I write articles on my blog for the work-at-home niche which get’s indexed by Google, spread to my 6K Twitter followers and my over 500 Facebook friends.  Writing helps build online credibility.  However, the need to create fresh content can sometimes lead to writers block.

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Ovecoming Writer’s Block
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What is writer’s block?

Well, I just can’t think of a single darn thing to
say. Oh well, I’m outta here!

Sound familiar? No! Oh, get real! We’ve all
experienced this phenomenon when we absolutely have to
write something, particularly on deadline. I’m talking
about. . . . .uh, I can’t think of what the word is .
. . oh, yes, it’s on the tip of my tongue . . . it’s:

WRITER’S BLOCK!!!!

Whew! I feel better just getting that out of my head
and onto the page!

Writer’s block is the patron demon of the blank page.
You may think you know EXACTLY what you’re going to
write, but as soon as that evil white screen appears
before you, your mind suddenly goes completely blank.
I’m not talking about Zen meditation
stare-at-the-wall-until-enlightenment-hits kind of
blank.

I’m talking about sweat trickling down the back of
your neck, anguish and panic and suffering kind of
blank. The tighter the deadline, the worse the anguish
of writer’s block gets.

Having said that, let me say it again. “The tighter
the deadline, the worse the anguish of writer’s block
gets.” Now, can you figure out what might possibly be
causing this horrible plunge into speechlessness?

The answer is obvious: FEAR! You are terrified of that
blank page. You are terrified you have absolutely
nothing of value to say. You are afraid of the fear of
writer’s block itself!

It doesn?t necessarily matter if you’ve done a decade
of research and all you have to do is string sentences
you can repeat in your sleep together into coherent
paragraphs. Writer’s block can strike anyone at any
time. Based in fear, it raises our doubts about our
own self-worth, but it’s sneaky. It’s writer’s block,
after all, so it doesn’t just come and let you know
that. No, it makes you feel like an idiot who just had
your frontal lobes removed through your sinuses. If
you dared to put forth words into the greater world,
they would surely come out as gibberish!

Let’s try and be rational with this irrational demon.
Let’s make a list of what might possibly be beneath
this terrible and terrifying condition.

1. Perfectionism. You must absolutely produce a
masterpiece of literature straight off in the first
draft. Otherwise, you qualify as a complete failure.

2. Editing instead of composing. There’s your
monkey-mind sitting on your shoulder, yelling as soon
as you type “I was born?,” no, not that, that’s wrong!
That’s stupid! Correct correct correct correct?

3. Self-consciousness. How can you think, let alone
write, when all you can manage to do is pry the
fingers of writer’s block away from your throat enough
so you can gasp in a few shallow breaths? You’re not
focusing on what you’re trying to write, your focusing
on those gnarly fingers around your windpipe.

4. Can’t get started. It’s always the first sentence
that’s the hardest. As writers, we all know how
EXTREMELY important the first sentence is. It must be
brilliant! It must be unique! It must hook your
reader’s from the start! There’s no way we can get
into writing the piece until we get past this
impossible first sentence.

5. Shattered concentration. You’re cat is sick. You
suspect your mate is cheating on you. Your electricity
might be turned off any second. You have a crush on
the local UPS deliveryman. You have a dinner party
planned for your in-laws. You . . . Need I say more.
How can you possibly concentrate with all this mental
clutter?

6. Procrastination. It’s your favorite hobby. It’s
your soul mate. It?s the reason you’ve knitted 60
argyle sweaters or made 300 bookcases in your garage
workshop. It’s the reason you never run out of Brie.

FACE IT ? IT?S ONE OF THE REASONS YOU HAVE WRITER’S
BLOCK!

How to Overcome Writer’s Block

Okay. I can hear that herd of you running away from
this article as fast as you can. Absurd! you huff.
Never in a million years, you fume. Writer’s block is
absolutely, undeniably, scientifically proven to be
impossible to overcome.

Oh, just get over it! Well, I guess it’s not that
easy. So try to sit down for just a few minutes and
listen. All you have to do is listen ? you don’t have
to actually write a single word.

Ah, there you all are again. I am beginning to make
you out now that the cloud of dust is settling.

I am here to tell you that WRITER’S BLOCK CAN BE
OVERCOME.

Please, remain seated.

There are ways to trick this nasty demon. Pick one,
pick several, and give them a try. Soon, before you
even have a chance for your heartbeat to accelerate,
guess what? You’re writing.

Here are some tried and true methods of overcoming
writer’s block:

1. Be prepared. The only thing to fear is fear itself.
(I know, that’s a clich?but as soon as you start
writing, feel free to improve on it.) If you spend
some time mulling over your project before you
actually sit down to write, you may be able to
circumvent the worst of the crippling panic.

2. Forget perfectionism. No one ever writes a
masterpiece in the first draft. Don’t put any
expectations on your writing at all! In fact, tell
yourself you’re going to write absolute garbage, and
then give yourself permission to happily stink up your
writing room.

3. Compose instead of editing. Never, never write your
first draft with your monkey-mind sitting on your
shoulder making snide editorial comments. Composing is
a magical process. It surpasses the conscious mind by
galaxies. It’s even incomprehensible to the conscious,
editorial, monkey-mind. So prepare an ambush. Sit down
at your computer or your desk. Take a deep breath and
blow out all your thoughts. Let your finger hover over
your keyboard or pick up your pen. And then pull a
fake: appear to be about to begin to write, but
instead, using your thumb and index finger of your
dominant hand, flick that little annoying ugly monkey
back into the barrel of laughs it came from. Then jump
in ? quickly! Write, scribble, scream, howl, let
everything loose, as long as you do it with a pen or
your computer keyboard.

4. Forget the first sentence. You can sweat over that
all-important one-liner when you’ve finished your
piece. Skip it! Go for the middle or even the end.
Start wherever you can. Chances are, when you read it
over, the first line will be blinking its little neon
lights right at you from the depths of your
composition.

5. Concentration. This is a hard one. Life throws us
so many curve balls. How about thinking about your
writing time as a little vacation from all those
annoying worries. Banish them! Create a space, perhaps
even a physical one, where nothing exists except the
single present moment. If one of those irritating
worries gets by you, stomp on it like you would an
ugly bug!

6. Stop procrastinating. Write an outline. Keep your
research notes within sight. Use someone else’s
writing to get going. Babble incoherently on paper or
on the computer if you have to.

Just do it! (I know, I stole that line from
somewhere?). Tack up anything that could possibly help
you to get going: notes, outlines, pictures of your
grandmother. Put the cookie you will be allowed to eat
when you finish your first draft within sight ? but
out of reach. Then pick up the same type of writing
that you need to write, and read it. Then read it
again. Soon, trust me, the fear will slowly fade away.
As soon as it does, grab your keyboard ? and get
writing!

XPPS otherwise known as The Fast $100 Xtreme Postcard Profit System is fast becoming the offline lead generation tool and training system that many network marketers have been looking forward. Plus, it’s also an opportunity.

What you may not know is that XPPS really a offline-online hybrid. It uses offline methods to generate leads to a sales page.

Here’s a recent article I published in Ezine Articles:

The secrets of postcard marketing and how to get laser targeted leads calling you on demand: Register for my free postcard marketing webinar here: http://www.rich-obrien.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Rich_O’Brien

People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. It always suprises me how on Facebook and Twitter everyone is in “sell” mode. They instantly reach for your pocket while being introduced. It’s so tacky and doesn’t work.

You can use your list like that or you can build value. By offering something you first, you employ the law reciprocity. And that my friend, brings success to your doorstep.

If you aim for success, you must do everything within your means to achieve that. You just don’t go on sitting there in your house complaining about not getting as much profit as you expect. You have to keep moving. You have to pour in and invest enough time, money and effort to have profitable results.

In doing internet/offline business, you must aim just the same. You should maximize all of your marketing strategies, given the wide market that your business will be exposed to. Imagine the whole online community as potential clients!

Now, one of the best marketing tools that you can use in your online business is building a list. An opt-in list is the best, most effective and smartest option that you can make to make it big. It is one thing to stay in business and it is another thing to have a profitable business. So if you will be allowed to choose, make use of the building list to ensure that profits will keep coming in.

What is an opt-in list?

The opt-in list basically is just a list or a database of names and email ads of people who have visited your website or made a purchase through your website. The listing will allow the owner to send updates, emails or promotions to those who are subscribed.

It is like an ordinary membership or mailing list in an ordinary shop or club, only in this instance, the opt-in list is done online.

Why should I choose to put an opt-in list?

Any visitor that will come to your web site is a potential client. That potential client means there is a potential sale and that potential sale is a potential profit. Now, let’s say that you’ve made a good internet marketing strategy as a result all these potential things have been translated to actual client, sale and profit.

The next prudent thing to do is to not let all these productive efforts be wasted. The next best thing to do is to get the email addresses and other contact details of your clients because your present buyers can still be your clients in the future.

Building a list will definitely work for your benefit. This will ensure that you can maintain close contact and a good relationship with your clients, especially the frequent visitors. This way you will have a regular

This will also save you money, time and effort because once you come up with a new product or new information, you know exactly who you will send updates to because you have a definite market. This is one aspect that you will have to maintain to have a steady source of income at the least. Then the rest of your efforts will be to make the number of your regular clients grow.

Some pointers in building your opt-in list:
1.    You should put a ‘subscribe link’ or ‘subscribe box’ in your web site. It is advisable to put it on all the pages. Then make sure that it is strategically positioned, meaning it has to be easily located by the visitors. The upper right hand corner of the page would be a good position.

2.    Promote your website and promote it even more to make give it more exposure and to get more subscribers.

3.    Come up with contests or give away freebies and goodies that will require visitors to give out their email ads to be able to join.

4.    Give out information, articles and updates to your clients with your links in it. Make sure that the information will be relevant to the client.

5.    Offer free courses to your visitors. This will also help maintain a good relationship with your subscribers.

6.    Use your signature also to make your opt-in list expand. Every time you send out messages the link information should be included.

7.    Do some networking too. Join some forums or discussions and build relationships with the people there. This way will also be a good way for you to get more contacts and clients.

At the same time you should also know what you should avoid in building an opt-in list. There is one thing that you should keep in mind as the don’t’s of building a list.

Don’t ever spam your subscribers. It is best that you get permission from your subscribers, or else you might end up with a bad reputation.

Avoid pop-ups too. They can sometimes annoy the visitors. There are also pop-up blockers now. Your effort here might end up futile.

You should also refrain from flooding your subscribers with information. You might end up as an annoyance that you might not get a favorable result. There may be times that you’ll give relevant information, but your clients may just dismiss it.

The benefits of having many regular subscribers are undeniable. They will definitely keep your business going and you will definitely enjoy the profits that will come in. Just remember that things don’t end there.

Once you’ve build up on a substantial opt-in list, make sure that you maintain it well. Keep in contact with your subscribers. Send them updates. Give out special offers and helpful tips. Freebies will be helpful too.

Just follow this and you’ll see, things can only get better.

Would you like to see how I put this in action?

Offline marketing (postcard – with an online component): http://www.postcardfastcash.com

Voice Broadcasting: http://www.262k.com

The Xtreme Postcard Profits System uses a hybrid system of offline marketing to online marketing. One major component is the “opt-in” page.

On your postcard you will include your URL, for example, my XPPS capture page is:http://www.postcardfastcash.com

Before revealing the secrets of the trades, here are myths and fallacies that need to be cleared before one indulges into building an opt-in list. These marketing misconceptions could pose so much of an obstacle towards your profitting well from your business.

Not a lot of people use email

Email marketing is one of the most effective marketing methods nowadays simply because virtually almost all people use email. Check on those email fields or blanks required to be filled up on various forms needed in processing different transactions. A person without an email address is tantamount to a person without an online home, which is one big shameful truth for this generation.

Email marketing campaigns can offend a lot of people

The not-so secret way to surmount this dilemma is through permission-based advertising. There’s no harm in trying after asking for permission.

It’s stupid to send email to all the people

The key to this predicament is to have a very discerning eye on who to email and who to not email. Better look for some metrics on how to know which group of people would give you high ROI or return on investment.

The Real Deal with Building Opt-in List

After clearing the fog regarding email marketing myths, here’s how one can benefit from employing the power of email marketing campaigns – building an opt-in list.

However, building an opt-in list is not a piece of cake particularly for the uninitiated. Here is a roundown of tips on how to succeed in this kind of marketing endeavor.

1. Strategic Collection of Data

Know which information from your audiences will help you in lowering expenses and/or make sales flourish. Devise a tactic to make people voluntarily provide you with the information necessary to create higher conversion.

Overload of data is not good. Ask only for opt-in, with their full name and email addresses. Make sure that the profiles that you gather are updated to aid in improving the relevance, timeliness and satisfaction from each deal you make.

2. Good Implementation

Old adage says it all – ‘action speaks louder than words’. This easily translates to the difficulty one has to undergo during the execution of his or her email marketing efforts. It’s a good thing that various methods, often low-cost, abound to hasten and facilitate the building up of one’s opt-in database.

Tracking your email marketing results can pose great hardship, too. Technology and relevant sources should be employed in making this aspect of your marketing a lot manageable. Your high traffic groups of opt-ins with the greatest result should be taken noted of.

The following are the most widely used methods to leverage channels without overspending:

1. Make use of websites.

It is an excellent tool for data collation and providing you with relevant info regarding your email offers. Use forms that solicit your visitor’s email address and consent.

2. Make use of print ads, brochures, TV, radio and direct mail.

These are the more popular ways of marketing aiming to lead traffic to one’s site. You may want to ask for signups for email services. Make your website more visible through these media. Offering free electronic newsletters and or rewards program can do well in making it easy to win the nod of your audiences, too.

3. Maximize your sales force.

Customer service associates can help a lot in making you benefit more from your email correspondence. Sales people with proper education on how to aid you in this endeavor can very well contribute to higher ROI. Techniques like offering account updates and special programs through email can easily land you those lists of valuable visitors.

4. Don’t make your point of sale pointless.

Forms for signup located at cash registers and other high-traffic and highly visible spots can be very excellent venues for your business to collect email addresses. Notification of upcoming sales through their email addresses and names can coax them to supply you with the information you need.

5. Conferences or trade shows can work, too.

Giveaway offers or entries on sweepstakes are great for opt-in to volunteer their contact details.

These tactics should be applied with adequate caution and should focus on earning the trust of your opt-in list instead of simply collating data for your sole own benefit. Always make sure that the forms that you will use and other methods that you will employ will not necessitate too much fuss to subscribe. This is for people to not be annoyed during the process of data supplication.

With that bunch of information, who can ever go wrong with the feat of building an opt-in list?

This saturday I’ll be at my favorite cigar shop in Loomis having a Gurkha cigar to enjoy the fruits of my marketing labors.

And if I’m really lucky I’ll have the winning ticket to the  gorgeous Gurkha Assassin Chopper.

Thanks to all my new team members in XPPS and iBuzzpro! If you’re in the area, come join me for a cigar at noon. The cigar will be on me.

Postcard Marketing or Owning a Pub. You be the judge

In the following section of the interview Mr X talks through what he feels are some of the most important obstacles to overcome when starting and building a successful business, and the types of businesses to avoid (he used to own pubs and does NOT recommend that business):

I think, without sounding too presumptuous, the trouble with a lot of people is that they hold pessimistic views of things.  They resign themselves to defeat even before they’ve begun.

They’ll look at a business venture, they’ll sit down and they’ll try to convince themselves why it’s not for them or why it won’t work.  They find it hard to comprehend that others are making absolute fortunes either online or offline.

I think I must have heard every excuse under the sun over the last twenty odd years as to why someone’s business isn’t working:

“If only I was younger”

“If only I was older”

“If only I had more time”

“If only I could be sure of success”

“If only I had more luck” – that’s a good one.

“If only I had more money” – that’s a really good one.

“If only I had more confidence”

“If only I could just get started” – well go out and do it.  Just do it.

“If only I could just get out of debt” – well that follows on – if you get out and start the business, you’ll normally find that it will get you out of debt.

It’s just really the majority of people – what they’re really saying is “if only everything was handed to me on a silver platter I might have a chance of getting it right”

Well, it’s not going to be all handed to you on a silver platter, no matter what anybody says, there is going to be some work involved in running a successful business, it’s just varying degrees of work.

What I try and do is look for businesses that can be very successful and profitable, but take the least amount of running.  If something can be done on autopilot, I’ll do it on autopilot.

Because believe me – if there’s any publicans listening, they’ll understand what I’m talking about – if you want to really work hard, get yourself a pub.  And if you really want to work super hard, get yourself a country pub.

One of these idyllic country pubs that everybody says, “I would like to retire to”.

Give it a month and you’ll see what work’s all about – eighteen hours a day, seven days a week.

You don’t have to do that with a postcard mailing business- if you set that up right, they can be hugely profitable and it’s actually obscene really the small amount of time you have to put into a lot of these businesses for the amount of money you can get out of them.

In the following section of the interview Mr X talks through how he built up an internet business making over $100,000 a month in sales (mostly profit) in just a few short months with very little initial investment:

Let me explain to you how it came about – I was shown an internet business by a colleague of mine that was making a heck of a lot of money, and I realized that I could do this myself.

Quite cheeky I know – so after some research I took the same business model, made some small adjustments to suit my product, wrote the sales copy, and the rest is history.

My business partner and I at the time actually started with two phone lines, two pen and pads on our lap, and that was it.

We had one tiny second hand computer that we bought from a local computer store.  We had no credit card processing – when I look back now, I just can’t believe how the business took off.

Okay – timing, it was important because it was around the time of the dot com bubble.  Everybody wanted to get online, but the business model I’d really just taken and adapted from somebody else’s business model.

There’s an old saying isn’t there – if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.

If you find a good business model do what I do – look at it, think “yeah, that’s working – I can maybe put a little tweak here and there”.

I’m not saying outright copy somebody else’s business, but take their model if it’s working.

That’s what I did – I took this business model that I saw was working, and working very well, but I knew by adding a few little tweaks here and there, I could possibly make it work better, and that’s exactly what happened.

And the phone started ringing, and again we advertised offline.  The phone started ringing Thursday lunchtime – the publication came out on the Thursdays…… And it just went absolutely crazy.

We sent people to the website to read the copy that we put up there.  We didn’t have any way of taking any money – we weren’t taking any credit cards at the time, we were just asking people to send us checks, postal orders, paypal, cash in registered envelopes … it just came flooding through the door.

And that was in the October – by February or March time we had a staff of four, and we were turning over $100,000 a month easily, with the majority of that being profit.

When I market my iBuzzpro or XPPS Postcard Marketing system I drive leads to my website capture pages with an opt-in form. Opt-in email marketing, also known as permission marketing, allows you to build a list of targeted prospects and drip them with an autoresponder sequence.

Opt-in marketing requires the permission of a willing customer to subscribe to your marketing materials, materials that take form in newsletters, catalogs and promotional mailings via e-mail. The more opt-in marketing mail is sent, the more chances there is to bag sales and more sales. To do this, you must build a list of all those who wants to subscribe to your opt-in marketing list.

From your list, you will get your targeted customer, this is a good list since they already have shown interest in what you have to show and sell since they have willingly signed in for your list.

These are the people who have liked what they have seen in your site and have decided they want to see more and maybe even purchase what ever product or service your company and site has to offer.

Many people would think that building their lists would take hard work and a lot of time to build and collect names and addresses. This is not so, it takes a bit of patience and some strategies but in doing this list, you open your site and your business to a whole new world of target market. Take the effort to take your business to a new level, if traffic increase and good profits are what you want, an opt-in list will do wonders for your business venture

There are many sources and articles in the internet available for everyone to read and follow in building a list. Sometimes they may be confusing because there are so many and there different ways. Different groups of people would have different approaches in building an opt-in list, but no matter how diverse many methods are, there are always some crucial things to do to build your list. Here are four of them.

1)   Put up a good web form in your site that immediately follows the end of your content. While some may say this is too soon to subscribe for a website visitors application, try to remember that your homepage should provide a quick good impression. If somehow a website visitor finds something that he or she doesn’t like and turns them off, they may just forget about signing up.

A good web form for subscribing to an opt-in list is not hard to do. Just write a simple short statement about how they would like to see more and get updated about the site. Then there should be an area where they could put in their names and e-mail address. This web form will automatically save and send you the data’s inputted. As more people sign in, your list will be growing.

2)   As mentioned in the first tip, make your homepage very, very impressive. You need to have well written articles and descriptions of your site. Depending on what your site is all about, you need to capture your website visitor’s fancy. Make your site useful and very easy to use. Do not expect everyone to be tech savvy. Invest in having good programming in your site, make your graphics beautiful but don’t over do it.

Don’t waste your time making the homepage too overly large megabyte wise. Not all people have dedicated T1 connections, the faster your site gets loaded, the better. Go for a look that borders between simplicity and sophisticated knowledge.

3)   Provide good service and products. A return customer is more likely to bring in more business. Even then and now, a satisfied customer will recommend a business always. Word of mouth and recommendations alone can rake in more business than an expensive ad. As your clientele roster grows so shall your list. With more members on the list, the more people will get to know about what you have new to offer.

4)   Keep a clean and private list. Never lose the trust your customers have entrusted you. If you provide e-mails to others and they get spammed, many will probably unsubscribe to you. Remember, a good reputation will drive in more traffic and subscribers as well as strengthen the loyalty of your customers.

- Rich

The 100-Fast Postcard Marketing system has launched and changed it’s name to The Fast-100 Xtreme Postcard System or abbreviated XPPS.

Here are the improvements to the new system:

1. Integrated payment system – accept Paypal and/or Alert Pay – which you means you get paid fast. Prospects will now be able to join the program instantly online, and the system will give them *your* accepted payment options so they can make their $100 payment instantly to both you and your sponsor *and* be up & running in next to no time!
2. Automated Postcard mailing – which means you can order your postcarsd have them printed, labled, stamped and mailed without leaving your home.
3. Opt-in pages that can be branded with your personal details, i.e. yourname, phone#, picture & movie.
4. An amazing main XPPS program website - including movies, online profit calculators, member testimonies, prospect FAQ and an automated sign-up module.
5. A pre-loaded autoresponder system – enabling all your opt-in prospects to receive a series of 14 follow-up messages – all fully-automated and at no extra cost.
6. A feature-packed XPPS Members back office website, including: a dedicated member support module… 20 downloadable postcards already including your
   details, a downloadable XPPS flyer including your website address… press ads… ad placement services… recommended US & UK list brokers… access to our automated postcard & flyer direct-mailing service in the US and UK… full ad tracking & reporting… online marketing info… the option to message some or all of your XPPS Team members… and much more besides.

See it all here: http://www.PostcardFastCash.com