Smart Passive Income #282 - To Be or To Give Up

To Be or To Give Up

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A little bit disjointed, Pat philosophizes about giving up ...

Why disjointed? Well, his post is from September 2010, and he writes that he wondered if he should give up writing his blog in the first six month which would be October 2008 to March 2009 ... Why this sudden introspection? ... Could it be nothing else to write ... or just a personal note ...

Nevertheless, he decided to go on, good for him, good for us!

His motto for today:

Keep at it and keep working hard to provide over-the-top, high quality content. It only takes one influential person, one moment, to change everything.

Smart Passive Income #275 - Use the Force, Pat ...

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Today's (September 2010) guest post by James Tayo - his blog seems to be no more - provides hints on how to make people click on your links ...

It starts with a personal story - how English people cannot resist reading stories about the Royal family ... and immediately provides the big secret:

Use incomplete headlines

People are nosy, and will not be able to resist finding out what's behind that headline ... we simply want the complete story ... click ...

... James provides a link ... which does not exist anymore ... which is creating even more suspense ;)

Nevertheless, he names some of the headline examples from that non-existing page:

• "The Secret of Making People Like You" ... of course we like to uncover secrets ...
• "A Little Mistake That Cost a Farmer $3,000 a year" ... it seems that the combination little with a "high" sum creates the magic ... but don't we like to read about the mistakes of other people, too?
• "Why some People Almost Always Make Money in the Stock Market" ... again a secret to uncover combined with a sprinkle of jealousy ...

... and he wouldn't be a great marketer, wouldn't he finish with a call to action: Come up with a headline for this post using the described principles!

Smart Passive Income #267 - The Little Blue Book of Advertising

The Little Blue Book of Advertising

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Pat cleaned house and found a book, to be precise "The Little Blue Book of Advertising: 52 Small Ideas That Can Make A Big Differene" (the marketing affine reader will note the personal story coupled with an affiliate link ...)

The book holds a chapter about blogging and has ideas/tips to help bloggers:

• know your audience, write for a specific group of people ... don't try to please everybody
• be clear and concise ... don't ramble
• no hype ... don't exaggerate
• tell the truth ... don't exaggerate
• answer all comments quickly
• reveal your sponsors and/or investors
• be open for changes ... blogging changes fast

Smart Passive Income #265 - Learn from Newsletters

Newsletter

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Pat likes getting emails ... that's why he subscribed to more than 20 newsletters ...

... either that, or - as he says in his post (which of course starts with a personal story ... he finished his manly housework - cabinetry, painting and putting up a new fence ...) - each email is a chance to learn something new about marketing.

Next time you receive an (annoying?) newsletter keep special attention to:

• the subject of the email ... does it coerce you to open it? Why? Why not?
• what's the call of action, how is it structured? ... Did you follow it? Why? Why not?

... and don't forget if you do not like to get an "annoying" newsletter any more, just unsubscribe ... but don't try to unsubscribe to spam ;)

Smart Passive Income #240 - P90X, Crush It

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Did you notice the "Smart Passive Income" part in the title? ... The last couple of postings did not really contain passive income topics ... well, the blog posts, I am commenting on, are from Pat's Smart-Passive-Income blog thus there was a little bit of context ...

Pat's current blog post brings us back to passive income ... remember, you create a product once, setup an automated way to monetize your product, and make money without additional effort ... thus it's called passive ...

Affiliate links are a way of passive income ... you place links to a product, somebody clicks on those links, buys the product, and you make money from it ... without further work ...

Pat does not only place affiliate links to a single product, but to two products into his post:

• a 90-day workout program ... to get healthy, ...
• and a business book ...

Of course he embeds everything into a personal story. Wanting to get/stay healthy Pat recently started this new exercise program - called P90X - which consists of 90 days "gut-busting, iron-pumping, fat-trimming, muscle-building, endurance-enhancing, nutrition-mastering, life-changing". Pat is on day 4 - Yoga - ... note that he does not give any more information to make us restless to know more and therefore visit P90X to learn more, buy the product, get healthy ... being a couch potato myself, he got me interested ... next thing I will do, I will click here to learn more ;)

Pat would not be Pat if his story ended here ... he compares the P90X program to being/becoming an entrepreneur:

• it takes time - 90 days for P90X, becoming a successful entrepreneur probably more ... 
• keep track of numbers - weight, body fat percentage, exercise time vs. income, payments, rates, ...
• take breaks - your body needs to rest in between excessive session, so does your body/mind when working ...
• get motivation from others - P90X seem to have message boards, for your work you have mastermind groups ...
• bring it - at least so says each workout DVD ... in business that would be Crush It, go on click on the link, I dare you ;) ...
• and finally commitment ... your body will not change sitting on your couch watching TV ... and your business will not either ...

Smart Passive Income #168 to #174 - It's a Boy & Tips to Get More Time & Un-Goals & Newspaper & Make Over & Income Report & Questions

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... more personal information: K**** F****, born December 24th 2009 ... nevertheless congratulations ...

... and because we are not able to create more time, Pat has suggestions to use the time we have more efficient:

• Work when you are most efficient
• Use dead time (e.g. when driving, eating, running, ...)
• Skip time wasters (e.g. TV, video games, Facebook, Twitter ...)
• Organize yourself and find strategies which allow you to be more efficient ...
• Love what you are doing ...

... and suitable for New-Years resolutions, don't only think about what you want to do but also what you do NOT want to do ...

... some history delivered from newspapers ... (strange Pat did not mention newspapers to be time wasters) ...

... Pat's site gets a make over ...

... his income for December 2009 is up nearly 1.500 bucks to 10.000,- USD ...

... and a couple of questions to improve your blog:

• Is your content work sharing? no
• How are you encouraging comments? maybe
• Is it easy to share your posts on social bookmarking sites, Twitter, or Facebook? yes
• Is your content worth reading? hardly
• Did you ask your readers? yes, what do you think?

Smart Passive Income #156 - Why Personal Information?

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Why is Pat sharing so much personal information? He wants to connect with his traffic. Ok, sounds reasonable, and is most likely more effective than cold selling ... but, no fear of identity theft?

... in addition he recommends to encourage comments ... so, please, please, please, leave a commen ...

... I will respond (not only because Pat says so) ...

... and you should hook up further, using Facebook and Twitter ...

... and last (but not least) provide mini-transactions by

• entering a name and email into an opt-in form for a newsletter or a free gift
• using polls, surveys and contests

Smart Passive Income #154 & # 155 - Baby Shower & Wordpress Themes

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More personal information ... Pat is having (had) a baby shower ...

... and he discusses wordpress themes:

There are tons of free ones, however they might be limited - not having features you might need/want, and are not that unique - in a sense that lots of other blogs might look like yours ...

Then there are premium ones, starting at a couple of bugs with the sky as limit ... again, however ... they might have more features, hopefully those you need/want, but are still not that unique ... others might still have bought the same theme ...

... or you might want to go for a custom theme from a designer of your choice ... if you do, let them know as detailed as possible what you really want (including sketches, examples of other sites). The better you specify what you want, the more you will like the result ;)

Smart Passive Income #125 - to #127 - App Promotion & Informational Content & It's a Boy

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Pat tried to contact reviewer sites for his new App iCaption. But got virtually no feedback. Now he tries a different approach: a contest ...

... and he reveals three ways to sell your informational content:

• a book
• an audio book
• a video

... and his boy is born, congratulations ... (now you know his name, his birthday ... another open door for identity theft :( )

Smart Passive Income #102 & #103 - More Personal Information & Idea?

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More personal information - Pat announced that he soon would be a father.

Back to business, he discusses his poll about "What is holding you back?" Because most answered that an idea would be missing, he address this problem asking three quesitons:

• What do you do?
• What would help make what you do easier?
• Has it be done?

Don't look far, or into topics you do not know anything about. Stick with what you know, try to improve where you see problems. If it has been done already, good, that means there is a market (we had that already before). If not, there is potential ... but you might ask why it has not be done before ...

Smart Passive Income #91 - Personal Information vs Identity Theft

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People are natural born peeping toms - at least they/we like reading about other the lives of others. So Pat posts about his first dance with his newly wed wife.

Seems to be a nice marketing strategy but is it safe nowadays? Could identity theft be an issue?

Smart Passive Income #51 - Car Accident, Personal Tidbits, Peeping Tom

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Another strategy that Pat uses is sharing from his personal life. Today (actually nearly five years ago) he had a car accident which of course was life changing. It brought him to rethink his priorities, etc ...

Why do we like to read about the life of other people? Because deep in us there is a little peeping tom ... Reading about others, is much easier then living on our own, and it feels we are connected with the story teller ...

Smart Passive Income #26 - Birthday, Coincidence, Fate

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Pat's 26th blog entry is on his 26th birthday. Coincidence? Fate?

... and he reveals another major secret! Share! ... not your money, but personal information about yourself. It seems there is a tiny peeping tom in everybody of us. We like to read/hear/watch about other peoples life, countless reality TV shows are prove! ... Sharing information about yourself creates a connection between you and your customers ...

... and of course (there needs to be a skeptic remark): ... it makes identity theft so mach easier ...