Do You Lose Freedom Bartering for Dollars?

I scanned my email moments ago.

A few folks replied to my emails with complaints about my price being expensive and being on a budget. But the folks reached out to me. People pitched me. I did not pitch them. Meaning they need to be on my blog more than I need them.

After quoting my fixed rates, the same people pitching me complained about my fixed rates. Some replied with rates 85% lower than my fixed price. Not only did the individuals ignore my fixed rate email; a few folks wished to get an 85% discount because of their budget.

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Pro Blogging Tip: Study the Tide

Miss me? I have been gone for a minute.

I took my foot off of the guest posting pedal recently.

My wife and I are selling the home. We’ve been busy with showings, prepping the house and all that good stuff. Home-prep-work eats into my blogging time a wee bit over the past 1-2 months. But I simply honored this down time. I see pro blogging like the tide. Have you spent time by the ocean? I lived in tropical paradises like Bali, Fiji and Thailand for months at a time. Every trip reminds me how life is similar to the ebb and flow of the tide.

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1 Inspiring Characteristic of Successful Bloggers

I have a vision. This characteristic is something I picked up from all really successful bloggers. Top bloggers dream a vision of their life as they intend for it to be. Call it imagining your dreams. Maybe it feels like setting your goals.

At the end of the day, having a vision enables you to succeed online because you see past obstacles, resistance or current circumstances, toward your dreams. Dreams lead successful bloggers.

Right now, even though I’m in the States, I see myself blogging from the beaches of Thailand. I visited Thailand many times during the past nine years of my life. But I intend to return once international travel begins again. Why dream? Dreams lead you to be the person who eventually lives the dream. I see myself relaxing on a white sand, powdery beach.

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What Is the Best Way to Preserve Your Blogging Reputation?

Although you cannot control how people view you or how they think about you, you can preserve your blogging reputation by simply surrounding yourself with good blogging buddies.

I cannot make anyone think anything about me. Can I control someone’s mind? No way. No human can control another human’s mind. We technically cannot control our reputation but we can preserve our blogging reputation by befriending a network of close blogging buddies.

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What Was My Scariest But Most Freeing Blogging Lesson?

I learned many blogging lessons during my 10 year career.

Over 15,000 blogging hours, a few gems danced around in my blogging dome. But one scary, freeing lesson sits in the front of my mind. What was it?

Successful bloggers work for free for many years before money becomes consistent.

I feared working for free, for a long time. I thought like an employee: work for a set time and get paid for completing work in a set time. I had maintained this employee agreement for years as an inside sales rep, client enrollment rep, database analyst and security guard. Work. Get paid a salary.

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