Courtney Speaks

With all this talk about planning an editorial calendar I haven’t stopped to take time to figure out my actual goals for 2010. Where do I want my online business to be at this time next year?  I have trouble setting goals.  I tend to thing that my goals are too ambitious.  That there is no chance of meeting them, so why try.  Well I plan on changing that this year.

Instead of having a yearly goal, I am breaking it up in to monthly goals.  Plus I am going to start small and work my way up to larger more ambitious goals.  Hopefully by setting monthly goals, instead of yearly, I won’t get discouraged and give up.

If you too are in the midst of setting your business and blog goals for 2010 then I invite you to download this free PDF report from Lynn Terry at ClickNewz.  In this PDF Lynn discusses some of her blogging goals and how she plans on achieving those goals.  It is really a gold mine of information and encouragement.

I have a great freebie to share with you all today. Lynette from Blog Energizer has created an awesome blogging calendar for 2010.  The best part is that she is giving it away for free!  I have been planning my editorial calendar for 2010 and this calendar is a great help.

It includes some really strange, fun and downright funny holidays and observances that are often celebrated.  It has room to jot down your own ideas and you can use it to literally plan out the year’s content – or just a month or two ahead if you’re not the planning type. This really helps keep your blog going without rushing to write last minute posts.

Download and check it out for yourself. I bet you can find a couple of posts just off those dates you can write about. In fact, you can write about them right away and schedule them. Your readers will have fun and marvel at how you are so on top of the holidays and seasons.

Many of you know that I own and run the site Christian Mom PLR, a place where I sell Christian based PLR content.  I recently created a free e-course called PLR for Podcasts that explains how you can use PLR content to start a new or boost your current podcast and or Internet radio show.

For those who do not know, PLR stands for Private Label Rights.  Private Label Rights content are privately branded articles that you can use on your website or blog without having to add an author credit bio box. PLR articles can be posted to your blog or website as if you had written the articles yourself.  You are also normally able to edit them all you want as well.  There are a lot of great ways that PLR can benefit you if you blog or have a information product or even a podcast.

If you are interested in finding out more about PLR for Podcasts free e-course just click on over to Christian Mom PLR.  If you have any questions about the e-course or PLR in general, just let me know, and I will do my best to answer them.

I have mentioned in a past post that one of the people I view as a mentor online is Jimmy D. Brown.  Now this isn’t just because he runs a successful business online, but is because he is a fellow Christian.  He has been open with his faith in his business and it has done him well.  I know without a doubt that any product of his that I promote or purchase will be will worth the time and money, which is why I am going through his Affiliatenaire program.

I have a free report to share with you written by Jimmy D. Brown, 30 Writing Tips for Ebook Authors.  It is completely free and you can download it by clicking here!  I hope you enjoy it.  It has a lot of great important in it and most of it can be applied to bloggers as well as to ebook authors.

Do you notice a little something different in the sidebar?  Perhaps a new lovely e-cover?  I have written a special report entitled, Blending Christian Virtues Into Your Blog, and am giving it away for free to my newsletter subscribers!  It’s all about blogging the Bible!

I am so excited to get this report written and to make it available to my readers.  I hope that those who read the report will be encouraged about incorporating Christian principals into their blogging lives.

So what are you waiting for?  Go sign up for my newsletter!

Did you know that Mom Masterminds offers what we call Monday Morning Breakthrough which is a 1 hour web conference open to public that is encouragement to fire up your week!  It is held every Monday morning at 9:30am CST in Kelly McCausey’s conference room.  The best part is that you don’t have to be a member of Mom Masterminds to attend.  Everyone and anyone is welcome to attend.

I attended this mornings breakthrough session and we talked about finding the holes in our business and blogs and getting focused to get them fixed.  These holes could be costing us money and when they are fixed could actually start making us money.  So that is something I am going to work on this week, finding the holes in my online businesses and blogs.

I invite you to join us next Monday for another Monday Morning Breakthrough.  Just follow Kelly on Twitter and she will tweet out the link to join on Monday.

P.S. If you have ever wondered about the type of information and support you can find at Mom Masterminds attending the free Breakthrough sessions is a great way to find out!

Today’s giveaway is being sponsored by LargeFormatPosters.com.  They offer a variety of options to have your favorite photo enlarged and printed on a poster.  For this giveaway you have a chance to win a  18×24” rolled poster print!  You can find out more about the print at Poster Printing and Large Format Printing.

A couple months ago I had one of my favorite photos of my children enlarged and hung in the living room.  Below is a picture so you can see how it turned out.  I love it!

For a chance to win a 18×24” rolled poster print you just need to leave a comment on this post telling me what photo you would have put on the print!  That’s it.  Of course for extra entries you can tweet @uprinting about this giveaway using the hast tag #giveaway, blog about this giveaway, and/or sign up for my mailing list.

This giveaway will end on Wednesday, September 23, 2009.  Good luck!

Calling all Christian moms who want to work from home!  I just want to make sure you know about Totally Free Tuesday that Kelly from WAHM Talk Radio is putting on Tuesday, September 8, 2009.  Kelly is setting aside this day to “to welcome new Work at Home Moms to our community by showering them with amazing free gifts and top notch resources”.

You don’t have to be a wort at home mom to advantage of the festivities.  If you have ever wanted to work from home, this is a great chance to learn more.  There is an awesome line-up of speakers, including my good friend and Christian blogger/vlogger, Jendi.  Of course, some great prizes are also going to be given away including, a lifetime membership to Mom Masterminds.  Even if you don’t win the lifetime membership, I highly recommend checking out Mom Masterminds.  The support from other woman making money online is fabulous.

photo credit: Eric RiceIf you are a Christian wanting to make money online it can be hard to find an opportunity that aligns with your faith. One way of doing this is to create your products such as ebooks.  By creating your own products you can mesh the product to fit into your personal standards.    You are then promoting not only a product that aligns with your faith but something you can be proud of.

I just recently released my first ebook, Start A Christian Review Blog.  I was able to take a basic subject, starting a review blog, but add my faith to it, Christianity.  It is a product I am proud to promote because it aligns with my faith.

Writing an ebook is tough.  The process is long and there are many decisions you have to make along the way. But writing is just half the job. If you’re self publishing, after you’re done writing, you have to promote and market it to.

One of the best tools to use when working on a project as large like writing an ebook, is a checklist. It helps you figure out what you should be doing, where you’re heading and how far along in the process you are.

Here’s a checklist I found, created by people who are experienced in ebook writing and marketing. They’ve allowed me to share it with you.   Download ebook writing & marketing checklist

As most of you know I love Mom Masterminds! I have been a member for almost a year now and I have never once regretted my decision to join.  While it is not a Christian based organization, there are a lot of Christians who are members.  Joining Mom Masterminds was one of the smartest moves I have ever made in regard to making money online.

This year Mom Masterminds is celebrating their 5th Anniversary!  They are also giving away 5 lifetime memberships!  Check out this post on the Mom Mastermind blog and nominate a mom who you think deserves a lifetime membership.  The deadline to get your nominations in is Friday, June 12, 2009.

Also don’t forgot that you can check out Mom Masterminds for 7 days free!