How To Work With The Razor-Sharp Focus Of A Zen Monk

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The hardest part of running your own online business is staying focused.

It’s easy sitting down and getting your work done when you have a 9 to 5 job with a boss looking over your shoulder. But it’s a whole other world when you’re working at home on your own with no deadlines and no accountability except to yourself.

Self-discipline is easy to say but can be hard to achieve.

So if you’re having trouble with concentrating and getting your work done, then you need to practice having the razor-sharp focus of a Zen monk.

Can you imagine how great it would be if you could have complete focus on whatever task you were doing and forget about everything else? Just think of how much you could get done and how well you’d do it?

How Do Zen Monks Focus?  

Zen monks (and all monks) focus by only ever concentrating on one thing at a time.

If they’re gardening, they’re only focused on the plant in their hand. If they’re walking they are focused on each step as they take it. They never think ahead as to how the garden will look or what they’ll do when they reach their destination. Instead they concentrate on whatever they’re doing in each moment.

How Can You Focus Like a Zen Monk? 

Working this way requires forward planning. If you want to achieve the same kind of focus, then you need to plan ahead so that you know what you have to do and when to do it.

You also need to break things down into tasks, not projects.

For instance, creating a website is a project. Finding a hosting company, building a web page, writing content, are all tasks that make up the project.

Planning ahead frees up your mind by removing all the clutter. Clutter is the worrying you do over other tasks you still have to do.

Zen monks not only have clutter-free minds, they also have clutter-free lives. They own very few possessions which frees them up so that they can spend more time on what’s important to them instead of cleaning and maintaining possessions they don’t need.

You can also rid your own life of unnecessary clutter. Sell or donate what you don’t need and you can have more room for living.

Don’t let distractions clutter your attention either. When you’re working, ignore the phone if it rings and don’t check your email all the time. If your phone alerts you to emails and messages all the time, turn it to silent and put it in a drawer in another room.

Keep Your Focus Longer 

If you find that your focus starts to wane, take a five-minute break. It can be helpful to work in short bursts of 30 to 40 minutes and then have a 5-minute break to go and make a cup of coffee or pat the dog. Just do something unrelated to your work.

Breathe More 

When you work hunched over a desk for too long you may find that your breathing becomes shallow.

Zen monks believe in the stress-reducing and focus-inducing power of slow deep breathing.

If you find you’re hunching over your work, sit up with your spine straight and take a few slow deep breathes and it will clear your mind and help you to focus more.

And stay away from excuses - I’m too tired, I’m too stressed, I have writers’ block. These aren’t reasons for not working. They’re only excuses.

Whenever you feel yourself procrastinating, say “No Excuse!” and get back to work.

Take A Leaf 

The late, great copywriter, Eugene Schwartz, worked like a zen monk and he earned millions of dollars from his writing.

So take a leaf out of his book (figuratively speaking, not literally) and make sure that when you’re working, you’re working in a ‘zen’ state.

Start simple and don’t overwhelm yourself.

All you need to run a successful online business is a computer, an internet connection and the ability to focus like a zen monk.

And if you’re reading this then you already have the first two.

So now...how’s your focus?

The Power of Concentration

By Theron Q Dumont

To make the greatest success of anything you must be able to concentrate your entire thought upon the idea you are working on. 

The person that is able to concentrate utilizes all constructive thoughts and shuts out all destructive ones. 

The greatest man would accomplish nothing if he lacked concentration. 

Download this free ebook, plus many more at:

https://cheritonhousepublishing.com/free-ebooks.html

Why I Love Article Marketing!

By Charlie Page 

I do article marketing every week and always will.

If you are not doing article marketing now, or trying to but not succeeding, let me share why I love it and how it can help you too.

Article marketing works better than many paid methods of advertising.

There are two core truths about article marketing:

One - article marketing creates totally free traffic year after year after year. I still get traffic from articles I wrote and submitted in 2007!

Two - Blogging IS article marketing. So if you have a blog now, you are in the article marketing business already!

Here are the top ten reasons I love article marketing:

1. Article Marketing works

If you look at the history of what work online you will see a pattern. There are short term players who create a big splash, then fade away.

There are SO many people who have promised "the next big thing," that have climbed the gravity ladder and then fell, never to be seen again.

Then there are long term players.

Men and women who share their knowledge openly for the benefit of all, knowing that people who like their message will respond and buy their products.

Three examples are: Paul Myers at TalkBi, and Brian Clark at Copyblogger, and Jimmy Brown at Imstitute.

All three are article marketers, all three have thriving businesses and strong reputations.

2. Article marketing builds credibility

When people trust you and believe what you say, they buy from you. They listen to you. They rely on you.

They trust you. This is more valuable that almost any other asset you can earn. Yes, I said earn. There are no shortcuts here. You simply give your best.

I make sales every time I send an email to my list. Why? Because I have worked hard to give the people on my list true value, before asking for anything in return. These are good people who want to learn, grow and have a real business online.

You can join my list and read helpful articles for *years* and never be required to buy anything at all.

That activity builds trust. Best of all, it helps people.

And that's what's it is all about. At the end of my days it won't be the money I will be counting - it will be the people helped. Not preaching, that's just how I see it.

If your focus is giving, more than receiving, it will all work out. The making money online part of the equation will take care of itself. I have seen that happen many times.

3. Article writing can be outsourced

Don't want to write or like to write? No problem. You don't have to!

However, there is both good and bad news-- when it comes to outsourcing.

The bad news is that you can't expect to pay $5 per article and end up with a good product. You'll end up with some spun article that will get you slapped.

The good news is that there are terrific writers online who love to write, love to work from home and will write excellent articles for an affordable price.

These articles will belong to you. They will be your articles, never to be sold or used by another person. You own the copyright.

The best writer I know online is Meredith Pond. She doesn't even know I'm writing this, but she is flat out the best in the business in my view.

Two more resources I use personally are Elance and VA Classroom. I have purchased excellent copywriting at both.

4. Article marketing is durable

The lifeblood of the Internet is information. Without unique high-quality information Google goes out of business.

When YOU become the information supplier, you are rewarded with more and more visitors, year after year.

I still get visitors from articles I wrote years ago!

My motto is simple -- do the work once and profit many times!

Article marketing does that.

5. Article marketing pre-sells

While giving away content is great, you still need to sell something, right?

With article marketing you can do both.

An article marketing approach (to pre-selling an idea) would be to start a blog about your idea. You write articles about the hows, whys, what to do and what to avoid, etc. Post to your blog. While using social media, like Squidoo or Facebook are great, remember your own blog is KEY.

Now people visit your blog and read informative articles without any pressure.

When they do this, they will be pre-sold on the idea and very likely buy from you --- the friend who helped them get their questions answered and was so helpful.

And because your blog will live online as long as you want it to (unlike an ad that runs once and is gone forever) you have created real leverage.

You've done the work once and profited many times.

6. Article marketing creates better visitors

When you write articles that help people (like this one I hope!) you can place those articles on sites, like article directories and on other blogs, for other audiences to enjoy.

When that happens you reach more people and they get to know you for the first time.

All without spending any money!

So why "better" visitors? When people read your article on another blog or article directory first, and then visit your blog, they WANT to know more about you.

Visitors coming because they WANT to know more is far better than the person who just Googles and clicks.

7. So few are doing it well

Marketing online is funny. Once something is discovered that works well, you can count on some "shortcut" or "three click miracle" way of doing it popping up.

It happened with article marketing.

The hype boys noticed that article marketing worked, and created spinners and robots and scrapers to "do the work for you." These miracle inventions would even submit your articles for you to *millions* of websites!

Of course, that doesn't work. But people bought into it, spending their time and money trying it... because it sounded easy and fast.

If the same people had saved their money, and written just two articles a week during that time, they would be so much farther along.

With so few doing article marketing well, now is the perfect time for you to get in the game.

8. Articles can be repurposed

I also love that articles make great content on other venues. Here are a few ideas:

Use short snips from your articles on Twitter.

Post excerpts to Facebook.

Add articles to your follow up series

Combine articles into a report that becomes your viral marketing piece.

Make a Powerpoint presentation from your articles and create video for YouTube and other sharing sites.

Record your videos to create a podcast.

Combine articles into a book to sell on Kindle or on your own blog or site!

Write the article once and profit many times. Good motto.

9. Article marketing creates quality back links

When your articles are published on other websites you get a link from that site. When those sites are of high quality, Google pays attention and gives you more attention... and more visitors.

Simple, really.

The thing is, you just can't fool Google. So why bother "blasting" your article to "hundreds of thousands" of blogs or sites that no human will ever visit, when you can do it right.

10. Article marketing builds your list

There is no better list builder out there. While list swaps and solo ads are *faster* at building lists, article marketing will bring you *better* subscribers.

How are they better?

Because they have already read your work and like it. Now they want to know more.

And having someone want to know more about you, and what you offer, is extremely powerful.

So there you have it, the 10 reasons I love article marketing so much. Let me encourage you to get more information about article writing and article marketing.

It's morning on the Internet my friend. And now is the time for you to stake your claim and build your business.

Because having an automated thriving online business is a beautiful thing indeed!

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Charlie Page owns the Directory of Ezines and is the author of 10 books about Internet marketing. Through his membership sites and personal consulting, Charlie helps people achieve their goal of independence in record time. Can Charlie help you? Find out at http://www.CharliePage.com

The Crucial Importance of Article Marketing Speed

 “Money loves speed.” This is something I learned from author and online guru Joe Vitale. (https://mrfire.com) And it’s so true.

It works for article marketing too.

You see, some people think that to earn more money writing articles, the quality of your writing is most important. But I disagree.

The writers who make the most money are those who outwork the others. That’s why writing more articles can earn you more money. 

Wasting time correcting your work and worrying if it’s good enough won’t help. But writing faster will, because the more you write, the better and faster you’ll get.

I was reading about someone recently who writes 100 articles a week, and his articles are all over 1,000 words each, and this is only part of how he earns money.

How does he do it? He said he simply collects every idea he gets and sits down and writes every day. He said that writing is something he’s very fast at because he does it so much.

So if you treat every idea as a gift and write it down straight away, you’ll never lose one.

Write fast, publish fast, submit fast.

It’s not thinking about doing something that keeps you motivated, it’s productivity.

The more you do, the more you’ll want to do.

And now would be a great time to start.

How to Write An Article in 15 Minutes or Less
Including Research, Writing and Proof Reading
https://cheritonhousepublishing.com/books/15.html

How to Write and Benefit From Free Online Articles

By Bruce Jackson

You want more website traffic. You want more blog visitors and views. You want more opportunities to speak and present at conferences and industry trade shows. You want more credibility and desire more exposure.

What you need to do is write more articles for a broader audience. You need to allow your content to help you expand your potential opportunities. You can simply start by writing beyond your niche or speciality, creating articles that speak to a broader audience.

Develop Articles Beyond Your Niche

Having a speciality is well and good, but your audience is narrowed by your niche. Everyone is not interested in the history of weaving across the centuries. However, you can turn that idea into something appealing by putting more focus on what types of woven items sell best on Etsy or a how-to article on taking woven art and crafts to market both online and otherwise. The broadened topic allows you to expand your audience and increase your exposure.

To go beyond your niche, you have to get out of your own comfort zone and dig a little deeper to produce articles that have a broad appeal. Consider the how-to article. In order to develop a how-to article, you have to work step by step with the end product in mind by providing a procedural concept along the way. It may require more explanation because you want to appeal to the novice as much as you want to appeal to the experienced person. With how-to articles, you can rely on your experience, hobbies, research and education to serve as your resources. The goal is to broaden your appeal thereby broadening your audience.

How to Structure Your Articles

Your articles must appeal to a broader audience and that starts with structure. Consider the layout of your article. From title to type, your article needs to have an aesthetic appeal that includes shorten paragraphs, simple sentence structure and section headings with bullet point lists. By making your structure more appealing, readers will go beyond the headline and title to skim the article before fully reading it.

Your articles should at least be:

Interesting

If you fail to capture the attention of the reader, then you have failed to attract the reader. From the very title of the article, you have to grab the reader's attention and hold the reader's interest by delivering on the topic promised via the title. Opening with an attention-grabbing first line or paragraph keeps readers glued to your article. However, you have to deliver with interesting content throughout the article.

Informative

Your articles need to provide readers with information that they did not have prior to seeing your title or reading your article. It can be either entirely new information or a totally different spin on a well-known topic. No matter how you approach your topic, you need to craft an article that remains informative on a variety of levels from novice to experienced. Allow for insights and innovative perspectives to draw readers further into your article. Include stats and facts that support your article's direction.

Inspiring

People read articles for more than just interest and information. People desire to be inspired. Allow readers to find inspiration through your articles. Stir up their interests to the point where they want more and desire to put some of your pointers into practice. Make readers feel like they can implement new ideas on their own or do something different by utilizing a step-by-step method that you have written about in your articles. You want to leave your readers feeling inspired to the point where they want to try out on their own.

Benefits of Free Online Articles

Writing free articles have their own inherent benefits. Some of these benefits include additional writing opportunities and paid speaking engagements, even information product sales.
Some other benefits of free articles include:

• Increased website traffic
• More blog visitors and views
• Heightened exposure to a broader audience of readers
• Increased credibility on topics and industries

You can gain a lot from writing free articles. You just have to be certain to make a wide range appeal and develop content that speaks to a variety of audience levels.


About the Author: Bruce Jackson serves as both founder and lead consultant with Life Path Consulting Services, a division of Life Path Ministries & Services, servicing nonprofit, small business and churches with a variety of services from fund development and strategic planning to staff development and training. He is also a poetic presenter and author of books of inspirational poetry and multiple e-books on ministry, community service and other topics.

https://revbruce.wordpress.com/
http://ministrymechanic.blogspot.com/

To Hand Write or Keyboard Write, That Is The Question

A while ago I was writing articles and publishing them online but I felt that they weren’t as good as they should be and I really wasn’t enjoying it.

Whenever I write, I always write outlines by hand, and for speed, I decided to write the articles on the keyboard.

But I wasn’t happy with the results so I kept editing them, walking away, coming back, and having another go at them. Then eventually I’d upload them and say I was done.

I kept telling myself that writing straight to the keyboard would eventually be quicker, and that outlining by hand was fine but I really needed to speed things up, and that once I was used to writing straight to the keyboard, I’d get quicker and more efficient.

After a few weeks though, I had to admit that working this way just didn’t work for me. I’m far more creative when I write by hand. I also realised that even though it seemed to take more time to write out everything using a pad and pencil and type it up later, it was actually faster overall, because I spent less time editing and correcting everything so much.

Also, I procrastinated less because I enjoy handwriting.

And most importantly, I realised that as long as I was writing, no matter which way I do it, I’m still moving forward.

I also have a great system of how I write and publish, which makes things even easier as well as fast.

So if you prefer to handwrite your articles, don’t think it slows you down, because in my experience, it doesn’t.

How I Earned Over $4,000 Writing Articles  in Just One Day
https://cheritonhousepublishing.com/books/15.html