How to Set Up Google AdSense Account For YouTube (NEW RULE!!) 2017 April

Secrets From a $100,000 per Year Google AdSense Publisher

When I had started to have health issues that kept me from working a real job, I had to figure out a way to make money from home. While there are probably many programs that could have worked, I chose AdSense because it was Google's baby. Google had been established as a major company for years, and I knew if anyone was going to be a legitimate company that could afford to pay me, it was them.

I just had to figure out how to build some websites and make money with Google.

As you can imagine, it didn't happen over night (and I made plenty of mistakes along the way), but it did happen, and my earnings have steadily grown over the last few years. This year, for the first time, I broke the six figure mark. This article shares some of what I've learned along the way.

What I've Learned About Making Money with AdSense

1. Consumer-oriented sites work best

Think product/service reviews and consumer information. When you're writing about consumer products or services, you attract people who are in "buy mode." They find your article or blog post because they came online to look for information on that certain thing. They were already thinking about making a purchase before they even got to your site, and this makes them a lot more likely to click your ads and buy something from the merchant at the other end.

2. Search engine traffic converts best

I know social media marketing is all the rage, but people who Stumble onto your site or click someone's Twitter link probably aren't in "buy mode." They're doing idle surfing, and they're probably looking more for entertainment than to buy any products.

There's nothing wrong with working the social media outlets to get links, but don't forget basic search engine optimization tactics.

3. The best links are free

You don't need millions of page views a month to make good money from AdSense (when I checked back on the last 12 months, I had less than 4 million for the whole year), but you do need some. As you know, search engine traffic comes as a direct result of links to your site.

I suspect just about everyone here is familiar with article marketing as a means of getting free links, and that's a tried and true method. You can also often score free links (sometimes even from big name bloggers) by simply writing about cool stuff. Don't just buy packs of articles from people... go out and do research to find cool things (funky new products or innovative solutions to problems) to write about, and then send a "tip" to bloggers in your niche. They might want to cover that story too and chances are they'll give you a credit link.

4. This is a program for people who love to write

Sure you can make money with AdSense if you're not a writer, but those who will find the AdSense road easiest to travel are those who like to create content (as opposed to those who are paying for PLR articles and just throwing stuff up on the web in hopes that the search engines will splash a few random visitors on their sites).

Yes, you can buy content, but ask yourself if the people you're buying articles from really care about your niche. And ask yourself if you can really get quality content for $5 an article or less.

Trust me, getting links is a lot easier if you've got great content infused with the author's own personality, stories, and experiences. It's hard to buy great content on the cheap. If you can afford to hire a good writer to produce your content, then you can get away with not being the writer, but it's hard to start out that way for most people.

5. Turning a website or blog into a wealth-generating asset takes time

I made two dollars my first month with AdSense. It's taken me four years to build up enough content and get enough traffic to my sites to break six figures. Due to health issues, I did this all part-time (about an hour a day was my average), so you don't necessarily have to put in a lot of hours a day to get to the point where you're earning good money with AdSense, but you do need to be patient.

Domains take time to age and become trusted by search engines, content takes time to build up, links take time to acquire naturally, etc. etc. etc.

It's certainly possible to make money quickly online, but if you need money fast, AdSense probably isn't your route. If, on the other hand, you're willing to be patient and take the time needed to grow a site from nothing into an authority, it can become an asset that pays you again and again, bringing in that fabled while-you-sleep income.

Also, if you build up a great site, you'll find that there are lots of ways to monetize it. AdSense has worked well for me, but it's not the only way I make money. Build a well-trafficked site and you'll have advertisers coming to you, willing to pay you personally to put up their links on your site.

The author shares what she's learned at her new blog on Writing for Your Wealth.
By TC Thorn  |  Source

How To Write A Lead Magnet Title

Headlines and titles might account for as much as 80% of your lead magnet's success rate.

Have you ever run across a lead magnet offer that sounded good, but... the title just didn't quite push you over the edge into giving your email address?

And have you ever seen a lead magnet title that had you racing to give your email address without even thinking about it?

Naturally your goal will be to get your prospects racing to fill out the opt-in form without giving it a second thought, because they want your lead magnet SO BAD and they can't believe you're giving it way for FREE.

If you have a lot of experience in writing subject lines, blog post titles and so forth, then you're ahead of the game on this.

If headline writing is new to you, you'll want to do some research on how to write a great headline.

Frankly, entire BOOKS can be written on this subject alone.

But if you look inside this month's newsletter, you'll find an article on how to quickly write great headlines using headline templates.

Example: Remember our promise to Professional women in their late 20's and 30's looking for the perfect guy - we promised to show them how to immediately filter out all the losers who will waste their time and find the hidden gems who will make excellent life partners.

Our headline might be, "Professional Gals Only: How to Find Your Perfect Guy without Wasting Time on Losers, Deadbeats and Jerks"

You might want to write several headlines and then whittle it down to 2 or 3 to test later.

Decide on what type of lead magnet you're going to create

The tough part is over.

You've chosen your market segment, made a promise and written a headline or two or three.

Now you're going to decide what format you'll use to deliver your lead magnet.

Remember you want to keep it simple. Play to your strengths and choose something that will be consumed quickly.

Here are the different types of lead magnets to choose from:

Report or Guide

This could be just a few pages in PDF format. It's the most common type of lead magnet and a great way to convey information with precision.

Cheat Sheet, Mindmaps and Blueprints

These are generally short, just one or two pages, and get straight to the point.

Resource List

There are times when this works really well. It could be a list of resources for buying products, getting things done and whatever works. The key is that the information is valuable to the end user.

Curated Guide

This can be all the best articles on a very specific topic, or a list of articles that guides a person through a process. And you don't even have to write the articles yourself.

Case Study

This can be delivered in PDF format, video, etc. The key is you're showing how someone was able to accomplish a certain task, what they did and the results they got.

Video

This can be a short training, a case study, a really good story that teaches something... frankly, you're only limited by your imagination and the promise you made to your prospects.

Coupon or Free Shipping

If you have a retail store, you might consider giving a discount to new customers, or offering free shipping in exchange for their email address.

Quizzes and Assessment Tests

Give away a free quiz that tells something about the person taking it, and then collect the email address in exchange for the results.

Software

You can give away a piece of software (assuming you have the rights) as your lead magnet. Done correctly, this can be a great way to get exactly the leads/subscribers you're looking for. For example, if you want to attract bloggers, you could give away a WordPress plugin that does something awesome for blogs.

Software Free Trial

If you're selling software as a service, then a free trial is a great way to introduce that software to exactly the people most likely to buy it. And you'll sell a lot more copies, too, by first giving away a free trial.

Choose which type of lead magnet you're going to create, and we'll move on to the next step.
By Nick James  |  Source

SEO 101: Lessons for Beginners

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving a website's structure and content in order to rank high in search results of search engines including but not limited to Google, Bing, and Yahoo. This is done to drive traffic to a website. The higher your rankings are, the more likely your page will be visited. Businesses, both big and small, now hire SEO service providers as part of their digital marketing campaign.

But if you're still wondering what SEO teams do, this will give you an idea on what they can do to help your business grow:

SEO-Friendly Content

Not everything that's well-written skyrocket to the top pages of the search results. Google's system ranks websites based on relevance. SEO service providers make sure that you have accurate page titles and informative meta-descriptions that will help users find your content especially if it's something that concerns them.

While it's good to be creative, using a vague title or metaphor that does not directly mention your topic isn't likely to make your webpage rank. This is especially crucial for niche topics. It's better to be direct to the point and use "How to Get More Leads through Social Media" than use "The Science of Attraction for Businesses". You are, after all, trying to get more customers, not trying to win a Pulitzer Prize.

More than the title, it's the SEO team's job to remind you to center your content on one topic per page. A blog post fails on relevance when it uses too many keywords, or if the actual content has nothing to do with the keyword and was just forced there. While there is a technical aspect of SEO, one of the best ways to rank is still to provide valuable content.

Easily Navigable Sites

SEO experts make sure that your website has a hierarchy that's easy to follow. It should be easy for visitors to go from general content to more specific content. The navigation bar is crucial to this. The SEO team will cluster your content into categories if it's necessary just to make sure page visitors won't get a headache when looking for what they need.

The goal is to make the website user-friendly. Design must follow function. It's a must to avoid complicated schemes in building your website because it discourages your visitors from staying in the website and encourages them to look for other ones.

More than that, it's the SEO team who creates working internal links so that it's easy for visitors to jump to related web pages and to avoid 404 pages.

Creation of Backlinks

All of the things above are on-page efforts. While the goal is to optimize your actual website, it also needs to be referenced by other blogs and websites for it to rank as well. SEO service providers create off-page blogs and submit articles to article submission sites that contain keywords that will link back to your website.

That's just the technical aspect of it. The other part is marketing your content to influencers who will share it on their own blog posts. The goal of any SEO team is to reach a point where your website is organically being recognized as an expert in the field, and referenced by other sites and social media accounts.

An SEO team is usually composed of information technology experts, content developers, and social media managers who work together to create quality content that will eventually lead you to become a trusted reference by users and other websites. They also make sure all your content are optimized for search engines. Hiring an SEO service provider is worth it.
By Donald Smithon  |  Source

How Google Matters To Your Business

Today a successful business means putting the best ideas together and working out marketing strategies that will help you stand out in the crowd. With Google being the most widely used search engine over the planet it is very important to list your business at the top in the search results as it will increase your visibility and bring you greater enquiries for your business.

Google being the most popular search engine currently with a net market share of 77.43% (Google Net market Share March'17), acts as a medium for potential customers to know about service or businesses available.So it is extremely important to be visible in Google and rank as high as possible. This will avoid business to be lost to competitors.

Whenever you make a Google search, it shows list of search results. Most people are inclined to visit websites on top of search results as they are perceived to be most relevant. Only a few people will go through next Google search pages. Google shows some 9-10results on the first page as users search results for a specific term. If yours is the first among 10 it's more likely that your business gets more revelation and greater authenticity. According to Search User Data the website listed on top gets 42% of the traffic while the second gets 11% and the third just 8%. So it's needless to say that for your business to gain higher visibility, it must have to feature in top of search result.

Now the question arises, how website rank can be improved?

And the answer to this is your website has to be optimized for search engine, commonly known as Search Engine Optimization or SEO. It attempts to make your website rank higher than other websites when a specific phrase (Keyword) is being searched. It therefore provides the best possible chance of being found by prospective customers. It's not only about being on the top Google rank, but also to sustain your position. SEO technique ensures your website stays relevant.

How SEO add value to the Website

There are numerous companies providing affordable SEO services for small business and as entrepreneurs we choose what suits our marketing budget. Below are the top five reasons why your website needs SEO.

• To get your brand/ business recognized
• To stay relevant and reliable as per customer's view
• Attract more traffic and prospective customer
• Better growth in terms of business and brand
• Ensuring word of mouth publicity

Conclusion

Yes, Google matters to business, as it provides the best platform to your business to grow and find new clients. Even if you own an old established business it is high time to take your business online. In this era of dominance of social media marketing your business could sustain loss from relatively new but digitally aware businesses. It's better to be present online to ensure your business presence offline.
By Anoop Nair  |  Source

WordPress v BlogSpot - Which Is Better?

I've experimented quite frequently with both BlogSpot and WordPress URLs, and I've come to three different conclusions that I will explain in detail below. Both BlogSpot and WordPress have their advantages, but only one blogging software is superior. If I had to choose which blogging software I would work with, I'd vote for WordPress 10/10 times! It's always been far more stable, and with the amount of free - and paid - plugins available, you can customize a WordPress blog 100% how you want it.

Conclusion 1

If you're looking for faster indexing and quick rankings, BlogSpot is the way to go for you! When you create a new BlogSpot account, Google automatically sets up their WebMaster Tools for that URL. This saves you all the dirty work of having to add coding to the right part of your website and verifying to make sure the code is set right. This can be a great benefit in the short run, but in the longrun, WordPress's ability to setup SEO-friendly URLs to any way you want can place you far and above BlogSpot URLs.

Conclusion 2

Unlike BlogSpot, WordPress's plugins and themes integration is unbelievable. I actually had difficulty setting up a BlogSpot URL with the right plugins, as they are almost impossible to find! BlogSpot only has a few themes available, unless you want to buy them. Save money where money doesn't need to be spent, and stick with setting up a WordPress blog.

Conclusion 3

Using a BlogSpot site means giving free TrustRank and PageRank back to BlogSpot itself. Why would you want to help promote a company that in the end can screw up your rankings extremely bad? The benefit of WordPress is that it's not a b*tch with links back to their homepage. I always say: Why help out another company for free with what you've been spending money on to earn? It just doesn't add up in the end. Don't give credit where credit is not due!

So, in the end, my heart is stuck with WordPress and will always be stuck with them. I've used multiple different blogging apps with complete disgust, and finally switching over to WordPress was an absolute benefit to the company. Free is not always the best route to take! Buy your domain, install WordPress, post daily, ping often, and have people share your content. If you know what you're doing, a WordPress blog can explode in a matter of days to a few weeks!

By Kyle Eagle  |  Source

The Best Self Development Book Ever!

Book Review - Dale Carnegie's Masterpiece, How to Win Friends and Influence People

One of the most successful self-help books ever written was Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People. Since it was published in 1937, this book has been a best seller providing common sense advice about how to succeed by getting along with people. This critical skill was important to Dale Carnegie's success as a salesman in the 1930's, but perhaps it is even more important to workers in the 21st Century who must collaborate with others both inside their organizations and around the world. Although technologies have changed, the underlying aspects of human nature remain constant. Thus, anyone who wants to learn more about getting along with others should read this classic and learn Carnegie's core principles about successful human interaction.

In the first part of the book, Carnegie outlines some of the fundamentals of successful interaction. These basic principles are largely based on being respectful and courteous to others. Basically, the old Golden Rule applies: Treat others as you would wish to be treated. This is similar to advice your parents or grandparents would give you about getting along with others.

In part two, Carnegie goes on to discuss six ways to make people like you. Any salesperson will tell you that people like to deal with other people that they know, like, and trust. If people don't like you, they will not want to work with you, even if it is important for both parties to accomplish a common goal. If you look at the current toxic political environment, our politicians in Washington could all benefit by reading this section.

Part three provides advice on how to influence people. The principles about influence are also relevant in the modern workplace. All organizations have limited resources and there is internal competition to get what is needed to accomplish personal, team, and organizational goals. Getting the requisite resources requires that people successfully influence others to their own point of view, but it must be done in a non-confrontational way. Carnegie offers good advice on how to influence others without creating enemies in the process.

Finally, part four is about leadership. All leaders know that they must get others to do what they want, but to do it in a way that others are willing followers. As a leader, you will never get everyone to agree with you; however, if you can get most of the people to come along with you on your journey you will nevertheless be successful. Thus, Carnegie's advice is also a fundamental aspect of good leadership.

Success in the modern workplace requires collaboration. Fundamental to that success is the ability to "win friends and influence people." In fact, it is often more difficult to do this today because people deal with people from other cultures who speak different languages and have different customs. Additionally, the collaboration may be "virtual" and done without face-to-face interaction. Nevertheless, the ability to leverage our common human nature is the key to success. Dale Carnegie's timeless advice is a great place to start. Read his book and see how these principles can work for you today.

Leonard Kloeber is an author and leadership consultant. He has extensive leadership experience as business executive and as a military officer. He has been a hands-on leader in a variety of organizations large and small. Most recently he was a human resources executive for a Fortune 100 company. His book - Victory Principles, Leadership Lessons from D-Day - illustrates seven bedrock leadership principles that all successful leaders use.
By Leonard Kloeber  |  Source

To get the Audio Book click here.

How To Get Your First 100 Email List Subscribers

Good intro to building your list.

Passion, Purpose, Problems, People - Starting a Part-Time Business

With the current recession and the breakdown of business as usual, self-employment, home-based businesses and an entrepreneurial spirit are emerging as an economic trend. This trend is not new, but it has accelerated in recent years with statistics now showing that 61% of all Americans want to start their own business (Parkinomics, 2010).

If you are in this 61%, how do you make the transition from employee to being your own boss? Websites, books, e-books, and magazines may be helpful or they may leave you absolutely confused. Is it as simple as find your purpose and the money will follow? Do you really need to talk to your lawyer, your accountant, the volunteers at SCORE and then develop a business plan, decide on the legal form your business will take, and choose a domain name before getting started?

It is NOT as simple as just find your passion and the money will follow, but with the Internet, businesses are easier to start than ever before. Of course, if you are buying a business or a franchise then your lawyer and accountant definitely should be involved!

"Businesses are easier to start than ever before!" What if you want your own business but you don't know what you want to do or where to begin?

Get started by considering the FIVE Ps: Passion, Purpose, Problems, People, and Part-Time.

For many individuals Passion and Purpose go together. Although they are different issues, the Problems you will solve and the People you will target are related. Your business is YOUR business, and it is your choice as to whether to pursue it on a full-time or part-time basis. If you are just starting out, there are good reasons to begin Part-time.

Passion

Yes, you do need to discover your passions or passions. If you feel that you have no passions or that this word seems too strong, what about your interests, skills, abilities or talents? If you won a lottery that would pay you for life with just one stipulation that you had to "work" at something until you were at least 65, what would you do? Dream a little - If you had your own business what would you be doing? If you can't envision what you would be doing, ask yourself - would I be working by myself or with others? Where would I be working - from my home? In an office? On a stage? Would I be writing, talking, painting, walking dogs, arranging flowers, designing solar homes? Start off dreaming and brainstorming. Don't be concerned yet as to how this passion will make money. Figuring out how to monetize your passion is a later step.

Purpose

Do your feel that you have a mission in life? A calling? A purpose? Some career coaches and counselors believe that having a purpose is essential, but it may be that a purpose is only discovered after one has had some life experiences. At this point, maybe you just want to make money, and there are plenty of young wealthy Internet marketers who know that they don't want to work 40 hours per week. Knowing your purpose may make it easier to discover your passion. Purpose is related to the sense that your life is fulfilling and abundant, but a stool can stand very well on three legs or four legs. You can start a business without knowing your purpose or mission in life.

Problems

Businesses exist because they solve problems. Fixing cars, computers, plumbing... providing food, toys, and electronics from other areas of the world... assisting people to heal from sickness, find jobs, train their dog... Successful business continue to exist because they solve problems better than others do. These businesses or individuals make promises and then they over deliver. The solutions they provide are bigger than the promise that they offer so customers repeatedly return. What problem or problems will you solve? What can you offer that no one else is offering? Try dreaming or brainstorming again or look around your community and to see if there are any problems that no one is trying to solve. Do you have the passion or expertise to solve it?

People

Who, what niche or market, has the problems that you will solve? Do they have a common interest or need such as they need to lose weight or they're technophobic? Are they members of a particular demographic group - working parents, baby boomers, etc. How will you market to this target group? An important aspect of monetizing a passion is to know who needs or wants what you have. This means your target may not be individuals; rather it maybe small or large businesses who need what you are offering.

Part-time

If you still have a job, build your new career on the side. When it is established, you can jump into it full time, or sell it, or keep it part-time. It's your business! Starting part-time allows you to figure out whether this business really is for you, test the market for demand, master any web based technologies that you need, attend trainings and conferences that will improve your knowledge base.

To get further assistance look for courses and training in starting your own business or for coaches who either specialize in business start-ups or who focus on helping individuals identify and monetize their passions.
By Mary Ann Nalbandian  |  Source

How I Make $30,000/Month on Amazon with No Experience!

Writing A Landing Page

These tips and techniques will get you started, but they just scratch the proverbial surface. Design elements are critical too - color, images, layout - as well as video, audio, and other interactivity elements whose purpose is to more deeply engage the reader and boost response. They all merit a deeper look and testing where it makes sense.

1. Make sure your headline refers directly to the place from which your visitor came or the ad copy that drove the click. Match your language as exactly as you can. (Close is good, exact is best.) This way you keep your visitor oriented and engaged. This is by far the most important part of your landing page.

2. Provide a clear call to action. Whether you use graphic buttons or hot-linked text (or both), tell your visitor what they need to do. I use a minimum of 2 calls to action in a short landing page, 3-5 in a long landing page. Copy tests here will give you the biggest bang next to testing headlines.

3. Write in the second person - You and Your. No one gives a rat's patootie about you, your company, or even your product or service except as to how it benefits him or her. (The bigger the company the more time I spend rewriting their stuff from We to You.)

4. Write to deliver a clear, persuasive message, not to showcase your creativity or ability to turn a clever phrase. This is business, not a personal expression of your art. (Every copy coaching student hears me say this at least once.)

5. You can write long copy as long as it's tight. I always err on writing a little long on the first drafts because it's easier to edit down than to pad up skimpy copy. Your reader will read long copy as long as you keep building a strong, motivating case for him/her to act. However, not every product or service will require the same amount of copy investment. Rule of thumb: Think longer copy when you're looking to close a sale. Think shorter copy for a subscription sign-up or something that doesn't necessarily require a cash commitment..

6. Be crystal clear in your goals. Keep your body copy on point as a logical progression from your headline and offer. Don't add tangential thoughts, ancillary services, and generic hoo-hah. (Hoo-hah makes the client feel good but wastes the reader's time.) Every digression is a conversion lost.

7. Keep your most important points at the beginning of paragraphs and bullets. Most visitors are skimming and skipping through your copy. Make it easy for them to get the joke without having to slow down.

8. In line with #7, people read beginnings and ends before they read middles. Make sure you keep your most critical, persuasive arguments in these positions.

9. Make your first paragraph short, no more than 1-2 lines (that's lines, not sentences.) Vary your paragraph line length from here. It helps create visual dissonance and makes it easier to read your copy. And no paragraph should be more than 4-5 lines long at any time.

10. Write to the screen. Take a piece of paper and frame-out where your text, buttons, and design elements will go. Consider how much of your content will be seen "above the fold" or at the first screen. You can still go long and have visitors scroll downward. If so, you'll want to make sure you repeat essential calls to action, testimonials and other components so no matter where your visitor is, an ACT NOW link or button remains is visible.

3 BONUS TIPS:

11. Remove all extraneous matter from your landing page. This includes navigation bars, visual clutter, and links to other sections. You want the reader focused solely on your copy, your supportive visuals, and the offer you're making without being tempted to wander around the room.

12. Don't ask for what you don't need. Ask for only enough information to complete the sale or the desired action. This isn't the time to conduct a marketing survey. Every question you ask, every piece of information you require will chip away at your response. Be judicious.

13. Assume nothing. Test everything.

By Michael A Marshall  |  Source

How to Find High Profit Products to Sell on eBay

Simple strategy.

BEST Items to Sell on eBay - Items with high demand, low supply!

All excellent information.

How To Grow Your Social Media Following Organically

You must have gone through the typical ads, direct messages, emails, etc. from the companies promising exciting services to level up your social media pages and grow your fans and followers throughout different platforms. When you accept such proposals, you got a huge number of friends and followers and seems though now you actually have a strong presence. However, they are collected through the followers-purchasing game, which turns down your real goal and makes you give up on the power of social media.

Here Are Some Do And Don't For Growing Your Fan Following On Social Media Organically

Get A Following

• Don't: People are usually involved in playing follow and unfollow game that involves finding potential fans and followers, following them and then unfollowing them. They follow them back once again to grab their attention. This is waste of time because not everyone is paying attention to social media all the time.
• Do: Engage with someone who wants to get engaged with you for the products or services you offer. Instead of playing follow and unfollow game, find the people who find you valuable.

Target a Specific Audience

• Don't: Join groups on the social channels and constantly posting about the services annoy the people most. You'll likely get kicked out from the groups for not having genuinity. Instead this, a smarter way to work up is to post and share content you've created on your own to start a conversation. This is far more effective and you won't need to ask people to follow you.
• Do: Spend a little and target the audience through SEO packages and other internet marketing services. You can easily target people with serving them with the informative content as well as the products or services you offer. Get into the videos or blogs to speak to them for the problems.

Interact With People Like A Boss

Don't: Engaging into a conversation that is dropping you into the false connections happening on the social media is the fastest way to earn a bad reputation. Try to engage into a conversation that values but don't interject and interrupt into their social life. Invite people with a lot of queries over a coffee on the table so that you can solve them better.

• Do: Taking short cuts for getting success with the sharing, engaging and interacting people will not work but investing a little time genuinely for the same can give you a path of sure shot success. Get some new followers everyday who are interested in the great conversations.

By Gunjan Singh  |  Source

Seven Steps to Faster Writing

Would you like to write a great blog post or email in half the time without losing quality - and perhaps even making it better in the process?

Here's how:

1: Create an outline. Your outline is your plan, and it's going to make your entire task easier for 3 reasons:

a) Having a plan diffuses procrastination. When we look at a project our mind tells us it's big - too big. This causes stress, which makes us want to avoid the whole thing. By having a plan, we can break the writing down into manageable, stress free steps.

b) Having a plan keeps you from wandering off topic. If you have a simple outline to follow, it's just a matter of filling out each section of the outline. But without a plan, you could waste a great deal of time writing about things that in the end don't even pertain to your main topic.

c) It makes research super easy. Once you have an outline, researching can be as simple as Googling each item on your outline. Without a plan, your research can lead you into never-ending time-wasting circles.

2: Once you've got your outline, set it aside for an hour or a day and let it bake in your brain.

By setting it aside, you can let your mind focus on something else. Meanwhile, your subconscious is still working on that outline. You'll be surprised by what your subconscious gives you. All of a sudden you'll realize you left out the most important part, or you've found a much better way to illustrate your main point.

3: Write every day. Writing, just like anything else, is a skill. The more you do it, the better and faster you will get.

Write even when you don't 'fee' like it. As Stephen King has said, "Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration. The rest of us just get up and go to work."

Or as another writer stated, "I wait for inspiration to strike. Fortunately for me, it strikes every day at 9 am."

Even if you absolutely, positively do NOT want to write, tell yourself you're going to write for just 15 minutes. Then start writing. You can write anything - anything at all - but you must write. Pretty soon you'll be working on your project and wondering why you were feeling such resistance to something you actually enjoy.

4: Use deadlines in your favor. Without a deadline, there is no stress. With no stress, your brain puts off the task of writing for later. After all, writing takes brain power, effort, thinking and decision making - things your brain would rather put off until later. Or never.

But when you have a deadline, you have stress to get the job done. The closer the deadline, the more stress. To relieve the stress, you've got to get busy. Now your brain is telling you to, "Write right now!"

If self-imposed deadlines work for you, then you know what to do. If not, you'll have to find a way to get others to hold you accountable for your deadlines. For example, telling your blog readers that your next post goes live on Tuesday at 10 am PST should work nicely.

No blog readers yet? Have a friend hold you accountable. If you don't make your deadline, you owe them dinner.

5: Focus on the "feel goods."Back when I had a regular job, I loved my days off. I especially loved them when I knew well in advance that they were coming.

But if I found out that morning that I wasn't working, then half the joy of having time off was gone. There was no anticipation. No looking forward to that day off. Frankly, I felt ripped off if I didn't know I wasn't working until that same morning.

You can use this knowledge to self-motivate yourself. Think about how great it will feel to hit publish or send. Think about closing the file and doing something you love as a reward. Think about the accolades you'll receive for finishing the project, or the money you'll earn, or whatever it is that motivates you to keep working until you're done.

6: Turn off the internet. Some folks, me included, tend to get distracted by the internet. We think we're going to 'sneak off' for 5 minutes to check Reddit, and an hour later we still haven't gotten back to work.

So whenever possible, just disconnect your wifi. Turn off your cell phone. Remove anything else that tends to distract you. And then go to work.

7: Speed up your typing. If you're not able to type at least 50 words per minute, maybe it's time you improved your typing skills.

It's difficult when your thoughts are coming faster than your fingers can tap them out. But you have options:

· Type faster. There are plenty of free and paid courses online that will teach you how to touch type faster.

· Use a voice to text program such as Dragon Naturally.

· Record yourself and have it transcribed.

Writing by itself isn't hard. It's all the baggage we attach to it that makes it difficult. But if you can think of writing as simply assembling the pieces to a puzzle, you'll do it much better and faster.
By Nick James  |  Source