Step Away from the Computers!
We are all aware of the value that our digital tools bring us. Our technology has expedites information delivery, allows us to follow or social networks, makes calling from anywhere possible, and provides on-demand entertainment. Based on this quote from researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, we are actually depriving ourselves of much-needed mental downtime that ultimately may be affecting our learning capabilities. “Almost certainly, downtime lets the brain go over experiences it’s had, solidify them and turn them into permanent long-term memories,” said Loren Frank, assistant professor in the department of physiology at the university, where he specializes in ...
Cyber Vandalism, Skype Hackers and Social Networks
Skype is an invaluable business building tool. Not only does it allow you to conduct business internationally without incurring international long distance charges, it make is very easy to share large files and engage your customers in video chats when the need arises. There is a dark side to Skype. Hackers prey on naive online users. Last year’s hacker game was to usurp an account and initiate contact with all confirmed contacts, inviting those people to accept files. Even though I do not consider myself to be naive, I was duped into accepting and opening a file, in March 2009, when ...
Email Marketing and Your Business
Email marketing came of age after direct marketing practitioners realized that their methods of engaging customers with postal mail could be applied to the Internet. For those who are unclear about what email marketing is, it is using email to promote offers and/or obtain new customers. Reports have proven that this is the next best marketing technique after search marketing. You can rent a list, purchase a list based on demographics for your niche, or set up an opt-in page to gather list members from your target market. Even though it takes longer, building your own email marketin list from scratch ...
Are You Email Marketing or Spamming?
Email marketing is a proven method of developing a relationship with your customers and, if that relationship is properly developed and nurtured, a way to generate affiliate cash flow when you need it. All that is well and good, but when your opt-out doesn’t result in being opted out, email marketing campaigns can result in driving business away. One of the inboxes that I own began receiving email from Elizabeth Jackson. Since I used to know an Elizabeth Jackson, I was enthused to see her name. It was disappointing to find an advertisement for Work At Home jobs when I opened ...
Panning for Gold
While having fun with the grandkids the other day, we visited a place nearby that specializes in educating people about the California Gold Rush by providing an experiential tour of a mine on their property. What does this have to do with Web Marketing and Branding, you might ask? Read on…. [caption id="attachment_1065" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Finding Internet Gold"][/caption] The California Gold Rush created a lot of wealth. So has the internet. Not unlike internet properties, 49ers staked claims on mines, hoping the vein was rich. The conditions were difficult, picking their way back into the mines and chiseling through rock by hand. ...
Website Copyright: It Matters!
Last week, a colleague, who also is an RSS email subscriber to my site, told me they had copied a recent post and published it on their site. Because I also had helped them set up one of their blogs and coached them a little, I presumed that they meant they had syndicated my content using a Wordpress plugin that had been recommended. However,because they said the word “copy”, it seemed like a good idea to ask a clarifying question. The subsequent conversation felt a little awkward and I am still trying to determine if they were simply naive or ...
Good Website Design and Search Engine Optimization are not Mutually Exclusive
I’ve just completed a project where the desires of the graphic designer took precedence over search engine visibility and site performance. I had only heard about these sorts of debates before and had never been involved in one. The designer admitted they cared more about look and feel of the site than they did about its features and functions. Ultimately being forced to defer to the designer's logic by putting a scroll box into a post, for the sake of aesthetics, enforced website design tactics that have not been popular since the late 1990’s. Neither the project initiator nor the graphic designer seemed ...
Brand Revitalization
The importance of creating a brand that sticks in the minds of your target market is obvious to people in stable businesses. When the market paradigm shifts or a part of a product line is discontinued, it has potential to kill the brand. Campaigns to create and obtain market share for a new brand can be very expensive so leveraging the investment you’ve already made in your branding strategy is economical and important, especially these days. When Volkswagen introduced themselves in the USA in 1949, only 2 vehicles sold. By the end of 1955, the manufacturer had firmly established their presence ...
Website Conversion Tactics
Designing a website for conversion is something that every business owner cares about, if they are savvy and have a solid business goal for their sites. Top gun internet marketers sell memberships and consulting services to people who want to get income online. It is a good idea to have a mentor when you are starting out, for sure, but I wonder if there really is a one-size-fits-all approach to building an online business. My instincts say no. As an Online Branding Consultant and website developer, I’ve been monitoring website tools and trends for years. When my daily research introduced the idea that the ...
SEO and Watching Paint Dry
We joke about watching paint dry when time seems to move too slowly but, believe it or not, this is an actual role for which people are paid. Duties include touching the painted item to ensure that it is dry. What does this have to do with businss and online income? Read on… Many people put up pretty websites and expect immediate results. Very few people get what they desire, unless they have found a particular niche that is in demand and has not already been exploited or they have a well established and responsive list. As a website consultant, I’ve always recommended ...
Zoom in on Zettabytes
Most of us don’t think twice about what is involved in maintaining the platforms the Social Networking and Social Bookmarking potpourri of sites that we use each day in our online businesses. These days, the focus is mostly on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. Other useful sites are LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Flickr, MySpace, and Last.fm … to name a few. Then there are he multiple free email accounts we have. When it comes to our home computing environments, we unconsciously manage disk space every day. If we have self-hosted blogs, we look for and choose hosting vendors who permit us to have unlimited ...
Most Memorable Mother
It’s Mother’s Day in the United States. This is a holiday reserved for the women who gave us our lives and, if you are as fortunate as me, the person who believed in us so much that we knew we could never fail. Today, I will tell you some of the most memorable stories that I have about a remarkable woman who was my mother, my mentor, and my friend. My mother was born in 1926, which means she grew up during the depression. She was the oldest in a family of 12 children and, because times were difficult, her father expected ...
Creativity in Business
Normally, we associate creativity with artists who apply their craft in written communications, visual arts, or music. But, if we strictly define creativity as artistic talent, we fail to appreciate how it is involved in the apparently mundane aspects of our lives. That is really a shame, for nothing of life is truly mundane. An acceptable definition for creativity is having the ability to find solutions where none are apparent. This is often seen with children who are learning something new. Less obvious are the toiling movers who manage to fit your heirloom dining room table through a narrow hallway without ...
Facebook Taking Heat Over Privacy Policy Changes
Social networking is a great way to connect with prospects and friends. Over the past few months, there have been a lot of internet marketers advising that Facebook is a better advertising spot than Google. When you must advertise, it is good to have choices where your ads will be targeted but has Facebook gone too far to serve up data for their advertisers? It would appear so, if the US Federal Government has gotten involved. In a nutshell, here is what has changed. Previously, Facebook flushed personal information from their cache each 24-hours. The privacy policy revision states that it ...
Should You Fire Your Client?
When you decide to work with a client, your business relationship has potential to develop into a friendship. This can be very rewarding, as long as the boundaries between friendship and business are established and maintained. Very few people understand how awkward it can be when questions they are asking begin to encroach on the time you had set aside to relax. Under most circumstances, gentle reminders that you are “off the clock” will be enough. Conscientious people will never ask you to work for free and there is no reason to feel guilty about accepting compensation in exchange for your ...
Long Sales Letter or Long-Winded Video?
Perhaps I am the exception but it perturbs me that the long and predictable sales letter page is being replaced by an optin form leading to a long-winded video which has no details about its length and takes way too long to arrive at a point. This trend reminds me of a desert character that I met recently on an outing. Although the dialogue was entertaining, this person spent an hour telling my friend and I what he was going to tell us AFTER he told us why he was going to tell us what he was going to tell us. Of course, we ...
PLR Wordpress Websites … Turn Key or Not?
PLR Websites are a tool used by internet marketers as a way to get your site online quickly, complete with content. If you’ve ever worked with them in the past and have an interest in learning the underlying technologies that make a website work, the instructions and a little time are more than adequate. Everyone working on the internet must be aware of the rising popularity of Wordpress. If you aren’t, feel free to contact me to learn more about how you can leverage this amazing software for your websites, beyond the traditional blog. Under the Covers Wordpress Websites require knowledge of more ...
Balancing Your Business with Your Business Growth Goals
We all set Goals in some form. At the time we establish them, they feel exciting and new. Sometimes are goals are set with a purpose of diverging from our ordinary daily lives. These sorts of ideas enthuse us, no matter what they are related to. One such goal could be to branch out in your business. Many pursue the goal of passive income and this doesn’t always entail joining a business opportunity or MLM, thank goodness. :) The difficulty that exists, however, is that you can become swept away by your primary income-earning activities because you enjoy what you do, ...
Increase your Twitter followers by eleventy-billion in seconds
I didn’t create the page that I’m writing about today but I've been wanting to do someting similar for more than two years! Because my site is G-Rated, I can't put a link to it but if you don't mind a little free expression, colorful language, and want a good laugh, I encourage you to search for the site using the title of this post to find it. :) Increase your Twitter followers by eleventy-billion in seconds uses all the tactics that experienced internet marketers have ever used, so far as I am aware. There is an animated roll down script on the corner ...
Free Programs and Fine Print
Yep! It happened again today. I was invited by a Skype friend to look into a free program. Their claim was that it was free to join and I would not have to pay anything to earn money. I’ve been around the internet long enough to not believe claims of overnight wealth and to distrust “free” joins but I indulged their request to click on the link anyway. Non-English Landing Page The first thing that I noticed was that the page was in German. I have a toolbar installed that allows me to instantly translate to English so this wasn’t a huge ...
Making a Difference Matters
For those of you who may have missed me, please accept my apologies for having neglected my blog for so long, . The thrill of operating your own business comes complete with the opportunity cost of having to keep your nose to the grindstone, at times. There are some clients whose expressions of gratitude almost makes you feel guilty about getting paid for the job. I have recently had that experience. Here is a quote from a rave that one of my clients just wrote on their blog, about the service they received from me: If you are blogger, you know that your site is ...
Who Are You?
When your life changes in a radical way, what do you rely on to keep yourself moving forward? That's a good question to have a solid answer to, I believe. Many people define themselves by the accumulation of their material belongings, their careers, or their family roles. There is nothing inherently wrong with this, unless it is the primary method you use to define yourself TO yourself. Take a young parent who immerses themselves in the very important job of being the best parent they know how to be. This can include a lot of sacrifice, especially in the early ...
Ready … Set … Goals!
As you're taking down the tree and visiting relatives are checking the status of their flights back home, it is clear that another holiday season is winding down. Like it or not, another year has passed and it is time to think about how to make your next year the best one you've had, so far. You work hard every day to build your business but, if you don't feel your business is where it ought to be, it may be due to the fact that you've been so swept up with tactical matters that you haven't really stopped to ...
Are You and Your Business Partners Oceans Apart?
We've all been taught to avoid the truth if we fear that our news has potential to upset someone whom we like and respect, but being honest about your feelings doesn't mean that you have to be tactless. If we understand and appreciate that everyone has varying degrees of skill with regard to handling feedback, and that they aren't always in control of their emotional responses, there's always a way to talk over any issue and reach a reasonable compromise. Honesty is the best policy and, in my humble opinion, a lie by omission causes the most harm. The world would ...
Anyone Can Install Wordpress … Right?
If you are using Wordpress as a basis for your business website, you'll expose yourself as a newbie, possibly open yourself to online security risks, and lose potential SEO benefits the software provides if you don't take time to learn how it works. While it is true that installing Wordpress is simple, setting it up correctly contributes to your website's success, which also has an impact on your business success. We're talking business here, right? I do acknowledge that there are many extremely successful bloggers who established blogs on free sites, like Blogger, before Wordpress came of age. These days, sites ...
Business Styles and Personal Productivity
Recently, a newsletter arrived from a self growth website which explained dysfunctional personal productivity personalities. Because productivity styles can mean the difference between entrepreneurial success and failure, I've taken some time to analyze this topic and provided some tips and techniques that have worked for me in overcoming some of these productivity inhibitors. Scrappers are people whose offices and desktops look like modern art with a collage of post-its and paper scraps. While conventional wisdom accepts that a cluttered desk is an indication of a cluttered mind, disorganization can result in missed deliverables and over-commitment. [caption id="attachment_672" align="alignleft" width="267" caption="Personal Styles and Business ...
Matt Mullenweg: Entrepreneur with a Vision
Wordpress was awarded the 2009 Open Source CMS Award last month. Not only is this a great honor for the software, it validates a decision I made to specialize with this CMS years ago and all of the recommendations that I've made to website clients for the past several years. Wordpress is a powerful CMS and, with the improvements introduced during the past year and this award, it is crystal clear that the software has stepped up to the plate for consideration as the basis for any website project. [caption id="attachment_661" align="alignright" width="250" caption="Wordpress Wins 2009 Open Source CMS Award"][/caption] Many of ...
Listen, Learn and Earn
It is too bad that most Internet Marketers don't understand the mechanics of a human-to-human sales relationship. If they actually had to talk to their prospects and customers, rather than dwelling in a two-dimensional world, would this improve their income potential or diminish it? Building relationships takes time and attention, no matter which way you spin things. Developing rapport and gaining an understanding of each other ought to be a mutual effort or the equity of the relationship becomes uneven. Just as an expert should not condescend to a customer who doesn't know all the ins and outs of their area of ...
The Secret about The Secret
James Arthur Ray was featured on Nightline this week. It seems that some of the participants of his Spiritual Warrior Retreat, held in Sedona in early October, died in a sweat lodge exercise at the end of a grueling week of motivational activities. The sweat lodge exercise was mandated after the people had spent days in the beautiful canyons of Sedona, without food or adequate rest, to connect with their inner truth ... supposedly. Human physiology is fragile. It didn't seem at all odd that some people might have been dehydrated and unfit to go into a sweat lodge for hours ...
Stretching Your Mind Can Change Your Life
Personally, I find it enjoyable when something occurs that seems synchronous to events in present time. The other night, such an event occurred. While rifling through papers in my desk drawer, an old fortune from a fortune cookie surfaced. It read: One's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions. Not only is this synchronous, it also is quite profound in its simple truth. Once we are introduced to a something new, and the idea takes root in our minds and inspires us, it is virtually impossible to operate as we did before we made our important discovery. ...
Is Television Really Bad for the Mind?
At a recent networking meeting, the presenter included bullet items of methods they used to enhance their business lead generation on their slide presentation. One of the items on the list was to watch TV. This is a tactic they use to become part of the social conversation. As counter-intuitive as it may seem, watching television during prime time hours is not strictly a waste of productive time. Your prospects and customers watch TV. While they are going about their daily lives, they chat with others about what they've seen. Some even look up information on the internet during or following ...
Flash Forward with Business
Flash forwards are used in movies to interrupt the continuity of the story line through the narration or portrayal of some future episode. If we liken our mental gymnastics to a movie or play, our daydreams are nothing other than flash forwards. Similar to the great new TV series on ABC, some of our imagined scripts are pleasant and some are less so. Either way, the film director in our minds has set the stage and played out events that are expected, projected or imagined to occur in the future. The polar opposite of a flash forward is a flashback, which are ...
Striving for Mediocrity
In my ongoing study of internet based businesses, I've subscribed to many newsletters and met online acquaintances through Skype. Occasionally, I will receive a Skype broadcast or email message inviting me to something like this: Subject: Up to $15 per hour This is something to get excited about! Here is a way that you can make $15.00 per HOUR by simply clicking on ads. I just did this tonight. This is not your standard fly by night, run of the mill, surf site where your money gets tied up for weeks or even months so please hear me out and read this carefully. I'm ...
Human Capital and Local Economic Constraints
In my work as a freelancer and service provider, I frequently find myself in competition with overseas talent whose rates don't even meet minimum wage requirements in the United States. While I am all for supporting the global economy, it is impossible for me to meet their prices. Sometimes my clients decide to go for the lowest cost bid, even though they would prefer to work with me ... or so they say. And sometimes my clients return to me with a partially completed project and a story to tell. What is funny about this is that there are also overseas ...
Everything’s Relative! (The Relevance of Blogging to your Online Brand)
It's true; I came of age during the 60s. While this places me in some people's stratospheric age groups, my age is merely a number to me and I'm thrilled to have grown up in such interesting times. Being a Baby Boomer surrounded by Hippies and other sorts of rebels brought many ideals to my purview ... some more palatable than others but each of them born from a cry for freedom by my generation. After recently re-theming my GetIncomeBlog.com, my interest in writing to it has been renewed, along with the traffic that comes to my site. I use several ...
What is Leadship to an Entrepreneur?
Leadership is a topic of interest when one is working for a wage. In that context, a leader is defined by rank, company holdings or some other arbitrary definition of success. When the transition from wage-earner to entrepreneur occurs, leadership takes on a little different connotation. The life of an internet entrepreneur varies by their interests, passions and motivations. It is entirely possible to build a lucrative business that requires no more than you, an internet connection and time. If the product is not digital, you certainly will become embroiled with inventory management, packing and shipping. Maintaining a high level of ...
Career Cogwheels and Cul-de-Sacs
There is little doubt that times are tough. Personally, I know many people who have been out of work for extended time periods, have been forced into bankruptcy, or have lost their homes through foreclosure. All their stories are all very different but, in every instance, the root cause was attributable to the fact that they held onto some belief that doing things the way they'd always done them would continue to work ... a definition for insanity, in some circles. Personal belief systems can keep us stuck so why not turn that to an advantage? Believe that change is critical ...
Laughter and My Story Marketing?
Listening to the Prairie Home Companion program today, I experienced a bit of home sickness. The program aired from the Minnesota State Fair. As Garrison Keillor spoke of fall, apples, harvest moons, and the fair, all the sights, sounds, and smells from my home state and that event rushed to my senses. These are all pleasant memories. You can take the girl out of Minnesota but you can't take Minnesota out of the girl, I guess. Garrison Keillor is a delightful story teller. He may even be remembered with the likes of Mark Twain, eventually. His stories have a way of ...
What’s in a Name?
Frequently we forget the importance of Brand Equity. As internet marketers, that brand is not a business opportunity or a company we may have chosen to represent. While those things may assist us to get income, they are tools we use. By carefully managing the online image that is our name, we build potential for a future we cannot envision today. Nothing is more important than protecting our online brand image. It may seem a little obsessive, but I set up Google Alerts for my name years ago after learning that my Real Estate clients were Googling me. That also heightened ...
What Do We Do to Get Income?
When we consider the amount of time we spend imagining and pursuing success, is the accounting a fair balance? Putting it another way, do you spend too much of your time working to get income? Pondering the difference between what we want and what we have can lead us to inspiration. The gift of human ingenuity and creativity is a blessing. That is the truth. There is joy in bringing our ideas to life. Hours of refining our vision, laying out a plan for monetization and developing our product bring great satisfaction. The aroma of success lingers with each accomplishment along ...
How to Analyze Competition for Entrepreneurial Success
As a seasoned entrepreneur, it is clear that having knowledge of business basics provides a competitive edge. Regardless of the scope of your vision, if your intention is to use it to obtain financial freedom, having a solid plan is critical to your success. As a former colleague of mine once opined, a plan is something that you can use to measure your progress. Also, if you are seeking to secure investor funding, you must have a formal business plan to present for their consideration and it must include detailed market research. Assuming that you believe that the money or time ...
Strategic Analysis – An Entrepreneur’s Best Friend
When you are disappointed by anything, what are your tactics for overcoming that feeling? Not so long ago, my grandson answered that random question in this way: "Oh ... I just look out the window and take some action." My curiosity was satisfied through further inquiry. The action that this astute 6-year old boy takes is to imagine that he has gotten what he wanted to have. Without thinking too hard, he knows how to do something that many people have paid money and invested many hours to learn. My grandson mentally rewrites the story so it ends in a way that ...
Internet Entrepreneur Mindset
The other day I overheard an actor in a movie say that it was necessary to earn a viewpoint before speaking about something with authority. The truth in that statement felt profound. As an internet entrepreneur, encounters with people who purport themselves to be experts at something they haven't experienced can be amusing to expose in a private conversation but it is alarming to imagine that people who aren't savvy enough to ask the same questions might be seduced into believing that they've found an individual who can lead them to success. Allowing for the benefit of a doubt, it could ...
Intentional Changes
Recently, I glimpsed images of the skyline from my birthplace in Minnesota. The scenery from my former home town in Minneapolis was interesting to see again for it is a pretty town ... during summer months. While I watched the images, I reflected on time spent there. So much has changed since moving to California last year! Probably the most challenging thing to overcome is the advice of people who believe they have found the "right" answers. They have ... for themselves. Putting distance between myself and my well-intentioned friends and colleagues who had known me in the past has proven ...
Starting Over in Your 50s
The other day a pal of mine indicated that people in my generation would not survive long enough for me to pursue an idea unrelated to business that I had imagined. We got a good laugh about that but their feedback caused me to reflect on other matters that baby boomers are facing, specifically reduced income caused by long-term unemployment. People born between 1946 and 1955 are referred to as baby boomers, or more specifically older baby boomers. Demographically, I fall into that group. Ours is largely a generation of rebels who cast aside social norms during our development years. We ...
Occam’s razor and internet marketing
The other night, while watching a movie entitled "Contact", the dialogue referenced a principle called Occam's Razor. Call me crazed, but I'm always pondering the aspects of internet marketing that I hear people complain about most frequently. When I considered Occam's Razor, I suddenly realized that this principle covers most of those complaints quite handily. Wikipedia describes Occam's Razor in this way: "The principle states that the explanation of any phenomenon should make as few assumptions as possible, eliminating those that make no difference in the observable predictions of the explanatory hypothesis or theory." Now, let's test this principle against some complaints I've ...
Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Twitter or YouTube?
Those in business are well aware of the power of having a website. More recently, the utilization of social networking sites for business promotion and lead acquisition is gaining popularity. Because social networking takes time, companies that are serious about their business success have decided to hire paid staff whose sole responsibilities are to connect with prospects and customers to drive traffic to company websites using social networking techniques. While considering this idea, I took some time to conduct a little statistical analysis using Google's nifty search trend analysis tool. This link provides research about search trends for 5 well-known and ...
Life as an Internet Entrpreneur
Step Away from the Computers!
We are all aware of the value that our digital tools bring us. Our technology has expedites information delivery, allows us to follow or social networks, makes calling from anywhere possible, and provides on-demand entertainment. Based on this quote from researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, we are actually depriving ourselves...
Email Marketing and Your Business
Email marketing came of age after direct marketing practitioners realized that their methods of engaging customers with postal mail could be applied to the Internet. For those who are unclear about what email marketing is, it is using email to promote offers and/or obtain new customers. Reports have proven that this is the next best marketing technique...
Are You Email Marketing or Spamming?
Email marketing is a proven method of developing a relationship with your customers and, if that relationship is properly developed and nurtured, a way to generate affiliate cash flow when you need it. All that is well and good, but when your opt-out doesn’t result in being opted out, email marketing campaigns can result in driving business away. One...
Website Copyright: It Matters!
Last week, a colleague, who also is an RSS email subscriber to my site, told me they had copied a recent post and published it on their site. Because I also had helped them set up one of their blogs and coached them a little, I presumed that they meant they had syndicated my content using a Wordpress plugin that had been recommended. However,because...
Website Conversion Tactics
Designing a website for conversion is something that every business owner cares about, if they are savvy and have a solid business goal for their sites. Top gun internet marketers sell memberships and consulting services to people who want to get income online. It is a good idea to have a mentor when you are starting out, for sure, but I wonder...
Read More Posts From This CategoryHow to Market and Brand Your Business
Cyber Vandalism, Skype Hackers and Social Networks
Skype is an invaluable business building tool. Not only does it allow you to conduct business internationally without incurring international long distance charges, it make is very easy to share large files and engage your customers in video chats when the need arises. There is a dark side to Skype. Hackers prey on naive online users. Last year’s...
Panning for Gold
While having fun with the grandkids the other day, we visited a place nearby that specializes in educating people about the California Gold Rush by providing an experiential tour of a mine on their property. What does this have to do with Web Marketing and Branding, you might ask? Read on…. Finding Internet Gold The California Gold Rush created...
Good Website Design and Search Engine Optimization are not Mutually Exclusive
I’ve just completed a project where the desires of the graphic designer took precedence over search engine visibility and site performance. I had only heard about these sorts of debates before and had never been involved in one. The designer admitted they cared more about look and feel of the site than they did about its features and functions. ...
Brand Revitalization
The importance of creating a brand that sticks in the minds of your target market is obvious to people in stable businesses. When the market paradigm shifts or a part of a product line is discontinued, it has potential to kill the brand. Campaigns to create and obtain market share for a new brand can be very expensive so leveraging the investment...
SEO and Watching Paint Dry
We joke about watching paint dry when time seems to move too slowly but, believe it or not, this is an actual role for which people are paid. Duties include touching the painted item to ensure that it is dry. What does this have to do with businss and online income? Read on… Many people put up pretty websites and expect immediate results. ...
Read More Posts From This CategoryHow to Make Money Online
Step Away from the Computers!
We are all aware of the value that our digital tools bring us. Our technology has expedites information delivery, allows us to follow or social networks, makes calling from anywhere possible, and provides on-demand entertainment. Based on this quote from researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, we are actually depriving ourselves...
Cyber Vandalism, Skype Hackers and Social Networks
Skype is an invaluable business building tool. Not only does it allow you to conduct business internationally without incurring international long distance charges, it make is very easy to share large files and engage your customers in video chats when the need arises. There is a dark side to Skype. Hackers prey on naive online users. Last year’s...
Email Marketing and Your Business
Email marketing came of age after direct marketing practitioners realized that their methods of engaging customers with postal mail could be applied to the Internet. For those who are unclear about what email marketing is, it is using email to promote offers and/or obtain new customers. Reports have proven that this is the next best marketing technique...
Are You Email Marketing or Spamming?
Email marketing is a proven method of developing a relationship with your customers and, if that relationship is properly developed and nurtured, a way to generate affiliate cash flow when you need it. All that is well and good, but when your opt-out doesn’t result in being opted out, email marketing campaigns can result in driving business away. One...
Panning for Gold
While having fun with the grandkids the other day, we visited a place nearby that specializes in educating people about the California Gold Rush by providing an experiential tour of a mine on their property. What does this have to do with Web Marketing and Branding, you might ask? Read on…. Finding Internet Gold The California Gold Rush created...
Website Copyright: It Matters!
Last week, a colleague, who also is an RSS email subscriber to my site, told me they had copied a recent post and published it on their site. Because I also had helped them set up one of their blogs and coached them a little, I presumed that they meant they had syndicated my content using a Wordpress plugin that had been recommended. However,because...
Read More Posts From This CategoryRSS Updates
Five Rules To Live By When Hiring A Writer
This is a guest post from Anne Wayman, who is a freelance writer, ghostwriter and blogs about writing at aboutfreelancewriting.com, a blog for freelance writers. She’s also taken all three of Yaro’s programs, Blog Mastermind, Membership Site Mastermind and Become A Blogger Premium (yay Anne!) So You Want To Hire A Writer? Until you’ve actually...
Living The 2-Hour Workday: How To Create Event Independent Income Streams
In the previous article on living the 2-hour workday I introduced the concept of travel buffers, cash created either through saving or selling assets that is designed to give you a buffer of capital you can comfortably spend if you need to while you travel. Travel buffers are mostly for piece of mind so you can relax while you travel or use in case...
The problem with positive thinking
All the evidence I’ve seen shows that positive thinking and confidence improves performance. In anything. Give someone an easy math problem, watch them get it right and then they’ll do better on the ensuing standardized test than someone who just failed a difficult practice test. No, positive thinking doesn’t allow you to do anything,...
Andrew Warner Reveals How He Created A $30 Million Dollar Internet Business
Click here to download the audio-only MP3 [ 64 MB ] Andrew Warner is passionate about entrepreneurship and loves talking with his fellow entrepreneurs. He came to my attention when he recently interviewed Gideon Shalwick on his current blog, Mixergy, which features tons of great video interviews with leading entrepreneurs. Read the rest of the post...
Organizing customers
The local youth theatre troupe recently put on a performance of Grease. It was a high-spirited outing, with terrific performances and it was a great way for them to spend a month or two over the summer. I was amazed to discover, though, that the budget for the rights to the play were $3,000. That’s pretty steep for a high school production of...
Enormity
Enormity doesn’t mean really enormous. It means incredibly horrible. The problem with enormity in marketing is that it doesn’t work. Enormity should pull at our heartstrings, but it usually shuts us down. Show us too many sick kids, unfair imprisonments or burned bodies and you won’t get a bigger donation, you’ll just get averted...
Magic beans, TV and the web
New media isn’t the perfect marketing medium, and it won’t be until we find the magic beans. TV had magic beans for forty years. For forty years, anyone, even a complete moron, could make a lot of money using TV ads. Buy enough ads, don’t screw up, you’re rich. The hard part was buying enough ads, but once you did that, victory...
Read More Posts From This Category
Socialize with Virtually Marj!
Where Are You?
Historical Thumbshot!
My Site’s Value!
