Break Free & WRITE should be a hoot!

I can’t think a better way to get the creative juices flowing than to spend 7 fun-packed days on a cruise ship in the Eastern Caribbean!

In support of this, I’m offering my eBook version of Becoming Irresistible: How To Pack Your Copywriting Business With Five New Clients Every Month to seminar attendees at the rock bottom price of just $18. 

So why limit this great, one-time limited-offer to those folk and not my own peeps? Good question!

The short answer is that I’ve just reduced the eBook price by 40% and now BAR folks can take advantage of this Special Discount offer as well.

But you should hurry as it won’t last very long!

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What good are 10,000 followers if they’re not your target market?

From the beginning, I’ve had my doubts abut Twitter. No matter how I looked at it, the Twitter promise seemed false.

The promise, as I see it, is this: Increased exposure with minimal* effort.

*Minimal effort is a term with many meanings in Twitterland. Services abound that allow you to automatically follow, unfollow, automatically post to your Twitter account, all with seemingly minimal effort.

It seems like a no-brainer.  I quickly learned that it can be a huge time suck and can take over your life if you allow it a place of primacy in your business life.

So I dumped it.

I rarely tweet at all. I have my WordPress blogs automatically tweet an update to the blog with each post, but beyond that I guess you could say I’m dormant.

And Still, My Twitter Following Grows

This is what really puzzles me about Twitter.  I can not tweet at all and still attract followers.

Who in their right mind would follow someone they don’t know and don’t read?  I’ve stopped following anyone because it seems like a false vote of confidence for whatever they’re doing.

Your Twitter Experience

What about you? Do you have a different take on Twitter? If so please leave a comment (preferably in more than 140 characters). 

Using the BAR Approach To Market Your Book

I’ve been a fan of Jonathan Fields for some time. His book Career Renegade: How To Make a Living Doing What You Love is a must have for those of us wanting to live and work according to our own dream-map as well as by our own rules.

Recently Jonathan launched Tribal Author, a blog/community for those authors who see traditional publishing as a complete waste of time. It’s for authors who want to build a community (tribe) around their ideas…kind of like what I’ve proposed here.

Building a blog around your main idea is the first step in creating your tribe or following.  Got a killer idea?  Absolutely sure it’s gonna light the world afire?  Go for it!

If you’ve got a book simmering on the back burner and perhaps aren’t sure whether to shop it around to publishers or go to Lulu or some other Print-On-Demand outlet, give Tribal Author a look.

Jonathan’s got some free downloads for you, too. An eBook and an awesome mindmap that looks at 8 power bases for Tribal Authors.

Check it out! I think you’ll be glad you did.

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But do it the right way, OK?

For nearly ten years, I’ve been a subscriber to Terri Lonier’s Working Solo Newsletter. Terri’s focus has always been helping Solo Entrepreneurs succeed.

In today’s newsletter, Terri gave us a link to download the audiobook version of Seth Godin’s, Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us, for free from Audible.com.

Now, I’m going to urge my readers to do the right thing and become a subscriber to Terri’s newsletter first…and download your copy of the Tribes in audiobook format.

Here’s what to do:

1. Subscribe to Working Solo. Click here to subscribe (opens a new window).
2. Come back to to this post and then click here to view Terri’s current newsletter. You’ll want to scroll down to #4 in her newsletter and look for the the hyperlinked phrase “this link.” Click it and it will take you to Audible.com where you can open a free account and then download the audiobook for free.

Unless you already have an Audible account, you’ll need to open one (it’s free).  Choose your download format (iPod/iTunes, Windows Media Player, other MP3 player) and you’ll be able to listen to the unabridged version of Tribes.

Why Am I Pushing This?

For one thing, I think Seth Godin is God…not in a blasphemous, yeah I’m goin’ to Hell kind of way…but in regard to identifying trends that almost always come to fruition big time for small business.

I say ‘almost always’ because I’ve yet to actually see a Purple Cow.

Secondly, blog’s built on the BAR Structure are positioned to create, educate, and lead tribes! And the most devoted members of your tribe become your Evangelists, those mad, insane, raving fans eager to spread the word that you rock!

A Big Thanks to Terri Lonier and Working Solo!

I’m putting that in really big letters in hopes that she won’t unsub me from her list after seeing this. I didn’t exactly ask her permission before writing this, but I’ll take my chances there.  Sometimes you strike when the iron is hot.  But seriously, without Terri’s regular doses of sober, solo-business advice over the years, I’d not be where I am today.

Now it’s your turn. So, my exceedingly deserving Tribe members ( to his Lordship), do the right thing first (subscribe to Terri’s newsletter), then and rejoice, for your Tribe is waiting to be led!

What’s holding you back?

I read Dave Navarro’s blog post today about how to become a bigger player in life, business, whatever.

If you don’t know Dave, he writes two blogs, The Launch Coach and Rock Your Day.

Did I mention there’s a FREE WORKBOOK that accompanies Dave’s blog post?

Simply put, Dave suggests the following 7 steps to a bigger, better business, blog, life, whatever:

I can’t do it justice with these limited points, so please go read the post and then download the free workbook.

1. Accept the fact that you’ve got to stretch. No pain, no gain.
2. Get honest with who you are (and what value you provide). How to kill your inner drama queen.
3. Assign value to your failures. How to begin ‘failing forward.’
4. Reduce the number of steps in your goal. Which is better 792 steps or 50?
5. Decide that intimidation is for suckers. There’s no reason what you want to happen can’t.
6. Surround yourself with people who are playing a bigger game. How to hang with the All Stars.
7. Invest even when it seems super scary. How to get started investing in yourself.

Like I said, I can’t do it justice with these word-bites. So if you’re looking for an honest kick-in-the-pants jumpstart to a better blog, business, whatever…

READ THE POST! GET THE FREE WORKBOOK!

Peace. Out. 

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Being Yourself: A Wise Blogging Strategy

We all tend to think that our blog posts have to be something special. In the sense that they should teach your reader something they didn’t know or remind them of something worth recalling, I agree wholeheartedly.

But there’s another kind of post that readers also enjoy.  I call it the human content post.  It’s the kind of post that just says…

“You know, I may an UberKool Blogger-Dude, but I’m also a human being.”

Human content provides your readers with at least three things.

They are:

1. It gives your readers a chance to get off the “I must learn something from this post“ treadmill and simply enjoy their reading. Sometimes, it’s a nice change of pace to read for enjoyment and not feel you need to record a take home message.  When was the last time you did that on a blog?
2. It gives them insight into who you are. On the off-chance that you’re a  Separatist Droid, this will be meaningless to you.  But, if you are indeed a human being, let it show from time to time in your blog content.  Readers like to know that you have issues, too.
3. It encourages them to do the same. Every one of your followers need encouragement as well as concrete  examples to follow. What better example, from time to time, than to give your readers a lesson-learned from your own life away from blogging.

Been through a tough situation and want to share it with your readers?

I say, go for it.