This morning I read an interesting blog post by Shoemoney, who claims Twitter will be as worthless as MySpace shortly.

It wasn’t another of those “X is dead…” type posts you see a lot of…

This one actually made a lot of sense.

Shoemoney’s experience with Twitter is a lot like my own…

• When it first came out, I didn’t really understand what the big fuss was about.
• Then I did and at one stage, was one of the top 800 most followed and had the dubious honour of being the most followed Welsh user.
• Unlike Shoemoney, I didn’t make thousands of dollars from Twitter but I did manage to piss off a few people by doing overly promotional tweets.
• And then, I got bored with it, unfollowed everybody and pretty much stopped using it.

I have tried on a couple of occasions to get back into using Twitter but just like Shoemoney, I no longer see the point.

The painful truth is Twitter is overrun with scammers flooding the website with fake spambot accounts or school-age youngsters waiting for some banal update from their favourite celebrity…

Neither of which demographic is much use to advertisers, an argument made by Shoemoney who is on the board of the biggest Twitter advertising network around.

The point is websites such as MySpace, Twitter and even Facebook come and go.

As somebody who wasted too much time “building a following” on Twitter than actually building my business I am not going to be taken in by any more “shiny” social networks.

And, if you are online to make money and not “play” at business, then neither should you.

I am not saying don’t have a social presence – I have my own Facebook page and that enables new people to find me and then click through to this blog.

But, spend the bulk of your time adding value to your own business by building your email list and creating products to sell (you know, to make money – that green stuff that actually pays the bills!)

If you let them, sites like Facebook and Twitter will keep you “busy” but also have a tendency to keep you poor.

Therefore, today I want to revisit a topic that isn’t that “sexy” but it will make or break your business…

It’s also something that a lot of marketers find difficult and so fill their time elsewhere rather than tackling it head on.

The topic is of course list building.

Without subscribers, leads, prospects and customers, your business will die…

Heck, without them, you don’t even have a business, regardless of how many Twitter profiles or Facebook fan pages you have online!

However, even if you are building a list, the chances are you are doing it all wrong – sending your subscribers too much “free crap” they don’t want and pounding their inbox with cut-and-paste swipe copy…

Sound familiar?

Well, today I have the solution for you!

A Skype buddy of mine, Paul Clifford has just released List Leverage as a low-price, high value WSO on the Warrior Forum.

When you sign up, you will learn how to not only maximise your opt-ins but also build an incredible rapport with your subscriber that can earn you $25 per subscriber per month!

These figures are almost unheard of in the Internet Marketing industry and excite me a lot more than Twitter followers and Facebook likes!

Click here to get List Leverage and skyrocket the value of your subscriber base!

(image attributed to eldh)

Twitter. Is it really of any use or is it just another fad which accomplishes nothing more than distracting you from what you need to be doing?

I am still undecided but I want to determine whether Twitter can be used productively or not.

I have not discussed using Twitter much on this blog apart from an unsuccessful attempt at marketing with it last summer which achieved nothing more than pissing people off and now I think it’s time for a change.

Last night, I dumped all 51,963 Twitter users I was following and instead I am going to focus on a handful of users who I think can be useful to me in terms of networking and traffic generation.

Sound a bit cold? Perhaps a bit cynical?

Maybe it is but those 50,000 or so people who I followed and who followed me in return, wasn’t doing anything for me.

I have not enjoyed huge swarthes of traffic from Twitter and there has been next to no interaction.

Following so many people makes it difficult to keep a track of who I really want to follow and I have no time to create separate lists.

I used to use Seesmic Desktop but keeping it open all day to monitor certain users tweets is distracting.

So, I just stopped using Twitter and until today, I became an insiginficant Twitter user, albeit one with a higher following than most.

It’s time to start afresh.

By following a smaller number of people, I will be able to get involved with their content and become useful to them by retweeting their stuff.

Hopefully, in time they will notice my generosity and reciprocate.

My following is not restricted to the big guns – if anyone reading this follows me and gets involved with my tweets then I will follow you back and return the favour.

It’s just my days of following for the sake of following are over.

I recorded a video of me dumping 50k+ Twitter users and I will record another in a few months time if my new approach to Twitter has been successful or not.

Now it’s over to you – are you using Twitter?

If so, how are you using it and is it proving successful?

Leave your thoughts and own experiences in the comments below!

I wrote a post on how to make your blog count but I still don’t think enough people “get” what is required to build and maintain an authority blog in your chosen niche.

I really believe anybody can have a successful blog. Let’s not forget that even the famous bloggers started off with nothing but an empty website and a far-off dream.

Here I want to summarise what I believe to be the five steps you need to follow if you want your blog to become successful and to make it clear that online fame, wealth and success does not happen overnight!

(adapted from a photograph by Annie Mole)

1. Get It Going!

The very first thing you need to do is to get your blog online so stop procrastinating and get started now!

Remember, you don’t need to get it “right”, just get it going and start building your online presence.

I want you to move away from the free blog hosting options, like WordPress.com and Blogspot. If you are to be taken seriously online at the very least you need a blog which has your own domain name (get a .com for around $10 from GoDaddy) and hosting (Hostgator can provide this for less than $5 a month).

Whatever niche you are operating in, you need to explain why people should listen to you. Brand yourself as the expert in your niche in your very first post by telling your story.

As the old saying goes, start as you mean to go on.

(image attributed to Mexicanwave)

2. Establish Your Blog

Once you have completed your first post the next stage is to keep posting and at regular times!

You should make it clear to your readers how often you are going to post new content and then do your best to stick to it!

Write some pillar articles which are usually in a tutorial format and aimed at teaching something valuable to your readers. These posts are generally longer than your usual “what I had for lunch today” type content and are filled with practical advice other people charge money for.

You should also set up a mailing list as soon as possible because the money will come via the relationship you build with those people on your list – in time, lots of them! I use Aweber to handle this and I cannot stress how vital it is to your long term business to get it set up.

To entice people to add their name and email address to the opt in form on your blog, you need to offer them an ethical bribe – usually a free report, video or audio interview.

Clue: create something based around your pillar content and make sure you read my post on product creation.

This product doesn’t have to be earth shattering, just valuable enough so your prospects will be happy they managed to get some great content for free.

I should, at this point, tell you that you won’t be getting inundated with visitors during the early months of your blog and you will make next to no money.

This is where most people give up.

But not you, right?

(photograph attributed to neoporcupine)

3. Generate Traffic

During the early stages of your blog’s life you may start getting a handful of visitors and comments to each post if you have done any sort of promotion, e.g.

• Commenting on other people’s blogs
• Hawking your blog around on Twitter and Facebook
• Submitting your posts to social media websites
• Some of your posts may generate search engine traffic

But, now you want to take your blog to the next level and that means more traffic.

As the quality content on your blog increases, you are now in a position to guest post on other authoritative blogs in your niche.

It doesn’t matter if you are not “well known” because you have set your stall out as an expert (your first post, remember?) and the person whose blog you want to guest post on will see the calibre of your content through the pillar articles you have already written.

You have given yourself instant expert status and are in a position to open yourself up to a new audience through other people’s blogs!

Regular guest posting can generate a snowball effect to your traffic because not only will you obviously get the additional visitors from your guest post, but more people will:

• Link to your blog posts from their blogs
• Submit and bookmark your content on social media websites
• Re-tweet your content so it spread across Twitter like a virus!

… all resulting in even more visitors arriving at your blog!

(adapted from a photograph by AMagill)

4. Make Money!

It has taken you a few months  but hopefully it has been an enjoyable learning experience for you and you should now have what can be described as a successful blog.

If you have followed the first three steps then you should also notice an increase, month on month, in your income.

Remember that mailing list we set up in point number two? After several months it should now be growing into the thousands.

You can of course drive those people back to your blog by emailing them when you have posted new content on your blog but you can also pitch products, training courses etc. to them, either your own or as an affiliate.

As your readership and email list grows each month, so should your earnings.

The bulk of your earnings will come via your mailing list but you can also make additional income selling advertising space on your blog or using affiliate banners.

(photograph attributed to supernova3688)

5. To Infinity & Beyond…

The sky really is the limit as far as your blog goes.

It can grow from nothing into a powerful, authority hub and make you famous online… but only if you are willing to put the time and effort in.

If you are one of the few who have the drive to get to the stage where your blog earns a substantial income then you may be pleased to know you do not have to plough so much time and effort into it forever.

Your blog should reach a stage where growth is self-perpetuating:

• You have thousands of people on your list you can drive to new blog posts
• People talk about you constantly on social media websites
• People talk about you on their own blogs
• Your blog ranks prominently in the search engines for key terms in your niche

Of course you need to keep your blog updated with fresh content, but it’s not as important now as it was when you were first starting out. Plus, people will email you, begging you to publish their guest posts – free content for you!

With your blog constantly generating fresh leads for your business you can concentrate on even more lucrative avenues, such as:

• Guest speaking
• Hosting seminars and workshops
• High end coaching and mentoring
• Book deals

The incredible thing is - this can happen for anyone who has the passion for their niche and a will to succeed.

It all begins with your first post so start your blog NOW – what is stopping you from having a successful blog apart from yourself?

Today’s Something for the Weekend is a cool hierarchy graphic that made the front page of Digg earlier in the week. It shows the different types of online distractions that bombard you every day and prevent you from doing any actual work. While it has been presented in a humourous way, it just goes to show what us internet marketers are up against every day while trying to make money online and not falling victim to the numerous time wasters which are just a single mouse click away!

Click the image to see a larger version of it.

I think this is a very conservative estimate of the distractions available to us, both online and offline.

For example, it only takes into consideration some of the larger networking sites -what about idly wasting time browsing forums or social media websites such as Digg?

Is it any wonder we always look for ways to get more done in less time with digital temptation all around us?

While self employment as an internet marketer is a great way to earn a living, you also need to be even more disciplined than you would be skiving at your 9-5 at your bosses expense!

Seeing as it is the weekend and we haven’t really got any work to do, why don’t you tell me how many of the distractions in the graphic above disrupted you this week? How many hours do you think you wasted?

Just write them as a comment below and let’s share how little “work” can actually get done!

The most distracted person wins a severe reprimanding and a copy of Net Nanny

Yet again, Something for the Weekend is dedicated to the students on the Marketing With Alex 2.0 course. However, this week there appeared to be less content to choose from. I know some students are pushing on with other projects and may not have had as much time to blog but I hope this is the case generally and that people are not running out of steam after only a few weeks.

Anyway, these 10 blog posts have grabbed my attention this week and I am really pleased to be able to share them with you.

Video marketing has dominated a lot of student content over the past few weeks and one person who, for me, has taken this to the next level is Matt Wolfe. His entry for the Alex Jeffreys video competition is brilliant and exceeded my expectations. His video is based around MTV Cribs and gives us an insight into his life as a rockstar internet marketer. Seriously, I can’t justify how funny, entertaining and well produced thiis entry is, just click here and watch the video.

Not content with making a cameo appearance in Matt’s above video, Joe Fier revealed on his blog that he and Matt are to produce a twice-weekly web show where they talk about internet marketing and get through an obscene amount of Corona at the same time. I have loved the videos these guys have produced so far and they could be onto something huge with this web show. I wish you the best of luck with it and hopefully I can get involved in one of your shows at some point myself. Vegas, anyone?

A few students on the course are taking up the 90 Day Challenge and the latest to do so is Iain Buchanan. I have noticed Iain is doing a lot with video marketing and producing a video every day for 90 days is only going to see him go from strength to strength. I need to do this challenge myself and I think it’s something I will consider when I move into my new house. I may even do my own episode of Cribs to give Matt a run for his money…

Guy Hague gave us a behind the scenes look at how he went about producing his video for Alex’s competition. I enjoyed reading about the different approaches Guy tried to produce his video and now he has gone through the process successfully, I fully expect to see a lot more video content from him in the future.

If anyone has any doubts over the power of video marketing, then you should have a word with Rob Canyon. This week, Rob blogged about how he leapt to the top of Google for the competitive “blog copywriting” search phrase by producing a video on the subject and uploading it to Youtube. What is even more remarkable about this feat, is his video ranks above the Copyblogger website and also copywriting powerhouses Michael Fortin and David Garfinkel for the same phrase!

Moving away from video, David Chamberlain indentified the three “musts” to succeed in internet marketing. It sounds very simple – if you can be trustworthy and offer value then you are halfway there. The other half is down to traffic. Well, you need people to appear trustworthy and provide value to, don’t you?

I enjoy reading blog posts which compare internet marketing to completely unrelated subject matter, so it’s no surprise to see Huddson Lee and What I Learned from My Dog About Online Marketing adorn this column. It’s just a shame the blog post was borne out of such sad circumstances for Huddson.

Mick Fallon wrote a great blog post about the importance of adding humour to your blog posts. I am probably guilty of taking internet marketing a bit too seriously but that’s because I am now more determined than ever to do well. I expect when I experience a bit of success I will lighten up a bit!

I have not seen much of Rich Darby online over the past week or so, but I expect he has been busy with the release of his new ebook, Tweeter Domination. Rich is promoting his ebook aggressively on the JV Giveaway sites and is having success with it so far. Get in touch, Rich, we need to catch up!

Finally, Rich Martin wrote a thought provoking blog post about leadership and getting ahead of the crowd. I recommend you visit his blog and read the article for yourself but I will leave you with this analogy – if you are not the lead dog, the view never changes.

Please leave your thoughts on this week’s selection, good or bad, in the comments below.

Last night’s coaching webinar with Alex Jeffreys was all about driving targeted traffic to your blog. Traffic, or visitors as people who arrived at your website used to be referred to before the internet became trendy, is the lifeblood of any online business. If nobody visits your website then there is no interaction, no relationships are formed and ultimately no sales are made. Without visitors to read what you are putting out there, a blog may as well not exist.

Alex is keen to see everyone who is participating on his coaching program to increase the traffic to their blog and to make it more interesting, he is offering a $1,000 bounty to the student who accumulates the most traffic across a two-week period.

Before getting into how I am going to promote my blog, I want to show you where I am at today in terms of traffic. At the start of July, 2009 you can see my traffic numbers were not that great:

Apart from a blip on 15 July where I had a huge spike of traffic, I had been attracting less than 100 unique visitors every day to my blog.

But, the second half of the month saw an improvement and the last 10 days have all seen well over 100 unique visitors per day. At the time of writing this post I have had 29 visitors, but I see no reason why I won’t get over the 100 mark again today.

So, where is the traffic coming from? One word – Twitter. As you can see below Twitter is sending me around close to 50% of all the visitors who come to my blog.

I am getting a lot of “direct traffic” which I assume is people typing my url straight into the address bar of their web browser and it’s no surprise a percentage of traffic is coming from the Alex Jeffreys’ coaching forum, where I am quite active.

What is encouraging, however, is I am now getting search engine traffic, notably for people searching specifically for my name and this blog. This wasn’t happening at the start of July so my efforts so far to get my brand recognised are having at least a small, positive effect.

I don’t think I have made a bad start to this blog but this is really only the beginning. At the end of the two week competition period I want to at least double the number of daily visitors who come to my blog, between 200-300 uniques.

One of the rules in the competition is I have to write about how I am driving the traffic to my blog. To start off this series of traffic related posts, here are 10 methods I will use to promote my blog over the next fortnight and beyond:

• Twitter. So far, Twitter is my main source of traffic so I will try and get even more from it. I will tweet some of my better, more “timeless” blog posts at regular intervals to try and pick up some new visitors but will have to be careful I don’t overdo it.

• Blog Commenting. This has proved successful so far in getting traffic to my blog and I have found commenting on other people’s blogs also sees the number of comments I get here increase dramatically. I will continue to comment on other coaching student’s blogs regularly but also widen my net further and comment on some of the more popular internet marketing blogs out there.

• Forums. The coaching forum has provided me with plenty of traffic as more and more students get to grips with their blogs and become active in the community. I will continue to post there as much as I can to help people out but I will also turn my attention to the Warrior Forum which is a huge community of both up-and-coming and more experienced internet marketers. If I can add value there thenm I should see a steady flow of traffic arriving at my blog.

• Social Bookmarking. This is something I have experienced success with in the past but have not really done it yet with this blog. I will submit my better posts to some of the bookmarking sites like Stumbleupon and Delicious and hope they strike a chord with the people who use them. If one of my blog posts takes off, I could get tens of thousands of unique visitors as it goes viral.

• Podcasting. This is something quite new to me but I have enjoyed doing it so far. I will produce regular, short podcast updates of what I am doing on Audio Boo and mention my blog within my recordings. The website may not drive a huge amount of traffic but hey, if it’s good enough for Tony Blackburn, then it’s good enough for me! I also want to get together on Skype with other students on the course for a weekly “brainstorming” session which can be recorded and submitted to other podcasting websites.

• Video. This is something I know I have to do more of but at the moment I am guilty of procrastination. I need to start producing videos and syndicating them around the various hubs, such as Youtube. Not only will the videos generate traffic but also valuable backlinks which will help my search engine rankings.

• Search Engine Optimisation. Most of the above activities will see my rankings in the search engines improve and I just need to keep adding quality content to this blog to make it more of an “authority” site. At the moment, I do not show up for my name “David Walker” until page three of Google UK and that needs to improve especially as some traffic has started trickling through via a “David Walker” search term.

• JV Giveaways. I have started experimenting with JV Giveaways and it has already had a positive effect on growing my mailing list. When someone joins my list and downloads my ebook, they should find their way to my blog via the links contained within in.

• Facebook. I am not really doing a lot in terms of promotion with Facebook, but I have added a link to my blog on my profile page and will link out to my latest blog post on my status updates. The traffic numbers will not be huge but every little helps. In time, as my brand grows and when I feel it is justifiable, I will create a “fan page” for my blog on there which should generate further buzz and traffic.

• My Email List. I have worked hard on attracting people to my mailing list and they are all interested in what I have to say. I can create an automated RSS Newsletter to send out to them every time a new post appears on the blog or after a set number of new posts have gone live. This kind of repeat custom will drive a lot of traffic back to my blog over time as my list gets bigger.

I am going to give this a real go over the next couple of weeks because while it would be nice to win the $1,000 it is also a good incentive to step the traffic promotion efforts up a notch and get even more people aware of what I am trying to achieve here.

If anyone has additional methods they are going to use to promote their blogs or has any improvements on what I have written about here, please leave your comments below!

When Perry Belcher, who has over 100,000 followers talks about Twitter, you listen. He argues you should treat Twitter and indeed other social media platforms as a party. Nobody goes to a party with the intention to sell to the other guests. If you did, then you would be thought of as an asshole. Unfortunately today, I became that asshole at the party

Not intentionally, of course. I have worked hard on building my Twitter following and try to put out a lot of good, relevant and useful content out there.

However, over the weekend I delved into the world of JV Giveaways to build my list and made the mistake of scheduling tweets relating to these events to be published every six hours.

It soon became apparent that promoting four events of this nature, four times per day, was too much:

Oops. That’s one disgruntled ex-follower who made their feelings perfectly clear.

The old adage of people enjoy buying but not wanting to be sold to is summed up perfectly here.

I have almost 44,000 followers and the numbers fluctuate up and down every day so I have no idea how many other people I annoyed enough to unfollow me. A decent number I suspect.

Now, I have cut down the promotion of each event I am participating in and recruiting contributors to just one tweet per day but I am also sending out two tweets per day to one event which has started and looking for members to download the freebies.

This also has not exactly run smoothly.

Rather than just telling my followers they can download a load of good stuff for free, I tried to add some controversy and make the tweet a little more edgy:

I was quite pleased with this tweet. It tells people they can get loads of stuff for free and the premise they could do so by being a bit naughty should intrigue them enough to click through.

When they click through it should become obvious the offer is perfectly legitimate and that no acts of theft are going on.

Guess who didn’t click through…

and…

So, what does this tell us?

If followers who see my tweets offering free gifts are not prepared to click through the link to investigate further, then I am fair game to feel their wrath.

Perhaps I should not try to be so clever in future tweets promoting such giveaway events but be more straight to the point that by clicking my link you can:

a) Sign up to an event as a contributor and attract more people to your mailing list

or

b) Sign up to an event as a member and downloads of free ebooks and software (legally).

This is quite boring but if there is no ambiguity then I am less likely to be seen as that asshole at the party and retain my followers.

If anyone else is promoting JV Giveaways using Twitter then please share your experiences or any tips you have as a comment below, I’d love to learn more about this and annoy as few people as possible along the way!

This has been a pretty productive week for me and in fact, I have probably pushed my new business forward more over the past seven days than I have in the past few months! I have reached a couple of important milestones but also acheived lots of little things this week which I know will reap huge rewards for me over the coming months. So, without further ado, here’s a roundup over what’s been happening at DavidWalker.tv this week.

The main achievement this week has been completing my first free product – Stop Slogging Start Blogging! I began writing it a couple of weeks before the Alex Jeffreys coaching began in order to give myself a head start and managed to launch it on Tuesday.

I am quite happy with it overall. The system is sound and is one followed by the six figure blogging powerhouses such as John Chow and Yaro Starak and hopefully I will be able to join them in the next 12 months or so.

Importantly for me, I released the ebook even though I know it is not “perfect”. There are still some things I would have liked to have added to it but I wanted to take on board the mantra: “don’t get it perfect, get it going” and have proved to myself that my perfectionist days are behind me.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not finished with the ebook yet and am planning later updates for it. But, for the time being, it is good enough to do what it’s two main objectives are – to provide value to the person downloading it and to build my email list.

Not only have I launched my ebook, but I also completed a seven day autoresponder sequence to follow up after a subscriber confirms their email address and downloads the ebook.

The sequence is an abridged version of the ebook but aims to keep my subscriber on track with getting their blog set up and I also invite them to contact me if they are struggling with anything. This should help me to build a solid relationship with my subscribers and prove to them that I am here to help and not just push a load of crap out to them like so many other BS marketers out there.

Those were the two big milestones this week but a lot of other great things have happened this week and I just want to make a note of them quickly here:

• JV Giveaways. I wanted to get stuck into some JV Giveaways this week and signed up to five of them. I created a JV Giveaway page on this blog to keep a track of where I am promoting my ebook. If anyone reading this also has an ebook to promote, feel free to go through that page and sign up to the same giveaways as I have. I think this topic warrants a blog post of it’s own, or even a video, so I will get around to that next week.
• Tweet Elite Pro. I spoke to JT Martin earlier today and he was kind enough to spend about 20 minutes with me and discuss the merits of Tweet Elite Pro of which he was a Beta tester. I am a HUGE fan of Twitter but find myself spending far too long on it. The software will enable me to schedule Tweets in advance which will be a huge timesaver for me and ensure I get my JV Giveaway tweets and links to my better blog posts out there on a regular, hands free basis. The software cost me $147 but will be worth numerous times that in terms of the number of hours it will save me. Of course I bought it through JT’s link as well. Share the love, I say.
• Email List. Staying on the JV Giveaway topic, my subscriber list grew from less than 20 yesterday to 32 as I write this so the giveaways are already having a positive effect.
• Blog Design. I don’t like my blog header image so the talented Joe Fier is going to redesign me a new one which will stretch the full width of the blog. He is generous enough to do this design work for free but for a $10 sweetener he’ll move you to the front of the queue. I had no hesitations in paying him the money. Share the love. Again.
• Blog Comments. I just want to thank everyone for the great comments which have been left on my blog over the past week or so and I am going to have a major commenting session later today and check out what the students have been up to since the last time I check.
• Skype. I have spoken to some cool people this week but still haven’t got around to all the students yet. If you haven’t spoken to me yet, please add me and get in touch! Shout outs this week to Sean Beardmore, Paul Hooper, Rich Darby, Marcus Passey and of course JT.

This really has been a great week for me. While I am still prone to distractions, I am becoming much more productive and I feel my enthusiasm for internet marketing returning.

There is plenty more to come from me. This really is just the beginning.

I am proud to present a special Something for the Weekend post this week. The reason it’s special is not only because it includes 10 great links rather than the usual five, but all the posts have been produced by my fellow students on the Alex Jeffreys coaching program. The standard of posts have  been nothing short of astounding, especially when you consider some of the people involved are completely new to blogging. Anyway, enough of me trying to steal their thunder, here are the posts which have really stood out for me this week. Enjoy.

A lot of the early coaching has centred around a solid foundation of planning so it is no surprise that a lot of blog content has reflected this so far. One post which caught my attention was by Alan Harris, who took this a step further and produced a video showing how he has used the wall in his hall as a gigantic planner board! It really is something else and I don’t think the missus would be too happy if I tried the same thing at my house!

A thought provoking post came from Karen Kalata who based an article around Alex’s quote: “an idiot with a plan will always beat a genius without one“. Unfortunately I have been that genius for way too long. I am happy to say that my days of flitting from one money making escapade to the next have come to an end!

Gil Dotan continued the planning theme with his #1 reason people fail online. It’s so easy to become a victim of information overload and you need to focus on what needs to be done rather than getting lost among the noise.

A lot of Alex’s coaching focuses on building a super responsive list and I enjoyed Andrew Vaughan’s nine things you need to create a list while Paul Hooper also produced a good video on list building.

Talking of videos, I cannot fail to be anything but impressed by Marcus Passey and his determination to succeed. He set a precident this week with not one but TWO introductory videos and I am looking forward to watching his on-screen presence grow in the coming weeks.

Neil Marsh weighed in with a rather hefty post on the art of blogging. His article includes 10 powerful tips on producing an effective blog and I particularly agree with his point on adding value to other people’s blogs. Since I have started commenting on other blogs, comments to mine have increased significantly!

Search engine optimisation is something all bloggers should consider because a lot of traffic will come via Google et al and Keith Purkiss outlined the importance behind ranking top for your name on the search engines.

Matt Wolfe, who has been blogging like a madman over the past two weeks, revealed some “sneaky” marketing tricks. Well, not so much sneaky, but ways you can add value to your customers in order to maximise your chances of earning affiliate commissions.

Finally, Roger Edwards wrote a great blog post about the first brainstorming session we had with Alex on Thursday night. Roger has proven himself to be a great story teller and I am looking forward to more of his writing.

Do you think I made the right choice with this week’s selection or do you think I missed out some great content by another student? Whatever your thoughts, please leave a comment below!

As an internet entrepreneur, I am constantly being told I can work less hours than in a “normal” job and earn a lot more money. However, this has definitely not been the case for me. For the past 12 months I have found myself practically enslaved to my PC and am working far more hours than would probably be legal for anyone in regular employment. As part of my business development process I have been made aware of some great time saving tips and tricks which ensure I can get more done in less time and make sure I can get off the PC at a decent time in the evening!

I have blogged about six methods below which can give you more free time than Santa Claus and you should use them every day, with no excuses, for three weeks until they become habitual.

1. Get Focused

I have been guilty of wasting hours and hours every day not doing anything particularly constructive and certainly not leading me towards my goals.

Make a note of everything you do each day in your business. I mean everything – opening the mail to creating your latest information products. Then, when you have a nice long list, isolate three things which are critical to your business growth. These could the A Tasks I discussed in an earlier blog post and they are the tasks you simply must get done that day.

2. Switch Off Distractions

In addition to not having a clear focus of what needs to be achieved each day, another major cause of wasted time is distractions. In this day and age we are surrounded by them – emails, mobile phones, Twitter, Facebook, Skype, MSN and sudden ideas.

Every distraction can lead to 11 minutes of lost time and if you make yourself available every second of the day then you will never get anything done. When you are working on your critical tasks, shut yourself away from the rest of the world. That means closing down Outlook, Skype, your web browser and switching off your mobile phone. If anyone does contact you then you can deal with messages left for you at a more appropriate time.

If you are wary of upsetting your customers by not being at their every beck and call, add an autoresponder to your main business email and state what times you are available to answer queries. Similarly, you can record an answering machine message conveying the same information. Despite living in a social web where customers expect availability 24/7, they will soon realise your time is valuable and subconsciously they will respect you for it

3. Capture Your Ideas

Being an internet entrepreneur means you have ideas constantly swilling around your head. This can be a real drag if you get too distracted so you need a method to capture all those ideas and store them away to be dealt with later. Whether it’s the fact you need to buy a loaf of bread or you come up with a great idea for a blog post, they need to be dealt with so you can get back to what you were supposed to be doing.

The obvious way to do this is by good old fashioned pen and paper, or you can store it electronically on your PC. The bread will get captured and transferred to this week’s shopping list. Emails you need to write will get captured and added to a client contact list while new blog post ideas will be added to the blog-to-do list. Once these ideas are filed accordingly they can be dealt with one at a time and ticked off.

4. Work Smarter, Not Harder

I have always found I worked much better when under the pressure of a firm deadline. This was always the case while at university, I’d always leave my essays until the last minute and still get them done no problem. Similarly, I’d always cram for an exam the night before and remember loads of information because I simply had to!

Adopt the same approach with your online business to avoid procrastination and general slacking off. Invest in a countdown timer and set it for an hour to complete a critical task. I did this with this very blog post and managed to get it done with time to spare when it would usually take me two to three hours to complete.

If pitting yourself against the clock is not enough, then set up a small reward for completing the task. Perhaps there is a new movie you want to watch or a restaurant you want to visit. Make sure you only get rewarded when the work is done!

5. Avoid a Slow Email Death

I know we covered email briefly in section two but it really is worth spending more time on. As you can see from the graphic above, over one quarter of an office worker’s day is consumed by messing about with emails and other messages. It’s no wonder a lot of small businesses go under with that level of distraction!

When it’s time to deal with your email messages, move the unimportant ones to another folder to be handled at a later time. If it’s from a customer, either reply to them or mark it for when you have all the information they require to hand. Once it’s been replied to, store it in another folder. File away your newsletters and set aside some time to scan through them and then act upon whatever looks valuable to your business.

What we are trying to achieve here is to keep your inbox as empty as possible. There is no point in wading through emails numerous times when they have already been dealt with.

6. Make Sure You Don’t Drown

You are in real danger of information overload if you don’t take steps to filter out all the junk which can waste hours and hours every day. I use a free RSS reader plugin for Firefox, Wizz RSS, and have plugged in feeds for several industry blogs and social networking sites I want to keep an eye on. Rather than me loading up each website individually to look for new content, the RSS reader presents me with a list of blog post titles enabling me to scan for anything interesting in a matter of seconds.

I also love to use Twitter. I now have over 40,000 followers but the people I am really interested in do not get lost among the noise because I use Seesmic Desktop. This great piece of software allows me to create “groups” of followers so their tweets are displayed on their own timeline and the rest just gets filtered out. You can also use Tweetdeck to achieve the same result.

Final Thoughts – Do It Your Way

These are all common sense tips to help you become more productive in your daily business but it all boils down to how you work best rather than me telling you how you should work.

For example, you may find yourself more creative in the morning but are generally unproductive after lunch. This means all your critical tasks should be dealt with first thing and then after lunch you can do things like reply to emails and other messages.

If you find you are getting your critical tasks out of the way earlier then you should be able to cut down your working hours each day. There’s no reason why you cannot halve your workday and double your overall productivity!

You may also be interested in 10 Secrets of a Successful Online Business which can help to narrow your focus and help your productivity soar!