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INTRODUCTION

Making your business, product or service stand out from the pack as a trusted name is the key to success. When people automatically purchase your products or services and try new offerings because they have learned to trust what you have to offer, your path is assured.

Putting yourself on this path calls for building your brand. This is more than a logo. It involves building up an inherent trust and an instinctual belief in the quality of a product or service based on the brand name behind it.

Consider some of the products you purchase in everyday life strictly because of the logo on the label. When you recognize a product from its logo or are willing to go out on a limb and try something new because a company you recognize sponsors a product, that’s a result of successful branding. It is a proven, effective way to build rapport with customers and gain repeat business.

While branding does involve a number of facets, today’s Internet-based world has given rise to a new tool to get the word out and make the connection with clients. A blog can serve as an “in” to help you reach out to customers on a more personal level as you seek to gain and build upon their trust.

Many companies large and small have turned to the Web to boost their own branding efforts. Blogging is one of the most powerful ways available on the Internet to add to branding efforts for a few key reasons. When these often conversational vehicles are used to reach out to customers and potential customers a sense of connection is gained. When the general public feels “connected” to a product or service, they tend to bring repeat business.

Creating your own blog to boost your company’s brand is not a terribly difficult task. It does require a minimal amount of technical savvy, solid planning skills and a willingness to reach out beyond the traditional boundaries of conventional advertising.

Blogging itself has gained immensely in popularity over the last few years. Where only a few blogs existed on the Internet in the 1990s, the blogosphere is now filled with thousands of sites. Blogs today are written for a wide variety of reasons. Some bloggers write simply to connect with their own friends and family, others share political views or discuss
hobbies, still others use this unique tool to promote their brand and foster a connection with readers (customers). When the latter is the focus, a well-defined plan can ensure that this less formalized means of reaching out to people serves the purpose and builds the brand, its reputation and its popularity.

It honestly does not matter what type of brand you are trying to build, blogging can serve as a vital component in a marketing plan. When a blog is well written, updated on a consistent basis, promoted properly and contains useful information for visitors, brand recognition will go along with it. Businesses of all sizes are using blogs in growing number to connect with their own clients and you can, too.

If you’d like to learn how to create a blog to promote your own brand, you’re going to need a plan to make it happen successfully. In this eBook, we will go over the basics of what you need to do and why. We’ll also discuss how to make blogging fit into branding plans no matter what type of business you happen to have – even if your business is blogging itself. In addition, we’ll get into some of the technical details and cover some of the options you have available to you for launching and maintaining a blog. While a brand blog will take dedication to really pay off, you do not necessarily have to do all the work personally.

To fully understand the potential power of a well-developed blog, it does help to have a handle on some of the key components of this format. When a blog is used to its full advantage it will not only enable you to reach out to clients and potential clients, but it will give them the ability to reach back. This two-way communication can serve as a powerful means for developing rapport, trust and repeat business.

Blogging is a very effective way to boost an overall branding plan. If you’re ready to learn more about this communications tool, we’ll show you step-by-step how to make it work for your business.

WHAT BRANDING CAN DO BUSINESS YOUR BUSINESS

Take a look around your house at some of the products you purchase on a regular basis. Why do you choose a particular brand of maple syrup or toilet bowl cleaner? Chances are you recognized the name on the label or the logo and on the packaging and were “presold” because you connected that name or logo with quality. You may not have even read past the name to make the decision to purchase.

That’s the power of branding. When you can connect your product or service with a reputation of quality and trust, you catapult yourself into household-name status. It doesn’t matter whether your business targets only a small geographical area or if you market on an international level, the power of branding can be immense. Blogging can help this effort along greatly, but it is not the only thing you need to consider. There are several other components that must go into a successful branding effort to make it pay off.

INGREDIENTS FOR SUCCESSFUL BRANDING

Blogging and other marketing efforts can build up the hype behind a brand and really get people talking about products and services, but more is needed to make this kind of effort pay off. To establish the kind of trust that is required to create a positive reaction in clients or customers, the products or services behind your line must also offer:

Quality – Branding builds recognition for a product, but that product must still have the quality needed to impress customers. You simply cannot gain positive brand recognition unless your products and services offer the kind of quality needed to elicit trust in your customers.

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USING CLICKBANK

The purpose of this section is t- help you decide if, in fact, Clickbank is going t- be a good match for your business needs. Make sure you read this section very carefully.

In the world of affiliates there are affiliates, vendors and brokers – all of which have their pro’s and con’s t- consider when it comes t- whether the offerings they have are a good match for you and your web sites. All affiliates have a contract or agreement of terms which you should review and understand prior t- entering any agreement, and most of these contracts detail exactly what each party is expected t- do, how payment is made, and what responsibilities each party has t- each other and the public.

One of the biggest areas t- be aware of and understand is wh- is liable for chargeback’s, fraud and other concerns that can arise when selling goods t- the public. This is normally a very big hassle t- most online companies and can drastically cut int- the bottom line not t- mention drive you crazy with constant interruptions t- your workflow and daily tasks t- deal with the errant cases. In cases like ClickBank’s representation all of management of the online product sales including refunds, collection of funds and handling disputes is taken out of your hands.

ClickBank really is tw- businesses in one. On the one hand they purchase and then resell through affiliate marketing eBooks, software and any other ‘non-physical’ downloadable goods you can imagine. On the other hand they are an affiliate broker or service in that they allow marketing of the eBooks and goods they handle
(or technically resale) from their list of products by anyone wh- wants t- sign up, paying a commission on any and all sales made as detailed further down in the summary of their payment agreement.

ClickBank is a different type of affiliate network in that they are not just a broker and they are not really a normal vendor – ClickBank fulfills the best of both worlds by supplying a list of available vendors and electronic media goods broken down int- various categories as well as handling the engines, link creation and tracking necessary t- allow you t- market and sell those goods on your pages. In effect you can think of ClickBank as a broker wh- als- handles much of the legalities, payment handling and tracking while providing you assistance and guidelines on how best t- legally market and sell the service products that they have available. They als- allow you t- list and sale your own software, eBooks and other goods if approved and if they meet their strict guidelines and policies, without a huge contractual obligation or a minimum qty of sales as many other online vendors require. ClickBank is quite simply the future of ecommerce for the everyman …

As with any business transaction there has t- be an agreement, or contract which stipulates what each party is responsible for and will be held to. Depending on whether you are just joining as an affiliate seller or have product(s) t- list with ClickBank for sale the terms and contracts vary, but the client contract which details exactly what they provide, what you are responsible for and what arbitration methods are allowed follows:

THE AGREEMENT

A quick summary of the details of this contract as of February 2007 state that the client is:

- Bound by the laws of Boise, Idah- and its jurisdiction should any conflicts, claims or suits arise
- Assuming full responsibility t- use ClickBank affiliated services
- An independent party and cannot represent or claim t- represent ClickBank directly and specifically that you are
- Not authorized t- make any warranty or obligations on behalf of ClickBank
- Solely responsible for reporting and paying any income taxes and withholdings
- Responsible for obtaining any licenses or permits required t- operate a business on your site
- In agreement that by promoting products listed by ClickBank that you
- D- not imply or suggest warranties or policies that conflict with ClickBank’s eight-week return policy
- Will not allow unauthorized or unlicensed use of materials or images and will not take part in such yourself
- Will not interfere with tracking of commissions or normal flow of traffic from affiliates
- Will apply by and include any required U.S. Federal and state regulations and policies regarding advertising and consumer protection as discussed in their online form at: https://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/dotcom/index.pdf
- Products you submit for sell are subject t- the “ClickBank product and publisher review program” and that your products may be rejected or the amount kept in reserve etc. changed as deemed necessary by ClickBank at their sole discretion
- Will provide up-to-date email addresses and will respond within 24 hours t- communication from ClickBank at any time.
- Not allowed t- send or cause t- be sent messages by electronic means for promotional purposes that
- Are sent t- people wh- have opted out or requested t- not receive such advertising
- It will not contain any false or misleading information including your contact or product representation attributes
- Such messages will not have invalid message headers or ‘masked origins’ nor include mousetraps such as pop-ups or other annoyances
- All messages have a clear and functional way t- ‘opt out’ of future correspondence and that such
functionality will remain functional for at least 30 days from the date the message is sent
- Aware that ClickBank can temporarily or permanently in some cases seize all funds in your account should it be determined that you have been involved in:
- Illegal activity or violations of Federal and State regulations

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Introduction

Being productive isn't about accomplishing more, but instead, it is about investing your time and attention in a strategic way to value-add your life, career, and relationships. One thing that you may fail to consider is the reason and motivation that drives you.

Often, your desire to be productive is based on a belief that it is what society expects from you, or because you think that you are being overloaded with a workload that you don't feel you can handle.

You might feel a desire to be more productive to impress your coworkers, or to seem like you are busy. While these reasons are valid, they are all external reasons. Other external reasons may include material things, money, or fame.

While money can be a legitimate motivator for many people, it is essential for you to consider whether or not there is something else that is driving you.

If your reason for wishing to be more productive is a shallow one that doesn't serve a higher purpose in your life, there is a good chance that it will just cease to motivate you down the line allowing your productivity to fall by the wayside quickly.

You need to take the time to consider what is driving your desire for productivity. If you need money to support your family, then the love you have for your family, a strong sense of duty, and sheer determination might be your driving factors. Or, perhaps you have found yourself in poverty, and your drive is the desire to improve your situation and yourself.

You need to determine what drives you on a deeper level and understand why you are working so hard. It is essential that you make sure that you know what you are striving to achieve. Only you know what drives you. Only you know what will make you wake up early and work hard. Only you know why you need to be more productive.

It doesn’t matter what you tell other people. It doesn’t even matter if it is true or not. You may tell people what they expect to hear, but it may not be your real reason. It does matter what you tell yourself.

You always want to be honest with yourself because your productivity will fall as quickly as it has risen. Continue to remind yourself why you are working so hard, and keep it in your heart and in your mind. If you can do this, then you are already half-way there.

Unfortunately, there isn’t a magic pill that you can take to fix your lack of productivity. It will take time and hard work to change how you work and before you see a permanent boost in your productivity.

Chapter 1 – Step One: Understanding Productivity and Finding Your Why

When you talk about productivity, you probably think it has to do with a company’s ability to produce a certain number of products and services during a single day. Or, you may think about the cost of the resources that went into the creating of those products and you gauge whether or not the company is productive and profitable. However, there is also your own productivity. How would you gauge whether or not you are a productive member of your community?

Being productive is about being able to deliver on both your professional and personal fronts because a complete and successful person is someone that is productive at home and at work.

Being productive is also a personal view because everyone has their own ideas regarding how productive they are throughout their day. You might think that if you managed to do all the tasks you've assigned yourself on a given day, that you were extremely productive. Or, you might think that since you managed to get a lot of work done within a short time that you have a productive day.

Then, there are those people who equate productivity with success and money. They might think they are productive because they have an expensive car or a large house. While others might think they’ve been productive because they’ve been able to accomplish activities that have made a difference in others’ lives, or in the conservation of the planet.

Ultimately, being productive is about being able to complete particular tasks on a given day that will help you attain the goals you’ve set for yourself in life. Each job that you get done successfully should take you one step closer to your goals.

This is what being productive is all about. Productivity also involves discovering your why and choosing the goals that are close to your heart and prioritizing them above others.

Finding Your Why

When it comes to becoming more productive, you have to be able to find your why. Your why is what gets you out of bed in the mornings, it’s the reason why you work hard at the office, and it is why you spend the extra hours studying. It is your motivation, your drive, and your reason for wanting to get things done.

Everyone's why is different, but it is essential that you find out what yours is and keep it close to your heart. Before you can begin to become more productive, you need to make sure that you have discovered your why, and that you put it into practice.

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Introduction

Bulking up, as in bodybuilding, is often seen as synonymous with lifting weights. And for most people that’s where the equation ends. As long as they lift weights, they believe they’ll get jacked.

However, there’s much more than just weightlifting when it comes to bodybuilding essentials. In fact, it’s an entire series of components including nutrition, supplementation, and training. Then come rest and recovery, along with lifestyle changes that will help you gain muscle and keep it that way.

You will need to incorporate these and other essentials to get results. And while weights are integral to becoming ripped, they won’t get you anywhere alone.

So here we will look at what you need to do and what routines to follow to reach your goals.

Chapter 1

The Mindset of a Champion

Mental toughness is a trait required for success in any field. It’s what gives your goals resilience, gets you over adversity and lets you follow through with what you set out to do in the first place.

When it comes to bodybuilding, you don’t just need your body but also your mind to collaborate together.

You have to put your mind to the game to win it. For many people, bodybuilding doesn’t work out because they don’t have their mind in the game.

What separates the successful from others is not only their dedication or motivation but also their mindset. So it’s not only your physical competency that will set you apart but also mental attitude towards getting to your goals.

Here’s what you need to look for in the mindset of a champion:

Unwavering Dedication

If you want to build quality muscle mass, you’ll need to be very dedicated to your goals. It’s a strong set of beliefs you’ll need to follow where your goals are defined clearly.

Your dedication, may, at times, be dictated by your physical strength, stamina and endurance. On other occasions, you may be driven on by your eagerness to learn. But whatever the case, you need to believe whole heartedly that you are cut out to achieve your goals.

There will be times when your dedication and determination may waver but you need to stay on course. You’ll need constant reminders of why you started this journey in the first place and that thought should keep you on track.

Dedication can also be reinforced if you’re always willing to learn. This willingness becomes the driving force for continuing and improving your craft by constant practice. This way you can develop grit and achieve the mindset of a go-getter.

For added motivation you could have posters of professionals on your walls or in your phone. This is another way to stay focused.

When you look at those pictures, you’ll be reminded of why you started in the first place.

Fight Distraction

Distractions can make you derail from your priorities and goals. When you lose focus, you lose the game. That’s why it’s absolutely imperative that you keep distractions away. Even when you’re faced with distractions, you need to muster up the determination to ignore them completely.

For instance, if you’ve already chalked out a workout routine, you need to stick to it no matter what. Champion athletes and bodybuilders know that they have the potential to improve and don’t let distractions get in the way. Missing out one day of training can quickly evolve into a pattern of laziness, but champions never let it get to that point.

One thing that works quite well is planning your day beforehand. When you’ve already planned your day, you’re more likely to follow through. Being spontaneous is great, but doesn’t always deliver when you have an agenda to follow.

Having said that, you can’t completely get rid of distractions because they’re an integral part of productivity. However, you can train your mind to ignore any distraction that comes your way. Look at the bigger picture and keep yourself focused on that.

Finish What You Started

Many people start their muscle building routine with a lot of excitement and passion but they don’t finish because they either get distracted or become lazy on the way. You need to keep the same level of motivation going on as you had on the first day of your training.

Something that works well for this is to keep track of your progress. If you can see how you’re progressing, you’ll be tempted to finish what you’ve started.

To make things easier, you could make a checklist for yourself. Write the different exercises that you have to do on every day of the week. Just ticking off the task from your list will give you a sense of satisfaction. This is necessary if you want to reach the finish line without tiring out or losing focus.

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If you're looking for a fairly automated way to build a brand online, you don't have to look further than Twitter. In fact, for the longest time, a lot of marketers and marketing companies have long considered Twitter as a great place for brand formation. If you're looking for an online brand, Twitter is a great place to start. It's easy to see why.

Twitter is so easy to use. You just need to post a tweet that is one hundred forty characters. You need to do it long enough. You have to pick the right hashtags. You have to pick the right content and, given enough focus and attention to detail, you will get it right. It’s just a matter of time.

Of course, this does not mean automatic success but, with everything else being equal, Twitter compared to other social media platforms, is definitely easier to master. Why?

First of all, it is very friendly to automation. That's right. You can automate pretty much everything you do on Twitter. This is why a lot of people use it to make money from the Internet on autopilot.

They don't have to babysit each tweet. They don't have to sit around to figure out what's going on. They can pretty much set a strategy, let software do it, let the process run for some time, double-check their work, make some adjustments here and there and then let it run.

Basically, they keep repeating this process until they get it right. Again, you can run things on autopilot. With that said, you shouldn't expect much traffic if you just started on this platform. I hate to break it to you but, just like with anything else in life, you can’t start out at the top.

You can’t expect massive success without having put in the time. While the actual work involved in Twitter can be so well-managed that it almost feels like everything is automated, it still requires work.

I know this is going to discourage a lot of people because a lot of people are looking for get-rich-quick schemes. A lot of people are looking for some sort of one-size-fits-all, cookie-cutter instant-success formula.

Unfortunately, Twitter doesn't work that way. It can deliver success pretty much on an automated basis, but you have to pay your dues to get there.

Everybody is different. Everybody’s situation is different. Everybody's goals are different. This is why you need to put in the time.

The good news is if you are able to do that, you will be greatly rewarded by this platform because of certain key features of this system.

What is so great about this platform is that it has fairly easy mechanics. It really does. When people use Twitter for the first time, they just tweet away. They just think of things to say and in one hundred forty characters, they tweet away.

Sooner or later, they realize that they would reach a wider range of people if they use hashtags. Even later, they figure out that people who tweet about certain topics all the time are more likely to send them more visitors or more interested followers if they engage with them.

In other words, Twitter is one of those platforms that you just have to figure out in broad terms to lay out an initial strategy. Implement that strategy and then learn from your results.

Before you even seriously think of starting on Twitter, do these first. If you set up a website, you should have been doing these already. Just in case you’re unclear on the concept or just in case you did things out of order, here are the things that you should do before you even think of marketing on Twitter.

Pick Your Niche

It's really important to understand that if you want to be successful on the Internet, you must have a laser focus on how you're going to make money. A lot of people are clueless regarding this.

In fact, a lot of them think that they just need to buy a system that somebody else has built and they will make money. What they’re really saying to themselves is that they're too lazy to think through their online business.

That’s always a dangerous proposition because when you let another person do your thinking for you, you're going to have to deal with the consequences. You have to understand that when people build systems for others, they’re usually trying to cut corners.

They’re trying to make the most amount of money with the least amount of effort. Do you think they have your best interest in mind with that attitude? Of course not.

This is why it's a bad idea to let somebody else pick your business for you. You have to do it yourself. You have to know what you’re doing. You have to know who you're going to be marketing to, what exactly you’re going to be pushing and how you’re actually going to be making money on the Internet.

You can’t just buy some sort of “business in a box” and expect everything to work out smoothly. That happy ending that you may have been dreaming of may be a very distant and even impossible dream. Why? You just didn't step up. You have to do all of this yourself.

The most important is to pick a niche. A niche is a subject matter category or some sort of category for whatever collection of needs you are trying to address.