Chris Ducker

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#NewBusiness Chit-Chat: Facebook, or Google+ for Building an Online Community?

May 31, 2012 by Chris 46 Comments

Focus on Social MediaI’m in the process of putting together some pretty major changes to my blogging focuses, schedules and over all online strategies. All will be revealed here shortly, I promise.

One of the main things that I’ve been looking into recently has been that of my efforts to build an online community, away from blogging, for everyone to come together, converse, network and help each other.

When you’re doing something like this, as far as I’m concerned it comes down to a very simple question…

Facebook, or Google+…?

I believe that *most* people have a clear picture of their answer and certainly favor one of the social networking giants, over the other.

Facebook certainly has a bigger number attached to it, in terms of users. However, Google+ is being seen as potentially more authoritative, for the obvious reasons, as well as slightly more ‘entrepreneurial’, too.

So, I’d like you to take 10secs and comment below with your answer.

If you’d like to elaborate, then feel free – but a simple one-word reply is also very much appreciated.

GO!

Ask the Readers: Are you REALLY in the Right Niche, as an Online Publisher?

January 27, 2012 by Chris 43 Comments

I’m currently in the process of working with a blogging mentor – I’ll reveal who it is at a later date, but trust me, their credentials are solid!

The reason why I reached out to this person is because I’ve been battling with a few ‘blogging demons’ over the last few months. More specifically, I am actually questioning my purpose as a blogger, as well as my general niche and the way that I am perceived in that niche, too.

It’s Personal, I Get It!

The thing is that we blog for our audiences, obviously. But, as a blogger, when you spend the amount of time that you do, putting together all of your content, surely, you should be:

a) Enjoying it.

b) Doing it for the right reasons.

This is what I am questioning, I guess, at the moment. And, I must say, after just two sessions with my mentor, along with a little homework, I already feel that I’m getting close to REALLY understanding what I SHOULD be doing and the type of content that I should be creating as a blogger.

Now I’m Wondering…

So, here I am, now starting to wonder if all my blogging buddies and the other people that I enjoy reading online (and perhaps even offline – you know, real BOOKS!), are perhaps feeling the same way?

Are you blogging in, and about the niche, that you REALLY should be?

Or, have you started something that has done well, and you’re simply sticking with because it keeps you ‘up there’, or making you money?

I’m curious. If you’re a blogger, podcaster, author or online video producer, please let me know how you feel about this topic below in the comment section.

And please share this post with other bloggers you know…

How to Start a Blog That Matters and Make Your First Dollar Online!

January 19, 2012 by Chris 11 Comments

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8A8ufqrdRc

As you know, it’s not often (I can count on one hand how many times I’ve done it in the last two years!) that I whole-heartedly get behind someone and what they have to offer online. But, I’m gonna do it today.

On Monday I published a post highlighting 3 bloggers that you must follow online in 2012 to achieve the success I know you are all after – one of them was my good friend, Corbett Barr.

Just as I hit the publish button on that post Corbett opened the doors to his 13-week coaching course on How to Start a Blog that Matters. This thing is stacked, jam-packed with everything you’ll need to know to start a blog and kick-ass online – and the price makes it an absolute no-brainer, as far as I’m concerned.

Watch my video above for a solid explanation on everything, and 2 special bonuses that are up for grabs, if you get involved through my affiliate link.

What’s in the Course?

The following list is taken directly from Corbett’s genius set-up:

  • Week 1: Choose the right topic for you.
  • Week 2: Develop the perfect blog name and brand.
  • Week 3: Design your blog to look great.
  • Week 4: Create your social media strategy.
  • Week 5: Develop your launch plan.
  • Week 6: Learn how to create outstanding content.
  • Week 7: Create your launch content.
  • Week 8: Launch your blog.
  • Week 9: Start making friends in the blogosphere.
  • Week 10: Build your thriving audience.
  • Week 11: Expand your reach using webinars, YouTube, podcasts and more.
  • Week 12: Make your first dollar blogging.
  • Week 13: Develop your strategy for taking your blog to the next level.

His Bonuses are INSANE!!!

Not only all of this, but you’ll also get the following amazing bonus videos from him to:

  • How to Start a Popular Blog – The Ultimate Beginners Guide (Sit-down interview with Leo Babuata of Zen Habits)
  • How to Use Authenticity to Feel Great and Build a Huge Following (with Danielle LaPorte of White Hot Truth)
  • Case Study – How I Helped Scott Dinsmore create Live Your Legend and amass 10,000 Subscribers in 6 months!
  • How I Built a Launched Expert Enough using the 13 Factors to Make a Blog Successful

As you can see, he covers exactly EVERYTHING you need to know to be able to get started with your blog in the right way, and with SUCCESS already a certainty! He also promises that if you don’t get incredible results he will spend time coaching you personally, one-on-one! An amazing guarantee!

And, Here are MY Bonuses!!!!!!!!!

Like I said in my video above, I want to make this as useful as possible for my audience. The chances to get involved in courses like this don’t come around very often – especially at the ridiculously low price of just $97 – for everything!

So, I’ve decided to put together a couple of bonuses of my own! If you purchase Corbett’s new course between now and February 3rd, 2012, I will give you the following:

Bonus #1

When you buy ‘How to Start a Blog that Matters‘ through my link, you’ll get exclusive access to a 1-hour webinar that I will do in the next month or so, which is basically a re-vamp on my BlogWorld Expo talk that I gave in LA, last November. It’s entitled ‘How to Work with Virtual Assistants to Help Build, Grow and Monetize your Blog’. The PERFECT companion for those of you wanting to take this course and fundamentally get someone else to do all the work – based on Corbett’s ‘How To’ principles and under your guidance!

And, so you can listen to the webinar (as well as watch it), when you’re traveling, working out, eating, walking your dog… whatever – I’ll include a free audio version, too!

Bonus #2

When you decide that you want to go ahead and hire your virtual assistant, whether that be right now, or anytime in 2012, I will give you a $50 discount on my Virtual Staff Finder service, allowing you to hire your virtual assistant and start realizing the power of outsourcing as a blogger and online marketer – trust me, you have NO IDEA what you can achieve (but, you will do, when you watch the webinar!).

So, that’s it.

CLICK HERE – TO GET CORBETT’S COURSE, HIS BONUSES  — AND MY BONUSES, TOO!

And like I said in the last video – in 2012 I’m going to be focusing on providing very focused content on Start-Up and Marketing principles here on VBL. Showing you how I’ve been able to create and market successful businesses (both my own and other peoples!) and launch them online to huge success. Some of them being real ‘online’ businesses, and some even traditional ‘brick n mortar’ businesses, that have simply blown up after getting active online.

In the meantime, if you have any questions about ‘How to Start a Blog that Matters, please leave them below – I know that Corbett will be more than happy to pop over to the blog and answer them for you!

Becoming Highly Productive – Working in the Zone!

March 28, 2011 by Chris 24 Comments

Productivity Zone

This is a Guest Post by Ian McConnell.

I’ve just had one of those days where everything just fell into place. I was completely in the zone. Task after task got completed effortlessly. Stuff was just falling into place, things were going right and everything just got done. I even completed 4 extra tasks that I hadn’t planned to do today. It’s a great feeling, but I have come to realize that some people struggle to find this zone and don’t enjoy as many of these highly productive days as they should.

It seems that it is more common to have days where small things go wrong and disrupt the day. The computer decides to do an update when it starts up, the browser is slow and unresponsive, the password program can’t find the password that was saved yesterday, etc. Most of these small problems are unavoidable 100% of the time. But, if you are trying to manage your time and tick off the items on a lengthy to-do list, these small problems will undoubtedly add frustration and stress to the mix.

So, how do you get in the zone more often?

I’ll tell you how I did it.

1)      I threw out my to-do list.

2)      I deleted my time management system which was my Google calendar

Yes, I deleted every repeating task in my Google calendar. These were repeating tasks like write an article on Monday at 9am to be finished and submitted to the article directories by 10.30am. Monday 10.45am to 12noon scan the warrior forum for people I could help out. 1pm to 4pm create new Insiders Club content and so on. I had booked up nearly every minute of my 8 hour working day, with a task for the rest of my life. That was thanks to the power of repeating tasks that never end in digital calendars. It felt good when I initially set up all these weekly tasks. I felt organized. But, after a few weeks of trying to stick to my time management plan, I knew it wasn’t going to work.

Are you sometimes in the right mindset when doing your tasks?

9am Monday would come around and my calendar said I should be writing an article. But, I just wasn’t in the right mindset or zone to write an article. I would force the issue, thinking I needed to be disciplined and get this article done. The article would then take 2 hours (or more) to write and I had scheduled an hour to write it and half an hour to submit it. I then had to adjust my schedule for the rest of the day and usually something didn’t get done at the end of the day, or it got rolled over to the next day. This then compounded the problem the next day.

Not all daily tasks could be accomplished as written on your to-do list.

However, I did notice that on some days at different times I was finding the article writing zone. It just seemed to flow and the article writing was so much easier. But, those times tended to vary. By moving that task to a different day or time slot would work one week but not the next. It seemed like just knowing that task had to be completed put me in the wrong mindset.

I needed a system that was much more flexible and took into account what I actually felt like doing. A system where I worked in the zone 80% of the time instead of 20% of the time. You may be thinking that’s just a lack of discipline. I should have got a timer out and forced myself to get the article done… I tried and it didn’t work. I would get the article done but days later would go and adjust it because the quality just wasn’t good enough.

I tried outsourcing the articles but ended up rewriting them because this material had to be in my voice. Outsourcing articles works great for my niche sites, but not for my personal blog. I had to do the writing so people experienced the real me. Then one day I heard Tony Robbins talk about chunking. Chunking is where you group tasks together which when completed will produce a specific result.

Get rid of to-do lists and go to chunk……

An example of a weekly chunk with a specific result is “Build a list of 1,000 subscribers”. There are no to-do lists or scheduled tasks. Just the chunk, that needs to be completed by the end of the week. I tried it and it worked very well for me.

Here is how I apply it:

I review my monthly goals on a Saturday afternoon and then I create 3 chunks. Saturday afternoon suits me because I’ve had a morning away from the business and I’m usually more relaxed. I create 3 result based chunks which must be completed by the end of the next week. I write these chunks on a post it note and attach it to my computer monitor. It’s a quick and easy system, but as I relax on Sunday it’s amazing how some great ideas pop into my head. On Monday morning I always start the day off, like most week days, with a 40 to 60 minute walk. On the walk is when I contemplate which chunk I’ll start with and what tasks I’ll complete that day.

After a shower and breakfast I’m ready to get to work. My mindset is in the right place, my body is energized and I usually start with the easy tasks, or the ones I know I can knock over quickly, because that builds momentum for the tasks that are not so exciting. I found that by removing the long to-do lists and strict time management it eliminated the overwhelm and has allowed me to be flexible with my days. I also don’t check emails until I have completed what I wanted to do for the day.

I don’t have a start and end time for work!

I start the day and if I’m in the zone I milk it for everything it’s got. If it’s one of those days where small things are going wrong and I struggle to get in the zone I’ll read a book, watch the latest launch video, grab a coffee and try again in an hour or two. As an entrepreneur I believe I have to be flexible. I’m a player in a game and have to be constantly looking for the 20% of my efforts that are working and work more on those. Sometimes a rigid time management system doesn’t work. You may feel like you are busy, but you are busy with the wrong things.

Ian McConnell is a regular VBL reader and supporter. He’s built a full time income online in the last 3 years. Check him out at https://inmyhomeoffice.com, where you’ll also find links to him on Twitter and Facebook!

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