I don’t know what to write about. I don’t know what to blog about. I’m not sure what to say in my next video. How do you keep coming up with ideas. Leslie, can you help me? Okay. Hey, this is Leslie Samuel from becomeablogger.com. I have another quickie tip for you today. One of the things a lot of people keep asking me is, they say something like,

I’m not an expert. How do I keep coming up with new ideas for content to come up with?

That’s a great question. I have one tip for you. You ready for this tip? You may not like the tip but, it’s a good tip. The tip is this: READ. Read, no, seriously, it’s that simple. Read more than you’re reading now. If you want to become an expert on a specific topic, you have to read. READ. Open a book or take a Kindle. I have a Kindle somewhere around here and I get books on there and I read those books. That gives me new ideas. It gives me, it teaches me things that I didn’t know before. And now, I can come to my blog and I can share that with you because I’ve consumed content that’s valuable content that has helped me and then, I can go and share that with you. That is a part of the process of becoming an expert and becoming a leader. Leaders are Readers — that is a fact. If you don’t like to read, I have another option for you. This is something that I’ve been doing a lot recently and it has helped me tremendously. Get audio books. Go to Audible.com. I have a link down to Audible right beneath this video. It’s actually an affiliate link:

www.becomeablogger.com/Audible

If you use that link, you’re actually going to get one free download where you can download an audio book and just picture this, you’re going to the gym, you’re listening to your audio book. You’re driving in your car, you’re listening to your audio book. You’re becoming an expert because you’re listening to content that’s specific to your niche that’s helping you to acquire knowledge that you can then go and share with the world. So, read. And, if you can’t read, well, not if you can’t read but, if you don’t have the time to read then, get the audio book and listen to that. You’d be surprised at how much you’d learn and how much more you’d have to share. That’s my quickie tip for today. I hope you got some value from it. This is Leslie Samuel from becomeablogger.com. Until next time, take care and God bless.

Oh, I’m on video. Wow, this is cool. How do I look? I look okay? I like to thank my mommy, and my daddy and all my friends in school. Yeah…

Hey, this is Leslie Samuel from becomeablogger.com. I want to give you a quickie tip for today. Today’s tip is all about video.

A lot of people ask me, “How do you get good making online video?” I want to give you one quick tip that’s going to help you to do it and to do it well.

That quick tip is this.

Do it over and over and over and over and over.

When I first started making videos online, I would spend an hour trying to record a five-minute video because I’m making mistakes. I’m stumbling over my words and I don’t feel comfortable with what I’m saying. I’m not sure if I’m doing the right thing and all these types of things.

Now, for a five-minute video, it takes me five minutes. Why? Because I practice. I did it over and over and I put it out there even though it wasn’t the best. I didn’t care.

You know why? Because I knew that by doing it over and over and over and over and over and over, I would get better. So, if you are thinking about using online video which you should be thinking about it because it’s very powerful, and you think that you’re not the best at it, that is absolutely not a problem.

Everyone that did video, or most people that got into online video were not good at it when they first started. But, the more they practiced, the more they got out there and put their videos up there, on YouTube and embedded them on their blogs, and shared it with the world, the more they got used to doing it.

So, once again, quick tip for today, if you want to get good at video, at online video, just keep doing it over and over and just put it out there. That’s my quickie tip — really simple, really sweet, and quick.

This is Leslie Samuel from becomeablogger.com. Until next time, take care and God bless.

Get away from the computer! No, seriously. Are you still at the computer? Are you… are you still watching this video? Get… I’m serious.

Hey, this is Leslie Samuel from becomeablogger.com and this is another quickie tip with Leslie. I’m excited that you’re here watching even though I just told you to get away from the computer. You’re still here. Why are you still here? That’s a different topic.

I want to give you a quickie tip.

A lot of people are getting into Internet Marketing — blogging, trying to build an online business and all these types of things. They do it because of their families. They want to provide for their families. They want to get some extra income so that, they take care of bills; so that they can feed their families; so that they can do things with their families, take them on nice trips and all that kind of stuff but, a lot of times, what ends up happening is we get so attached to our computers that we forget about our families.

We don’t want that to be the case. So, my quickie tip for you today, get away from the computer. No, seriously. You’re still here. Why are you not listening to me? Go and spend… Yes, okay… This was a little awkward.

That’s my quickie tip. Seriously, get away from the computer regularly and spend time with your family.

That’s all for this video. This is Leslie Samuel from becomeablogger.com. Until next time, take care and God bless!

Hey, this is Leslie Samuel from becomeablogger.com. I want to thank you… No, seriously, I do want to thank you from the bottom of my heart.

• If you’ve ever visited this blog, I want to thank you.
• If you’re watching this video, I really want to thank you.
• If you’ve ever left a comment on my blog, I want to thank you.
• If you’ve ever sent me an email, I want to thank you.
• If you’ve ever purchased one of my products, I want to thank you.
• If you’ve ever interacted with me on Facebook, I would really like to thank you.
• If you’ve ever interacted with me on Twitter, I want to thank you.
• If you’ve ever said anything nice about me, I want to thank you.
• If you’ve ever said anything bad about me, I want to thank you. Sounds strange but, I really do want to thank you.
• If you are taking the time to do anything positive in this world, to do something positive in this world, I want to thank you.

Today is Thanksgiving. It’s a time where you should be spending with your friends or your family and all that kind of stuff, at least today, as I’m posting this video. You may be watching this later on but, regardless, I just want to let you know how thankful I am for you because I could not be where I am today without you coming to this blog and interacting with me in the many ways that you guys have been interacting with me.

I don’t take that lightly. I seriously do not take that lightly. I value you and I just want to thank you.

So, my quickie tip for today, this is a quickie tip, thank your audience. Thank the people that come to your blog. Thank them if they comment. Thank them if they do something special because you know what? That goes a long way to make people see that you care about them and that you value them taking the time to even come and read your blog, even if it’s one person that’s reading your blog. Thank that person.

All right. So, that’s the quickie tip for today. This is Leslie Samuel from becomeablogger.com. Until next time, take care and God bless.

Everybody is saying that, “The money is in the list.” What does that even mean? This is Leslie Samuel from Become a Blogger and welcome to another quickie tip. All right, it’s true. Your money is in the list. Your list really is the most important, the most valuable asset you’re going to have if you’re building a blog. So, you want to make sure that you’re building a list. Now, how do you do that? There’s a lot of different things I can tell you about that but, I want to share one tip that I have been using over the last few months and it has been extremely valuable. My interaction has gone up significantly and it’s just been really good. I want to share it with you so, you can do something similar or adapt it to what you’re doing online.

The Best Tips for Building a List

Okay, so this is the tip. You ready for it? This is a good one. This is a really good one. All right, so this is the tip.

Say, “Hello!”

You probably notice, if you have been on my list, I send you a certain type of email every week. The format of the email is very simple. Number one, I say ‘hello,’ of course because you want to say ‘hello.’ Don’t be rude. Say, ‘Hello!’

Provide Valuable Content

Okay, so once I’ve done the hello and the greetings and all that stuff, I give you valuable content. I give you a valuable tip that I believe can help you as you grow your blog, as you build your online business and all that kind of stuff. I give you something of value right then in that email.

Link to Your Blog

Then, to the bottom of the email, I show you exactly how I’ve done that by linking to a post that’s on my blog. So, this may be a podcast episode or something that I worked a while back, a video or something of that sort. I bring you back to my blog.

What Does These Do?

Provides Value

Now, what does these do? Number one, it provides you with value for being a member of my list, a subscriber to my list. That’s number one. Without even coming to my blog, you have value.

Teaches Your Subscribers

Number two, it then shows you that I’m not just telling you stuff. I am teaching you something that I’ve been doing because I’m bringing you back to my blog so that, you can see how I’ve done the exact same thing that I just taught you. So, that’s number two.

Creates Blog Traffic!

Number three, it brings you back to my blog and that’s traffic. Traffic is good. I want you to come back to my blog so, I make sure to invite you back to my blog with something that’s an extension of what you’ve already read. So, this has been really valuable — my interaction, my engagement has gone up significantly since I started doing this. I want to encourage you to do the same thing. So, send an email. Greet the individual. Give them value. Teach them something that will help them accomplish their goals and then, link them back to a post on your blog where you did exactly what you taught them. Makes sense? I hope it makes sense. Hey, I just also want to let you know if you want to learn more about building a list, I do have a course on that. I’m going to include a link to that right beneath this video. You click on that link and you can check out that course, all about list building. So, yes! That’s pretty much it for this video. I hope you got a lot of value from that. This is Leslie Samuel from becomeablogger.com. This is another quickie tip. Until next time, take care and God bless!

Hey, this is Leslie Samuel from becomeablogger.com and I have another quickie tip for you.

I want to give you a tip that I just discovered… Not discovered but, I just started to really think about and do recently. I don’t know why I wasn’t doing this all the time! I’m going to share it with you so that, you cannot make the same mistake that I’ve been making over the last four years and not waste time.

You ready for the tip? Here’s the tip.

You know, when it comes to content creation, obviously, that’s one of the most important aspects of blogging and building an online business with a blog, this is the way I used to go about doing it.

I would come to my computer and decide, “What am I going to write about today?” Then, I’d think about it for a while. I might even call a friend, a good buddy of mine and then, we’d come up with something and then, I’d write it.

Then, the next week or the next few days, I’d do the same thing. It’s always this process that I have to go through to decide what am I going to write about? But, recently, I started doing something totally different and I would highly recommend for you to do it.

Today is…what’s the date? [Leslie checks date on the computer]. Today is October 21 as I’m recording this. You’re probably seeing this much later and that’s okay. But, today is October 21 and I just finished, just finished sitting down at my computer and planning out my content for the rest of the year.

You know how long it took me? Ten minutes. Ten minutes! And, my content for the rest of the year is fully planned — my interviews in terms of what topics I want to cover, my quickie tips in terms of what short videos I want to make, and not only that, I’m making those videos, well most of them, on this same day, October 21.

So, my recommendation for you is as you think about your blog and you know what your blog is about — hopefully, you know what your blog is about — there are certain topics that you definitely want to cover. Sit down on a Sunday if that’s a good day for you or a Saturday or a Monday or a Tuesday, whatever date works for you. Sit down. Spend how much ever time it’s going to take and plan out your content for the next few months.

That’s going to save you a ton of time in terms of trying to come up with ideas and so on. You’re not going to waste time like I’ve done over these last few years. You’d be much more efficient in your planning. You can have a better sequence depending on what’s happening for the year and so on or for the next few months, whatever the case might be.

Sit down. Take the time right now or as soon as you get a chance, uninterrupted, to plan out the content that you want to post to your blog over the next few months, at least three months, you can do that. I believe that you can do it.

I hope this is helpful. Make sure to do that. If this is something that you do, let me know in the comments. If it’s something that you’ve never thought about or you don’t even see value in doing it, let me know that in the comments, too.

But, that’s pretty much it for this quickie tip. Until next time, this is Leslie Samuel. I’ll see you in the next video.

Hey, this is Leslie Samuel from becomeablogger.com and I have another quickie tip for you today.

You know, a lot of people talk about building blogs. I’m going to talk about that because this is becomeablogger.com. A lot of people tend to think if I build a blog and I put great content out there, it’s automatically going to bring a lot of people. That does happen from time to time but, for most people, that’s not going to be the case.

If you’ve been blogging for a while, you might have experienced this where you’re putting great content out there but, no one is coming or only a few people are coming.

What’s Missing?

One element missing… Well, there are a number of elements that may be missing but, I want to tell you about one element that can really make a huge difference as you build your blog.

People come to blogs not just because there are great content. People come to blogs because they really feel as if they can connect with the individual that’s writing on the blog especially if your blog is a blog that, it’s one person writing to it and you’re giving valuable content, they come because they connect with the individual. If the content is great, that is even better.

So, this is my recommendation for you. As you build your blog, I want you to think in terms of connections. How can you connect with your audience? I’m not just talking about getting people to sign up on your list. I’m talking about making connections with them.

When they leave comments on your blog, you respond to them. You go out there and you find other bloggers in your niche and you connect with them. You send them emails. You interact with them on social media and so on. You want them to know that you are a real person and you can do that by all these little things that can help you to connect.

This blogging thing really and truly is all about people connecting with each other. It’s all about adding value but, the value is added in those connections. I’m saying that word “connect” a whole lot because I wanted to drill into your head that it’s not just about content. It’s about connections.

So, ask yourself this one question, “What can you do to connect with your audience?” And then, once you’ve answered that question, go ahead and do it whether it’s directly on your blog or on social media or in person at live events, whatever the case might be, you want to connect with people, one at a time. Connect with this person, connect with that person, you connect with that person.

If you connect with ten people everyday or every week or something of that sort, it’s going to continue to grow and grow until you have your tribe of followers and people that are really connected with you. If they are really connected with you, they are more likely to stick around and recommend what you have to their friend.

So, really simple concept but I really want you to get that in your mind. As you build your blog, it’s all about connections.

That’s my quickie tip for today. I want you to answer this question, “How are you connecting with you audience?” Go ahead and let me know in the comments below. I would love to hear your answer to that question.

This is Leslie Samuel from becomeablogger.com. Until next time, take care and God bless!

Hey, this is Leslie Samuel from becomeablogger.com and this is another quickie tip with Leslie.

There’s a lot of advice out there on using social media sites and there are so many social media sites now. You have Twitter, you have Facebook, you have Google+. You have all these different things. And, you’re probably wondering, if you’re anything like me, “How in the world you manage to be in all these sites and really dominate it?”

I want to give you one quick tip. Just disregard what most people say to you. That quick tip is this.

Do not try to be in all of those social media sites.

My recommendation for you is to CHOOSE ONE and work to do very well and to dominate on that one social media site. There’s Twitter, Facebook, Google+, those are the main ones out there now, Pinterest also. And, for me, I really like Facebook. I like what Facebook does. I like the community aspect that it allows you to build when you have a Facebook page and all that kind of stuff.

So, I’ve decided to focus all of my efforts for right now on Facebook and to really hone in on wat it takes to become good on Facebook as opposed to trying to figure out everything else because really and truly, I have a full-time job. I’m a University professor. I don’t have a bunch of time to be doing all these different things.

So for me, instead of trying to do everything, instead of trying to be everywhere, I choose one. I focus my efforts on there and I build up my community on that one social media platform. And then, you know what? Later on, if I fail, I have a hang of this Facebook thing, and I want to expand a little bit, I can expand and do all those other stuff.

Now, it doesn’t mean that I don’t have profiles on these other networks. Definitely, you want to make sure you have your profiles. But, in terms of the way you spend your time — your effort, your energy, and all the stuff that you’re doing when it comes to social media, especially if your time is as limited as mine is, I would recommend choose ONE, learn as much as you can about that one, do as well as you can on that one and then, go from there.

So, that’s my quick tip. Not really hard. Not really difficult. That is quick. That is for this video and I’ll see you in the next one.

[Leslie sings, "I'm going to Vegas. I'm going to Vegas. Oh, yeah! Oh, yeah!"]

An Exciting News!

Hey, this is Leslie Samuel here from becomeablogger.com and I have some very exciting news to share with you today. I am going to Vegas! I am actually going to be speaking at the New Media Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada, January 6th – 8th of 2013 and I am very excited.

If you don’t know what New Media Expo is, it used to be called BlogWorld but, now it’s called New Media Expo because it covers much more than just blogging. It’s for podcasters. It’s for web TV shows producers and all that good stuff. And, I am very excited. I’m going to be talking on the topic,  ”How to Podcast Like a Pro and Never Edit.”

Now, if you know me, you know what I’ve been doing for a while. You know I’m podcasting. Learning with Leslie is my podcast. I do not edit it because I don’t have the time to do it. So, I make sure I have the equipment, the stuff that you see here so that, I can podcast like a pro — have a professionally sounding podcast but never edit anything that saves me a ton of time.

But, that’s not what I want to talk about today.

Why You Have to Be There

I want to talk to you about YOU coming to Vegas with me because that would be awesome. I would be so happy and so thrilled to get to meet you in person live in Las Vegas, Nevada, January 6-8 of 2013. I want to give you five reasons why you should consider coming.

Reason #1

Reason number one: New Media Expo is the biggest, largest conference for bloggers, podcasters, web TV show producers and all that stuff. It is the largest one out there. It’s a great experience to be in that type of an environment. That’s reason number one.

Reason #2

Reason number two is that you get to learn from so many other experienced bloggers, podcasters, web video show producers and content creators from all over the world that’s been doing this for a while and have a lot to share on how to build your blog, how to build your online business, how to build your brand and use social media and all these different types of things. It is a great place to come and learn about all that stuff.

Reason #3

Reason number three is that you get to rub shoulders with like-minded individuals. I don’t know if you’ve experienced this but as a blogger, many times you’re just in your little room like I’m here in my office here and I get stuck in this office just producing content and it almost seems a bit isolated. But, you try to talk to people about what you’re doing and they don’t fully understand it and all that stuff.

Now, you get to be in a place with so many people that are doing similar things, and that is extremely, extremely powerful. It’s motivating, inspirational and all that good stuff.

Reason #4

Reason number four is that you get to connect with people that you’ve seen online, maybe you’re following them online, you’ve been following them for a while and you love what they do and you get to connect with those people.

I went to my first conference last year and it was great to be able to connect with people, meet people like Cliff Ravenscraft, people like Pat Flynn. And now, we’re really good friends because we were able to connect face-to-face at one of these events. That is extremely, extremely invaluable. That’s the fourth reason.

Reason #5

Reason number five is that it’s in Las Vegas! I mean, come on. Las Vegas, I personally have never been to Las Vegas but, I’ve heard a lot about it. I’ve seen all kinds of stuff when it comes to Las Vegas and there’s a lot going on there. So, I’m excited to maybe go to some of the shows and do some of the different events that they have there. I am very, very excited about that.

So, those are my five reasons. Biggest conference. You get to learn from great people that are doing great things. You get to rub shoulders with like-minded individuals. You get to connect with people that you maybe met online but now, you get to connect with them face to face in a real way. Number five, it’s in Las Vegas, Nevada, and that speaks for itself.

And, a Bonus Reason

I want to give you a bonus reason. You ready for the bonus reason? I get to meet you! You get to meet me! That’s just the most exciting thing. Really and truly, I would love to meet you in person, and if you can come to Las Vegas, Nevada and come to New Media Expo in January of 2013, I would be so thrilled to be able to meet you in person.

So, now, I’m just kind of reminiscing actually because I went to Blog World last year which is what New Media Expo is now. And, the people that I met there, really and truly, I met a number of people. We hung out. We got to know each other on a different level and I am still on a high from last year. I am even looking forward now to going and meeting those people again, connecting with them again. We have a number of plans. I am probably going to do a meet-up there so that we can all get together and just connect on a different level. Really and truly, that’s what I want to do.

A Special Announcement for You

Very special announcement, if you want to go you can go and I can get you a special deal. If you can look right beneath this video, you’re going to see a link, that’s my affiliate link to go to New Media Expo but, more importantly, you’re going to see a coupon code. That coupon code is a very special code that’s going to give you a special price because you are watching this video and you are a part of my community, and I want to pass that on to you.

So, use the coupon code below so that you can save the amount of money. I’m not going to tell you how much it is because it’s going to change depending on when you watch this video. Use that coupon code and if you can make it to Las Vegas Nevada, January six through eight of 2013, I’d be so thrilled to be able to connect with you there.

That’s pretty much it for this video. I hope to see you there. If you can’t make it, that’s fine. They actually have a virtual ticket option where you can download all of the videos and audios and stuff that’s related to the conference and so on. That is extremely valuable.

Check it out. I hope to see you there. If not, that’s okay, too. But, let me know what you think in the comments. If you’re going to come, let me know. If you would like to come, let me know and all that good jazz.

That’s pretty much it for this video. This is Leslie Samuel from becomeablogger.com. Until next time, take care and God bless!

LESLIE: Hey, this is Leslie Samuel from BecomeABlogger.com, coming to you again from Blog World Expo in New York City. I’m here with none other than, Chris Deals. Chris, how are you doing? CHRIS: I’m doing well, man. How are you? LESLIE: I am doing very well. This is one of my good friends. I think I’ve been friends with him longer than anyone else online. That doesn’t sound a little creepy, does it? CHRIS: Oh, no. It’s actually a good thing. LESLIE: Oh, yes. Okay, cool. CHRIS: I think it’s a good thing for me to be in your company. LESLIE: [Laughter] You’re trying to flatter me. Anyhow, so my question for you is this. I know you’re very much into PLR. My audience is bloggers. They’re bloggers, and maybe some of them are struggling to come up with content ideas. When I hear PLR, typically, I don’t get excited about it. But, I like the way you use it. So, I want you to share some tips. First of all, what is PLR?

PLR Defined

CHRIS: PLR stands for Private Liberal Rights, and it’s content that comes in different kinds. The formats, it can be articles, audios, or videos. Some of them is a complete product that you’re able to resell and name as your own. LESLIE: Okay, so you can take that. You can do whatever you want with it, and then, you can use it as your own. CHRIS: Yes. LESLIE: Alright. Sweet. You do it a little differently from how I see a lot of people using it. So, what I want you to do is share three of your best tips in terms of how to best use PLR. Are you ready for that?

Tip #1: Find Quality PLR Providers

CHRIS: Yes, I can do that. The first tip is finding quality PLR. There’s a lot of PLR out there. Can I say, “crap?” Most of it is crap. So, you have to find quality PLR. How do you find quality PLR? It’s finding people online that have solid references. There are also a lot of PLR providers that provide you with samples. So, you want to grab a sample before you buy content from them, and read through it, and make sure it’s of quality — quality research, quality well-written, and well-produced. LESLIE: Okay, so first tip is find a quality PLR provider. Okay, tip number two.

Tip #2: Use Quality PLR Content as Research for Own Work

CHRIS: Tip number two is you can use the PLR content as research for your own work. You don’t need to use the way the PLR in the way that it is given to you, but it’s easy research because with a quality PLR provider, they’re going to spend time researching the topic, the subject in whatever niche it is, and they’re going to do all the research for you, so you can buy the content, re-read it, read through the content, and use it as research for you to create your own content from there. LESLIE: So, it’s not that you’re just taking it and just using it as it is. It’s kind of like a time-saving mechanism where you can see what’s already out there, see some good content, and get some ideas that you can then go and produce your own content. CHRIS: Yes. Actually, it cuts the gaps of research. It usually takes you an hour to research a topic to write a post. You get a quality PLR, you pay a few dollars for it, but the research is cut down to 50 minutes. It saves you time, and also it may even spark some more ideas. LESLIE: I see. I like that. Sweet. So, that’s tip number two. Tip number one, find a quality PLR provider. Tip number two, don’t just use it straight up. Use it kind of a research. Use it to get ideas and all that kind of jazz. Tip number three, go!

Tip #3: Re-purpose Content in Different Forms

CHRIS: Tip number three, use it in a different format than it was sold to you. So, if you bought PLR articles that are text, use it for audio, use it for slide show. Just use it in a different format that was given to you. Just use it in a different format that was given to you. So, you can easily turn articles into a slideshow, and record a Screen Capture video, and you can post that. You can use it for your podcast as a podcast segment. You can use that content as a podcast segment. Number three, the best idea is to use it in a different format. So, if you get text, turn it into a video or slide show. If you get a video, transcribe the video. Have the video transcribed, and now use that text as research or maybe you can even use it as part of your written content. LESLIE: Alright. So, for anyone struggling to maybe find ideas or to find the right content to write about, doing some research and finding some good-quality PLR is a good way for them to at least get the wheels spinning, and then, they can take that content, re-purpose it in different forms. I like it. And, I have a confession to make. CHRIS: Go ahead, confess. LESLIE: I don’t know if I should say it. I mean, everybody is watching. CHRIS: Oh, I need to know. LESLIE: Okay, okay. So, my confession is I too, have used some PLR. I remember I was preparing for a webinar, and I needed some ideas. I saw someone that had some quality PLR, and I purchased it, and it gave me some ideas, and it got the wheels spinning, and I used it to generate content for a product that I was producing. So, it’s definitely a good idea. Thank you so much, Chris for sharing that.

Bonus Tip: Add Your Voice to a Modified PLR

CHRIS: Let me offer you a bonus tip. LESLIE: Bonus tip. CHRIS: I don’t want to be a little– LESLIE: Wait, for free? I don’t have to pay for it? CHRIS: We’ll talk about that after the video. LESLIE: Okay. CHRIS: But, here’s the tip. PLR, you can use it to actually create a product very easily. You can modify the PLR. You take it the way it is, modify it a little bit. Add some pictures, add some graphs, add format into it, and you basically have a product. Most importantly though, you want to add your spin. You add your voice to it, and you can easily have a product with PLR content. LESLIE: Awesome. I like it. This is Chris Deals from — I didn’t even say the website. How are you going to let me interview, and not say the website in the beginning, man? CHRIS: Just being able to talk to you is enough. LESLIE: Oh, stop it. Stop it. He’s trying to make me feel good. Anyhow, this is Chris Deals from DayJobKnockout.com. I love the name, knockout that day job, right? CHRIS: That’s what you want to do. And, sometimes, you don’t want to knockout that day job, but you want to knockout the stresses of it by supplementing your income. LESLIE: Alright. So, if you want to know more about Chris Deals, and what he’s doing, go on over to DayJobKnockout.com. This is Leslie Samuel, that’s who I am, yes, from BecomeABlogger.com. Until next time, take care and God bless!

LESLIE: Hey, this is Leslie Samuel from BecomeABlogger.com coming to you live, well no. I keep saying it’s live, but it’s not live. I’m coming to you from Blog World and New Media Expo in New York City. I’m here with my new friend, Monique Johnson. How are you doing? MONIQUE: Good. How are you? LESLIE: I’m doing very well. From MoniqueJohnson.com. Awesome. And, you are very much into video marketing, right? MONIQUE: Yes, yes. I am. LESLIE: You are. Awesome. First of all, how are you enjoying the conference? MONIQUE: I’m loving it. LESLIE: You’re loving it. Awesome. So, my question for you is this. Someone is watching this now. They want to get into video. They’re not exactly sure how to go about it. I want you to give them three practical tips that they can use when it comes to video marketing, so that they can get more traffic to their blogs. What would be your tips?

Tip#1: Have Enough Lighting

MONIQUE: Okay, tip number one would be first and foremost, lighting. Lighting is very important. You do not want to create videos where it’s dark or they can’t see your face, or there isn’t a focus on you. The best way to get started with that is to choose a place in your living room or inside where the sunlight is hitting you directly, and the light is illuminating your face, and everything up about that. So, lighting would be my first tip. LESLIE: Okay, so we don’t want to be dark. We want that light to be directly on our face, so that people can clearly see who we are. Tip number two.

Tip#2: Use A Good Audio System

MONIQUE: Tip number two is audio. You can have the best looking videos, but if your audio is horrible, people are not going to watch your videos. So, the best way to do that is for one, if you can invest maybe $20 to $30 on a clip lavalier mic, you can clip it on right here and it will pick up the sound. Now, if you can’t invest a mic, make sure you choose a location in which it’s quiet, there’s no distractiosn in the background. Also, you want to make sure you’re in a place where there’s different things like furniture that can soak up the audio and the sound. So, for instance, like you don’t want to record in the bathroom because it’s just too echo-y and it’s distracting. LESLIE: Oh man! I was looking forward to recording in a bathroom.Now, you messed that all up. Okay. I’ll accept it. Okay so, number one, you want to focus on the lighting. Make sure you have a good lighting. Number two, the audio. That’s very important. People don’t want to watch a video if the audio is crappy. MONIQUE: Right. LESLIE: Tip number three.

Tip #3: You Don’t Have to Spend A Lot of Money

MONIQUE: Tip number three is that you do not need to have a professional camera to make professional-looking videos. You can simply use a Smartphone, either if you have an iPhone or Android, or whatever phones that are out there; or, pocket cameras. So, the Kodak Zi8, which they don’t really make those anymore, but there’s different types that are out there. And, to me, the key is that if you can get a camera in which there is a mic input. So, we talked about having the lavalier is being able to input it, so you can both have great-looking videos because a lot of them record in HD, so you don’t have to worry about that. And then, also having the audio component tie in. LESLIE: Awesome. So, tip number one, lighting. Tip number two, audio. Tip number three, you don’t have to spend a ton of money. If you can spend a lot of money, then you go ahead and spend it. But, you don’t have to. You can get decent quality videos with a decent mic that has a microphone in, and you can use that, and do a lot of stuff, right? MONIQUE: Yes, correct. LESLIE: Awesome. If people want to find out more about what you’re doing, where should they go? MONIQUE: You can go to www.Moniquejohnson.com LESLIE: Moniquejohnson.com. Well, thank you so much for joining me today. MONIQUE: Thank you! LESLIE: Not a problem. This is Leslie Samuel from BecomeBlogger.com. Until next time, take care and God bless!

LESLIE: Hey, this is Leslie Samuel from BecomeaBlogger.com coming to you from Blog World in NYC, New York City. I’m here with Debba Haupert from GirlFriendology.com. How are you doing, Debba? DEBBA: Great! It’s great to get to know you here. LESLIE: It is great to get to know you, too. Are you enjoying the conference? DEBBA: Yes, it’s a great conference. LESLIE: Awesome. What’s the best part? DEBBA: Meeting people. LESLIE: Awesome. DEBBA: They’re so great. People that you can learn from just from conversations that you have, all the time, here.  LESLIE: Awesome. You have this website,  girlfriendology.com. I just love the name. What is that about? DEBBA: It’s an online community for women based on female friendships. It’s meant to inspire female friendship. It’s also meant to share women’s wisdom, so you can go there, and get girlfriend advice on different things, but it’s all meant to strengthen that bond between women, and just be in a very positive community to hang out in as a woman. LESLIE: What I love about it is you have a really strong community out there. What I want you to do, I know you got a talk on this, I want you to talk a little bit, if you can share three tips with my audience on how they can grow a really strong community with their blogs.

#1: Be Passionate About What You’re Blogging About

DEBBA: Well, first, you got to be passionate about what you’re blogging about, and I’m sure you talk about that quite a bit, but to have any longevity and to have things to talk about, you’ve got to be passionate. So, passion is number one. Plus, you need it sometimes when you’re exhausted. The passion has to keep you going. LESLIE: Definitely.

#2: Determine Your Goals and Objectives

DEBBA: That would be number one. I would say, knowing what your goals and objectives are, so that you go into it. Knowing that you’re going to try to monetize this, or try to just build a big list, or whatever is of value to you, identify that, and if you can identify that with measurable goals, some things like that, then that helps you so you can track how you’re doing in that process.

#3: Stay in Touch

Probably, for my third tip, I’d say find ways to stay in touch with your community. I  have an email newsletter that I use that stays with… It goes out every week, so I can stay in touch with them. If you keep going on them to keep coming back to your website, all I’m saying is not even your mother is going to come back to your website all the time unless you remind her, so yes. Have a newsletter. Start getting their email addresses right away, so you can start building that community. LESLIE: Awesome. Tip number one was make sure that you’re doing something that you’re passionate about. DEBBA: Yes. LESLIE: Tip number two is you want to… tip number two, what was tip number two? DEBBA: Tip number two was… oh, goals and objectives. LESLIE: Goals and objectives. I knew it was something around there. Okay, so goals and objective, and tip number three, do something like have a newsletter that you can keep in contact with them so that you can nurture that… DEBBA: You build your list and you stay in touch with them, yes. LESLIE: Awesome. Well, thank you so much. DEBBA: You’re welcome. LESLIE: If you want to find out more about being a girlfriend, you can go to girlfriendology.com, and check out what Debba is doing over there. This is Leslie Samuel from BecomeaBlogger.com. Until next time, take care and God bless!

LESLIE: Hey, this is Leslie Samuel, again from BecomeABlogger.com, coming to you from Blog World and New Media Expo. I’m here with Lynette Young from PurpleStripe.com Lynette, how are you doing today? LYNETTE: I’m doing very well. Thank you for having me. LESLIE: You are very much welcome. You’ve been in this technology stuff for a while. LYNETTE: Yes. LESLIE: You’ve been to every Blog World? LYNETTE: I think I’ve been to every Blog World, I think so. LESLIE: And, even the one before Blog World. What was that called? Do you remember? LYNETTE: They change their name every year, but it was Podcast and Portable Media Expo, and it was really when everything was new new media, when podcasting came on the scene in like ’04 or ’05.

A Google+ Expert

LESLIE: Awesome. So, you’ve been around a while. But, you seem to specialize now more recently in Google+. Is that correct? LYNETTE: Yes. I love all the social channels… Don’t get me wrong, but I really gravitated to Google+ because I like the tools that they offered, and then, the community that popped out around it is amazing. That’s my platform of choice right now.

3 Tips, How to Best Use Google+

LESLIE: Okay. I’ve been hearing a lot more about Google+. I hear people love it. I hear people hate it. You know how it gets with these social network sites. But, obviously, Google+ is a force that’s here. It’s powerful, and there’s a lot that you can do with it. What I want you to do, my audience, a bunch of bloggers, and they’re trying to grow their audience, grow their community, grow their blogs. What are the top three tips that you can give them to best use Google+?

#1: Fill Out Profile Completely

LYNETTE: Okay. The first tip that I would have to give is that once you get in, be sure that you fill out your profile completely. Make sure you’re putting contents and keywords about the things that you blog about. Make sure you go in and tell Google the links back to your blogs because what you’re gong to do with that is you’re going to make yourself an author to Google , and it will identify your blog content with your profile on Google+ and give you a lot of credit in the search engines, and people are going to be able to find you a lot quicker. LESLIE: Okay, so as much relevant information as you can give. You want to make sure to do that because that’s what Google thrives on — content, right? LYNETTE: Yes. LESLIE: All right. That’s tip number one, write that down. Tip number two?

#2: Go Out and Search for People

LYNETTE: Tip number two is once you’re in Google+ platform, go out and find people. It’s not fill the dreams. If you build it, they will not automatically come. You need to go out and use your search capabilities in Google+ because they’re pretty good. It is Google after all. Go out and search for people that you know are the types of readers that normally come to your blog, or that you want to come to your blog. Comment on their topics, re-share their content. It doesn’t even matter if you just have a handful of people that follow you. Re-share anyway. It’s a good faith measure. Make sure that you comment on their content, as well because the community is very strong there once you find them and tap into them, and they will reward you and reciprocate by sharing your own content far and wide. LESLIE: Okay, tip number one, make sure… Don’t just sign up for an account, or just go and do stuff. No. Fill out your profile information. Tip number two, search for people that you would want to be in your audience, interact with them, and share their stuff. Tip number three… go!

#3: Include Relevant Links

LYNETTE: … Is, once you go in, and you want to publish your own content, make sure that you put relevant links back. Don’t copy and paste your blog content and put it in over to Google+, that’s completely pointless. Maybe, make comments or remarks on your own content, and then, say, “If you’d like to read the rest, here’s a link back to my specific article.” It does two things. It helps the people that are within Google+ find your content and read it. That’s exactly relevant to you, and it tells the search engines that you have a lot of interesting things to say, and they’ll reward you, as well. LESLIE: I like it, I like it a lot. I want to be using more of Google+. I use Facebook. I use Twitter. I have a Google+ account. I don’t even know if I filled out all of my profile information, but now that I have these tips, I can go away, and I can implement them, and help to grow my community using Google+. So, if someone wants to find out more about you, what you’re doing, and all that stuff, where should they go? LYNETTE: Well, if you Google me, and google Lynette Young, you’ll find everything about me because I’ve told Google all about me already. But, if you hit LynetteYoung.com, you’ll find information of me as well, and all my social sites. LESLIE: Awesome. Lynette, thank you so much for doing this. LYNETTE: Thank you very much, Leslie! LESLIE: So, this is Leslie Samuel from BecomeaBlogger.com, until next time, take care and God bless!

LESLIE: Hey, this is Leslie Samuel, again from BecomeABlogger.com coming to you, not live, but well, we’re alive, right? PACE: We are alive! LESLIE: We are alive. PACE: And filled with a joy. LESLIE: Oh yes! From Blog World and New Media Expo in New York City. I’m here with Pace Smith from Connection-Revolution.com. How are you doing? PACE: I’m doing great, Leslie. How are you? LESLIE: I am doing very well. You told me what your blog was about, and I got instantly excited. What is your blog about? PACE: We help dreamers blossom into world changers. LESLIE: Oh! So, using your blog, using whatever you’re doing online… PACE & LESLIE: …To change the world.

Three Tips to Help Change The World With Your Blog

LESLIE: Awesome, I love it. And you guys, who follow me know that I love that. Anytime you talk about changing the world, I’m all over it. So, my question for you is very simple: What are three ways that bloggers can change the world?

Tip #1: Be Meaningful

PACE: Right, for your blog to change the world, you need to spread ideas, and there are three key qualities that your idea needs to have if it’s going to change the world. Number one, it needs to be meaningful. So, if you have an idea about making rice blue, like who cares? No one is really going to care about that, and that’s not the kind of idea that’s going to catch and change the world. LESLIE: Although, making rice blue is kind of cool. PACE: It’s kind of cool, so it could be a fad, but it’s not going to be a world changing idea. LESLIE: Okay, meaningful.

Tip #2: Make it ‘Sticky’

PACE: Right. So, it’s going to be meaningful to you, and meaningful to others. Tip number two is it’s got to be sticky. You’ve got to present your idea in a way that’s going to catch people’s attention, in a way that’s going to be memorable. So then, your blog readers will take that idea and share it with others so that it can go viral. LESLIE: Can you give me an example of maybe someone that has done that, or a situation where that’s been done, and what the effects has been? PACE: Sure. An example of this, the book that has inspired me to use the word “sticky” is Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath. That book is an example of a very sticky book. I can almost recite the entire book from memory. And so, right now, today, I’m talking about the book, Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath because I remember it so well. If someone had presented those exact same ideas about how to make your ideas sticky and memorable, but they’d done it in a dry academic text and just like made a long, long list then, I wouldn’t have remembered that. This is simple things like catchy headlines, sub-headers… It’s marketing, but you’re not necessarily selling anything. You’re just selling an idea in trying to get people to remember it. LESLIE: Awesome. Okay so, that’s point number two. And, number three?

Tip #3: Be Authentic.

PACE: Number three is authentic because there are a lot of sleazebags out there around on the Internet, sad to say. LESLIE: Yes, we know that. PACE: And, people are becoming very skeptical. So, if you want your world changing idea to actually gain traction, then, you need to make sure that you are whole-hearted about it. You don’t need to blog about what you had for breakfast, or talk about your personal life, but, when you do put something of yourself out there, you need to make sure that it’s really authentically you. LESLIE: Awesome. So, number one, it needs to be meaningful. Number two, it needs to be sticky, and number three, it needs to be authentic. Guys, take that to heart and as you produce your content, make sure you include those three elements. Pace, thank you so much for doing this with me. If people want to check you out, they can go to Connection-Revolution.com. Anywhere else? PACE: Hyphen Revolution.com. LESLIE: Hyphen Revolution.com. PACE: You got to have a little dash. LESLIE: You got to have the little dash in there. Thank you so much! It’s been great meeting you. All right. This is Leslie Samuel from BecomeABlogger.com, until next time, take care and God bless!

LESLIE: Hey, this is Leslie Samuel from BecomeABlogger.com. I have another exciting interview for you here at Blog World Expo in New York. I’m here with Chemda. Chemda, how are you doing? CHEMDA: Good. How are you doing? LESLIE: I am doing excellent. Now, you’re from a very popular podcast called Keith and the Girl. CHEMDA: Yes. LESLIE: That’s correct. CHEMDA: Yes. LESLIE: I’m assuming you’re the girl. CHEMDA: Most days, yes. LESLIE: Most days, okay. Except Fridays. CHEMDA: Well yes, depending on how the hair is looking. LESLIE: Oh, yes. Good. Now, your podcast… it’s interesting because you’ve been able to get some really loyal fans.

Connecting with Loyal Fans

CHEMDA: Yes. We’re really excited about the loyal fans. We have tens of thousands of people on our forums. We always have a discussion all the time running there. We have people in our chat room a lot of times. We didn’t get people to do this. They did this on their own. They got tattoos of our logos. We have over a hundred tattoos and two brandings of our logo. LESLIE: How do you know that they actually have those tattoos? CHEMDA: They send us the information. We ask them now if they’re going to do it to send before and after, and during pictures, and recently, actually, yesterday, we just found out that somebody got a tattoo, and never reported to us. They reported to our chat. They’re chatting with each other about it, and somebody in the chat lets us know, which is weird. You have our logo on you, and you didn’t share it with us. LESLIE: I got to ask this question. How in the world did that entire, “I’m going to brand myself ‘Keith and the Girl Type of thing,’ the tattoo and stuff.” How did that get started? CHEMDA: Oh my God. I don’t know. I think this is a better interview for the people who actually did it. We have been growing the community. We really love our community. We love our listeners. We connect with them because we share a lot of personal stories. When Keith and I first started, we were dating. Then, we broke up, did not stop doing the during the break up. We moved, we everything. We shared all the information with our listeners, so they know us personally. I feel like there is a connection aside from the brand. The brand just represents what people think and how they feel about it. We’re very lucky to have people email us about how we helped them through cancer, we helped them through really difficult breakups. We made them laugh when they were crying every other time. It’s really beautiful.

Be Personal.

LESLIE: I have to ask this question because obviously, you guys are really resonating with your fans. Can you give some tips, the people that are watching this are bloggers. It’s all about building a community and so on. Can you give me some tips about how to go about getting that really passionate and loyal fan base? CHEMDA: I think like I said before, to me you have to be personal. If you’re ever at a restaurant and your seat is a little too close to a couple next to you, and they’re fighting? And, you tell the person that you’re with, “Sshh! I got to listen to this thing.” Because we can chat anytime. But, I got to hear the drama that’s happening over here, and one of them starts crying, and oh! It makes your night. It’s like people eavesdropping. That is a really personal thing that these people are sharing with you now. Even if you’re teaching them how to do something, even if you’re just talking about completely impersonal things, even if you have a blog that is about monkey ranches, you have to share personal experiences with your listeners, with your readers about how you use the item that you’re trying to talk about, how you failed at some things that you try to do, how you were embarrassed as a kid, whatever it is, because I think that’s what people connect with. That’s the fun stuff about life. It’s the ridiculousness. LESLIE: Got you. I like it because it’s all about being personal, and people really identify with you when they can see that, “Hey, this is a real person. They go through real issues, real struggles,” and all that kind of stuff. Sweet. Next thing I want to talk about really quick because I know you have to run and do all the other things that you have to do. CHEMDA: Oh, yes.

How Do You Make Money?

LESLIE: You guys have been pretty successful when it comes to monetizing your podcast. What are some of the best ways to go about doing that? A lot of people think about a podcast, they’re just talking. They’re just sharing stories. How do you make money? I guess that’s the question. CHEMDA: Well, once you build your audience, and you do have to build an audience. You do have to build some episodes of your podcast. You do have to get some readers of your blog, I think the quickest answer to that, and I’m doing a whole hour on this, but the quickest answer to that is whatever it is that you’re selling for free, you sell as bonus content. Take whatever you’re doing to the next level, and that will be a paid content. For example, since we do comedy talk shows everyday, we can do a live event, video tape that. Now, you’re getting this bonus thing. You’re getting to see these guests that are on the show, and we can sell it for a cheap amount for download. It’s something that you’re already connecting with us. You already know us as human beings. Now, you get some next level thing. It might be worth $0.99, $5, whatever it is that you’re comfortable selling, that’s going to be your bonus content.

Offering Premium Content at Such Low Price!

LESLIE: I’m hearing a lot of people talking about charging these low prices on a recurring basis. When I hear that, the first thing I thnk is, “Yes, but it’s only $0.99, it’s only $1.99, $2.99.” Why did you guys decide to go at such a low price point as opposed to saying, “I’m going to go with really, really premium content,” even though it still is premium content, but charge a higher amount. What’s the philosophy behind there? CHEMDA: There are two things. One, we sell a membership that you can pay for $15 a month, but it has over 1500 episodes. It has Keith and The Girl TV shows… It has really bonus contents, spin-offs, and things like that. But, a couple of years back, we wanted to raise the money, so we did an experiment where we asked all our listeners to just give us a dollar. Every single listener, it’s something that you’re not going to think about. It’s something that you would hand to somebody if they ask you on the street. If they’re stranded, “Can I get a dollar from you?” Something as simple as that. Four thousand people responded. So, boom. You suddenly raise… Because it’s a number that people don’t think twice about. It’s less than your coffee. It’s about the price of your coffee. It’s something that you, that is a no-thought… LESLIE: Negligible. CHEMDA: Yes. But, it’s also what you’re comfortable with. For a premium content, we’re comfortable selling it at $15. We think we’re worth $15 a month. Again, it’s something that is not going to kill you financially, and it’s something our listeners can do, and it’s something that also we need to survive on. We need $15 from our guests to survive on. It’s whatever you’re comfortable with and whatever you need to build your business with. LESLIE: Awesome. Excellent tips. I hope you got a lot of value — no, I know you got a value from that because that was some awesome content. So, Keith and the Girl, is it KeithandtheGirl.com? CHEMDA: Yes. LESLIE: Okay. If you want to find out more about Chemda and her podcast, and have some fun because it’s a comedy podcast, you want to laugh? Go to KeithandtheGirl.com. This is Leslie Samuel from BecomeABlogger.com. Until next time, take care and God bless.

LESLIE: Hey, this is Leslie Samuel from BecomeABlogger.com coming to you again with another quick interview. I’m here with none other than Adam Baker. Adam, how are you doing? ADAM: I’m doing great, man. LESLIE: Awesome, awesome. From ManVsDebt.com. I have a question for you. Yesterday, you did a panel about selecting your niche. There’s somebody that’s listening to this right now that they’re not exactly sure what they want to blog about, specifically bloggers. They want to get out there. They want to do something, but they are not sure what to do. What are the three tips that you can give me to help that person find that niche, the perfect niche for them?

Tip #1: Understand What A Business Is

ADAM: Yes. I’d say, the first tip I would give would be to understand what a business is. That’s what I talked about a little bit in the talk. Then, your business is actually a solution that you provide to a specific emotional problem. You have to stay center there. I know when I got started, I was willy-nilly. I was all over the place because I didn’t understand that my job for my readers was to help solve their problem. Start with that as the mindset. We play that mindset is step number one game, and start with that mindset that I’m going out to solve a specific problem.

Tip #2 (a, b, and c): Find Your Sweet Spot

Now, when you go to do that, I like to say, find your sweet spot. The sweet spot is the convergence of what you’re good at. Brainstorm, and list the things that you’re good at– the strengths. What you’re passionate about, because sometimes, those don’t overlap. We can be good at things we’re not passionate about, or vice versa. LESLIE: Definitely. ADAM: List out what you’re passionate about, and then, what people would pay for. That may be hard when you’re getting started but, you can look around and ask yourself, “What do you pay for? What do my friends pay for? What do other people pay for,” by checking out big marketplaces, and you list out what people are going to pay for that are also things that you’re good at and things that you are passionate about. You converge those three things into your sweet spot, and that’s how I try to help people that are getting started, find out what they should be blogging about in particular. LESLIE: You encourage them to actually go through that step of writing it down, “These are the things that I’m good at. This is what I’m passionate about. This is what people would pay for,” and when you have all of those three that overlap, that is like the sweet spot. ADAM: Exactly. That’s what I’m saying. You need to commit it to paper. Oftentimes, as entrepreneurs, we can sit there, and think about and daydream, and drift off, but when you actually start committing stuff to paper, and you start to see, “Where is the overlap? What’s that sweet spot?” Again, it’s got to be a solution that you can provide to someone’s problem. Don’t just blog about yourself only, unless blogging about yourself is going to help solve a problem. Keep your focus around that. Brainstorm those different activities, and see where your sweet spot is. That’s my tip. LESLIE: Sounds good. Now, the second tip that you gave, it seemed like you had three tips in there. ADAM: Yes, it was like, I think it was four. I think it was like “1,” and then, “2″ “a” “b” and “c.” LESLIE: All right. ADAM: I gave you a bonus tip. LESLIE: That sounds good. You got a bonus just for listening in here to what we’re doing at Blog World New Media Expo in New York City. All right, this is Adam Baker from Man Vs Debt. If someone wants to get in contact with you, or see what you’re doing, is that the best place to send them? ADAM: Sure, yes. Man Vs Debt, Baker at Man Vs Debt, or @AdamCBaker on Twitter. LESLIE: All right. Check him out. Hey guys, this is Leslie Samuel from BecomeABlogger.com. Until next time, take care and God bless.

Hello and welcome to another how-to video from learningwithleslie.com. My name is Leslie Samuel, and in this video, I’m going to be talking about how to create and manage menus in WordPress. So, let’s get right into it. I’m at my blog at learningwithleslie.com. What you’re going to see here is that I have two navigation menus. I have a main navigation menu here, and then, I have a top navigation menu here. When you first installed WordPress, WordPress has a very specific way of dealing with these menus. What it typically does is it just adds any pages that you create to the main navigation. This is not necessarily what you want. You want to be able to control what’s going to be in that navigation menu because this is going to help people to navigate your site. When someone comes to your website, you want to highlight the things that you think are important so that they can get to the most valuable information, and get the most value out of your blog. So, this is how we’re going to do that. We’re going to go to our WordPress admin area, and then, in the ‘Appearance’ section, I’m going to click on this disclosure triangle, and then, I’m going to go to ‘Menus.’ This is a feature that many people don’t know about, and in my opinion, it’s a very important feature. I’m going to show you how to use that right now. So, here you can see I already have two menus set up. I have my main menu, and I have a top menu, and if I click here, it will go to the top menu. And, you can see the items that are in that menu. These are menus that I have already created. But, what I’m going to do is I’m going to create a demo menu by clicking here. And, I’m just going to call it ‘Demo menu,’ and click on ‘create menu.’ Then, what I’m going to do is I’m going to add some menu items. So, I can add some pages, categories, and links. What I’m going to do is I’m going to add one of each. So, let’s say, I want to add, I’m going to start with a link. I want to add a link to my homepage. So, I’m going to put www.learningwithleslie.com, and I’m going to call that my home link, then I’m going to click ‘add to menu.’ And you’ll see that it will appear there. Then, I want a link to my podcast episodes page. If the page that I want is not here, then, I’ll just click on ‘view all’ to see all of the pages that I have available on my blog. Then, I’m going to click on ‘add to menu’ again, and you’ll see it will place it right beneath that. Then, I’m going to scroll down, and I’m going to add a category. So, I have my ‘podcast episodes,’ and maybe I’m going to add ‘interviews.’ So, I’m going to click that and add it to the menu, and then, you’ll see it will show up here. Now, if I want to use the dropdown menu feature, what I do is I just select whichever one I want to be in the dropdown menu, and move it to the right. This will then mean that the interview category will show up when I take my mouse, and I hover over podcast episodes. Whenever I’m finished, I can just simply click on ‘save menu.’ It will then save the menu, and then I can use that menu on my blog. Now, over here, you see I have ‘theme locations.’ I have a primary menu and a secondary menu. This will depend on your theme. You may not have a primary and a secondary, you may have more. You may have a footer menu, for example. Now, what I need to do is I need to select where I want to see that demo menu. So, let’s say, I’m going to see that demo menu as my secondary menu. And, I’m just going to do this temporarily. Then, I’ll click on ‘save.’ Once it’s saved, I’ll come back to my blog,, and hit ‘refresh,’ and then, you’ll see I have ‘home,’ and ‘podcast episodes.’ If I put my mouse over ‘podcast episode,’ it shows me ‘interviews.’ That is how I go about setting that up. I’m going to change this back because I don’t want that menu there, and click on ‘save,’ and once I do that, it will show me the previous menu once again. So, that’s how you do it. Make sure that you add the most useful content to your menus, and make it so that your website readers are going to get the most value out of your navigation menus. That’s pretty much it for this how-to video. If you like to see more, you can come back to the website at learningwithleslie.com where I’ll be adding many more over time. This is Leslie Samuel. That’s it for this video, and I’ll see you on the next one.

Hello and welcome to this how-to video by learningwithleslie.com. My name is Leslie Samuel, and in this video, I want to show you how to shorten your links with Pretty Link. Now, why would you want to do this? If you’re a blogger or a podcaster, most likely, you’re going to be directing your audience to specific links. But, the problem is that, many of these links can be very complicated. And, shortening your link is a very good way of being able to give your audience an easy link to remember that can take them to the resources that they need. Let’s look at an example where you might want to shorten a link. For example, an affiliate link. Here you can see I have a link that’s pretty complicated — “anrdoezrs.net/click,” and then, a bunch of numbers. This is an affiliate link that I have for hosting with Blue Host. Now, if I wanted to give someone that link, it would be very complicated to tell them to go to this link. It would be much easier if I have something like learningwithleslie.com/bluehost because I can remember that. I can tell it to them, and they can remember it, and get to that page easily. Now, there’s a simple plug-in for doing this, and it’s called “Pretty Link,” and you can find it the same way you go about finding any other WordPress plug-in in your WordPress admin area. Once you’ve installed that plug-in, it’s very simple to use. I’m in my admin area right now at learningwithleslie.com, and you can see I have this area that says, “Pretty Link Quick Add.” What I can do is I can enter my target URL here, and the Pretty Link that I would like to add, and then, simply press “Create.” So, I’m going to go ahead and copy that affiliate link… And then, I’m going to come here, and paste it in to the target URL, and then, I’m going to give it a name that’s easy to remember, and then, I’m simply going to click on “Create.” That then sets up my Pretty Link, so that, if I were to go to learningwithleslie.com/bluehost, it will then redirect that person to my affiliate link, which will then take them to Blue Host. And, as you can see, I’m at Blue Host right now. A very simple and easy process of shortening your links, making them memorable so that you can have easy access to give them to someone when they need it. I hope you found that valuable. If you would like to see more of these types of how-to videos, stay tuned to learningwithleslie.com. We’ll be adding many more in the future. This is Leslie Samuel. That’s it for now, and I’ll see you in the next video.