I am pleased to welcome a new guest blogger – Jim Edwards! I’ve known Jim for more than a dozen years now. We’ve been on five cruises – The Jim Boat 2013 will be #6. We’ve attended multiple conferences – from the Internet Marketing Superconference to Big Seminar to Jim’s own conference, where I was one of the speakers. In short, we’ve known each other a loooooong time! (as you can see from the picture from 2006). 😉
Jim is an absolute expert teacher and coach. I’ve taken a lot of courses from him – and he’s one of the best! He’s a master communicator and deserves all the accolades he has earned over the years. His first claim to fame in the Internet Marketing world was for his 7 Day Ebook – so I was thrilled when he revised it and re-introduced it this year. If you write – if you teach – if you communicate at all online – you NEED this book. It is an updated classic.
I’m thrilled to have Jim with us as a guest blogger from time-to-time. So welcome, Jim!
First, understand something very important.
Adults learn best by example. It’s how we’re wired up as humans. If you can see it done or read about it getting done, it creates a framework that allows you to apply something new to your own situation. It’s easy to add examples to your ebook (even if at first glance you don’t think you have any). Use phrases like “In this situation, here’s what I do…” or “When this happens, I usually use this tool…” or “Let me tell you the story about the first time I…”
The second thing you can do to stand out in any market, especially a crowded market with multiple competing ebooks, is to simply look at those other ebooks and ask some important questions.
What alternatives can you share to get results faster, cheaper, or more efficiently? People believe there’s always a BETTER way to do anything. Show them how to do it quicker and easier and they’ll beat a path to your door!
Over a series of blog posts, I’ve shared a few tips on getting more done with less time and obviously, our focus has been on keeping things together through the many wonderful distractions of summer. But keep in mind, the approaches we’ve discussed can certainly apply all year round. Most of us started our businesses because we wanted freedom and really, we have it right here for ourselves when we need it.
• Plant the Seeds Now: Whether you’re planning a vacation or something unexpected happens, having things in place will help you go far. That includes building your team, growing your mailing list, developing a steady stream of traffic and all the things that you need to keep your business moving along.
Even if you’re away from the computer a lot in the summer, there’s no reason why you can’t keep generating plenty of traffic to your website. Put things into place now and there’s no reason to face a slow down while you’re gone.
• Preschedule blog posts: Just like with email, preschedule blog posts to publish while you’re away. If you have an RSS feed and email subscription for your blog, your subscribers will automatically be notified when you post something new.
If there’s been a common theme to my guest posts here, it’s that you need to outsource. Trying to perform each specific task for your business works against your productivity for many reasons.
Many business owners tell me they simply can’t afford to outsource, but in my opinion, you simply can’t afford 
Again, there’s no need to jump in over your head and hire people to do everything you don’t like or can’t do, but you’ve got to make a small start. Just hiring an assistant to answer emails for 2 hours per week will free you up like you wouldn’t imagine.
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