The following is an excerpt from Lynn Terry’s Blog ClickNews!

“What will it take to get from where you are, to where you want to be?”

The interesting thing is, someone is already there. And someone is closer to being there than you are. And someone is not near as close to making it there as you are.

We are all at a different place in our goals, and working toward them in different ways and at different paces.

Kinda puts things in perspective, doesn’t it?

I usually advise people to only compare their success or failure against their own progress. Not against the progress (or success) of others. That said, it pays to get to know people who have gone before you on the same path and learn about their “steps to success”. How did they get there? What did it take, and how long did it take? The answer will likely be different in every success story, but there is always something to learn from those who have achieved what we hope to achieve ourselves…

Analyze Your Own History of Success & Failure

In addition to learning from others, one of the things that has worked best for me is to learn from my own mistakes & achievements. What have I accomplished in my life, and how did I do that? What have I failed miserably at – and why?

Our own “steps to success” often lie right there in those answers.

Where I Am -vs- Where I Want To Be

I’m in a unique position. Unique to me anyway. As I was analyzing this question I realized that I can easily achieve ALL of my current goals in 12-18 months, tops.

It wasn’t always that way, of course. I can remember a time when my goals and ideas seemed IMPOSSIBLE from where I was sitting. Unrealistic, even.

And gosh, I remember it well…

I won’t bore you with the gory details of my house being a wreck, bouncing checks, having zero credit, struggling to put food on the table, etc, etc, etc. But I will tell you that it was HARD. I can remember sitting in in the middle of all that – with two young children, even – wondering how in the world I would ever get out of the hole (much less get ahead), have a home of my own – or just get my life together, period.

It seemed to me that most people had it so much easier than I did.

Part of that was true. SOME people did have it easier than I did. Some had it much harder. And as I examined those who seemed to have it so easy, I began to realize they had their own troubles.

No one is exactly where they want to be at any given time. We are all moving, sometimes forward and sometimes not. We all want more, better, bigger… We are all at our own place on those steps to success.

How I Got From There To Here

As I was giving this question some thought, I looked back over my own path. Getting from there, to where I am in my life now, seems like it took an eternity.

Admittedly it did take me longer than it may have for others, given certain circumstances in my life (that I wouldn’t take back for anything). Being a single mother, for example, or taking care of my grandmother for two years.

But really, it wasn’t that long. And it wasn’t that bad. And I DID do it.

I now have a successful business, financial security, a great credit score, my own beautiful home, wonderful friends, and two incredible children who are practically raised. I travel as much as I please, have a flexible schedule, and can afford all the simple luxuries I had to do without for so much of my life.

What more could I ask for? …

Simple Steps to Success

As I said above, no one is exactly where they want to be. And that includes me. There are several things I would like to achieve. Many of which I wish I had already done by now. But hey – we are where we are, and that’s where we have to start.

I mentioned being in a great position – where I can easily achieve all of my current goals in as little as 12-18 months. That realization alone was HUGE. My goals no longer seemed so far out, or near impossible.

And I didn’t happen into that position by accident, or by luck. I got myself here – every single (grueling, doubting) step of the way.

As I continued pondering this question, I was forced to answer the obvious: exactly where do I want to be, and what do I want to achieve – specifically? It’s easy to say I want to make more money, be less stressed, travel more, yada yada yada.

Most of the things we say we want are entirely too general, with no “HOW” tied in and no specific milestones to work toward. And without milestones or specific goals, how in the world will you even know that you achieved your success??

Earlier this morning I was reading Leo Babauta’s ZenHabits blog. In the last 6 years he has quit smoking, lost 70 pounds, quit his job and become a successful blogger and author. By the way, he has six children and a wife.

I’m not sure exactly how long it took him to achieve each of those goals (and many more I didn’t mention), but in my opinion that’s an awesome accomplishment in such a short time! Leo seriously inspires me…

Six months, six years – how long it takes doesn’t really matter. The truth is, you can do absolutely nothing and stay exactly where you are (or just let life happen and end up wherever you do). Trust me, I’ve tested that. LOL.

Whatever your goal, if it matters enough to you, the timeline is irrelevant. If HERE is not a happy place, then THERE should be your ultimate all-consuming goal.

Maybe you want to be thinner or healthier. One year from now you can be just that, or you can still be wanting it. Maybe you want to be a published author, or a successful blogger. Again, one year from now you can find yourself exactly there. Or you can find yourself sitting in the exact same place, wanting the exact same thing.

Ask yourself: where do I want to be one year from now? What do I want my life to look like, specifically?

The difference between people who achieve goals, and people who don’t, is simple: people who achieve goals are taking consistent and intentional steps toward them. They made their goals (or desires) a priority.

Obvious, right? Sure. We’ve all heard it before. And while it sounds great on paper (or on the screen), it’s “easier said than done”. Or is it?

How hard is it really to set aside a specific amount of time to work toward your greatest desires? We set aside time for all sorts of things, intentionally or unintentionally. Getting intentional is the key. Once you know *exactly* what you want to do, you have to make it a point to just DO it.

I took a long hard look at my schedule and my task list yesterday. There were plenty of things throughout my day that did not have a direct impact on my highest priorities. I made the decision to ditch two of them and do a high impact cardio workout instead. Those two things were important, mind you – but they didn’t trump my desire to get in shape inside of the next year.

Nothing is going to happen overnight. Even if it did, you would miss out on the journey – and every single step to success (slow as it seems sometimes) is important in preparing you for that success. Looking back at myself 10 years ago, had you dropped everything I have now in my lap then… I wouldn’t have even known what to do with it. I would have screwed it all up royally – I’m sure of it.

Make a decision today about what you want, get committed to it, and start taking the steps toward that goal. One step at a time. One day at a time. No matter how far away it seems from “HERE”. (We’re all “here”. You’re not alone.)

5 Simple Steps to Success

• Decide exactly what you want to achieve.
• Determine how long it will take you to achieve it.
• Note what steps you need to take to get there.
• Figure out what you can replace or let go of to make time for these steps.
• DO the steps.

Everything you need to achieve your goals, is already inside of you. You have what it takes to do anything, and change anything you please. Decide what you want to change, what you want to achieve, and get out there and do it! One day at a time.

Go be a success story!

The following is an excerpt from Dave Kellogg’s blog Kellblog.

I have a new pet peeve: sales and marketing people who use the word “very” as a condiment, sprinkling it heavily and indiscriminately — like salt — into any product or company claim.

Let’s look at some examples, which I’ll number for subsequent reference:

1. … can process very complex queries …
2. … a very unique product positioning …
3. … has a very experienced team with very strong investors and very powerful technology …
4. … has a very scalable architecture …

When you very-up everything, several problems develop:

• Your speech (or writing) will end up sounding like puffery (e.g., “whiter than white.”) Very becomes a non-word that people will filter, eliminating its power in the few cases where it could be properly applied. You damage your own credibility. For example, see case 3.

• You transfer the meaning of your claims to the very. For example, in case 4, the claim becomes a VERY scalable architecture as opposed to a very SCALABLE architecture. The claim should be about the scalable architecture, not about the very.

• You will have a tendency to make unsupported claims, fooling yourself into thinking that very represents substantiation and/or differentiation. Try this: take every claim you make it and then re-make it without the very. When you do, I suspect you’ll end up wanting to change some of your claims.

• You will make illogical claims. For example, in case 2 the claim “very unique” is ridiculous; something is either unique or it’s not. This is also arguably true in case 4: architectures are either scalable or they’re not. These damage your credibility.

• The very-ies can backfire on you, over-positioning your product. For example, in case 1, perhaps the customer doesn’t think his queries are complex, let alone very complex. By needlessly adding very, you’ve potentially led the customer to think: “I don’t really need all this power, I don’t have very complex queries.”

Yes, hyperbole is an occupational hazard in marketing and we all fall victim to it. I remember the time at Business Objects when I was desperately in search of a word that meant “more ultimate than ultimate.” I’d heard “penultimate” kicked around a few times and figured that’s what it meant. Imagine my reaction when our PR guy, Randy Cairns, came back with: “uh boss, bad news, penultimate means one less than ultimate, not one more.”

When we stopped laughing, I realized that it made perfect sense. Ultimate means ultimate. Only a marketer would want to find a word means more ultimate than ultimate.

How can you reduce your own personal hype level? Speak more slowly and precisely. Listen to what you say. And never say very.

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The following is an excerpt from Lynn Terry’s internet marketing blog ClickNews!.

I was talking to Phil Hollows last week, discussing the growth and strategy behind my new niche affiliate site, and his term for it was: Aggressive Organic Marketing.

I like that term.

It’s nothing new mind you, just the same organic online marketing strategies I’ve been using for years. Strategies that work.

But I think it’s well worth discussing in detail, considering how difficult a time many people have with the task of getting quality traffic to their niche sites. And getting those numbers to convert into engagement and conversions…

“Marketing helps you shape your message to your audience, ensure it has the impact you desire, and drive the type of response you want. It also allows you to increase the penetration of your message, growing your audience every step of the way.” -source: The Blogger’s Guide to Online Marketing

Key Elements of an Organic Marketing Strategy

What Phil called “aggressive organic marketing” is what I would simply call a smart content marketing strategy combined with a strong social media strategy – done consistently, and with purpose. It boils down to these key elements:

* Keyword Targeting
* Content Optimization
* Creating “Link Bait” & “Share Bait”
* Natural Link Building
* Increasing Your Reach
* Leveraging Competition
* Meeting Your Market Where They Are
* Being Proactive with Merchants & Brands

These are all terms and concepts you’re probably familiar with already. I’m not going to make “a tutorial” out of each individual element, but simply give you some ideas and actionable tips on each point to consider.

These elements are what make up the marketing strategy for my own niche affiliate site, which is (at the time of this writing) just under 90 days old. In other words, brand spanking new – but in profit, and growing at a very fast pace.

Keyword Targeting & Content Optimization

Not targeting specific keyword phrases that your market is using, and optimizing your content properly so that they can find it, is doing a disservice to your market.

Read: Keyword Strategy

Don’t make SEO overly difficult. All you have to do is research the keyword phrases your market is using to determine what they are really looking for. Look less at the numbers, and more at the intent of the search and the overall group of related phrases. Create content that responds to those queries. Period.

To optimize your content, there are 7 places you want to use the keyword phrase on each individual page or post. See Web Page Optimization for an easy checklist.

Link Bait, and now: Share Bait

Link Bait is content that is so great, other people link to it naturally. It might be funny, negative, controversial, thought provoking or otherwise highly interesting. Consider the things you’ve linked to yourself. “Share Bait” is a new term for content people link to (or share) on their favorite social media channels.

Key: Don’t just write great content and hope people will share it or link to it on their own. Make sure you have social media & sharing icons on each post or page of your site. Encourage them to share or link to your content.

It’s also important to put your content out across the social media channels yourself so that it can be shared, liked, +1′d, retweeted, etc.

Make sure it’s there, so it’s there to share.

Meet Your Market Where They Are

Forget what Expert A or Expert B told you was the best way to market your blog or website. A marketing method or a specific medium should not define your business. Your goal is to find out where your target market IS, and join them there.

For example, Michelle MacPhearson turned me on to Tumblr.com. I’d heard of it before, but had never considered using it until she mentioned it on the IMTW Podcast. I tested it with my niche blog, and discovered my keywords were heavily used there as Tags. My market is active there!

Tumblr is now consistently one of my top 10 referrers for traffic.

Different markets will hang out in different places online. Find them, and join them there. That’s the first step to ultimately getting them to join you at your site.

Key: Go where your market is most active, and engage with them *there*.
Don’t try to force them away from that site. Interact with them where they are.

Increase Your Reach and Leverage Your Competition

You can’t just write great optimized content, and hang out in a few places online, and expect your website to take off on all it’s own. That rarely happens.

Constantly look for ways to increase your reach. Find new places to interact with your target market, new angles (keywords) to reach them in search results, study what they share most and create that same type of content, etc.

You should also seek out the Market Leaders in your niche and consider ways you can leverage their success. Join their forums, comment on their blogs, interact with them on social media channels, share their content, become their affiliate, review their products, etc.

Guest Blogging is one of the easiest ways to get in front of their audience. See: Increase Blog Traffic for my experience with that. Not only will you get in front of an established readership, and get an inbound link from an established blog, but you’ll also likely get in front of their email readers & social media followers.

Natural Link Building

There are many things you can do to get your link(s) out there on the web: social media updates, set up niche forum profiles, guest blogging, submit to niche directories, etc.

But you also need variety to your inbound links. If you have top ranking pages on specific topics, people will link to them naturally. If you interact professionally with your market via social channels, answering questions and offering suggestions, people will naturally mention and recommend you (your site).

You can encourage this a bit by offering to be interviewed, engaging others in a Cross Blog Conversation, hosting contests, etc. And by simply including your contact information on your About page with an open invitation to get in touch with you for opportunities.

Proactive Communication with Merchants & Brands

Step One is to make a list of all the merchants, products and brands you would like to work with in your niche. Be proactive about reaching out to them. If you get denied for their affiliate program, respond and request reconsideration.

Review products you like whether you’re an affiliate or not. They will ultimately notice the traffic source (you) and/or your rankings for their brand or product.

Like their Facebook pages, follow them on Twitter, and be sure to “@” them in your updates regarding their products. These are all great ways to get in front of them, and put yourself in a position to potentially work with them in some way.

If they see you have an engaged readership or following, they may be open to sponsoring contests or even sponsoring your blog.

Note: I used to *only* mention merchants or brands I was already an affiliate for. The web is changing, and so are the opportunities. Make that list, and start creating content as if you DO have relationships. You may be surprised at the relationships that form because of your unsolicited mentions/content.

Above All, Be Consistent

The two most important aspects of your marketing strategy are not how much time you spend, and how much money you spend. It’s simply variety, and being consistent. Variety is particularly important in regards to SEO – and also in terms of true testing to see where you get the most response from your market.

Being consistent, and consistently present, will go a long way toward building a loyal following and readership. And in building trust and the level of engagement.

And it’s that following – your loyal readers – that will link to you naturally, recommend your site to their friends, share your content across social media… and ultimately do much of your marketing for you.