Some of my regular blog followers quickly realized that I was M.I.A. this past week. I even received one email asking if I had abandoned my blog entirely. Fear not, I was off completing my comprehensive exams, required to progress through my doctoral program. In case you care to know, I clocked over 45 hours of writing. And my efforts generated over 94 total pages of APA-style research papers.

Photo by UMKC University Communications.

Needless to say, I’m a little exhausted.

Doctoral Program Requirement

As a part of my doctoral program in Education Administration at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, I am required to complete a series of comprehensive exams to gauge our comprehensive understanding of all the courses we had previously completed. The idea behind the comprehensive exams is to integrate theory and practice, while demonstrating our knowledge acquired from the courses and readings in which we had immersed ourselves over the past few months.  Students are not allowed to complete their comprehensive exams until all coursework is completed.

Each of the exams are “pass” or “fail.” While I feel confident that I demonstrated enough proficiency, mastery, and “withit-ness” to earn passing marks, my fate remains in the faculty graders of the comprehensive exams.

Time will tell.

Next Steps in the Doctoral Program

Pending successful completion of the comprehensive exams, then it’s time to complete the dreaded “literature review.”  Ok, so it’s not exactly dreaded, but it has been personally difficult for me to actually get started and completed.

UMKC education administration doctoral candidates are required to submit their draft dissertation chapters 1-3 as their dissertation proposal.  I have solid drafts of chapters one and three.  But again, it’s that darn chapter 2 lit review.

Ugh.  I will get this done!

Once the proposal is submitted, and hopefully approved, I can begin collecting data for my study and complete the dissertation.

Back to the Business of an Education Blogger

As I mentioned, while completing my comprehensive exams this past week, I literally completed over 45+ hours of writing. I was impressed with my ability to crank out that much work, in a 2-day time span. Of course, I gave up adult interaction, tv shows, radio shows, online music, YouTube videos, blogging, eBook writing, Facebooking, Twitter, and other social media time-wasters.

(Oh, the humanity!)

But, after recuperating from my stint with binge-writing, I’m ready to return to my duties as an education blogger, focusing on more social media and information marketing coaching for educators.

Truthfully, I’m more energized than ever to take my blogging to the next levels. I’m hoping to begin recording more video over the coming weeks and WOULD LOVE to launch an online radio show on topics related to education.

Education Blogger? More Like Education Geek?

What can I say, I love the education world and most things associated with it. I like finding ways to bridge my skills, with my knowledge-based, and my passions.

Ultimately, it’s an education blogger and overall online social media education-themed geek.

I can admit it!

Here’s to some more writing…

Making money from viral traffic is a bit different than making money from any other kind of traffic.

People who land on your website generally come there for a specific piece of content or because it was shared through social media tools. Often times, your readers don’t have a clue who you are, nor do they care much either.

As a result, most people find that the bounce rate on viral traffic is much higher and their conversion rates much lower. This is to be expected, and if you have any experience looking at your website analytics, you may find this to be extremely accurate.

But, despite this reality, there are still many ways to make money from viral traffic.

Get People on a List

Knowing that it’s hard to get viral traffic to convert on a sale right away, a more effective tactic is to get them on an email list…QUICKLY! And once they’re on that mailing list, so long as they opted-in, you can send them content they’re interested in with an occasional marketing message.

Get Them on an RSS Feed

Make your RSS feed big on your site and prominently promote your RSS feed. Once you have someone on your RSS feed, you’ll be able to get them coming back again-and-again and build a relationship with them. Over time, the likelihood of them buying something from you goes up significantly.

Advertising

If you have a consistently high traffic volume, but you’re lacking sales from your own products or services, you should probably look into advertising.

Unless you have a steady stream of traffic, it’s difficult to rely solely on advertising platforms to generate you revenue. But, if you already have the traffic, it can be an easy way to monetize your blog, website, or online business website.

Start with self-serve platforms like Google AdSense, then move on to direct advertising deals when it makes sense. (But I caution you, read and get to know Google’s AdSense rules and restrictions!)

If you’re getting a lot of viral traffic in YouTube, you may have a shot at getting into YouTube’s partner program. YouTube recently provided an advertising program for basic users, providing a split-agreement between them and the YouTube video producer.

Get Paid for Leads

If you can’t convert viral traffic into actual sales, another great way is to get readers to fill out leads.

Cost Per Action (CPA) companies are often willing to pay anywhere from $2 to $12 just for leads filled out in specific industries.

Let’s say you’re in the habit of producing videos about “tricking out your car,” which produce great traffic volume. Well, you can easily find insurance companies who’ll pay you $2 per email that they get when you send people to their site. They never have to take out their credit card and you’ll still get paid decent money.

These are some of the best ways to monetize viral traffic.

As a rule of thumb, you want to move away from trying to make a first-time sale and instead use lower commitment methods of monetization.

Just a thought…

I was inspired by a recent INC magazine article written by Howard Greenstein (@howardgr), reflecting on his earliest experimentation with entrepreneurship.  While serving as a Congressional intern in the mid-80s, Greenstein found himself buying politically-themed t-shirts for a low price, while unloading them on the local college crowd for a decent profit margin.  Overall, his small business was a success.  Despite some of the basic challenges any entrepreneur faces, he was able to pull-off a successful small business.

So what themes can be shared from his early entrepreneurship encounters?

• Create a business that fuels your passion AND your customers.  Most small business owners will tell you, they work real hard launching their business.  As a matter of fact, for many entrepreneurs, it becomes a second marriage.  To create a business, or website, that is aligned with the things you ACTUALLY like will help it feel less like work and more as a hobby.  More importantly, if it matches the interests of your customers, not only do you have a market for your product or services, but you can also begin building a community.
• Ignore those who doubt you.  There’s no room for those who are going to doubt you.  Yes, you want practical advice and constructive criticism.  But ultimately, if you doubt every decision you make…you’ll only spin your wheels.  I’ve already received feedback from one person indicating that my magazine name, “edDominators” should be reconsidered, citing it may sound too strong to the “education community.”  While I appreciate and respect the feedback, if I ponder and question renaming this magazine site, I’ll spend days coming up with the next title.  Or weeks.  Or months, because eventually I’ll want to change this.  And then that.  And then that too.  At some point you must stay firm to what it is you created and then implement it.  Full-throttle.
• Locate your market.  Before wasting any of your time, make sure you have a market to which you can provide your products or services.  Even though a business idea may really excite YOU, without some market research, there’s no guarantee that it will be needed/wanted by consumers.  edDominators was strategically created to fill a much-needed void of providing educators with information about how to effectively create and launch their own blogs, websites, and online businesses.  There are TONS of websites encouraging and preaching the use of social media for educators, but few websites actually HELP educators do it.  And more importantly, NOBODY helps educators get their blogs, websites, and online businesses ranked high in the search engines or followed by ample visitors, readers, and traffic.  Thus, how edDominators.com was born!
• Forget about your competition.  One thing you CANNOT do–worry about your competition.  In business, and in the Edusphere and “online world,” you’re ALWAYS going to have competition.  You will always need to create the best product, otherwise your competitors’ products and services will be sought after by readers–readers that could have been yours!  So rather than fret about the competition, ignore them and keep doing what you do best.  Keep providing the best online content you can provide, the most unmatched services, and the more useful products…trust me, your customers and readers will keep coming back for more.  Keep abreast of your competition; nothing wrong knowing what they’re doing right and wrong.  A little intel is good for you.  But don’t let your reconnaissance intimidate you.  Instead, let it further motivate you to provide the best all-around services/information you possibly can.

These tips are definitely the most basic advice for startups, but for some, it’s much needed.  Entrepreneurship carries many challenges, many of which lead to great anxiety and stress.  Keeping the basic fundamentals in mind, can help keep an individual focused and committed toward building their small business, or website, into an empire.

You ready for the greatest Google search transformation to date?  Earlier today, Google announced its industry-changing method of personalizing the online search engine process for users, launching “Search, Plus Your World.”

Google states that searching for content online is a personal process.  The keywords you submit to their search engines are unique and personal, based upon your needs.  But, that hasn’t been good enough for Google.  They know sleeze-ball internet marketers have been using various black-hat SEO methods to inflate webpage search engine rankings, basically offering you crap instead of the useful content you were originally seeking.

Several months ago, Google began experimenting with their Social Search program, which paired search engine findings along with online friends’ content or social media contributions.  But yet again, this wasn’t good enough to Google.

Over the next few days, Google intends to fully roll-out “Search, Plus Your World.”  According to Google, here are their three latest features:

1. Personal Results, which enable you to find information just for you, such as Google+ photos and posts—both your own and those shared specifically with you, that only you will be able to see on your results page;
2. Profiles in Search, both in autocomplete and results, which enable you to immediately find people you’re close to or might be interested in following; and,
3. People and Pages, which help you find people profiles and Google+ pages related to a specific topic or area of interest, and enable you to follow them with just a few clicks. Because behind most every query is a community.

Basically, when you search for content on Google, you will not instantly receive information that is aligned with that of your online friends’ interests.  If you are searching for an awesome Royal Caribbean 7-day cruise to the Caribbean (which my wife and I have taken many!), your search engine results will likely include my profile pic and several photographs of my past cruises.  (If you’re an online friend of mine, that is.)

As you search for various keywords, you’ll also come across profiles in the search bar.  Again, as you type cruise words, who knows, maybe my “mug” will show up with a link to my Google+ profile.  My favorite part of the Google+ profiles being added to a user’s search inquiries, is the ability for them to immediately add you to their circles.  This makes is so easy to make online connections now!

On the prominent blog Search Engine Land, Danny Sullivan writes that the updates fundamentally change the way Google’s search engine functions, calling it the “most radical” change ever.

“The new system will perhaps make life much easier for some people, allowing them to find both privately shared content from friends and family plus material from across the Web through a single search, rather than having to search twice using two different systems,” he writes.

So, what does this mean for you?

First off, register your Google+ account NOW, if you haven’t already.  Search engine optimization is about to be forever-changed.  Now, you’ll need to focus your optimization efforts toward establishing “market credibility” and “market leadership” for yourself.  You will want to have generated social proof and a social presence in the particular topics and niches within which you wish to be highly-regarded.

There will be those greatly concerned with various privacy issues, which is legitimate and understandable.  But, I love the idea that my personal social networking is about to become that much more feasible to share content with my network connections when they’re seeking information but not directly engaging with me.

Should be very interesting to see where this all leads.

I’d love to read your comments on the new Google Search Plus Your World.  By the way, it’s running live right now, but will not be fully viewed by everybody for a few days as it phases-in.

The timing couldn’t be any better either.

If you’ve been paying attention to the news, you’ve probably learned that Google has forever-transformed its Google Search to be more personalized for users.  Yesterday, Google launched Google “Search, Plus Your World.”  I’m already seeing the search engine changes during my Google searches and can’t wait until its completely rolled-out for all users.

Basically, it’s more important than ever to help others develop “marketing leadership.”  The times are unprecedented to harness the power of social media to brand and market one’s self as an expert.  Notice I didn’t say “fool others” or “trick others” into believing you’re an expert.  YOU ARE AN EXPERT.  And now, you need to tap into the powerful social media platforms to use that expertise to launch your own consulting and/or expert business.

We can thank Google for this opportunity!

So, the question is…are you ready to leave money on the table?  Are you ready to not leverage your expertise?

Hopefully not!  I help brand and market experts!  Check out my program today….

http://access.eddominators.com/waitlist-prelaunch1/

Early to Sleep, Early to Rise

I am an extremely-productive “morning person.”  As a result, I find it best to go to sleep at a relatively-early hour and arise as early as possible.  My schedule is to be in bed by about 9pm and my alarm goes off around 4:45am.  I LOVE the morning time, but I have a feeling that if coffee was cut from my existence, this opinion would be significantly different.

Can Never Get Enough News

Aside from pouring my first cup ‘o joe for the day, I like to listen to the preceding evening’s recording of Coast to Coast AM with George Noory, of which I am an Coast to Coast Insider member.  It’s a relatively-small membership fee that bills every three months.  I find it well-worth the price, since I’m rarely awake from midnight-4am.  I also pull-up quick news stories at Lawrence-Journal World, Kansas City Star, Chicago Tribune, CNN, and Drudge Report.  These are websites I frequent often during the day and find them to be a quick resource for acquiring news as a part of my morning routine.

Work-Hard, Play-Hard

I don’t waste any time getting right to work on my various blogs, websites, and overall digital marketing tasks.  And since I consider the digital media work I do to be fun, I can actually “work-hard and play-hard” at the same time.

Before embarking on any tasks, my very first step of the morning routine is to check the preceding day’s Google AdSense stats.  I don’t incorporate Google Ads on my blogs and websites as my method to “retire early,” but it does provide modest revenue.  I believe it is important to monetize aspects of one’s blog or websites (which is different for each person’s blogging goals).  It also gives me a quick glimpse as to how popular certain websites and sub-domains may have been the day before.  And frankly, what a fun way to start your day than see a “paycheck” for the hard-work you put in the day prior.

Data, Data, Data

The next part of my morning routine is to heck my web analytics using Google Analytics.  This is an awesome web tool that provides ample information about visitors’ behaviors on your websites.  I like looking for how many pages have been viewed by unique and returning visitors, traffic generation sources, length of time on pages/posts, and from where in the world does the reader live.  These quick analytics give me a pretty decent glimpse of my typical reader and their preferences, for that respective day.

Ultimately, I will be using Google Analytics to track conversion rates from blog posts to mailing opt-in lists and memberships, sales of my digital media products, and memberships purchased at my membership site.

Bombarded with Emails

After my analytics tour, I dedicate a big chunk of my morning checking, writing, and responding to emails.  Needless to say, depending on how active I was the day before, I have a ton of emails waiting for me to open.  Some of the emails are automated analytics tools that report when my blog posts get blasted and shared on social media tools.  Others are spam.  And several other emails are sent by the awesome readers, like you!

Getting Social, in my Pajamas

About this part of my morning routine, I find myself rotating between my various social media and social networking tools–Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Linkedin, YouTube.

It’s important to respond to comments and posts from others, to keep the ongoing communication and dialogue going.  I have to limit myself though, because this could easily dominate the ENTIRE morning.

Time to Get Ready for Work

The last part of my morning routine is to get ready for my day job.  As a school administrator, our school hours are pretty early, which means getting in before 7am.  The positive is that our dismissal is early.  But, since I’ve been up since 4:45am, I’m usually wide-awake once the first bell of the day rings.

Hope you enjoyed this quick little synopsis of my morning routine.  If I realize I left anything major off my list, I’ll be sure to edit the blog post.

Again, this information isn’t being shared because I actually think you CARE about my morning routine, but for those interested in knowing how I occupy my time and what tasks to prioritize early in the day–here’s how I do it.

Over the past several weeks, I’ve been working on a new membership site with an anticipated launch date of March 1, 2012.  At that time, folks have the opportunity to join an exclusive club that will be capped to only the first 500 members.

To learn more about the exclusive club membership opportunity….TAKE A SNEAK PEAK INSIDE!

As a result, I have built a new online-magazine formatted website that is geared toward teachers, principals, professors, and edupreneurs that need more information about how to effectively integrate social media management and ensure their websites gain the traffic they deserve.

My magazine has been named — edDominators.

Why “edDominators?”

Well, there is great buzz on the internet about how/why educators should participate in personal learning networks (PLN) and use social media for their professional or personal goals.  This all sounds great, except the vast majority of educators don’t have a clue how to a.) build effective blogs, websites, and/or online businesses or b.) they don’t gain the traffic, followers, subscribers, and readers they deserve.  Therefore, it’s important that I create a community of educators that can learn the necessary strategies, tips, and “secrets,” to help us DOMINATE the Edusphere.

In addition to the basic content about social media tools and web 2.0 tools for teachers, the edDominators readers will be exposed to various website reviews and case studies of the educators who are literally “dominating” the edusphere.  No point in “reinventing” the wheel.  Let’s take a look at what’s working, how it’s working, and why it’s working–so we can integrate these practices into our online ventures.

I’ve done some market research, all of which suggests there is a tremendous market demand for this type of information with an extremely-low supply.  Sounds like a GREAT fit, if you ask me!

You are warmly invited, and frankly totally encouraged, to visit the new website and community that is being built as you read this.  Thanks for your participation and interaction, well in advance.  http://edDominators.com

Here’s the link to our YouTube video: http://youtu.be/s1LrzeyrBa8

The success of edDominators.com is completely contingent on the success of your blog, website, or online business! 

It’s a true win-win partnership!

“168,” you say?

According to a report by the Altimeter Group, that’s exactly how many social media accounts are said to be created by for the average larger-sized company.  Now if your blog, website, and/or business website is anything like mine, you definitely don’t have that many social media accounts.  But, there’s a great chance you have FAR too many accounts than you actually need.

If so, there’s nothing for you to feel bad about.  As new technologies emerge, it’s quite easy to assume that you want to be a part of the “next big thing.”  Especially for those interested in bringing greater exposure to their blogs or websites, you definitely don’t want to be left-out of the hottest social media tool.  The problem is, you never really know what social media tools are truly going to be the next hottest Twitter, LinkedIn, or Facebook.

So what exactly do you do?

First off, if you can’t fit all of your social media icons on the front page of your website…YOU HAVE TOO MANY!

Second, conduct a quasi-audit of your social media accounts and determine which ones are yielding the greatest interactivity.  It’s difficult for many companies to determine the overall return-on-investment (ROI), but significantly easier to identify which tools foster the greatest interactivity.  For those that don’t seem to be very active, it may be worth your while to just get rid of the social media tool entirely.

Need advice about which social media to commit to?  Here’s a list provided Alitmeter to help:

1.  Have a clear sense of business purpose.
2. Educate managers, employees, and stakeholders on your privacy and community policies.
3. Have a mindset ready for a long-term commitment.
4. Be ready to engage with people who have negative things to say.
5. Have a dedicated team that’s ready to engage.
6. Create a content calendar that’s loaded with meaningful content.
7. Set up a plan to triage or deal directly with customers.
8. Make sure you have the ability to measure your results and report them.

The thing is this–you don’t wan to have started a social media account, only to have vacated it and left it looking stale-and-empty for future visitors.  Even though you didn’t find worth or value in the tool, others visiting your profile may think you are incomplete or not worth that time.  Since marketing is all about pushing the best image and perception about you, or your blog/website/online business, give them nothing but positives to associate with your online presence.

So, whad’ya say?  Time to start trimming?

So why an eBook giveaway?

I believe giving your readers something for free–information, resources, or a product–is the best way to build trust amongst your readers.  As for your most “loyals” readers that opt-in to the subscription list, I also believe they ought to be rewarded with something for free.  It’s a way to say, “thank you” for taking time to subscribe to my list.

From an internet marketing standpoint, providing your subscribers with content and products is almost a “must-have.”

Here’s to several more eBook giveaway projects on the way…