This post was co-written with Joshua Gordon. We’re cooking up some ideas to help you with your business and ideas and we’re doing it for free. Read on…

We hit brick walls in business.

You know the feeling of spinning your wheels, of working hard and going nowhere. Perhaps you’ve been stopped in your tracks, halted by an unexpected challenge. In those situations, you (at best) feel winded, and have lost momentum. At worst, you’re knocked out of commission while you nurse a bloody nose.

There’s a simple way to get past those brick walls, you know. It’s an ancient secret, one you just might have heard about before. You ready?

Find help.

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I’m cheap. My wife will be the first to tell you that. I don’t like to spend money, but I do spend money when it matters, and I’m very quick to do so.

I especially spend money on the parts of my life that make me more productive, profitable, safe (especially outdoors), and comfortable (not a material comfortable; more like keeping me happier in bad mountain weather).

Would you spend $800 on an office chair? Why would you when you can get one at Office Max for $80?

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Show Topics:

• Stop spamming people in forums
• Automating social media
• It’s not about the skills but in how you market them
• Speakers get paid to market their business

I mentioned how I make money as a blogger.

Getting your message across by spamming is not the way to go. I’ve seen a lot of this as I’ve sat on the advisory board of 48days. I talk about it in this show and what to do instead.

Keith: Thank you for answering my question last week. My blog is released every Sunday. Once I do that, I would post a link to it on my Facebook business page which would automatically post it on Twitter & LinkedIn. Should I stop all of that and start some kind of newsletter so that the people who like to read it can still get it and all the others who don’t want it, won’t? Thanks again! I love the show & listen to it all the time. It has helped me out a LOT!

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A permalink is a permanent URL of each blog post. By default, WordPress (and many other platforms) assign a number to each post. For instance: http://yoursite.com/?p=174. That means nothing to google.

To change it in WordPress and appeal more to the search engines, head to settings and click on permalinks.

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A search for best ski resorts provides me with 4.1 million results. The stats tell us that 90% of the clicks for a search go to the top result on the page. Yes, it clearly pays to be number one.

The same is true for ideas floating in your mind. We all have great ideas, no doubt about it.

Just like a search result however, 90% of our time is devoted the idea at the top. I hope it’s a great idea.

Is your top idea worth 90% of your brainpower?

Blog to grow your business
At Need a Topic you’ll get topics, tips, & techniques each week to help you stand out from the crowd and make money from your blog. I cover writing, audio, and video to help you become profitable. Try the 7 day free trial and get a free t-shirt.

Every weekday, and some weekends too, I have a goal to create two blog posts. The best way to become a better blogger is to continually create. I’ve been doing this for some time, so as you can imagine, I have quite a reservoir of posts scheduled.

Some of the posts are eventually thrown away, while others are pushed ahead for immediate release. I look to see what will run the next day and ask myself, “Is this the best post I can run tomorrow?” It sure beats sitting at the computer an hour before a post is due and cranking out something just because I have to.

If you want to be a better writer, schedule it into your day and create more than you’ll use. Do the same with audio and video if that’s what you want to produce. Give it a few months, and you’ll be better than most of your peers.

How to you create blog posts?

Blog to grow your business
At Need a Topic you’ll get topics, tips, & techniques each week to help you stand out from the crowd and make money from your blog. I cover writing, audio, and video to help you become profitable. Try the 7 day free trial and get a free t-shirt.

Pinterest is a neat tool, not only for marketing your business (more on that soon) but also for keep track of business inspiration. Here’s how I’m using it to design packaging for a startup I’m working with.

More tutorials

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Show Topics:

• Do things outside your business for inspiration
• How to use google+ without pushing your stuff
• How to print your own workbooks
• The ideal length of a blogpost

It’s important to do things outside the realm of your business, whether you’re just starting or have been doing it a while. I spent three days learning about avalanches and ski touring the backcountry of northern Colorado. I came back with a list of ideas and blog posts.

Jessica: I listen to Coach Radio in the car to and from my full-time job as I aspire to start my own business. I loved hearing you use Evernote to write down blog ideas, as I use a similar app (Note Everything) to record, type, or draw ideas when necessary.

I haven’t touched my blog in a year, but I’m in the wee young days of starting an online business. Your podcasts have proved to be motivating and informative. Thank you for that!

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