How to structure a blog post

Change the World Marketing Posted on by

online-business-structure-blog-posts-1Have you ever found yourself struggling to keep up a regular schedule of blogging or maybe you wondered if blogging was even necessary at all?

I decided to write this post because I saw that many of my clients weren’t blogging and some didn’t even understand WHY they should blog. As a result, they had trouble establishing themselves as an authority in their field.

I also saw clients writing blog posts that didn’t either help them meet their business goals or help their readers meet their own goals. So, even when they blogged, they didn’t really know HOW to write a post.

Do you blog? Why or why not?

If you do, do you struggle to publish posts regularly? If so, why is that?

  • You don’t know what to write?
  • Each blog post takes a long time?
  • It’s not a high priority for you?

 

Do you feel like you’re banging your head against a wall?

I’ve been there! After all, I’ve been blogging since 1999 and been through it all.

Good news! I can make it easier for you!

How do you write a blog post? How do you structure it so that it meets your needs and the needs of your readers? What components should you include?

So, before I can answer these questions, you need to understand WHY you are blogging.

Thinking about my clients, it hit me. They didn’t even know why they should blog!

The WHY of bloggingonline-business-how-to-structure-blog-post-2

Continue reading →

Choosing a platform for your online course

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online-business-platform-online-course-1When you’re ready to get your knowledge out to the world with an online course, you have many decisions to make! An important one is which platform you’ll use. The platform houses your course content. The platform is sometimes called a Learning Management System (LMS), but in truth, you may not even need an LMS.

In this article, I’ll discuss the various types of platforms you can use for your online course along with the advantages and disadvantages of each type. The cat tower in the photo on the right has lots of platforms; in this post, I’ll help you choose the right one for your online courses.

I also have an interview with an expert on online course platforms, Jeff Cobb, below.

Before you even start looking at options — and there are many — you need to make a few preliminary decisions:

  • How do you want to structure the course? Will you “drip” it out over time or give students access to everything at once?
  • What format(s) will you use? Recorded video? Text? Audio? Live webinars or meetings?
  • What interactivity do you want to include? Quizzes/tests? A discussion group/forum? Email coaching with you?
  • How much do you want to track students’ activity and progress? Do you want to send them reminders if they aren’t active?
  • How much support and training do you want from your platform?

 

Once you know the answers to these questions, you can start to narrow down your options. Continue reading →

Create a high-ticket product or course that you can sell forever

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online-marketing-high-ticket-item-1I started by creating only low-ticket items because that’s what I saw others do. But as my business grew, I saw other possibilities and I also gained a reputation for my expertise and realized that I could create higher-priced products.

I know some of you feel uncomfortable about doing this and may not even know why you should, so I thought I’d write about it.

Some of the discomfort may be from past experiences with money. You might wonder, will anyone pay a high price for a product? Let me assure you that if the product is valuable and you’re attracting the right audience, the answer is yes!

High-end events or services is one option

One of the quickest and easiest ways to double your income is to come up with a high-ticket item that you can sell to your customers. One of the most popular models to do this is to offer one-on-one coaching or small in-person workshops. While that’s certainly an option and a great way to justify asking for several thousand dollars per ticket, this model has one big problem. It isn’t scalable because you’re limited in how many you can sell by how much time you’re willing to spend on these meetings in any given week or month.

Let’s look at some options that allow you to create a high-end product, without this limiting factor. In short, we’re going to look at some high-value products you can create that you set up once and then sell over and over again.

Why create a high-end product?

Continue reading →

Interview with Christine Schlonski-Selling Is Love

Change the World Marketing Posted on by

christine-schlonski-headshotChristine Schlonski is the founder of Heart Sells! Academy and the host of Heart Sells! Podcast.  She is known as the Queen of the Sales-Success-Mindset.

Christine brings together the world of coaching and personal development with mindset strategies to make sales fun so you can create a thriving business without feeling sleazy. Previously, she was a Sales Director with a depth of experience in selling high-ticket events to CEO’s, GM’s and owners of companies globally.

In this 17-minute interview, Christine explains her P.O.W.E.R. principle and how heart-centered entrepreneurs can learn to sell with love. Below, you’ll find a brief summary of her points, plus a free resource. Continue reading →

The ACTION principles of persuasion

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online-business-ACTION-1When you’re in business, you’re always trying to persuade people to take an action — opt-in or buy. Much has been written about this topic, of course, but I recently heard a podcast that highlighted Jonah Berger, who has written several books on influence and why things catch on.

In the podcast, he was talking about 5 barriers to change.  I found them interesting but overly academic. When you’re trying to persuade someone, you are definitely trying to get the person to change, but I wanted to simplify the concepts and make them more directly related to persuasion.

So I came up with my own acronym but wanted to give Jonah Berger credit for some of the ideas.

ACTION: 6 principles of persuasion

Here are the 6 principles of persuasion. After this, I’ll discuss each one separately. Continue reading →