How to improve creativity and Lateral thiinking - Infography

Let me state the definition of 'Creativity' in my own language.

"Creativity can be defined as an art of thinking/imagining/writing/acting/doing or even speaking something NEW - that differs from the rest and that is probably :

• Unique
• Astonishing
• Appreciable
• Acceptable
• Adoptable and in fact
• Practical"

Improving creativity is a time taking process and it definitely consumes time. One need to practice a lot to make him/her capable of thinking laterally. I grouped the practices under two separate categories and gave detailed explanations in my other blog (Stuff-You-Look). You may check the following links to go through them

1. Behavioral practices 
2. Habitual practices

Please go through the below infograph which makes you aware of how to improve your creativity.

Hope you enjoyed reading this. Share your views or ideas on how to improve creativity by leaving comment below. Your views are mostly appreciated.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Acknowledgement

Finally, I would like to thank a fellow blogger Ms. Shiwangi Shrivastava; writer and owner of Pensitdown blog - for initiating me in writing this article. She suggested me to concentrate on similar articles.

Big thanks to her !

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

LinkedIn SMM - A complete guide for everyone

The following are some important guide or best practices for getting more professional connection in LinkedIn as well as to develop a stronger network. These tips are helpful for individuals as well as for brands.

1. Complete profile  

This is the foremost important part in LinkedIn marketing. A complete profile is like a boon to get more connections in LinkedIn. Remember social networking is mostly about linking connections. The more you connect, the more your business receive traffic - in other words you are marketing very well.  

a. About me and skills (keywords) 

Make it just like a detailed resume, ensure that you include all of your functional areas or any other services (that you offer) in brief. If you have any personal/official blog, then do include blog links in the about me section. Don't forget to include major keywords wherever necessary. For example; if you are an internet market, then do include some of the keywords like SMM, SEO, strategist, marketer, expert, adviser, consultant etc in between the sentences. That will attract the viewers and help them find your skills easily, thus enabling them to connect with you.

b. Showcase your skills by using Links and media in profile

LinkedIn allows one to add media (pictures, videos or links) in the profile page.  Make use of this feature and include four to six screenshots of your professional works (that can be even some of your famous blog links with images) or any of your other works; most importantly relating to your area of expertise .

Below pictures shows - how I included some of the media as reference. As you can see, I have included some of the technical works (screenshot of software usage), my creative works and even image links of my blogs ! You might be knowing that an image is more powerful in communicating anything; at a faster rate than ordinary words. So, choose the most appropriate media to be included and club them in your profile page.

2. Key skills

Having a bunch of skill set in your profile page is equally important. Your professional skills would take you to greater heights. The more you include selected keywords in skill set and the more it gets endorsed by fellow users, the more will be your success in LinkedIn. People usually search for fellow minded professionals (having similar skill set and being active in a desired area) and if found, they try to view their 'about me' and most importantly 'skills list'. If they find some of your skills matching their own, then they will definitely connect with you. 

a. Updated skills

One way of getting highlighted is to update your skills frequently. Update in the sense not adding skill tags; that you are not good at !. You really need to grow professionally in this digital world by upgrading your current skills - by catching up with the latest trends, in order to showcase the same to the people. Everyone should develop in one way or another. Seems like those - whom always stay in the same skill level doesn't succeed or get highlighted. If you are say an online marketer, then extend you capabilities to wider platforms like email marketing, mobile marketing etc. This is just an example, and this holds good in almost all scenario.

b. Endorse skills of others

One more important thing is to endorse others skills. Endorsing mean you are accepting the fact that  the fellow professional had that skill and so you recommend to others. It's like 'sharing and get shared' funda of twitter or any other social media. But be truthful while endrosing others ! Endorse only when you are confident - that your fellow mate had that particular skill. 

In this regard, your 'about me' page and the so called 'media links' (that we discussed above) will be helping others (to a greater extent) to identify your skills easily and so, they will endorse you for sure. Therefore, make use of the 'Media' links !

3. More connections

Connect with as many professionals as possible and importantly keep connecting with new people, regardless of whether you know them or not. Invite those professionals whom deliver more or less the same service like you do, I mean same functional area (niche). In fact you may connect with other niche groups also, only to expose your presence as well as to study/analyze how they are professionally behaving. Connecting with many holds many direct cum indirect advantageous.

VIEW as many profiles as possible - just viewing others profiles (without even inviting them to connect !) helps many to find you - 

1. What you are
2. What you do
3. How much useful you are to them
4. Can you be an asset to their requirements or do you meet their demands etc. 

Connect, connect and keep connecting. Always use search option to find as many people as you can.

4. Active in Groups/community 

The most important feature of LinkedIn are Groups. Groups are the places where equal minded people gather together to share their knowledge or check others knowledge. It's the fastest approach to find people related to your niche. Make sure that you do the following while in groups -

• Active member - Try to post self questions and polls. Raise questions or deliver some news/trends to your fellow mates
• Respond to community members for their queries
• Sometimes maintaining your own group have added advantage
• Don't always post direct links every time. That will look like spam ! Include links only when it's absolutely needed by some fellow group mate.
• Use your blog/business links in comments as a guide to their query). 

5. Study others profiles

Going through others profiles and doing the following analysis will help you tune/mold your own profile

1. Keywords in skills
2. Structure of the profile - arrangement, sentence, wordings, specialties
3. Kind of media included

These things might help you frame your own profile. Remember; there is no need for us to create everything, all we need to do is to INVENT from the existing ! and in fact the existing things will teach us how to create . This applies well to even content marketing.

6. Allow others to recommend you

Recommendations works like a gem. If you had worked in a team or any projects or if you have some trusted colleagues, then ask them to recommend you. As a two way process, you too recommend your fellow mates. 

7. Behave professionally 

The most important requirement for a professional person to get success in a professional platform (like LinkedIn) is to behave 'Professionally'. This is not a place to share some funny pictures or something like content sensitive materials (adult or any related media) like most does in Facebook. Remember friends, same funda or attitude won't work in all social networks, we have to act differently in different social networks ! So, be wise/attentive while working in this platform.

Other than the above seven important strategies, the following tips might also do great for your LinkedIn success

1. Keep active in LinkedIn - Let people know that you appear frequently in LinkedIn. Else, if you appear after some months, then they might ask you - 'who are you ?'  instead of 'how are you ?'
2. Post publicly - share content and suggestions publicly. Let others know your helping nature.
3. Link back to other profiles. Invite as many people as possible. Get your connections from gmail, outlook etc.
4. Drag twitter and FB users to LinkedIn - By sending welcome invite through direct messages or tweets !
5. Watch who is viewing your profile - what kind and area of their activities
6. LinkedIn social share buttons in your business blog - Including LinkedIn social share buttons will help the visitors easily find your LinkedIn profile and hence they might connect with you.
7. If possible, obtain membership from LinkedIn - use Analytics tools to monitor your LinkedIn profile behavior.
8. Use twitter and Facebook to promote your LinkedIn profile - At times post a tweet/update like 'Find us on LinkedIn' to help more followers connect with you.
9. Thank people if they invite you to connect through direct messages. Acknowledge those who connect with you.
10. Connect with previous company colleagues or someone like clients whom know more about you so as to allow them endorse you as well as recommend.
11. Post your companies career opportunities in groups as well as public for more exposure.
12. Creating customer page. Check who is viewing your customer's page
13. Update volunteer experience and causes to show your social responsibility 

Finally, you may connect with my personal LinkedIn profile here !

Over to you

What do you feel is the best way of getting success in LinkedIn. Do you think that something other than the above mentioned points could be done. If so please share and let the world know about it.

Also see

Interview with Ashley Faulkes - Bloggers success story
SMM mistakes that must be avoided
Best ways of making money through blog

SMM mistakes that startup business must avoid

Before beginning the actual topic; let me discuss a small yet universal. You know that professors of almost all institute's have profound knowledge on a particular subject mostly because of their vast experience. But, in-spite of having experience as well as grip on certain subjects, they too do mistakes sometimes, right ? Same goes with any field, even some of the branded on line social marketing influencers or brands do small to big mistakes. 

Think about the situation of a starter brand or business ! knowingly or knowingly they would be doing more. For this reason and in order to make you aware of some of the key areas, I have given some of my views on how to come across  this; so as to avoid the so called 'Social media mistakes. 

1. Over socializing

Well, socializing is very good but only to a limit. The reason is obvious, if you are totally concentrated on getting socialized then you will forget your main job; your business. You will find less time for your business and consequently your output would be less. If you are a content marketer or a blogger, then being over socialized means you will get less time for writing your own content and so the result would be more followers but with no use to your business !

So, as a starter, your focus should be more on making products or creating content instead of over socializing. Once you develop a good quantity of business products, then you may think of a way to popularize it using social networks. 

2. Not socializing, not caring business hours

We now know the side effects of over socializing, the same principle applies to under socializing or not socializing. Once you develop handy number of business products, and if you are not distributing it (especially through social networks; as it is the main source of marketing in current world) then you will be in trouble. Nobody will be noticing your content as there are many competitors out there offering the same service, whom seems active in social networks. 

Your work will not get noticed until you yourself spread it. So, you need to make a business plan or what is called a business strategy in order to distribute or popularize yours. The plan that is optimal, deliverable and in fact consistent. Make a schedule and maintain that time table, spare your time and see on which business hours your audience are active, (you may even experiment two or three days to identify the best business hours for posting). 

3. Incomplete profile

Your social media profile is the front-line or face of your business. So, having a very good; and importantly complete profile is most important for business development especially for the start-up business owners. Make it attractive with optimum graphics. Maintaining the same profile all across the social networks is also a good practice.

Source : orderwise

4. Promoting self

Well, the theme of social network is to make relationship by 

1. Sharing and letting others share yours
2. Helping and getting help from others

Social networking is a two way communication process and will be effective only when you are concerned about others too. I can say, boosting about self (all the times) is the worst social media practice. Be truthful and acknowledge others for their works. Appreciate them properly and you will see that they will too recognize you; and in fact support/help you in spreading your business. Even, great influencers and business magnets limits self promotion, because they know the fact. If you are always talking about yourself, then you will be the only person listening to you !

Source : recognize and realize

5. Inadequate content

Well, this point is more or less related to the first point 'Over socializing'. Before having sufficient content; getting socialized will only help you to get good number of connections, but will have less effect on productivity. So, you should exhibit consistency and as a starter focus more on content making rather than just socializing.

6. Not understanding/listening to audience

It's true; your audience are the best judges for your content. It is your audience whom guide you in shaping your content as well as help you in identifying the key areas of focus. So, as a beginner, try to interact with as many people as possible. Understand what they expect from you and get suggestions or comments from them. Most Importantly LISTEN to them, I mean listen to their comments or requirements. Never ignore your audience.

Source : Preschoolar

7. One man army !

If you are representing a business, then taking in hand everything right from the content making to distribution in social media would be a big burden. You may not handle everything, and if your business grows, then you will face the real pressure. So, avoid being an one man army, involve people to work for you and build a team.

Source : latest new pics

8. Patience/consistency

Success in social media marketing is a long process, and you need to be really patient. Social media results are long term and we cannot expect immediate benefits from them. So, be consistent and keep active in social networks.

Source : Santoshrahul

9. Not analysing the competitors 

Being un-keen to market is a big mistake. Analyse your competitors by knowing the following details

1. What are they posting ?
2. What is their success level ?
3. How often they share content ?
4. Are they sharing their own content or others too ?
5. How are they representing - single or brand ?
6. Whom they target ?

Analyzing answers for the above questions will help you effectively drive your business growth.

10. Targeting profits right from the start 

This is of course one of the biggest mistake that most of the start-up business do, i.e targeting sales/profits right from the beginning of online business process. This supports the point 8 of this post i.e being impatient/inconsistent. I will clear this with an example, it takes at least one month to construct a home right, and even if you spend some extra money, then also you can't build a home within 2 days or so. 

Same applies with the success/profits from your online business. So, it's not at all an intelligent act if you focus totally on profits right from the start. It's advisable to concentrate on developing brand awareness among audience, as well as get more visitors or audience initially, your profits shall follow automatically !

11. Being human and social

Being brand mean being robotic, sorry to say this ! While involving in SMM, most of us forget the fact that we are here to socialize and not solely to popularize. Being human in the sense being casual/social, attending some of the problems of others as well as giving your suggestions (that may vary from ordinary to valuable). This will help you to develop long term relationship with many. Also many would be trusting you because of your support.

ALSO SEE :

SMM strategies to build traffic to your business

Social media mistakes that you must avoid

Content making | facts and best practices

SEO | Tools and tutorial for beginners

Bloggers success story | Interview with Ashley Faulkes

Welcome back friends, today we will be going through the success story of a blogger cum wordpress web designer - 'Ashley Faulkes'. Before looking further, let me ask you a question : "Who doesn't know Ashley ?"; well certainly the answer would be 'No one' ! Yes Ashley is well known social networker and is well connected, not only with top influencers but also with many beginners. I am not much surprised to see his comments as well as truthful conversations in almost all blogs, web pages, social media like LinkedIn, twitter etc. Such is the connectivity of Ashley, and of course everybody knows the same.

Ashley is basically a blogger who blogs about topics ranging from social media to SEO, wordpress etc. He is the owner of the famous wordpress web developing site 'Madlemmings'. In spite of being a developer, he is also a good supporter as well as motivator to many bloggers. His friendly and encouraging nature helped many people achieve success in their blogging career - one among them being 'Lorraine Reguly'. She gave credits to him by awarding 'One Lovely Blog" award.

Ashley believes that making strong and friendly online relations is more important than making money itself. With this motto, he has been working till now and I hope he will be continuing his attitude throughout his blogging career. Within a year he achieved greater heights that any ordinary blogger couldn't achieve !

Below is the status of Ashley Faulkes social media presence 

• Website - Mad-Lemmings
• Twitter followers - 6984
• Google+ - 1325
• Pinterest - 861
• Linkedin - 400

OK, here are my questions and Ashley's response

1. What did you do before your presence in social media (blogging) ?

Ashley's reply :

For the last 13 years I have been working in Web Development, designing and programming web applications for large companies in Switzerland. This is actually not something I studied (I studied Mechanical Engineering in Australia some years ago) but I learnt this on the job here in Switzerland and have since moved into Web Design, Wordpress, Blogging and Social Media.

2. Why did you choose blogging ? Is there any strong reason ? Please state any three reasons.

Ashley's reply :

That is an interesting question with a fun answer. I do a lot of sport here in Switzerland. It is a country where everyone spends a lot of time outdoors. I love to hike, mountain bike and ski. Last year I broke my lower leg into 37 pieces while skiing, and was at home for quite a while recovering. During this time I decided to start a blog.

I had been looking into this for quite a while as a way to move into marketing, mainly because I had developed an online tool for making bookings that I wanted to sell online. So I used this time off work wisely. I started blogging and developed an online presence. Here is my post on why I started blogging.

3. For how long have you been in this field and what is your followers' status after one year of start ?

Ashley's reply :

I have been into blogging for almost one year. My main following is on Twitter, where I have over 6000 followers, Pinterest with nearly 800 and Google+ with 1300. But these numbers do not mean that much. It is really the relationships that you develop while blogging and on social media that are the most important.

4. We know that you are good at mentoring, How did you get the thought of guiding people ?

Ashley's reply :

Thanks for the compliment! I hope I am a good mentor.

I have actually done a lot of teaching and training throughout my career and I find it one of the most fun things that I have done. I love interacting with people, teaching them what I know and watching them grow. It is what drives me to keep working online.

5. What are the products offered through your blog ? What other products you offer offline ?

Ashley's reply :

I started to build some online courses last year, and in January launched two Twitter courses.

• Twitter for Beginners - which teaches the basics of Twitter and how it works.
• Twitter for Small Business - which teaches the next level of Twitter (optimal tweets, pro tools, improve your profile, find followers in your niche etc)

Recently I also started to offer services on my blog to help keep me going. I now offer the following:

• Web Design with Wordpress (from zero, or fixing a site or problems)
• Web Site Reviews (helping people understand what to fix on their site)
• Blog Coaching (helping people know what to do with their blog to get going faster)
• Social Media Coaching (helping people build a strategy with social media)

So if you need any help, feel free to get in touch!

6. How did you manage to drive traffic to your blog in the beginning ?

Ashley's reply :

Starting a blog from zero is tough. If you do not have a social media following or presence online it takes a long time. The best advice I can give anyone is to develop connections and relationships through whatever channels you can. And also, join blogging communities like Triberr and Kingged to help find like-minded people and get your content shared. Building your social media following is also important, but will not have as large an impact as the above, in my opinion.

7. Did you at anytime feel like "Am I doing right ? Is this useful ?" during your blogging career ?

Ashley's reply :

Of course, we all have down moments and times when we feel we are not getting anywhere with blogging. We usually do it alone at home or after work, and do not have any direct help or support. So of course it is tough. But if you have a long-term goal in mind I find that it helps to keep you motivated.

Also, you have to constantly try new things - each month I try something new. New ways to drive traffic, meet new people, new types of posts etc. If you always do the same, both you and your readers will get bored and you will lose motivation.

8. Which blogs inspired you to start your own ? 

Ashley's reply :

When I started out I remember blogs like Quick Sprout, Social Mouths, Traffic Generation Cafe and a few other big ones were the ones that I really looked up to. But lately I have moved more towards podcasts, where I find even more useful information that I can listen to while working out or walking. So I use my time more wisely and get great ideas at the same time! I recommend it.

9. Could  you list some of your favorite influencers and co-bloggers ?

Ashley's reply :

As I mentioned earlier, Neil Patel is a big influence for me, as he is so creative and brings only great value to his audience. I also admire Pat Flynn for what he has achieved with his blog and podcast and the way that he gives so much to his audience. More recently I have started following James Schramko (a fellow Aussie) from Super Fast Business. He gives away so much business information it is crazy!

10. Whom are your family supporters ?

Ashley's reply :

My biggest support is my partner Ann. She and I both live away from our families in Switzerland so we always need to support each other in what we do.

11. Can you briefly explain some of your achievements as a blogger ? Something that you can't forget !

Ashley's reply :

There are probably a few things that have really amazed me while blogging. One is the ability to get close to influential people online and the other is to help people all around the world.

I have been lucky to have met the owner's of, and been allowed to guest post on high ranking blogs such as

• Basic Blog Tips (Ileane Smith)
• AdrienneSmith.net, and 
• BloggingWizard.com (Adam Connell).

But on the other side I have been able to help some new bloggers get started and solve problems they were having. These people I now consider as close friends. To me these are the kind of achievements that make blogging worthwhile.

12. What tools do you use to manage your social media presence ?

Ashley's reply :

I do not use too many tools online, but the main things I use are Twitter related.
I use:

• Buffer to automate my tweets
• TweetAdder to increase my Twitter following with targeted people and automate some tweets from RSS
• TweetDeck to manage my Twitter account
• For the rest I do it manually on Google+, Pinterest, LinkedIn and Facebook.

13. Could you state your major source of income (if any) from your blog ?

Ashley's reply :

Income on a blog is really a lot less than people think. So that is why I started my services. Currently this is still growing, but my Web Design services are my biggest source of income at the moment.

14. Blogging with a social media presence is really a tough job and requires a lot of our time. What else do you do aside from blogging ? How do you keep yourself positive and active ?

Ashley's reply :

As I mentioned in the beginning I do a lot of sport. Especially to help get my leg back to normal. This takes a long time. I also do a little bit of street magic on the side, mostly with friends and family. This is my main hobby outside sport. You can check out my niche blog on magic if you like. I have not posted there for a while, but I do when I get a chance. I have also met some "influencers" in magic. But that is another story!

15. As a blogger, where do you see yourself 5 years from now ? What are your next targets ? Is there any upcoming product that you are working on ?

Ashley's reply :

My current long term goals are to create a business around what I do. This is why I do everything I do at the moment. I love online marketing and want to make a living from it. Ideally I would be helping people develop their online presence every day!

16. What suggestions would you give beginners for their success ? How do you want them to start ?

Ashley's reply :

There is a lot of advice out there on how to start a blog so I won't spend too much time on this question. I will say however, that I believe that you must do the following:

1. Blog in niche that you really love and try to find a unique way of presenting it or unique area within that niche
2. Develop relationships with people in your niche before you focus on anything else (write posts of course, but don't waste time on other things)

These two things are the key to starting and growing a great blog.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

That's how our conversation ended. Hope you enjoyed reading this. As you can see from his responses, how many times he mentioned the importance of the keyword 'Relationship'. This is what he strongly recommends and I too believe in that. So, do try to be develop as many online friends as possible firstly, marketing and money making should come after this only. That's why top influencers call him 'The boy'; even though his blog is still younger (just a year old). I thank him for sparing his time to share his feelings with us.

Good luck and thank you Ashley !

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Also SEE

Success story | Interview with 'Ivan Ho' of Blogging business

Success story | Interview with 'Reginald Chan'

Success story | Interview with 'Shiwangi srivastava' of Pensitdown

Hope this helps.

Feel free to share your thoughts and suggestions by posting a comment below. 

Sharing is caring. Like us in social networks to get updated with latest posts. Subscribe to our free mail service in RSS feeder.

Bloggers success story | Interview with Ivan Ho

Welcome back friends, yesterday we had seen 'Reginald Chan success story' and today we will be going through the success story of Ivan Ho, who is the founder of Blogging business tips. Ivan is also the president and CEO of IMV Business Inc, providing online marketing consultancy. Ivan has coached and mentored hundreds of people around the world to making money blogging and other online means.

He is a well known mentor and is famous for his Blueprint works. Till date he has 10 blueprints in hand related to blogging success. Ivan also composed two books; all about blogging. Customers say that Ivan has an exceptional insight in internet marketing. In fact many of his successful customers are still getting advice's from him. That itself shows his mentoring ability. Ivan is well connected with top influencers in the marketing world.

Below is the status of Ivan Ho's social media presence 

• Website - Blogging business tips
• FB personal page - 73644
• Twitter followers - 3549
• Linkedin - 500+
• Google+ - 711

OK, here are my questions and Ivan's response

1. What did you do before your presence in social media (blogging) ?

Ivan's reply :

Before I was blogging and doing Internet marketing I was a marketing consultant for a bottled water company. After about five years in the industry, someone approached me and asked me to help them out with an online marketing campaign. After that, I started to learn more about industry and was very interested in making money and the opportunity of creating an income in such a big market. I was intrigued about the potential of reaching customers around the world and generating a potential income 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

2. How did you get the idea of blogging ? Is there any reason for choosing blogging? Please state any three reasons.

Ivan's reply :

1. Blogging allows me to get my voice out there on a broader scale and share my information, knowledge and experience of Internet marketing with people.
2. Blogging platforms such as WordPress are very easy to use and have many features that can integrate with social media to help spread my information.
3. Blogging is a great source for organic traffic from search engines, you can get a ton of traffic by providing consistent content. 

3. For how long have you been in this field and what is your followers' status after one year of start ?

Ivan's reply :

I started about 8 years ago, it was difficult at first as I was quite overwhelmed with so much information. At first I didn't start blogging, I started out with affiliate marketing. I started blogging and created Blogging Business Tips about 4 years ago and right now I have over 100,000 followers.

4. We know that you are good at mentoring, How did you get the thought of guiding people ?

Ivan's reply :

As I started producing content for my blog, I started to get questions from followers to help them out. I started sharing more of my knowledge and information and begin doing personal coaching and consultation. Throughout the past 4 years I've coached over 100 people.

5. What are the products offered through your blog ? What other products you offer offline ?

Ivan's reply :

On my blog I offer a free report called '25 Expert Tips To Blogging Success' and I offer my eBook for sale called 'The Profit Blogging Blueprint' the eBook teaches people how to build a profitable and successful blogging business online the right way. I also offer a one on one coaching program that guides people oh how to make $100 a day blogging. 

6. How did you managed to drive traffic to your blog in the beginning ?

Ivan's reply :

At the very beginning I use just produced content and shared that content on my social media platform like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Google Plus. The key factor that allowed me to build up my traffic was growing my social media platforms and my email list. I worked really hard to grow my social media following. Now the majority of my traffic comes from social media and search engines. If I have something special to promote I will venture into paid ads and solo ads.

7. Could you please tell us about your readers ?

Ivan's reply :

I have readers from all over the world, mostly they are interested in blogging and Internet marketing and how to make money online.

8. How do you manage personal/family life along with blogging and social networking ?

Ivan's reply :

Working online lets me schedule my own hours and devote more time to family. As long as I have my smart phone, laptop and internet, I can work from anywhere. This has been the biggest benefit, the flexibility of being able to create my own schedule.  

9. At present, how much visitors (approximately) do you get to your blog ?

Ivan's reply :

On a monthly basis I get approximately 5000 new visitors and 10,000 regular visitors.

10. Did you anytime felt like "Am I doing right ? Is this useful ?" during your blogging career ?

Ivan's reply :

When I started blogging I had a lot of advice from some successful online marketers so I didn't have too many problems. But when I first started out online I was confused because there was so many bad advice and bad programs that says you can succeed and make money really fast. The best advice I can give people is to find a good person to follow and learn from them.

11. Which blogs inspired you to start your own ? 

Ivan's reply :

Here  are the blog names

• Technorati.com
• Mashable.com
• JohnChow.com

12. Is there anyone who inspired you to achieve this success ? Can  you list some of your favorite influencers and co-bloggers ?

Ivan's reply :

I would say people like John Chow, James Martell, Jeff Walker and Brendon Buchard.  In fact John Chow was one of my mentors and gave me a lot of good advice and really propelled my online venture.

(Ivan with John Chow)

(Ivan with Iman Aghay)

13. Can you briefly explain some of your achievements as a blogger ? Something that you can't forget !

Ivan's reply :

I really enjoyed writing my blueprint and giving people the chance to follow in my footsteps and learn how to build a profitable business online. The blueprint has over 150 pages of information from how to pick a topic, how to set things set up, how to get traffic and how to build your own products and make money.

I have been featured in  

• The Boston Globe
• The Miami Herald
• LA Daily News
• Washington DC News
• The San Francisco Chronicle
• Newswatch 50

14. What are the steps that you took to get identified by many ?

Ivan's reply :

Growing my social platforms was a big influence on getting followers. It allowed my content to get read by many and when you have good content to share, people will start following.

15. What tools do you use to manage your social media presence ?

Ivan's reply :

I use WordPress as my blogging platform and I’ve installed plugins such as Only Wire and Jet Pack to help me distribute my content once it is published.

16. Could you state your major source of income (if any) from your blog ?

Ivan's reply :

My major source of income is my eBook “The Profit Blogging Blueprint” and my coaching program. I also have many good affiliate programs that I support which helps people out and provides me an income like “The School of Internet Marketing” and “MOBE Top Tier Program”.

17. As a blogger, where do you see yourself 5 years from now ? What are your next targets ? Is there any upcoming product that you are working on ?

Ivan's reply :

In the next 5 years I want to continue on growing my audience and help more people succeed online. A new project that I am working on is video tutorial program that people can watch and follow my advice on how to profit online. Hopefully that program will be out DEC 2014.

18. What suggestions would you give beginners for their success ? How do you want them to start ?

Ivan's reply :

Have patience and learn from someone that has success and willing to teach. Do things the right way and grow your audience through social media and email. Always provide good, valuable content for people to read or watch. 

If you would like a free video tutorial on how to get started you can watch it here

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

That's how our conversation ended. Hope you enjoyed reading this. Apart from online relationship, Ivan Ho is also a good friend to me and has been supporting me in almost all social networks. I am glad that Ivan accepted my interview invitation and spared his valuable time to share his thoughts with us. We wish him to reach further heights in his career.

Good luck and thank you Ivan !

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hope this helps.

Feel free to share your thoughts and suggestions by posting a comment below. 

Sharing is caring. Like us in social networks to get updated with latest posts. Subscribe to our free mail service in RSS feeder.

Bloggers success story | Interview with Reginald Chan

Welcome back friends, This article is all about the success story of an entrepreneur and also a CEO named 'Reginald Chan' from Malaysia. He has been considered as one of the best consultant for SEO, blogging tips, social media marketing, wordpress projects along with monetization and internet marketing works. Providing value driven services to his customers (through his blog Reginald chan) and making them fully satisfied is his main motto. 

Apart from his regular blogging and consultancy activities, Reginald also happened to be a well connected social networker aiming to make good relationship; by making friends rather than customers ! If you wanna check this, do connect with him. 

Below is the status of Reginald Chan's social media presence 

• Website - Reginald Chan - blogging tips
• Twitter followers - 3393
• FB personal page - 1311
• Linkedin - 500+
• Google+ - 5188

OK, here is how I posed questions and how he responded to that

1. What did you do before your presence in social media (blogging) ?

Reginald reply :

Thanks for the kind opportunity. Before going into blogging back in 2005, I was a ghostwriter for several years. After doing ghost writing, I decided that it is time to build my own brand (starting a blog) in 2005 and only a year years later, I started serious blogging.

2. How did you get the idea of blogging ? Is there any reason for choosing blogging? Please state any three reasons.

Reginald reply :

I started blogging out of hobby. My first blog was on Blogspot and I was blogging on general things; life, love and technology. It was purely fun and only as hobby. Back then, I did nothing on SEO, social media etc. I got the 'light bulb' only after getting my first $0.50 from Adsense three months laters. Haha!

Why blogging?

1. State my opinion
2. Sharing tutorials and guides
3. Providing information on things I know; SEO, social media and blogging as I see so many blogs providing the wrong information

3. For how long have you been in this field and what is your followers' status after one year of start ?

Reginald reply :

Started blogging in 2005 and gotten serious around 2009. Back then, I didn't have any followers and to be honest, I didn't believe the importance of followers until 2012. Now, I have roughly a thousand followers on my blog. On social media, I have around 8,000 - 10,000 followers.

4. We know that you are good at mentoring, How did you get the thought of guiding people ?

Reginald reply :

Well, I would blame it on my background. I love teaching others and my expertise are on Operations, Sales and Marketing. Until date, I have worked with over 5 International companies under 8 years and now, I finally settled down as a head of department in an International company.

As you can see above, I founded my 'indirect' talent and coaching and decided that helping out others is extremely fun!

5. What are the products offered through your blog ? What other products you offer offline ?

Reginald reply :

Generally, I offer free blogging advises; content marketing, Internet Marketing, SEO and WordPress. Whatever I know are there and is for anyone to read. Besides that, I do run my own consultancy agency but I don't promote it much (for obvious reasons). I promote my blog more than my agency. Haha!

Bet this doesn't answer your question right? :)

6. How did you managed to drive traffic to your blog in the beginning ?

Reginald reply :

When I started my self-named blog, I gotten a huge number of traffic under 60 days. Being in blogging industry long enough, I know there are huge demand of untold stories. For example, I am often sharing weird ideas on SEO and even WordPress.

This build my reputation as an unique blog and overtime, creating more readership.

What I do mostly are:

• Sharing stats
• Doing case studies
• Determine how to outsmart Google (when I am extremely boring!)

7. Could you please tell us about your readers ?

Reginald reply :

My readers prefer more SEO and marketing tips compared to any other. So, whenever I blog, I try to incorporate this thinking into it. Oh yes, majority of my readers think that my blogs are too long; over 1,200 words per article on average.

8. How do you manage personal/family life along with blogging and social networking ?

Reginald reply :

I blog during my free time. Family and my consultancy comes first. Therefore, I try to blog at least once a week (focus at least 2 articles per month). On social media, I use automation such as Buffer. Afterall, we are all living in the 21st century and thus, time to make use of technology right?

9. At present, how much visitors (approximately) do you get to your blog ?

Reginald reply :

Relatively low. At an average around 300 per day. I blame this to my extreme writing. People tend to love tips and tricks than business blogging. My blogging methods are more towards educational which makes it pretty length and boring! 

But, one clear advantage of this is that I get very good followers back in return.

10. Did you anytime felt like "Am I doing right ? Is this useful ?" during your blogging career ?

Reginald reply :

Honestly speaking, no. When I blog, I blog what I think is correct and yes, tons of negative reviews as well but it is good. More words of mouth means free advertisements. My main goal is to ensure that the information I shared are self tested (i test everyone of them) and I believe that stats speak for themselves.

But of course, I hope that all my articles are extremely useful for all.

11. Which blogs inspired you to start your own ? 

Reginald reply :

This is a tough one. I read a lot (over 10 blogs a day) but here's a recap:

• Content writing - CopyBlogger
• Analytics - KISSmetrics
• Marketing - John Chow

12. Is there anyone who inspired you to achieve this success ? Can  you list some of your favorite influencers and co-bloggers ?

Reginald reply :

When it comes to influencers, there are many. A few would be like Neil Patel and Brian Clark. They are pretty much top notch in marketing. I don't have co-bloggers but I do have just one guest bloggers until date (okay call me choosy and picky)!

13. Can you briefly explain some of your achievements as a blogger ? Something that you can't forget !

Reginald reply :

Hmm, I would say the various mentions from other blogs or bloggers. Three of my achievements I really love are:

• Top 100 bloggers in Triberr
• Featured on Harvard University Blog
• Featured on Yahoo Small Business News

14. What are the steps that you took to get identified by many ?

Reginald reply :

Be different, thinking out of the box and be bold.

For example, if everyone is finding 'tips to make money online', why don't blog a post about '50 ways to make your first $100 under 14 days'. Make sense to you?

15. What tools do you use to manage your social media presence ?

Reginald reply :

My current go-to tool is Buffer. However, HootSuite and Socialoomph are my previous tools. Basically, just use one paid services and you would be just fine. Moreover $10 or $20 per month is a pretty good deal since 90% are on automation. And yes, balance between automation and manual is the best way to go around.

16. Could you state your major source of income (if any) from your blog ?

Reginald reply :

On average, I make around $500 per month from my main blog. Affiliate earnings takes around 90% of my income while 10% from banners. 

17. Blogging and social media presence is really a tough job and requires much of our time. What else do you do aside from blogging ? How do you keep yourself positive and active ?

Reginald reply :

I am a born motivator and I always see things on the positive side. My day job requires me to solve problems and issues (yup 8 hours of negativity). So, staying positive is a must. Do this when you wake up daily. Ask yourself in the mirror if you want the day to be good. If you want it to be good, start looking at the bright side of life. 

Why should you take things too seriously? 

18. As a blogger, where do you see yourself 5 years from now ? What are your next targets ? Is there any upcoming product that you are working on ?

Reginald reply :

I see to build my own membership site (it has been my goal since 2013 until now). Let's see when I will launch it thanks to my limited time. Also, I tend to ditch my day job and focus completely on consultation down the road. I love to help businesses grow!

19. What suggestions would you give beginners for their success ? How do you want them to start ?

Reginald reply :

The first is mentality. If you want to start blogging because of money, you are wrong. You could make money fast but not enough to last. The ultimate goal is to have every lasting money.

Therefore, have these plans in mind:

1. What do you want to target? (niche blogging, general writing etc)
2. Who will be reading your blog?
3. How do you generate more readership for the blog?
4. How to monetize from your visitors?
5. How to sustain and grow your blog?
6. Who are your competitors?

Now, answer these 6 questions and try to explain each in detail. If you are able to describe each of the above questions in detail, you are probably good to go. If not, you need to do more planning.

The biggest mistake I hear from blogging is that they want to make money blogging or they want to build a site on blogging tips. They don't consider factors like how to stand out from the rest.

Remember that there are over 60 million blogs out there that are competing with you.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

That's how our conversation ended. Hope you enjoyed reading this. As you can note from his replies, how friendly he communicates things that too brilliantly. That itself shows his art and that's the reason why he is considered as one of the best consultant. I am glad that Reginald accepted my interview invitation and spared his valuable time to share his thoughts with us. We wish him to reach further heights in his career.

Good luck and thank you Reginald Chan !

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hope this helps.

Feel free to share your thoughts and suggestions by posting a comment below. 

Sharing is caring. Like us in social networks to get updated with latest posts. Subscribe to our free mail service in RSS feeder.