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2013

12 Days of Giveaways: DIY Mobile Webinar with Greg Hickman

Author:

Greg-Hickman

It’s another week full of gifts from NMX speakers. The 12 Days of Giveaways is in full swing tonight with a live webinar from Greg Hickman.

Tonight, join us at 7 PM EST (4 PM PST) for “How To Be Mobile, Not Do Mobile. The DIY Mobile Audit.” You don’t want to miss this one: Greg is a mobile expert, having worked with brands such as The New York Jets, AT&T, and Cabelas. So, it’s safe to say that at tonight’s webinar, you’ll learn a thing or two about mobile content! You’ll also have the chance to ask Greg questions about mobile, which is an amazing opportunity.

Better yet, if you can’t make it to the live webinar, sign up anyway and we’ll send you the recording afterward.

Register now >

Hope to see you at the webinar tonight. Don’t forget to bring your questions about mobile!

030 The Podcast Report – What’s Coming To The Podcasting Track For NMX?

Author:

PodcastReport-150 Erik Fisher and I are back with another episode of The Podcast Report, the podcast devoted to the Podcasting Track of New Media Expo.

In this episode, Erik and I review the sessions that are coming to the Podcasting Track for New Media Expo. Also, we are joined by Renee Chambliss to review some of the amazing sessions that are going to be put together by members of the Fiction Podcasting Community!

I’m especially excited about the three live fiction podcast with full drama narration that will be created during the conference as well as the amazing session on Making Audio Books with Audible’s Audiobook Creation Exchange.

 
 
New Media Expo Promo
If you have an interest in promoting NMX to your audience, we have created a professionally produced promo that you can play on your podcast. This is a great way to encourage your community to come meet you, face to face, at this event.

Click Here To Download The Promo

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How to Transform Your Dormant Sites into Fabulous Sources of Passive Income

Author:

Transform your dormant sites

If you actually took the time to follow the advice of domain services experts in regards to buying and protecting your domain name, then you probably have a few dormant websites lying around. This is because these experts often advise us to buy as many TLDs of our chosen domain name as we can to protect our brand.

So, let’s say you were lucky enough to get the .com TLD for your preferred domain name and chose to buy the .org, .net, and .biz TLDs as well. What do you do with the three websites you aren’t actively using to grow your business? Believe it or not, you can turn these dormant ones into passive income streams!

What is a Passive Income Stream?

Simply put, this type of income stream provides you with a source of income with little to no need for constant upkeep as soon as the initial investment has been completed. When you write a book, for example, you make the initial investment of writing the book and then getting it published. After that, you simply wait for the sales to come in.

The Value of Passive Income

The value of passive income sources is that they provide you with multiple income streams. This means you earn not just from the business itself, but from a number of other sources as well. The importance of having several income sources lies in the fact that it protects you from a great deal of trouble in case you experience a downturn in your business. Passive income serves as a buffer, so to speak.

The idea of using websites as sources of passive income began when some people created websites with just a few pages of content and then promoted certain products as their affiliates. The owners of those sites earned a certain amount of money for every customer they sent to their affiliates. The only thing site owners had to do to keep their sites running was to update their content from time to time.

With the Google algorithm changes, however, this type of sites started getting penalized and soon dried up. Nevertheless, the field of online passive income remains alive to this day. After all, getting affiliates isn’t the only way for you to turn a dormant website into a passive income source.

Transforming Your Site Today

The key to turning a dormant website into a good source of passive income is to make it valuable to a certain group of people. Let’s take a quick look at two types of websites that are usually meant to earn passive income:

  1. A site that mostly contains pop-up ads, banner ads, and practically any other type of ad you can think of. I’m sure you’ve run into this kind of website several times before. This approach may require the least effort, but it also gives you the least return on your investment.
  2. A website that contains “How-to” articles, updated twice each month. This isn’t completely passive, since you’ll have to post new content from time to time, but it also doesn’t require much effort and is more likely to turn in a good profit.

In the above example, it’s obvious that the second website offers more value to users than the first. That’s why it stands a better chance of turning in a good profit. Here are a few tips on how you can add value to your dormant websites and turn them into good sources of passive income:

  1. Create an ebook

Check out all the “How-to” articles you’ve written or published so far. Do you think you can compile them into a book people would find interesting and helpful? Perhaps there might even be a way for you to expound on one of your articles such that you can turn it into a detailed guide. You could then use one of your dormant sites as an online store for your ebook.

Post a summary and teasers for your ebook on that site and then set up a mechanism to allow visitors to pay for and download the book directly from that site. To promote your eBook, you could post teasers on your Facebook, Twitter, and other social media accounts along with a link to the website. You could even post the teasers and link on your business website.

  1. Create a Subscription Service

As mentioned earlier, you could create a series of articles that offer something of value to people and then post these articles on one of your dormant websites. In order to earn passive income from the site, you could require payment of an annual subscription fee. If you choose to go this route, though, you have to make sure your articles are truly relevant, useful, and interesting so people will consider them well worth the fee.

  1. Create an eCommerce Website

You already have an official website, so why do you need another one for selling products? This question is probably going through your mind right now. Well, whatever your product is, there are sure to be other products that complement it or are related to it in one way or another, right? You could provide space on one of your dormant sites for other brands to sell their products and earn a commission from each sale made.

Let’s assume that your main products are contact lenses. You could earn passive income by allowing manufacturers of lens solutions, lens cases, and eye makeup to sell their products on your dormant site! Of course, the site will no longer be dormant when you do that, but that’s the point, right?

Dormant websites don’t have to remain dormant forever. They can be excellent sources of passive income as long as you know how to design them such that they offer real value to users. You can make use of any of the strategies discussed above or better yet, use them all on the different websites you have. The more passive income streams you create, the less trouble you’ll be in, should your business unexpectedly suffer financial losses. Remember, it always pays to prepare for the rainy days.

Do you have dormant sites? If so, any plans to turn them into passive income sites?

Image credit: Bigstock

12 Days of Giveaways: Podcast Launch from John Lee Dumas (Free Download)

Author:
We’re closing out the first week of the 12 Days of Giveaways with an awesome gift from John Lee Dumas! You can get his giveaway here. John knows a thing or two about launching a podcast. Within one year turned EntrepreneurOnFire into a top-ranked business podcast that generates a monthly income between $50 – $100k.
During the 12 Days of Giveaways, you can get John’s ebook, Podcast Launch, for free. Not only will you get the the ebook, but this giveaway also includes 15 video tutorials! How’s that for a little holiday spirit?
This guide to podcasting will teach you how to:
  • Identify your topic
  • Choose the best equipment
  • Record and edit your episodes
  • Add intros and outros
  • Submit your podcast to iTunes, Stitcher Radio, and Blackberry
  • And more!
Even better, John guides you through the process of building your audience and monetizing, allowing you to turn your podcast into a business.
Snag your free copy of Podcast Launch before the 12 Days of Giveaways ends. Simply enter your information here to tell us where to send your copy!

12 Days of Giveaways: The Productivityist Workbook from Mike Vardy (Free Download)

Author:

Mike-Vardy

The Productivityist Workbook offers valuable strategies and tools that will allow you to attack your work and life with a more balanced, efficient, and effective approach from the king of productivity, Mike Vardy. You can get this gift right here.

This e-book is ideal for those who are just starting to work on improving their productivity, but it presents ideas for the seasoned productivityist as well. With The Productivityist Workbook: Premium Edition, you’ll get:

  • All formats of The Productivityist Workbook (PDF, EPUB, MOBI)
  • The (PRE)Productivityist ebook
  • An audio program with ProductiVardy podcast interviews featuring Chris Guillebeau, Leo Baubata, Cal Newport, David Allen, and 9 more!

The Productivityist Workbook: Premium Edition has not been offered since the e-book was available for pre-order, but Mike is making it available once again for New Media Expo for a limited time.

But you have to hurry: the 12 Days of Giveaways ends on December 31, and when the clock strikes midnight, The Productivityist Workbook: Premium Edition will go back into Mike’s vault! Get it now here.

Get to the Point: 5 Storytelling Tips for Bloggers

Author:

storytelling tips for bloggers

A well-written blog post is like a good story. It makes us feel that we are right there with the blogger. It can teach us things—about life, or work, or making our way in the world. It can make us laugh, or cry, or say, ‘yeah, I had the same thing happen to me.’

Lisa Cron, author of Wired for Story, puts it this way:

“We think in story. It’s hardwired in our brain. Story is the language of experience. Other people’s stories are as important as the stories we tell ourselves. Because if all we ever had to go on was our own experience, we wouldn’t make it out of onesies.”

So how do you tell compelling stories on your blog?

1. First find your point.

Like a story, a good blog post has a point. Your point is your takeaway. If your blog content were a holiday tree, it would be the star on top.

Your supporting ideas are the ornaments. Hang them carefully, and make sure each one points back to the star.

How to do it: Write the main point of your post first. What are you trying to say? What one thing will apply to all of your readers, regardless of their backgrounds and experiences?

I write mine on a sticky note and put it on my computer screen, so it’s in front of me as I write. If you have listed more than one point, your topic is probably too broad. Save the others to use in future posts.

Example: In my post, “The Hollywood Guide to a Better Blog Tagline,” my main point was the importance of a concise blog tagline in attracting and keeping readers who land on your site.  So I started with:

“Some of us watched the inflated, over-the-top, “You’re good,” “No, you’re good” Oscars this spring. I did not. Since my daughter was in the biz, the glamour is gone.

I do remember, however, seeing the blow-by-blow on the front page of cnn.com. And watching the trailers online, I couldn’t help but think. Those folks in Hollywood know how to do some things well, like selling their product in one line. They know how to entice us in 25 words or less.”

So by end of the second paragraph, the reader knows the point of the post: how to entice your blog visitor in 25 words or less. That one point sets the tone for the whole rest of the post.

2. Set the scene.

Good stories start by setting the stage, before the characters show up. By creating an intriguing scene first, you make your readers feel more connected to the story and characters.

How to do it: Paint a sensory-rich scene that invites the reader to jump into the story.

Example: In a post I wrote for Becky McCray’s Small Biz Survival blog, my topic was how to make a business work in a geographically challenging location. In the opening lines, I painted a picture of where I live and hinted at the challenges of living there. :

“There are small towns. There are rural areas. And then there are islands. Islands that have no bridges, only ferries.

Ferries that blow their horns on foggy days. That break down at the worst possible moment, usually when you have an important meeting with a new client. Ferries that will take you back home—if you show up before the last one leaves the dock, at precisely 7:30pm.”

3. Throw in a character, add conflict and stir.

Just as in a good story, interesting characters can make or break your post. You want to create characters your reader can emotionally invest in, so she cares about what happens to them. If you tell a personal story, the main character will be you. In other posts, it may be somebody else.

The conflict in a story is called plot. In a blog post, the conflict is the problem you are helping your reader solve. I opened with a scene that put my reader there with me as I try to beat the clock and make the last ferry from the mainland back to our island home after a business meeting:

How to do it: Create tension with a real world conflict, a problem your reader can relate to.

Example: To continue with the “5 Things I Learned When I Moved My Business to an Island” post, the problem in the opening scene was missing the ferry. But the bigger picture, the greater problem, was how to manage a business successfully when it is located in a remote area. The post continues:

“If you arrive even 10 seconds late, the ferry workers in bright orange vests are pulling the thick ropes in and locking the gate. And you are stuck on the mainland, cursing that ‘careful’ driver who chugged along at 16 miles an hour all the way along the tree-lined road that leads to the ferry landing.

You would have made it if not for her.”

This set the reader up with one of the challenges of operating a business in an isolated location, this one being time spent in commuting.

4. Be sure there is a resolution.

Conflict is good, but if there is no resolution, your reader is left hanging. It doesn’t have to be a happy ending, but the character has to have been changed as a result of what happened. In a blog post, that usually means ending with what you learned, and the solutions you found.

How to do it: You have hooked your reader with a setting, your character and your conflict. Now you need to show her how to resolve that conflict, how to solve the problem.

Example: I ended my post with five tips, things I learned in moving my business from Seattle to a remote, 7.7-square mile island in south Puget Sound. An abbreviated version:

• Get to know your providers and vendors.

• Rethink your ideal client.

• Don’t make your location an issue for your customers.

• Develop an online support network and make friends with social media.

• Don’t shortchange your in-person networking.

That wasn’t the full post, but you get the idea.

5. Read as much you can, as often as you can.

At first thought, this one would not seem to be part of the storytelling process. But I have found that this one strategy has, above all others, helped me become a better teller of stories, which, in turn, has made me a better blogger.

In On Writing, Stephen King says:  “If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: Read a lot and write a lot.”

How to do it: The authors of the classics have much to teach us about the superb use of language to drive a point home and tell an entertaining story: Just a few of my favorites:  Ernest Hemingway (for brevity and making every word count); William Faulkner (for evocative use of language); Eudora Welty (for descriptions and setting); and Flannery O’Connor (master of stories with a point).

But reading other, lesser-known authors will help you, too. You will get good at what creates an engaging story—and what does not.

Do you tell stories on your blog? Do you think a good story make a blog post more memorable?

Image credit: Bigstock

12 Days of Giveaways: Free Premium Access to JTS.TV

Author:

Carter-Mason

We’re back for another day of the 12 Days of Giveaways, and today we have something for the web TV pros out there – or anyone who enjoys watching web series! This gift is from Carter Mason and the folks at JTS.TV, and you can get it now here.

Quality independent television has no platform currently available to sustain continued production. The ad-based model dominates the sphere, and Internet ads simply do not provide enough revenue to sustain professional programming.

The solution is JTS.TV – Just The Story. JTS.TV brings the premium network model to independent television, allowing viewers an ad-free experience of their favorite, top-notch shows.

Speaker Carter Mason has teamed up with us here at NMX to bring you a month of free access to JTS.TV, available for a limited time during the 12 Days of Giveaways!

Want to start watching today? Simply enter your information here and we’ll email you with directions on how to get your free premium access to JTS.TV today!

12 Days of Giveaways: Social Media Toolkit from Rick Mulready (Free Download)

Author:
Rick Mulready spent 11 years in Internet advertising working with some of the largest brands in the world, and is now host of the wildly popular Inside Social Media podcast. He’s collected his best tips in a toolkit for the 12 Days of Giveaways here at NMX. And you can get them here!
With this giveaway, you get not one, not two, but three ebooks for the price of once…and that price happens to be free!
  • Top 5 Big Brand Social Media Tips
  • Special Report: 25 Social Media Tips from the Pros
  • Top 5 Social Media Tools to Simplify Your Social Media Strategy

Rick’s tips will help you take your social presence to an entirely new level, but if you want to snag your very own copy of this free toolkit, you have to hurry. The 12 Days of Giveaways is ending soon, and once it’s gone, it’s gone!

12 Days of Giveaways: Free Google+ Download from Lynette Young

Author:

lynetteyoungpic002 It’s Day Two of the NMX 12 Days of Giveaways, and today is Google+ day! Earlier, we gave you the information for Amanda Blain’s Google+ giveaway, and now we have another great Google+ freebie to tell you about.

If you’re struggling to build an audience on Google Plus, you don’t want to miss Seven Google+ Secrets to Grow Your Audience. Lynette Young, who is a superstar on Google+, has compiled all of her best tips into this training video.

Lynette’s video includes:

  • Little-known tricks to expand your influence
  • How to reach new audiences on Google+ and other social networks
  • Technologies that will help you be successful on the Internet as a whole (not just Google+)

The good news: this training video is completely free during our 12 Days of Giveaways. But you have to act fast, because the 12 Days of Giveaways ends on December 31!

Enter your information here and we’ll send you a copy of Seven Google+ Secrets to Grow Your Audience today.

12 Days of Giveaways: Free Google+ Download from Amanda Blain

Author:

Amanda Blain It’s Day Two of the NMX 12 Days of Giveaways, and today we have something special for you from one of our returning speakers, Amanda Blain! You can get it for free right now here.

Amanda Blain knows how to get results on Google Plus – and that might be the understatement of the year. She’s built a fanbase of over 3.5 million on this platform.
If you’re not sure how to get results for your blog, company, or brand page on Google Plus, pick up your copy of Amanda’s guide today. You’ll learn:
  • The three reasons you need to be on Google Plus
  • Four steps anyone can use to improve their brand page
  • Quick tips for getting started, even if you have no experience

Amanda has the 27th most followed Google Plus profile in the world, which has over 210,000 comments, 230,000 reshares, and 860,000 of +1s on the network.

This guide is available for free for a limited time only! Just tell us where to send it by filling out your information, and we’ll email you a copy to celebrate the 12 Days of Giveaways.

Stay tuned for the rest of our giveaways that are part of our 12 Days of Giveaways promotion. We have lots of awesome freebies available between now and December 31!

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