Are you coming to the point, where you say to yourself – “Oh sh%t, I have to write my article or blog post?” Does the thought of writing drain you? And, even though you know you need to write articles to get more website traffic, build your list, nourish relationships and increase your profits – are you procrastinating writing your articles?

Then this new article is for you.

Learn from Marshall Goldsmith (the man who is ranked one of the most influential business thinkers in the world by The London Times and Forbes) and see how you can apply his secrets for getting unstuck to your own article writing and marketing efforts.

Why You End Up in a Writing Rut!

As Marshall says, “Our default reaction in life is to experience inertia. We all tend to go where we have been going, do what we have been doing and say what we have been saying.” If you say the same story time after time after time, and repeat the same advice – it gets boring! And, it’s not only boring for the reading, but it’s boring for you the writer.

You have to evolve as an article writer – in fact, I discuss the need to evolve in this article here:

http://bit.ly/d6IPcc

Marshall’s Solutions for Getting Unstuck

1. You need to challenge yourself to create new content — content that is not found anywhere else online.

2. Change your approach to article writing. You have to ask yourself, “If I have to spend this time writing articles, how can I make it more meaningful to my readers and myself? Part of the answer is to find your passion and let it shine through in your articles.

3. Stop saying later. The time is now. How many times have you said this to yourself, “You know, I am incredibly busy right now. And, given the pressures of work and home, I feel too over-committed. I simply don’t have the time and energy. I’ll write my articles later in maybe 2 to 3 weeks when things calm down.” The reality is that there will not be two or three weeks. It is always going to be crazy. If you are not taking the time to build your business now with articles, it’s never going to happen. As Marshall says, “To get unstuck, you have to look in the mirror day after day, and remind yourself of the actions that you will take today.” It requires discipline – but once you get writing and get out of this rut, you will get more profits and it will be worth it.

4. Get a peer coach – In a SUCCESS magazine article, Marshall mentions that he has a peer coach which asks him every day – “On a scale of 1 to 10, how happy were you yesterday? On a scale of 1 to 10, how meaningful was yesterday? How many minutes did you write? How many push-ups did you do?” This peer coach holds Marshall accountable. How do you hold yourself accountable to make sure you write and submit articles online and do the other marketing activities that will build your business?

Follow these tips and you’ll be writing articles on a daily basis – just like me “your article writing and marketing expert!” You see, I write articles on a daily basis for my ezine, blog, article submission and for my social media efforts. And, I never get bored.

To help you get out of this rut even more, check out my instant article writing templates at: StartWritingArticlesFaster.com <= Scroll to the bottom and get 3 article templates for free!

Instant Article Writing Template Creator Eric Gruber helps internet marketers and small business owners overcome writer’s block and end their writing rut fast so they can get more publicity, prospects and profits. Now, you can get 3 of Eric’s article templates for free – so you can write your articles in 30 minutes or less. Get it now at http://www.TryMyFreeArticleTemplates.com

There are over 80 million influential professionals from over 200 countries on LinkedIn that can become your potential customers. In fact, LinkedIn’s membership is what Neilson Online is calling “The world’s largest audience of affluent, influential professionals” as you will find executives from all Fortune 500 companies there. Plus, you will find experienced professionals from large and small companies and every type of business and industry imaginable.

So, why aren’t you able to attract more clients? Why is no one connecting with you?

Out of the 80 million professionals, there are only a few internet marketers and companies that are successfully getting more clients each and every single day from LinkedIn. Below, you will find out their secrets to attracting clients that are ready, willing and able to invest in their products or services.

3 Reasons Why You Are Not Attracting More Clients and Making More Money with LinkedIn

Reason #1 – You are waiting for prospects to come to you

Clients who are willing to pay for your products and services will not just fall into your lap.  As an entrepreneur you have to make it part of your job to go out and find them. 

Think of it this way, who is the interested party in this situation:

You or the person who doesn’t even know they know they need your services or products. 

You have to be the one the take charge and find your prospects. Here are a few ways to easily engage with others on LinkedIn…

*  Update your status message daily.

*  Start a vigorous discussion in various groups that you belong to. This will enable you to prove your expertise in your given area.

*  Answer questions on the Q & A Boards. This will show your experience and help you become a thought leader

Reason #2 -You fail to take advantage of LinkedIn groups

LinkedIn allows you to join up to 50 groups – where you can network, join conversations and show prospects that you have the answers to their problems. Yet, most small business owners and internet marketers do not actively seek groups that they should belong to.

If they do join groups they make these two mistakes:

1.  They become a member of a group – but they sit there like a lump on the log. How can you expect prospects to come to you if you do not take the time to make yourself heard?

2.  They join groups where there are like members.  Let me put it to you this way, do you want to be a member of a group that is full of your competition or do you want to belong to a group that is full of people who could turn out to be your prospects.  It sounds pretty obvious to me that you would want to be where your prospects are. But many entrepreneurs fail to think outside the box and strictly join groups based on their field of expertise. 

Another way, to take advantage of LinkedIn groups is to create your own group. This is the absolute best way to create your own community of followers. You are the one who is in charge of the type of content that is posted. You can make sure what you have to say is heard and you have the power to control your own group.  From my experience, many group members religiously check out what is being discussed in the groups they find the most useful.  Why can’t your group be one of them?

Reason #3 – Failure to Create Content and Distribute it to the Different Groups

Eric Gruber (My Partner at GetLinkedInHelp.com and Founder of Article Marketing Experts) belongs to 50 different groups. Now, if each of the 50 groups has at least 1,000 members, then each time he submits content, he is getting his content in front of 50,000 potential clients – just with a couple clicks of the mouse.

So, you need to create content that…

*  Proves your expertise
*  Sparks controversy and debate
*  Gets people talking
*  Entices prospects to visit your blog and website
*  Motivates prospects to take action (using your products or services of course)

Just by avoiding these common LinkedIn mistakes, you will begin to build your list of connections and prospects. Continue the conversation – and you will turn these prospects into paying customers and clients.

Now the three mistakes I outlined in this article is part of a larger special report where I detail 14 LinkedIn mistakes and the opportunities you are missing. You can get it for free at: http://www.GetLinkedInHelp.com

LinkedIn Expert Kristina Jaramillo creates online marketplace opportunities for small business owners who want more website traffic, prospects and profits. Now, with her free special report, you can uncover how you can become “the trusted source for your industry on LinkedIn” and along with easy ways to gain more connections fast by avoiding the top 14 mistakes. Get this information for free at: http://www.GetLinkedInHelp.com

Planning a Virtual Book Launch, a Virtual Book Birthday or a Virtual Book Tour are great compliments to a book marketing campaign. They are free, effective, and can stick around in the blogsphere forever to immortalize your book and marketing efforts.

Anyone can throw a Virtual Party for any reason and the set up is fun and free.

CREATE A PARTY WEBSITE

Do this at least two months in advance. It takes information time to travel throughout the web. Create a party website that’s attached to your author website. Build a party blog for the sole purpose of hosting daily or weekly party updates. If you are a multiple book author, keep the blog for all of your parties and invite current party goers to review your scrapbook of previous parties.

Plan out your weekly prizes, posts related to the book or guest, give tidbits about the book and your guest. Even spotlight like works from other authors.

Keep the party going and post monthly games, prizes, post related to your up and coming works. You can always point folks back to your party site and if you keep it going people will always want to return.

PARTY MUST HAVES

Offer party favors weekly(these are gifts given prior to the release day of the party), music, video interview of the author, video interview of guest, book trailer, gifts, contest, book excerpts, chat room, guest book, cover art, book reviews, email box, and anything you would think would improve the fun.

PARTY PROMOTIONS

To promote your party you could do the following; press release, tweet it, facebook it, newsletter, email it, tell everyone in the forums you visit and ask people to pass the word on.

Another author friend of mine used a service to offer up over $1000 in prizes for her Amazon Book Launch Party. She went on a week campaign of countdown advertising and prize offers with games. She updated her blog, sent email newsletters, tweeted, facebook, myspace, evite and the word spread. She’d moved up the ranks in the Amazon ranking system from the millions to around 20K. Not bad for a first party attempt.

COMPLIMENTS TO THE PARTY

Have a real party too! You can have a small local launch party and invite guest to log into the Virtual After Party while they are at the small local party. Sign the online guest book and do videos and pictures that will be posted on the Virtual Party site. After the local party, post pictures on the PARTY BLOG and kick off the next virtual party.

LM Preston is the author of The Pack and Explorer X – Alpha www.lmpreston.com and http://lmpreston.blogspot.com

If you are the author of a book, ebook or audio product available on Amazon.com, you can have a blog on the Amazon site through Amazon Connect.

Amazon Connect can bring more people to your product page where they can learn about and buy your book, it can inform customers about your upcoming events and new products, and it can lead Amazon customers to your web site or blog.

Your Amazon Connect blog will display on your product detail page. It will also be shown to customers who have purchased your books from Amazon in the past, and others who choose to subscribe.

The best part? It is easy and free. Here is all you have to do.

You will need to have an Amazon customer account. You probably already have one, but if you do not then go to http://www.Amazon.com/ and sign up.

Next, go to http://www.Amazon.com/connect and click on the “Sign up now” button.

You will have to answer some basic questions, and identify the products you are claiming as yours. Amazon will also want to verify that you are in fact the author of these books. You will be asked to provide contact information for your publisher, agent, publicist, distributor or other party who can verify your identity. I am self-published, so I pointed out that the email address on the account I was registering with Amazon Connect was the same as the email address on my Amazon Advantage account. They accepted that as verification.

Once your account is approved, just log in to http://www.Amazon.com/connect to start posting to your blog. Creating a post is as simple as writing something in Word, and you can add media such as pictures and video.

Posting is even easier if you already have a blog. Just enter the RSS feed at Amazon Connect and your Amazon blog will automatically update each time you add a post to your other blog. You can see this on my product detail page for The Mystery Shopper’s Manual. The RSS feed from my mystery shopper blog automatically sends my blog posts to the Amazon page.

Another use for Amazon Connect is to put video on your product page. Of course, if you want the video to stay on the page, you may choose not to use the RSS feed from your blog in Amazon Connect, because new blog posts will push the older ones off the page. An alternative would be to periodically post new videos or periodically repost the old videos to Amazon Connect.

Having a free blog on Amazon is a simple and free way to promote and sell more books.

Cathy Stucker is the author of The Mystery Shopper’s Manual and many other books. You can learn more about mystery shopping at her mystery shopper blog.

Online methods of promoting your book are fast becoming the most cost effective way to market and promote your new book. Authors are discovering the Virtual Book Tour, which allows you to promote your book via the Internet through articles, blogs, podcasts, interviews, radio shows and Web sites without the issues and financial burden that can be associated with in-person signings.

Sound intriguing? Not sure where to begin? Listed below are ten tips to help you create a successful virtual book tour.

1. Create a Web page

Set up a web page specifically for the Virtual Book Tour (VBT). This is where you will send potential tour stop hosts so they can sign up to join your VBT. This site should also capture contact information and put it in your shopping cart system for future email promotions.

2. Create a book trailer

Create a dynamic book trailer. Don’t skimp on this step. This will be one of the main reasons people sign up for the book tour. A good book trailer acts along the lines of a movie trailer. It’s your hook to draw people in; get them curious and have them asking for more.

3. Do your research

Spend a lot of time carefully doing Internet research to find areas that fit your target market. (Are you writing about self-help, women’s issues, business, a fantasy novel?) Search blogs, web radio, newsletters, article submissions, and social networking sites.

4. Create a killer pitch letter geared toward your target market

Create a pitch letter, stating who you are, what you are doing, and add links to the Web site and the book trailer. Personalize the letter and specifically gear it toward your target audience, and make sure it doesn’t sound canned or come off as a mass email.

5. Offer more than blogging

Podcasts, Q&A sessions, live interviews, phone interviews, articles for newsletters, Internet radio interviews; all work, as well as blogs. The easier you can make it for your tour stop host, the better response you’ll receive.

6. Create a tracking spreadsheet

Create a spreadsheet to include the sites you’ve found, the contact information, when you contacted them, what you can offer that particular contact (i.e., will you blog for them, do a Q&A session, live interview, podcast?), and make a column for responses. Then use an online calendar (Outlook, Google, Yahoo all have calendars that will work just fine) to see who’s doing what, when, and where.

7. Follow up at least four (4) times

Once you have all these steps in place, you are ready to start contacting each person on your list along with their personal pitch letter. If you don’t get a response right away, follow up (at least four times) with a different pitch letter eachtime. (It’s not as necessary to personalize these follow up letters.) If you still get no response after the fourth try, move on to a new group of contacts.

8. Start your own blog

Post what’s happening with your VBT in your own blog. Add each tour stop date and plug the tour stop host’s company, their Web site and their contact information.

9. Send Goodies

Offer to send a copy of your book to your tour stop host along with other possible freebies, (i.e., a workbook, a report, an audio CD, etc.). And don’t forget a thank you note.

10. Ask for referrals

Ask your tour stop host for referrals of people they know that would benefit from your book. You’ll find that if you offer quality content and are passionate and enthusiastic about your book then others will be too.

Karen L. Reddick, MVA, is an author, editor, and virtual assistant and owner of V And E Services and The Red Pen Editor providing author assistance and editorial services to authors, writers and publishers. Learn more how Karen can help with your next virtual book tour at www.VandEServices.com and sign up for The Editor’s weekly grammar tips at www.TheRedPenEditor.com