A quick follow-up to my post about the Rapid Video Blogging program. Gideon Shalwick recently did a webinar where he answered people’s burning questions. Check out the tell-all webinar here.

If you’re serious about getting started with video blogging, it may be wise to take Gideon’s course. After you see the webinar or read the report, head over to the signup page.

Sorry to get this out so late, but his course closes in less than 2 days.

Ready to get started? You can join the Rapid Video Blogging course as long as you act fast.

One of the common themes on Crayon Writer is making money online - something I do, but something I strive to do even better. Believe it or not, I had NO idea that I could make money with YouTube and video blogging. Maybe I’m just the last to know, but in case I’m not, let me tell you about my friend Gideon Shalwick who has it down to a science.

How many videos have you watched today? How about YouTube videos? If you do ANYTHING online, you cannot help but watch at least a few YouTube videos daily.

But did you know there’s a way to make money off of YouTube? And NO – you don’t need a channel with millions of views every month.

Gideon Shalwick, an online video expert, has it all figured out.

And he’s telling it ALL in a 92-page, easy-to-read, report he just put out for you and me: Rapid Video Blogging. I sure thought I’d heard it all before. But after reading Gideon’s hotly awaited report…I realize this is a Whole New Game!

After you download Gideon’s free Rapid Video Blogging report, also check out the video that comes up. Because I just bet it opens your eyes to how ANYONE can succeed online without having to bow down to gurus. In fact, doing it Your Way is the KEY to this system. Check out the report that got the industry buzzing
about it even before it got out!

PS. Gideon has fine-tuned his method over years of experimentation, and it’s all in there, at zero cost.
So if you’d rather ditch outdated methods of making money online, this is the place to be:

Rapid Video Blogging

Once you’re done reading the report and watching the first video, check out the second and third videos. Gideon cranks out cool videos pretty much as fast as he can think. In the second video, he takes us behind the scenes of his famed home studio setup, showing us everything from lighting to editing to ‘getting comfortable’ tips. In the third video he goes through a case study of an ordinary guy whose making decent money on the topic of acne.

You can find the report and all three videos here, at Rapid Video Blogging.

Will YOU be the next Rapid Video Blogging success story? You’ll have your chance very soon!

Blogging can be a journey (like this one), a passion, a hobby, or a business. And everything in-between. But sometimes life happens and your blog can wind up the last thing on a long “to do” list. That’s what happened to me and one of my old blogs.

Marana Unwrapped was a blog about the town I lived in, just northwest of Tucson, Arizona. I started out pretty interested in it, some people subscribed to it, and I even got added to the town’s email group for the press. But then I moved out of the town of Marana, and somehow thought I should let the blog move into oblivion.

I let the domain name expire and that was that. But something kept nagging at me over the past couple of years. I knew that blog had potential, and it makes no sense to turn down the opportunity. After all, trying to restart an old blog may be worth it. I checked to see if the domain name was still available (it was), and I re-bought it.

It seemed reasonable to sit on my decision and think things through first. I decided a new WordPress theme was essential, and I got to work on that. I changed some categories, updated and added a few pages, and tried my hand at some CSS/PHP code tweaking. It’s still not perfect (I need to Photoshop some of the heading’s pictures), but it’s ready to reintroduce to the world.

With the restart of an old blog comes decisions about how to drive traffic to it. Word of mouth and Twitter may be the best way to jumpstart it. Local blogs have the advantage of being extremely targeted. Later I may go on to create a Facebook page and maybe even submit articles to submission sites. Getting traffic is always a fun adventure.

If you get a chance, take a look at the old content on Marana Unwrapped. Even better, if you’re a Tucson reader, feel free to send me story ideas and news. Let me know what you think (here or there). I’m all ears.

Have you ever made the decision to restart an old blog? What plan of action did you take?

I started Tweeting almost one year ago. And boy, has it been an interesting journey! Twitter is a fascinating tool, and I’ve met cool people and learned new things. One of the things I love most about it is connecting with people in my local area. It’s also great for marketing your blog and, by default, your business.

There’s a lot of power to harness with Twitter, so if you haven’t yet given it a try, you’ve simply got to start! Here’s what you do. After you sign up, start following a few interesting people you know (like me), and take a look at who they’re following. Follow a few of them, and also start looking at some local people (like a local radio or news station). You’ll start getting followers as you start following. And be sure you actually Tweet too.

For more ideas, check out my first post on the subject of Twitter.

I also stumbled across the idea of using Twitter to make a modest amount of money. There are companies out there that know the power of Twitter, and they want to get their names out there. So they use Sponsored Tweets. It works by Tweeters agreeing to Tweet on behalf of an advertiser (with full disclosure). You get paid through Sponsored Tweets, and you can cash out once your account reaches $50. They’re the same company that does PayPerPost (IZEA).

If you’re not already following me on Twitter, go ahead and do so. There’s a link to my CrayonWriter account under my picture, and a link to Sponsored Tweets in my sidebar.

Do you use Twitter a lot? How do you use it?

Yaro Starak and Gideon Shalwick sent me an urgent note to let you know they are very briefly opening up their powerful blogging coaching program again.

Why?

Well, they said that they got HEAPS of people that missed out because of the Independence Day Holiday in the United States last week.

And they wanted to give us another opportunity to join their amazing program, along with all the other 420 students who’ve already signed up this time round.

If you missed out last week for whatever reason, this is your chance to get in.

They’re opening doors on Tuesday, July 7th at 2pm EST Daylight Savings Time, and they said they’ll shut the doors again 24 hrs after that.

Here is the page where you can sign up:

Become A Blogger

Let me know if you sign up! Enjoy!

Blogging hasn’t died, as many predicted it would have by now. People are still starting new blogs, and some of us maintain our old ones. Blogging still makes money for people and companies, and it’s still a fun way to self-publish.

I just received an email from a reader of mine who said she’s been sitting on the blogging fence for some time now. I asked her, “What are you waiting for?” I also recently setup a blog/website for a relative of mine who needed to have an online presence for an upcoming play (if you’re in the D.C. area, check out TalesByOne).

So no, blogging is alive and well.

But what are you going to do about it?

If I had a little extra money, I’d sign up for a course on becoming a blogger. Why, when there’s tons of information online about how to start and run a blog already? Time is the simple answer. It takes time to research it all, and you’re bound to make some avoidable mistakes.

An online course can help you get your blog started physically, and then help you run and grow it successfully. The research will have already been done for you, so all you have to do is pay attention and follow through.

Stay tuned. Tomorrow at 11:00 a.m.  pacific I’ll be announcing a program that will help you start your own blog from scratch.

Blogging often and well requires a bit of blogging inspiration. But is it wise to wait until that next “big idea” hits you? This has been my problem lately, so that even when I have time to blog, I just can’t think of what to write.

But there is help for blogger’s block! Here are 6 ways to getting something written on the page (in no particular order).

1. Open the posting page, or whatever program you use to write your blog.

2. Start writing something. Anything!

3. Look at some old posts from your stash of feeds (you do subscribe to others’ blogs, right?)

4. Go to your Twitter or Facebook pages and read what your followers/friends talked about recently.

5. Read your own past posts. You can recycle old posts, perhaps putting a new spin on them, or even re-analyzing what you thought in the past.

6. Open your favorite stock photo source and glance at a few pics. Sometimes a pic will give you an idea about what to write.

7. Now that you’ve written something, go back and check it over for errors. And make sure it actually makes sense.

And that’s it! Don’t spend too much time researching, thinking, or agonizing over what to write. That’s why it’s important to at least get that writing window open.

How do you find inspiration to write new blog posts?

Photo by Elaine Tan

I joined Twitter a while back, but I didn’t really “get” it until recently. I just got a new job (the PERFECT job, I think), that will use my multi talents. I’ll be doing business writing, Tweets, Facebook, blogging, and more!

Being the diligent new employee, I quickly did a crash course on Twitter this weekend, and boy! There’s a lot to learn!

What’s amazing is how involved Twitter can get. I’ve subscribed to a great blog about it (ProBlogger’s TwiTips), and I’ve started following some of the top Twitterers.There’s so much to learn and read, and it’s all shared by fellow Twitterers.

So have you joined Twitter yet? Follow me @crayonwriter and be sure to let me know in the comments below that you’ve started following me. Twitter will be my microblog, so enjoy and join in the conversation(s)!

Crayon Writer is officially two years old! Happy Anniversary, Crayon Writer!

Though I haven’t been writing as often as I used to, I’m proud to have made it to the 2-year mark. Now it’s time to reexamine my goals, both for this blog and my life and hopefully that will help me keep Crayon Writer going for another year.

When I first started this adventure, I just wanted a place to talk about my life as a work-at-home single mother. But as my daughter grows and changes, I’m finding that I do too. Working from home is still my goal, but it may not be a reality in the near future.

My daughter’s already been going to preschool, and kindergarten is right around the corner. She’s turning into a lovely, independent child, who often prefers to “go somewhere,” preferably without Mommy hanging around. On the other hand, I’m still not keen on sending her to school for 10 hours a day, so I have to have some type of home-based work (along with a part-time job).

So join us in our next adventure(s)! This year, with my daughter as a 4-year-old, things are going to be exciting. There’ll be adventures in babysitting, possibly a move to a new state, interesting jobs, and definitely some freelance copywriting gigs.

Thanks for being part of our lives these past couple of years!

I’m going to break one of the long-standing “rules” of blogging. But it’s no problem, especially since the blogosphere is ever-changing.

One of the first things I learned was to never explain why you were away so long. Well, I’ve had some loyal readers who might actually want an explanation…at least, I’d want to know what happened if I were in your shoes.

When my blog was regularly updated, I had loads of time on my hands. But then I started working an 8-5 job (sometimes I worked 7 days a week), and I had to prioritize. As a single mother, when I got home at 5:30 or 6:00, my only priorty was spending quality time with my daughter. When she went to bed, it became wind down time and/or get all my household chores done before I crashed.

So there you have it! My first blogging rule disobeyed. Hope you didn’t mind too much.

Hopefully, with the help of that huge post-it note, I’ll find a way to get back to blogging. While you’re waiting, feel free to go back and read some earlier posts. I’ll be doing the same, hoping to get inspired once again.