Relationship Marketing | Build Your Online Business

Are you building a  business online? Are you already an internet marketer?  Are you in Direct Sales? Do you have a blog or other type of website?  What is the one thing you're always in need of?  Most likely your answer will be: Good Quality Content for Your Articles. When I first started my two blogs: 1) Work-From-Home/Direct Sales and 2) Skin Care and Beauty just about one year ago, it was very challenging to come up with thought-provoking and informative articles for my blogs on a regular basis.  As a result I sometimes went for days without writing a post while I thought of what topics and information I'd present.  Added to blogs, if you have a newsletter or ezine you need even more content on a regular basis.  Participating in guest blogging in order to attract more visitors to your website presents another area where good content is required. Where can you find this valuable content?  Here are three of my favorite ways:

Visit Article Directories and Get Free Reprint Articles

Quality articles can be found on article directories like EzineArticles.com, ArticleBase.com, and LadyPens.com, which you can copy and place on your website. You may not, however, edit these articles in any way and you must include the author's resource box at the end, including any links to the author's website. Doing this you receive the quality content that you need, and the author or authors receive free publicity. There are, however, drawbacks to this method of obtaining articles:
1. Because you share the same article with everyone else that uses that directory, there is the issue of duplicate content, which could affect your search engine rankings.  This would not be a concern if you'd be using the article in your newsletter or ezine.  If you are adding the article to your website, I would suggest that you write an introduction to the article and a conclusion at the end with a wrap-up statement or recommendation.

2. It's difficult to find good quality articles with  content for your business.

3. By using the article with the resource box in place, as is required, you're basically advertising for someone else and diverting attention from your website.

Write the Articles Yourself

You can choose to write some of your web content yourself. I would highly recommend that you do write much of your own content, at least on the sites where you're trying to establish yourself as an authority.  But as I noted earlier this can be a challenge.

However, the third of my 3 favorite ways will enable you to post good quality articles to your website without having to write all of it yourself. Many you can just edit and use. The difference in the option below is that YOU become the expert, rather than endorsing someone else as the expert.

Use PLR Articles

PLR stands for Private Label Rights. PLR articles are usually written by a ghostwriter and sold to several website owners. This means that you (and a limited number of other bloggers) can edit the articles and publish them without being required to link back to anyone or give anyone credit for writing them. You become the expert when using PLR articles.

I had received numerous e-mails about PLR articles and had no idea how they could benefit me until I attended a Teleseminar on the topic and was amazed at the benefits of using PLR products. Many people choose to use these articles as they are, but I do and strongly recommend that you customize the articles, tweak them for your market, insert examples or photos or case studies then publish them on your website.

The main challenge I found for some time was finding a good PLR service that provides professionally written content sold in limited quantities.  That issue was resolved when I found EasyPLR.com.  EasyPLR.com has been offering the best niche plr article packs on the web since 2006.  Here are some reasons why I highly recommend their content:

-  Great reputation. Thousands of happy, repeat customers over the years.

-    Great quality. The content is written by Professional Writers on staff and edited by a separate staff member.-   Limited availability. You're not sharing your articles with thousands of other people.

-    Run by a Respected Internet Marketer. Nicole Dean owns EasyPLR.com and is oftentimes called the marketer with integrity, and runs her business by her gut and her ethics, not strictly by her pocketbook.

-    Excellent customer support. Need any help? They're there for you.
I'm a customer at EasyPLR.com and I have been extremely happy with the good quality articles and content. Check it out here.

Based on current statistics many of my readers are women who work from home, full-time or part-time.  As a result in gender-related posts I may lean towards situations that affect female readers.  However, men who work from home are affected by many of the same factors, so please adjust accordingly.

Studies indicate that while many women enjoy working from home and made a deliberate choice to do so, some women did so out of necessity.  Regardless of the reason many find that they miss the interaction of colleagues at work, the challenges of the workplace as well as opportunities to be dressed professionally in whatever type of clothing was considered the norm for her profession.  One of the results of this can be the loss of self-esteem and self-confidence.  In fact, I've spoken with women at home parties who said that while they love their children, they are just glad to have intelligent adult conversation with other women.

In order to regain your self-confidence and rebuild your self-esteem, the following are points to keep in mind as you strive for small successes on a daily basis:

• Negative thoughts will pull you down and have a negative effect on those around you, including children, if any.  Endeavor to look on the bright side of things and re-train your mind to think positive thoughts.  It's more than theory that positive thinking can change not just you, but also those around you.

• Be enthusiastic.  This reminds me on a very strong and successful woman who has been working from home for some years.  She recalls that when she worked in a stressful job in corporate America every morning some of the women would walk in and say, “Oh! I'm so tired…” and she found herself saying that she was tired too.  Then one day she was about to respond in kind and she suddenly realized that she did not feel tired at all, but she had got into the habit of responding to the negative comments of others and she herself had  become a Negative Nelly.  Work at greeting each day with enthusiasm seeing every day as a new beginning and another day to take steps toward achieving whatever your success goal may be.

• If you're not feeling confident in any given situation, pause for a moment and think of what is the worst that could happen.  You may find that even the worst would not be so bad after all and you can instead focus your energy on given the situation at hand your best.

• Are you dissatisfied with your physical appearance?  Then do something about it starting today..not tomorrow or next week…TODAY! Start your exercise program, or just start walking.  If you're going to start a diet,  start today.

• Do something for someone else and make someone else feel good.  The Biblical statement is true, “There is more happiness in giving than there is in receiving.”  Giving to others allows you to focus on others and being selfless will make you feel better about yourself knowing that you have contributed to the happiness of someone else.

I've never supported the notion of ‘New Year's Resolutions' because all too often they are made from a place of emotion rather than realistically creating goals and objectives.  My first post for 2010 would have been along that vein, but when I read Sandra Martini's post I felt she covered it beautifully….

Results, Not Resolutions in 2010

Every year millions of us diligently work on our New Year's Goals or Resolutions, determined that this year will be *THE* year, somehow different from all the rest which preceded it.   We labor over writing the goals, create Vision Boards, and start the year bright-eyed and bushy-tailed (like children on Christmas morning when they see a tree loaded with presents).   And yet within a week, maybe two or three, reality sets in. We're the same people we were before midnight on January 1st and, likely have the same habits. . .good and bad. So how do we create results and not simply resolutions? The answer is simple. . .treat the New Year as you would any large project and break it down into manageable pieces.   Let's see what that looks like:

1. Choose one of your annual goals and break it down into 4 quarterly (90 day) goals.
2. Take the first quarter (January – March) and break that down into monthly goals — what do you need to achieve each MONTH to reach your first quarterly (March 31st) goal?
3. Take the first month (January) and break that down into weekly goals — what do you need to achieve each WEEK to reach your monthly (January 31st) goal?
4. Take the first week (January 3 – 9) and break that down into daily ACTIONS — what should you do each day which will allow you to reach your weekly (January 9th) goal?
5. And what needs to happen for you to get your daily actions DONE? Do you limit your email/Twitter/IM time? Do you tell your best friend you have work to do? Do you get up an hour earlier or work an hour later? Do you invest in a mentor who can save you hours of learning time? Figure out what you need to do. . .and then do it!

Simple, right?   It is until you take a look at ALL your New Year's Goals and realize you'd have to work 15 hours a day and be on a treadmill eating carrot sticks while chatting with your friends and family the remaining 9 hours in order to reach every goal you set.   The above exercise does two things for you: 1. It gives you the power to create real results. . .in a way which keep you focused and allows you to see progress throughout the year and
2. It forces you to “get real” about how much you can achieve and where you may want to pull in outside resources to speed up your learning curve, outsource work, etc.   So, what's next?   You have a choice.   You can take this ezine and move it to your “I'll get to it later” folder, you can delete it, or you can use it to change your 2010 forever.

Make It Real, My Request to You:  My request to you is that you pick one of your goals for 2010 and use the exercise above to ensure it's doable, a stretch for you, but still attainable. And go through this process until all your goals are mapped out.    Once you've mapped out your goals and the actions needed to get there (this method also forces you to look at your goals at least monthly), you can “ask” any opportunity or offer which comes your way whether it will support you in reaching your goals or serve as a distraction and make your decision based on your immediate, intuitive answer.    Just imagine, no more laboring over decisions. . .they either do or do not support your goals. How freeing is that?!?    And if you want some help determining just how to reach your goals or even which ones to focus on, you'll want to check out my private “Shot of Sandy” program — there's 3 spots open for January!   Sandra Martini is a strategic marketing and productivity consultant who helps entrepreneurs create and implement the systems to achieve their visions, with services such as coaching, client systems development, consulting and Team Sandy Done 4 You Online Business Marketing & Management as well as a variety of information products.

For more business building strategies and to get your free audio series “5 Simple & Easy Ways to Put Your Marketing on Autopilot, please visit www.SandraMartini.com today.