uContext

Content Marketing is a great way to build your online business. The problem is that most people who teach it stop at the point of creating content. While creating profitable content is essential, there is so much more you can do with your content. That’s why I expand Content Marketing into the 5 things you need to be successful online in any niche: content creation, online visibility, traffic generation, list building and product creation.

A funny thing happened along the way

As some of you know, I never finished my Ph.D. in Marriage & Family Therapy back in the late 80′s/early 90′s. Have you ever been told you could not do something? If you’re anything like me, that just makes me want to do it all the more, if for no other reason than to prove them wrong.

Except this time when some of my dissertation committee told me I couldn’t write well at all, somehow that got in, and I took them at their word.

So if you believe you can’t write, you don’t finish your dissertation and you don’t get your Ph.D.

So then in 1994 I started writing a weekly column about relationships for the local paper that filled my private practice to overflowing. I must confess that I did get a kick out of having a full practice while others with a Ph.D. were struggling.

Not too long ago someone from the dissertation committee signed up for one of my Content Creation Workshops. That’s a day we still celebrate.

As author Richard Bach says “Argue for your limitations, and sure enough they’re yours.” I like to say, and sometimes accidentally change Bach’s quote into “argue for your limitations and you get to keep them.” Same message that is worth taking with you.

Bottom Line: Be careful, be very careful, about the limitations others, and especially you, try to put on you… and which ones you believe.

So what’s to be learned from all this?

Here are a few learning points about writing and creating content:

1) As stated above, don’t accept, ever, the limitations others put on you. In fact don’t accept the limitations you put on yourself. They are often times just beliefs – a feeling of certainty about something. It can be quite fun to challenge those limitations and prove them wrong.

2) I probably still couldn’t write academically if you held a gun to my head. And, fortunately, I don’t want or need to do so. The great news is I don’t have to and neither do you. All you need to do is write conversationally. In other words, simply write like you talk.

3) Number 2 works because prospects are attracted to your voice. Not the audio sound of your voice, but the way you approach and solve problems. That is your voice, and no one else can deliver it like you.

4) If you can write a 5 item grocery list, you can create profitable content based on your own expertise. You can then turn that content into a powerful presence on the web and be found all over your niche, lots of traffic visiting your profit sites, build a highly qualified and responsive list community, and create profits by creating, marketing and offering information products based on your content.

The truth is I’ve been creating content to building my businesses, both offline (a thriving therapy practice from 1986 – 2006) and online (helping entrepreneurs build their online business with Content Marketing 2006 – NOW), since 1994.

And I want to bring those 18 years experience creating profitable content to you with this Webinar “How to Create Prospect & Profit Pulling Content in 20 Minutes or Less with Jeff Herring” on Wednesday March 20th at 12 pm EST -

Join us here => http://uContext.com/quickcontent

Content creation is a great way to bring in more prospects and profits. And you do want more prospects and profits, right?

The struggle for many content marketers, both new and experienced, is consistently coming up with ideas for creating content. I’ve noticed that many go through a few stages in their struggle to come up with content ideas.

Let’s take a closer look at those three stages and more importantly, what to do about each one.

3 Stages

Stage 1 – Ideas are not flowing – When you sit down to create content you have to repeatedly stop and think about what to write about. The flow has not stopped, it’s just not as easy as it normally is for you.

What to Do – Step back and brainstorm. Make a list of content ideas. Don’t edit – just brainstorm. This is something you need to be doing anyway, so you always have a list of content ideas from which to pull.

Stage 2 – Ideas are a struggle - Even when you look at a list of your ideas, nothing pops out for you. It feels like you are seeing the ideas on a list, but they are not making sense in your head, and not making the trip from your head to your fingers.

What to Do - Take a trip to your supermarket and check out the titles on the covers of the magazines in the checkout line. Thousands of dollars have been spent deciding how to title these articles. Find titles that you can use in your niche and get busy creating great content.

Stage 3 – You are beginning to believe in writer’s block, even though it does not exist. Ideas are not only not flowing, ideas are just plain stuck. Your frustration level is high, and you’re honestly getting a little bit frightened by your lack of ideas.

What to Do – Go to your topic in EzineArticles and look at some of the top articles in your niche. See which ones are getting lots of traffic. Choose an idea that you know will appeal to your community and simply do a better job with it.This is not plagiarism. This is research because you are simply looking for ideas. You are not copying what someone else has said, you are just going to do a better treatment of it because of your skills.

The Next Step – Your next success step is to grab your spot in our upcoming webinar “How to Create Prospect & Profit Pulling Content in 20 Minutes or Less with Jeff Herring” on Wednesday March 20th at 12 pm EST -

Join us here => http://uContext.com/quickcontent

My New Year’s resolution is to finally get published as a
best selling author of a Amazon Kindle book.

Not because is the latest and greatest thing. I’m sure
next month everyone will be talking about something
different. I want to make a serious effort to get published
because I want recurring income from something I only have
to do once.

But, I wanted to do it right because the benefits of
writing a book once and getting paid over, and over, and
over again is just too good to at least give a solid try.
Its hard to deny Amazon’s absolutely enormous marketplace.

So, I’ve started consuming every little bit of information
I could find on Kindle publishing. I bought ebooks and sat
in on every webinar I could find. Sometimes more than once.

Then I found a Kindle publishing guide that is about as
complete as I’ve ever seen.

http://uContext.com/perfectpublishing

Please ignore the hype on this sales page! The videos in
this guide are all about doing it right, the way Amazon
wants you to do it. No tricks. No shoddy PLR content.
Instead, its about how to do it quickly, easily, and
still create top-quality books that you aren’t afraid to
show off to your friends and family.

I honestly thought about keeping this guide to myself. I
didn’t want to add more competition to the Amazon
marketplace. But, I caved because I know it can really
help people that are serious, and I’m sure there is more
than enough space for you and me.

As always, I don’t promote anything I haven’t bought and
reviewed myself!

I highly recommend it…
http://uContext.com/perfectpublishing

It was just about this time last year when I made the best business decision of my life.

I was burned out and frustrated with trying to make a living online without knowing where my next customer would come from. I needed a new strategy.

It was just about that time when Willie Crawford set me an email about a group that was only 3 years old. It was the “Niche Affiliate Marketing System”. But, the name threw me off. By this point, I had my fill of Internet “systems”.

But, I clicked the link and read the sales page anyway. It was from Willie after all. And, I knew he is careful about what he promotes.

What I found was not really a system at all. Instead NAMS is a group of 25+ Internet business people who have had years of success and were donating their time to help other people find success too.

Twice a year they get together in Atlanta to teach those that can make show up, and record the sessions for those who can’t. And, every week throughout the year they have “deep dive” webinars into specific topics.

For two weeks it haunted me. I kept the email and bookmarked the link. Maybe this one the thing I needed to make a positive change in my business.

As a New Year’s present to myself, I signed up. And, because I did, 2011 was a much different year than it mighthave been. My business is finally off the ground and growing.

If you’re business needs a new direction, a new strategy, or something different than a get-rich-quick system, I invite you to consider making NAMS a New Year’s gift toyourself. Make 2012 the year you find success or more of it.

http://uContext.com/nams

Please, don’t pay full price! Use the coupon code: MyNAMS85

I’ve seen a few people post support tickets about in-text links that go to bad Clickbank products or 404 pages. Unfortunately, there are many bad or discontinued products in the Clickbank marketplace. It’s nearly impossible to remove them all from the uContext system.

However, there is something you can do. Try setting your “Min. Gravity” to something very low, but still above zero.

For example: 0.1

To do this, go to the uContext members area and click on “Websites”. Then, click on “Filters” under your website’s settings.

Because gravity is linked to sales activity, this will help filter out products that no longer have affiliates promoting them or making sales at all.