, but also narrows the niche to those who don’t consider themselves to be good cooks? This is a prime example of using a tagline to define what you do and WHO you do it for.

Get a logo. Can you picture the Apple logo? Nike? Coke? A logo is an integral part of your brand. Make it clean, simple, eye-catching and unique. It’s worth the extra money to get your logo just right.

Adapt your logo into a favicon. Again, this is an important part of branding your blog.

Use a website design that matches your topic. A header full of balloons and clowns on a website about grieving generally isn’t going to work. Dull colors on a children’s website or a lack of photos of gardens on a gardening website won’t work. Make sure all of the visual elements of your site correspond with your topic.

Choose a writing style and stick with it. Take a lesson from McDonald’s here and give your readers what they’ve come to expect from you. Maybe you’re writing to a technical crowd – then you might write like an engineer. Or perhaps you’re taking on a persona, like the Rich Jerk. Odds are you’re going to write like yourself, which is perhaps best of all because you won’t have any trouble maintaining that style. Consistency is key because if one day you’re writing like the guy next door and the next day you’re writing like an English professor, your readers are going to get confused and likely won’t return.

Promote your blog’s name through social media. Consistently use your blog’s name everywhere. Don’t use “Law Enforcement Weight Loss” on Twitter and “Muscle Cops” on Facebook – no one will realize it’s the same blog you’re referring to. Again, this is another reason to choose a unique, short, brandable name that no one else is using anywhere.

If your blog is going to stand apart from the crowd, then you’ve got to do a little extra work, but that work will likely pay off handsomely in the end.

Not only will you stand apart from the crowd, you’ll also discover that if you ever decide to sell your blog, you’ll be able to charge a great deal more because you took the time to brand it.

No matter how hard you try to prevent it, sooner or later you’ll have prospects land on your 404 error page. When they do, they have a choice – try to find what they were looking for or give up. Care to guess what happens more often? They leave in frustration.

So instead of the usual “Whoops! We’re sorry but what you’re looking for has moved” page, consider customizing your error pages to get these people to do something.

For example, you could give them an option to opt into your list with an offer that is different than your landing page. This can be highly effective. For example…

“Congrats! You just found our secret page where we give away ___. Just tell us where to send it and it’s yours.”

Or you might make them an offer they can’t refuse, such as a great deal on one of your most popular products, or a combination offer for a super low price. Like this…

“Oops! You just landed on our error page, but we’re going to make it up to you. Here’s $xx.xx off of our super hot selling ___.”

For one reason or another, if you have your own website online long enough, you’re going to start getting a stream of people who land on a page of your website that does not exist, and leads them to a 404 error. Plan in advance for this hidden opportunity and you can turn some of the strayed visitors into subscribers and customers.