Back Soon

Hello everyone,

First, let me apologize for my prolonged absense online over the last few months. I'm in the process of a cross-world move and have not been able to devote any time to business or networking... I do plan to be back online this Spring.

Until then, I wish you all the best of luck in your business endeavors and I will look forward to reconnecting soon.

Yours in Greater Success,
Merideth Cohrs

Back to Work

Hello everyone,

I wanted to write you all a brief note this morning for a few reasons.

First, be prepared for a few focus and formatting changes throughout this blog. After some personal examination after the New Year (isn't it funny how this time of year always inspires this kind of thought?!), I have decided that I'm ready to shift focus from some of the more broad-ranging topics I have shared with you in the past, to a narrower niche. What is that niche you ask? Well, just keep reading throughout the next few weeks, and all your questions will be answered :) Don't you love answers like that?

In all seriousness, however, it is my hope that my narrower focus will provide you with more immediately relevant information that will help you build your business more effectively, sell your product faster, or just become a more well-rounded person. Those are the goals I set for myself as well. You should know that I endeavor to learn as much through this blog as you do...we must each continue to learn and grow each day if we are to continue to develop and become better people.

Second, you will see this blog become more product oriented...products that I approve and endorse...rather than on my own business building. I have decided to move away from that this year and see where it takes me. I'm ready for a change in scenery so to speak... :)

In any case, I hope you enjoy the new stuff here...and as always, I'm always open to your feedback and suggestions.

I hope you each had a wonderful holiday season and that you're ready to ramp it up for 2007.

Yours in Greater Success,
Merideth

ATTITUDE Is Everything

Attitude Is Everything
by: Jim Rohn.

The process of human change begins within us. We all have tremendous potential. We all desire good results from our efforts. Most of us are willing to work hard and to pay the price that success and happiness demand.

Each of us has the ability to put our unique human potential into action and to acquire a desired result. But the one thing that determines the level of our potential, that produces the intensity of our activity, and that predicts the quality of the result we receive is our attitude.

Attitude determines how much of the future we are allowed to see. It decides the size of our dreams and influences our determination when we are faced with new challenges. No other person on earth has dominion over our attitude. People can affect our attitude by teaching us poor thinking habits or unintentionally misinforming us or providing us with negative sources of influence, but no one can control our attitude unless we voluntarily surrender that control.

No one else "makes us angry." We make ourselves angry when we surrender control of our attitude. What someone else may have done is irrelevant. We choose, not they. They merely put our attitude to a test. If we select a volatile attitude by becoming hostile, angry, jealous or suspicious, then we have failed the test. If we condemn ourselves by believing that we are unworthy, then again, we have failed the test.

If we care at all about ourselves, then we must accept full responsibility for our own feelings. We must learn to guard against those feelings that have the capacity to lead our attitude down the wrong path and to strengthen those feelings that can lead us confidently into a better future.

If we want to receive the rewards the future holds in trust for us, then we must exercise the most important choice given to us as members of the human race by maintaining total dominion over our attitude. Our attitude is an asset, a treasure of great value, which must be protected accordingly. Beware of the vandals and thieves among us who would injure our positive attitude or seek to steal it away.

Having the right attitude is one of the basics that success requires. The combination of a sound personal philosophy and a positive attitude about ourselves and the world around us gives us an inner strength and a firm resolve that influences all the other areas of our existence.

================

My friend Michael Lemm of HomeBasedBusinessForums.com has a GREAT response to this, and rather than share my words on this subject (which many of you have grown accustomed to), I thought I would treat you with his...a truly WONDERFUL networker.

ENJOY!
Merideth

From Michael:
To that I say....Amen, great article, and so right on. With the right attitude, determination, and consistent action you WILL be a great success.

There are some people that look at everything as a PROBLEM, and whine, and look at why something does not work. There are others that just see problems as a challenge to get better, and make things work out.

If each started in the same place....at the same time....the 2nd one would win every time.

That's why as leaders, we must teach our people to take responsibility for their actions!

I've come across my fair share of networkers who lay blame, make excuses, and try to justify when things do not work out for them....instead of attacking the problems and overcoming them.

These people will never be successful in life unless they are willing to change their attitudes and mindsets.

It is human nature though. People to not want to fail. My theory is they join with good intent. But then when they find they have to work, or talk to someone, they freeze and their good intents change. Then they don't want to fail, so they have to blame someone, so they make excuses.

I find that sad, but it does happen. Success does not happen over night, it takes time and work.

I can't understand why someone thinks they can enter the mlm world and be an instant success without giving themselves time to learn the skills it takes to be successful. It takes time and conistency and being willing to learn.

God Bless,
Michael

technorati tags: network marketing home business WAHM MLM personal development

Christmas Vacation

All I can say is that I apologize for the long hiatus over the Christmas holiday. I've been in Germany on a much deserved vacation and wanted it to be just that...A VACATION!

We'll get rolling again after the New Year. I hope each and every one of you had an excellent holiday (how ever you may celebrate it!).

Yours in Greater Success,
Merideth

10 Ways to Get More Blog Traffic

My friend Julieanne of PowerfulIntentions.com is a powerhouse of knowledge when it comes to optimizing your blog on search engines (SEO). The steps themselves are not complicated, but it takes a bit of time and consistent effort to get your blog off the ground and getting a steady amount of traffic. Don't get frustrated if it seems to be taking longer than you would have liked to get things really moving I remember how happy I was when this blog's readership went above 1000 for the first time - great stuff!

As I always say, this information is only as good as how well you apply it. So, learn and the act.

Yours in Greater Success,
Merideth

10 Ways to Get More Blog Traffic

One way to get traffic to a blog is to optimise it on the Search Engines. Following are 10 different ways to do that. These are in order of what I think is most important, although some of the latter ones are important too, such as WebRings. There are many different schools of thought when it comes to SEO, and things are changing all the time too.

* Content
* Keywords
* Ping the Web Servers
* Link to other Blogs
* Technorati
* Google Adsense
* FURL and del.ic.ious
* Webrings
* Link Exchanges
* Submit a Press Release

1. Content

The most important thing for SEO is the content. Search Engines love content that is updated frequently. So, your first priority is to write and write and write....

Use RSS and an Aggregator to Search for content Automatically.

Find content from other blogs. Here's a list of Search engines, which Google has ordered by their page rank - Search engines by Page Rank

Page rank is a numeric value that Google uses to determine how important a page is on the Web. So, this list from Google shows the most important search engines from Googles' point of view. And, Google is the top search engine itself.

2. Keywords
Keywords are important to Search Engines, and some keywords are more important than others. Make sure and use keywords that are being searched for by Internet readers. For example, a year ago, I wanted my Scuba Diving forum to be high on the Search Engines when people searched for the keywords "Scuba Diving".

Being high for "Scuba Diving" is highly competitive, so I've now chosen niches within Scuba Diving, such as "Scuba Diving Equipment", "Scuba Diving Vacations", "Scuba Diving Australia". It's much easier to get high for those keywords, and Google is now moving my web pages up higher for "Scuba Diving" too.

To get Keywords ranked highly:

* Use the main Keywords in the Title of your blog, if possible.
* Use the keywords in the title of every post.
* Use the keywords throughout your blog post.
* Buy a Domain Name with the keywords in it, and point that domain name to your Blog. GoDaddy.com is a cheap way to purchase Domain names, and I've always received good service from them.
* Use the keywords in the "description" of your URLs for Images (pictures).


3. Submit Blog to Search Engines

By submitting your Blog URL and/or RSS feed to a large collection of search engines and news services, they will be seen by people looking for breaking news and professional expertise.

Make sure and prepare the following information before starting to submit a Blog or RSS feed.

1) List of Blogs/RSS feeds that you want to submit
2) Name of each blog/RSS feed (title)
3) URL of the blog and URL of the RSS feed
4) Description
5) Language
6) Possible categories
7) Author name

Submit to the following Blog Search Engines.

There are a lot more blog search engines you could submit to. I haven't included all of them here.

Feedshot is a Blog Submission Service. It submits to the following search engines for free, and charges a few dollars to submit to other engines.

http://www.feedshot.com/

Bitacle:
blo.gs:
Bloogz:
Bulkfeeds:
DayPop:
Fastbuzz:
My Yahoo!:
RubHub:
Technorati:

Submit to http://www.blogsearchengine.com

Chordata is a RSS feed directory. You will be required to obtain a log in ID and password. Find a category for your blog, then submit the RSS feed. http://chordata.info

http://www.blogcatalog.com

Sign up for Feedster, Add your RSS Feed to Feedster, then claim it. There is a Tutorial at Feedster with instructions
http://www.feedster.com

This one's quick and easy
http://www.icerocket.com

At BlogStreet, click on "Add" at the bottom of the website
http://www.blogstreet.com

Click on the Left Sidebar of Blogwise, where it says "Submit Your Blog"
http://www.blogwise.com

At Blogorama, click where it says "Add yours now".
http://www.blogarama.com/

At BlogHop, click where it says: "Add your blog here" (towards top of page) http://www.bloghop.com/

From GlobeofBlogs, Click where it says "Register your Blog"
http://www.globeofblogs.com/

Click on BlogUniverse, where it says "Add a Site"
http://www.bloguniverse.com/


3) Ping the Web Servers

Whenever you post on a blog, go to a server and "Ping" it. This will alert the "ping" server that your blog has been updated. Many of these ping servers require an initial, manual submission of your feed, which is what you've already taken care of by submitting them to the search engines.

Pingoat.com "pings" a number of search engines at the same time, so it's easy to just go there each time you post on your blog.


4) Link to other blogs

Find other blogs in your Niche and make comments on their blogs. Most of them will allow a Signature file (a few lines with a link to your blog) at the end of your comments.

Link to other blogs in your posts, and write about them a little.


5) Technorati

Join Technorati and put tags (keywords) at the end of each of your posts.
Many people say that relevant Technorati tags will get you highly ranked in the Search Engines. It also makes it easy for people to find your blog at Technorati.

For example, I place the following tag at the end of my Scuba Diving blog posts:
http://technorati.com/tag/Scuba+Diving

Go to the above tag, and you will probably see some (or many) of my Scuba Diving blog posts. The "ping" tells the Web Server that I've updated.

6) Insert Google Adsense on your Blog

- the content in the adverts updates all the time, and this assists in becoming highly ranked.



7) Furl it, del.ic.ious

* Go to http://www.furl.net. Get a Free account at FURL, put Furl in your Toolbar (there are detailed instructions at the FURL website.

Once you have FURL in your toolbar, click on the "FURL" button for all your web pages, and any others that you wish to remember.

* FURL will give you a User page of your own.

Here's mine as an example:

http://www.furl.net/members/JulieannevZ

* Now, put the URL to your FURL user page on the sidebar of your Blog, and at the end of each blog post.

I did this about 3 months ago, and the following page is showing up on Google when I type in the keywords "Scuba Diving"

http://www.furl.net/furled.jsp?topic=scuba+diving

As you can see, when people click on that URL, they see all my saved hyperlinks (lots on Scuba Diving).

Get a Free account at http://del.icio.us

del.icio.us is similar to FURL, so repeat the above steps as for FURL.

8) Web Rings

A webring is a group of web sites related to the same topic.

Similar sites are grouped together in rings, with each site linked to another by a navigation bar. Rings form a concentration of sites, allowing visitors to navigate through them easily. Visitors can go on a circular "tour" within the web sites.

When the webring is displayed on a web page, "Forward", "Backward" and "Random" links are usually displayed for navigation between each of the sites in the webring. Each WebRing is maintained by an Owner - named the RingMaster.

A webring is normally hosted by a ring server. The most popular ring server is WebRing. The webring host or server keeps track of the web sites in the ring, so that a user can click on one of the links in the webring box, and be taken to the next web site in the web ring.

The reasoning behind a webring is that people who are interested in the topic of one web site might also be interested in another web site on the same topic.

A webring is also a VERY effective way to accumulate links to your site. This is important for moving up in the search engines. Even if a webring sent you no traffic from people "surfing" the webring- you'd still want to be a member! The more sites that link to your site the higher the search engines will rank you.

Find out more about Web Rings. WebRings seemed really tricky to me at first, and now they're super easy. I think they were tricky for me because I didn't read the instructions properly:-)

Go to WebRing search for a Webring in your niche and join it.

Place the Webring in the Sidebar of your Blog, plus on the bottom of all pages. Here's an example of a Webring in the Sidebar (bottom right hand side ). ScubaDiving Blog

9) Link Exchanges

Search for highly ranked websites for your keywords, and see if they offer a link exchange. So, if your keywords are "Golf Courses", go to http://www.google.com and search on Golf Courses. Have a look at the first 20 or so sites, to see if they have a Link Exchange. You could also do a search on "Link Exchanges Golf".

Search for the top 10 websites for your Keywords and Visit other people's blogs and forums and leave your Signature file with your Keywords contained within.

10) Press Release

Submitting a Press Release and publishing Articles on the Web have huge advantages. They both enable links back to your site, which will last for years, and could turn up anywhere on the Net.

Here's an example of my
Scuba Diving Press Release.

This is a good place to submit a Press Release

Here are some Press Release Tips

Here are some Common Press Release Errors

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There are quite a lot of things to do here, so just start from the beginning and do as much as you can.

technorati tags: blogs blog blog marketing blog Advertising search engine optimization SEO SEO ranking blog optimization blog traffic

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