Consolidating Your Online Marketing Base

by John Soares on July 7, 2010

We all need to make the best use of our time as we pursue our goals, and we must make sure we’re doing the highest priority activities that will give us the highest return on the investment of our precious minutes and dollars.

To that end, I’m making some important changes in what I’m doing regarding selling information products and marketing myself online. I think of it as consolidating my base so I’ll have more secure footing for later expansion.

What I’m Doing More Of…

Concentrating on Creating Information Products

I have several products that I will create over the next few months that I think will be outstanding and of great value, both in the selling information niche and in the personal development niche. (See my Intelligent Productivity blog for more about the latter.)

Redesigning This Blog

Some of you may have noticed I put my picture in the sidebar. But that’s just the beginning. I’ll have an elegant, attractive, and user-friendly design completed by the end of July. (I’m using the same guy who redesigned Intelligent Productivity.)

Expanding My Use of Twitter

I’m having a custom background created. It may even be up right now at @TheJohnSoares. And please follow me! (I took the picture in Zion National Park.)

I’ve also started using Hootsuite to monitor the site and to schedule Tweets. I’m working on strategies to increase my number of quality followers, but I’m not rushing it. (And I’m always open to advice…)

Getting More Education

I just joined Dave Navarro’s More Buyers Every Month Group Mentorship Program.  Dave’s a Third Tribe member who I’ve been paying more and more attention to over the last couple of months. I’m very impressed with how he runs his blog and his mailing list, and I’m also very impressed with the quality of the workshops he has inside the More Buyers Every Month Group Mentorship Program. From what I’ve seen so far, he’s ethical and honest, and a very smart guy who knows a lot about creating and marketing information products. (Yes, those are affiliate links — proud ones.)

What I’m Doing Less Of…

Less Time Writing Blog Posts

I have four blogs I post on regularly, including this one, Intelligent Productivity, my hiking blog, and the nonprofit Mount Shasta Trail Association, plus I write occasional posts on the blogs that support my two e-books on freelance writing (click on the covers in the sidebar).

So I’m cutting back a bit on posting to my main blogs. I’ll post once or twice a week for the next few weeks while I’m finishing products, and then I’ll likely increase the frequency.

Less Time Commenting on Other Blogs

Don’t worry. I’ll still be around reading your blogs and commenting, but it won’t be as often. I’m taking at least a couple days a week to disconnect from social media entirely.

I love reading other blogs, and I know that commenting on blogs is a great way to connect with other like-minded people and bring folks here to my blogs. So I’ll keep doing it.

Consolidating My Base…

I’m doing what I need to do to take my career to the next level. I’ve assessed my goals, examined my current tools and methods, charted how I spend my time.

And I’m taking action.

What about you? What are you doing to improve what you’re doing online? How good are your time management habits? Any thoughts about what I’m doing?

{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Tek3D July 7, 2010 at 10:23 am

That’s great you still have time for social networking. Your comment has brought me to your blog.
I will spend most time of this month to redesign my blog, I haven’t upgraded my theme yet after Wordpress was updated to 3.0. I will need your review then. :)
Tek3D´s last blog ..WordPress is the Best Blog Publishing Tool for SEOMy ComLuv Profile

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2 John Soares July 7, 2010 at 10:30 am

I’ll keep up with the most important blogs. ;)

Updating my blogs is also part of my plan. I spent a couple hours yesterday morning upgrading 14 Wordpress sites to Thesis 1.7 and then to 3.0. Most of it was smooth, but my web guy had to deal with a couple of issues in the headers.

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3 Eric July 7, 2010 at 7:43 pm

Hey John,

I’m actually spending less time writing blog posts myself and more time concentrating on connecting with more people and building relationships. I’m also working on some info product ideas myself and commenting more to get myself recognised, though I do realise that it works even better to guest post.

Thanks for the heads up! :)
Eric´s last blog ..Blogging Better- The Two Simple Ways To Do SoMy ComLuv Profile

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4 John Soares July 7, 2010 at 8:33 pm

Eric, great minds think alike! I also see the high value in commenting on the right blogs. I also plan to do some guest posting eventually.

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5 Matthew Needham July 8, 2010 at 6:20 am

Nice pic!

You mention about growing Twitter followers. check this excellent post by Alex Whalley – I’ve added over 100 since I started following the tips on Sunday.
http://alexwhalley.com/awesome-scribbles/howtousetwittereffectively/

Best wishes, Matthew
Matthew Needham´s last blog ..Why you need a consultantMy ComLuv Profile

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6 John Soares July 8, 2010 at 6:56 am

Glad you like the new picture Matthew.

I did see Alex’s post. It’s on my list for further exploration this weekend. Thanks for sharing the link.

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7 Maggie July 8, 2010 at 7:49 pm

What a great blog! I am new to the blogging and infoproduct world, but I am working on creating my first one. I’ll be sure to come back and check out your blog again in the future. Seems like you have some great information to share. Thanks!

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8 John Soares July 9, 2010 at 6:33 am

Maggie, I’m glad you like this blog and I do hope you’ll come back again and again. See the top right portion of the sidebar to subscribe to either the RSS feed or e-mail updates.

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9 Hieu Martin from Blogger Tips July 11, 2010 at 8:23 am

Just follow you by twitter. Hope hear you soon :) . Good luck john
Hieu Martin@Blogger Tips´s last blog ..Get Free Images For Your BlogMy ComLuv Profile

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10 John Soares July 11, 2010 at 10:40 am

Hieu, looks like you’re my youngest commenter yet!

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11 Hieu Martin July 11, 2010 at 10:59 am

Yeah . Maybe I’m probably the youngest person here :)
Hieu Martin´s last blog ..Content Versus Back-LinksMy ComLuv Profile

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12 Jess Webb July 11, 2010 at 10:10 am

Hi John!
Thanks for commenting on my blog – it’s great to meet you. :)

You’ve got some great insights here regarding time management! The one thing I’ve decided to change this week to be more productive is checking email only twice per day. That’s a pretty big one for me. ;)
Jess Webb´s last blog ..The Evolution of a Website GeekMy ComLuv Profile

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13 John Soares July 11, 2010 at 10:37 am

Jess, I’ve cut checking e-mail to about three times a day on most days. However, on days when I blog I check it more often because that’s how I find out when people have left comments.

I really like your blog. Good luck with it.

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14 Mike Kirkeberg July 11, 2010 at 5:44 pm

Hey, John,
I must not have been paying attention. I didn’t know about this blog. I think you are on the money about spending less time writing posts and more working on product. It’s becoming prety obvious I can’t keep up on both.
Mike
Mike Kirkeberg´s last blog ..How Productivity Systems are an Ill-Fitting Suit and what ‘to do’ about itMy ComLuv Profile

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15 John Soares July 11, 2010 at 6:26 pm

Mike, I’m glad you found your way here. I think you also know me through my Intelligent Productivity blog, and this post here is one that actually dovetails nicely with IP.

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16 Justin Dupre July 11, 2010 at 11:12 pm

John,

Good post, you definitely got great points here. Spending more time to expand the use of twitter and get more education will help you greatly in growing with online business. Cheers!

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17 John Soares July 12, 2010 at 6:26 am

Thanks for your support Justin!

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18 Anna Haller July 12, 2010 at 6:09 am

Hi John,

Some great things that you have here to consolidate. Some of the things that you have here I have thought about doing as well such as a new Twitter background and decreasing blog commenting. I like doing it but is just taking too much time that I should be focusing on other things at the moment for my business. In addition, I am also creating my first eBook so that is taking a lot of my time as well. Best wishes to you John!

Anna
Anna Haller´s last blog ..Outsourcing Interviews RevealedMy ComLuv Profile

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19 John Soares July 12, 2010 at 6:27 am

Anna, sounds like you and I have similar approaches right now to social media. Thanks for taking the time to comment here!

And good luck with the ebook.

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20 Marlon Ribunal July 19, 2010 at 11:18 am

I am also in the same process of “improving a blog”. I have decided to seriously “invest” on blogging. I have some goals that I want to achieve. My first step is the content. I am trying my best to produce as much as possible – quantity and quality-wise. I am relatively new in pro-blogging. I want to make connections with other blogger on my niche. I am just glad I found “Intelligent Productivity blog” while doing a search on “productivity at work” phrase on blogsearch.google.com. Come by my site at share your thought there. Thank you!
Marlon Ribunal´s last blog ..10 Reasons Why You Need To Establish Your Online IdentityMy ComLuv Profile

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