Monthly Archives: May 2013

Podcast: Ellen Britt of Marketing Qi

DSCN7311 150x150 Podcast: Ellen Britt of Marketing QiEllen Britt, founder of Marketing Qi, is a savvy businesswoman with a very big heart. When I spoke for the first time at an Internet marketing conference in 2008, she was one of less than fifty people who made sure to hear me speak – even though it was at nine o’clock on a Sunday morning! Ellen was already well established online by that time, and we became fast friends. I have also learned much from her during these past few years on how to build a business that serves my lifestyle.

Ellen is also a leader in the areas of list building and telesummits, and her training with this has helped to build the businesses of hundreds of people from a variety of diverse backgrounds and niches. We discuss this, as well as how she got started online after working in the medical field for many years, in this informative interview. We also talk about her newsletter and her conscious decision to include some personal information in every issue. I know you will find Ellen to be a rare gem who shares her ‘Marketing Qi (pronounced ‘chee’) in a way that you can put into practice right away.

Share Button

Pinterest Training You Can Use To Build Online Visibility

There are many different ways you can use Pinterest to brainstorm ideas, share ideas, showcase your life and more. Because of Pinterest’s quick and easy to use “Pin It” system, you can whip up all kinds of image boards in a jiffy. The very best training on this topic is from Lisa Suttora. Take a look at her Pinterest Training for eCommerce course.

Here are ten creative ways you can use Pinterest in your everyday life, but don’t stop at these. If you have special interests or hobbies, use these ideas to generate other useful boards for yourself. With this visual tool, the sky’s the limit!

 

#1 – Foods You Want to Cook

1 recipes 150x150 Pinterest Training You Can Use To Build Online Visibility

If you cook regularly, chances are you’ll want to experiment with cooking new and exotic foods every once in a while.

Instead of having to come up with what you want to cook every night, just start pinning interesting food ideas. Then when it’s time to cook a meal, navigate to your Pinterest board and you’ll have a whole array of ideas to choose from.

You can even come up with theme boards for upcoming holidays and events. It’s a great way to brainstorm what wonderful concoctions you may want to create.

#2 – Places You Want to Go

2 travel 150x150 Pinterest Training You Can Use To Build Online Visibility

Where do you want to go? Do you want to see the deserts of India, or the beaches in the Caribbean? Or would you rather explore some history in Rome?

Put all the places you want to go on a Pinterest board. This can facilitate a lot of discussion between you and your friends, potentially spawning a real trip. It can also be inspirational and motivational to get you to finally go.

 

TIP: Create a “Places I’ve Been” board and move places of your wish list to the places you’ve been as you check them off your list.

 

#3 – Home Decorating Ideas

3 for home 150x150 Pinterest Training You Can Use To Build Online Visibility

How can you make your home look even better than it does now? People who sit down and try to design how a home should look often hit a kind of block. The creative juices just don’t flow.

Instead, you can just pin images of beautiful designs and beautiful homes as you go about your daily life. Once you’re ready to start decorating your home, you’ll already have a whole reference library of ideas that you think look great.

 

#4 – Gift Ideas

4 gift ideas 150x150 Pinterest Training You Can Use To Build Online Visibility

There are numerous ways you can use Pinterest for your gift ideas, depending on the occasion and/or recipient. Here are a couple ideas to get you started.

First, you can use it as a gift registry. For birthdays or for weddings, just use Pinterest to save ideas for things you’d like other people to buy for you. Smart, eh?

You can also use Pinterest as a running bank of gift ideas. When it’s someone’s birthday or when Christmas rolls around, just open up your gift registry and you’ll be able to instantly come up with gift ideas.

If you need input on a group gift or from the gift recipient, ask them to collaborate on your board. Let others in on the fun and come up with a great gift ideas.

 

#5 – Skills to Learn

5 cake decorating 150x150 Pinterest Training You Can Use To Build Online Visibility

What are some of the skills you want to learn? Use Pinterest to help motivate yourself and your friends to get involved with more activities.

If you’ve always wanted to learn public speaking, pin up a few images of great speakers. If you’ve always wanted to learn Salsa, pin up a few passionate dance photos. If you want to get inspired to decorate your child’s birthday cake in a fun new way, pin some ideas.

This will help get yourself moving towards learning those skills; as well as tell your friends what you’re interested in. You might find yourself a learning partner! You can also use Pinterest to share pictures of your home office, parties you host or attend, and much more…

#6 – Show Your Art

6 art 150x150 Pinterest Training You Can Use To Build Online Visibility

Do you do some sort of art? Pinterest is the perfect place to share it.

Whether you make earrings or paint, whether you just draw for fun or are an amateur photgrapher, Pinterest is a fantastic way to put your art out into the world and share it with all your Pinterest friends and the rest of their members.

Think of it as your own little portfolio to inspire and get your artwork shared.

 

#7 – Pictures of Your Kids

7 kids 150x150 Pinterest Training You Can Use To Build Online Visibility

Every parent loves to talk about and show off their kids. Pinterest is a great place to do it. You can create Pinterest boards of your kids in a number of different ways.

You could create a Pinterest board with a picture of your child taken once a month, so you can watch your child grow up over time.

Or create Pinterest boards with your child in a different place in each photo. You can even share pictures of their art and special projects.

There are so many ways to have fun with this and get the family involved too.

#8 – Share Your Office

8 office 150x150 Pinterest Training You Can Use To Build Online Visibility

What do you do professionally? A lot of people who know you personally would be curious about what it’s really like where you work, no matter where you work.

What does the office of an accountant look like? What does a CEO’s office view look like from their window? What does a Starbucks back room look like? What does a refrigerator factory look like from the inside?

No matter what kind of work you do, chances are there are people you know who’ll find it really interesting to see what it’s really like. Share some photos of what your workplace really looks like.

 

#9 – Event Pictures

9 party 150x150 Pinterest Training You Can Use To Build Online Visibility

Pinterest is a great way to share photos of events, parties and gatherings. With Facebook, only friends can see the photos. Also, people need to be tagged before they’ll notice most photos.

On Pinterest, the photos are open to all the world to see. People following you will have the event’s photos appear in their feeds.

You can have collaborators on your event’s boards, so everyone with a camera can upload and pin the photos they took at the event.

 

#10 – Your Life Vision

10 vision board 150x150 Pinterest Training You Can Use To Build Online Visibility

The idea of vision boards exploded with the release of the movie “The Secret.” The movie talks about how having a board where you put all your dreams and goals can help move you closer and closer towards your vision.

Ask yourself: Where do you want to be in your life in terms of your health, your career and your relationships? Pin up inspiring photos of each of these different areas of your life.

These are ten different ways you can use Pinterest in your personal life. Using Pinterest, you can share your life with others, inspire yourself, communicate ideas, post reminders and more.

Pin It…It’s Your Board!

There’s no right or wrong approach to Pinterest, so have fun with it. Share what you love, what inspires you or makes you laugh. And be sure to check out Lisa Suttora’s excellent training to get started quickly with Pinterest.

Share Button

Podcast: Lisa Suttora

Lisa Suttora 107x150 Podcast: Lisa Suttora Lisa Suttora is an eCommerce expert. During the past ten years she has taught at eBay University a number of times, as well as teaching thousands of her own students how to source products and build a profitable business. She continues to be one of 34 eBay Certified Providers worldwide. This all came about because she wanted to stay home to raise her two young children. In 2001 she walked away from her six figure a year corporate job and has never looked back. I truly admire Lisa for what she has accomplished. She began by teaching others how to sell on Amazon and eBay, and continues to expand her reach.

In this interview we discuss all of this and more as we delve into the thought process behind building a successful and lucrative Internet business. We also talk about Pinterest, and her new training program for this fast growing social media site. You’ll want to be sure to take notes while you listen to this informative call.

Share Button

Getting Started Online: Start With A Hosted WordPress Blog

blog1 150x150 Getting Started Online: Start With A Hosted WordPress BlogIn 2005 I started on a path that led me to leave my job as a classroom teacher, give away all of my real estate clients, and come online full time in 2006. I had no idea where this would lead me, but now I know that I was meant to change my life in a big way at that time.  I do believe that anyone can make this type of change in their life, but you must take the necessary steps to ensure you are building a business that will sustain you for years to come. This requires hard work as you build a list of prospects and clients, increase your online visibility, and set up the systems that will bring the profitability necessary for a successful business on the Internet.

Start by setting up a hosted WordPress blog. The hosting account will cost you less than a hundred dollars a year, and enable you to set up as many sites as you want to over time without any additional cost. I recommend Blue Host because of their customer service and c-panel features. This will also mean that you own your blog, instead of trying to start a business by using a free blogging platform, such as Blogger, that you could lose at any time if it gets shut down. Start out by posting about yourself and what you are working on. It will seem very personal in the beginning, and over time you will find that you are sharing more and more on your topic.

Include an optin box on your blog so that visitors can sign up to join your list to find out more about what you are doing. You’ll need an autoreponder service for this, and I recommend using either 1 Shopping Cart or Aweber for this. You will need to put together a check list or short report on your topic to offer as the free giveaway for this. Long ago people would sign up to receive an Ezine or a newsletter, but now everyone expects to receive some time of complimentary information, in audio (mp3), video, or written (PDF) format, as their incentive for signing up to be on your list.

Next, be sure to use your keywords for your blog post titles so that the search engines begin to see what you will be talking about. This can be a confusing part of the process, so take a look at other people’s sites to see which words and phrases they are optimizing for on their blog. Google offers a free tool, their Keyword Tool External, to make this much easier to understand. Don’t worry if this part of the process sounds confusing right now. Just know that we are found on the Internet by the words we use to describe our niche topic.

Now it’s time to monetize this entire process. You’ll need something to sell, so think about choosing an affiliate product in the very beginning instead of creating your own product right away. The best choices for this are products and services you have purchased and used in your own businesses. By recommending these to the people who come to you for help and information, you can begin to start the steady flow of income that will lead to online profitability in your online business.

Getting started online can be broken down into a series of actionable steps, and starting your own hosted WordPress blog is the first step to online success.

Share Button

Podcast: Adela Rubio – Joint Venture Strategist

adela rubio 150x150 Podcast: Adela Rubio   Joint Venture StrategistAdela Rubio is a Joint Venture Strategist who helps conscious entrepreneurs share their message and build their tribe using experiential list building strategies. I had first met Adela at an event on the East Coast in 2010, and saw her again in Atlanta in February of 2012.

In this interview Adela shares how she got started online and why she chooses to work with conscious entrepreneurs. We discuss what she means by ‘juicy joint venture partners’, and why she refers to her community of followers as her ‘tribe’. Adela encourages you to claim your authentic essence in everything you do.

Adela offers an Enlightened List Building training program that will help you to build your list, increase your joint ventures, and achieve massive visibility online.

Share Button

Building A Profitable Business – Are You Making Excuses?

desert sign 150x150 Building A Profitable Business   Are You Making Excuses?As I continue to work with people in the area of building a profitable business, I hear the same excuses over and over. Some of the more memorable ones are:

“But you don’t understand. My business is different.”

“Sure, that works for you, but I’m new.”

“I’m too old.”

“I’m on (insert guru’s name here) list, and they said I should try (insert name of latest product or service here).”

And my all-time favorite:

“I can’t afford a mentor.”

When I started my serious exercise and eating plan at the first of this year I soon realized that I was making the exact same excuses!

Even though I was showing up at the gym each week, I found myself telling the trainers that they did not understand why I wasn’t making much progress because my body was different.

As I observed others losing weight and replacing fat with muscle I explained that it was working for them, but not for me, because I was new and needed time to settle in to the exercise and fitness routines they were teaching me. I also told them that I was too old to be able to make the kind of progress some of the others were making.

I soon began searching the Internet for help and found myself telling the trainers at my gym that people online were recommending an entirely different regime that I was going to check out. When they recommended that I work out privately with a trainer three times each week I told them that it was just too expensive for my budget.

I had effectively taken myself out of the game and ensured my failure by not trusting them to guide me in the right direction. When I finally realized this I apologized profusely and began to make a serious and consistent effort to follow exactly what they were recommending. The result was that I began to lose weight, increase my muscle mass, decrease my BMI (Body Mass Index), and feel better overall.

Once I stopped making excuses and started focusing on how to do the best I could under the guidance and direction of those I trusted, everything changed overnight.

Have you found yourself making any of these excuses when it comes to building a profitable business online, or in any other area of your life?

 

Share Button

Podcast: Ray Edwards on Copywriting

Ray Edwards1 150x150 Podcast: Ray Edwards on CopywritingTo Ray Edwards, copywriting is ‘salesmanship in print’. Ray was the very first professional copywriter I ever met, and in this interview I ask him about how he got started in radio years ago, transitioned to writing web sales copy for some of the greatest names on the Internet today, and continues to be a dominant force in the world of copywriting.

Ray and his wife, Lynn, pictured with him at left, travel the country in their motor home on a regular basis. This lifestyle gives them the freedom to work from wherever they happen to be while also enjoying the beauty and the seasons. They also have two pugs who enjoy taking to the road with them.

You’ll also want to check out his latest book, Writing Riches, as well as his membership site of the same name. Ray has graciously given this special link to my community, and if you are interested in learning more about becoming a copywriter for hire or just writing better sales copy for your products and services, this may be exactly what you are looking for. My favorite part of this site is that Ray personally critiques one of the members’ sales letters each month, giving everyone an opportunity to improve their skills. I’m sure you will benefit greatly from our discussion here.

Share Button

Is It Time To Quit Your Job And Start An Online Business?

woman jumping 150x150 Is It Time To Quit Your Job And Start An Online Business?Are you too comfortable at your job to become a successful entrepreneur? If you stop to think about the job you are currently working at you may discover that you have become complacent about starting and building your own business because your job provides a steady paycheck to pay your monthly bills and expenses. This can be dangerous!

I worked as a classroom teacher for twenty years. Every month I received a paycheck that I used to make my house payment, car payment, and for my other expenses. It wasn’t until I had cancer for the first time and was not able to work for six months that I realized just how much that job was costing me.

At the same time I was working in real estate as a broker and residential appraiser. This work allowed me to make my own hours, set my own appointments, and have control over the amount of income I could earn. If it had not been for my ability to make money in real estate while I was undergoing treatment for my cancer, I would surely have lost my home and would have had to file for bankruptcy. Instead, I had a steady flow of income coming in and was able to meet all of my financial obligations during this difficult time. This gave me peace of mind in a way I cannot fully describe.

How can you avoid being caught up in what I call the ‘paycheck comfort zone’? Ask yourself some serious questions to see where you are in this process. Are you satisfied with the number on your paycheck? Are you alright with the amount of time and effort required to stay at your job? If you or a family member were to become ill, if you’d want to relocate to another city to live, or to want to take time off to pursue other interests, would your job accommodate you? Is the amount of money you earn at your current job sufficient for what you need and want in your life? It may be time for you to quit your job and move on in your life.

There is a certain mindset that goes along with taking the leap from employee to entrepreneur. As an employee you look to your boss to find out what the company wants to do next; as an entrepreneur you make the decisions as to what actions and steps you will take to move forward. If it’s going to happen, it is entirely up to you to see it through. You must have the inner strength to trust your intuition and gut instincts when it comes to making smart decisions. This requires you to have the self confidence to know you can achieve your goals.

This is what I wrote about in my recent book ,The Inner Game of Internet Marketing, and it applies to other areas of your life as well. You can do it, and quitting your job to become an online entrepreneur will change your life forever.

Share Button

Huge Profits Tiny List with Connie Ragen Green

Subscribe To Connie’s Podcast Series

Making huge profits with a small list is possible! My name is Connie Ragen Green, and I’ve been making a full time living online since 2006. I have successfully built a five figure a month income with a very small list. In fact, I was earning six figures a year long before I had one thousand people on my list, and I can teach you how I did this by following some simple marketing strategies based on affiliate marketing, product creation, and joint ventures. I am now a list relationship coach, helping others to build a relationship with the people on their lists in order to increase their online income.

The mission of this site is to teach you how to monetize your list, no matter how small it is. I will share what has worked for me, and welcome your comments and suggestions for what other information you would like for me to share with you.

Even though it is important to be continually growing your list, you certainly do not need a huge list in order to make an excellent living with your online business. Thanks for being here, and be sure to sign up on the right to receive an email notification when I write a new post twice each week. Feel free to leave a comment on any post that resonates with you, and share your own experiences about making big money with a tiny list. I have completed my first book, Huge Profits With A Tiny List: 50 Ways To Use Relationship Marketing To Increase Your Bottom Line, and it is now available. Click on the picture of the book on the right to get your copy today, or visit Amazon.com directly to see what else I have available.

My latest books are now available. The titles are Huge Profits With Affiliate Marketing: How To Build An Online Empire By Recommending What You Love and The Inner Game of Internet Marketing, co-written with author Geoff Hoff. Click on the link on the right, or visit my author page on Amazon or Barnes & Noble to order your copy today.

front cover ivory 200x300 Huge Profits Tiny List with Connie Ragen GreenFinally, The Weekend Marketer, is available! I spent almost a year creating this book and online course based on the principles and strategies I used to make the jump from working as a classroom teacher and real estate appraiser to coming online full time in 2006. You can do the same thing, and I’m here to assist you. No matter where you are right now, the Weekend Marketer™ book and program will help you to achieve the success you want and deserve.

It is my hope that you will join me on your journey of turning your ideas, interests, and passions into a lucrative online business.

Share Button