Associated Content

Associated Content is a place where writer's, amateur and professional, can submit content online on virtually any topic. Besides the fact that Associated Content will gain you exposure, it’s also a paid to write program where they pay you upfront for your articles and also provide you a performance bonus for page views.

Associated Content pays between $3 - 10 per article depending on the article quality with the average around $4. The performance bonus is $1.50 for 1000 page views. The payments from Associated Content are via Paypal.

The great thing about Associated Content is that the earning potential is great. Say you write 4 articles per day for 30 days. At the end of the month, you would earn $480 in upfront payments. If you earn an additional $1 performance bonus per month for each article then you create a residual income of about $120 which will go up every month.

In order to submit articles, you must be at least 18 years old and a US citizen. You must submit articles with unique content, decent quality (good grammar, spelling, etc.) and a minimum of 400 words.

You can submit articles on almost any topic. Here’s some topic suggestions: Business Profile, Travel Guide, Stock Tips, Humor Clip, How-to Guide, Product Review, Tech Advice.

When submitting articles, make sure that you submit them as Non-exclusive to Associated Content. This allows you to submit the article to other online magazines like Helium.

One last thing, I submit my articles to Associated Content first. Once you receive the payment, you can submit to other online magazines. Why? My first article was rejected because they found it on other sites and thought it was not unique or copied content.

Okay, there you have it. Everything about Associated Content. You can read more about Associated Content here.

Article Marketing 101

Okay, I hit on a great idea that has to do with my key strategy of becoming the Obvious Expert. ARTICLE MARKETING!!! Yes, these days with the internet the pen is definitely mightier than the sword.

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So what is Article Marketing, you may be asking?

Well, article marketing is writing articles and posting them for free at article websites. I already found over 25 sites. As a dug deeper into the article marketing world, I found many distinct benefits of providing your well-written articles.

It’s free
First, you gain the notoriety and prestige that comes with being a published writer. At the same time, you will propel your Obvious Expert status. All this for the best price... FREE!!!

Links to your website
Second, the articles provide the ability to backlink to your website. This will increase your traffic and hopefully your leads. Backlinks also help increase your search rankings on search engines like Yahoo and Goggle.

Some sites pay you
What?! That’s right. You heard it here. You can get paid for your articles too. Some sites pay you upfront, others split Adsense money with you, and finally, some put you’re articles up for sale.

Viral Articles
Once you submit your articles, these websites submit your articles to other websites for use (still giving you the credit). This means that people have a better chance to see your writing and visit your website.

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I spent most of this week signing up for these websites and I finished posting my first two articles today. I am really looking forward to seeing the results of my efforts. I’ll keep you posted.

Over the next week, I will go into more details about each site and provide an extensive list of links.

Key Strategy: Becoming the Obvious Expert

Elsom Eldridge Jr. and Mark L. Eldridge co-wrote a must read book called, How to Position Yourself As the Obvious Expert.(Click on the picture to get your copy) Becoming the obvious expert in my community is one of my key strategies in building a million dollar business and I will speak about it often.

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Three reasons to becoming the Obvious Expert in your business

1. Increase in leads – You will automatically attract more prospects by increased referrals. Since starting to work on this strategy, I have had new students arrive with at my doors and they tell me that they heard our school is the best around. Many times, they were referred by people that never took my classes!

2. Command a Higher Customer Value – People expect to pay more for an expert. Everyone’s heard that old adage, “you get what you pay for.” Higher tuition rates/ prices also make giving special discounts easier and customers appreciate them more.

3. Hear Less Sale Objections & Higher Lead Conversion – Most prospects are sold on your business’s value before walking in the door.

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Keys to positioning yourself as the Obvious Expert

1. Define your Unique Selling Proposition – What makes you unique from your competition?

2. Get Published – Write articles for magazines, send out newsletters or ezines, and publish articles on free web-based magazines.

3. Perform Informative Lectures – Provide valuable Lectures to organizations in your community

4. Wow them with Seminars – Host events that attract people and possible added income to your business

5. Create at Terrific Content-based Website – Provide lots of valuable information on your website to pull in more people

6. Community Activism – Coordinate charity or community events for a admirable cause.

Over the course of my quest, I will explore these ideas plus many more in order to elavate my business to the status of the Obvious Expert.

Improving Search Engine Rank

On my List of 5 today, one task is to improve traffic to my website.

Websites are an invaluable marketing tool for any company, but in order for customer find you, your website must come up through search engines. Search Engines rank sites higher if they have more backlinks to there page.


Here's a list of free directorys that I posted my website on to improve my traffic and ratings:

ProLink Directory
Submit Web Link General Directory
AAAWebDirectory.com
iExtreme Directory
iwebdirectory - Internet Web Directory: One time $1.99 charge for a lifetime membership
Perfect Directory
Free Web Directory
TWMD
Add Your Link
FAT64.NET
Internet Web Directory
MyBillionLinks.com Directory
Nuclear Land
Triple W Directory

Submitting to all of these sites was quite time comsuming but over time, it will be well worth the effort. I love tasks that involve one time upfront work but the benefits last indefinitely.

If you know of any more directories, please share with our reader by posting information in the comments below. Thanks.

Power of Focus

I took the Anthony Robbins 30 day Personal Power II program. I highly recommend this program to all my reader. The investment is well worth it.

I especially liked Disc 6 which talks about the power of focus. Our focus determines the results or outcomes in our life. We can access tremendous power by controlling the focus of our minds. Our focus depends on how we evaluation thing and an evaluation is nothing more than questions we ask yourselves on a daily basis.

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Disempowering Versus Empowering Questions

We have a constantly rolling movie of thoughts in our heads called self-talk. When we evaluate our personal situation, our self talk comes in the form of questions. These questions can be disempowering or empowering.

Disempowering questions are questions that leave us feel helpless and do not offer solutions to our current situation. For example, asking yourself, “Why am I not making enough money?” “How did I get so much in debt?” are disempowering questions. As you can see, these questions are self defeating, and ineffective.

Empowering questions stimulate your mind to think of solution to our problems. Examples of empowering questions are “How can I make more money, today?” “What activities can I do today to make more money?”

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Amy Bass: Real Life Example of the Power of Empowering Questions

Her and her husband had accumulated a substantial debt of $72,900. After reading, Dave Ramsey’s book, The Total Money Makeover, Amy decided to make a change. Instead of asking the disempowering question "How am I ever going to pay down this debt?", she asked the empowering question, "How can I make more money to pay down this debt?" With four kids, she decided to make her money through online marketing and through online programs like CashCrate. The best is that you can follow her progress online at her blog, www.mydebtfreegoal.com which I found to be a treasure trove of terrific information.

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30 Day Challenge: Your List of 5

After listening Anthony Robbin’s idea about the power of focus, I took the idea and applied it by using what I call my “list of 5”. Everyday, I ask myself the empowering question, “What money making tasks can perform today?” I write the tasks down in my Franklin Planner and rank them in order of importance. Then, I start with the most important and continue down the list with the intent to complete at least 5. This List of 5 has really driven some awesome results over the summer. Summer is usually a slow time in my industry. With the list of 5, I created alternate sources of revenue like a Summer Camp and stayed focused on marketing activities like flyer runs, public demonstrations, postcards, etc.

My challenge to you is to try my List of 5 idea for 30 days and let me know if you experience any results by commenting below.