Then get advertisers.

I know, that wasn’t very inspiring…

I’m still full of Christmas goodies ;)

The answer to what to do is ALREADY done!
The secret is to keep the feeling of overwhelming joy, such as that feeling of gratitude for all the supportive emails AND for the release of the negative energy.

It’s not about being told what to do because, by definition, inspiration is a divine influence or action on a person believed to qualify him or her to receive and communicate sacred revelation (Merriam Webster).

So, simply by focusing on your joy, you will be inspired.

Cheers,

Mitch

A good approach I heard from, I think Darren Rowse, is give away the principles and sell the personalisation. This could be on line info or consulting.

Here goes.

I was thinking about the problem with marketing sleaze and its emphasis on attention.

I think one way is to shift the focus to value (or quality). The idea is to offer such great value that this generates attention. In this way attention is generated but there are not the problems of focussing only on attention.

This is the approach of a book by Edward de Bono and John Lyons called Marketing Without Money. It has case studies of Australian entrepreneurs. It is a very worthwhile read. (They also have a course attached to it – but from what I can tell (I can’t afford to buy it) it doesn’t add anything to the content of the book. It’s not specifically to do with on line but is certainly applicable.

It’s very good to hear that you are feeling better.

I’m not terribly good at marketing (OK I’m terrible at it) but the focus on value does give me a way ahead that I can feel good pursuing.

I find this inspiring, I hope you do.

I started writing a blog about blogging but that hasn’t worked as well as my new blog about photography, that I have a passion for!

Its clear from reading your blog that you have a great flair for writing. Your writing style is both informative and interesting.
Why not write a novel loosely based on the trials and tribulations of your 10 year relationship?

I can’t tell you the substance of what you need to do to regain your passion, but I can say “keep at it!” You’ve only been doing this full time for 4 months, and have had a large personal distraction. Before you can evaluate success or failure, especially with emotional fatigue, you should give it some more time.

I think you’re in The Dip. No affiliate promotion here, just a recommendation for a fine book.

Overnight success, as you well know, is tough to achieve. You’ve done a remarkable job cultivating an audience on this blog, and should continue to do so. It may sound awfully “bubble” of me, but it’s a matter of converting your “eyeballs” in a valuable way that doesn’t dehumanize.

Good luck, you are doing something remarkable.

This is because although you have put together an amazing resource, I don’t think that only reading is what people need. They need to be supported and “journey’d”.

What you could teach is how the heck you managed to get such a great blog and traffic going in such a short amount of time, I for one would love to know.

I am just starting Yaro’s course right now, as well as the 30 day challenge, so I am hoping to learn from them.

But I think that you can probably create a course as well, you have a following and charismatic personality, you will probably do well with it.

Maybe a membership site and/or personal coaching. And also your own info products sprinkled with very select affiliate products that you use yourself or are personally familiar with. I am going with amember for mine after trying a few others, it is very good.

Your honesty and no bull personality is a breath of fresh air. I’m sure it would never be dull :0)

@Peter, indeed, what is the thing? That’s the real question…The responses so far are helping and I am getting some clarity, but still not quite sure what the ‘thing’ is but nobody can tell me that. I have to figure out what my thing is for myself.

@Gisele, your post resonates with me – I know exactly what you mean about holding onto the past, and that does nothing but hold you back. I have cut off all ties from my old life and 2008 is going to be completely and utterly different and much better than 2007.

Shame about the hair though, eep!

@Shannon, a few things. I tried entering various niches for the 30 Day challenge on different subjects and didn’t make any money, I have looked at affiliate marketing in a number of ways and just ‘picking a niche where the money is’ just doesn’t work for me at all it seems.

@Rosie, I think you are right, as you’ll see when I post my follow up to this post on Monday, sorry about the head lol!

Why not build up some courage, renew your determination to make money from home and try a hand at trading the forex market? I was there for nearly 2 years and though I lost a considerable money in the beginning, I later on averaged about $6000/month and more sometimes.

This is not the most unique ideas, but the forex market builds certain qualities in you that you wont experience anywhere else. I guarantee that.

Dont wanna bore you, so I am gonna close here. Let me know your thoughts. I am more interested in what you think than the backlink.

Here’s a nice article on ClickNewz that might spark some ideas on how to make money.

http://www.clicknewz.com/1122/how-i-make-money-online-part-2-an-inside-look/

~Shannon

See what you did…now my head hurts…

I have a simple question…

What have you done so far that hasn’t worked?

~Shannon

It’s Gisele again. You might need a cup of tea, because this is a long one ?.

You’re not going to believe this, but I spent the entire day thinking of your post. Why, because I went to the hairdresser today. I looked at the calendar and thought only 9 more days for one of the worst years of my life to be over.

I will spare the details to you readers. Frankly, we’d need a dozen boxes of Kleenexes and many Martinis … just to get through the first six months of the year!

In any case, back to the hair. Two years ago a careless hairdresser butchered my hair with a chemical process that damaged my hair and scalp terribly (I had bald spots). I’m still paying the price for it today and my ends where in a royal mess because they were from that bad chemical process. Although, my hair had grown to middle of my back again, about 8 inches where severely damaged. I just wanted to hold on to my hair because I could not deal with more changes and challenges in 2007, but my hairdresser said….it’s got to go.

We argued back and forth for about 2 minutes and then the owner of the salon walked by and said: CUT IT OFF!!!

I looked at him a bit startled and said to my hairdresser: he’s right, I don’t want to enter 2008 holding on to crap (pardon my German) that serves me no purpose. For the past few weeks, I’ve been closing the page on things/people/relationships/botched business ideas that were holding me back. I was determined to enter 2008 focusing on “what I have that works for me” and “on things/people/relationships that helped propel me to the forefront”.

So back to you: how does cutting 8 inches of my hair can help you make a decision on your future? I say cut it off! Cut off what ever you are NOT passionate about. Cut off people who are hurting you and holding you back. Cut off any professional activity that doesn’t feed your soul.

When it comes to deciding on “where does Caroline go from here”, I say, go with the fire in your belly. If continuing the blog on helping others make a living off of their blog is it, then move forward with a vengeance. It not, then what’s your passion? You come from the IT world (if I remember correctly) … does it make you want to conquer the universe? Would you want to focus on that? Or, do you have a message that you feel needs to be out there because it might have such a monumental impact on other people’s lives?

I think that’s the “what”. As I had described in my posts from yesterday (sorry for the typos, 2007 is ending on a health issue note…I have a terrible chest virus that basically has knocked me out and I can barely talk, type or read…let alone edit copy). As I said yesterday, you have a gift and you should continue blogging (that’s the how) … now you need to pick a topic on continue to grow this one (that’s the what).

Before rejecting my suggestion, I hope you’ll think about it. I think I speak to everyone of your readers when I say, that I really would love to be part of your successful journey!

Happy Holidays Caroline,

Gisele
http://www.mybeautymatch.com

This blog is free, hard to monetise and of little value to you as an individual or business person.

But people would certainly pay to banner advertise on here, or to product placement in your ebooks, but I don’t think that fits with your ethos, as the payers choose the adverts. So you could monetise it in these ways.

BUT the blog it is your way of “giving back”, of helping others. It may indirectly also help you to focus your own business ideas. Having to explain something often challenges your own concepts. But it might be you need to cut it back to fortnightly or monthly.

But so far you’ve blogged about the process. Not the thing. So AYK you can keep blogging, but change your thing.

But you’ve asked, what is the thing?

As you might agree, projects which you’re heart is not in, can become very hard. And following the niche is a prime example of this. Often it means doing a lot of work, for not a lot of money. Like most things, the pyramid of successful niche players, is ultra thin at the top. And you will always be following their tails. So you might do OK, but you probably won’t make it big or be comfortable.

Do you crave the excitement of never knowing where your next niche is coming from?

Picking things you don’t believe in, just to make money, can be a very hard thing to swallow for any length of time. Especially if your “character” is not naturally about “business” i.e. if you are more of a creative/artist.

One of the things we talk about on BFN are these personal strengths and weaknesses, such as whether one has the necessary character for business, and what sort of team (albeit freelance or friends) you need to surround yourself with, to compensate for ones own weaknesses.

If you are not honest with yourself about this, or don’t take the assessment and don’t implement a solution, you will fail. Whether it is in 3 months, or 3 years, you will very likely fail.

Several people have suggested you go back to your strength of software games, as that is one of your hard core skills. It also makes you more unique on the blogosphere.

But doing something because you can, or because you want to, is dumb! It’s the opposite end of the spectrum to niche gold digging, but it is still bad business.

So what is the rainbow between these two extremes?

IMHO “inspire me” is the wrong question. You have to decide what you want to do and what you are capable of. Then you need to do the market research;

1) Is there a “real” market
2) Can I get a viable share of that market.
3) What is my growth and escape plan.

But you need to do this with a view of entering the market and deploying your “want”.

Then you find a “way” to do what you want, which is not business suicide.

Then your heart is happy. Your wallet is happy.
Then you can still blog about the process (not your thing) and your readers are happy.

Doing this market and personal research is not easy, especially if you are a single entrepreneur.

And you can guess what I did about that ;-)

If market and personal research is drawing a map, and your heart is picking the destination, you just apply your mind and business acumen to get there in the quickest and safest way.

I said destination there, but as we’ve discussed previously, there is no single one destination. And fulfillment wise it’s about enjoying the journey. And if one path is a dead end, no biggie, you have route B already planned.

But you can’t just roam off in any direction or you may well get irretrievably lost, or fall off a cliff. So a (business) plan of your general route, is absolutely essential. You may just go round in ever decreasing circles otherwise.

If you analyse what I have said carefully, yo should see that with my heart/mind/market research strategy, you are never stuck in a rutt with a single product/s. But neither are you continually struggling to define new markets and clients.

I hope you get the difference!
You’re one smart cookie so I think you will ;-)
And the fast track route is where the smart money is…

JM0CW

Peter

I was surprised to read in an earlier post that you said..
“I am not comfortable with selling, never have been.”

Isn’t that what IM is?

You have an amazing talent for writing and great info on your blog that could be easily made into ebooks to SELL! or give away with affiliate links in them. You can use OpenOffice to create them & it also has secure pdf creation …. for FREE! It’s a great program.

I believe that Rosalind Gardner (Super Affiliate) left such a message on your blog a while ago as well as other suggestions.

I also loved the mention of a favourite charity…I’ve been involved with fundraising for years and know how tough it can be to raise funds…. Tedi who has been chosen for the People to People Student Ambassador trip to Europe and is trying to raise funds to get there.

http://www.magfundraising.com/TediFunds and
http://studentambassadortedi.blogspot.com/

Here’s my whack at trying to provide you a great suggestion :)

When blogging, the bloggers shouldn’t really focus on money and actually more on content. What you’re providing here is pure content and that’s why we all love you. I do realize that you had quit your job to work full-time here and that is probably the reason why you want to make money.

The first thing that comes to mind is a new theme that supports ads and ad spots, which UBD provides. I highly suggest not going with the UBD themes though because you can get the same themes anywhere on Google for 1/4 the price or free. I certainly would stick with free themes because they actually work better (widget friendly) and look different.

As soon as your new theme is up, just work on selling ad spots and I’m sure you’ll be able to sell them even at $50-100/spot. In addition to that, you should add sponsored “links” under for $10-20/month.

Hope this helps :)

-Mike

@Heather, contact me via email about your Wordpress questions, I may be able to answer them privately or that could be another ebook idea.

@Olakunle, inspiring as always. yes I do intend to take action but I’d rather take inspired action. The idea behind this post is simply to see of somebody would come up with something that would make me think “aha – that’s for me!”.

@Guy, the trouble is, that in order to write for this blog, I need subject material to write about and that is what I am searching for. I cannot be another one of those make money bloggers that writes about making money whilst doing nothing to make money other than write about it!

The sad fact of internet marketing is that most of the fun is not in the work itself. It’s in the end results.

This could be the money you make… spending $1 and getting $2.50 in return is exciting.

This could be from helping people… Ed and Dan’s one a year thirty day challenge. Or taking your online income to make a real difference in the offline world (my ultimate goal)

This could be from being able to wake up, put the laptop on the bed and starting your day.

There are exceptions of course. There are people who love to write, but I suspect that most in internet marketing folks are not doing it for the love of writing.

As for this blog… you’ll need to decide what you want to do with it… My blog is similar to yours as it’s a dairy of my journey into internet marketing… The difference is that I don’t write for my readers. I’m grateful that I have readers, but this is my personal journey and the blog helps keep me going. So it doesn’t bother me if I write once a day, week, month, or year. If people want to continue following me, that’s wonderful, but if they don’t that’s fine too. I write for me.

As for inspiring you.. I doubt I could. I don’t have the ideas or ability convince you to try anything in particular. The only real advice that I can say is to TRY SOMETHING. Just pick a process… follow it from A to Z and see what happens.

Do your best not to make your own decisions, just follow the process to the end exactly as the writer intended. It will be hard not to insert your own thoughts and opinions, I know I do it all the time. I often wonder why some people who doesn’t seem to be very smart achieve amazing results and I believe it’s the fact they are doing as they are told and not making their own tweaks to ‘improve things’. That’s a major problem I have…

Anyways, I hope you continue Caroline, I enjoy your writing as so many others do. I know you’ll be successful, it’s just a matter of time. One thing I’m sure you’ve heard 1000 times before is that people give up just before they break through and become successful. I don’t want you to become another statistic.

In the meantime, here are two sites that I keep an eye on that you might find very interesting:

http://www.clicknewz.com/
http://www.mydebtfreegoal.com/

~Shannon

p.s. outsource the boring stuff! :)

The most reliable way to make money is to find a need and fill it.

I don’t know if this interests you or not — but I see a real need for “techie translators.” Software developers and coders who understand the inner workings of computer tools *and* are good at explaining it to us non-techies on the other side of the geek gap. I have a hunch you’d be great at this, and I’m seriously looking forward to your Wordpress ebook.

I’m a writer at heart. For my business, I make my money through a combination of personal projects, working for clients, and internet marketing. But, since I’m a writer first and “the other stuff” second, I really need to keep that as a priority. I can’t even remember the last time I wrote a poem, or pitched an article that would bring me joy to write.

When my to-do list doesn’t fit my ultimate priorities, I feel out of sorts, then I reach burnout. It’s happened to me several times and it is always an issue of balance. And I’ve come to define balance as “a state of existence which is in line with my values and ultimate priorities and goals”.

I can’t really suggest anything to you – I’ve seen some great ideas from the previous posters (especially the suggestion about writing ebooks, and taking your twitter posts and turning them into an ebook) – but I can tell you what’s helped me.

When I feel restless, I force myself to take a day off, away from the computer. I do things I enjoy and don’t give myself time for like crochet or reading a book. Then at one point, I’ll return to my writing for fifteen minutes – either on my computer or a journal, and really sit and think about what I truly want.

I did something like that yesterday.

What I realized was that I need to make time to tackle my bigger projects, such as writing screenplays and novels. For the past two years or so, I’ve been waiting for the right time to start – saying I’ll build my income and then conquer it. Well, since some of the writing that I do for pay is relatively joyless (keyword articles, that kind of thing) I wasn’t making enough forward progress.

Perhaps you’re in a similar situation? Maybe you need to step back, define your values, and think about what you really want to do, and find time for those things…

I hope this helped!

Katherine

I’d say try and find someone else who inspires you, and is willing to work with you. I’m still developing my first (what I’d call) major project – and I tell you the one thing I still miss is someone else to keep me motivated, and bounce ideas off, but more than that to actually work together towards a common goal.

I’m working largely alone (although I did recruit a marketer, which helped) – and there are times when I still feel like giving up for a while, because its just “me and my mind” battling it out. I’m starting to make some good inroads now, but I think by myself it has taken longer than it could / should have done.

Sidenote: (The next best thing for me has been to network quite closely with a few users of my work, because their feedback keeps me motivated to improve things even further.)

I think that such “matches” are hard to find though – in my case it would have to be someone who was interested in open source development geared towards blogging (especially wordpress), and who didn’t just want to make a quick buck. Oh and same timezone (otherwise I tend to end up working in more of a US timezone, than a UK one).

I have ended up rejecting a number of potential partners, because they didn’t meet the criteria I wanted.

Good luck in deciding what you want to do next, I’d just say don’t look to go it alone if you can help it. Maybe the ‘who’ is just important (or more) as the ‘what’ at the end of the day?

I found you via Juho Tunkelo via Twitter.

In 2005 I was 49 on my way to 50. In fact I didn’t really get to be 49 because the whole year I just kept thinking, holy moly I am almost 50! So, really I never got to be 49. The point is, when I was almost 50 I said, ok, no more dreams on the back burner. All dreams must come forward onto the front burners and and start to cook. So, I really turned the heat on and started several projects based on…manifesting these dreams and making money doing it.

I started by researching how people make money, I’ve always been an artist who made money on the side… I looked into Real Estate – oof, bad timing for that. Then I started to learn about passive income and began to create CD’s and DVD’s, the beginnings of a media library for a colleague and friend of mine…since I am a videographer I could already do the creative production part. But, I didn’t know how to market it. That’s when I started looking into Internet Marketing. I’m on that track now learning, while I produce more DVD’s and writing ebooks about the topic.

The best thing is – when I decided to go ahead with these projects – everyone wanted to help, be involved. I began to see I didn’t have to do it all myself and in fact I really enjoy bringing a team of really creative people together to help me to hone my vision.

So far, the sales have been up and down but there is activity and I’m in a good niche. My media content is even talked about on the Oprah show now. By the way, the media is about Meditation and Chi Kung by with superb teacher. Once these products are made, they become passive income and we will have them to sell for the rest of time! (o:

Anyway, all the avenues for making money doing what I love does funnel well through internet marketing. There is still alot to learn and it takes time to implement what I am learning but I see progress and feel that I will have an abundant future whereas when I was ‘almost’ 50, I had no savings and no idea how to support myself or anyone else as I grew older.

I’m 51 now and have a ton of energy everyday because I am in action about creating a life doing what I enjoy which gives me even more energy to be a service to others which is a huge feedback loop that returns energy back to me and on and on I go.

Thanks for your blog. It’s been nice to ‘meet’ you.
All the best on your ventures living your dreams,

Jamee

an alternate website I have is: http://www.bostonhealingtao.com/jameeculbertson.php

It is impossible to do everything and his suggestions are great, but I’d like to add one more thing to the pot. Go to http://www.alexa.com and put in key search words for whatever it is you are looking for and see how well this particular blog or website stacks up in terms of hits. THAT’S where you should aim to promote. Maybe the blogger or webmaster would like an article to promote in their newsletter. Maybe they would love a guest post being as you are an expert in the field (and btw, if you know something someone else doesn’t know, you are an expert).

That’s the way I started out. This money, people, is 100% profit except for your website costs. And if you do it on a blog, then you’re really way ahead of the game. But you can’t just plop this stuff up on your blog and hope people will buy. Announce it in social network sites. Send out press releases. Announce it in forums related to your ebook.

People will buy if you are providing information they can’t find elsewhere.

I also run virtual book tours which is a great way to make money online. Lots and lots and lots of work, but it’s perfect for anyone who wants to make money at home.

There are so many ways to make money online, it’s not even funny.

I personally seem to have fallen into a hole that I am now digging my way out of. I think I’ve done too much research and now I feel a bit overwhelmed. Too many things to do and and not enough time to do them so why do them at all? I don’t know if this sounds familiar to you… For me personally, if I can choose a path, stay on it, for however long it takes, that something is going to start happening. I can tell that you’ve done some serious research… Ed Dale, Dan Raine, Yaro Starak, Jack Humphrey, Michelle Macphearson… If these amazing entrepreneurs are your mentors, then you are on the right track.

I’ve recently been forced to look at how progressive I’ve been. It seems so easy to say that “aww heck… I’ll try doing a little bit in each method. I’ll do article marketing, blog everyday on my 3 blogs, go out and find a niche and utilize web2.0 social media sites to get traffic, I’ll do a little PPC of Google and work on my Facebook ads. After that, I’ll work on my ad sense ads, do a little more bum marketing, and then post on the 10 forums I am part of. Oh, I can’t forget commenting on the blogs that I frequent.” Sure… They can all work… But what I’m personally finding out is that it’s impossible to do everything…

What I can clearly see about you is that you are an amazing writer. Its obvious that I am not the only one that thinks so… :-) If I were you… I would simply keep doing what you are doing… This Blog. You are attracting readers that can relate to your writing. There is something that resonates. If you keep sharing about your journey to the top, people will listen and also be inspired. I know I have. One day soon, perhaps you’ll monetize this blog and that can be your source of income…

Guy

You could gain motivation from my motivation. I really want to make my blog successful and by working with me you it cant help but to rub off on you. Go on you know this is a good idea ;)

I just joined your blog recently and can say that maybe you consider just doing a pseudo Personal/Niche blog in a soap opera type format. I must say I have been drawn in by your personal posts interestingly enough.

However, we know providing value is the best option.

First I will remind you of the things I have learned from
your blog so far and hope they might give you some inspiration to move forward.

1) Its hard to have a day job when following your dreams and creating an internet business. I would consider a good book on dealing with the transition from your day job to your dream job would be good.

2) The challenge of being real and transparent while blogging and staying on niche.

3) Blogs are like your Hairstylist. You get a haircut but
you really buying the hairstylist. Melding your niche with your persona.

4) Internet Marketing & Infomercial Programs, they made their money selling their classes not doing what they teach you. You too can be a millionaire.

5) Adsense is Nonsense, who can live on $11 a year. Real strategies for internet marketing.

Caroline, my final recommendation is your find some source of income in the mean time, even if its a part time job doing something you enjoy. The income and fun will help make you feel valuable. It will also keep you engaged with the real world and offer opportunity for inspiration.

Some of the best ideas for the internet come offline.

Good luck.

Brian

What I’d like to suggest is that you take a commitment to spend the next ten blog posts sharing everything you know about finding purpose in life.

Imagine that you’re teaching a close friend of yours how to do this. And that they have to have an actionable solution within ten days. And your knowledge is the way forward.

This will accomplish several things.

1. You’ll find you know a hell of a lot more about this field than you currently believe you do.

2. Teaching others is a way of motivating yourself.

3. The subject matter is packageable into something that can either be sold on the web or delivered on the web as an adjunct to something else you sell.

4. Having the discipline to condense it into 10 blog posts means you’ll be distilling your knowledge and wisdom into something small enough to create a book proposal out of.

5. Amazon Kindle allows US-based authors and publishers to release works directly for the Kindle.

6. This is an exercise in focus. If I were your lifecoach, I’d be asking you why you feel that you’re drifting. And I’d suggest that focussing on that might be a way forward.

Good luck.

Blue skies, love, Roy

For example, I simply want to change my author name from the current pseudonym to my actual name, on my blog. Can I find somewhere that tells me how to do it? This is a simple issue, and precisely because it is so simple, there is nothing around to answer the question. I need leading by the hand and I know there are thousand of others who would benefit from a simple guide.

You write well; I believe you can teach, and this market is waiting for something reasonably priced to meet a clear need.

If this interests you. let me know and I can tell you more about the target market.

programming is less glamorous but pays better – there’s all sorts of tools to make sites for free, but none to write programs for you. take your pick.

Now looking over your blog I see you enjoy writing the E-Books and programming. What do you think about programming a set of widgets that Musicians could use to customize the way they sell, promote their music or better yet take a look at I-Squad.com and build a set of widgets that will allow musicians to do similar fan building on their various social networking sites.

Well now I am done adding ideas for you to throw out with the bath water. But I agree with most everyone here find your passion and do that. You may just need to look at taking that passion and expanding into new territory that is all.

http://courtneytuttle.com/2007/12/20/introduction-to-keyword-sniping/

But I don’t think that anyone could help me with that. It should come from within.

As I suggested yesterday, please read the great book by S. Covey: “The 8th habit.” This book is about how to find your voice and inspire others to find their.

Voice is driven by conscience and it is located on intersection of need (vision), talent (discipline), passion, and conscience.

It means that one would need

- learn himself (talents, passion)
- learn others’ needs
- use conscience to create a vision
- discipline himself to make it happen

Good luck,
Mike