Sunday Motivation with Zig Ziglar

Posted on July 26, 2015 by Barbara Dowling

Can you believe it…three weeks of the Quick Start Challenge completed!

It seems each week of the challenge has gotten progressively more challenging…I guess that’s why it’s call a challenge!  I’ve noticed some people struggling and wanting to give up, but our Facebook community perseveres in motivating, suggesting, commenting, helping–it’s amazing!

I congratulate those in the QSC who have made it this far and completed all of the weekly challenges! Kudos to you!  I encourage those who have not quite finished all the tasks to do them! Don’t give up!  You can do it!

For our Sunday motivation this week–we have a double feature! First, watch this video and Get motivated with Zig!

https://youtu.be/Cpi5539uSRI

Next, take a look at the Watchkins on Perseverance!  Have fun with it!

We are coming down the stretch of our 4 week challenge.  See you at the finish line!

Let's all cross the Finish Line!

Let’s all cross the Finish Line!

Posted in Motivation, The Quick Start Challenge | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

Opt in Form is Done!

Posted on July 24, 2015 by Barbara Dowling

Creating my opt in form had it’s challenges!

First step was deciding on my autoresponder.  I decided on Aweber.  I actually had set up an account with them but could not remember how to get into the account.  I spoke to Tim, one of the customer service folks at Aweber, and he quickly got me going again!

I decided  on Aweber for two main reasons…they have lots of training and live help and they recommend a double opt in. What is a double opt in? Actually, just as the name implies, you fill out the form and then you get an email saying to confirm that yes you do want to join the list.  Many people in the internet marketing arena do not use a double opt in because they simply want to grow their list.  This kind of list could potentially have a lot of spam. Personally, I want to grow a list of people who are interested in what I have to say, and want to avoid spam, so I used the double opt in.

The next step was to set up my list in Aweber.  This is when I decided I did not want to use a gmail account but needed to be more professional.  I took a side trip over to my hosting account and set up my email barbara@barbschallenge.com and also set up for it to forward to my gmail account.  Ok, my list was set up.

Next on the agenda was the opt in form.  I decided to pick one of the forms from the templates in Aweber.  This part was pretty easy to do with one exception…I still don’t know how to get rid of the extra white space.  I decided to let it go for now and challenge the html and javascript later!

The last part of the week 3 challenge was giving away a free gift for subscribing to your list.  I picked one of the products that were part of the bonus from the Quick Start Challenge–a report that was about blogging!  I loaded the report as media into my blog and wanted it to be on a private page but that was becoming an issue.  When I sent the link to the private page as part of the email follow up from my Aweber account,  it was not going to the report.  It said page not found (because it was private!).  In my frustration of going back and forth, I somehow discovered that the report actually had a link when I loaded it in as media, so that is the link I used!

I finally did a test run and everything was working! Yes, I did it! Week 3 Challenge is complete, although I may play with my opt in form (sign up form as Aweber calls it) a little more! Feel free to comment or sign up to my list.

Other posts of interest on this topic by Barbara O’Toole at 7 Simple Steps, a fellow Quick Start Challenger!

Posted in The Quick Start Challenge, Your Email List | Tagged , , | 14 Comments

The Marriage Challenge

Posted on July 22, 2015 by Barbara Dowling

It was 43 years ago today that I said “I do” to my wonderful husband Tom and thus began my lifelong challenge called Marriage.

wedding2I’m taking a break from the Quick Start Challenge today in order to celebrate my 43rd wedding anniversary.  It really does seem like yesterday that I walked down the isle at St. Ann’s Church.  We took our vows to love each other, for better for worse, till death due us part.  We actually surprised the Priest in that we each added a special part to our vows–“with truth as our foundation.”  That has probably been part of the glue that has kept us together all these years.

The challenge of marriage is not easy.  There is a lot of give and take.  There’s many issues to deal with… money,  working too many hours, tired of same old food, raising children, dealing with pets, dealing with in laws, where and when are we ever going on vacation, cars breaking down, moving from one place to another, health issues, and on, and on… it goes.

In spite of all the challenges in marriage, you have the joys to celebrate… your first home together, college graduation, job promotions, birth of first child, birth of second child, the trip to the Canary Islands, family gatherings, daughter getting married, the birth of first grandchild, birth of second grandchild, our first cruise, praying together, and on, and on… it goes.

Our marriage has not been perfect but we have always been truthful and worked things out.  We honestly can not read each other’s mind so open communication has been key.

Now let me ask you, isn’t that the same when you own your own business?  Things are not going to be perfect but if you are honest and communicate with your customers, they will get to know, like and trust you!

43rd Anniversary Dinner at Chef John's

43rd Anniversary
Dinner at Chef John’s

By the way, dinner at Chef John’s was delicious!  The waitress was kind enough to take our picture since the selfie did not come out too good!  We haven’t aged a bit!  LOL!!!

Thank you God for my wonderful husband and for the opportunity to help people with my online business…”Barb’s Challenge.”  May all my customers get to know, like and trust me just as my husband has over the last 43 years!

 

Posted in Motivation, The Quick Start Challenge | Tagged , , | 13 Comments

QSC – Week 3 – Your Email List

Posted on July 21, 2015 by Barbara Dowling

The topic for week 3 of the Quick Start Challenge training was: On Demand Income and Automation–aka creating your email list!

Here’s a review of what we covered in week 3…

Dean Holland praised those who had taken action and said he, Craig Crawford and Robert Phillips were quite impressed with the videos that were posted from week 2 of the challenge.  At the same time, he also said not to be discouraged if you have not gotten everything done, but to keep going at your own pace.  The key is consistent action.

Speaking of action, just because week 2 is done, does not mean you stop the traffic efforts with posting on blogs and forums–keep it going!  The next step is to automate certain aspects of relationship building with list building.  The goal is to get people to know, like and trust you so when you make recommendations for products or services that will help them they will become your loyal customers.  It looks something like this…

QSC

Ok, so how do you start to build your email list–an email list that will become your most valuable asset?  You need two things to get started:

An autoresponder – Dean recommends Aweber or GetResponse as they both have great training available.  Although you may be tempted to use a free service, do NOT use the free service as you have no idea what could happen with that company and may lose everything.  Remember, your list is your most valuable asset.

Something to give away in exchange for getting the person’s email – This could be a report, ebook, video, etc–something of value.  This giveaway could be something you create personally or from PLR products that you have been given the rights to.  If this seems like too big of a project for you, you can always outsource it at places like the Warrior Forum, Fiverr, eLance, etc.  Some folks in the QSC have it made because they purchased the done for you package!

Once you have your autoresponder and your giveaway, you need a means to deliver and follow up.  The next two steps:

Create an Optin Form – There are several options here.  Let’s take a look…

  • Add an Optin Form to your blog sidebar.  Get the training how from Aweber or GetResponse.
  • Create a Squeeze Page (optin page) that you can direct people to.  Use the training in your autoresponder or on YouTube.  there are also products that help you do this such as LeadPages, Clickfunnels and lots more.
  • Create a PopUp Optin Form using wordpress plugins (both free and paid)

Automation–by creating a follow up email sequence in your autoresponder – This is a series of emails that will be sent at a predefined time period that you set up.  As an example, you might send the first email immediately after providing your giveaway and then send an email on days 3, 5, 7, etc.  No matter when someone joins your list, they will start with day 1 of your email sequence.

What do I put in all these emails you ask?  A good rule of thumb is to put a mixture of good pure content and relevant promotions of products or services (that you own or are an affiliate of) that will provide value to your subscriber list.  Keep it simple! It could be…

  • Did they review the free report
  • Take a look at the new blog post
  • Here’s what I did this weekend
  • Here’s my results
  • Here’s a great product that will help you…
  • Here’s a great article that might help you…
  • etc…  Keep it simple

WOW, an information packed lesson this week!  Two things left to discuss…the winner of the week 2 challenge and the challenge for week 3!

DRUM ROLL PLEASE!!!

DRUM ROLL PLEASE!!!

Congratulations to Phil Fox! His blog was randomly drawn.  Great job Phil.  Check out his site here: Mad Fox Marketing

And now, the Challenge for Week 3!!

  1. Sign up for an autoresponder
  2. Create or find something of value to give away
  3. Add an optin form to your blog side bar  (or create a squeeze page or pop up optin form)

So there you have it! A great training and now time for action.  Come back again later this week to see my optin added!

Posted in The Quick Start Challenge, Your Email List | Tagged , | 6 Comments

Doing What You Love

Posted on July 19, 2015 by Barbara Dowling

Our Sunday motivation this week…True success depends on doing what you love.

I believe to achieve real success in life you must like what you are doing.  For example, if you choose a niche or topic in your business that you don’t know anything about but feel it will be a money maker for you, the blogs you write will reflect that.  Yes, you may make some money, but how much more would you make if you are building your brand around something you like and enjoy, that you are enthusiastic about!

If you love what you do you will be excited to share information that people will want to receive and they will be willing to pay for it, because they know, like and trust you!

Personal Coach, Max Steingart says…”You don’t pay the price of success, you enjoy the price of success.”  Watch this video with Steve Jobs and see if you don’t agree!

https://youtu.be/o5ZEgPIoZjw

Do you agree?  Please leave a comment below.  We love to hear from you!

Posted in Motivation | Tagged , | 9 Comments

Video is Done!

Posted on July 16, 2015 by Barbara Dowling

The dreaded task of creating my first video has been completed!

Thank you God for helping me get through this task!  I could have used a little help in keeping my eyes focused on the viewer.  Maybe I was looking up to you as the viewer since I did not look at the camera (or in this case my phone!) too much.  LOL that will hopefully get better the next time!

I did not prepare a script for this video as I wanted it to be natural as possible.  Only looked at the names Dean Holland, Craig Crawford and Robert Phillips, Quick Start Challenge creators, because I did not want to mess up their names due to my nervousness!

Once the video was created I had to figure out how to get it to YouTube.  Wow, my phone actually had a button that says share on YouTube! Oops, looks like I need to create a Channel! Task done, video now on YouTube.com!

By getting out of my comfort zone I have accomplished creating a video (never mind that I will probably forever be embarrassed by it) and uploading it online (including all the techie stuff that frustrates me).  Miracles do happen!

Whether you are taking the Quick Start Challenge, starting a business or doing something new in your life that you have dreaded or been afraid to do…get out of your comfort zone and do it!

As a reminder, as you watch this video, forgive the amateur production and know the comments are sincere!

Posted in Motivation, The Quick Start Challenge, Video | Tagged , | 37 Comments

Quick Start Challenge – Week 2 Traffic

Posted on July 14, 2015 by Barbara Dowling

In spite of computer glitches with Go-to-Webinar, Dean Holland covered a world of information in week 2 of the Quick Start Challenge.

Some of the key points discussed were as follows…

Success Metric - Key to Making Money Online

Success Metric – Key to Making Money Online

The success metric is the key to making money online.  So what is the success metric?

TRAFFIC + CONVERSIONS = $ALES

There are two types of traffic…free or paid.  Actually, free may not cost money but it does take time…and time is money!  We will track our traffic with Google Analytics.  (Action item: Add the Google Analytics plugin to my blog!)

We are going to focus on two free traffic methods by swiping visitors from existing traffic sources… Forums and Blogs.  We will comment with our blog in the signature line.  The comment must provide value! First impressions DO count!  If there are no comments people might feel it’s not worth reading your blog.  On the other hand, if there are comments, visitors will want to see what all the “buzz” is about!  We want people to become loyal customers with KLT…they know, like and trust us!

There are thousands of forums out there…but why not start with the Warrior Forum, designed with online marketers in mind.

As far as blogs are concerned…we have a gold mind…the Quick Start Challenge Blog Roll! Make a post on everyone’s blog and as you post on their blog, they will return the favor and post on your blog!

Now I also learned something from our Quick Start Challenge facebook group…install the plugin CommentLuv.  This will reward you if you decide to add a comment to my post by placing a link after you comment with a link to your last blog post with the statement: Your Name wants you to read www.your blog! How cool is that?!

DRUM ROLL PLEASE!!!

DRUM ROLL PLEASE!!!

Ok…now here’s the Week 2 Challenge… Create a video (at least 30 seconds, preferably with your smiling face), upload it to facebook and post it on your website!  Oh my gosh, did Dean actually say make a video? This is going to be a MAJOR challenge for me!  Be on the lookout, because I will meet the challenge!

Did I mention, Dean Holland, Craig Crawford and Robert Phillips of  The Quick Start Challenge  are giving away prizes as an incentive for us to get the job done!

Posted in The Quick Start Challenge, Traffic | Tagged , | 14 Comments

Sunday Night Motivation

Posted on July 12, 2015 by Barbara Dowling

A little bit of Motivation to dream about the next Quick Start Challenge Call–coming up Monday night!

Challenge homework done, now anticipating what the next step will be.  I think positive motivation is key to success in whatever you are doing. You want to eliminate any chance of negative thinking, self doubt or fears that might want to creep in.  Only thought is–I can do this!

Take a look at this video and be prepared to be inspired…

 

Posted in Motivation | Tagged , | 6 Comments

It All Begins Here… The Quick Start Challenge

Posted on July 9, 2015 by Barbara Dowling

It’s official…the start of my online business!

So why now and why am I doing this?

This week is the official kick off of The Quick Start Challenge!  There are these three online marketers–Dean Holland, Craig Crawford and Robert Phillips–who came up with this great idea of helping people create their own business with a Quick Start Challenge.  They give you step by step instructions so ANYONE can do it!

For years I’ve wanted to have an online business where I make money while I sleep.  Years ago I went to a seminar with Shawn Casey and Frank Kern.  These guys are now multi-millionaires! What if I had listened to them back then and did what they said to do?

Just like many people wanting to start an online business, I let excuses and fears get in the way.  I bought every new program out there (they call it the “shiny object syndrome”) but would never get through any of them.  The desire to accomplish the task was not great enough to get over the fears.

Recently I saw a graphic that someone had done showing life expectancy and marked off all the years that passed.  It was a rude awakening! I am very thankful for each day that God has blessed me with but realize there’s more to my legacy!  I need to show people that they can make money online and do all they want and not grow old, poor and unhappy.

logo Quick Start Challenge

The Quick Start Challenge came along just at the right time (some people call this “The Law of Attraction”.)  There’s not going to be a “what if” this time because I am going to do it!

The first step is creating this blog.  I will share the steps that I take, my feelings along the way and report on how much money I’m making.  It is my hope that you will be inspired by what I do to take action and join with me in the challenge!  May we all be blessed!

Posted in The Quick Start Challenge | Tagged , | 11 Comments