Got a question about sharing your experience and expertise online? Maybe one of these questions I’ve been asked in the past will help.

Blogging Related Questions:

How do I carry out keyword research for a domain name?  Since most businesses typically chose a domain name of their business name, wouldn’t it be better to a domain name of their topic instead?
My Answer: I agree with you that a domain name should contain keywords rather than the name of their business. In my case, I used my own name for one of my websites because I am trying to brand myself.

Can I use someone else’s article as long as I credit them? Would that be considered duplicate content and penalized?  Why I ask this is if an article is re-posted even with credit back to author, it’s still the same piece of content and same as from the original source page. Would this be perceived as “plagiarism” so to speak?
My Answer: There has been a lot of misunderstanding about how Google treats “duplicate content”. What Google frowns on is a website that has the same content more than once on that same site, giving the impression that the website contains more material than it really does. The following paragraph is from Google’s Support Forum:

“Minimize similar content: If you have many pages that are similar, consider expanding each page or consolidating the pages into one. For instance, if you have a travel site with separate pages for two cities, but the same information on both pages, you could either merge the pages into one page about both cities or you could expand each page to contain unique content about each city.”

People who have put articles into an article bank with their bio on the end of it have given permission to publish. In that case it is not plagiarism. But to re-post someone else’s article, even with credit to the author, is not a good idea without that author’s permission. In that case, I would maybe just post a part of the article and the author’s name and a link to the full article. Then you aren’t copying it.

Where did your visitors come from? How did they find your videos? Do the visitors come more from Youtube,Facebook etc or more from your free Udemy course?
My Answer: I think as I got more students, Udemy started to promote me more. Before that, I think visitors came from YouTube and Pinterest most of all. Many people are getting great results from Pinterest and I know from the little I did how helpful it was.

Productivity Related Questions:

What would you say are the top 10 things to use and learn to make and build online passive income? Should I still blog, market, etc.
My Answer: Everything you do online involves a certain amount of marketing. The 10 things I like to focus on are blogging, YouTube videos, a podcast, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter, product creation, re-purposing my content, and group coaching.

How do you focus and stay productive?
My Answer: Finding focus and not getting distracted by shiny objects are things we all deal with. Why not make a list of all your ideas. Get them out of your head and down on paper so you don’t keep thinking about them. Then choose one to be your focus for the week and work on it for at least a little while every day. I find that telling someone I’m going to do something by a specific date helps to keep me going. The biggest tip I can give is to do at least fifteen minutes every day on the project you’ve decided to do. You’ll usually do more than that and seeing that you are making progress every day will encourage you to continue. Don’t try to do too much all at once. Choose one step and get going. You can do it!

Social Media Related Questions:

Any tips for using Pinterest?
My Answer: If using Pinterest, add plenty of keywords to your board descriptions as well as each of the pins and have a call to action on each of your pin images as well as in the descriptions.

Facebook page or Facebook group? Would a group be more interactive?
My Answer: Yes, a group would be better if your goal is more interaction. But to have your videos publicly searchable on Google, you would probably gain more exposure, at least initially, with a Facebook page.

Tips for starting a Facebook Group?
My Answer: If you start a Facebook group, regularly add tips about your topic, ask and answer questions, and interact with the members. As with all social media platforms, it takes time to get to know people and build relationships before you begin to see results. And rather than selling, indirectly talk about what you’re doing. For instance, I could say “one of my students was so happy when she learned to send out her first email newsletter.” That tells people I teach people about email newsletters, without actually coming out and saying ‘hire me’.

How Can I Keep From Being Distracted On Facebook?
My Answer: Facebook can really be a time suck, so I try to watch how long I’m there and do specific tasks so I don’t get distracted. Then when I have free time, I interact with people.

What About Facebook Ads?
My Answer: I tried paying to have an event promoted on Facebook, but it didn’t do very well. It only cost me $5, and did bring some extra people to my Facebook page, but no one registered for the event as a result. You will have to test for what you want to advertise since results can vary.

Can you have more than one Hootsuite account? I have more than one website.
My Answer: You only need one Hootsuite account, but if you want more than five social media platforms on it, you’ll need their paid version. I still have a free account right now and on it I have my LinkedIn profile, my private Facebook, a Facebook page, my Twitter account, and my Google+ profile. If I had another Twitter account or another Facebook page that I also wanted to monitor, I would have to get the upgraded version. I have a number of different websites, but the number of social media platforms is what Hootsuite counts.

If you have another question for me to answer, ask on my Contact Page and I’ll see if I can get you a solution.
To your online success,
Carol