If you read my post last week on Balancing Work & Family: How the Heck do you Do It? you’ll already have met Nicole Dean, a mum (mom) of two children who runs several online businesses and describes herself as a mostly-sane marketer. I really enjoyed her blog about balancing work and family, so I’m delighted to be sharing her tips here on how she grows her business when life gets crazy.

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When Life Gets Crazy – How to Connect with Your Lists When you Don’t Have Time To

by Nicole Dean

Life is madness. At least in my house it is. People are always asking me “Nicole, you have 2 kids, 2 dogs, you take in foster dogs, have a husband who you actually like, and you run several very successful online businesses. What in the HECK?!”

I think there’s a compliment in there somewhere.

The things that I do in my business every day fall under four areas…

1.    Growing my List and Connecting with my Readers
2.    Increasing my Traffic
3.    Building Relationships on my Own Blog
4.    Developing my Products and my Other Offers (like PLR stuff, and private coaching and consulting)

Anything that doesn’t fall directly under those four areas must be put aside until I’ve tackled those.

Now obviously, I could write an entire report about this, so in this post, I’ll focus in on your mailing list.

Your list is your livelihood. At least it can be with some love. However, it takes time to write your newsletters or connect with your list, in general. And, coming up with ideas on a regular basis can be brutal.

Life happens. (Thank goodness!) So, you need some shortcuts for when you just don’t have time or don’t necessarily feel inspired to connect with your lists.

Here’s where the magic happens. I have tons of tricks, but I’ll just start with three ideas to get you off and running.

1.    Outsourcing
2.    Planning and Batching
3.    PLR articles

OUTSOURCING PARTS OF THE PROCESS

First of all, outsourcing. There are several ways you can outsource when it comes to your list.

If you have a virtual assistant (or a teenager in your house), write and send an article to him/her and have that person compile your newsletter for you. A side benefit is that it will require you to plan in advance, which can be a very good thing.

You can also hire a virtual assistant to seek out articles in places like EzineArticles.com or LadyPens.com that you can use in your newsletter, rather than having to do it all yourself. Find a few authors that you like (who are considered experts in their fields) and just have your virtual assistant grab one of their articles whenever you’re behind.

Recommended Resource:

I teach a course on Outsourcing since so  many people have asked me how I do it so well.
You can sign up for my free “Outsourcing Mistakes” ecourse here: Outsourcing Mistakes to Avoid

PLANNING AND BATCHING

Second, let’s dig into planning a bit. I find it much easier to plan a month at a time or more than to sit down in front of the computer and try to brainstorm. Can you plan a series of emails to send to your readers?

Perhaps a set like “7 Ways to …” That way you’re set for at least the next seven emails. If you look at my ecourse above “Outsourcing Mistakes to Avoid” – you’ll see how I used a series to create that ecourse. You can model yours after that one.

PLR ARTICLES

PLR articles can be such a huge shortcut. If you’re not using them yet, you are in for a treat!

Here’s a definition of PLR (in case you aren’t familiar with it):

Let’s talk about how useful this is. I mean, honestly. Let’s say your niche is romance. If you purchase a set of ten PLR articles, you have everything you need for 10 newsletters immediately – and, guess what? You can reuse them again the following year or year after.

Not only do you not have to come up with titles, you don’t have to even draft the articles yourself.

Simply copy and paste the  articles into your newsletter, tweak them to have some of YOU in them – either by including examples, personal stories, or some of your own tips and ideas, and you’re set.

Recommended Resource:

I started one of the most highly regarded PLR sites on the web back in 2006 and made it my personal goal to change the PLR industry for the better. I like to think that I’ve accomplished my goal.

See for yourself here: Quality PLR Articles

Now, the next time you’re thinking “I really need to send something to my lists, but what?” you don’t have to panic now that you have these shortcuts at your disposal.

Thanks so much for reading! Please share your thoughts below.

Warmly,
Nicole Dean