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Multiple Streams of Income

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Mulitple streams of income…. a concept that many people talk about and desire having in their lives, but very few people fully understand it and even fewer achieve it.

So what exactly is “multiple streams of income“?

For most people, when they think about multiple streams of income, the image that they see in their mind looks a little bit like this.

Multiple Streams of Income Diagram

Basically most people imagine that having multiple-streams of income involves trying to build many different types of income streams all at the same time.

Here’s how most people approach building multiple streams of income.  All at the same time they are:

  • Trying to increase their JOB income
  • Trying to start and build a team in an MLM company
  • Trying to get into REAL ESTATE investing, flipping houses or renting out properties
  • Trying to build up an INVESTMENT INCOME portfolio
  • Trying to MAKE MONEY ONLINE
  • Trying to start a SIDE BUSINESS with a friend or based on some idea they dream up
  • Trying to look for a SECOND JOB to make some extra part-time income
  • Trying to start and build a second team in a second MLM company

When they do this, their energy gets scattered in all these different directions all at the same time.

This DOES NOT work very well!

Your energy gets scattered, you get frustrated, and usually besides your JOB income, the other income streams never really amount to anything.

What I recommend that people do instead is to follow a strategy that I call Multiple Streams of Synergized Income.

What is Multiple Streams of Synergized Income Diagram

Multiple streams of synergized income is a strategy that you can apply in your life, which can give you all of the benefits of having multiple streams of income without all the frustration and overwhelm of trying to do 50 things at the same time in different directions.

Here’s what it looks like:

With the Multiple Streams of Synergized Income strategy, instead of trying to build 5 or 10 or 50 different incomes streams which are all going in different directions and all separately competing for your time, energy and resources, we instead employ a different strategy where we LINE UP all the income streams in ONE direction.

For example, let’s say that the MAIN income stream that you want to focus on developing right now is being a Professional Network Marketer.

Meaning, let’s say that you’ve joined an MLM company that you really like and you want to build up an income stream as a network marketer.

That’s perfect!

Now you have your main income stream that you are going to be focusing your energy on.

What else do you have?

Well, you might also have your current full time JOB that you work Monday to Friday 9am – 5pm, and that job pays you just enough to cover your bills.

Okay, that’s fine, there’s nothing wrong with that.  You WANT to make sure that you’re not under intense financial pressure while trying to build a new business or income stream, so if you currently have a job that pays your bills, then keep it!

Build your second, main income stream as a Professional Network Marketer in your spare time, on weekends and evenings!

So now, you have your JOB and your have your income stream as a network marketer.

What about all those other income streams we mentioned before?

Well, what you wan to do is you want to take a look at your income streams and see if they:

  • (a) create SYNERGY and benefit the current income stream you’re focusing on building, or;
  • (b) create a DISTRACTION and take up resources and time and energy away from the current income stream you’re focusing on building

For example, let’s say that you hear about one of your friends getting into real-estate and renting out houses and making an income stream as a landlord.

Ask yourself “Would trying to buy a rental property right now, and learning how to be a landlord create SYNERGY with my current focus on becoming a Professional Network Marketer, or would it be a DISTRACTION?”

The answer to that question would most likely be that trying to do that right now would be a DISTRACTION.

Because of this, I wouldn’t recommend it!  Let your friend be the landlord and let him focus on that, and YOU focus on the income stream YOU’RE trying to develop.

Next, let’s say that another friend of yours tells you that he just started a part-time lawn-mowing business and he wants to know if you want to be his partner.

Again, you’ve got to ask yourself if that income stream is going to create SYNERGY or DISTRACTION.

Again, the answer will most likely be that it’ll be a DISTRACTION for you from your goal of becoming a Professional Network Marketer.

You can go through all the different income streams that you might be thinking about getting into in your life and honestly ask yourself this question… SYNERGY or DISTRACTION?

Now let’s look at some income streams that could be SYNERGISTIC with your main focus of trying to become a Professional Network Marketer.

Let’s use the Kalatu Brand Builder platform and the Empower Network training system and affiliate program as an example of another income stream.

Would utilizing this system have a SYNERGISTIC effect on becoming a Professional Network Marketer, or would it be a DISTRACTION?

Well, let’s take a look at what this system does and what it teaches you:

  • It sets you up with and teaches you how to create a personal brand on the Internet
  • It teaches you the most up-to-date strategies for generating leads for any MLM using the Internet
  • It teaches you how to become a Top Producer in any MLM
  • It teaches you how to build a successful Team within any MLM
  • It teaches you how to engage Duplication and Synergy within your Team
  • It teaches you how to convert cold market leads into raving fans WITHOUT having to cold-call anyone or hold meetings in your house
  • and much more!

When we look at this list, it becomes VERY obvious that engaging in a system like this can create a LOT of synergy towards achieving your goal of building an income stream as a Professional Network Marketer.

Therefore, if that is your goal, to become a network marketing pro in any MLM, I would recommend checking out this system.

Not only will it help you to become a much more successful network marketer, but you can also develop a synergistic income stream with the Empower Network affiliate program!

But this is not just about the Kalatu system or Empower Network.

Let’s use another simple example to illustrate the idea behind Multiple Streams of Synergized Income.

Let’s use the emailing platform called AWeber.

AWeber allows you to build email lists, auto-responders and communicate with your audience.

AWeber also has an affiliate program which can help you develop another residual income stream.

But before we decide whether we want to participate in the AWeber affiliate program, we have to ask ourselves again…. Will joining the AWeber affiliate program and promoting it help to build SYNERGY for us as Professional Network Marketers – OR – will it just be a DISTRACTION?

Well, since most experts today will agree that if you want to be a successful network marketer, you MUST learn how to use the Internet and how to build email lists and how to communicate with your prospects and clients via email, learning how to use a tool like AWeber would DEFINITELY have a positive SYNERGISTIC effect on your plans to become a Professional Network Marketer.

Also, as a network marketing professional, you’ll have a TEAM that you’ll be leading as well, and guess what?  That team is going to have to learn how to use auto-responders and how to build an email list and all of those things as well, and they’re going to ask you which is the best tool to use for that purpose.

Well, in that situation you can promote the AWeber platform to them as an affiliate, helping them out with their business, while simultaneously building another small SYNERGISTIC income stream in your business.

Is this starting to make sense?

I often find that a lot of people misunderstand the concept of multiple streams of income and their thinking is usually polarized in one of two directions.

(1) I Love Multiple Income Streams and I’m Trying to Build 100 Of them Now!

This is the type of person that starts 100 different businesses, income streams, jumping around all over the place trying to make money in 50 different directions all at the same time and never actually making ANY real money with any of them.

I’m not going to judge these people because I’ve been there myself!

It’s called the “Shiny Object Syndrome” where you jump all over the place trying to make money in 50 different ways at the same time and never succeed with ANY of them.

On the other side of the spectrum we have the other person…their thinking is more like…

(2) Multiple Streams of Income Are Evil – You Must Focus Only on One Thing Forever and Never Give Up

This is the type of person who joins an MLM and falls into the energy and excitement of the meetings and seminars and get-togethers that the company or their sponsor has, and is brainwashed to think that EVERYTHING else except for that one MLM they are in is a SCAM.

This is the type of person where if you ask them what they’re up to, they’ll spend 30 minutes talking about their MLM, but if you try to mention some resource or training or tool or something that could help them, or you mention another MLM that another friend of yours is in, they’ll be like “OMG!  That thing is a total scam!  My company is not a SCAM but all those other companies, are all SCAMS!”

LOL.  These types of people make me laugh because then they wonder why everyone THEY talk to thinks that THEIR MLM is a scam!

These types of people will usually completely ignore ALL other income streams, regardless whether they’re SYNERGISTIC to their business or not, because they’re afraid of losing FOCUS.

They won’t even look at any tools or resources that anyone recommends to them which could be a HUGE benefit to their business, because they they’re afraid that their sponsor will spank them or something for trying to expand their field of knowledge – LOL.

There Is a Better Way

Look, I totally understand that if you’re in an MLM company, staying FOCUSED and not jumping around from one company to the next every 2 weeks is one of the KEYS to success.

Trying to go in 50 different directions at the same time is counterproductive.  I totally agree with that.

Shiny object syndrome is NOT going to help you become successful.

However, embracing Multiple Streams of SYNERGIZED Income can be the difference between struggling and THRIVING in your business.

I’m not just talking about people who are trying to become Professional Network Marketers.  That’s just an example I used.

Maybe your main income stream that you’re trying to focus on building right now is to be a coach or a mentor.

Or maybe it’s to be a healer or a teacher.

Or maybe you ARE trying to start a lawn mowing business.

Whatever it is that you’re looking to build right now, LOOK for other income streams that can be SYNERGISTIC with the income stream you’re currently building.

Most cell phone kiosks and stores make more money from their SECONDARY income stream – selling cell phone accessories – than they do from their primary income stream!

Most electronics stores make a higher profit from their SECONDARY income stream – selling warranties and service – than they do from their primary income stream (selling electronics!)

If you ARE in fact currently involved in an MLM company, and you want an awesome example of a SYNERGISTIC income stream that fits in with your MLM income, I highly recommend checking out this system by clicking here.

If you’re building another type of income stream, just start looking and I’m sure you can find some synergistic income streams that could significantly multiply your income as an entrepreneur.

Is it Time to Make a Change?

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Are you feeling frustrated with your current job situation?

Does it feel like the income from your job can’t even pay for your monthly expenses, let alone your dreams?

You may not be alone.

According to a CNN/USA Today/Gallup Survey*, 72% of men and 58% of women between the ages of 18 and 49 years old want to start their own business instead of working for someone else.

This survey is not new.  These kinds of stats have been around for quite some time, and a LOT of people are losing faith in the traditional fantasy of “Get a good education, then get a good job, keep your nose clean, work hard, and retire at age 65.”

This fantasy may have worked back in the 1950’s, but it no longer exists today.

Security today doesn’t come from a job, it comes from having multiple streams of income by starting your own business.

But what kind of options are out there?

Option #1 – Buying a Franchise

One option that people have for starting their own business is to buy a proven, successful franchise such as a McDonald’s or a Burger King or something like that.

The challenge with this approach for most people is that the start-up costs can be incredibly high in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Most people just don’t have that kind of money to put into a franchise.

Also, starting a franchise can be very limiting in terms of the freedoms that you have.

Meaning, most franchisees are forced to run their businesses EXACTLY like every other franchisee, in order to maintain a uniform look and feel to the brand.

This is almost like being an employee because you don’t really have a lot of choice as to how you run your business.

Most entrepreneurs want to start businesses because they want the freedom to express themselves, their uniqueness, their passions and they want to be able to have the freedom to run their business their own way.

Also, to start a franchise almost always requires that you quit your current job right now and jump into working your franchise full time.

This can be very risky.

Option #2 – Starting a Business From Scratch

Another way to start a business is to come up with a genius idea, and then build a business around it from scratch.

A lot of people usually go down this path of thinking when they want to start their own business, and so did I when I first started!

The challenge with this way of starting a business is that your chances of failure are astronomically high because you’re essentially trying to invent every part of the entire business by yourself!

There are 100+ moving parts in any business, and it’s very unlikely that you will have the skill set and the right personality type to be good at all 100+ parts of a business.

Even if you get 50% of the business figured out yourself, you simply won’t be able to compete with the already established businesses out there who have 100% already figured out.

Some people succeed by building businesses from scratch, figuring out every piece of the pie over time, but it can take anywhere from 3-10 years before your business starts to generate profits.

Again this can be a very risky path to take.

Option #3 – Joining an MLM Company

Joining an MLM / Network Marketing company can be a great way to get into business for yourself, without having to try to figure out everything by yourself.

Most MLM companies take care of 95% of everything for you.

They do the product research, they create the products, they test them, they get approvals for them, they create websites for you, they handle the accounting and the legal aspects of running the business, they create training and put on events for you and a 100 other things that you don’t have to worry about.

The only thing that YOU focus your time and energy on is generating leads and developing customers for them.

The other benefit with starting an MLM / Network Marketing business is that your start up costs are MUCH lower than starting a franchise or even starting your own business from scratch.

Also, you can start this type of business in your spare time, without having to quit your job.  This reduces your risk significantly.

You can just build up your business part-time on weekends and evenings, until your business replaces your job income and then you can decide if you want to do it full time.

But are there any challenges with MLM businesses?

Yes.

The biggest challenge with most MLM businesses is that the training that they provide for how to generate leads and get customers is extremely outdated.

The strategies they try to teach you are based on things that may have worked 10-20 years ago, but which don’t work very well today.

The standard training involves getting you to put together a 25-100 name list of all your friends and relatives and then either you or your sponsor or both of you are supposed to get on the phone and try to sell them on your MLM “business opportunity”.

Either that or to invite them to a “meeting”.

This stuff used to work back in 1997 when I first got into network marketing, but it just doesn’t work anymore today!

Even if you do sponsor one or two or five of your friends or relatives in your MLM, you then run out of warm market and you’re stuck hoping that THEY do something with the business, otherwise your business stagnates and falls apart.

This is NOT a good way to build a business.

So what other options are there?

Option #4 – Building an Online Business With a Lead Generation System

The other option is to join a company like Empower Network, which gives you all the benefits of a traditional MLM such as low start-up costs, great people, and being in business for yourself without being in business by yourself, and couples all those benefits with training and a SYSTEM for an unlimited stream of leads for your business.

Unlike most MLMs out there, you don’t have to waste your time trying to pitch your friends and relatives on the latest business opportunity you joined, who are most likely not interested anyways.

What Empower Network teaches you to do is to use the Internet to build an online presence for yourself and your business so that the approximate 35,000 – 50,000 people in the US alone who are currently LOOKING to start a home-based business find YOU instead of you chasing them!

This is a totally different approach to network marketing.

What’s cool about Empower Network’s system and training is that it can be applied to any MLM out there.

Meaning, if you’re already in another MLM opportunity right now, and you love their products and the company and you want to continue to build your business in that MLM, but your business has hit a point of stagnation or just isn’t growing fast enough, you can utilize the system that Empower Network teaches to help you grow that MLM.

You’ll learn the absolute most up-to-date, state-of-the-art techniques and strategies for marketing your business online and generating leads using the Internet.

While most MLM companies out there have been dead-set against the Internet for years, they’re all now finally starting to realize that they can’t grow without the Internet.

Most companies have now finally started to trickle out a little bit of training and tools that are supposed to help you use the Internet to build your business, but the stuff they’re teaching people is already outdated.

To be successful online, to generate leads for your business on the Internet, you have to be using strategies that are working now in 2015, not something that worked back in 2012 or even 2014!

This is what I love about Empower Network.

You’re always plugged into what is working NOW – TODAY – and learning from leaders in the industry who are producing results – TODAY.

You’re not learning from some leader who built their MLM empire in 1993 and hasn’t actually actively had to build their business for over 20 years.

How to Get Started

If you’re reading this and feeling like you need to make a change in your life, like you want to start your own business but don’t know how, here’s why I would recommend joining Empower Network today over any other opportunity.

By joining Empower Network, you will learn how to use the Internet to market yourself, to build your own brand, to generate an unlimited stream of leads for any business.

You don’t have to be a tech-genius to do it either.

Empower Network has a proven track record of helping ordinary people, with or without any technical experience, to get started online.

The cool thing is that once you learn how to effectively use the Internet to properly market and promote any business and to generate leads, that is a skill-set that you can use with ANY BUSINESS!

Meaning, if after getting trained by Empower Network, you want to join another MLM company and use the training from Empower Network to grow that business, then go ahead!  It’s your choice!

If you want, you could take the training and use it to promote a new business you start yourself from scratch.

There’s no limit as to how you can apply the amazing training in Empower Network to help you build ANY business out there.

Of course Empower Network has an amazing affiliate program that is very lucrative as well, and could be the business model that you’ve been looking for, but it’s totally your choice how you apply the training you get from Empower Network.

To learn more about Empower Network click here.

 

( *Source: http://www.gallup.com/poll/15832/majority-americans-want-start-own-business.aspx )

How to Get Good at Blogging if You’re Not a Writer

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Sometimes when I have conversations with people who read my Blog on a regular basis, they are surprised to hear that English is my second language.

Until I was around 9 years old, I didn’t know a single word of English except for words like “okay” and “hello”.

My family and I moved to Canada, from Poland, when I was 9 years old and when we first moved here I couldn’t communicate with any of the kids in my class.

In high-school I did well in math, and computer science and other subjects, but English was always a challenging subject for me.

I detested having to read books and writing essays.

If there was a Coles notes available on a book we were reading in school I would buy it and read that instead of the book.

My spelling and grammar were never really that good.  Paragraph structure?  Not really my thing.

So if you want to be a Blogger but English is not your first language, or you’re worried because your spelling is bad, or your grammar is bad, or you suck at writing, in this post I will reveal how I got over all of these things and ended up producing well over 700,000 words of content on my Blogs.

Get Better at Blogging by Reading

One of the little “secrets” I learned about 20 years ago was that reading CAN be fun *IF* what you’re reading about is interesting to you.

I hated reading books in high-school because I found them so boring and annoying, but when I was 19 I decided to try buying a book that I thought I might enjoy reading.

And you know what? I did!

It was one of my first ever personal development books and I really enjoyed reading it.

Then, I bought my first novel, a book called “Total Recall” which was later turned into a movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger.

That book was around 400 – 500 pages long and I was so captivated by it, I read it from cover to cover in like 2 days.

I couldn’t put it down.

Sometimes I hear people saying that they don’t really like reading books, and I totally understand what they’re saying because I used to hate reading as well.

However, I think what it really comes down to is that if we have never been exposed to content that is ENJOYABLE to read then we will hate reading.

It would be like if all you were ever allowed to watch on TV was some boring TV shows that your parents like or your teachers like and you have never seen any TV show that you find interesting.

You would probably think that TV is boring too then right?

But the second you put on a movie or a TV show that you actually like and find interesting, then watching TV becomes fun.

It’s the same thing with reading.

So how does reading relate to becoming a good Blogger?

Reading can help you become a better writer in two main ways:

#1 – Reading Trains Your Subconscious Mind

As you read your favorite books by your favorite authors, you will automatically absorb their writing style at a subconscious level.

You’ll pick up vocabulary, sentence structure, paragraph structure and writing style automatically just by reading.

Virtually all published authors have their work professionally edited and proofread so you’ll be learning from a reliable source.

When your subconscious mind reads sentences in books that have been proofread and edited, it begins to form patterns of communication in your mind.

Your thinking will literally change to model the writings of the authors that you read.

Reading blog posts or watching movies doesn’t always have the same effect as most blog posts are not professionally edited or proofread, and TV shows and movies are scripted to speak in conversational English that doesn’t really follow any structure.

That is why books are so powerful.  They TRAIN you on becoming a more structure thinker and writer – automatically.

Also, as you read books in the genre that you’re most interested in, which will most likely also be the genre that you write about in the future, you also learn how authors communicate in that genre.

For example, as I’ve read through over 1,000 personal development books in the last 20 years, I’ve learned that the authors in these books communicate in a certain way with their audience.

There’s a certain style that works well in this genre, and it’s different from other genres.

So by reading books by authors in the niche market that you’re in, you’ll develop the ability to write in a similar style.

#2 – Reading Gives You Ideas for Content

One of the reasons I hardly ever experience what people call “writers block” is because I have read over 1,000 books myself.

When I read books, I get ideas from all of these different authors and then my mind goes to work to reconcile and amalgamate all the content that I’ve read and to form ideas and opinions and beliefs about how I perceive the world to be based on all these things that I read and my life experiences.

Not only that, but if I ever feel lost for things to write about, I just turn around and walk over to my library of books and pull one book off the shelf and flip to any random page and get an idea for what to write about.

What most people enjoy reading about is not just concepts that you learned from someone else, but how you applied those concepts in your real life to produce certain results.

Reading books gives you ideas and concepts, and then living your life and applying some of those ideas and concepts gives you CONTENT to write about.

Get Better at Blogging by Journaling

Another great way to get better as a Blogger is to start a journal.

I have been journaling for almost 20 years now.

Every few days or so I’ll sit down and write in my journal.

I write about anything and everything that comes to my mind and I don’t filter out or censor anything.

That is one of the most powerful things that journaling can do for you.

It allows you to express yourself fully, with total honestly, with no filters and no censorship and no judgement.

NOBODY is allowed to read my journals except me.  I keep them private and I don’t give anyone access to read them – ever.

By doing this, I know that what I write in my journals is safe and nobody is going to judge me for it.

Knowing that has made it easier for me to start putting my thoughts on paper without feeling any form of judgement.

See most of us go through our lives never having the opportunity to say what we want to say without the fear of judgement.

When we speak to our friends or family about something, they usually only allow us to say a few sentences or paragraphs before they reply back in the conversation.

That’s normal.  It’s what conversation are supposed to be like.

However, that doesn’t really give us an opportunity to express our thoughts in a cohesive way for more than a few moments.

That is why most people struggle to write blog posts that are longer than a few paragraphs as well… because they NEVER practice THINKING in a certain direction for more than a few moments.

Journaling can help you to become good at that.

I’ve sat down many times and have written in my journal, non-stop for several hours!

It’s so freeing and liberating to be able to express how I think or feel, on paper, without someone interrupting me as often happens in normal human conversations.

Doing this also allows you to develop your ability to write blog post content that is longer than just a few sentences or paragraphs.

Most people notice that most of my blog posts are over 1,000 words long and I’ve had many people ask me “Paul, how the heck do you write such long blog posts?!”

The answer is because I journal! 🙂

Also, of course as you write more blog posts, you’ll get better at writing better blog posts automatically!

Get Better at Blogging by Expressing the Real You

Reading books and journaling are two things that can help you become a better blogger long term.

However, there is one more thing you can do that will help you become a better blogger RIGHT NOW.

Here’s how…

… what you want to do is you want to just sit down and think about the main message that you want to communicate to your audience.

Before you write a single word, just close your eyes and visualize a person in front of you and just think about the message, the feeling, and the energy that you want to communicate to them with your blog post.

Like if that person was in your home, sitting in your living room, and you wanted to help them out by teaching them or explaining to them this concept that you want to write about  in your blog post.

Don’t worry about the words that you would use at all, but just imagine a scenario playing out in your head where you’re having a conversation with the person, without hearing any “audio”.

Just see yourself talking, your lips moving, and maybe you’re moving your arms around and explaining the thing you want to explain to them.

And then see the other person GETTING IT.  See them understanding the basic premise of what you were trying to communicate to them.

See them smiling and thank you for teaching them this thing that you’re wanting to teach or communicate in your blog post.

Then, open your eyes and just start writing your blog post, writing down whatever words that naturally come to you.

Don’t worry about spelling.

Don’t worry about grammar.

Don’t worry about sentence or paragraph structure.

Don’t worry about ANY of that stuff, because here’s the truth…

… the truth is that 99% of what you write and communicate in your Blog posts is expressed in the ENERGY behind the words, and not by the words themselves.

It really doesn’t matter if your spelling and grammar and sentence structure sucks.

The only thing that matters is the energy that you have to wanting to communicate and help another human being.

If you come from that place of wanting to help, to share, and to inspire someone else with you writing, it makes no difference how well you write.

The right message will communicate even if your writing is horrible.

And as you do this, over time your writing and your blog posts will get better and better and better.

99% of the value in a blog post is your INTENTION and ENERGY behind the words that you write… all the other stuff like spelling and grammar and everything else is only like 1% of it, so don’t worry about it at all.

Just WRITE!

Just BLOG!

Just start blogging today and keep blogging.

Don’t worry about being slow at it.  You’ll get faster.

Just START.

You’ll get better and better over time anyways.

3 Fatal Mistakes New Bloggers Make And How to Avoid Them

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Over the past 9 years as a Blogger, I’ve had many people come to me for advice on how to build a successful blog.

I’ve seen some people build blogs years ago that they continue to run to this day.

The majority of people, however, give up on their dreams of building a successful blog within just a few weeks or months.

From my observations, the people who don’t make it as bloggers all exhibit some or all of these fatal symptoms that kill their blogs.

#1 – Ridiculously Unrealistic Expectations

A reasonable, mature adult understands that if they wanted to become a doctor, they would have to go to post-secondary school for 6-12 years and spend $100,000 – $500,000 on their education.

And then once they finish school, they would be able to open up a practice, and most likely spend the next 3-10 years paying off that debt.

And then once they’ve been a doctor for about a decade or so, they would expect to start making a solid six-figure or higher income especially if they decided to specialize and become a surgeon or something like that.

That same person understands that if they wanted to become a police officer, or a firefighter, or a lawyer, or an accountant, or an architect, they would also have to dedicate a certain amount of time and energy to learning a skill and then to practice getting better at that skill before expecting to be making a good, solid income from that vocation.

For some weird reason, those same seemingly mature adults have this weird, totally unrealistic expectation that making money online somehow happens overnight, with virtually no investment of time or energy required from them to make a six or seven figure income online.

If you want to build a successful blog that eventually generates an income stream for you and you want to make money online, you’re going to have to realize that it is NOT going to happen overnight.

You are going to have to invest some time, some energy and some money into learning the right things, from the right people to help you become successful.

Compared to a formal education such as the one required to become a doctor or a lawyer though, learning to make money online is nowhere near as intense and definitely nowhere near as expensive.

I’ve had people call me about a week after they’ve started a blog, having written one or two blog posts, and they’re wondering why they haven’t made tens of thousands of dollars from their blog yet.

If you do the right things, and you follow the right system, and you have the right mentoring, making money online can happen pretty quickly, but if you have to mentally prepare yourself to KEEP GOING, KEEP LEARNING and KEEP INVESTING in yourself, in your business and your education if you’re going to make it in this business.

If you’re going to give up after 2 days, you’re being a wuss and wussies don’t make money online.

#2 – Not Understanding the Power of Small Wins

As a new blogger, or a new Internet marketer, you’re always one small win from winning big.

Here’s what I mean by this…

… when I started blogging, there actually weren’t a lot of people out there blogging yet, and the industry hadn’t really established itself in such a big way as it has now.

Because of this, there were very few bloggers out there who had created any HUGE success for themselves.  I could count them on one hand.

The benefit I had when I was starting out during this time was that I didn’t really have a lot of big hot-shots to compare myself to, so instead I just focused on comparing my success on any given day or week or month, to my PREVIOUS successes.

For example, I still remember when I sat there wondering how long it would take to get my first 10 subscribers.

It actually took a while.  But when I finally got my 10th subscriber I remember being so excited!

Then I set a goal to hit 20 subscribers, and once I hit that, I again celebrated and was very excited.

I kept increasing my target by very small increments and I kept seeing these small “wins” that kept me going.

Then, I started focusing on seeing how long it would take to get my first real COMMENT from someone other than my wife, or my friends or family…. like a REAL STRANGER that I didn’t know coming to my Blog and leaving a comment.

When I got my comment I celebrated as well!

These small tiny wins is what kept me going in the beginning and kept me motivated.

There were many small milestones that I set for myself, long before I even started putting focus on getting my Blog to make money.

Of course today it’s much easier to make money with a Blog as so many things have been systematized, tested and perfected by companies like Empower Network – but even today I would recommend that new bloggers set small milestones for their blogs which can give them the small “wins” that will help to boost their confidence even before they start making money from their blogs.

#3 – Allowing Small Loses to Kill Their Confidence

On the other side of the same coin, most people also totally underestimate how big of an effect small loses can have on your confidence as a new blogger.

I’ve seen people start blogs and begin to gain some momentum for a few weeks and then they get ONE negative comment on one of their blog posts where some idiot leaves some idiotic half-baked opinion on what the person wrote, and the emotional rejection and hurt that the blogger feels completely knocks them out of the game.

Of course if you ask them about it, they’ll never admit it.  They pretend like it’s no big deal, and that it didn’t hurt them, but all of a sudden you no longer see them writing any more blog posts – EVER!

Trust me, I’ve been there.

I’ve written blog posts which I’ve poured my heart and soul into and I’ve had morons come to my Blog and post nasty comments, being total pricks.

It hurts when that happens, especially if you’re brand new to blogging.

There’s no shame in admitting that those things suck and that they hurt your feelings.

So how do we overcome this?

Firstly, one of the things that I learned from one of my mentors is that IF you become a successful blogger, you WILL have some people who will not like you and they’ll leave stupid comments on your blog posts.

So what I did is I created a milestone for myself where I actually told myself that when I get my first nasty comment, it means that I’m starting to get popular.

Meaning, I re-framed it in my  mind to be a positive thing!  So when I got my first nasty comment, yes it hurt a bit, but at the same time I was really excited because I thought to myself “OMG!  I got my first hater!  This is so cool!  It means my Blog is becoming more popular, and I’m starting to make waves in the industry and as a result I’m pissing off those people who are NOT my target audience.  Awesome!”

Secondly though, the most important thing you MUST embrace as a tool to help you deal with these small “loses” that will inevitably show up in your life as an entrepreneur and as a blogger is to be a part of a community with a support structure in place to support you.

Think of it like this…

… if you were a professional athlete, and you got injured while playing on the field or on the ice or on the court, and you were lying on your back, hurt…. what would happen?

Your SUPPORT TEAM would come to your aid and they would help you!

If you were struggling with your game, or with some aspect of your health, what would happen?

Your coaches and your trainers would step in and help you!

If you were struggling with your mental game, because you were struggling with something in your life, and it was affecting your game, what would you do?

You would go and talk to your coach and get some help, right?

ALL successful people have coaches and mentors that help them.

It’s no different as a blogger.

That is why I love the Empower Network system so much.  It doesn’t just arm you with the Kalatu blogging platform to make sure you have the world’s best, state-of-the-art blogging system at your fingertips.

What Empower Network really brings to the table is COMMUNITY and SUPPORT.

For example, those people who join my Empower Network team have ME and the rest of my team to help them and to support them.  We all help each other succeed.

If someone on the team is struggling, we help them out.  That’s what teams are for.

Bloggers who try to do it all by themselves, without participating in any community, and without getting any coaching and mentoring and help from anyone else, rarely last!

They give up before they ever build any success because it’s not easy to do this all by yourself.

Of course it’s possible, but why would you want to anyways?

Why NOT embrace a community of like-minded, positive bloggers who are also pursuing their blogging dreams and who will encourage you when you’ve suffered a small temporary loss?

How to Boost Your Chances of Blogging Success

Want to significantly boost your chances of becoming a successful blogger?

It’s very simple…just do these 3 things:

  1. Set Realistic Expectations and Have Patience
  2. Set Small, Achievable Milestones For Your Blog and Celebrate Your Successes
  3. Join a Blogging Community and Get a Coach or Mentor So You Have Support When You Have Your Small Loses

These three things may sound very simple, but it’s what I did to grow my blog and every single person that I know who didn’t succeed as a blogger was missing either one or all of these factors.

Is Kalatu Better Than WordPress?

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I’ve been a WordPress Blogger for 9 years now and recently I’ve switched over to the Kalatu Blogging Platform from Empower Network.

In this article I’ll share my first impressions about Kalatu and whether I think it’s better than WordPress.

Firstly, I’ll start off by saying that it’s not really a fair comparison to compare Kalatu vs WordPress since Kalatu IS BUILT ON WordPress.

Meaning, Kalatu is a blogging platform built on top of WordPress, so it takes all the functionality that you already get with WordPress and simply adds additional functionality on top of that.

I think the better way to approach answering this question is to compare what you get with a standard out-of-the-box installation of WordPress, versus what you get with Kalatu.

Kalatu Features

Here are just some of the features that I’ve found pretty useful that you don’t get with a standard WordPress installation.

#1 – The Kalatu 21 Day Blogging Challenge

One of the first features that you’ll notice when you get started with Kalatu is that it has a 21 Day Blogging Challenge system built right into it.

What this does is it encourages you challenge yourself to write one blog post per day for at least 21 days.

The purpose behind this is to help you establish the habit of daily blogging.

Most psychologists say that it takes about 21 days for us to form a habit, so the 21 day blogging system is designed around that concept.

Every day, you are encouraged to write a new blog post and the system actually helps you to write those posts by offering suggestions and blogging templates that you fill out as a starting point.

You can either use the built-in templates, or you can just write your own blog post from scratch.  It’s totally up to you.

#2 – Kalatu Achievements

The next thing that you’ll find included with Kalatu, and tied into the 21 Day Blogging Challenge system is an achievement tracking system.

The Kalatu Achievement System is designed to make blogging fun and allows you to earn and unlock badges for completing various things.

For example, once you complete your first blog post, you’ll earn the “First Post” badge.

As you earn badges, you also move up in levels in the system so that you know that you’re doing the right things as a blogger.

The achievement system is still in it’s early stages with improvements coming soon, but even now it’s a pretty neat little system that rewards you for achieving certain blogging milestones.

#3 – Kalatu Social Media Card

The Kalatu Social Media Card, allows you to connect your Blog with your social media profiles such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.

You simply click on each of the social media sites, and authorize a connection with Kalatu and it does the rest.

It goes in and updates your Kalatu Themes to connect your audience with your various social media sites.

For example, by connecting your YouTube account, the Kalatu YouTube sidebar widget will automatically pull in and display your latest YouTube videos from your channel.

#4 – Kalatu Theme Customizer

Kalatu comes preloaded with five professional looking themes, with more on the way.

The cool thing though is that the Kalatu Theme Customizer also allows you to fully customize each theme to your liking.

For example, if you want to change the font for your theme, you can do so with the click of a few buttons.

If you want to customize the home page header, you can do so with the click of a few buttons.

If you want to add in an opt-in form that will automatically allow your blog visitors to subscribe to your email list, you can do so with the click of a few buttons.

None of the features require any coding, or scripting or pasting in any code.

Everything is done for you, you just have to do a few simple configurations.

You have control over your banner ads, your author box, and your social card settings as well.

Pretty much anything you might want to customize on your theme, you can do it through the theme customizer tool.

 #5 – Kalatu Tutorials

Another cool thing that Kalatu comes with is a set of tutorials for how to use the system.

There are videos and guide books that show you how to setup your Blog, how to map your domain properly, how to configure things and how to use the features that Kalatu comes with.

Of course this is on top of all the training that Empower Network has for helping you to become a successful blogger.

#6 – Kalatu Google Analytics Integration

Kalatu also has a very simple system for adding in Google Analytics integration.

All you have to do is take your Google Analytics tracking ID and paste it into the Kalatu Google Analytics integrator and click the save button.

By doing that, Kalatu will automatically incorporate full Google Analytics tracking into all of your themes.

This might not seem like a big deal, but I’ve found that a LOT of people who are not computer programmers find it difficult and confusing to try to get Google Analytics setup on their WordPress Blogs.

Also, with WordPress, if you ever change your theme, you have to re-do your Analytics integration, but with Kalatu it’s all automatic!

Not a huge deal, but it’s a nice feature to have.

#7 Kalatu Widgets

Kalatu Widgets

Kalatu takes a slightly different approach to widgets.

Instead of having 10,000+ different widgets available to you like WordPress does, Kalatu simplifies the whole widget system by only including the most useful and effective widgets that you will need for your blog.

This means that you no longer have to spend hours going through hundreds of different WordPress widgets that all say they do something, only to find yourself disappointed when they fall short of your expectations.

Of course the trade-off is that if you are looking for some highly customized widget for you blog, it may not be available on the Kalatu platform.

However, having said that, the idea behind the Kalatu platform is that they will constantly be expanding their library of widgets with the best widgets available out there.

Meaning, if someone out there creates a really cool WordPress widget that you might have to pay $20 or $50 or $100 for, there’s a chance that Kalatu will also create a widget similar to that one or even better, which you may be able to get for free.

Since Kalatu is going to be a paid platform with tens of thousands of users worldwide, the company has money in their budget to develop these high-end widgets that you might not find in the WordPress widget directory.

Also, as a blogger for 9 years now I have come to realize that even though WordPress technically has this huge marketplace of like 10,000 widgets – in reality I have only used about 10 different widgets in my blogging career.

A LOT of the WordPress widgets out there are crappy, poorly coded, and may even contain malware, viruses and other things that could cause problems for your WordPress blog.

This is why the geniuses behind Kalatu have chosen to not allow external widgets to be installed on the platform – ensuring that whatever widgets you do decide to activate in Kalatu is going to be a high-quality, solid widget that does the job well and doesn’t contain and problems or issues.

I’ve actually had my WordPress site shut down by my hosting company before, due to issues with a WordPress widget I downloaded and installed on my WordPress blog.

It was just some widget that pulled pictures from my Flickr account, but somehow it was poorly written and it overloaded my hosting company’s servers so they shut down my site.

I had to go through all my widgets and deactivate them one by one to find the one that was causing the issue.

In the end I got my site re-activated without any issues, but it took a whole afternoon of troubleshooting to figure what was wrong.

That’s wasted time I should have spent blogging, instead of messing around with my WordPress site.

With Kalatu, I don’t have to worry about that anymore.

#8 Kalatu Headline Helper

Yet another cool feature that’s built into Kalatu is a headline helper.

Ever write a blog post and then felt stuck trying to figure out what title to give it?

The Kalatu Headline Helper helps you eliminate that problem.

Essentially you just click on the “Give Me a Headline” button that shows up in your post editor, and you’ll see a pop-up window pop up and ask you what subject you’re blogging about.

You just type in what you’re blogging about and it will give you a headline suggestion.

If you like the suggestion, you click one button and it inserts that into your blog post title.

If you don’t like that suggestion, you just click the “Give me another.” button, and it gives you another suggestion.

You can keep clicking it until you find a suggestion that you like.

#9 – Kalatu Writers Blog Solver

Ever get stuck not knowing what to write about?

Kalatu has a solution for that.

They have a little button that says “Give Me An Idea!” in the post editor, and when you click that button the Kalatu Random Inspirational Idea window pops up and gives you a random suggestion for the type of blog post you could write.

If you like the idea, you go ahead and write about it, and if you don’t like that idea you just click the “Give Me Another Idea” and Kalatu gives you another random idea.

You just keep clicking that button until you like an idea and then you go ahead and write the blog post.

#10 Kalatu Blogging Community and Training

The features I just listed are just SOME of the features and benefits you get with Kalatu that you don’t get with a WordPress installation.

However, there is one other HUGE benefit that you get with Kalatu that WordPress doesn’t offer, and that is the Kalatu Blogging Community and Training.

Kalatu is Empower Network’s new flagship blogging platform which combines some of the newest state-of-the-art blogging technology to help you become a successful blogger.

However, Kalatu itself is just a tool and a tool is only as good as the person using it.

That is why a tool, any tool, by itself is not enough.

That is why the Empower Network blogging community and training system is so powerful.

Empower Network doesn’t just focus on tools and technology, they also focus on YOU the content creator at your blog and they provide you with the training, the support AND the tools you’ll need to be a successful blogger.

In my 9+ years as a blogger I have never seen training on becoming a successful blogger like that which you can get access to with Empower Network.

There’s nothing else out there that even comes close the the track record that Empower Network has for inspiring, training and producing world-class bloggers.

If you want to be a successful blogger in 2015 and beyond, you have to get access to the best training on the planet, and Empower Network provides that.

If you want to be a successful blogger in 2015 and beyond, you also have to be plugged into a blogging community of like-minded people.  You won’t find a better blogging community than the one you’ll find in Empower Network.

Learn From My Journey

If you’ve been thinking about getting into blogging, or you’ve dabbled with blogging in the past but just never reached the level of success that you want from it, you may find my new eBook “Breaking Free in 2015” interesting.

In the eBook I share my journey of how I went from burger flipper to corporate zombie to six-figure Internet marketer.

I share my story and the lessons I’ve learned along the way in hopes to save others from making the same mistakes I made.

I also reveal what I believe to be the best strategy for making money online in 2015 and beyond.

If you’d like to download a free copy of the eBook  click here or on the picture.