Reading Roundup: What’s New in Blogging Lately

Hi Stacey,

Michael’s post looks so interesting.

It’s crazy how I’ve worked to face, embrace and release so many wacky, crappy limiting beliefs about money. I was programmed to hate money as a kid because if I saw anybody with money folks in my life saw them in a negative light, and let me know about it. In a direct, clear and terribly negative way. I vividly recall my grammar school nuns telling me that only rich people put their hands in their pockets because they always wanted to be touching their money. I kid you not. I had some really nasty subconscious reprogramming to release and change to live my current lifestyle and of course, it has been all worth it.

As for bloggers I see many capable, fab bloggers who struggle to make a dime because they feared monetizing their blog from Day 1, and now they are terrified to hop in to the money making game. It’s like they fear a backlash from their audience if they monetize when in reality, your true fans and readers are eager to buy your products, or they are eager to pay for your services, because they genuinely believe in you and your offerings. These are the folks who want you to monetize; don’t fear them because you will be providing them with a valued service and you will also be able to make a nice living through blogging.

I monetized my old blogs early on in my online career so I had few probs monetizing my current blog a few weeks into creating it. I figure that if I give away helpful free stuff then my audience won’t mind paying for my helpful eBooks, as well as for my helpful blog consulting services. Money is a means of exchange. Nothing more, nothing else. Some folks who struggle with money make it out to be more than it is, and folks who have attracted ample money would rather pay you for your full attention versus setting aside time and energy to get your stuff for free. Or, the latter crowd may read your free stuff, then they may buy in to your brand through your blog posts, and then they will buy your online courses or eBooks, or they will hire you. Don’t let your weird money beliefs get in the way of an awesome means of making a living.

Trust me; from a guy who struggled financially to a dude who blogs from paradise I assure you that your readers would love for you to offer a product or service. Any other mental stuff, or limiting beliefs, you have simply acquire from folks who had their own money limiting beliefs. Let them go, and grow.

I am diving so heavily into promoting posts these days. Chris’ post on promotion looks like the perfect read for me. By just doing a few more things on the promoting side I have seen so many more shares and some serious list growth quickly. Adding a few networks and promoting my in depth post to a handful of G Plus and Facebook Groups I had ignored in the past makes so much of a difference, it’s not even funny. Once you write a post you may as well leverage the heck out of the post to create something well-read, targeted and yes, you may even fan the flames under your post to make it viral, if you are willing to spend a few days promoting it across a wide range of channels. That’s the ultimate goal; publish something super helpful but make sure it shows up across a wide range of networks to maximize your targeted blog traffic.

Through blog commenting, social sharing and through heavy bookmarking, the traffic numbers of my post has jumped swiftly, and it didn’t take a ton of effort on my part, either. Really simple stuff.

Awesome list of resources here Stacey. Thanks for sharing with us.

Ryan

Evernote is always a plus for note capture. When they added the ability to search text inside an image it was great and the Moleskin option can be hit or miss for no apparent reason but will allow you to convert handwritten images into notes.