How to Come Up With Great Content Ideas for Your Book Chapters

Today we’re talking about some tips that came out of my course, “Six-Figure Writing”, and some information that comes out of my forthcoming book, “How to Write a Book in 28 Days or Less Without Stressing Yourself to Death”.

Figure Out Your Number of Chapters

In previous blog posts, I have talked about the need to come up with a number of chapters. The recommendation would be somewhere between 10 and 21 chapters. This would be especially relevant if you’re writing a nonfiction book, which many of you will be doing. If you’re writing a fiction book, then you can have more chapters than that.

This next step will be helpful in determining the number of chapters that would be best for your book.

Research the Books In Your Genre

I have also mentioned doing some research on what chapters you should have in your book. So you should have come up with a list of topics that could be possible chapter titles and chapter topics. Then you did some research beyond that.

If you haven’t done that yet, you can do so by going to Amazon and finding the top 100 books in your genre. Then look at the top 10 books, and then the top three best-sellers.

Also, look at your own favorite books on the topic from your past knowedge. That will be your group of books for research.

Then, see what chapters those books have in common. While they may have different titles, you will be able to tell that they are all about the same or similar subjects. You should have chapters similar to those in your book, as well.

So, having done that research, you will have some ideas for chapter titles in your own book. Then you should be able to list 4-5 ideas for each chapter. You don’t want these to be word for word, but the ideas will be some that you will be expressing in your own words. You will have a list of sentences or ideas.

Brainstorm for Chapter Ideas

The next step: coming up with great content. Because you’re already familiar with the topic, this content comes from your own mind. You will do this through the process of brainstorming.

Use a Timer

If you remember, in the past I talked about that great little electronic device (a timer) that can help you to set up artificial deadlines. That would be really helpful here because we respond to deadlines.

I recommend you set your timer for five minutes. Then start to jot down ideas as quickly as possible and come up with as many as you can. You don’t have to evaluate how good they are at this point: brainstorm; get ideas down. At the end of five minutes, see how long your list is. Your goal is to come up with a list of 12 to 18 ideas. If you fall short of that, just set your timer again. Go for another five minutes, and force yourself to write.

At the end of that, if you have 12 to 18 ideas, you may be good. It may be that you had more ideas and just couldn’t write quickly enough. If so, set your timer again, and write those ideas down.

Now, you may have more than 18. You might have two chapters there. You might have to decide on that. Or you might be able to tighten it by combining some of the ideas that you had. You may notice that two or three of the ideas that you had are very similar, and they’re actually just one idea stated in different ways, so you can combine those.

Let’s say you still have come up short, and your goal is actually to have 12 to 18 questions. Let me put it like this: You want your chapters to be anywhere from 6 to 10 pages long. In order to do that, you would need to come up with 12 to 18 ideas. If your goal is for your chapter to be 10 pages long, you would want to be closer to 18 ideas. If your goal is anywhere from six pages or above, then anything above, 12 ideas will be good. But you want them all to be relevant.

Ask Questions

What do you do if you have still come up short after brainstorming? Here’s the thing to do. Use the question words: Who, what, when, where, why, and how. Then a two-word question, “what then?”.

Who would benefit from this? Who should do this? What is the main point of this chapter? What are the parts of this chapter? What are the steps that you can take? Why is this important? How will this benefit you? Once you’ve done all of this, what then? What would be the next step?

That should be enough questions. You can write down those questions, plug in your topic, not making them as general as the ones above, and there you go.

You should now have a list of 12-18 ideas, and you’re on your way to coming up with great content for your book chapters. Later, I will explain what to do with those great ideas you’ve come up with..

If this seems helpful to you, and you would like to go through the whole journey from idea to published book, check out this great course.

Incidentally, if you enjoyed this, check out the other writing tips on this blog.

January 25, 2021January 25, 2021

Getting It All Together: Organizing Your Book

Today’s topic, “Getting it All Together – Organizing Your Book,” will help you if you are a new author who wants to get your main chapters laid out- including some of their subtitles. When you do this, you will be able to figure out what chapters to have in your book without having to keep wondering what you should include. We will look at four techniques to accomplish this.

Let me tell you what I mean…

Four years ago, my wife and I went to Japan. We went to visit my son and daughter-in-law. We arrived just one day before the birth of their youngest child. My wife helped out with the cooking and we had a great time visiting.

While there, I was working on the book, From Mountains to Molehills – Overcoming and Celebrating Your Differences in Marriage. I had four chapters and 50 pages already completed. These 50 pages and four chapters made up my first book. While I was in Japan, I was able to plan the expansion of the book to include fourteen chapters and 150 pages. Using that content, I am working on a series of books, “The Loving Way to a Successful Marriage”, using the acronym “LOVING”, with the first book being about Leaving and the next about Overcoming differences.

Technique #1 – Cool – No Judgment

This first technique I like to call, “cool, no judgment.” What you do is start off by brainstorming. Now, you know that if you’re brainstorming with a group of people, the idea is to just toss out ideas. The same is true when brainstorming on your own. Just write down whatever you can think of, no matter how outlandish it seems at the time. Don’t worry about how far-fetched it seems right now. You can come back later and weed out the less than desirable ideas. Write down questions. Think about what you may have read on the subject. Think about what you may want to research later. The idea is to get your mind working.

One way to brainstorm is to just take a legal pad of paper, and just start writing down ideas, one after the other, with each new idea on a new line. Don’t organize in any way at this point. Don’t evaluate. Just keep writing.

Another option that may help organize a little bit at the time of brainstorming is to create a mind map. Mind maps are great tools for brainstorming and organizing your book at the same time.

A mind map is a tool for the brain. It captures the thinking that goes on inside your head. It will help you think, collect knowledge, remember, and create ideas. To begin, put a topic in a middle “bubble” (similar to a thought bubble from a comic strip). Then, off to the side, put a line and another bubble. Put an idea related to the main topic in the side bubble. As you have other ideas related to the main topic, draw more bubbles. Then, as you think of things related to the side bubble, add another line, and another bubble, and put your idea in there. You can Google mind-mapping ideas for images to help you get started.

While it isn’t necessary, it may be helpful at this point to create an outline. The best outlines go down to at least the Roman numeral level, and maybe one step below that.

Some writers are also speakers. Many speakers like to use an alternate form of outlining that avoids using letters for sub-points. The reason is that is easier to think of “first, second, or third,” while looking at the numbers “1, 2, and 3,” than it is when looking at letters like, “A, B, and C.” I use the “numbers method” for outlining so often, I do it for my writing outlines too.

That type of outline then would look like the following:

INTRODUCTION
I. Main Point
…. 1. Subordinate point (level 1)
…. 2. Subordinate point (level 2)
……… (1) Subordinate point (level 2)
……… (2) Subordinate point (level 2)
II. Main Point
….. 1. Subordinate point (level 1)
….. 2. Subordinate point (level 2)
………. (1) Subordinate point (level 2)
………. (2) Subordinate point (level 2)
III. Main Point
Conclusion

Use whatever method works for you.

Technique #2 – Your Moveable Options

Moveable options are things like sticky notes or note cards. While in Japan working on my book, I used note cards. I wrote my ideas down on the cards and spread them out on the bed in the room where we were staying. This way, I was able to rearrange the cards, creating new trains of thought. Being able to move things around is very helpful when it comes to organizing your book.

Sticky notes are another moveable option. Some people put them on a big whiteboard and rearrange them when new thoughts or ideas come to mind.

Of course, computers are another option. It’s easy to cut and paste snippets of text from one place to another. You have various software options too. One, called Scrivener, allows for moving ideas from place to place. I use it at times.

Technique #3 – Your Big Picture – Even On One Page

If you haven’t already created a mind map, now would be a good time. You can take your brainstormed ideas and put them on the mind map. Bear in mind, your whole book is probably not going to fit on an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper. So, what you will probably end up doing is starting with maybe 9 sheets of paper: three for the top, three in the center, and three at the bottom. This will give you one big sheet of paper. Then you can start in the middle with your main idea and branch out from there. The idea is to get it all together in one big sheet. You can get a glimpse of your whole book this way, and it’s quite motivating. The preliminary steps discussed above make it easier to get to this point.

Most people feel more creative when using pen and paper to create mind maps, but there are some good online tools for this too. One of the ones I use occasionally is called “Freeplane”.

Technique #4 – Your Chapter Titles and Subtitles

Having gone through the above steps, you should be able to produce your chapter titles with your subtitles underneath them. It would look like this:

Chapter Title … Chapter Title … Chapter Title … Chapter Title … Chapter Title
… Subtitle ……………..Subtitle………………… Subtitle……………….. Subtitle……………….. Subtitle
… Subtitle ……………..Subtitle………………… Subtitle……………….. Subtitle……………….. Subtitle
… Subtitle ……………..Subtitle………………… Subtitle……………….. Subtitle……………….. Subtitle
… Subtitle ……………..Subtitle……………….. Subtitle………………… Subtitle……………….. Subtitle
… Subtitle ……………..Subtitle………………… Subtitle……………….. Subtitle………………… Subtitle

You will probably have different numbers of subtitles. This is just an example. Ten to twenty Chapters are a good number for a print book. Having the chapter titles and subtitles all laid out in a preliminary fashion is a good result of preliminarily organizing your book.

So, here are the big takeaways from today’s organizing your book topic: You can organize your book. You can brainstorm. You can use some moveable options. And you can get the big picture on one page by using a mind map.

Now, if you’re one of those new authors who are serious about wanting to take this to the next level, let me invite you to check out my Six-Figure Writing Course.

For more writing tips, click here or on the writing tab at the top of the page.

January 15, 2021January 15, 2021

The #1 Secret for Writing Creativity

It seems like “fast” never quite rates “fast enough!” And when it comes to writing creativity any author will tell you that nothing ever seems to go as quickly as we want or expect. Well, let me do my part to help speed things up for you by giving you the #1 Secret to Writing Creativity.

We will look at why we should consider this secret, what it is, and how to go about putting it into practice.

Why We Should Consider this Writing Creativity Secret

There are at least three reasons for considering this secret. The first one has to do with speed, the second with overcoming a common problem, and the third with developing expertise. When combined, these tools will help you complete your book quickly.

It will help us get our books done fast. Getting done quickly will get you to the next step even sooner. Speed is one reason for using this secret.

Working faster will help prevent writer’s block. Writer’s block is defined as “the condition of being unable to think of what to write or how to proceed with writing”. That’s the last thing an aspiring author needs! Overcoming the common problem of writer’s block is a second reason for using this secret.

In addition, just like repetition does for craftspeople, writing rapidly will develop your expertise. An expert crafts person does things very well and very quickly. Think of a plumber working on a clogged sink. He comes in, assesses the problem, uses the necessary tools, and soon has things flowing again. By working quickly, he’s able to move on to the next job. The third reason for using this secret is that it will help you develop your expertise more and more.

What the Writing Creativity Secret Is

Fast writing. This is fairly straightforward. Simply tell yourself to write quickly, and follow through with that thought.

A great way to help stay on track is by creating a “deadline” for yourself. This is not a true deadline for submission; it’s a tool to help keep you focused. Set a timer for 5 to 10 minutes, or, if you’re really good at staying on task, and can write in flow, up to 25 minutes.

Regarding timers, there are many different types that can be used for this purpose. You may already own at least one form of a timer. Most new ovens have a built-in timer. An egg timer from the kitchen section of a department store would also be good. If you have a smartphone, it usually has a timer option. Smart home devices such as an Alexa can set a timer just by saying, “Alexa, set a timer for 10 minutes.”

Writing in these “bursts” will program your subconscious mind. It will say, ” Hey, he/she is really serious about this 5, 10, or 25-minute thing.” So, after a while, you’ll train your brain to put down the most important information first. That’s how your creative mind (or right brain) will begin to work. The more you do this, the more you will become like that crafts person.

Later, you will go back, and you will edit what you have written. This is when the left brain will kick in. When you do the analytical steps, that might be more your personality. Some of us have more of that carefree personality to begin with, so we like the right brain, creative process. Some of us are really analytical, so we like the editing phase of doing this. But I’m telling you, that if you will employ the technique of fast writing, you will find that your creativity kicks in more and more.

How to Put the Writing Creativity Secret Into Practice

It may seem counterintuitive, but just start writing. Don’t think, don’t correct or edit. Don’t even correct typos. (This is a hard one for me.) Just write.

You may come to something where you do need more research. Don’t let that bog you down. Don’t stop. just put in a placeholder like “***, XXX, or Tk.” You might understand how *** might work, and you might understand how XXX could work, but the Tk might confuse you. When I heard about this, the idea was that the letters “t” and “k” do not appear next to each other in any word in the English language.

The idea is that you will put in something that you can do a search for in your word-processing document. When you are in the editing phase, you can search for those places and replace the placeholders with the answers to your questions.

When you are forcing yourself to “just write,” there may be times when you have to write, “I don’t know what to say next but I’m going to keep going.” Of course, that will be edited out later.

Once your timer goes off, stop. Just put an ellipsis (…) at the end. You can come back and complete your thought later. When you write this way, it will kick-start your creativity. The idea is to force yourself to write as quickly as you can while you are in this rough draft phase.

So there you have it! The reasons, the description, and some tips to help any and every author to write quickly and with wonderful freedom of thought.

Give this a try, just don’t give up after 3 or 4 attempts. It can take a few days to get into the flow. Once you learn how to do that, you will be motivated to write more and more as time progresses.

As you can see, fast writing is the #1 secret to writing creativity, and putting it into practice will amaze you at your increase in productivity.

By the way, if you really want to be able to write with freedom of thought, this Creative Writing Course “6-Figure Writing” lays it all out for you! Check it out here.

I wish you well in your writing projects. If you would like more writing tips like these, click here.

January 12, 2021

Learn to Figure out What Kind of Book You Want to Write – Just Like a Pro

Writing a book is something that over 80% of Americans would like to accomplish in their lifetimes. Yet, far less than five percent, maybe even less that one or two percent seem to actually accomplish their desire. That does not have to be you.

One of the most basic things you can do to write like a pro is to clarify what kind of book you want to write. There are several options from which to choose. Let’s begin by discussing three basic questions.

Question #1 – Fiction Or Nonfiction?

Do you want to write primarily fiction? Who doesn’t love a good thriller or a mystery? How about historical fiction?

Genres such as mystery, thriller, and romance are just a few of the options here. If fiction is your choice, you will want to learn about the “Hero’s Journey”. You will use a lot of elements of storytelling. The hero’s journey has been broken down to show elements that are often seen in three act plays. You can see these in movies and television shows as well.

Do you want to write primarily nonfiction? It may be a “how-to book”. It may be a descriptive book. It may be a book about history or some aspect of a religious text. You can still use many narrative elements. In fact, adding narrative elements will make your book with necessary information in it much more interesting for the reader.

What about Memoirs? Unless you are nationally famous already, the story of your life may be hard to market.

Here is a way to use your life story, or at least parts of that story in your nonfiction books. Intersperse your nonfiction book with all kinds of stories from your life. Interesting stories may help generate positive buzz about your work.

Question #2 – Digital Or Print?

Why would I even ask this?

A few years ago, the sales of digital books surpassed those of print books according to estimates of sales on Amazon.com. Those statistics were mainly for the years of 2011 and 2012.

Since then, the popularity of print books returned.

What that means for you as an aspiring author is that your first book does not have to be a lengthy book. An ebook may be the way for you to go as you wade your way into the process of being an author. An ebook may be much shorter than a print book. The additional appeal of “instant gratification” for the consumer makes the idea of an e-book a good choice for some authors.

Question #3 – Long Book Or Short Book?

I will just give some general observations at this time. At a later date, I will discuss this a little more.

Several years ago, a chapter was considered to be about ten pages long-the amount of time it takes to read one on your lunch break or right before going to sleep.

Just as a chapter was considered to be 10 pages long, an averaged-size book was considered to be about 200 pages long.

Research gave the following generalizations: Nonfiction – 200 pages; mystery – 280; novel 400-500. Ebooks – 25 pages-to the size of print books. (Some are even shorter, down to 8 pages.)

An ebook can be as long as a print book because it is a good idea to have your book in both print and digital form. If you are producing only an ebook, 25-100 pages is quite an acceptable length.

So, here are the big takeaways for every author:
Use these questions to figure out what kind of book you want:
Do I want fiction or nonfiction?
Do I want digital or print?
Do I want a long book or a short book?

The point here is that you can clarify what kind of book you want to write without having to be afraid of going about planning a book in the wrong way.

Now, if you’re an author who is genuinely interested in how to make this even easier, drop what you’re doing and check out my course on How to Write a Book in 28 Days or Less Without Stressing Yourself to Death! To find out more, Click Here.

With this tool, you can clarify what kind of book you want to write and write a good book swiftly… without having to be afraid of going about planning a book in the wrong way!

If you would like more writing tips like these, you can click on the “writing” tab above

Happy Writing!

December 21, 2020December 28, 2020

Start an Online Business Fast – Why You Should Consider Internet Marketing

Would you like to be able to start your own business quickly? Would you like to be able to do it in a low-cost way? Would like to be able to make money of of other people’s products that have already been created? Would you like to be able to produce and market your own products? Would you like to have a business that can reach the world?

If the answer is yes to any of these questions, I would urge you to consider Internet marketing when it come to creating a new business. Why should you consider Internet Marketing? Let me give you some reasons.

You Can Start Your Online Business with a Low-Cost Initial Investment

Here’s one reason, it’s a relatively low-cost way of starting a new business. If you think about some of the well-known franchises, you will find that thousands or tens of thousands of dollars are required to start such new businesses; however, getting into internet marketing is a relatively low-cost way to be able to start a new business.

It may be that you likely already have some of the tools that you would need to be able to do that. You may be watching or reading this on your phone. Or you may be watching and reading on your laptop, desktop, or some type of computer. Good news: that’s just what you would need to be able to get started with internet marketing.

Oh, yes, you may end up having to have some internet service. And most of you that are watching my videos or reading this today, already have that. But if you don’t, you can go to a restaurant or someplace where they offer free Wi-Fi.

All I’m saying is, Internet Marketing is a relatively low-cost way to get into starting a new business if you’re an entrepreneur. Aside from the relatively low-cost for starting, we can see other reasons for considering Internet Marketing.

You Can Start Your Online Business without Even Having to Have Your Own Products

The second reason for getting into internet marketing is because you don’t even have to have your own products. You can promote other
people’s products: you can become an affiliate of their business. This is called affiliate marketing.

You can promote other people’s products. You can find something that relates to your niche, your business, that would help people—something that you highly believe in and something that you would be glad to recommend. Once you have found that beneficial product, you can recommend it to other people through the Internet.

Affiliate marketing involves you pointing people to the products that you have an affiliate relationship with. Whenever someone decides to purchase the product, then you would receive a small commission for it. Or, depending on what the product is, it might even be a large commission in some cases. But Internet Marketing is a relatively low cost and easy way to get started with your own online business.

While you do not have to have your own products, what if you do already have one or if you desire to develop one in the future?

After You Have Started Your Online Business You Will be able to Produce and Market Your Own Products When You are Ready

Now, after you’ve done affiliate marketing for a while, even though you don’t have
to have your own products, many of you will want to produce your own products.

In past blogs and videos, I have talked about many of us about writing our own books. And then I encourage having spin-off businesses from those books.

Many people dream of becoming an author, and then sitting back and enjoying royalties for the rest of their lives. While it is nice to receive royalties that come from having written a book, many authors talk about how they make much more off of the residual incomes their books produce. They make more by having multiple streams of income that come from writing that book.

So writing a book would be an example of a product you could produce. You could develop online courses. You could start business coaching or life coaching programs. You could promote physical products you have invented.

Once you have a product, you need to promote it to potential customers. Internet marketing is invaluable for this.

You Can Start Your Online Business and Quickly Reach the World

Well, the fourth thing is that you can reach the world in doing this. In the video above you can see my Australia cap. I’m glad I’ve been able to go to Australia many years ago, through an invitation of friends over there. They invited my son to come over on a
mission trip. My wife and I used that as an excuse to go over and pick him up. He was there for three months, and we were there for a month. It was a wonderful experience.

While physically going to Australia was great, the travel can be quite expensive.

My son and his family are now missionaries to Japan. We have visited them twice during their terms on the field, and we plan to go again in the near future. Even finding good deals on airline tickets is expensive.

While we can travel to those places, I can write a blog post such as this one, and I can get comments from Australia, Japan, and other parts of the world. I do this promotion from my own home.

You will see an endorsement for one of my books on marriage from Mrs. Constance McKenzie. I appreciate her doing that, however, she is from Africa, and we have never met in person.

If you would like to know more about Internet marketing, please check out this site for great resources and even training for success with internet marketing.

If you are serious about writing a book, I recommend you check out my course on 6-Figure Writing.

Finally, If you would like more videos, like these, please subscribe to my YouTube Channel.

Thanks for reading.

December 4, 2020December 11, 2020

Why I wrote From Mountains to Molehills – Tips Every Married Couple Needs to Know

Why I wrote the book From Mountains to Molehills, Overcoming and Celebrating Your Differences in marriage: “You can’t live with ’em, and you can’t live without ’em” is an often expressed sentiment in many marriages. In some marriages, though, that “You can’t live with ’em” aspect can turn into conflict, then combat, and then a full-blown war. In this article, we will look at tips every married couple needs to know.

The Number One Major Adjustment Every
Married Couple Will Face

One reason I wrote the book is that discovering your differences is a major adjustment every married couple will soon face after they are married. This can be anything as simple as which side of the bed they prefer to issues as complex as spending habits and finances. But with the proper tools, married couples can learn to overcome, and even celebrate, these differences.

The TRUTH About the Idea that Opposites Attract

We know that it seems like opposites attract. We’ve often been told that, and it is often true. The reason is we look at someone who has an opposite personality trait, and we admire the strengths they have. We especially do that when we wish we had those strengths ourselves.

The same is true in the area of spiritual gifts. When someone has a different spiritual gift from ours, we often admire the positive aspects of that gift. Opposites do attract. Before we are married, we often focus on those strengths. But then after we’ve been married for a while, we began to realize that with every strength there is an accompanying weakness. We focused only on the strengths before. But after marriage, we discover those weaknesses. It doesn’t take long till we might start focusing upon the weaknesses.

Why We Think Differently – Tips for Beginning Married Couples

This book helps us understand why we have different ways of thinking. In it, we discuss contributing factors such as personality traits and personality differences.

We also see how birth order affects how we think. Being a first-born, middle child, or youngest shapes our thoughts and actions.

Then for those of us who are Christians, we discuss the characteristics of different spiritual gifts. These gifts can also have an effect on how we view and act in our relationships with others.

The Real Reason Why We Sometimes Resort to Combat

When we encounter differences in our marriages. We often want to advocate for our own positions. That is when combat comes in. Also as we encounter those differences in our marriage, we form a perception of them being extremely different. In our minds, it’s like trying to climb a mountain to overcome those situations.

Turning Our Differences into Reasons for Combat

By looking at the disagreement from within ourselves, it can appear insurmountable. We always want to feel like we are right in our wants and desires. After all, we’ve spent a lifetime developing them. Taking the time to step outside ourselves and view the conflict from another point of view allows us to see more clearly.

What Every Couple Needs to Remember About Fireworks

So when we celebrate on the Fourth of July, we often see glorious beautiful fireworks. But sometimes we forget that those fireworks are born out of a full-blown war. When we fail to deal properly with our differences in marriage. We can advocate for positions so strongly that it comes to an area of combat in marriage. That can end up going into a full-blown war too.

We want to get to the point where our differences can result in celebrations for us to consider instead of firing mortars at each other.

The Blessing of Understanding

I encourage us, who are married, to continue to study that complex creature to whom we have committed our lives. As we do that, we will discover not only the strengths we were attracted to at the beginning, when we were dating. But, we will continue to discover many, many more wonderful traits as we go through our journey.

We just need to do our best to understand each other as we engage in this wonderful thing called marriage. We also need to understand that very often our differences are not in the category of one being better than the other. One is not better than the other. They are just different. When we learn to approach our differences in that fashion, that technique helps.

Here is the book.

Keeping Peace in Your Marriage — Three of Randy’s Books – Top, From Mountains to Molehills

If you would like to go look at it on amazon.com, click here. On the way, I will invite you to sign up to receive information by email if you desire.

Right now, if you’d like more marriage tips like these, you can click on the marriage tab at the top of the page. You can see video tips too by clicking here.

I will close by inserting a couple of paragraphs from the book:

“When we allow each other to be who we truly are, and when we learn to limit our liberty and show deference to each other, we can come to the point of having a tolerable marriage. Then, as we perfect this process, we can laugh at our differences. We can ‘cut each other some slack.’ We can pursue our own interests while allowing our spouses to do the same. We don’t want to lead completely separate lives, so we want to support our mates in their unique interests. We want to learn about those and spend some time sharing in those areas. Now we’re getting into the “how-to.” You will see more of that in the pages of this book.

“So, when faced with our differences, we can become combative, or we can step back and find different ways to deal with those differences and the frustrations they may cause. We can support our partners in their unique interests and personality traits; realizing one is not necessarily better, but just different.
When we do that, instead of engaging in combat, we can come to the point of tolerating and moving on to celebrating our differences. We will move from engaging in combat to watching glorious fireworks. When that happens, we will have turned our ‘Mountains’ into ‘Molehills.’

November 21, 2020November 21, 2020

What is a Cool Website any Aspiring Entrepreneur Can Use

What is a Cool Website any Aspiring Entrepreneur Can Use Right Now to get Better Results with Internet Marketing?

Websites are important in today’s world for most entrepreneurs. Those include websites of their own, and they include websites that are great resources for building their businesses.

The video on this website welcomes you to another session of walking with Randy, which are Facebook Live videos, and later YouTube videos,where we discuss writing, speaking, coaching, and marketing tips. In this one we talk about marketing.

The Resource

I will get right to the heart of the matter. The cool website I want to mention today is called “Wealthy Affiliate.”

Now I will give you full disclosure: Some of the links on my website are affiliate links, and I have an affiliate link for this one. Now what that means is if you go check out some of those things that you link to through my website, and you decide to invest in some of them, I might get some remuneration for that. The reason I finally got an affiliate link for wealthy affiliate is because for about seven or eight years I had recommended the website heavily anyway. And I thought, “Well, if I’m doing that anyway, I might as well get an affiliate link.” If you go to my website and click on something that says “Wealthy Affiliate,” more than likely that will be an affiliate link. Okay, so much for the disclosure.

The Value of Affiliate Marketing

Now, why is Wealthy Affiliate, a coolwebsite that you can use right now to get better results with internet marketing. If you are an aspiring entrepreneur, you will want to learn as much as you can. Wealthy Affiliate will teach you the ins and outs of affiliate marketing.

I just mentioned. I had an affiliate link to the website called Wealthy Affiliate. So that is not my own product, but I have a link to it. There are many products that don’t have to be your own products that are great products that could help people. You could get a commission on for referring people to those products. This is a quick way to start earning money online.

Now I forgot to mention that in my affiliate link situation, it does not cost you any more to sign up through any affiliate’s link than it would if you just went directly to the original place and signed up for the product or membership there. Whenever you decide to invest in a resource, you might as well help your friends out. Then if your friends are interested in resources you recommend, they will be glad to go through your affiliate link.

The Value of Creating Your Own Products

Though recommending affiliate products is great, more than likely you will desire to have your own products. Wealthy Affiliate will help you learn how to produce and market your own products. I think this would be an even greater value for those of us who are creative, but either way—using other people’s products or using your own–Wealthy Affiliate will help you with that process. It’s very good in those departments.

In previous blog posts, I mentioned how this type of online business could be ideal for bi-vocational ministers. Well, affiliate marketing is a way to start getting income quickly without having to produce your own products.

But most of us are pretty creative too (at least in sermon preparation). Because of that many of us would like to produce our own products.

The Value of Building Your Own Websites and Blogs

Another reason WA (Wealthy Affiliate) is a good website is it will teach you how to build your own quality websites. If you desire to set up a blog. It will teach you how to do that too.

So, it will teach you about affiliate marketing. It will teach you about producing your own products. It will help you learn how to set up your own quality website and blog. However, WA’s value goes far beyond that.

The Value of Providing Keyword Research

Another reason WA is valuable is because it will teach you the value of keyword research. There is a lot that goes into understanding the importance of keywords that we don’t think much about. I would encourage you to learn about the value of keyword research. Good keywords can improve traffic to your website. Wealthy Affiliate provides you with a tool that will show you how many people clicked on a certain keyword in the previous month, or months. One that is well-searched and includes other important factors might be a key word you would want to use in some of your blog posts or in some of your articles. Good keywords can increase traffic to your website.

The Value of Included Website Hosting

Another reason WA is valuable is that it includes website hosting. As I said I have been associated with them for about 12 years. Now, I liked the training, and I still like the training. I have not come near exhausting their vast amounts of training at all. I’m still learning. I really like that aspect of their program, but the thing that has kept me with them the most has been their provision of website hosting.

If you set up a website, you have to have “hosting.” You have to have more or less a place to park your website online. That means you have to pay for hosting.

Well, since I am a wealthy affiliate member anyway, I am able to use their service. They include free hosting for multiple websites. So, that’s another reason why it is a cool resource for us internet marketers. The fact is that this website has hosting set up for you, so you can run your entire business using their fast and reliable hosting services.

The Value of Extensive Training

I already mentioned training, but that’s another reason why WA is so valuable. They come out with at least one new live training every week. When you join them, you have access to hundreds and hundreds of lessons from previous trainings through the years.

Also, as a membership community, many experienced entrepreneurs also put new training on the website too. It is one of the best places for training in Internet marketing.

My Recommendation

I highly recommend Wealthy Affiliate, and I would recommend it whether I had an affiliate link with them or not.

How to Find out More about This Resource

If you’re interested in finding out more about Wealthy Affiliate. go to the top of the page and look for the Marketing tab. If you click on that, Wealthy Affiliate will show up. Again, you click on that, and the link will direct you to their website where you can check them out more fully.

How to Find More Tips Like These

If you’d like more writing, speaking, coaching, marketing and marriage tips like these. Check out the tabs at the top of the page here at Randy’s Blogs.com. I wish you the best in your marketing journey.

November 20, 2020November 20, 2020

Three Getting Started Questions Every New Coach Should Ask

What are three getting started questions every new coach should ask?

Getting started in a new coaching business has many varied parts of the process. It can seem quite overwhelming in the beginning. Here are some of the main questions a new coach should ask.

I. What Kind of Coaching Are You Best Suited For?

There are many varieties of coaching. One type would help people with discovering their identities and clarifying their purpose.

Another type would help people in the area of personal growth, and this would spill over into business growth too.

A third type would be entrepreneurial coaching. This would be for people who would want to start businesses of their own.

Another way of classifying types of coaching would have to do with the delivery of the coaching experience.

First of all, you could have personal coaching. This involves meeting with people one on one. You could meet with them online, through the telephone or through the computer using through FaceTime, Zoom, Skype, or some similar distance collaboration platform

Second, you could have group coaching. This is often done online live with a group watching in and asking questions.

Finally, you could have a type of coaching that is more passive. That could be in the form of delivering the information in the form of a course. Again, courses could be in person or online. Some online courses are set to where the student can go at his or her own pace and click on new lessons after completing the previous lessons. This is quite automated in that the coach does not have to do anything after completing the course materials.

So, first of all it would be a good idea to find out what kind of coaching you would like to do.

II. What Kinds of Additional Training would give you confidence?

You need to understand that credentials are not required for many types of coaching. In many cases your personal experience will be much more valuable than certain types of certifications. However, for your own benefit, you might want training to increase your confidence. Even though credentials are not required, they also sometimes can give you the perception of increased credibility.

I want to point out three certifications you can gain from Author Academy Elite. I mentioned identity coaching earlier. They have a certification program dubbed “Your Secret Name” coaching. I also mentioned personal or business growth coaching. AAE has another certification called, “The Deeper Path.” Then I mentioned entrepreneurial coaching. AAE also has a certification program called, “Day Job to Dream Job.” It specializes in guiding people through occupational change, and especially guiding those who desire to start their own businesses.

III. What Online Tools Could Help You with the Coaching Process?

You will need an online tool that will help you with email communication.

You would also need collaboration tools–a place where you and your client could keep track of assignments and further to communicate with each other.

Then you will need a website builder.

You would need a tool that would help you keep track of your progress.

Then it would be good to have an online tool that would help you with course building.

There is a program that includes all of the above options in one package. It is called “The Coaches Console,” and I highly recommend you consider it if you are indeed going to get involved in coaching.

Those are the three getting started questions every coach should ask: What kind of coaching are you best suited for? What kinds of additional training would give you confidence? And, What online tools could help you with the coaching process.

If you would like more tips like these, click here.

If you would like to check out the certifications offered by Author Academy Elite, click here.

If you would like to check out the special package of coaching tools offered by The Coaches Console, click here.

November 5, 2020November 5, 2020

Three Insider Tips for Writing Quickly and Easily that Every Brand New Author Needs to Know

What are three insider tips for writing quickly and easily that every brand new author needs to know?

The accompanying video is the first edition of “Walking with Randy.” A few months ago I started walking. I started out getting 2000 steps a day, and then I worked my way up to 10,000. I think 10,000 is a good number, so I’m probably not going to try to progress much beyond that.

In this article, I’m going to talk about insider tips for writing quickly and easily

for brand new authors.

Find Time to Write

The first tip is to find time to set aside for writing. We need to realize that we all have the same amount of time. We have more than 10,000 minutes every week. Before we talk about regularly scheduled time, though, we need to find snatches of time hidden within our days. For instance, we find that we spend a lot of time waiting. If we plan ahead a little, we can redeem that time. Your waiting time could be used for writing. If you had a little notebook or computer tablet with you, you could spend that time writing.

In preparation for setting aside exclusive times to write, we need to examine what we do regularly. Do you find that you spend a lot of time on lesser pursuits? Maybe those activities are not bad in themselves, but do you have times that could be spend on more productive tasks?

An example of using waiting time could be seen in going to the doctor’s office. Nowadays, you might be asked to wait in your car before going in to actually see the doctor. Under more normal circumstances, you might be asked to sit in the waiting room. While you are doing that, you could read one of their magazines. You may have planned ahead and brought your own reading material. However, if you brought your writing materials, whether they be paper or digital, you could use that waiting time to move your project along.

The next thing is to be intentional in setting aside time exclusively for writing. You might be able to write for 15 minutes on your lunch hour.

You might decide to get up earlier, or, if you are quite productive at night, you might decide to set aside some extra time by going to bed later.

You also, could combine all three of the above times by getting up a half-hour earlier, writing 15 minutes at lunch, and going to bed a half-hour later.

If you can find 75 minutes in your day, you can complete a chapter. That would mean you could complete the rough draft of an average-sized 200-page book that included 20 chapters in just 20 working days!

By then, you would have your “book.” Granted it will be a rough draft, but the book is basically done. Then you will polish the book and make it great.

Create Short Artificial Deadlines

The second tip is to create artificial deadlines. Suppose you give yourself five minutes to write on a certain topic, five or six minutes, or maybe 10 minutes. A lot of writers have found this to be very beneficial in helping them to get certain projects done.

Now, by making the deadlines, small like that, the whole process helps prevent the feeling of overwhelm.

Shorter deadlines also helps with procrastination, because it doesn’t seem so insurmountable to write for just a little project, instead of a big long one. For instance, if you had your chapter broken down into anywhere from 12 to 15 little five minute projects. You could get a chapter done easily by writing, and meeting those short artificial deadlines.

You see? We respond to deadlines. If you spent some time in college, you might have told an all-nighter or two in order to get a paper done. You had two or three months to get it done, but the deadline was looming it had to be turned in the next day. Or, how many of us have gone to the post office with our tax forms on April 15? I know I have done that a few times. So, we respond to deadlines. To get the ball rolling, create your own artificial deadlines. I would recommend that you create five, six, or 10 minute deadlines.

These short deadlines will help you to get over perfectionism. When you have a deadline of five or ten minutes, you don’t have time to agonize over every word. Of course your writing should be the best you can make it, but that will be accomplished in the editing process (whether you do some editing each day or at the end of the first draft). Right now, your goal is to get the ideas on paper.

Write in Answer to Questions

The third tip is to write in answer to questions. You see, our minds are programmed to answer questions. We know six words that help us with questions. When we hear a group of words starting with one of these particular words. We know that group of works is a question. That can help us with writing because our minds are programmed to answer those questions. I’m sure you have guessed by now, but those words are, “who, what, when, where, why, and how.” I would also add to this list a couple of two word questions, such as, “What then?” and “So what?”

Well, those are some tips for being able to write quickly and easily. First of all you have to find a time to write. Second, you need to create some artificial deadlines and doing that will help you to get your work done. I didn’t mention it, or maybe I did but this helps was perfectionism. Third you should write in answer to questions.

These are the insider tips for writing quickly and easily that every brand new author needs to know.

If you would like more writing tips like these, click here.

If you would like some more in depth encouragement for writing that would move you along step-by-step toward your goal of writing your book, click here.

October 22, 2020October 22, 2020

Video for Blog Posts – The Covid Video Blessing

Forced into doing things we are not used to describes the year 2020 for most of us. Video for blog posts is something that some of us discovered as a transferable skill that resulted from us meeting a need during the pandemic.

Along with being a speaker, writer, and book-writing coach, I serve as a bi-vocational minister. Several of my friends in this same category got thrust into some new experiences.

Many of us, as a precautionary measure, quit worshiping at our local churches for a while. That is when many of us started doing online services. I already had a YouTube channel and some experience producing my own videos. Others, though, learned how to do this for the first time.

The Background of the Transferable Skill of Using Video for Blog Posts

I had some experience with Facebook Live, but, as often happens, I had to learn the process all over again in order to record some of our messages. For a while, that was simply done in my home office, but when we decided to return to our church, we continued broadcasting live through Facebook.

Apart from that, I have a wonderful assistant who helps me carry out many tasks that can be time consuming. So, after I learned how to transfer the FB Live videos to YouTube, I trained her in that process too.

We edit the live recording to shorten it somewhat, and to remove any copyright claims for the wider YouTube audiences.

I know I can include the YouTube videos here on this blog, but I wondered if a link could go directly to the Facebook Live video from over a week ago too.

Trying the Temporary Links for Using Video for Blog Posts

So, here goes the experiment.

First, we will include the YouTube video. Some like for me to have these replays up anyway.

Here is the video from a week or two ago:

Here is a listing of that same link:

Now, here is the attempt to go to the original Facebook Live version:

And, again, here is that link:

https://www.facebook.com/randy.carney1/videos/10224508277198421

I guess one way to check this is to publish it temporarily, and then come back and finish editing the bog post.

Since I am writing in real time, let me just say, “I will be back in a minute.” 🙂

I left and published temporarily and both of the links worked. So, you can use Facebook Live videos as well as YouTube links. (I will have to keep checking back to see how long the Facebook video links will work.)

Using Facebook Live to Produce Video for Blog Posts

How To Use Facebook Live To Get More Traffic To Your Website could be an alternate heading for this section.

Facebook Live is a quick and easy way to produce a video for a blog post that assists Internet marketers to get more traffic to their websites.

The bottom line here is that this is a quick way to produce a video for your blog post. Doing this gives you an almost unfair advantage. You will get more traffic to your website over other Internet marketers by inserting videos into your blog posts.

All Internet marketers should check out this tool because using it is a very quick way to produce videos. Once the video processes where it comes up when you open up Facebook, all you have to do is copy the url and use it as a link to a picture in your blog pos

Here’s why Facebook Live is so important…

You can start on an article, cut away to do a video, and then come right back.

How can you get started with video very quickly?

Go to your Facebook page
Click on the “Live Video” link
Your camera will come on and you will see yourself in the lower right corner
About half-way down on the left side of the page, you will see the word, “post”
You can go down two items below that and click on the down arrow to choose to share to your timeline, to a page you manage, or to a group
I would recommend putting in a title, but it is optional
Then put in a short description
When you are ready, click on “Go Live.”
After your presentation, click on “finish,” and then choose where you want to share the video on Facebook.
Wait a while for the video to show up on Facebook where you shared it
Start the video, and copy the url from the top of the page
Then you can place that link in your blog post

And the great news is, this incredible tool costs nothing at present.

You can check out this quick way to produce a video for a blog post by going to your own Facebook page.

If you would like more tips on writing, click here.