Printed Case Book – Design Guidelines

What is a Printed Case Book? Well, it's like a hardcover book, but without the dust jacket. Instead, the dust jacket is printed right onto the hard covers of the book. Here's an example of what a printed case book looks like: We recently had to updgrade the book design for the 3rd Revised Edition of my bestseller, Listen To Your Gut. As it is 520 pages long (number of pages determines spine … [Read more...]

Artist Sells $3.5 Million in a Weekend – Why??

This article about a digital artist named Beeple is remarkable for numerous reasons. Not just because of the amount of money he made and how quickly he made it. And not just because it illuminates an entirely new economy - one that most of us are not even aware exists. Nope. I find this article really remarkable because Mike Winkelmann is living proof of these key principles of … [Read more...]

What Types of Stuff Can I Sell On My Site?

When you create and sell your own products or services, they are likely going to fall into three categories: Digital products – affiliate products, or your own digital-delivery products. Physical products – affiliate, retail, wholesale, manufacturing. Coaching, consulting and speaking. Digital products include anything that can be created and delivered electronically, via the … [Read more...]

Why Should I Self-Publish My Book?

If you’ve written a fiction book, you may be able to argue the merits of mainstream publishing over self-publishing… maybe. But if you’ve written a non-fiction book, then you definitely want to self-publish. Unless you don’t care about making any money from the book. Let me explain. I have a friend – Dr. Carolyn Dean – who is both a naturopathic doctor and a medical doctor. She has had 15 books … [Read more...]

The Way Out of Overwhelm or Not-Enough

When you’re building a business, or putting together a workshop, or trying to make your website better, or writing a book… there will be times you feel inadequate. The self-doubt rears up. You feel a thick fog descending; sucking away your energy and motivation. You start to feel like you're not enough, or you feel like it's all just too complicated, and you can't cope. And all your forward … [Read more...]

The Vital Importance of Site Back-Ups

Whether you already have an active blog, or you’re just starting out, I want to make one thing crystal clear: Be sure to backup (make copies of) your site files on a regular basis. AND make sure you store those files in a separate place. Do not store your site file backups on your server! If your website server catches on fire, or crashes, or gets hacked, (note: all 3 have happened to me!) and … [Read more...]

What’s a Mom?

I remember driving in the car with my daughter, Zara, when she was five years old. "You know what I want to do when I grow up? I want to work in a store," she announced. "What kind of store?" I asked. "A video store. Because I love movies." she replied (yes, back then we still had video stores) "Well..." I suggested, "Then instead of just working in a video store, why don't you be the … [Read more...]

Redesign, Rebrand, or Redirect Entirely?

What happens when the business you've been working so hard to build starts to feel... stale? Or what if you love it, but after all this time it still isn't making the money you need? How do you know when it's time to stick it out, and when it's time to rebrand? For those of you who have been feeling change looming, or the weight of decisions you’re not sure you’re ready to make, remember you … [Read more...]

When Instagram Won’t Sync with your Facebook Page!

Maybe your Instagram used to sync with your Facebook... or maybe you've never been able to get it to work. You would think this would be easy/seamless, since Facebook also owns Instagram, but not always. I'm not going to get into how to sync your two accounts - there is plenty of instruction readily available on how to do that, like right here if you prefer text instructions and right here … [Read more...]

How To Reply to Blog Comments from an Email Notification

Perhaps you commented on a blog post and now you have received an email telling you that someone else has replied to your comment on that blog - HOW do you then reply back to them? Firstly, you do NOT just click "Reply" to that email and type out your response. If you do that, no one will ever see your return comment. Instead, you have to click-through to the original blog post and leave your … [Read more...]

Author Timothy Findley Compares Oil Industry To Terrorists

You may think this is an odd article to post on a business blog... but I think it is the perfect place for it! In my own businesses and throughout the Listen To Your Freedom biz-building program, I emphasize the holistic nature of business, soul, mind, body, earth, family, environment, food, etc. And so it is VERY important for those of us who understand that money is an energy, a symbol, and a … [Read more...]

6 Steps to Plan and Launch Your Product or Service

Maybe you'd love to have your own business - but aren't quite sure what that would be yet. Or, maybe you already have a great idea - or, you're already doing your ideal thang - but you have no idea HOW to get your stuff out in front of the people who would love to pay money for your help/solution... Not to worry, my 6-step plan will take you through each piece of the process to kick off your … [Read more...]

Telling Stories Increases Sales

When you think about selling stuff on your website, or making money from your blog, do you ever find yourself saying: I know, I'll tell stories! That will increase my sales! Well, here's the thing: David Ogilvy was one of the first big advertising guys to prove that storytelling (a full page worth of small-font text) sold extremely well. When we think of story-based advertising, we often … [Read more...]

5 Non-Obnoxious Ways To Make Money From Your Blog

The Internet is filled with people who have been happily blogging away, building excellent content, and often impressive traffic to their websites, and thousands of subscribers, but yet they are not making enough money to even quit their day job! This is the exact situation one of my favorite bloggers found herself in. She had a Donate button on her site and she'd just had a book published by a … [Read more...]

How To Use Social Media to Promote your Brand or Business

Different 'social media experts' will give you different advice as to which social media will produce the best results for your business. Rather than spending time summarizing the different opinions, I'm just going to present you with what actually works. In a real life tried-and-tested Health business; where I sell books, CDs, DVDs, teleseminars and over 300 supplements. And here's the bottom … [Read more...]

Use Teleseminars To Boost Your Brand or Create Products

If you haven't started hosting teleseminars yet, you've no doubt heard the buzz about how they can be great tools for building or expanding your business. Specifically, teleseminars can help you accomplish the following: Position yourself as a leader or expert in your field. Use teleseminars as a sales tool by giving away lots of free information on a topic and then presenting a special … [Read more...]

The Easy Way to Write and Publish a Book

From talking with my friends, colleagues and bookclub members, I know that most people perceive writing a book as a big deal - something very difficult and daunting. How many articles have been written about the writer staring at a blank page? How many visuals of the desk or typewriter (back in the day) surrounded by crumpled wads of paper? So… you can buy into these myths, or not. Let me give … [Read more...]

Making Your Business More Visible and Noticeable

If your business is not generating the kind of traffic (visitors) or sales (conversions from visitors to customers) that you would like, then there are many different metrics you need to look at. This article is going to help you implement two of the most important ones. Sometimes that magic tweak that skyrockets both visitors and sales can be that you realize you've been talking to the wrong … [Read more...]

Can I Charge Money For Free Information?

As the Internet matures, you're going to see this more and more: People taking free information, inventions, protocols etc. that have been developed by scientists or groups and packaging them into digital information products. Perhaps there is a way you can apply this technique to your niche and package up your own information product? Here's a great example of what I'm talking … [Read more...]

Eat for Success

Have you ever thought of nutrition as something that sets you free, enables you to get out of a rut, and changes a damaging behaviour, or pattern? Or do you think of food simply in terms of what you feel like eating (your tastebuds)? When you realize that what you eat and drink has a huge influence over your mood, your optimism and your energy levels... you begin to realize that what you ingest … [Read more...]

Reconnect with your Truest most Vibrant Self

I was having dinner with my extended family one night, and a question popped into my head: What was the BEST time of your life to date – the time you felt the most energized, alive, and the most like YOU? So I asked the question and we went round the table, sharing our stories. There were people there aged 6 to 75 and their answers surprised me so much, I started asking other people. I asked my … [Read more...]

Working Hard vs Being Open

People often say that if you don't have a clearly defined goal, you will never be successful. If you don't have a detailed road map, you will never arrive at your destination. That all sounds great in theory. And it can work – for certain types of people. But I'm here to stand up for something else. I'm here to root for looseness. And freedom. And FUN. Zigging and zagging. Feeling your way along … [Read more...]

How To Step Into Your True Self

When you're learning a new task, or a new skill, or how to navigate around in a whole new world - like your first baby, or your first business, or a new country - you can get to a place of overwhelm. Where it just seems TOO difficult. You get discouraged. You start to say things like, "Who am I…?" Who am I to think I could do this? Who am I to think I could be the first one in my family to … [Read more...]

Is Your Life Too Stressful?

Sometimes we don't want to take on a new venture, or expand our horizons, or take a risk, because our life is currently so stressful we don't think we can handle any more! But is your life filled with good stress, or bad stress? Here's what bad stress and good stress looks like to me - and keep in mind that classifying stress as 'good' or 'bad' is a very personal thing and totally open to … [Read more...]

How To Transform Fear In Business and Life

How do you feel when you think about your dreams or unspoken wishes? And how do you feel as you get closer to your dreams becoming a reality? Are you excited? Are you scared? Funny how those two emotions – fear and excitement – often go hand in hand. The really interesting thing is that when you look at the biochemical expression of these two emotions in the body… there is only one molecule … [Read more...]