Tips

Is Happiness A Choice?

Let me ask you something? Is happiness a choice? Can people really choose to feel happy or not?

There are conflicting studies and opinions about general happiness and choosing to be happy. Both arguments have merit, but the truth seems to be somewhere in the middle.

There are certain conditions that do affect one’s ability to choose happiness such as depression and other mood disorders. Some people have difficulty controlling emotions, but it’s a skill that can be learned with practice.

Choosing to be happy may seem difficult, but there are things most people can do to increase their level of happiness.

Before jumping right in and learning ways to increase happiness, you need to learn about conditions that may make it difficult to will yourself to be happy. Depression and other mood disorders, ADHD, PTSD, a disability, grief, or poverty make choosing to be happy more challenging.

If you are dealing with any of these issues, there are still practical ways you can increase your happiness, but it may be more difficult. Keep in mind that change takes time, but it is achievable.

Choosing To Be Happy

Choosing to be happy is more than just willing yourself to feel happy. Part of it is thinking positively and thinking happy thoughts, but there are also more practical ways to make yourself happier.

Studies have identified several factors of happiness: social relationships, temperament or your ability to adapt, money, society and culture, and positive thinking styles.

Temperament is partly genetic, but it can still be improved with practice. Below you will learn about some things that you can do in each area to make yourself happy.

Improve Social Relationships

Improve current relationships by reaching out more often, opening lines of communication about past negative experiences, forgiving or seeking forgiveness, or making more time for your friends and family.

Make an effort to make new friends. Take on a new hobby, take a class, join a club, or go to different places in order to meet new people. You can also reach out to others online through social media or dating apps. Don’t be afraid to talk to new people and exchange phone numbers with people you get along with.

Invite friends and family members out for lunch, shopping, or have them over for coffee. Reach out. It can be tempting to wait for others to make the first move so be bold and take the initiative yourself; I’m sure your friends and family will truly appreciate you making the effort to reach out to them.

Improve Temperament And Adaptation

Practice pausing before you react to something. Give yourself a moment to get your emotions in check so that you respond in the way that you really want to rather than having an outburst.

This is a skill that can have a profound effect on both you and those around you; no-one likes to be around someone who gets moody or angry at the drop of a hat.

So, when something triggers you, pause, take a breath and think about how you would want someone to treat you in this situation.

Learn deep breathing techniques. You can try some guided meditation if you like, but you don’t need to over-complicate this. Mindfulness is a really great way to be calm and in the present.

Try to be more open to other people’s ideas and practice letting go of your need to control.

Improve Your Finances

Increase your income by finding a new job, asking for a raise, or taking on a second job. This is not always easy and can be risky, but could definitely be worth it in the long run.

Improve your education so that you can find a better paying jobs. Learning new skills isn’t just for school and the happiest and most successful people are constantly learning new things to help them grow.

Be open to other career paths. It’s very easy to become comfortable in your career, but is it really what you want to do? Being stuck in a job/career that doesn’t inspire you can be a real drain on your happiness; it’s not just about money, but the sense of fulfillment you get out of what you do.

Look for things you can do to earn a passive income. This is where the internet can come in to play.

There has never been a better time to start an online business and this could just be a side hustle to help you make a mortgage or car payment and if you can set up a business with a recurring monthly payment for customers, all the better.

Pay off debt or avoid taking on debt. if you have any debt, but especially large amounts of debt, this should be an absolute priority for you before anything else. This can be quite painful to begin with but you must take responsibility and deal with it and by doing so, you can feel much happier about yourself.

Set a budget and stick with it so you can have money to do the things that are important to you. Linked to the point above about debt, stop spending money that you don’t have on things you don’t need!

Embrace Or Change Society And Culture

Embrace local culture and society if they’re a positive influence in your life. Learn, explore, and enjoy your environment and the people you share it with.

Don’t be afraid to change your environment or seek change in your current one. Do what you can to be a positive influence. Stand up for what you believe in and speak out against social injustice.

Positive Thinking

Choose a positive mantra and repeat it several times a day. Positive thinking may feel and sound a little cliched but it does work to put you in a better frame of mind.

Keep a gratitude journal or make a list of things you’re grateful for. Gratitude is really powerful and you do have a lot to be grateful for.

Here is an article about the science of gratitude and if you really want to take your gratitude practice to the next level, then take a look at the Grateful Mind training here as it is a fantastic course all about using gratitude in your life.

Make sure you’re not practicing negative self talk, and if you are, change your inner monologue.

Watch comedies and do other things that will make you laugh more. Laughter really is the best medicine 😁

Practice smiling even when you don’t feel like it. People smile because they’re happy, but people also become happier when smiling.

You can choose to be happy, but it’s more than just saying “I’m happy”.

Choosing to be happy is about figuring out what will make you happy and then making a decision to take action to achieve your desire.

Choosing to be happy is choosing to focus on the good in your life, and having the courage to make changes in your life that will lead you to more happiness. You have options and you can choose to be happy.

Do You Struggle With List Building?

If you’ve been around internet marketing for any length of time, I’m sure that you’ve heard the phrase “The money is in the list.” You might get weary of hearing it, but it’s smacking you in the face for a reason – it’s the truth! Actually the phrase should really be “The money is in the buyers list.”

First of all, let’s answer the question, “What is a list?”

A list in internet marketing terms is a database of contact information for your prospects. So if you have a product or promote products about gardening and I sign up for your list, I’m a prospect that you can market to repeatedly until I unsubscribe.

So why is building a list so important? Let’s say you start off as an affiliate marketer. You find a niche you truly enjoy and you start working what you’ve learned into some traffic for your affiliate links.

Over a period of 30 days, you funnel 5,000 prospects from the World Wide Web who are interested in your niche straight through your affiliate link to the product owner’s site.

They even buy – yea! You’ve made a 50% commission with a 2% conversion rate. That means 2 out of every 100 people you sent bought the product, and your share was $26.00 (as an example). You earned a cool $2,600 this month – good for you!

But you’re leaving money on the table. Those 100 people who bought from your 5,000 clicks? They’re now on the product owner’s list, not yours. So what they’re going to do is send them more offers over the coming weeks.

After all, they are proven buyers. Over the next 30 days, those buyers fork over some more money for products that complement the original one they bought. That money goes to the product owner, not you – because you passed on building a list the first time around.

A better way to build an internet marketing business is to start with a list from day one. Before you let a single person slip through your link without capturing their name and email address, have your system set up to build a list.

Why should the product owner get to cash in on that person again and again when you’re the one who brought them the customer in the first place? Stake claim to each prospect and leverage your relationship with them for future sales and commissions.

You can have unlimited lists for different niches and send automated emails using a simple tool called an autoresponder, examples of which are Active Campaign or Aweber. Every day you can log in and see how many people have signed up, and you can create automated messages to send out to help convert your list into more sales.

If you want to learn more about autoresponders, you can read this article.

If you are serious about growing a successful online business, then you must make list building your main priority.

Even if you are an affiliate marketer like in the example mentioned above, there are ways to capture the prospects email address before sending them to the sales page.

You can do this by creating a free gift that the prospect opts-in (i.e. give up their email address) to receive. The trick here is to make the gift highly relevant to the affiliate offer.

Checklists, workbooks, case studies are such examples of good gifts, or “lead magnets” as they tend to be called.

Once you have your gift, you can create something called a squeeze page (sometimes called a bridge page in affiliate marketing) using your page builder of choice. If you use WordPress, I highly suggest OptimizePress and if you don’t use WordPress I would suggest Convertri.

When you are ready, you send your traffic to the squeeze page, the prospect opts in and is then sent to the affiliate offer.

This is a real win-win because you are building your list and you may also get some affiliate commissions if they decide to buy 👌

When you are a little more confident, you can try your hand at creating your own products and having affiliates send traffic to your offers. How amazing is that?

But whatever you do, you must ensure that you are actively list building all the time.

You also need to manage your lists proactively, and learn how to write compelling emails to get readers to open them and to take action on the contents.

Don’t just bombard your new subscribers with offer after offer. It is important to nurture your list and give huge amounts of value and helpful advice before asking them to buy even more stuff from you.

This is a major mistake that a lot of marketers make, especially in the internet marketing/make money online niches.

Another thing you should be doing is not bombarding your buyers with offers to buy things they have already purchased; this is just plain lazy marketing and happens all the time and shows that you don’t really care about them.

So, as you can see, list building is critical for the success and longevity of an online business. But it is also incredibly important that you nurture and manage your list once they have subscribed as it is much easier to convince a customer to buy from you again.

Write emails that help your subscribers and don’t be afraid to get a little personal and reveal things about yourself as this will only make them connect with you more, as you are not just another marketer, but a real person.

And remember that your email list is a source of free traffic, so look after it and it will be a source of income for you for years to come.

Your subscribers will expect you to sell to them so that isn’t a big issue, but don’t go for a hard sell every email. Always have their best interests in mind, rather than making a quick buck and they will reward you with their loyalty and custom.

And don’t email them too often! Some marketers email daily, others a few times per week or once a week. There is no right or wrong but you do need to email them regularly; once a week minimum or they may forget about you.

Some marketers can be very pushy and email multiple times per day, especially if they are promoting a product launch, but I personally think that is too much and too aggressive.

And don’t be afraid of people unsubscribing; it happens and is nothing personal. You only want people on your list who are going to connect and engage with you, so repelling the wrong type of person is just as important as attracting the right kind of person.

As I said earlier, you need to be managing your list and this includes removing people from your list who aren’t opening your emails as this can affect your delivery rates. And as long as you are continually trying to build your list, this shouldn’t be a big issue for you.

Just remember that your subscribers are real people with real problems that hopefully you can help them solve and you will do well.

So, go out and start building and nurturing your list today. 👍

How Can Productivity Be Increased?

Do More in Less Time – And Have More Time for Yourself

Getting things done brings such a great feeling of accomplishment, but it can also be overwhelming if the task seems insurmountable. Sometimes, the days just don’t seem long enough to do everything we want to do. When that happens, worry can set in, but it doesn’t have to!

You can do more than you ever thought was possible, and in less time too, giving yourself time to relax and really enjoy life!

It all begins with a solid foundation of time management and scheduling. It’s okay if you’re not a good time manager right now, you can learn to be. It just takes a little bit of practice and you’ll soon be getting more and more done.

When you see how much you’re accomplishing, you’ll work even harder during your busy times, and enjoy those down times more thoroughly.

These scheduling strategies will help you become an expert manager of your time:

Schedule Your Life For Maximum Benefit

You can avoid procrastination and the big stressed-out rush to meet a deadline by scheduling each day and using just a bit of self-discipline to stick to your schedule.

It helps to break things down into smaller tasks. For example, do you have a big presentation coming up at work in two weeks? Don’t try to do it the night before it’s due. Start now. Working for just a half hour each day can help you get that presentation done with plenty of time to spare.

It removes wasteful practices from your day. By scheduling your day according to your priorities, you can better utilize the time that you might otherwise have wasted doing unproductive things, like watching television or waiting for the next item on your to-do list to come to you.

Disallow Doubts From Getting In Your Way

That little voice in the back of your mind that tells you, “It’s too much work,” or “It’s not going to happen,” doesn’t know what it’s talking about!

You can do anything you set your mind to. Keep that thought in mind as you go through your day. The more you think it – or even say it out loud – the more you’ll internalize and believe it.

Remember your capabilites. When you remind yourself how much you’re capable of doing, you’ll work harder so you can reap the rewards of being done with work.

No matter how you reward yourself, make it a point to do so regularly. Finished that presentation? Take the evening off and watch your favorite movie! Whatever reward works for you is a good one – as long as the work’s done first.

Recognize When You’re Getting Stressed

Sometimes, in an effort to get more done, you’ll find that you aren’t getting the time for yourself that you’d hoped for. When this happens, stop and reassess your schedule.

Are you following your agenda? Are you productive during your scheduled working times? Are you meeting your goals? Where can you make changes for better success?

Do you concentrate and get your work done during your working hours? If not, you may find that you still have to work when you should be relaxing. This is a vicious circle that leaves you feeling stressed, while getting nowhere.

Eliminate Stressors And Build In Stress Relief

Think about the following as you go about your workday:

By focusing during working hours, you’ll complete each task much sooner. Get your drudgery tasks out of the way as quickly as possible to make more time for more enjoyable tasks.

Work time is for work only – so avoid distractions. Ringing phones and other issues can stop you from accomplishing your work. Forward calls to your voice mail and establish “do not disturb” times. You’ll be amazed at how much work you can get done without distractions!

If you complete your tasks early, keep working until your schedule says it’s time to stop. Perhaps you can tackle some work for the next day to get ahead. Being a little ahead gives you the flexibility to take care of inevitable emergencies without falling behind in productivity.

Recognize when you need a break. People are not machines so your schedule should reflect that. Realistic break times should be part of even the busiest schedule.

By planning your time wisely, you’ll accomplish more and be able to reap the many benefits of true relaxation when you’re done. It’s well worth the effort!

Dealing With Rejection

We learn at an early age that we don’t get everything we want. In other words, we have had to deal with rejection since then.

This may make you think that people accept rejection easily. However in reality the exact opposite is usually true.

People start to develop an invisible shield against rejection. They may show anger or resentment to the people who are serving up the rejection.

But, in many cases, it can show who is resilient and who is likely to continue until they get what they want.

No one likes to hear negative comments about themselves. People take it personally.

However, knowing the reason for rejection can help change your direction. You can correct the aspects that made people reject you in the first place.

This won’t work with everything. For instance, if a person you are attracted to does not return the favor, it may be difficult or impossible to turn this around.

Then again, there are numerous stories of people who persevered even when they were rejected time and again, and won the love of their lives.

Another instance where you may face rejection is during a job interview. Many candidates will pass this off as incompetence on the part of the interviewer, and there are certainly cases where this is true.

But, you should always try to evaluate the reasons why the interviewer did not choose you. You’d be surprised at how few people even ask for the reasons.

Interviewers won’t typically volunteer this information. Many will feel you don’t care if you don’t ask.

In many cases, rejection is not personal. You may not have the necessary skills when seeking a job, or you may not have enough experience, etc.

In other cases, it may be somewhat personal, but it may be in your best interest to get rejected. For instance, if you don’t have an aggressive personality, do you want to pursue a career that requires one? If you are in sales, you need to have this driving personality to succeed.

Use rejection to your benefit. People who accept rejection and don’t give up are usually the ones who eventually get that acceptance.

Sometimes, the very fact that you are persevering is what turns the tables from rejection to acceptance.

Whose to say that next opportunity is not the one that will accept you? You won’t know unless you continue on your quest.

Another thing to make crystal clear in your mind is that only you allow yourself to feel rejected. The problem is that the fear of rejection is a really powerful one so it can be difficult to not feel rejected when it happens.

Also realise that the person is not usually rejecting you personally, but rather your idea/opinion etc. Reframe it like that in your mind and you can free yourself from the paralysis that fear of rejection can cause.

And the person rejecting you now, may well soon be your most fervent supporter.

Dealing with rejection really is that simple. Changing your state of mind works wonders for many areas in your life and rejection is another one.

You have to remember that you are your own worst critic, so when someone disagrees or rejects you, the mind can blow it up out of all proportion and really go to town on your confidence.

Having gratitude for what you do have in your life can really help and it definitely gives you a sense of perspective.

Take time to think about family, friends, your passions or hobbies, and the things you probably always take for granted e.g. having a roof over your head or food in your belly.

Another way to deal with rejection is to use it as a learning opportunity. If you have had a business idea rejected or been turned down for a job, take some time to analyse what may have caused you to fail at this particular endeavour.

The key here is to be objective and, more importantly, to be really honest to increase the chances of success and reduce the risk of rejection in the future.

By doing this, you can actually rebuild your self-esteem and come out even stronger than before.

Dealing with rejection can be tough but it builds perseverance and character and it doesn’t last forever and you will be a much stronger person when you overcome it.

Life is full of challenges; relish them and grow into the person you want to become and overcome any obstacles that bar your way, including rejection.

And remember…

The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone Psalm 118:22

You’ve got this… 💪

Autoresponders: The Key To Successful Email Marketing?

The best outcome of your first online marketing campaign is a big response. The worst outcome is being overwhelmed by thousands of responses awaiting your response. Online buyers expect instant response to their information requests. Time is money, patience is thin!

So if you aren’t able to respond quickly, not only will you frustrate your potential clients, but you’ll wear yourself out trying to handle this alone.

The Amazing Autoresponder

That’s where you hire the inexhaustible personal email assistant, the autoresponder. Just set up your autoresponder to perform all of the tasks you need, and then you’re free to move on to the next campaign.

The autoresponder catches those email requests and in a split second sends information back. You can set the autoresponder to actually sound personal by sending the friendly, welcoming note that you wrote.

The autoresponder also captures the email information of prospects or buyers. That’s absolute gold for building your email list. Smart Internet marketers use this list to stay in touch on a regular basis.

The saying is that the money is in the list and this is true, although it is really in the buyer list.

Now you don’t have to irritate with daily emails. Many marketers email daily (and sometimes multiple times per day but this is inadvisable) and can be very aggressive so you need to strike a balance between offering good advice and going for the sale. A 3:1 ratio is a good balance, so for every email that is just going for the sale, provide 3 valuable emails offering good advice and tips to help the reader.

Of course, email marketing is a great way to give them a “sneak preview” and as a pre-sale buying opportunity for your new product along with many free tips.

Another great use of the autoresponder is to send regular newsletters.

Offering a free niche market newsletter helps you get those valuable email opt-ins. Some prospects want to learn more about your product before buying. The newsletter is a tool for developing trust with potential buyers.

The fact is that buyers would rather choose products from trusted sources than take a chance on the unknown, so keep the relationship solid with regular, meaningful communication. Your autoresponder can handle multiple lists and different messages. That gives you a way to tailor the email to prospects for each product.

One of the biggest mistakes that marketers make is failing to target the message for each product prospect. They get lazy, write one message and one thank you note and then move on.

And this is such a common mistake that 90% of marketers make, including those who know better and even teach segmentation techniques to their buyers and readers!!! This undoubtedly brings their integrity into question in the minds of their subscribers, so always practice what you preach!

The autoresponder is capable of so much more work for you. Give each list a distinct name that relates to the product so that you can easily identify the list.If the autoresponder tool seems daunting, take time to view the tutorials.

Even if you have an active list under management, scan the tutorials to see if there are new tricks you can learn for maximizing the effectiveness of your autoresponder emails. Keep your electronic personal assistant busy and you’ll make more money online with less effort.

There are many autoresponder companies out there to suit all types of business needs. The good thing about them is that they will grow with you; as your list grows your cost will increase, but if you are using the tool correctly, you should be making more than you are paying i.e. it is an investment rather than an expense.

There are free autoresponders out there but they are limited with what they can do so it is always best to sign up to a paid service. Prices range from around $9-$19 per month for a list of up to 500 subscribers and the most popular all have free trials so you can try them out to see which one works best for you.

As a marketer I would personally recommend either Active Campaign or Aweber.

I use Active Campaign as it is more powerful and versatile than Aweber, although it has got better over the last couple of years.

Although the primary purpose of an autoresponder is to automate the email sending process, it is also important to send regular broadcast emails to your subscribers, especially if there are any trending topics in the news relating to your niche, and also to tell them more about you and what you are up to.

This creates a more personal connection with you and builds more trust and likeability.

And this leads me nicely onto my next point…

Autoresponder Email Marketing – Make It Personal

As already discussed, the technical options that you have make it possible to send personalized emails from your autoresponder that can seem like the real thing.

Not every buyer knows about autoresponders, so it gives them the sense that you created an email individually for each reader i.e. just for them.

When you write an email, start with the name of a trusted friend in mind and write as if the message was just for that friend. Then edit out the friend’s name and set up the message so that your autoresponder takes over and inserts the prospect’s name.

Personalization isn’t just for emails – use it as an intro to your ezine, too: “Hi, Susan, here’s some great new ideas for using the XZY Information system that I know you’ll appreciate.” Use the name that the prospect gives in the information gathering form.

Add the name naturally as it would occur in conversation. Internet marketers can make the mistake of over-using the name just because it’s easy to insert electronically. Read the message aloud.

Would you use the name that many times or does it sound phony? Yes, people love the sound of their own names, but when it’s over used, the reaction is that you’re being a fake and that send the buyer fleeing.

Don’t let spell check defeat you. First, be extremely careful when you type a name into the autoresponder list. If the name was automatically added to a list, don’t change it. Some names are spelled differently on purpose.

There is an ongoing dispute between Teresa and Theresa as to which is the accurate spelling of the name. Answer: the way she wants it! Also, be careful that the name isn’t changed in the final spell check.

Avoid the marital status question. Don’t add Ms, Miss or Mrs to any correspondence. For one thing, email isn’t that formal. You don’t need to guess on this one or you’ll surely be wrong more often than right.

While the generic “Dear Friend” or “Dear Internet Marketing Colleague” seems impersonal, at least it doesn’t make obvious mistakes that are humorous to some people and blatantly offensive to others.

Use the name when you ask for the order. Remember to be personal when you make the final pitch.

What’s more appealing to you: “Everyone needs this marketing package to increase sales” or “ I want to see you enjoy the kind of success I’ve had with this product – so, Stan, are you ready to make serious money online? If you are then click here. . . .but wait, Stan, I’ve got one more bonus that’s just what you need!”

That’s a personal close using the name and showing interest in the prospect’s success. So keep it real, keep it personal and keep making contact with your list so that the first sale isn’t the last one.

OK, so there are a few things to bear in mind when using an autoresponder and writing emails for your email marketing campaigns.

Email is a very powerful tool if used correctly and can be very profitable, but always put your prospects needs before your own and you will surely be successful.