Archive for Resources
Best Internet Marketing Training
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A long weekend in Atlanta – perhaps you picture great shopping, restaurants and seeing the sites. Instead I want you to picture the best internet marketing minds making themselves accessible to your every question, almost 200 people huddled over their laptops most of each day and more excitement and buzz than you can guess. That was my experience at NAMS this past weekend.
NAMS, that’s short for the Niche Affiliate Marketing Systems, is without doubt the best internet marketing training I have ever heard of and I am grateful to have been there. I have new ideas, resources, partners and information that will easily repay my cost of registration. You’ll be hearing more about what I learned over the next months here on the blog.
NAMS is held twice a year in Atlanta (there have been 3 events so far) and if you market your business online at all, I would highly encourage you to get yourself there in August or in January 2011. Eighteen of the biggest internet marketers of all were there to teach us and each spent the entire weekend – including meals, evenings and break times – answering questions and making sure we all learned as much as we could. Let me drop a few names so you understand the quality of the information – Willie Crawford, Kevin Riley, Jeff Herring, Denise Wakeman, Lynn Terry and Kathleen Gage – and a DOZEN MORE!
As I was leaving Atlanta, I discovered we would each be getting recordings of all of the NAMS sessions including those from the two previous NAMS events. If you are interested in purchasing those recordings, a total of more than 50 hours of quality business education, you can do so now. Hurry, the price goes up on February 8th. Check back to the site again in about a week if you are interested in attending this event in August. The best prices for registration will be soon and the price continues to go up as the event approaches. Take advantage of some great education in marketing from some of the best internet experts and get in at the low price now
Organize Your Business
Posted by: | CommentsAs an entrepreneur, your systems are the processes and procedures by which everything in your business runs. When your systems work, everything runs smoothly, or as smoothly as possible when running a business.
Systems are essentially a step-by-step process written out for each aspect of your business. They help you stay on track, they make you more efficient, they streamline your business and they help you see where you can improve and where your business is excelling. When your systems work, everything runs smoothly. When they don’t work…well you get the picture.
Some potential systems include:
- Customer service
- Marketing
- Sales
- Product creation
- Product development
- Purchasing
- Production
- Producing an ezine
- Billing
- Invoicing
- Outsourcing
Systems are particularly useful when you’re outsourcing a task to a virtual assistant. If you’ve done the processes in advance, then, you’ll have everything written down from the very first to the very last step, and your virtual assistant will know how you like your business handled.
Creating your systems
The first step to creating systems is to realize what processes your business uses. Simply make a list of the processes you go through on a daily or weekly basis. Once you have your list, it’s time to actually create your systems. They’re created initially by simply writing down the steps to accomplish a task. As new processes are added to your business, you’ll simply create a new system for that process. For example, if you add on an affiliate program then you’ll have several new system like a payment system, a communication system, a recruiting system and so on.
Once your systems are created, the processes can be fine-tuned by using several steps. Firstly, you may want to simply evaluate the process you’ve written to see if it works and if there are any loopholes or steps you’ve missed. Secondly, you may want to include goals and measurements to determine whether the system is a success.
For example, if you have a customer service system and your goal is to have 100% customer satisfaction, and you end up losing 20% of your customers due to an inadequate customer service policy, then you know the system needs to be tweaked.
Storing your systems
Because you are a business owner, you are probably on your computer at least 50% of the working day, and more than likely you’re on it almost 100% of the working day. This means it makes sense to organize your systems on your computer. A simple file with the date and the name of the system will make them easy to access. You’ll also want to organize your goals and how you’re going to measure the goals.
Systems are a business owner’s best friend. They’ll help keep you on track and running smoothly today, tomorrow and for years to come.
What is List Building?
Posted by: | CommentsOne of the hardest things in business is actually drumming up the business. Whether online or off, you need people to DO SOMETHING if you want your business to be a success. For online business, one way to reach the people that will be most interested in your product or service is through list building.
What is List Building?
In the fewest words possible, list building is the process used to create an inventory of people who fit the niche market you are promoting. The
assumption usually is that if you cast a wide enough net to find people, you will eventually find the right people. This method is not only backwards, but also costly in time and energy. Instead, cast your net to catch only your niche market – go smaller when building your list.
There is more than one way to develop a list for your business. Here are just a few of the more popular (and successful might I add) ways:
- Opt-ins
- Free Giveaways
- Contests
- Email Marketing
- Article Marketing
- Blogging
Whatever methods you use, it is important to know where you are coming from and where you are going before others will follow you.
Getting Your Name Out There
In order for others to follow you they need to know who you are and what you stand for. To that end, you will want to network with others. Your time is better spent building your brand before you build your list.
Do you routinely buy from someone you’ve just heard of? Not normally right?
Neither does anyone else. That is expected in business. Trust is earned over time and you must begin with curiosity in order to build up to trust.
Viral marketing is one of your best assets when it comes to getting noticed and building your list. Ask JV partners, complementary businesses in your field, other business owners, etc. to help you out. If they have websites, blogs or are a part of forums, let them pass the word around about you and what you do.
On your end, visit websites and blogs associated with the product or service that you sell. Get involved, ask questions, and show your face. These are the people you will ask to endorse you to lend credibility to your products.
During your promotion, your traffic will increase. People will know what you have to offer. Now you can use one, two or all of the above bulleted methods to begin building your list. Visitors will lend you their personal information (name and email) if they like what they see. From that point, it is up to you to keep them interested enough to become a loyal customer.
WordPress Learning Curve Part 2
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Typing Your Blog Entries Directly into WordPress is Easy
However most people do not use WordPress to enter their information, they instead use a word processing program such as Microsoft Word. This creates a whole new level of problems, since Microsoft Word embeds coding within your text and what you see is not always what you get. For instance, you may have your lists separated at the right line spacing, and indented just right with a flushed indentation for overflow; but when you paste it into WordPress all your formatting disappears and things don’t look anything like you imagined.
To help alleviate this issue, WordPress has added an icon (Kitchen Sink) for inserting your text from Microsoft Word. Simply click on the button and paste your information. The goal of inserting your text this way is that WordPress is supposed to recognize the formatting and follow all the rules you established in your original document. While this is a wonderful tool, it doesn’t always work as planned and formatting can be dropped or added within the document.
One workaround is to use the insert as plain text icon in WordPress. By pasting your text through this application, all the embedded codes are supposed to be stripped from your inserted text. At this point you can use the available WordPress icons and features to create the right look of your document in the visual tab.
WordPress also offers a preview key which acts similar to the print preview in word processing programs. By clicking this button, you are able to see what your document will look like when it actually posts to your site. This is a great tool to keep checking your document to make sure it is just right before you publish it for everyone to see.
These and many other features are standard within the WordPress administrative dashboard. They serve as a great benefit to the non-technical administrator or writer, enabling them to produce great documentation to their website without learning difficult HTML or other source coding.
Solopreneurs and Facebook
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Have you been to our Facebook Fan Page recently? I highly encourage you to go to http://www.facebook.com/solopreneurbiz right now and share your business insights with us. We have been getting a lot of interaction lately and it really makes for a lively yet meaningful discussion.
Recently we’ve talked about:
Protecting Your Computer
How Interested People Find Your Business
Exploring the Internet Marketing Frontier
and so much more!
I also encourage you to take a few minutes and go to our discussions page and add your business to “What is Your Solopreneur Biz?” While you are there, visit some of the awesome businesses listed!
If you’re not already, go on over to our Facebook Fan Page and become a “fan” today! We would love to have your input in our discussions.
Keys to Business Success on BlogTalkRadio
Posted by: | CommentsI hope you were able to listen in to the live call on BlogTalkRadio when I was interviewed by Kimberly J. Bowles of Dream Girl Publicity. We had planned to discuss business mistakes, but Kimberly and I are both such positive people that we discussed Success Strategies for small businesses instead. Listen to the recording to learn about some of the most important ways to succeed – gaining and using the entrepreneur’s mindset, personal qualities for success, motivation tips, getting friendly with marketing and much more. You’ll even hear that I couldn’t resist coaching Kimberly briefly in the middle of the call!
If you aren’t familiar with BlogTalkRadio, read this previous post about the resources available there. Look for me on the radio again in the future! And if you want that insight into ways to be successful, go listen to the recording of my appearance on Kimberly’s show here.
Teleseminar: Top Ten Mistakes of Entrepreneurs
Posted by: | CommentsOver the past few months, I have realized that many of my new clients are coming to me because they are making some basic mistakes in their businesses. The mistakes I see are much too common and they are preventing many businesses from thriving or even succeeding.
You have probably heard that 75% or more of small businesses don’t survive the first three years. Don’t let your business fall into this category. I have decided to do a free teleseminar called Top Ten Mistakes of Entrepreneurs because I want you to make sure your business is on the right track.
Mark your calendars for Thursday, August 20th at 8:00 p.m. ET (New York USA) for my teleseminar Top Ten Mistakes of Entrepreneurs. Join me to learn about some of these common mistakes made by both new and experienced entrepreneurs and how to avoid them.
Feast for Your Heart, Mind and Soul
Posted by: | CommentsLast month I participated in MaestroMonth — an extraordinary learning event with dozens of today’s top
personal transformation leaders, all using an interactive new teleseminar platform from MaestroConference.
At first, the recordings were only available to the speakers themselves. But lucky for us, that’s changed!
Maestro is now offering a downloadable library of the recordings from MaestroMonth for an incredibly low price…
…Only $49 for full access to more than 50 illuminating calls! What an amazing value.
So if you missed a call, or just wish you had the recording of one, now you can listen to
all of them, anytime you want.
Click here to see the details.
For less than $1 per recording, you get a library of practical wisdom from teachers such as:
* Deepak Chopra
* Gregg Braden
* Marianne Williamson
* Debbie Ford
* Michael Port
* Mari Smith
* Bernie Siegel
* Terri Levine
* Dave Buck
* And many, many more!
It’s quite a feast for heart, mind, and soul. This event and now the recordings get my strongest recommendation…
Get the entire Maestro Month now.
4 Tips for Creating One Time Offers: Decide on the Format of Your OTO
Posted by: | CommentsWhen most business owners think of earning money online with info products, they think about the money they’ll make from selling their first product (report, ebook, software, audio, or video package). However, while the sales that are made on the front end are very nice, you can dramatically increase your income by making additional offers during the check out process – which is known as the back-end.
A one-time offer (OTO), is an upsell or larger package that the buyer will have the opportunity to buy while purchasing your original product. They will have one chance to buy something at a discounted or special price. If they don’t buy at that moment it will not be offered again.
Creating one time offers is a smart and effective strategy that allows you to offer your customers additional products, and increase your revenue in the process.
Tip #1: Decide on the Format of Your One Time Offer
The first step is obviously choosing what to offer your customer in addition to the initial product that they’re purchasing.
Think about what would best serve and entice your buyer. Oftentimes it may be more of what they are already purchasing, or a complementary resource.
Here are some ideas:
- People learn in different ways. Because of this, you might offer something like a video or audio edition of the product they just bought.
- Checklists, worksheets, and tools to enhance the results of the product they are buying are also popular.
- Coaching, whether group or in a one-on-one fashion, can certainly get people excited about learning more, too.
- Create a bundle of your products or create a series of discounts for buying products now that will be released in the near future.
Perhaps offering additional rights to the product that they are purchasing – for instance resale rights or private label rights may entice your customer to spend more money, too.
16 New York Times Best Selling Authors Speak in Maestro Month
Posted by: | CommentsThere’s a great new product and the company that provides it is doing an amazing program in the month of July. First, the program is called Maestro Month and it is a series of seminars held by phone throughout the month. There are more than 60 speakers lined up on the subjects of health, personal growth, business, spirituality and societal change. All the sessions are free and held by telephone conference line in order to showcase the Maestro Conference Line product.
You probably have heard of many of these speakers because 16 of them have been featured on the New York Times best seller list. Some of the Maestro Month speaker list includes Deepak Chopra, Gay Hendricks, Michael Port, Marci Shimoff, Judith Orloff, Jack Canfield, John Gray, Terri Levine, Hale Dwosken, Lynn McTaggart, Neale Donald Walsh, Bernie Siegal, Mari Smith, Maryam Webster, Milana Leshinsky and dozens more. This really is a don’t miss it event.
Maestro Conference is also the most exciting new product I have seen in a long time for those of us who run our business virtually. A Maestro Conference line is a teleseminar line with all the features we have always dreamed about. The most important is the ability to break up the call into small discussion groups. It is truly amazing. Other features that are exciting are the capacity to take a poll of those on the line, the ability to have an assistant to take orders for product sales during the call and recording capability for every call. If you are curious about Maestro Conference at all, try to be on a few calls in Maestro Month as the line will be demonstrated to its best during these top-notch calls. There currently is a 30 day free trial of the product so you can try it on your own teleconferences and be amazed yourself.
Leave a comment here to let me know who you hear during Maestro Month, what you learned and your impressions of the Maestro Conference line. If you join the calls with Bea Fields, Hale Dwoskin or Steve Davis, I’ll be there too!
