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Have An Unbeatable Opt In Offer

Do me a favor, will you? Go to Google and look up a few niche blogs. Start by typing in the niche word and then the word blog such as “insomnia blog” or “dog training blog.”

Now look and see what, if any, opt in boxes you see on the blog. If it’s a good blog marketer (and not just some random person blogging about their personal life), they’ll have a subscriber area.

As you go through the page 1 SERP (search engine results page) links, notice the difference between opt in forms that simply say, “sign up for updates” or “sign up for the free newsletter” and those that address the visitor’s urgent problems.

Here’s a stark contrast you can see as an example. On one website the opt in form looks like this:

But land on a different insomnia site and the results are much different:

Wow! On this one you’re promised the newsletter, but also a FREE Sleep Starter Kit you can use TONIGHT.

There’s a big difference in who is addressing the visitor’s urgent issue of being sleep deprived.

Another site, located at http://www.insomnialand.com/blog, promises a free sleep training kit and says you’ll be sleeping better within 2 weeks.

So the problem with bland opt in offers is that they don’t address the visitor’s problems with any urgency – and they don’t entice people enough to fork over the name and email details.

So what can you offer that sets you apart from other marketers in the same niche?

Find Out What Your Niche Needs

One of the worst offenses to your visitors is to offer them something they don’t even need. When you think of need, dig down deep. Dig where it hurts – where they feel desperation.

Instead of “How to Have Pretty Skin,” touch on the concept of shame and beauty with a report called, “7 Ways to Clear Up Acne Overnight.”

Be specific about the problem.

Add a sense of urgency to the mix.

It’s not enough to offer a report on how to make your first $100 online, but offer it on how to make that first $100 today.

If you don’t have a list at all yet and you don’t know what they need; start researching. Where do you look? First, turn to forums. This is where people routinely go when they need advice from others in the same predicament.

You can go to Google and type in the niche and the word forum and visit a myriad of forums to see what people need. So here’s a great example: http://www.psychforums.com/insomnia – when you go there, you don’t even need to go into the threads to get some great opt in report ideas for insomnia, such as:

Natural Insomnia Remedies
How to Fix a Messed Up Sleep Schedule
How to Sleep When You Don’t Feel Tired
A Beginner’s Guide to Curing Insomnia

Another place you can visit for ideas on what consumers need is the comment section of other blogs. Whenever you see a blog with a thriving community, people will often comment and discuss their needs – especially if the post doesn’t answer all of their questions.

For instance, if you see a comment that talks about the difference between insomniacs and perpetual thinkers, that could spark the idea for you to create a report called “Do You Really Have Insomnia?” where you differentiate between someone having sleep problems and someone whose mind won’t shut off.

Another place to look and see what people need in any niche is through keyword tools. There are free and paid tools. Ubersuggest is a free option. Just type in your niche and you can see what people want to know.

Using this tool, if I type in “insomnia” first, one of the top 10 listings is “insomnia cures.” Click on it and go one step further, and you see report ideas such as:

Insomnia cures for depression
Insomnia cures during pregnancy
Natural insomnia cures

Deliver Value They Would Gladly Pay For

For many marketers, their big mistake isn’t in coming up with an idea. They mess up when they fail to provide value. You see, this is your very first impression with a potential new subscriber.

You want to go above and beyond and wow your audience with what you over deliver to them. So when you sit down to start planning your opt in offer, think of it as a paid offer.

You want to give away a whole course. Something where they download it or access it and can’t believe you just gave that away. This will do more than just appease a new audience – it will have them sharing it with others.

When you finish creating your opt in offer, put a price on it. In fact, you might even create a page somewhere online where you’re selling it for that price. That way you can show more value by saying, “My FREE Gift to You: Download My Insomnia Kit Now (Regularly $27)!”

But don’t skimp on the information. Your subscribers will know if you’re trying to dupe them.

They want true value, and if you prove yourself the first time, chances are they’ll turn into rabid, loyal subscribers form that point on.

It will also help you increase conversions whenever you do put a product out in the marketplace. Your readers will be thinking, “Wow, if s/he gives this much value away for FREE, I can’t begin to imagine what great information s/he’s charging for!”

Beat The Competition

You want to be the best you can be at all times with your business. But you also want to make sure you’re better than the other guy. Always one step ahead of him and outperforming his offer.

So that means competition spying time! Go through the same steps you did when you were first checking out the offers for your niche on page one of this report. Make notes about what offers are already out there.

The best way to one up the competition is to get on their list. Go through their system and be a subscriber so that you can experience the pros and cons this other marketer has to offer.

Look at every detail of their opt in freebie. How big is it? Is it broad, generic information or detailed and specific? Do they have poor spelling and grammar? Do they have blatantly wrong information?

Make notes of everything you like and dislike and keep those handy whenever it’s time to create your own offer. So for example, if one insomnia expert said in his report, “have good sleep hygiene,” but he didn’t expand on what that meant, you make sure you do in your report.

Make your opt in offer longer, meatier, and more informative than the competition. Another way to do it better to be very cutting edge with your information.

So take your niche and go to Google and type it in. Then click on the News tab. So here’s an article I just pulled from the recent news about insomnia:

https://www.healthline.com/health/how-to-go-back-to-sleep

You can add that to your report. This up-to-date research might give someone a huge relief from their worry – or it might alert them to urgent information they need to know now.

Offer Multiple Formats For Your Prospective Subscribers

Many marketers have nothing to offer. Just updates. That’s the worst type of opt in offer to have. Anyone can go to your blog through their bookmarks, or choose to use an RSS feed to check in.

Here are some of the formats you can choose to offer for your new subscribers:

Email Series

These can be done in a variety of ways. Usually it’s a timing slant. So for instance, you could offer:

7 Day Diet Plan
2 Week Sleep Improvement Course
365 Day Stress Relief Tips

Short Report

Like this report, you can create a short PDF file for your subscribers to download and devour. Extra points if you encourage them to share it virally with their friends!

Membership Access

Give someone access to something exclusive – a membership site. You can have a free level where users get in and get to see inside, and then they can level up to a gold or silver membership.

Audio File

Not everyone likes text. Some people like to learn on the go. You can create a podcast that subscribers love. It can be you talking or you interviewing someone – or even you being interviewed by someone else!

Video File

A video course is a great opt in freebie. Not everyone has fast Internet, so if you go this route, give them the download files to watch on their desktop so they don’t have to worry about streaming speed.

Split Test Your Offers

Make sure that whatever option you choose when creating an unbeatable opt in offer, you test and tweak throughout the year. Set up a split test so that you have different offers.

See what people like best. Test different formats for the same information. Test different offers completely. Test different ways of saying what it is you’re offering them as a freebie.

OK, there are 5 thing that you can do to create an unbeatable opt-in offer. If you want to know more about building your list after they have opted in, check out the featured resource below where you can get a free report about simple list building.

10 Ways To Use Testimonials To Boost Sales

Do you know what an ego booster testimonial is?

It goes something like this: “Joe Smith is the greatest, nicest, smartest, sweetest, sexiest, gutsiest, tallest, handsomest guy I know – buy his stuff!”

It sounds good to Joe Smith. Heck, it sounds AMAZING to Joe Smith.

But does it sell his stuff? Generally, no.

Prospects who read testimonials like that either think they’re written by a friend, or they simply have nothing to do with the product at hand.

So how do you write a great testimonial, and more importantly, how can you use them to boost sales in your business?

Here are 10 tips to do just that:

Use Ego Booster Testimonials Sparingly

If they’re the only ones you have right now, then they’ll have to do for now.

Most people won’t like testimonials like these and will probably not believe them anyway and if you use them too much it could even put people off.

So, you really need to work on getting better testimonials that actually convert.

Focus on results-based testimonials

Results based testimonials are really powerful. Here is an example of one:

“After using the xyz product, my conversions increased by 4% and my overall sales increased by $32,958 in three months.”

Your audience is going to be putting themselves in the shoes of this person, and thinking they can get results like that, too.

Which is exactly what you want, by the way.

Got Plain Text Testimonials? Add Photos

A photo of a face – regardless of how pretty or not pretty it might be, can increase the likelihood of your testimonial being read by as much as 80%.

Plus, it adds credibility that your testimonial is real.

Don’t underestimate the power of seeing the person behind the testimonial; we are social creatures and seeing faces will definitely make readers more likely to believe them.

Use Big Numbers

If you’ve got a testimonial that uses numbers, then feature those numbers as a big, bold headline. For example:

32,955 3X $26,598

Additional Visitors Conversions More Income

“After implementing just one traffic technique that Josh taught me, I got 32,955 more visitors in one month, three times as many conversions, and made an extra $26,598 for the month.”

Add Headers And Footers To Your Video Testimonials

Video testimonials are great, but… not everyone watches them. And of those who do watch, not everyone watches the whole thing.

So here’s what you can do to make sure people get the most important point out of the video… place that point above the video itself.

For example, “I didn’t have a clue how to get started, but thanks to XYZ program I can now get almost any page to rank in Google.”

Then at the bottom of the video, you might give more information, such as, “George was struggling to rank his pages, but then he took the XYZ course and followed the simple steps. See how he did it here ->”

That last bit can be a link to a sales page or blog post, unless of course this testimonial is already on a sales page.

Place Links In Any Testimonial Not On The Sales Page

If your testimonials aren’t on a sales page, then link at the bottom of the testimonial to a page that gives samples, and write something like this:

“Click to see a sample of what Joe is talking about ->”

You see, you can use testimonials anywhere; why not place one in the footer of your emails or website?

Use Your Amazon 5 Star Ratings

If your book – or any of your products – are on Amazon, then use your 5 star ratings and reviews on your sales pages as well.

For example, you might have a Kindle book on how to get traffic, and you sell an entire course on traffic, too.

Don’t be afraid to use your 5 star reviews for your book on your course sales page.

Be sure to emphasize that while the book has great info and awesome reviews, your course has ten times as much info as the book.

Use Product Pictures From Your Customers

If your customers have sent you pictures of them using your product, then by all means place these photos on your sales page.

Prospects love to see customers using and loving your product because it makes them feel better about buying it themselves.

Some people record unboxing videos and put them on YouTube so others can see what they are getting.

You may think this is mainly suited to physical products, but this can also be done with digital products where viewers are shown around the members area etc.

Compare Your Product To Others

Comparison reviews can work great if you’re in a competitive market, especially if you create a chart comparing the features and ratings of your product versus others.

Then again, if you’re in a market where buyers are unlikely to know about the other product unless you tell them, you might want to forgo this one.

Also, don’t be too negative when talking about competitors products as this can cause you problems if they find out about it, so just stick to the facts if you do decide to use this.

Don’t Forget To Screenshot Testimonials

Your customers might have great things to say about you on social media or through text messages. Simply take screenshots of these compliments and post them as testimonials.

Every time you see something positive about you and your products, take a screenshot and save it to a folder just for that purpose.

To take a screenshot on Windows, press the PrtScn button. Or to capture just the active or foremost window, press Alt+PrtScn.

On a Mac, press Shift-Command-4.

How Do You Get All These Testimonials?

It’s simple really. All you have to do is ask! That’s it!

Send out a survey to each of your product buyers to see what they thought. When you get back positive responses, ask if you can use them as testimonials.

You might need to condense what they say – simply rewrite it without changing the meaning and get their okay on it.

For the really enthusiastic customers, ask if they will do a recording for you.

Think outside the box and you will see that there are many ways to use testimonials to boost sales and to increase authority status so start gathering them now.

Learning To Think Big And Aim High To Achieve Success

When you think of success, do you envision oodles of money, a mansion, and a fancy sports car? Those items are great, but what about a deeper sense of success – a success beyond your wildest dreams?

If you’re like most readers of internet articles, websites and blogs, you’ve probably heard some success stories where ordinary folks like yourself have gone from rags to riches scenarios.

However, and more importantly, there are even better stories out there. Like the stories of entrepreneurs and business people leaving their corporate world to go and sell ice cream somewhere in the Caribbean. They, too, are abundantly happy and successful.

What makes up success?

Success is a personal definition – for some, it’s lots of money, and for others, it’s fulfillment and for others it’s freedom. Some people want to live in a mansion overlooking the ocean, while others want to live in a cottage by the lake or down at the farm.

Bottom line – success is what you say it is.

Want to know something even more powerful? Success is even what you say it isn’t. You get in your own way.

Let’s start with defining your own success. Here are a few tips on how to define what success is to you and only you:

What’s your why – we all have a vision of what success looks like to us. However, taking this notion one step further, ask yourself some key questions. What is your why is the first question. Why do you want to achieve this particular success?

Dig deep down and quietly meditate on your true calling, passion and purpose. Everyone has one and it’s only a matter of time before you are one of millions asking yourself, “Is there something than this?”

What is the why behind your success? Do you wish to reach thousands of people and make a difference?

Do you wish to help hundreds solve a problem you have experience with? Do you value freedom over material objects and items? Start getting in touch with your why.

What’s the most important thing to you? Do you value financial freedom, being of service, freedom to come and go as you please, the ability to create a flexible schedule which works for you and your family?

Once you get in touch with your why, your core need and desire will become to come to light. If you have a driving need to be your own boss or a passionate purpose to help others beyond your wildest dreams, this will come to light as well. Once you know your why, your core desire will come to the surface.

What actions steps do you need to take, and what does it look like to make it come to life? Once you’ve done the work to uncover your own definition of success, what your why is, and what’s the most important thing to you, it’s time to take a trip outside of your head and beyond your comfort zone into the world of action. While it’s nice to get inside your head and get in touch with your why and your what, it’s even more important to get in touch with the how. How will you make it happen?

The 7 Categories of Life and How to Succeed in Each

Let’s take a look at several categories of life and how to succeed in each one.

Personal

We all have so much going on in life. There’s work, career, school, home and family. The list goes on and on. It’s so easy to lose sight of what our personal goals are. We might want to finish a degree, complete a certificate, write a book or just learn a hobby or skill.

We say we don’t have time, but the truth is we don’t make time. Have you ever noticed if there’s something you truly wanted to do, you find the time to do it? Even if means taking a sick day and doing nothing once in a while.

Bouncing from this, here are a few tips on how to create personal goals and how to achieve them:

Choose one goal at a time – we all have the habit of getting overzealous in our personal goals and start out wanting to lose weight, diet and exercise, clean out clutter, take a class, earn a certificate, etc. and then we spiral out of control and fail at all of the above.
Worse than this, we stop trying because we climbed too high, too fast and fell way too short. Start with smaller goals. It’s almost like a no-fail system. It’s a win/win. Start with one goal – even the type A personalities out there can do this. By starting with one goal and one goal only, you have no place to go but up.
If you want to learn a new sport or skill, for example, start by simply exploring what’s involved a little bit at a time. Don’t take out 15 books from the library, talk to 20 different people about it and research for hours on end on the internet.
Talking to too many different people will only leave you vulnerable, especially when it comes to personal goals. Other people don’t want to leave their comfort zone and they want you to stay there with them as well. Spend small increments of time each day and set the timer. Spend 30 minutes one day and 15 minutes another researching your new personal goal and stop there.
Pick one person you trust to talk to about your fears, excitement and concerns.
Pick an action step for the week and stick to it. Get an accountability partner you will have to report to.
Continue to reward yourself as you go along and reach these milestones.
Slowly begin to incorporate this new goal into your life through small, actionable and measurable steps.
Acknowledge the success you are feeling on a small scale as time goes on. Don’t rush and don’t get ahead of yourself.
Notice you are gaining momentum on your goal. It’s not bigger than you. It’s actually happening in smaller increments.
Begin to get excited, and it will show. Power tip – the more you get excited about what you are doing, the more inspired you will feel and the more momentum you will create.

Career

Career goals may be a little easier to achieve than personal goals. When it comes to personal goals, you get up inside your head and you think or feel too much. It’s easier to set career goals and detach from them in a colder more logical way of thinking.

Examine and explore which area of your career is not working.
Ask yourself what your end goal is – do you want to retire earlier, work fewer hours, or have more power? What is your end goal?
Once you have discovered your end goal, start creating a plan of action.
Pick five action steps, beginning with the smallest.
Record them on paper.
Take one small action step per day for a set amount of time – let’s use an example of three weeks. Take one small action step per day for three weeks to get closer to the second action step. For example, you may want to show up earlier or on time for three weeks or you may want to speak up at meetings where as you never did so before.
You may want to earn a certificate which will put you in line for more money or a promotion. You may want to take on more responsibility at work to show your new boss what you are capable of.
Continue using this model until all five action steps are completed and you have arrived at your career goal.

Relationships

When it comes to thinking and aiming big, you want to have success in all areas of your life. Success is not related to only money and career. Success in relationships equates to thinking and aiming big in all areas of your life.

In order to have big success in relationships, you need to think big. So many times, or actually all times, we come into relationships and bring into them every single relationship we’ve ever had in the past from our parents to our siblings.

If you want big things in relationships, you have to put big goals into them.

A successful relationship means being honest with who you are and also how you show up. It’s so easy to play the blame game in relationships without looking to take some responsibility of our own. It’s important to take a look at our actions, our thoughts, and our pre-conceived notions when we are relating to others.
Relationships are not just love interests. Relationships are people we work with and people we don’t even know in line in the supermarket. How we can show up as a contribution to the other person is always a tough question to ask. However, when you ask this question, you come up with a brilliant solution. What if you were to just express your anger without blaming someone else?

Do you see how this could equate to a successful solution? In business, when a boss or CEO blames their employee, their employee becomes defensive and less cooperative. It just makes sense. However, when a CEO guides and leads by example and makes reasonable requests for change and prosperity, people will follow suit. This is the true meaning of a successful relationship. This works in personal relationships as well as career and other relationships.

Money

Money has got to be one of the biggest blocks there is. Money has so much power to control us if we let it. Here are a few action steps to take around having success in the area of finances:

What’s your story? We all have stories around money. It’s your job to uncover your story. Do you believe you’re not good enough to make that kind of money or do you believe only greedy people have and receive money? Do you tell yourself a story that only people who are better, smarter or more worthy will have money? Define your story.
Once you uncover your negative money story and self-sabotaging habits surrounding money, you can now write your own brand new story.
Start practicing positive affirmations around money. I can have more money flow easily into my life and for positive reasons. I can create abundance. I already am in flow and creating abundance. I feel so excited about the abundance of money coming my way. Financial prosperity is possible in my life.
Practice these daily, several times a day, visualize on them and meditate on them if you truly want financial abundance. It’s not a work harder/make more scenario. It’s about being in ease and in flow.

Life Purpose

We all inherently know what our life purpose is, but we manage to use several negative tools against ourselves.

We self-sabotage. The minute we feel we are close to success, we make excuses, we run back to our comfort zone, we fear success or believe subconsciously we don’t deserve success.
We get comfortable in our comfort zone. We make excuses instead of making changes. We back slide and then feel guilty and miserable. We allow life to get in the way.
We are not aware of our own blocks because we live in a busy world with busy minds.

If you want to find success and pursue your life purpose, you need to:

Get out of your head and into your heart. Sometimes we all suffer from what is known as analysis/paralysis. We think too much and we don’t drop down into our own hearts.
Take time to be quiet and sit still. Whether you go to the beach or the boardwalk or the park, you need to schedule time in to be quiet. As odd as it may sound, scheduling time to be quiet will actually help you to get into the process of being quiet anywhere, anytime randomly.
When you sit still and get quiet, you can actually hear a little better than you normally do when there is so much noise in your head.
Take notes. Take time to journal your thoughts and feelings on paper. When you journal, you don’t have to worry about filters. You don’t have to worry about what people will say, respond or how they think.
Write your private thoughts, dreams, desires and wishes for your life purpose down on paper.
Get clear. Once you take on the practice of getting quiet and being still, you now have the opportunity to get clear. To clear your mind of the clutter. To make clear goals. Taking notes is a great way to get clear. Once you get clear, it’s time to take some of those action steps as previously mentioned.
Make a declaration. Once you are clear, start declaring your life purpose. Make positive and happy statements about how excited you are about pursuing your life purpose. Keep it simple, don’t elaborate and allow people to ask their questions.
You don’t have to have all the answers. When you don’t have the answers, don’t doubt yourself, just simply be open to finding the answers. Keep declaring your passion and purpose anyhow. The answers will come in time.

Prosperity

Have you ever looked at somebody and wondered to yourself how they did it? Lots of people feel the same way about others who are successful. We tend to look at others and think they are lucky or they get all the breaks or their husband/wife/parent made it happen or they come from money.

When it comes to prosperity, it is vital to understand you don’t wait for prosperity and abundance to come to you. You create it.

Choose an area in your life where you want more prosperity. Is it in your career, your financial status, credit card debt or savings and retirement?

Once you’ve honed in on an area, take the following steps to create prosperity:

Prosperity is a mindset

Once you understand prosperity is a mindset, the rest will flow. Prosperity is not something that happens to you. It is something you make happen. Change your mindset around prosperity.

Your subconscious mind is solely responsible for all of your habits, even your prosperity habits. In order to tap into the power and leverage of the subconscious mind, you will need to work on creating new mindset habits.

Positive thoughts create prosperity. Your subconscious mind only knows its past history. All the stories, the negativity, and the events are ingrained in your subconscious mind.
If you allow your subconscious mind to rule the roost, you will see the same habits and the same trends without much change. Begin to reprogram your conscious mind with positive thoughts and, over time, this practice will show you how quickly and easily you can create prosperity and success into your life.
Take on the practice of positive thinking. You don’t necessarily have to make things up if you are not at that stage, however, you should take on the practice of what is working as compared to what is not. The more you focus on what is well in your world, the more enhanced wonderful things will appear and magnify in your life.

Spirituality

Success in spirituality comes when you allow and accept what works for you. No one can tell you what, how, when or where to practice your spirituality or what spiritual practices you should take on.

Spirituality success comes when you accept who you are and what works for you.

Once you get beyond the mind and the ego, you can tap into spiritual success. Spiritual success comes from one very important tool – practice.

You need to try on many different things until you find the one or the combination which works for you.

Affiliate Marketing: Which Niche?

If you are just starting online, then one of the quickest ways to start making money is to get into affiliate marketing.

This business model doesn’t rely on you having your own products to sell, but rather you are promoting other people’s products and you get a commission for each sale made.

This way you can quickly send traffic to an affiliate offer and start making money.

Of course, the first thing you need to do is to decide on the niche that you are wanting to operate in.

The Best Way For Affiliate Marketers To Choose A Niche

When it comes to affiliate marketing, there are many ways for affiliate marketers to choose a niche. It’s important that you put some thought and research into your niche before you put your time and effort into it.

The first thing you should consider is choosing a niche that you feel passionate about.

With affiliate marketing it’s best to be writing and working in an area daily. If you don’t enjoy what you’re doing, chances are slim that you’ll stick to it for very long.

If you choose something that isn’t going to make you happy to wake up and work each morning, then you’re in a bad position before you even get started. Over time, if you don’t enjoy what you’re doing, you’ll get bored.

Eventually you may even feel depressed and hate what you’re doing. This is the exact opposite of what you want to experience in your work life. Make sure you have the ability to dig in to your niche forever.

Next, you need to look at the longevity of the niche. You’ll want to avoid something that’s considered a fad and will be obsolete before you start making any money.

With affiliate marketing, it will take some time to begin making substantial income, even though initial commissions can be seen right away.

Once you’ve built up a niche, you want to be able to keep it going for a long period of time. So, make sure your choice isn’t something that will be here today and gone tomorrow. You want your hard work to pay off long-term.

It’s also important to think about profitability. Is what you want to promote going to make money? After all, you’re turning to affiliate marketing to make a steady (and rising) income.

Do your homework and find out how many people will be interested in what you’re promoting.

You also need to consider promotion options. In your niche, what kinds of products can you promote? Can you promote a book that will sell in your niche? Can you promote tangible items or digital products?

A membership site related to your niche is also a possibility to consider. These are all things to think about as you’re choosing your niche before you put in a lot of time and energy.

When you choose a niche that interests you and has a wide variety of products that you can promote, you’ll have more success in the long run.

Now, once you’ve considered all the above and decided on a niche, there is another consideration to think about: do you decide to stay in a broad niche with a larger target audience or do you drill down into a sub-niche which will be narrower and have a smaller audience but thy will be much more targeted. There are pros and cons for both so let’s dive in…

Should Affiliate Marketers Choose A Broad Or Narrow Niche?

Whenever affiliates are just starting out, or questioning the direction they already took, they start wondering if a broad or narrow niche is the best way to go.

There’s actually no right or wrong answer, but you have to know how to tackle the two different strategies.

If you go with a broad niche, it means you have to have fantastic organization of the sub-niches. It’s very possible to do, but it will take time to rank well in the search engines for the broad spectrum of topics.

So, let’s say you decided to tackle the children’s toy niche. You could have a general toy site, but you’d still need to organize the content into things like toys based on age, gender, materials, brands, indoor versus outdoor, etc.

Or you could go with a narrow approach in your niche. This makes it really easy for you to rank quicker with an authority site.

For example, TopToysfor1YearOldGirls.com that was fully focused on toys for this age and gender would probably become an authority site rapidly for those searching for that topic.

Either way you choose – broad or narrow – you can work your way back over time. So, if you choose a broad niche, you can work over time to dig into the narrow levels and provide expertise there for your affiliate income.

If you choose a narrow niche, like the one listed above, you could branch out and create a bunch of narrow sites and then eventually link them to a main site.

For example, you could create a TopToysFor2YearOldGirls.com, 7-year olds, 13-year olds, etc. Once complete, you could then create a main “TopToysForGirls.com” site that linked them all together.

Don’t worry if you’ve started out the wrong way because eventually, your goal is to have complete domination in a niche. You have to look at this from a long-term perspective, not what will help you make the most amount of money in 30 days.

The great thing about both niches is that you can search for keywords that will help guide you in the type of content that you want to create.

Over time, you may want to move from free keyword tools to the paid versions that give you more information about the kind of edge you can expect to have over the competition if you rank well for them.

Pick whichever strategy you feel more comfortable with right now – broad or narrow – and then if you want to move into a new direction, you can do that without any problems down the road.

Is Stress Wrecking Your Life?

Stress has become an epidemic in peoples’ lives. They can’t cope. They’re turning to all kinds of helpful people and products in a desperate effort to get relief from what seems like a constant barrage of turmoil.

If stress has sent your cortisol levels soaring and you can’t seem to get a grip on what you can do to control things and turn chaos into calm, then you need to analyze how bad the problem is so you can pick and choose methods and strategies that will alleviate this pressure.

Do You Feel Like You Just Want To Get Away?

One way you can determine whether or not stress has catapulted out of control is to think about the times when you feel significantly stressed. Sometimes, people will start out feeling stressed only in certain situations.

This might be just while you’re stuck in traffic, or only when you’re at work. Maybe even specifically when one person comes around, like an in-law or intrusive neighbor. But then you start to notice that the stress never really goes away.

It’s haunting you all of the time – day and night, at work, at home, when you’re around anyone and everyone – and even when you’re all by yourself. It’s no longer situational – it’s chronic, and that’s when stress is at its most damaging.

You start to realize that there’s no safe place for you to go to anymore. It used to be, a hard day at work was manageable – as long as you could escape at 5 o’clock and go to the comfort of your own home.

But if you wake up and go to bed filled with stress, and experience it throughout your entire work day, it means you’re under constant attack, and that’s not healthy for you emotionally or physically.

Your outlook may change to where you just want to escape it all – everyone and everything that’s causing you trouble. Just pack up your car and disappear – or at least get out of town where you’re not subjected to this chaos and commotion 24/7.

Everyone deserves to have space where they feel relaxed, protected and at ease. If you don’t have that in your life right now, running away isn’t the answer – you simply need to carve out some time and an area where you’re able to release the pressure of the day and enjoy a moment of peace and quiet or fun and entertainment.

You may need to get organized for that to happen, or change something big about your life, such as who’s in it or where you work. You’re not stuck in the situation – it’s just that you’ve been avoiding making those tough decisions.

Are You Taking It Out On Others?

When you’re dealing with a chronic stress situation that’s wreaking havoc on your life, you start to change. Your entire demeanor – the tone of your voice, the way you walk, the expression on your face – is all altered in a way that shows the world you’re under duress.

Your actions change as well. You begin treating people differently – even if they’re not the ones responsible for the upheaval in your life. You may not be aware that you’re doing it.

Or maybe you’re aware, but you feel helpless about changing your ways – especially when burdened with so much stress lately. You need to start thinking about how you’ve been treating others.

Start with your kids – have you noticed that you’re short with them lately? If they don’t do something on the first request, you lash out maybe more than you should? They won’t tell you, because it’s intimidating, and you don’t want to ruin your relationship with them.

How about your spouse? Does everything they do and say get on your nerves lately? Do you find yourself avoiding time with them or not reacting whenever they try to interact with you?

Maybe you’re feeling like every second you have to be at work is a nightmare – you can’t stand your coworkers, your boss or even your customers and clients. This is a sign that you’re not handling your stress load very well.

Sometimes, even well meaning friends and family can grate on your last nerve and you realize you’re just extremely grumpy with everyone and you’ve begun avoiding any kind of socialization.

You may shut yourself off from the world, or worse – lash out at others with yelling and a very visible, irritated demeanor. And maybe they even did something to deserve your wrath, who knows?

But the fact is, you not being able to handle life around others is a detriment to you – no one else. It’s you who will suffer and you don’t want to go about your day feeling like this.

So the first thing you need to do is analyze your true nature of interaction with others. Then, learn how you can diffuse your anger or irritation before you react to whatever has annoyed you.

It may be something as simple as taking a deep breath before you speak, or you may have to dig down and do some introspective work on yourself and why you’re not handling stress very well.

Are You So Confused You Can’t See A Way Out?

Confusion is one of the many symptoms of stress overload. You may get brain fog, or simply feel so overwhelmed that you can’t cope and you can’t focus on how to get better – it’s all too much.

But you have to be proactive about this. You have to simmer down and get unfrazzled so that you can learn to exist in life without a negative reaction to everything and everyone.

The first thing you need to do is take inventory of what’s going on that has you feeling so undone. Is it relationships? Finances? Physical issues? It can be a combination of many things, but you need to stop, spend a few minutes and write it all down.

What’s bothering you? Get it spelled out because you’ll need that list later when you’re addressing each issue individually. Next, rate the stress of those issues on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the most stressful.

Something might annoy you, like the kids not picking up their toys at the end of the day, but it’s a minor irritant and not as stressful as a coworker who dumps their entire workload on you every day while they surf the ‘net.

Once you get everything rated, start from the minor irritations and work your way up. Smaller things will be easier for you to handle, and as each one lifts with a solutions, you’ll feel stronger in handling the major issues.

For example, it may be as simple as promising the kids that if they pick up their toys every night, they each get to choose one family meal per week – or maybe you give them each an allowance for doing it.

When the minor stuff is handled, it will be time to turn to the major stress. You want to formulate a plan on how to handle this – how you’re going to approach any other parties involved, compromises you’re willing to accept, and so on.

You also want to have a back up plan. Think about if things don’t go your way when you try to solve the problem. What then? You want to have a reaction ready so that you don’t fly off the handle and feel overwhelmed again.

You also want to have some scenarios in place so that you can find a backup solution. For example, you could approach your coworker to discuss the issue, or simply refuse to take on their additional work. Or, you may have to take the matter up with your supervisor, but being ready calms your nerves.

Can You See Physical Symptoms?

Whenever stress takes a toll over the course of weeks, months or years, your emotional state seeps into your physical health, and you begin to suffer the consequences of not handling stress in a better way.

You might suffer from pain. Pain is a direct result of feeling too much stress, so you might suddenly notice you’re getting more headaches. Maybe they even feel so strong, they resemble migraines.

You can suffer from other aches and pains, too. For example, most people who have stress at work end up experiencing pain in their neck or back from time to time. The stress is a result of tension in your muscles.

The tension is how your body braces for the overwhelming feelings you have whenever stressful situations occur. You can’t relax, so those tense muscles eventually hurt, and that pain creates even more stress.

Hair loss is another common physical side effect from stress that both men and women endure. You may notice it a little at first, and suddenly your entire hair line has changed due to the extreme amount of stress that you’re under.

Insomnia, or a lack of ability to get and stay asleep, is yet another physical toll stress takes on your body. Sleep is crucial to helping you manage stress, and you may find it hard to sleep when stressed – but when you don’t get sleep, it stresses you out even more – it’s a horrible cycle.

Digestive issues often show up as physical symptoms from stress overload. This can range from constipation to irritable bowel syndrome. You might have an upset stomach, acid reflux or any sort of digestive problem when your stress levels are high.

You have to watch out for your physical well-being. If you start suffering health issues, that’s going to compound with the stress you already have on your plate, making things worse.

So whenever you begin noticing physical ailments during particularly stressful times, make sure you implement a good health regiment. Start with sleep. You want to improve your sleep hygiene so that you’re easily able to fall asleep each night.

Next, work on nutrition. Eat foods that sustain your energy levels and don’t cause a crash in energy, like processed, sugary foods do. Add exercise to the mix once you master nutrition.

Movement will help boost endorphins. And then, start pampering yourself with emotional stress relief options that help you relax and take some of the load off of you each and every day.

Has Stress Become Your Norm?

It’s unfortunate when you accept the way life is – even if your stress levels are out of control. But that’s what many people do. They think this is just how life is, and maybe someday it’ll turn around for them.

Life doesn’t have to be this way. You don’t have to accept that overbearing stress is a normal way to live. You simply have to make a firm decision to change the way things are for you.

Refuse to accept the status quo – even if others are okay with going through the motions. You don’t have to. You get to choose how pleasant life will be for you, and even if you can’t remember a time when life wasn’t stressful, your new life can begin today.

Once upon a time, you had dreams of how life would be. You knew you wanted relationships to be a certain way. You had an idea of what kind of career you wanted. But maybe things didn’t turn out that way.

Now is the time to start planning for a renovation of your life – one with far less stress. One where you’re surrounded by people you get along with and people you love and who love you.

This new life you create begins with new routines that make you feel satisfied each day – whether it’s how you wake up and start your day or how you end it each night. You might add exercise to the mix, or meal planning.

You’ll want to set aside time each day to nurture yourself. Because nobody else will take care of your needs the way you will. Buy yourself some aromatherapy products or something to improve sleep as an investment in your future happiness.

Shake things up with a new schedule. If you’ve been used to going to bed at 11 PM and waking up at 5, switch it to an earlier bedtime so you get one extra hour of sleep each night.

If certain things cause you daily stress, such as traffic jams, look for another route that’s less congested – and invest in an audiobook to listen to as you drive instead of depressing news talk radio to start your day.