Fresh from the Article Marketing Round Table I led at the recent Glazer-Kennedy Super Conference in Dallas, here is one of the FAQs I got:

Q: Once I have created my article(s), how do I get traffic to my articles?

A: I really like this question, because there are just so many great answers to it. I’ve got room for only 3 in this article, and here they are:

1) EzineArticles.com – One of the first things I learned about getting traffic on the Internet is this:

“Don’t chase after traffic. Find out where the traffic is going and get your information in front of it.”

When you get your articles on EzineArticles.com you are getting yourself in front of over 30 + million unique visitors a month. These are folks searching in specific categories for your specific information. This is a great way to connect highly qualified prospects with your information and invite them back to your web site or blog.

Your goal should be to get as many articles up on this Article Directory as you can, and establish yourself as an expert in your niche or area of expertise.

2) OPT - This stands for “Other People’s Traffic” and you get it when you click here to read the rest of the article…

And by the way, this also works for more experienced writers and experts.

Your First 10 Articles

If you are serious about creating articles and the traffic that comes with them, then these are the simple steps I want you to follow:

Step 1 - Pick a specific topic in your niche that you know well. The more specific the better.

Step 2 - Make a list of 7tips you would give to your ideal client about this topic.

Step 3 – For each tip craft 35 – 50 words of explanation on how to use the tip.

You now have your first article. Now here come a few more …

Step 4 – Now write a separate article on each tip. Expand on what you began in the first article. Explain the what and the why and give a little bit of the how. This will take you a little bit longer, but the good news is you already began each of these articles in the first article.

Now you have 8 articles – the first 7 tips article and now the 7 articles created from each tip. Seven plus one equals eight, at least where I went to school.

“OK, but where are those other 2 articles Jeff?”

Hang on, here they come.

Step 5 – Think through and identify the most frequently asked questions from your customers and ideal clients about your niche. Identify the top 2 questions. Write an article for each one. This is easy for two reasons – one, the question takes up some of the article, and two, you know the answer to the question.

And there are your first 10 articles.

Bonus Tip – Why couldn’t you do this over and over for multiple topics in your niche? You’ll quickly and easily crank out a lot of articles this way.

And to help you continue to craft great quality articles quickly and easily, now I would like to invite you to claim your FREE Instant Access to 2 of my Instant Article Creation Templates when you visit http://www.TheArticleGuyBonus.com.

You’ll get get two “plug-n-play” article templates – just plug in your info! And you will also get a 30 minute Audio Replay of a teleseminar about writing more articles in less time than you ever thought possible.

From Jeff Herring – The Article Marketing Guy and The Great Article Marketing Network.

Article Marketing is the best free way to drive traffic to your web sites and blogs. And when you use the five steps below, you will know what topics to write more about to drive even more traffic.

Step 1: Log into your EzineArticles.com account

In your EzineArticles account you can use the feedback on your articles to let you know what your readers want more of. Once you know this you can write more articles on those topics to drive more traffic.

Step 2: Click on “Author Tools”

It’s in between Profile Manager and Author Resources. Click on “Author Tools”. You’re going to get a drop-down menu.

Step 3: Click on “View My Article Reports”

When you click on “View My Article Reports”, you can see the Article ID, Article Title, Views, URL Clicks, EzinePublisher, Comments, Votes, Rating, and Publication Date. What you want to pay attention to – the things that turn into money – are the Views and the URL Clicks.

Step 4: “Read the street”

“Read the street” means pay attention to what’s going on. Pay attention to these numbers. When you “read the street” and look at the numbers there, you’ll be able to see the most viewed articles and the articles with the most click thrus.

Step 5: Write more articles about most viewed/clicked thru articles

Pay attention, folks, because your market is telling you. They are voting every time they view and click-through an article. They are voting and telling you what they want to know about what they’re interested in. Pay attention to the ones that get the most traffic. Write more articles around that topic, and there you go. You’re going to get more traffic.

And to get you started writing more articles in less time to create more traffic, you can claim your Free Instant Access to my 7 Tips Instant Article Creation Template when you visit www.7TipsArticleTemplate.com

Here’s the heart of the matter: Whenever you send an email message to your list, to your friends or colleagues, they privately ask themselves these 2 critical questions before taking further action:

1)  WHO is this email from?

2)  WHAT is this email about?

Test this premise with yourself.  The next time you’re about to open-up and read email messages from your Inbox, what question(s) do you privately ask yourself before grabbing your mouse, clicking and reading them?

If you’re like most people I’ve surveyed, the answers are: WHO? and WHAT?

The WHO Question: Answering the WHO? question is easy because it involves the FROM LINE of your email messages.  I recommend that your FROM LINE never changes.  Here’s what mine looks like:

~ Alex Mandossian ~

Specifically, I put a tilda (“~”), then a space, then my first name, then a another space then my last name, then another space, then a second tilda.

That’s it.

I never change my FROM LINE because doing so may create more work for me or my team responding to aggressive spam filtering services like Spam Arrest that often block email communications if you change your FROM LINE.

Key Point: The reason I utilize the tilda (“~”) sign before my name is because it often puts my email message at the top of the daily emails received by my recipients.

Most email programs sort alphabetically and give the “~” a higher alphabetical ranking than even if your name starting with “A” like mine ;-)

The WHAT Question: Answering the WHAT? question is not as easy because it involves writing the SUBJECT LINE messages that will get opened.  Unlike your FROM LINE, it makes sense to change and constantly test your SUBJECT LINE copy until you find the winners.

The SUBJECT LINES that work best for me are brief (7 words or less) and create curiosity.  Here are 7 winners that have good pulling-power:

1. This ONE is for you…
2. Your presence is requested…
3. Have you seen this?
4. Will you say “YES” to this?
5. This is about our appointment…
6. It’s not your fault…
7. Who’s to blame for this?

I don’t make any claims with my SUBJECT LINE copy because I feel the one and only job of your SUBJECT LINE is to amplify the curiosity in your recipient’s mind so they open, read and click the link in the body of your email message.

The purpose of your email FROM LINE is to motivate and influence your recipients to read your SUBJECT LINE.  The purpose of your SUBJECT LINE is to persuade and inspire your recipients to read the BODY COPY of your emails.

It’s that simple.

What To Do Now: First, I want you to decide on what your FROM LINE will look like for all of your email communications.  Once you make this decision, always keep your FROM LINE the same and never change it.

I recommend utilizing the tildas or asterisks or dashes (~”or * or -) so you get top alpha-numerical priority inside your recipient’s inbox.  Here are a few examples:

* Jane Doe *

~ Jane Doe ~

- Jane Doe -

Second, I want you to become a student of winning SUBJECT LINE copy.  This skill comes from testing.  Keep a swipe file of SUBJECT LINES that elicited your curiosity.  (Again, curiosity is what you want your SUBJECT LINES to elicit).

I gave you a few of my winning SUBJECT LINES in this post and it also makes sense to become a student of what makes good SUBJECT LINES great.

Click here to read David Ward’s seven suggestions.

Click here to get four additional suggestions from Judith Nemes.

If you’ve ever written winning SUBJECT LINE, please share it here in the Reply section of this post.  Your courtesy will be most appreciated.

Like most marketing strategies, setting up an Adwords account is simple, but not so easy to master. That’s why I recommend you visit Google’s Learning Center.

In my experience, it is hands-down the single most cost-effective way to learn Adwords marketing strategies.

Click here to visit the Learning Center and you’ll find these 9 Modules:

1.  Introduction to AdWords    
2.  Getting Started with AdWords    
3.  Targeting    
4.  Costs and Billing    
5.  Tracking Ad Performance
6.  Optimizing Ad Performance
7.  The AdWords Toolbox
8.  Google Analytics
9.  Managing Client Accounts

You can count on the efficacy of what you learn because Google has self-serving reasons for you to succeed.

Think about it.  The more successful you are at generating Adwords traffic, the more money you’ll spend buying Adwords.  The more money you spend buying Adwords traffic, the more revenue Google makes.  It’s a win-win.

What To Do Now: I recommend you review ONE MODULE per day.  It will take you about an hour per day and Google even provides Quizes for each lesson to track your progress.

If you’re like most people,  and in less than 2 weeks you’ll discover time-tested Adwords strategies that can double, triple and even quadruple your website traffic practically overnight!

I published that button a week ago (as an experiment) to test if I’d get a “passive” spike in attracting new Affiliate Partners and so far, I’ve doubled my daily Affiliate sign-up rate.

Even if this “doubling” effect doesn’t continue, “shame on me” for not adding that button to my blog sooner!

How about you?  Do you have an affiliate program?  Do you have a blog?

If you answered “YES” to both questions, then I encourage you to ask yourself this question before you put your Affiliate sign-up button on your blog:

“Do I want my Affiliate Program to be ‘closed’ or ‘open’?”

A “closed” program is typically only available to Affiliates who have also purchased one of your offers.  An “open” program is available to anyone who is in good standing with you and wants to promote your offers.

For the first 8 years of my online marketing experience,  I had a “closed” affiliate program.  But it is now “open” as a result of wanting to build-out the AskAlexToday “outer circle” calls held on the first Thursday of each month.

Turning Pro: The difference between an “amateur” and a “professional” is $1.  The moment you make your first dollar, you’ve turned “pro” from my point of view.

Since my goal to get you to “turn Pro” as fast as possible, I’ll bend over backwards to make your commission checks as “rich” as possible.

Key Point: I’ll pay you a 90% commission on most $20 Teleseminars I promote, so with ONE referred sale you’ll  “turn Pro” 18X over!  (Yes,  I pay my Affiliate Partners $18 out of the $20).

The reason I mention the 90% commission is because that’s exactly what I encourage you to do with your own Affiliate Partners.  Overpay them for all of your low-end offers (like a $20 Teleseminar or eBook) and they’ll be more enthusiastic to promote your offers more often!

My self-serving reason to give my Affiliate Partners the “better-end-of-the-deal” on low-end promotional offers (even if they have tiny lists) is to inspire, motivate and persuade them to promote more often on my behalf.

It’s that simple.  I call it “self-serving benevolence” – It’s self-serving because they are promoting for me more often and it’s benevolent because they’re getting paid a lot more than typically expected.

What To Do Now: Get registered for my Affiliate Program by clicking the Affiliate Signup button you see on the upper left side of this blog – on the navigation bar.  And then as soon as you make your first dollar with me, tell me your story at HowIMadeMyFirstDollar.com

Read those six words again and again because they’re indelibly etched in your mind, you’ll dramatically improve the results of your presentations.

The key element to “monetizing” your marketing an “Actionizer.” A high value, dramatic action device that inspires, motivates and influences your audience to take physical action.

The $100 poker chip (above) was the “Actionizer” I tested at my Teleseminar Secrets Reunion on March 7th, 2009.

It changed behavior to get people to say “Yes” to the DoublingIncomeSecrets 5-Module Bookinar Series in less than 59 seconds.  If you were there see if you can spot yourself.  Click the video to see it now.:

Key Point: Before you design any presentation curriculum, it’s important that you write down these 3 verbs:

Think (“mind”) <——  Feel (“heart”) <——  Do (“body”)

Then ask yourself these 3 critical questions:

1) “What do I want my audience to think ?”

2) “What do I want my audience to feel ?”

3) “What do I want my audience to do?”

Over the years, it has served me to to sequence these three questions in reverse order as I learned from Dr. Stephen Covey from Habit #2 in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: “Begin with the end in mind.”

Again, my preference is to reverse it in this sequence:

1) Do  ——>>>  2) Feel  ——>>>  3) Think

Whenever I visualize my desired outcome it’s much easier to figure out what I want my audience to DO, how I want to make them FEEL and what specifically I wan to influence them to THINK about.

I encourage you to go through the same process because whenever you present any message to a live audience, you’re really trapped between the two emotional dialogues.

The first dialogue is between you and them.  The second dialogue is between themselves (self-talk).

In my experience, the second dialogue has far more influence on any audience’s buying decisions, so it makes sense to anticipate their self-talk and align yourself with it and never,  never ignore it.

In my presentations, I consistently and repeatedly acknowledge my audience’s internal dialogues and sometimes I’ll even challenge them (if they’re giving me “push-back”) to explore if their core premises (what they believe) about my topic and wonder if they are no longer true, but used to be.

I’ve found that acknowledging and challenging what their thinking sets them up for the biggest breakthroughs. Plus, it’s the only way I can get my audience to know, like and trust me, and more importantly, understand and believe me.

My Target Niche: I teach micro-entrepreneurs who generate $50,000 to $1.5 million annually and have 10 or less employees or team members.  AskAlexToday and VirtualSeminarUniversity are two good examples.

Because I favor prospect-centered presentations, and not product-centered ones, I spend the majority of my talks on my audience’s desires, wants and needs, and not on my product benefits, advantages or features.

Remember this: Your prospect or market has the wallet, your product or message does not.

If I can convince my audience to think that it’s possible that they too can do I do … and feel the hope that it can be accomplish rapidly and cost-effectively, then the next step is to fill out their “Priority Voucher” and turn it in at the back of the room.

Notice how I don’t call it an “Order Form” – because it is not.  Those who complete their Priority Vouchers during a live Teleseminar or stage presentation are not yet students; they are candidate students.

Within 72 hours, one of my team members will call each of them and candidly ask if they’re still committed to my “continue education.”  This shocks many of colleagues because they feel I’ll lose sales.  And sometimes I do.

But I’ve organized “morning after” calls since 2001 for one reason alone – I seek only “committed” students, not fleeting ones.

If their answer is “NO” – they are not 100% committed to me, then we tear-up their Voucher and part as friends.

If they answer “Yes” – they are 100% committed to me, then we ask them who they want as an Accountability Partner and then immediately get them started by diving into our Quick Start program.

As I said, the “morning after” follow call process seems shock many of my colleagues who sell from the physical and virtual stage, but this method is really my most predictable indicator to find wholeheartedly committed students who have a burning desire to study, learn, teach and master my lesson plans.

It’s a lot less stressful for both my team and my new students because I’d rather remove students as early as possible to avoid dealing with the disappointment and frustration of accommodating a refund request deep into the training.

Wouldn’t you agree?

In my own experience after conducting hundreds of on stage presentations and thousands of Teleseminars over the past 12 years, the highest impact presentation is comprised of 80% marketing (changing minds) and 20% promotion (changing behavior).

If you market too much, you won’t capture sales and eventually lose your business.  If you promote too much, you’ll lose your audience and gain a bad reputation of “no content, all pitch.”

Important:  If you promote on a Teleseminar presentation, make sure you give your “Call-To-Actions” (CTAs) about three times between minute 15 and minute 45 of a 60 minute call.

(You can see the full time line here: Teleseminar Timeline)

What To Do Now: For your next presentation, ask yourself the 3 most important questions about your audience so you can anticipate their response.

It doesn’t matter if it’s children, spouse, vendors, JV partners or colleagues.  As long as you know your intended outcome – what you want them to DO – you’ll experience wild succes most often.

As for time-tested Actionizers that can immediately elicit action, here are 5 I’ve utilized with success:

-> Preloaded iPod with the entire training  (2,900 Value)

-> Recording rights transcripts to be read ($5,000 Value)

-> Mailing my online list first XX who say YES (Priceless)

-> Twelve person master mind meeting at my home  ($10,000 Value)

-> Weekly Tuesday live Teleseminar Q/A sessions  ($15,000 Value)

Now that you read this far, my only recommendation is this:  If you want to boost the pulling-power and closing rates of your live or virtual presentations, begin with the end in mind and ask yourself these world-class questions:

1) “What do I want them to DO?”

2) “What do I want them to FEEL in order to take action on what I want them to DO?”

3) “What do I want them to THINK, in order they FEEL to take action on I want them to DO?”

You feedback about this post will be most appreciated.

Accountability to their business, to their teams, to their vendors, to their families and to themselves.  Accountable entrepreneurs are leaders.  They don’t get in the habit of making excuses.

And above all, they have a burning desire and willingness to accept responsibilities with a “beginner’s mind” and do whatever it takes to get the job done.

Accountable entrepreneurs assume nothing and question everything.  They’re fearless “truth-seekers” and chase advice from practically everyone around them – their colleagues, their team members, their customers and most importantly, their personal “Accountability Partners.”

Does this sound like someone you know so far?

If it does, then at this moment you have an opportunity of a lifetime to seek out one Accountability Partner or “AP” who’s life you can change and who will change your life, by simply meeting once a week, 52 weeks a year.

Accountability Partnerships (APs) are the new equation in this fast-paced era of interdependent entrepreneurship we’re entering.  Similar to a business mentor, coach or a goal-setting buddy, an AP is a trusted advisor with whom you trade phone calls with at once a week.

Accountability Dyads: If you’re just starting out, I recommend you seek out only one Accountability Partner and meet with him or her for 30 minutes each week.  This is called the AP Dyad.

(Make sure the focus is on a specific topic or lesson plan like a virtual training or “How To” course that you’re both involved with together).

Start 5 minutes after the hour (so you don’t bump-in to other appointments) and show-up promptly for each other according to Time.gov or any other universal time system available online.

For 15 minutes YOU reach out for advice and the other 15 minutes your AP reaches out to for advice.  Accountability Dyads are different than Master Mind meetings because they focus on ONE theme for 52 weeks or more.

You must be a great “receiver” and a great “giver” and I favor focusing on how to coach each other on busting through barriers versus brainstorming for new ideas.

For example, I brought in the AP concept to my Teleseminar Secrets course last year and the results were nothing short of astounding.

The students who had APs felt more a lot connected to my lesson plans (and to me), especially during days in-between the live weekly training nights.

This had a massive impact on the bottom line for me and my students.  I got fewer “refund requests” and my students created accelerated learning environments that were self-managed.  It was a huge Win-Win!

Paul Colligan and I are adding the AP concept to this year’s Podcast Secrets training and I plan to add the AP advantage to every training series I conduct as long as I’m breathing :-)

Accountability Huddles: As you evolve and become a more experienced AP, you can add two new people to the equation and lengthen the meeting times to 90 minutes.

The 90-minute time frame allows all four APs have adequate “reach out” times to the other three huddle members and each call is moderated by a different AP “round-robin” style.

Maximized Results: If what you’ve read so far interests you enough to take the next step, then I encourage you to seek out an AP who will challenge, motivate, mentor, encourage and inspire you to achieve maximum results.

Consistency is what’s most critical.  Make the meeting dates at the same time on the same day of the week.

For instance, my favorite Accountability Huddle happens weekly every Wednesday at 5am Pacific Time.  Two of my APs live in the Central Time Zone (7am Central) and the fourth AP lives in the Eastern Time Zone (8am Eastern).

All four of us have a “whatever it takes” attitude to show up.  Our policy is simple: 3 strikes (missed meeting) and you’re out!  No excuses, regardless of how many personal commitments we have. Period.

Our AP Huddle goal is to continue meeting consistently each week for the next 30 years.  And our wives are beginning to have their own AP Huddle as well.

The AP Advantages: Knowing that you will have to report your successes or failure at a pre-determined date each week (with someone you trust) provides lasting benefits to even the most skillful procrastinators :-)

Here are a few benefits and advantages of starting your own Accountability Dyad or Huddle:

* Chunking projects into smaller, more measurable tasks

* Prioritizing and prioritizing actionable goal deadlines

* Ensuring follow-up on continuing education lesson plans

* Emotional support when personal/professional roles clash

* Coaching to conquer common roadblocks and procrastination

Who To Look For: During your search for an AP, keep in mind that the right person should be a entrepreneur or business owner taking the same training series, reading the same book or engaged in the same “How To” course.

He or she must be someone who will challenge, engage and evoke a sense of accomplishment in you.  Initiative, reliability and speed are three personality traits that will be useful to you.

And remember to set up clear, objective guidelines or “rules-of-the-game” before you have your first Accountability Dyad or Huddle session.

I’ve borrowed my own AP criteria from Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO).  YPO’s core mission is to develop “Better Leaders Through Education and Idea Exchange. ”

With such a great mission like that, I’ve decided to adopt their 14 Guidelines or Declarations which YPO members consistently hold each other accountable:

1. “I will respect confidentiality”
2. “I will be present in the moment”
3. “I will stay around when times get tough”
4. “I will be on time and stay until the end”
5. “I will make every meeting”
6. “I will speak my truth”
7. “I will ask for what I want”
8. “I will take care of myself”
9. “I am willing to make mistakes”
10. “I am willing to laugh at myself”
11. “I will own my feelings”
12. “I will own my judgments”
13. “I will not blame, shame or fix others”
14. “I will ask permission before offering feedback or advice—another option: NO ADVICE”

Note: I’m not a YPO member, but I’m forever in their debt for creating the guidelines you see above.  It’s yet another testament to my commitment to “never invent and always improve.”

What To Do Now: If you’ve ever had a positive experience with an Accountability Partner, please share it in the Reply section of this post.  Your courtesy will be much appreciated.

Goal setting is the single most important life skill that over 97% of people never learn how to do properly.

In Brian Tracy’s book Goals – How to Get Everything You Want Faster Than You Ever Thought Possible – he claims that “Less than 3% of adults have clear written goals with plans on how to achieve them.”

The keyword is written. Those who earn most of the money, who are the best athletes and who are the top producers in any type of business have written goals.

They are the 3% Club who can predict and even anticipate their future by creating it.

Sadly, most entrepreneurs resist taking an hour each month write-down their goals.  But my experience has taught me that a written goal has 10X the achievement possibility than a goal that just lingers in my mind.

Go to Google and you’ll find hundreds of resources on the goal-setting and goal-achievement.  Here are 3 of my of my highest recommendations:

1) Book: Double Your Income Doing What You Love by Raymond Aaron

2) Pictures: Goals achievement images on Google

3)  Website: Setting Goals 101 has lots of free resources

If you’ve read this far and you still are resisting writing down your goals or “dreams with deadlines,” then I have one final recommendation for you.  It changed my life and I know that it has changed the lives of many of the world’s top business thought leaders.

What I’m talking about is your 101 Goals List. My good friend Jack Canfield writes about it on page 56 of The Success Principles.  I encourage to make your own 101 Goals list and here’s a fast, easy and reliable way to get started now.

What To Do Now: Click here to get the 101 Goals Generator which helps your mind start thinking of twelve different categories goal-setting and goal-achievement to focus on.

Categories include:  Places to Visit, Skills to Learn, Things to Own, Financial Milestones and Risks to Take, just to name a few.  What’s most important is not to list your 101 as fast as possible, but to get started as fast as possible.

I’m interested in reading you 10 goals from your 1o1 Goals List in the Reply section of this post.

Here are 10 of mine:

1)  Fly in a hot air balloon with my wife, Aimee - DONE!

2)  Travel on an African safari in Tanzania, Africa - DONE THIS JUNE!

3)  Become a multi-millionaire - DONE!

4)  Have dinner at the White House - not yet :-)

5)  Fly in a jet at Mach 2 speed - not yet :-)

6)  Speak on stage at the TED conference - not yet :-)

7)  Build a family home from ground up - DONE!

8)  Host a Teleseminar with over 3,000 listeners - DONE!

9)  Do a “house swap” with a family in Barcelona, Spain - not yet :-)

10)  Build an online list of over 250,000 subscribers - DONE!

Here’s the thing: I wrote down my 101 Goals in 2006 and I’ve already achieved over of one-third of them!

You can too. But it all starts by writing them down.  As my good friend, Glenn Dietzel often says, “Writing is the doing part of thinking.” 

Bottom line:  Good writing is good thinking.

But don’t just think … get wrtiing.  Start writing here (in the Reply section of this blog post) and declare to yourself and the rest of world what you want to accomplish most … go ahead, do it now, please.

Grab your mouse and write down just 10 of your 101 Goals List right now in the Reply section of this blog post (click on the gold box on the upper right – see it?

Do it now while it’s still fresh on your mind because it will just take 5 minutes out of your day, but what you discover will last you a lifetime and help leave your legacy.