How to Get Hundreds of Google Plus Friends & Followers

Watch your Google Plus social networking experience explode with this simple trick to gain friends & followers.

 

So an awesome guy by the name of +Daniel Stock on Google plus, has got me and thousands of other people in a circle. The beauty of this circle is these people are active engagers... and rarely bots. Not only do I follow the people in this circle, but these people follow me too.

The way the circles work is that if you like, follow, share & comment, you can be a part of the circle too. Once you become apart of the circle, you will be a part of the shared group, and tons of people will follow you.  But it doesn't stop there. +Daniel Stock  and other people alike will continue to share the circle until their heart is content. So if you like, follow, share, & comment each time the circle is shared, you, and everyone else who has done the same will continue to get more and more engaging followers.

As of today December 13, 2014 he has 96,709 followers.... Hol-E-Cow! Is he going for the World Google+ record for the most Google+ followers ever?

So as you can see this method totally works!

In order to get in such a circle, you have to find one or create one. I was lucky and stumbled across a few circles like this so far, including this epic circle founded by Daniel. However, I discovered a cool trick to finding more! Of course there are tons of other people on Google+ doing this very same thing.

How do you find em?

You can start by adding +Daniel Stock  to your circles and watch for his circle share.
If that's not enough people to chit chat with, then do a search in your Google Plus search box for #CircleShare

There you will find tons of people, who've posted tons of circles, which include tons of people ready and willing to follow you back, and actively engage!

Hold on kemosabe... Not so fast. There's a couple things you should know about these circles.

First: It's not just about followers, it's about active engagers. People want to follow/circle other people who share the same interest, and are going to engage with them.

Secondly: Google+ gives you a limit to how many people you can circle/follow per day. So after following a circle as big as Daniel Stock's, you will probably hit your max for the day, and will need to come back again and do a search #CircleShare again the next day.

Thirdly:  You can only have 5,000 people in your circles, so circle wisely. If you didn't circle wisely, you will have to un-circle anyone who's not following you. The best thing I've found thus far to do this is Circlescope. Circlescope is an app that only can be used in Google Chrome. It's free to see and un-follow anyone who's not following you, but you have to do it one person at a time unless you pay Circlescope $47 to get the app to do it in bulk.

Fourthly: Not everyone on Google+ is of scrupulous character, so follow and be followed by these circles at your own risk! If someone creeps you out, you can always un-circle and/or block them.

Fifthly: Before you take off into the dazzling Circle land, I'm going to show you how to get the ball rolling with sharing your own circles.


How to share your own circles with yourself included:


1. Add yourself to all of your circles. You can see how to add yourself in the image on Step 5.
 Look on the left hand side where it says "Add a Person"- then click on it and type your name. This is how you add yourself to your own circles.


2. Hover your mouse over the "Home" button, and click on "People".

3. Click "Your Circles"

I recommend following the 3 lovely ladies above because they're awesome :) +Allie Irish , +Erinn Sluka & +Kim Miller 

4. Click on the Circle that you want to share.

5. Click "Actions", Then click "Share this Circle"... and viola! You can start your own snowball following effect.

So there you have it. I hope you will make lots of friends, and that these tips will enhance your Google plus experience.

Happy Circling!!! 

Disclaimer: I'm not a pro at Google Plus. I'm just an active user who loves to share awesome findings; so if I've forgotten to mention anything about Google plus circles, please let me know and I will update this post. Thanks for reading!

The Good- The Bad- The Ugly - Making Money on Fiverr

 

The Good:

Fiverr is a site where you can make money doing what you love. You can buy and sell just about anything for $5. The majority of people who sign up won't get rich using Fiverr, but I can say that it is definitely a legitimate source of side cash.

The first time I discovered Fiverr, I was hooked. I couldn't believe all the unique things I could buy for just $5, from someone singing a personalized song, to a testimonial video, or someone Photoshopping your logo on times square.

So here is the lineup of benefits to using Fiverr:

• Make money on the side
• Buy gigs to help your business
• Build your clientele
• Make friends and meet amazing people from all over the world

At first glance, I didn't think I had much to offer for $5. But then I realized that people came to me for opinions on their music all the time. I enjoyed helping people with their music. I think that's part of what  made me a sought out DJ, but... the amount of inquiries became overwhelming. Critiquing someone's song actually takes time- time I just didn't have, because I was busy working on building an enterprise for my family's future. It was when I discovered Fiverr, that I realized I could be charging for this service instead of turning people down, so.....

A little under a year ago, I started a profile on Fiverr.

This is my profile. I recently made a withdraw, so you can see my current balance is $36.

Currently I charge $5 for a song rating, and $15 for a rating with a full written critique.

Since my song rating and critiquing gig did fairly well, I started adding more gigs such as: Voice Overs, Contracts, Song Edits, Virtual Assistant, and others.

There are tons of things to help grow your pockets, and your business at Fiverr. I could add more gigs to make money, but I don't want to overwhelm myself because I've still need to have time to build the enterprise, write books, raise kids, and write this blog. But as you can see, you can do as little or as much as you want. Fiverr even has a vacation feature you can use when you get too busy.

I've personally used some amazing editing services, critiquing services, and I even found an amazing guy in Canada who helped me solve my blue screen of death on my computer. How amazing is that?

The gigs start out at $5, but then can go up to $160 with the gig extras. So you can spend a little or a lot- or you can make a little or a lot. On each transaction of $5, the seller makes $4 and Fiverr makes $1.... or now $1.50 because they recently added a 50 cent surcharge.

So far since the Spring of 2014 until now Dec. 2014. I've made about $1,000 on Fiverr, and I've gotten to work with awesome people from all over the world. A thousand bucks isn't much when looking at a year's income, but it's definitely a start of getting paid for doing something you love.

The parts that are blue on the map are where I've made sales in the world. The areas in the darker blue mean that there have been more sales in that area.

The Bad & The Ugly:

I've also learned that there are some things to watch out for on Fiverr. There are some shady characters offering "real" traffic to your website, or tweeting your product or service out to their "following". However, gor the most part, they are not legit- despite the thousands of 5 star reviews. Most of the people who gave them 5 star reviews don't know what they are even looking at... all they comprehend is that their site visits are going up. The reason I say this is because most of the site visits are bots making the visit ticker go up on site. As far as the twitter/facebook shout out's go, do yourself a favor and have a look at their interaction on the social platform. If there's little to no interaction on the tweets or facebook posts, don't waste your money. It is also likely that their facebook/twitter "following" are bots too.

I've personally used one of the gigs above... I'm going to take the high road and not say who tried to scam me. Just steer clear of all of them. I'm telling you from my own experience, loss of time, and loss of money- THEY DON'T WORK!

I paid a guy to send traffic to my fundraising campaign. The guy didn't know I was savvy and had analytics on the campaign page. The numbers of visits definitely went up, hundreds per day even, but...

a.) there were no conversions - no one donated

b.) the campaign analytics said the visits were coming from the same ip address (or something like that - it was a while ago, so I can't remember exactly) But they were exactly the same number of visitors from each country every day. There is definitely something wrong there.

There are also other gigs that offer other similar types of things. As a general rule of thumb, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Think about a psychic telling you what your wining lottery numbers are. If they can tell you, why aren't they wealthy already.

Now think about these people who can send traffic your way.... If they can send it your way, why aren't they busy making millions of dollars with their own traffic, instead of peddling $5 gigs to people like you?

Either way, you have to watch out for these scams. I know it's tempting because you may desperately want to be heard, or get your brand out there, but take the time and do the research, or better yet, pay someone who has a proven track record to get your traffic up.

I know you want the infamous Staples "Easy Button". So here it is:

Now here is the easiest way to get traffic and a following:

Your best source of traffic is going to come from hard work, putting out content, building your following one connection at a time, cross promoting with other like minded people, and being clever in your marketing strategy.

Can I get a "That was easy"?

Ok, maybe not... was worth a try anyway.

However, this is the easiest and fastest way, other than if you have a VIP in your corner shouting you from the roof tops. In a majority of instances, that's not the case. You've gotta build it from the ground up, one step at a time. In my experience, it seems that the "short cut" ends up being the "long road" - and an eye opening hard learning experience.

Back to Fiverr...

You most likely won't get rich quick, you're not likely to even make a living wage unless you live in a country where the conversion is 4-1, and even still... maybe not. But you will make a little extra cash for dinner and a movie on the weekend.

The other great thing about Fiverr is that you can find out if other people value your work. This is a great way to find yourself, your strengths, and what people are really interested in. It's can be rewarding when you see that other people find value in something you have to offer, and not a company you're working for. It's another step to Indie Freedom.

Fiverr is a site where you can "dance to the beat of your own drum".... literally...

If you need some extra cash, and can find something creative, or something of value to offer that doesn't take longer than 15 minutes to do, Fiverr might be worth your while. It does take some time to build your clientele because ratings can be the driving force for customers to buy, however, it doesn't hurt to try something new. You never know, you might surprise yourself- I did.

How to Get Your .Mobi Kindle Book on Your iPhone the Easy Way

I couldn't find a good resource on the net for this, so I figured I throw this post out there for you real quick.

1. Make sure that you have your email service linked up to your phone. (You can find super easy instructions to set up an email on the Apple website here: http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201320)

2. Make sure you have the kindle reading app on your phone. (If not, just tap the apps button and do a search for kindle reader- It will only take a few minutes to download the app)

3. Find the .mobi file in your computer or device

4. Compose an email to yourself, then attach the .mobi file to your email- then email to yourself.

5. Open up the email on your phone.

6. Click on the attachment to open (this may take a few seconds)

7. The icon should change to a Kindle icon after it loads.

8. Click on the attachment again.

9. Click "open with Kindle Reader"

10. Give it a few minutes to show up on your Kindle Reading app on your iPhone.


Happy Reading!!

So, You Want to Make it Big in the Music Biz- Read This

I say this in a tone of a mother breaking some hard facts to her child. The only difference is, that it's a previous radio DJ telling artists. So I'm going to be blunt and give you the real...

What are you in the music business for if you don't learn about the business?

I was looking at the sales online for various book topics. One of them was the music business. I couldn't believe with the amount of people who are trying despirately to break into the music scene, that there are so little people buying books on how to navigate it. The music game is highly saturated with both talented and untalented people. You would think that with the amount of competition there is, that people would take a little time to educate themselves before wasting so much time, energy, and money on it.

For those in the music business aimlessly wandering, I have an important news flash:


If you can't handle what I say in this blog, you will never be able to handle this music, entertainment and indie artist biz... One of the BIGGEST misconceptions of the music biz - "All I have to do is be talented and someone big will find out about me and they will take care of all the business and I will get paid for making music and performing." Those who think this are seriously mistaken. The music business is real live BUSINESS... Just like a restaurant, lawn service, retail store, etc. Talent needs to be there for the business to be really successful... just like a restaurant with good food... or lawn care with great service, or a store with great clothes.... but those things can't be successful on their own- The business side must be handled before they are successful. 80% of the business side is marketing, marketing, marketing! And then there is all of the people you must hire or contract out to handle your marketing, pictures,videos, graphics, publishing, copyrighting, beats, mixing, mastering, album press up, shirts, venues, performances, dealing with promoters, publicists, managers, traveling, touring, meetings... and let's not forget that you should get educated on the biz so you don't get screwed over.

Just like any business, professionalism is a must... Music about the streets or partying, and the music business are two separate things. So don't be arrogant.. nobody wants to work with an ignorant arrogant person who may be talented, but knows nothing about business or how to be professional. No one can explain the biz to you in an hour, day, week, month or even a year... This is something you will have to learn on your own. No one is going to "save" you... you can't ride someone's coat tail to the top... the big wigs are very familiar with jock riders and they will use you to their advantage, then chew you up and spit you out or they will ignore you completely! You must learn the game, and do it for yourself so you will have something to offer when you actually sit at the big corporate desk of a record label.... but by then, you might decide to stay independent because you studied and got educated and realized what kind of asset you really are and that the label is trying to rip you off.

There is no need to get mad at the next person's success or try to pull them down... it won't work if they are handling their business right, and if you're busy trying to pull someone else down, instead of building yourself up, what's that going to do for you?

So I'm just saying, get educated, read some books, and make sure you're handling your business right -

More information is yet to come to give you helpful tips for success in the music and entertainment biz.  This is just the beginning.

My Black Friday-Cyber Monday Book Promotion & Beyond

I know a lot of authors want to know about effective book promotion, and around what time to do it – me being one of them. Since I couldn’t find much info out there on the net, I figured I would do my own experiment and you all can learn at my expense.

I feel it’s important to mention that I’m not an established author, as a matter of fact, I’m a first time author. This promo is on my 1^st book. I’ve written a 2^nd book under a pen name which in no way relates to this book, so I’ve learned that the sales of 1 book will not effect the other, since they are written as 2 different authors. Also, when I lauched this book with a free promotion, I ranked #67 with over 5,000 free downloads in the Kindle store.... which was a great outcome... but then the sales plummeted, which is why I am trying other things.

My main thought was to run a promo around Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but also to run a promo right after Christmas. So far, here are the results from the promotions I ran around that time:

Nov 28 – Ereader News ($30 – 29 downloads)

Nov 29- Good Kindles ($8 – 0 downloads) (7 downloads before promo began)

Dec 30- No Promo ($0 – 5 downloads)

Dec 1- Kindle Books & Tips ($25 – 51 downloads)

Dec 2- Fussy Librarian ($5 - 17 downloads)

Dec 3- No Promo ( 9 downloads at .99 cents)

Dec 4- Regular Price, No Promo (1 download)

Averaging 1-2 downloads per day now as of Dec 10^th

At first glance, the downloads from Ereader News look not as great as Kindle Books & Tips… but I’m not quite sure that one is not as good as the other, because there are a couple of additional factors that I feel are important to mention.

1st: I ran a promo back in August with Ereader News with a somewhat different book cover which amounted to about 125 units downloaded— which is about the same amount as all of these promos put together. So the lower download rate could be due to the book already being promoted to some of the same subscribers several months ago, and with a different cover.


2nd: The low download rate may also be due to it being Black Friday, and most shoppers are out and about doing their day after Thanksgiving ritual… . I suppose I should have scheduled the promos differently, but, because I knew Ereader News worked from using them in the past, I wanted to make sure to start off the Black Friday/Cyber Monday promo with a bang.


3rd: I ran a Kindle Countdown deal on my book instead of just adjusting the price. Apparently, (I’m just finding out) Kindle Countdown can only be done in the U.S. or U.K. Therefore the promo to the international market was in vein, because they could not purchase the book for the advertised price at .99 cents. So my book promotion was limited to only the U.S. – Not cool Amazon… what gives?

Therefore, my conclusion thus far is that Ereader News is still one of the big dogs in town (other than Book Bub or Kindle Books & Tips) when it comes to book promotion. I think I just had several factors working against me.

I followed up the Ereader News promotion with a Good Kindles promo, which seems to have amounted to… (drum roll please)—nothing. The sales made on that day were made before Good Kindles sent out their email to the subscribers. I did pay for that promotion. I figured, what do I have to lose for 8 bucks….. Oh well, but at least you all can learn from this eight dollar loss— no big deal.

Fussy Librarian surprised me with 17 downloads. Not the strongest promo, but hey, not bad for 5 bucks. I would definitely use again.

Unfortunately, as you can see… my book has gone off into obscurity again. So I’m not sure what else I can do to help it other than write other parenting books (which is not what I want to do), or pay for more promotion. (Note: The reason I don't want to write another parenting book is because I have an innovative system in this book, which was the reason for writing this one. I won't be as passionate if I write another... unless I come up with another innovative system like this one. Plus, I have so many other great things to write about.)

So, as you can see, the book promo went good, but not great during the Black Friday/Cyber Monday time period for me. 

 

A couple things I’m considering for promotion is to reach out to the media and news stations, and/or to team up with other authors who have written parenting, or children’s books to do a bundle. I learned this technique from awesome people who do the Sell More Books show.

I did reach some good ranks for these downloads, so I figured I would share what happened to the ranks with the amount of downloads I received.

I was also number 11 in the larger "Parenting " category which for some reason doesn't show here, so here is a screenshot for this category.

FYI- My book cover is different now, than from when I ran the promos.

So I’ve scheduled another .99 cent promotion right after Christmas with KB Boards , Ereader Girl, and Buck Books.  I will update you on how it goes. You’re also welcome to watch the ranks as it happens live in action.

Here is the link to the book:

 http://goo.gl/2Atq5N

The after Christmas promo schedule is as follows:

Dec 26: KB Boards ($35)

Dec 27: No Promo

Dec 28: No Promo

Dec 29: E Reader Girl ($10)

Dec 30: No Promo
Dec 31: No Promo

Jan 1: No Promo

Jan 2: Buck books (Free)

Update: I ran these promos, you can see the results here: My After Christmas/New Years Book Promotion Experiment

Please feel free to comment and share with me your insight on this. What has your book promotion experience been? Do you know of any other good book promo sites? Do you have any other strategies to try?

Are You Indie by Nature?

This site is for independent creative innovators like me who feel like working for someone else is unnatural. If you feel like you should be working for yourself, or are already working for yourself, this blog is for you. I'm here to share my knowledge, insight, and learning experiences with people like you, so we can grow together.

Please, allow me to introduce myself: I'm a single mom who has grown up poor, struggled through life and relationships and in the last 5 years has already experienced some amazing things that many would dream about. These things happened because I took risks, losses, chances, and made sacrifices. I also didn’t listen to people when they told me I couldn’t. But it doesn’t stop now… and it’s not going to change anytime soon.

If you’re anything like me, you get a new idea and roll with it- and for anyone, the hardest part is follow through. Therefore, I’m hoping this blog will give you and me both the inspiration while motivating us to keep pushing forward.

I’ve made some money, success, and even a little fame by “the beat of my own drum”, with various things in life, but I'm not a wealthy person— yet.

My purpose for building wealth is to not only be able to care for my family without struggling, but also be in a position to support programs which help people in poverty to believe in themselves, while providing the education and resources come out of poverty.

We are trained as kids to follow the lead of teachers and college professors…. but these people have not trained us how to be self-sufficient without always having to depend on someone else for a source of income, or survival.

Education is not formulated toward our strengths. Instead, we are taught a canned curriculum with a whole lot of useless knowledge. – Not that we don’t need school, but much of what we learn will go to waste, because it’s not knowledge that we use on a regular basis, or something we need to know for survival.

I live you in America, you should be living the American Dream right? The American Dream is not to flip burgers, run a cash register, or stand at attention greeting people as they walk through a store. It’s not to live off food stamps, welfare, or Section 8— and there’s no guarantee that these programs will still be around in a few years with the way that the economy is going. Now I’m not saying there is anything wrong with working these working those jobs to get you started, or getting help when needed, but it’s certainly not the “American” dream.

The “American Dream” is to have your own business doing what you are really good at, and to own a house without struggling every day just to stay afloat.

According to Wikipedia, The American Dream is:

“The opportunity for prosperity and success, and an upward social mobility achieved through hard work. In the definition of the American Dream by James Truslow Adams in 1931, "life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement" regardless of social class or circumstances of birth.”

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Dream

Americans are coming out of college in debt, and starting a job in the local Family Dollar store. What a great way to start off the future after investing all this money… uuummmmm— NO. We go to college expecting to win at life, but the only one’s winning are the colleges. We lose, the government loses (aka we lose again), and the college walks off with a nice paycheck.

There are tons of careers that you would have been better off at, with self-teaching and gaining no debt from colleges or the government such as music, art, computer technology, and there are careers that actually do require the college education and certifications such as doctors, lawyers, etc.  I say all this to say that the thought process behind what college can do for us is set up a bit backwards, and has remained unchanged for quite some time.

This leads me to the question: why is it that the government is willing to loan, and grant thousands of dollars per student for a college education in practically any field so we can work for someone else? Why won’t the government loosen the noose for owning a business aka “The American Dream”, and tighten the noose for dead end college programs? HELLO!! Knock Knock… anyone in there? Sheesh. What do we gotta do to get some common sense around here?

I know there are grants and loans for businesses… but only certain ones— They are very selective about who they loan and grant to. Wouldn’t it be better if it was the other way around?

One of the biggest economic mistakes our government made was bailing out the spoiled brats on Wall Street who gamble, and are irresponsible with money. Sure, that makes sense… give people who are irresponsible with large amounts of money even more money, so they can blow it again…… wow….

Our nation is awesome, but our nation is also economically ran so ass backwards, and change needs to happen. But instead of complaining about it, or passively waiting for it to happen, I think it’s about time that we take the matter into our own hands with the initiative to just do it ourselves.
There is no one else to depend on but yourself – no one will do it for you, no college, no government, no business, and no-body.

Back in the day we were completely self-reliant. We would farm our own food, make our own clothes, exchange services, sell our product, whether it was farm goods, canned goods, clothes, horses, cattle, etc. We didn’t have to work for someone else. We worked for ourselves for survival… only it was a lot more difficult than it is now. So there really is no excuse. Whatever it is that you have been wanting to do, it’s time put it into action.

You must take risks to find success. Those risks might not always end up being in your favor, but they will always be in the right direction.

Did the pilgrims not take risks? Did they not find success? Do you ever remember playing the Oregon Trail on the computer at school?

Okay, enough with the rant. We can go ahead and “chuck me in the shallow water before I get too deep”.

I was going to wait until I was financially established enough to share my findings with others; to invest in programs that help other people while traveling place to place, but I figured, why not help people now. I have the World Wide Web to help me, and I’m sure I have some knowledge that other’s would love to know.

This is why I want to share my journey with creative Indies like you. I have so many notes, resources, and experiences. I have spent many hours, days, and even years of self-teaching on many aspects of business, marketing, authoring, entertainment, media, the arts, and there is so much more I will be learning, sacrificing, and accomplishing. So I’m going to share all that I can with each step in my independent journey.

There will always be people around who believe in me, and there will always be people to tell me that I’m crazy. However, the decision to become free from the chains of the 9-5 grind will ultimately be up to me. I’m willing to take that risk, are you?

There is no competition— only you. There is no limit to your success— you determine how successful you are. You are the one who has the ability to put into action what you want in life. You have the ability to do what you want.

I can’t say the road to the light at the end is easy, because what I’ve been through thus far hasn't been very easy. But it can be easier with someone like me on your side. Throughout my struggles, I’ve always said: “If I only had a mentor, a friend, a person who I could get some guidance from, I could accomplish this so much faster. But maybe I was meant to learn all of these things because I was meant to share it with others.

It’s time to stop listening to the brainwash crap that society is telling us, take a step back and look at our abilities… Then apply them the way we were meant to. Let’s help each other grow.

Believe in yourself!  I do :)

Hence the birth of this blog- “Indie by Nature”