RosalindGardner.com

Learn Blogging & Affiliate Marketing with Rosalind Gardner

Open the Door to Success with Gratitude

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Do you want to become really successful? Then start with gratitude.

That might sound counter-intuitive when the bills are coming in faster than you can pay them, you don't know if you'll still have a job tomorrow or if you'll find work this week.

But trust me, gratitude is THE place to start if you really want to move forward. When you focus on what you are grateful for, you get more of what you want through the power of attraction. Gratitude eliminates negativity and energizes the spirit.

And no matter what your situation, there is always something for which you can feel grateful.

Start with the obvious – your good health, family, friends and food on the table. If your health isn't the best, be grateful for the fact that you opened your eyes this morning. If your mother-in-law is a pest, be grateful that she doesn't live with you. If you're a lousy cook, be grateful to Chef Boyardee.

Think those are strange? Well, here is my A to Z Gratitude list. 🙂

Wash on a Monday

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You've probably heard of the old housewives' system for managing housework and other chores.

It went like this:

Wash on Monday,
Iron on Tuesday,
Mend on Wednesday,
Churn on Thursday,
Clean on Friday,
Bake on Saturday,
Rest on Sunday.

That routine helped those women stay organized and focused on their chores so that they could get everything done — and they had a LOT to do!

As bloggers, we too have many different things to accomplish, and although I typically hate the thought of following a schedule, I do find it helpful to have some sort of plan to help me stay focused and on task.

Take blog post writing for example.

I prefer to write two or more blog posts in a sitting to queue up for later delivery. The day of the week and time of day I write depends primarily on the time of year. In the winter, I write first thing in the morning; while in the summer I like to write in mid-afternoon when it's too hot to be outside. I also like to group article topics by season and will start working on my Christmas season posts as early as July.

Granted, that doesn't look much like a daily writing schedule, but it works for me.

Create your own schedule.

Consider what works for you and your current schedule. Here are some points to ponder as you create your own blogging routine.

  • At what time of day do you feel most alert and motivated? That's probably the best time to write articles.
  • On which day of the week do you have the most time to write?
  • Does your job allow you time during the day to write? This can be a great escape from the drudgery of work too!
  • Do you work nights? I used to write my best University essays while on midnight shifts.
  • Can your partner take the kids to a weekly class to free up time for you to write?

Figure out what schedule suits you best and set that day and time to write.

You should also consider that the day you publish your articles will be busier than others with reader responses to your post, so make sure you can set some time aside for comment moderation on those days. The days you publish are also good days to comment on other blogs with links to your new post.

Provided you don't work in the online business opportunites market which is rife with weekly product launches and ‘extra' writing, you should schedule a separate session for product research and review writing. You can do this bi-weekly or even monthly when you have sufficient products to promote on your site.

Avoid distractions.

I tend to be easily distracted, so I've set things up to make sure that I'm not (usually) interrupted when I write.

I go into my office prepared to write, so I bring a beverage  and clean my desk of paperwork that might change my focus. I refrain from checking my email, Google Reader and other sites by keeping programs and browser windows closed. I prefer a quiet room for writing, so I'll shut my office door and/or the windows depending on the noise levels inside and out.

My affiliate managers know that I prefer to be contacted by email – not phone. If the phone does ring while I'm writing, I just don't answer it.

Make your schedule and your environment as distraction-free as possible to minimize work interruptions.

Now commit to your blogging schedule.

You won't need to work your schedule for too long before you notice that your workload becomes both easier and more fluid.

The key to getting to the point where it is easy is committing to your plan.

For example, when you know that you're going to sit down between 9AM and 11AM every Tuesday to write a few blog posts, you'll start thinking about your topic ideas and article flow well in advance. Maybe you'll jot down a few ideas  on paper or create a rough draft on your blog when you have a few spare minutes during the previous week. In that way, you're already prepared to write and you can get the job done faster.

Once the writing gets easier and faster, you might also be inclined to write more posts which always makes the search engines happier and more productive on your behalf. 🙂

Try working a blogging schedule for even just a month and see how good you feel about what you've accomplished in terms of content creation and increased revenues!

Don't feel that you have the self-discipline to set a schedule?

Then check out Brian Tracy's “No Excuses! The Power of Self-Discipline”.

Learn how to apply Self-Discipline to: Goal Setting; Time Management; Health Habits; Relationships; Sales; Business Operations; Physical Fitness; Personal Development; Negotiating; Communications; Character Development; and many other areas.

With Brian's training, you'll accomplish more in a month than most people accomplish in a year and take complete control of your life.

So, do you have a blogging schedule or a strategy that you to stay motivated as a blogger? Please share your tips and ideas with us in a comment below.

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A New Way of Being

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Is there something you’d like to create, be, or have in your life that isn’t there right now?

Is there anything you’ve wanted in your life for a LONG time, and perhaps even tried to create in your life, but failed to do so?

If you said YES to any one of those, please watch this video, it will help you tremendously.

The video presentation is ground-breaking, because it deals with possibly the biggest question asked by everyone who’s ever had a tough time getting what they want in life…

“Why am I STILL not getting what I want?!”

or the flip-side of that question…

“I HAVE what want, why am I still not fulfilled, why I am still stressed?”

This video presentation is possibly the most important thing you’ll ever watch about this topic, because John Harricharan answers this question in a way that may completely shock you and send shivers down your spine…

There is an inner block, certain mechanisms inside that prevents you from having what you want – watch it here – find out how to move beyond through these inner blocks and into a new way of being…

PS. This piece of the puzzle is really the missing link – it’s the key to creating an endless flow of abundance in life; when you tap into it others might look at you and say “What happened to YOU!? It seems like you’ve got manifesting super-powers, how are you creating all this success?”

PPS. The life changing “Begin A New Way Of Being” event starts on May 21st – mark this day off on your calendar! This video is just a taste of what you’ll experience in the full event.

Broke, Desperate and at the End of Your Tether?

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Have you been trying to start an Internet business and find yourself broke, desperate and coming to the end of your tether?

Well, you're not alone.

Here are samples of correspondence that I've received from folks who are in exactly that situation.

” …I have bought so many books I have lost count and am now so totally confused (and broke) about what to do I'm just about to give up.”

” …I am twenty years old and entirely dependent on myself. I have no parents and I am out on my own trying to make my way in this cruel world. I struggle to get by with my current job as a bus boy and I am tired of living from paycheck to paycheck. I am currently out of school and wish to go back but I do not have the time nor the money. I have dreams but do not have the time nor the money to pursue them.”

” …I am a parent, divorced and am struggling to make ends meet. I cannot quit my job.”

” …I desperately need more income.”

” …bill collectors hounding…”

” …I am a mom of six children and I have tried and spent thousands of dollars on trying to make money.”

” …as a two month veteran on the Internet I don't know if I can take another hit. I feel like I've been 10 rounds with Mike Tyson and I'm really thinking about staying on the canvas. Thousands of dollars later and I'm still on the starting line!”

” …invested thousands of dollars of my savings in the last two years in home business that I could not afford.”

” …burned really bad within the last two years for alot of money.”

Do those statements ring any bells for you?

Yes?

OK…I want you to pinch yourself to confirm that you're still among the living.

Still here?

Good!

Where there's life, there's hope.

(My mother taught me that.)

Now take a long, deep breath. Make that 10 deep breaths.

No, seriously. Close your eyes, breathe deeply and feel your body relax.

Relaxed? OK, here are some suggestions.

  • Don't Focus on Loss

    Let go of the past. What's done is done. Unless you can recoup some of your money, learn the lesson, chalk it up to experience and move on.

  • Build a mental image of yourself as an extraordinarily happy and successful Internet entrepreneur

    Trust me, this works.

    Failing my first attempt at air traffic control training, I felt defeated, depressed and stupid. When given a second training opportunity, I was reluctant to try, fearful of failing again.

    Then the little voice inside my head told me how much I really WANTED that job. I also wanted to prove that those who cast me aside the first time were wrong – that I COULD do that job.

    But could I really?

    It was time for some honest self-evaluation. What stumbling blocks had I put in my path? Was it lack of knowledge? Lack of effort? Not at all. I didn't honestly BELIEVE I could do it, AND I was intensely AFRAID of failing.

    Yikes! What a great recipe for failure that was. I got exactly what I focused on most.

    However, believing you can be successful at something when you've failed before is a bit of a trick.

    It CAN be done, however. I adopted a ‘B.S. baffles brains' or ‘Fake it 'til you make it' approach. Every step of the way I asked myself what a REAL air traffic controller would do in that situation, and then did that. Even when I wasn't completely confident, I forced my voice to at least sound confident. I acted the part until it became my reality.

  • Eliminate as Much Debt as Possible

    Because it's impossible to think clearly while worried about how to pay this month's rent, REAL entrepreneurs don't spend their last dime on an business opportunity.

    If you're currently in serious debt, then consider talking to a financial planner to help rework your finances.

    Leo Quinn's ‘Own Your Own PayCheck Again‘ is a terrific resource for those who are serious about debt relief. He prescribes uncommon methods that I know from first-hand experience really work.

    His book is a bit pricey, but it's a far better investment than buying an information manual that instructs you to go out and spend even more to build your business, when you don't have it to spend. Why not learn some techniques on how to pay off your debt quicker and keep a little more in your pocket?

    If you can afford to pay the bills but not much else, focus your energy on saving and earning the amount you'll need to build your business without worry. Invest small amounts on things that will bring real returns in the short term.

    For example, scour your basement and your friends' basements for things to sell on eBay. The insertion fee for items listed at less than a buck is 25 cents US. If the item sells for under 25 bucks, you'll pay a 5.25% ‘final value fee' to eBay. Do that enough times and pretty soon you'll have five hundred or a thousand bucks to invest in your business… but only if you SAVE what you make.

    Vist eBay now to see what's hot and selling.

  • Be Savvy about how you spend your money.

    I've talked to far too many folks who invest in expensive coaching programs, believing that somehow their business will magically appear once they've completed the course.

    In reality, whether you buy a $27.00 dollar, or a $5,000 Internet business coaching program, in most cases you're buying information on how to build a business, not a service that will do the work for you.

    If that's what you want, then you may want to consider buying an existing business. However, it may be hard to find someone who has invested the time, effort and money to build a profitable online business, who is willing to sell. Basically, at that stage, the business should generate revenue automatically without a whole lot of input from the creator… so they'd be a little daft to sell, don't you think?

  • Do your due diligence

    Read the fine print, ask questions and understand exactly what you're getting. And with regard to those coaching programs…. get a written contract, and search the forums for at least five people who have taken the program and were really happy with it… i.e. aren't just saying good things because they're trying to sell you the program through their link.

    If you choose to go the information manual route, plan to follow ALL the instructions, or fail otherwise.

    For everyone who ever told me “I bought this, that or the other book (or DVD, course, program, coaching package) and it didn't work”, it was easy to prove that it wasn't the book that didn't work – it was THEY that didn't work.

    We can't expect to be successful with ugly websites, little or poor content, not building a list or not building a relationship with our visitors and subscribers.

The truth of the matter is that there are no shortcuts.

Each and every step is essential, and every successful netpreneur has paid his or her dues to get to where they are today. They did their homework, made mistakes, and learned the lessons – always believing in their ability to succeed.

Starting an internet business is still easier, faster and less expensive (by far) than starting an offline business. If you want to do it bad enough, you WILL find a way to make it work.

Feeling Overwhelmed? Here’s My Cure

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By goodness, I think I've finally licked overwhelm!

Six days into 2010 and my year-end is done, reconciled and ready for the accountant. Not only that, but I'm making great headway on a number of other projects that combined had me overwhelmed to the point of complete inertia.

In addition to the books, I'm juggling home renovations, the AffiliateBloggerPro project, a new book, Affiliate Summit preparations (Jan 16-19), a surprise birthday party (Jan 20th), winter vacation planning (Jan 23 – Feb 10), workup to Valentine's Day for 101Date.com, and queuing up posts for all my sites while I'm unavailable for almost 4 weeks…not to mention eating, sleeping, snow shoveling and other forms of exercise.

Phew.

Under normal circumstances my brain would seize at the prospect of all those tasks and you'd find me on the couch in the afternoon watching something inane like a Real Housewives of Orange County marathon for hours on end, trying to relieve the stress.

Let me tell you, that form of ‘stress-relief' doesn't work.

Instead, I lie there thinking about everything I have to do and berate myself for having accomplished absolutely nothing, while the real housewives go about spending $18,000 on a 10 year old's birthday party and buying $5000 handbags (for which I berate them even more). 🙂

But I finally discovered how to overcome the overwhelm and it was actually easy to do.

Take for instance the year-end. I have always been accounting phobic and to make matters worse, I changed from Quicken to QuickBooks this year, the multi-currency version, no less.

On January 2nd, I realized that it would be easier to do my GST (Goods and Services tax) submission for January 30th, if my books were up-to-date. Then I realized that (despite good intentions) I'd made no entries since firing my useless bookeeper in June.

Ugh.

Six months of entries. Considering I'm leaving on January 16th, talk about overwhelm!

But… when I looked at it positively, I realized that I had 13 days.

13 days, 6 months, half a month per day… … hmmmm.

I thought I could chunk the process down and spend an hour per day doing entries and have it done before I left for Affiliate Summit, and still have time to work on other projects.

Turned out that I was wrong.

The data entry went far faster than I expected — especially after I figured out what I was supposed to do with those multi-currency options.

Here's the crux…

Just deciding to start by doing a little bit and limit the time I spent per day got me off the couch.

And once I started to see the results, I got on a roll. I discovered that the work wasn't nearly so heinous as I presumed.

It never really is.

So, there's the big tip for overcoming overwhelm.

Don't fret over having to do the WHOLE darned thing at once. Nothing ever happens that way. Just as a book is written page by page and houses are built board by board, your project too will be completed step by step.

Give yourself a time limit during which you'll only focus on one aspect of your project. That way you won't get fatigued by doing one thing for too long. Best of all, you'll feel great that you've made some progress as opposed to none.

Now all you have to do is get off the couch and start. 🙂

Make Your Resolutions a Reality

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Did you make one or more resolutions for the new year?

Well, according to a Marist Poll released in December, you're in the minority with only 33% of Americans saying they made a resolution last year.

And of those who did make resolutions, 65% reported that they had kept it for part of the year while 35% didn't even get out of the gate.

If you want to be one of the very small minority who actually makes their resolutions a reality, read the following tips.

  1. Put it in writing. That means actual hand-writing, not typing up a list. When thoughts go from brain to hand, pen and then paper your feelings of commitment to your goals increase.
  2. Be realistic. I believe in setting big goals, but ‘make a million dollars' starting from zero is probably a pipe dream. Try ‘increase my income by 1 (or 2 or 5) thousand dollars a month'. Pick a figure that will relieve your current financial burden yand give you some breathing room.
  3. Brainstorm. How will you achieve your goals? How much time you have to work on your goals? Will you work one or two hours a day during the week, or work on the weekends? What resources do you need? Hosting? Education? Someone to help with the kids while you work? A partner with writing skills to augment your technical skills, or vice versa? Write down everything that comes to mind.
  4. Create your plan. Organize your ideas from ‘Brainstorm' above into an list of steps ordered by sequence and/or priorities.
  5. Set deadlines. A goal without a deadline is just a wish. Saying ‘start a blog' is meaningless unless you add a timeframe, i.e. ‘start a blog by January 10th' and ‘write 10 core articles by January 20th', etc.
  6. Commit. Sign your list of resolutions and place it on a bulletin board where you can see it every day.
  7. Reward success. If you tend to chastise yourself for missing deadlines, turn that thinking around, because punishment is a lousy motivator. Plan rewards for yourself instead, so you'll have something good to look forward to when you do achieve your goals.

Now work your plan!

Did you make a resolution? A plan to keep it? Do you have any additional tips for our readers that will help them keep theirs? Please share by leaving a comment below.

Best of success to everyone in sticking with their resolutions (goals) for 2010.

3 Inner Secrets of Success

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Yanik Silver shares how – in only a few short months – he achieved the ultimate Internet “fantasy” of making a lot of money from a simple (almost primitive) web site that runs itself virtually on complete autopilot.

“…banked over $51,351.94 my first 6 1/2 months online…”

In only a few short months I achieved the ultimate Internet “fantasy” of making a lot of money from a simple (almost primitive) web site that runs itself virtually on complete autopilot. Starting from scratch I banked over $51,351.94 my first 6 1/2 months online, just working part- time out of the corner of my living room.

Now today at age 31, I've gone on to earn over 7-figures.

How did I go from a standing start to banking mega profits?

To do that, what I think you really need are these inner secrets to mega internet success. This has nothing to do with search engines, pay-per-clicks. It doesn't have anything to do with any of the tactical stuff. It's all a lot of stuff that goes on in your head.

  • Secret #1: Cheerful Expectancy

    One of my biggest mentors is Earl Nightingale. He passed away several years ago but you need to get everything he recorded at Nightingale.com. He has a program called “Lead The Field” and “The Strangest Secret.” Just listen to that thing over and over again. He talks about cheerful expectancy.

    There's a big difference between having expectancy versus hoping or wishing something is going to occur. When you have that cheerful expectancy, you know it's going to occur. And that doesn't just come from being “Pollyannaish” or having rose-colored glasses.

    It comes from having knowledge. And you get that knowledge from studying in your field whatever it is. It could be Internet marketing or it could be neurology. That means reading, studying and buying everything and absolutely immersing yourself in it.

    I learned from Earl Nightingale that if you want to be an expert, you spend an hour a day reading on whatever subject that you're interested in, that you want to be an expert on. So I said, “Well, what would happen if I read for three hours a day?”

    I just started learning as much as I possibly could, and that knowledge gives you the confidence to know that you have that positive expectancy. Your expectations determine your results.

  • Secret #2: Do one proactive thing a day

    You don't need to do 100 things a day. Just get that one proactive thing a day. So each little brick builds a big wall for you. Trust me it's easy to be overwhelmed with hundreds of tasks. You're like, “Oh, we need to do e-zine ads and free-for-alls and pay-per-click search engines, and I need to do all this other stuff.” Ahhhhhhhhhhh!

    But just relax and do one task a day.

    Your action will create more and more and more action for you. You simply need to make a commitment to do one proactive thing a day no matter what. Even if you're dead tired and worked a 14-hour day – come home and mail one letter or send out one joint venture proposal. I'm telling you – just these little tiny proactive things will have an immense impact.

    Most everyone has heard of the '80/20 rule' or the Pareto Principle. It says that 20% of your actions produce 80% of your results, and the other way around. 80% of your work only creates 20% of your results.

    So go back and look where your successes came from, and I know that they're from a tiny little group of actions. So if you just get that one proactive thing a day (from the 20% group) that is going to propel you further, that's going to bring you to where you want to be.

    Make it a point to focus on those “20% activities”. In Stephen Covey's famous work “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” he calls these activities “important but not urgent”.

    One of my Apprentices, Peter Woodhead, from the UK is a perfect example of simply doing one proactive thing a day. A lot of Apprentices bolted out of the gate during our one year program but Peter was an Internet newbie and he also had a full time job so he was a bit slower getting started. However, he took my advice and simply managed to do one proactive thing every single day. No matter how big or how small. It could be writing one autoresponder message or it might have been writing 50 headlines. No matter the day – Peter was moving ahead. And not surprisingly his project was completed before many of the other Apprentices were finished.

  • Secret #3: Decision

    This is such a big point. A lot of people have so many problems with decision. That's because they don't like it because it cuts off other options. But frankly that's exactly what you want. You want to cut off other options.

    One of our top apprentices, Cindy Kappler, WebAdMagic.com, had no other option but to succeed because she quit her job. Now I'm not encouraging you to do that if you still have a real job but it does prove if you cut off your options, you're much more motivated. Successful people make decisions quickly.

    There's a magic of attraction when you make your decision. However, when you're hemming and hawing, you don't experience this magic. I don't want to get into too much woo-woo or metaphysical or spiritual stuff.

    But there's this magic of attraction. I can't even explain it. When you set your mind up that you're going to do this, all of a sudden, at the next dinner party you're attending you meet somebody that can help you get to where you want to go. Is that luck or is that something else?

    I don't think it's luck.

    It's like once the decision is made your mind is tuned into the solution and all kinds of ‘freaky' coincidences and occurrences happen.

    And that brings me to another important point about decisions – fail quickly. Don't be afraid of failure. A lot of people are so afraid of screwing up, or making a mistake that they are forever frozen. Who the hell cares? Screw up quickly! I screw up all the time. And you want to fail quickly.

That's the great part about the Internet. You want to go out there and find out if your dumb idea is going to work right away. You can do it in days instead of months. Sometimes hours and if it doesn't work, you move on. You say, “Next!”

Look, I know a lot of people who are working on their products for the last two, three, four years. Get the damned thing out! You just make it better as you go along.

InstantSalesLetters.com, our first product was not where it is now. We've added a ton of stuff to it and made it better. But I just wanted to see if the thing was going to sell.

It wasn't complete and utter rubbish, as my British friends say, but it was enough that it made the point. It found out if there was a marketplace for it. So find out.

Some people like to go around at dinner parties and so on and say, “I'm writing a book. I've been writing a book for five years. I'm an author.”

Uh huh…

I can show you 6 different ways to have your book done in days. It's a cop-out and complete B.S. Bottom line – make the decision to get the product out there. See what happens and fail quickly.

Now get out there and do it!

(c) Surefire Marketing, Inc. Yanik Silver is recognized as the leading expert on creating automatic, moneymaking websites…and he still doesn't know how to put up a website.

He is the author, co-author or creator of several best-selling online marketing books and tools, including his quickest and easiest way to create a product to sell – Public Domain Riches

Yanik's latest ‘baby' is Maverick Business Adventures and the Maverick Business Insider. Visit the site to see which ‘rules' he used to achieve financial independence and become a millionaire before turning 31.

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