Realistic Writing Goals

October 6, 2008 By Lisa Angelettie 14 Comments

I have a bad habit of setting totally unrealistic goals for almost everything in my life. I forget that I have three children, a husband, two dogs and a zillion other things to do. I usually never have ALL of the time to I think I have to devote to a particular project. But writing is important to me. It is my business. It is my passion. It is what works! So I have to commit a certain amount of time to it. And so should you.

So how should you achieve this? Well you really need to set realistic writing goals. Because when you do that, you will end:

1. writing frustration

2. incomplete writing

3. poor quality writing

Here is an idea of how I like to set realistic writing goals for myself…

1. I bought a kitchen timer (a pyrex one to be exact) from the supermarket

2. I decide on what I’m working on. An article. A chapter in my book. An infoproduct section. Whatever.

3. Based on the task, I allot a certain amount of time for it. Thirty minutes for articles. Sixty minutes for products and book chapters. (This is all rough draft work of course)

4. I check the timer once. When I’m at 10 minutes before time is up – I start wrapping things up. And that could mean finishing a paragraph or even just finishing a sentence. It doesn’t matter. You don’t have to complete the entire task.

5. When the timer goes off – I respect it and stop what I’m doing. I go onto my next task to accomplish for the day whether that is another writing assignment or whether that is marketing or some other part of my business. If I have some time leftover of my “work day”, I will devote it to finishing the writing project I started earlier. Otherwise – I will just pick up where I left off the following day.

Quick Tip: Write the same time everyday. Waiting to write when inspiration hits – may mean you won’t write until next year:-)

Writing About The Recession

October 1, 2008 By Lisa Angelettie 5 Comments

Article Topic Idea – Writing About The Recession
There are practically hundreds if not thousands of businesses affected by the current state of the economy, and no one knows this better than the small business owner or the entrepreneurs of the world – like us! If you watch any news program, you will notice that there is at least one story daily dedicated to the recession. Have you been writing about the recession yet?

Consumers Are Afraid
People are becoming much more selective about where they spend their dollars, so you will have to reach your potential prospects at an even more intimate level than before — that’s why I recommend talking about how you will save them money!

Whether you are a pet sitter service or you are an executive coach, writing about the recession on topics such as: how you can recession-proof someone’s business, or save them money with your product/service during tough economic times, or how you will offer them a deal or savings during the recession is a fantastic way to show prospects how investing in your products or services is still a great way to go in today’s economic climate.

People Want The Information
Another great reason why you should be writing about the recession is that a lot of people are doing internet searches on things related to “saving money” and “cutting costs” and you should want to be one of the results for those searches in your niche.

Even if you sell premium products and services — you can spin the topic to include articles on things such as “What Recession!” or “Recession Proof Business Ideas” etc.

The Recession Is HOT!
Stories on the recession are hot right now, so they have a great chance of appearing prominently in the search engines. A great way to assure this is by writing about the recession locally or niche specifically.

Declutter Your Home Office Workspace

March 11, 2008 By Lisa Angelettie 5 Comments

I think that work at home moms may have a dirty little secret — a lot of us have messy home offices! Well, at least I do. And I’m finally admitting it — and more importantly, doing something about it! I am in the process of getting rid of all of my home office clutter, and making room for new supplies, new ideas, new energy.

It is so true that your home and work space are reflective of what’s going on with you. And I have been very “all over the place” with the direction of my business for a long time. And it showed. Now that I have gained a lot more clarity on my brand, what products and services I intend to offer, and how I intend to deliver those goods — I am clearing out all the other clutter.

Home office clutter may include papers, books, your kids toys etc. BUT it can also include old ideas written on sticky notes and outdated mind maps.

Hey, there’s a whole slew of experts out there who specialize in this stuff right? So all of you closet messy desk-preneurs…let’s get out there and clean the clutter and watch our productivity multiply.

Quick Tips:

1. Start filing everything. Receipts. Invoices. Ideas on scrap pieces of paper. I use file folders in three different colors. Yellow for creative files. Red for sales related files. Manilla for bills, receipts, etc.

2. Use sticky notes. You can quickly write ideas or to-do lists on sticky notes and put them away from your deskspace on the wall. I wrote about how to create a detailed infoproduct outline using post-its™ in a past issue of my weekly marketing ezine. I just love ’em!

3. Honor the space. Although we work at home, we have to honor the fact that it is our work space and we are generating income in this space. Respect your home office, as you would respect any office setting. Let it be reflective of the six-figure success you will soon become!

When Someone Scrapes Your Blog

February 6, 2008 By Lisa Angelettie 20 Comments

If someone scrapes your blog, it means that a very lazy person out there is stealing content from your blog and pasting it in theres to create the illusion of original content. Most of these people build blogs around various popular topics, scrape blogs for content, and profit through adsense and other monetization options.

It use to be that scrapers only stole content from the big bloggers. But now that’s getting a little too dangerous for them to do, so it’s much easier to steal from the smaller blogger who may not even know how to check to see if someone is stealing their content. This could be you!

Now, when someone scrapes your blog…

1. You may feel helpless and angry and want to call the copyright office, but that’s not the right protocol nor the way to get matters resolved quickly. Trust me – I’ve been through it.

2. The first step is a simple one and that is to contact the owner or webmaster of the blog usually by email. And give them the url of the content they scraped and the original url of where they can find your content. Make mention to them that they have used your content without your consent and you would like them to take it down within 24 hours. If you can get a hold of someone, this step is usually the last step. Most people will take it down fast. End of story. But if not…

3. The second step would be to contact them again if you haven’t heard from them via snail mail, telephone, etc.

4. The third step if you haven’t been satisfied is to contact the webhost and/or domain host of the site which has a responsibility to help you seek a resolution. You can check this by using the WhoIs database through GoDaddy.com. Just plug in the domain name and after it says that the domain is already taken – there will be a link next to it that you can click on which says “click here for info”. Click on that and you can usually find the owner’s name and contact information for the site.

Remember that anything you write on your blog that is your original content is protected under the copyright laws of the U.S. So you are in your full rights to pursue this course of action.

*Also if you own a blog powered by wordpress (like this one) or a blog which is actually on wordpress.com (a free one), then your rights and how you pursue copyright infringement can be a little different depending on which one you own. Learn more about wordpress content theft at Lorelle’s blog.

Do You Write Enough Blog Posts?

January 31, 2008 By Lisa Angelettie 4 Comments

I am currently in the middle of a marketing training program (all of you should be investing in continued education by the way:) which brought up a great point about blogging. It talked about how to make any sort of significant impact in your niche – you have to write a blog post every diggity day.

Take a look at the top blogs in your niche – do they write blogs posts everyday? But the part that resonated with me about it – was the fact that they explained how writing regularly trains the search engines to search and spider your content on a regular basis. Getting you quicker placement in the search engine rankings for your blog posts and keywords in those posts. Don’t you just love that? Does that mean that you have to write 500 word articles everyday? Uh, no. But it does mean that you need to be passionate about your topic and dedicated to the success of your blog to make it happen.

Remember you can blog about news in your niche, product reviews, things going on with you personally, updates on your current projects, etc. So I’m up for the challenge. Let’s see if we can all post a bit more frequently. While I am not fully committed to 7 days a week (hey, I have 3 kids, a dog, a fish, and a husband:), I will commit to 5. Okay, well I set the intention…how about you?

Add A Bonus To Your Product Offer

December 19, 2007 By Lisa Angelettie 3 Comments

I know a few of my clients who have basically stopped in their tracks when it comes to getting their infoproducts ready for sale, and it was because they put all the energy and hard work into their product and had nothing left to offer as an incentive or “bonus” to get prospects to take action.

If that sounds like where you are — I am telling you now — don’t let that stop you. Blogger Thomas Sinfield has a great post (Never Pay For An Ebook Ever Again) which contains a list he compiled of over 80 free ebooks. So take a look, find one that will serve as a great companion to your product, and add it as a giveaway. (Make sure to check that the ebook has free distribution rights, although most will.)

Build A Better Infoproduct

November 26, 2007 By Lisa Angelettie 1 Comment

Build A Better InfoProduct

Are you beginning to think about the business goals you want to set for your business this year or next year? I know that I am. And one thing I have been considering is the fact I need to always have products to sell to my clients – and not just any product – but much better ones than a lot of the fluff that has notoriously been for sale.

When I think about designing a new product, I have to think about what my clients want first and then the quality of the product I want to deliver second. Now – I have been guilty of taking forever to get a product out because I was so busy perfecting it, but actually I don’t feel bad about it any longer. Its more important to me to deliver a product that I myself would want to buy. When I buy a piece of crap on the web – I return it. That simple. When I buy something that is useful and was thoughtfully put together – I keep it.

So think about this when you are designing your next infoproduct:

1. How long is your product? Do you really need all the pages you have? Is it filled with fluff or does every chapter – every page – serve a purpose.

2. What is your product’s presentation? Is it electronically delivered? Is it a physical product? Is it a combination of both? I myself prefer a combo. Your customer will feel as if they are getting their money’s worth.

3. Are you presenting an old topic with a new spin? Or are you introducing something new to your audience? Its very important that you keep your products relevant and fresh, because a lot of the old information on your particular niche can probably be found for “free” via a few google searches.

4. Have you priced your product accordingly? And are you delivering what your price point calls for? *Tip – Want to raise your price point? Include audio or video with your infoproduct to increase perceived value.

5. Have you been stuck on the development, production, or promotion of your infoproduct for weeks or even months? Ask yourself if your market really wants this product idea of yours, decide to interview other experts for your product to try and get the creative process going.

Want a little more one-on-one help? Book an ebook publishing strategy session with me.

Writers Block When Blogging

August 28, 2007 By Lisa Angelettie 1 Comment

I get quite a few emails about new bloggers (and old:) getting stuck with writers block when it comes to adding new content to their blogs.

I think a lot of that is based on the fact that it is necessary to post often to gain decent exposure for your blog — and some of us just weren’t born chatterboxes!

Well – I have a few ideas for you that I have worked for me and few of my clients. They aren’t rocket science — but they are probably things that you may take for granted or forget about.

1. Blog when listening to music. Believe it or not – the right music can instantly lift a person’s mood and creativity (we also recommend this in psychotherapy:). You will be amazed at how the creative portion of your brain will kick in when you remember to turn on the itunes, ipod, cd or radio.

2. Remember that just because you know your topic backwards and forwards, doesn’t mean that your readers do. In fact, if they are even bothering reading your stuff at all –they are interested in either your information or your opinion on your information. So if it’s related to your topic – write about it.

3. Use google alerts. All you have to do is put keywords related to your topic or perhaps another expert’s name in the google alerts tool and you will start to get email alerts on what is new in blogs, the news, or other web pages on that keyword. You will get a ton of ideas from using this tool.

4. Write an opinion piece. Some bloggers get trapped with only writing about “information” or “news”. But what brings readers back is your particular writer’s “voice”.

5. Write about new things you are trying with your business while you are trying them. Don’t wait to see the end result. Readers will want to follow the results.

Have any ideas on beating blogger writers’ block? Please share:)