Author Archives: Connie Ragen Green

Internet Marketing First Steps

The first steps to internet marketing success may seem like a challenge, but it will all go smoothly if you take it one step at a time. Remember that every step and every breath you take will either move you closer to or further away from your dreams and goals.

Here are the internet marketing first steps I recommend for you to take over the next seven to ten days.

Think about the lifestyle you would like to create for yourself and your family. Now think about the business that would enable you to live that lifestyle. Make some notes in a journal or online document to express exactly what your life will look like when you set up a business on the Internet.
Choose a niche topic to focus on, at least for the next six months. Start out with a broad topic and then niche it down over time. It might be something as general as business, health, personal development, or lifestyle. The idea here is to get you used to the process of building a business online, and then giving you the time to find your sweet spot of the more specific area and audience you wish to serve.
Purchase a domain name to use for your website. This can be your name, or anything else that is suitable for your topic. If won’t ever seem like the perfect choice, so simply choose a domain and know that this can always be changed later on.
Set up a hosting account so your domain will have a place to live on the Internet. My recommendation is Blue Host Solutions because of their commitment to working closely alongside new online entrepreneurs.
Use the one-click installation of WordPress to create your site. The hosting company is happy to do this with you, or you may contact me to have it set up.
Begin adding content to your site, using original, PLR (private label rights), or curated content. The ideal scenario is if you add content twice a week, but if your schedule does not allow time for that right now, post once a week for at least the next six months.
Start thinking about your ideal prospect and what he or she needs most when it comes to your topic. Remember that first and foremost the purpose for any business you can think of is to serve the needs of a specific group of individuals. Online business is no different, and once you understand this concept your business will flourish. For example, the people I serve wish to have a business they can run from home, or from anywhere in the world they happen to be, with just a laptop computer and an internet connection. Many of them have health issues, are caring for an aged family member, or raising children or grandchildren. This requires them to be home or on the road, yet they still want and need a substantial income to meet their financial obligations. Other have lost their jobs or simply no longer wish to be at a job that no longer serves them but still need a six figure or greater income. I help them to get started and to build a business that enable them to live the lifestyle they have chosen while still being there for the people in their lives who need them.
Add an optin form to your site so that you can start building a subscriber list from the very beginning. People who do not do this cite it as the reason they did not build their business as quickly as they could have if they had done so. I recommend Aweber for this part of your online business. Send a relevant and interesting email message to the people on your list at least twice a week, sharing more about yourself and what you have to offer them. Be of service to these people, as they are the backbone of what you are working to achieve as an online entrepreneur.
Create a short report to use as your free giveaway to encourage visitors to your site to opt in to your list. Put your best foot forward by providing valuable information here.
Choose one or two of the business models I have outlined in this post on multiple streams of income and learn as much as possible about them. Resist the temptation to get involved with more than two of these during the first six months you are working online. I have written more than a dozen books that can help you with the specific details of most of these income streams.
Get involved with social media, but remember my motto to “Get in, get out, and get back to work!” I recommend Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Google Plus, and YouTube to get started with.
Start your own Channel on YouTube to share videos related to your business. My YouTube Channel has proved to be extremely valuable to my business.
Attend at least two live marketing events each year. This was the single most important factor in helping me to move forward quickly in my business.
Know that starting an online business requires the least capital of any type of business you can start. Your time and dedication will pay off handsomely if you jump in and get started.
Take action daily!

I certainly hope these internet marketing first steps have been helpful to you. Please connect with me personally to let me know where you are now, what you are working on, and how I may be a part of your success story.

Multiple Streams of Online Income

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Multiple Streams of Income

If you are not familiar with me, my name is Connie Ragen Green and I’ve been working exclusively on the Internet since 2006 as an online entrepreneur. During this time I’ve seen so many business models come and go. For example, article marketing was huge when I was first working on the Internet. Within a few years its relevance began to dwindle, and today no one considers this strategy to be a viable one. So even though I wrote, published, and distributed more than two thousand articles during my first few years online, this writing no longer serves to build my business.

The difference between me and many other entrepreneurs is that I did not allow this shift in the industry to faze me. Instead, I never skipped a beat as I transitioned into authorship, a model that has brought me much greater success than writing short articles ever could have done. You see, it’s all about how you approach a situation and deal with it that can determine the level of success you will be able to achieve. Instead of choosing to bury my head in the sand as article marketing plummeted, or giving up altogether because things were changing so rapidly, I chose to evaluate my writing and write the first of now more than a dozen books that have opened doors and dramatically shifted other people’s perception of me. Whenever one door closes, many new doors open up.

And lest you think that I am in possession of some super powers or have talents and abilities not available to the average person, you should know that is not the case. I am of average intelligence, do not have a background in business, and continue to type with my two index fingers! For twenty years prior to coming online I worked as a classroom teacher, while working simultaneously as a residential real estate appraiser and listing broker. If I can do this, you can do it as well.

Also, I am a multiple time cancer survivor, suffered a serious injury while teaching, and continue to have a variety of aches and pains related to my health issues. I’ve allowed none of these issues to affect my online business and I travel regularly for business and pleasure. During the summer of 2016 I took a six thousand mile road trip across the United States to spend time with a dozen of my clients and mentees in various cities. Even though the driving was a challenge at times, I have already committed to making a similar journey during the summer of 2017.

At the present time I enjoy eight separate and multiple streams of income online. I’d like to introduce you to each one of these individually so that you may decide for yourself which ones appeal most to you. Also, I recommend only choosing one or two to begin with, and to monetize them before moving on to yet another business model. The gold is in the perseverance, consistency, and effort you put into your business. In no particular order, here are the eight streams of online income that you may wish to consider for your own internet business…

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing was actually the first model that earned me income online ad this continues to be my favorite, especially of you are just starting out as an online entrepreneur. It was the spring of 2006 and I had been writing articles and blogging every single day for several months at that point in time. Although I had yet to earn any money, I still had faith that what I was doing was bringing me closer to my goal of online entrepreneurship.

Then one day I logged into my account at a site called ClickBank. I had been promoting several digital products from there, including one on dog training. On that day I saw that I had earned twenty-one dollars and sixty cents! I was ecstatic and knew that if even one person had made a purchase based on my recommendation, then others would as well over time if I kept up my efforts and learned more. Many more sales of this and other products followed and I was on my way.

Within a couple of years I had reached “Super Affiliate” status, meaning that product and course creators reached out to me when they wanted to launch new products. People who had been online for many years already, such as Marlon Sanders, Armand Morin, and Jim Edwards sought me out to find out what I thought about what they were doing. My simple approach proved valuable in determining what beginning online entrepreneurs most needed to be successful.

This model continues to account for about forty percent of my annual income. I teach an ongoing course called Really Simple Affiliate Marketing that may be of interest to you.

Small Business Marketing

Small business marketing kind of fell into my lap during my first year online. I had a family member who had lost his job and started a handyman service in his community. He was spending almost five hundred dollars a month on classified advertising in his local newspaper, as well as two magazine ads.

When I told him I’d like to set up a site for him and do some marketing with his keywords (his city plus the type of work he offered) he told me to go ahead. Within a month and a half he was able to cancel the paid advertising and instead paid me to continue with what I was doing. One huge difference was that a newspaper or magazine ad is only good until the next issue appears; online marketing lasts forever.

Soon I was marketing for a local dentist and an insurance agent and that’s when I realized I could get to six figures a year with this business model, all while honing the marketing and writing skills I needed in order to build my core business of online marketing for myself. I currently teach an online course on how to market for small business with my colleague Ron Tester.

Information Products

Digital, downloadable information products have been around for about twenty years now, yet it took me one full year before I created one of my own. It was confusing for me in that I wasn’t sure what I could offer to others that would be of value to them. I ended up putting together a four part training course on article marketing and blogging that I sold for ninety-seven dollars. Keep in mind that this course consisted of four one hour teleseminars and a study guide. So it was definitely low tech and simple to create.

Information products are now a billion dollar business and encompass trainings and information on almost any topic you can think of that people need information about for personal or business purposes. Think of eBooks, online courses, short reports, audio recordings, videos, webinars, and so much more as being the core of the digital information product world. More people than ever before are taking to the Internet to find the answers to their questions and the solutions to their problems. I teach a popular course called Really Simple Info Products that you may want to consider if this is a model you resonate with at this time.

Authorship/Publishing

It is said that more than eighty percent of the population wants to write and publish a book at any given time, yet fewer than five percent actually see it through to completion. When I wrote and published my first book – Huge Profits with a Tiny List – back in 2010 I was immediately catapulted to a new level in my business. Other people now perceived me to be an expert and an authority in my field and I was offered speaking engagements and other opportunities. It was so impactful that I almost immediately began my second book, and I have recently published my fourteenth book through my own publishing company, Hunter’s Moon.

Some people consider their books to be lead generators and marketing pieces, but I do not stop there with the value of being a published author. The people who find me through my books tend to be ones who are ready to take action and do the work necessary to achieve their dreams and goals, and that is exciting for me. Also, helping you to share your knowledge and expertise is quite rewarding. I teach an entire course on how to write your full length book and then create a business based on your topic at Write. Publish. Prosper. if this is attractive to you as a business model.

E-Commerce/Amazon

I added this as an income stream in the fall of 2013. Once again I faced a steep learning curve, but it has definitely been worth it. There are several different models available when you sell physical products online, including the private label model, retail arbitrage, and my favorite, wholesaling products to sell on the Internet.

During the 1999-2000 holiday season I had sold toys on eBay, and even though that model did not suit me at that time, it gave me an idea of what it was like to sell physical products to others. This business has come a long way since then, and now it is one that can be extremely rewarding and lucrative. Also, if you have a family member who is interested in helping you, this can be a way to start a family business. At this point in time two of my family members are involved, and two more will be coming aboard before the end of this year. Here are a couple of resources for you that I continue to use to learn more strategies and techniques:

Jessica Larrew runs her Amazon business from home with the help of her husband and young son – http://ConnieLoves.me/SellingFamily

Jim Cockrum has been selling physical products and teaching others how to do it for over ten years now, longer than anyone else teaching this business model – http://ConnieLoves.me/PAC

Online Courses/Trainings

My background is that of a classroom teacher, so when I discovered that I could teach people all over the world using teleseminars and webinars I was thrilled at the possibilities. Earlier I told you how I created my first information product as a four part teleseminar course with a Study Guide, and this was actually my first foray into the world of teaching an online course.

Anything you have knowledge about can be turned into an online training course, and as long as there are people who are interested in learning more about the topic you will be in an excellent position to help them. I use webinars to teach, record them, and then add them to a member’s area so that participants may watch and listen to them later on. I also like to include handouts, Study Guides, and other resources to make the training more complete.

Blogging/Niche Sites/Membership Sites

I’ve lumped three different types of online business models into one here, but with good reason. About two years after coming online the bright light finally came on in my mind; I could turn all of the blogs I had started during my first year on the Internet into niche sites that would continue to earn some income. When I started my first free membership site, that gave me the time to practice, enhance, and develop future programs that I could monetize.

When you have an idea for something that you want to pursue online, set up a simple WordPress site, add some content, and add a free membership site to see if it is viable as a paid business model. This is also an excellent way to bring your family members into the fold and allow them to explore the Internet for themselves. There are tens of thousands of niche sites to be found online, and yours can be one more that serves the people who are interested in that specific topic and searching for more information.

With some of these niche sites you will want to collect the names and email addresses of the people who are interested in your topic by adding an optin box to your blog and following up with them by email. Other times you will not do this and simply offer affiliate products within your blog posts and in the sidebar. The addition of a membership site makes it simple to contact the people who join at any time through the system’s internal email option. It’s completely up to you and you may always change your mind at a later time. The important thing here is to be consistent with your content creation and marketing.

Mentoring/Consulting

What I love most about mentoring entrepreneurs and consulting with corporations and non-profits is the ability to impact people outside of my sphere of influence and connection. Not everyone is cut out for this particular business model, so think long and hard about the implications of working so closely with others in this type of arrangement.

Within a couple of years I realized that I could only work successfully with twenty or fewer entrepreneurs at a time, so I made changes to my programs to account for that. I also can only work with about five corporate and non-profits at a time, so I implemented that strategy as well.

Typically you will have one or two calls each month with a client, as well as meeting with them face to face two or three times each year. I host my own live marketing events twice a year, as well as hosting intimate retreats several times a years, providing ample opportunities to connect with my people on a more regular basis. My group members have become part of my extended family, and I value their opinions when it comes to my business.

These are the eight streams of online income I wanted to share with you. Please stay connected with me, join my list if you aren’t on it already, and let me know how I may best serve you in your quest to become a successful online entrepreneur enjoying multiple streams of income.

Personal Branding for Entrepreneurs

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Personal Branding for Entrepreneurs

Are you incorporating the smart business strategy of personal branding into your online business? Think of your favorite brands. They all stand out for one reason or another. For example, Apple is known for its sleek product designs and cutting-edge technology. Coca-Cola is branded as a fun, enjoyable beverage. My branding includes sharing how to “make huge profits with a tiny list” as well as “really simple” online marketing training courses and programs.

Just like businesses can become known for their brand, so can entrepreneurs and small business owners. Developing your personal branding is the smart way to position yourself and stand out in the mind of your clients.

Branding Makes You Memorable

But first, you’ll need to set aside time and energy to reflect on who you want to be and what you want to be known for. Doing this will save you energy in the long run since you’ll be able to focus on your strengths and minimize your weaknesses.

Another benefit of developing your personal brand it that it become easier to present yourself consistently, no matter where you go. Imagine being able to intentionally place pictures in potential clients’ minds so that they will remember you.

Personal Branding Makes You An Authority

Not only will potential clients remember you better, it’ll also be easier for them to tell others about you. Then you’ll be viewed as an authority in your field, all because you took the time to work on your branding.

But this is only the beginning. As you become more well-known, your ideal clients will become more attracted to you. You won’t have to spend as much time marketing because your customers will naturally flock to you. When this began to happen in my business I was overjoyed and my confidence soared.

Branding Makes You More Money

As a result of increasing demand for your services, you’ll also be able to raise your rates. Think of doing the same work you’re already doing but being able to double your rates. With smart branding, this is a real possibility. When I tell my own clients to double their rates for coaching, products, and trainings it’s because I am able to see them as a personal brand.

Of course, higher rates aren’t the only reason to build your personal brand. You can also expect to get more attention from other entrepreneurs and business owners that want to offer you high value partnerships. Imagine getting to work on projects that you love with other business owners that you’ve admired for years. I have been able to do joint ventures with some of the biggest names on the internet because of the personal branding strategies I’ve implemented over the years.

All of these things and more can happen when you’re willing to stand up and own your brand. You were made to shine, so embrace your personal branding with gusto.

List Building Marketing Tips for Entrepreneurs

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The Importance of List Building Marketing Tips

List building marketing tips are readily available, but the true value is in knowing exactly how to get started with this strategy. I learned early on that “the gold is in the list and in the follow up.” Remember that we all begin as online entrepreneurs with no one on our email list. These days people will gladly exchange their name and email address for your free giveaway, as long as this is something that is…

Irresistible – You must create a report, guide, white paper, series of audios or videos, or something else that your target audience will feel like they can’t live without. Observe your own behavior to see which sites you are willing to opt in to and which ones cause you to simply click away, most likely never to return.

Relevant – Make sure what you are creating as your free giveaway is relevant to your topic. If your niche is nutrition and health, your audience most likely will not be interested in a report on how to take a family vacation while on a budget. I regularly joke that many of my people need to lose a few pounds and love dogs, but that doesn’t mean they want to hear about weight loss or dog training from me. It’s not why they opted into my list to begin with and I must keep that in mind.

Substantial – Gone are the days of a three page document as the free giveaway. When I was first online the people who were already successful gave away the equivalent of a short eBook as their free giveaway. At some point all of us switched to something short and sweet, but I believe the trend now is back to something of great value and substance.

In my mind, list building includes both the process of encouraging and persuading someone to join your list, as well as the ongoing task of keeping them on your list and actively engaged. This can be a challenge, as you will hear differing ideas of how often to send emails, what to include in your messages, and how often to offer something for sale. This comes with the experience of running an online business, so you must jump in and see how your community responds to you.

I like to tell stories within my email messages, and many people tell me that this type of storytelling is what keeps them on my list and actively participating in my programs. Do not be afraid to share some things about yourself, but remember that once you do you will be unable to take it back. For example, in my family we seldom mention anyone’s name and never show pictures. This needs to be a serious discussion within your family, as people feel differently about this depending upon their prior experiences. The most important thing is to build your list and to communicate regularly with them.

What other questions do you have regarding list building marketing tips and growing your business as an online entrepreneur?

How to Repurpose Your Content into Multiple Formats

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How to Effectively Repurpose Your Content

I’ve been a strong proponent of knowing how to repurpose your content for years now. When I first came online I was not a writer or even a content creator, so when I learned how powerful content creation and content marketing could be it just made sense that I would repurpose that content as well. The results have surprised everyone – including me- as my content continues to be found by people on six continents when they search for any of the many topics I am knowledgeable about in my online business.

I was just reading an article from Christine M Gallagher about 5 Easy Ways to Recycle Your Content (While Still Staying Sane) and she discusses how to take one piece of your content and repurpose it into five different formats. She states:

For busy entrepreneurs, it can often feel like a struggle to consistently come up with new and varied content that we’re told is so crucial to building our Internet empires. However, let me offer you some relief by letting you know that you probably don’t need to be quite as prolific as you think. The good news is, repurposing your content is perfectly acceptable—in fact, it’s vital to your online success.

One piece of content can live on in multiple formats, saving you time, energy and creative frustration. For example, let’s say you begin with content you’ve prepared for an in-person talk or speaking gig or for a live teleseminar given over the phone.”

She goes on to share how that original content can be repurposed into a blog post (where I believe your very best writing should appear), an article (I like to syndicate these on LinkedIn Pulse and Medium), a free short report, a podcast (I’ve been podcasting regularly now since 2011 with two different shows, and with video (my YouTube channel serves as a “lifestyle” review of how I live based on having a global online business).

You can then go on to create newsletters, white papers (an industry term), slide presentations, audios, notes, study guides, checklists, and more. The list of possible types of content you can create, publish, and syndicate is almost endless and only limited by your imagination and desire to spread your knowledge and expertise far and wide. Never before in the history of the world has it been so simple and inexpensive to use these methods and strategies to build a business.

All of this serves to turn you into a content creation machine, and you will discover that your audience consumes this content in the way that is easiest and most comfortable for them. For example, my ideal method of learning is to read while listening, so if someone creates a recording of a short report I will read and listen simultaneously for best results.

Spend the time now to learn how to best repurpose your content, and then benefit from being able to say that people see you everywhere on the Internet. This single strategy has grown my business more than any other and helped me to get my message and information out to the world in a way that serves my business and the tens of thousands of people with whom I can then connect.

What questions do you have when it comes to knowing how to repurpose your content?

Entrepreneurship Opportunities: Does This Appeal to You?

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Entrepreneurship Opportunities

It has long been said that life as an entrepreneur is not the right path for everyone. In fact, the statistics tell us that only about ten percent of the population has a natural proclivity towards this lifestyle. Yes, entrepreneurship opportunities abound and many people are drawn in to the promise of making their own hours, being their own boss, living anywhere they like, and having the possibility to earn more income than ever before. Yet the numbers are on the decline for those seeking the entrepreneurial lifestyle.

In a news article published by CNBC they found that entrepreneurship actually declined this year after four years of upward growth.

Researchers pointed to a drop in “nascent activity,” meaning that fewer people overall entered into entrepreneurship in 2015. The report underscores the idea that a Main Street post-recession recovery is still a work in progress, with sentiment and overall levels of entrepreneurship potentially wavering.

The number of Americans who see opportunities to launch new businesses also fell from a high of 51 percent in 2014 to 47 percent in 2015, meaning the group is motivated but seeing fewer opportunities to start businesses. Sixty-nine percent of those who did launch businesses were motivated by the pursuit of opportunity and independence.

And you should know that more than two hundred thousand people responded to this annual global survey, so the data is solid and reliable.

Within my own business I have found that when people are in jobs that are stimulating and offer opportunities for advancement, they tend to shy away from riskier entrepreneurial opportunities. The security of a steady paycheck and health benefits trumps the pursuit of financial freedom and independence. Age is also a factor, with entrepreneurship peaking between the ages of about thirty-five and forty-four.

Something to note is that most of the people I work with directly have begun their online businesses while still being employed on a full or part-time basis, whereas these studies are taking into consideration people who are no longer in the work force.

Where do you stand on this issue of taking advantage of entrepreneurship opportunities in your life design? Does the thought of working for yourself hold great appeal, or do you prefer to work in a more structured environment on a daily basis?

Secrets to Mastering Online Business

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Mastering online business is not as difficult as it may seem to you when you are just starting out. I can remember spending time in a small group setting with motivational speaker and trainer Brian Tracy when I was in my first year of entrepreneurship. He told us that everything in business is a learnable skill. That concept surprised me and gave me a feeling of peace and confidence that helped propel me toward success very quickly. By understanding that I did not have to have a business degree or MBA, or even years of business experience in order to build the business I was interested in growing, I knew that if I would simply be willing to spend the time and make the effort I could be successful.

Recently I was reading an email message from Kindling founder Geoff Shaw and it brought me back to that time in my life where I was concerned about having enough talent and education to make mastering online business a reality. In it he says:

“There is nothing in this business of publishing that can’t be mastered by anyone.

All of the skills needed to be successful are easy to learn.

Some might take a little longer to master than others, but EVERYTHING is doable, so when someone tells me they can’t do something, I know it’s just because they haven’t done it, or haven’t done it for long enough.”

The key here is to be willing to take the time to hone your skills and practice what you are learning.

Geoff adds:

“Feed yourself with knowledge, do stuff, and learn from what happens – that will be your best recipe for anything in life.

Just because you can’t do something now, doesn’t mean you can’t do that thing later.

As knowledge grows so does confidence to do more.

Success drives more success.”

This is such excellent advice for anyone who is working to achieve goals in a business. It’s a boost of confidence that will get you through the hard times and propel you to success more quickly than if you took the slow road filled with doubt and apprehension.

And Geoff’s final words will ring true if you have ever postponed or procrastinated activities and tasks at which you were not adept:

“Continue to do what you’re doing well but make sure you spend time on the hard stuff.
The stuff you don’t like doing because you feel you’re not good at it.

That’s the stuff you need to give some love… so you get good at it and it gives back to you what you need – what you deserve.”

When I came online I realized almost immediately that I needed to become a writer, but that was the “hard stuff” for me. Instead of backing away from this part of the business, I took it as a challenge and started writing every single day. At first it was simple two hundred fifty word articles and blog posts. Soon it became short reports and finally I wrote my first book. To date I have written fourteen books filled with more than a million words. Now I honestly feel like I deserve to call myself a writer.

And if writing is something you would like to add to your business model, be sure to check out Geoff Shaw’s Kindling training course. It’s excellent for mastering online business as a writer, marketer, and entrepreneur.

Online Marketing Tricks to Build Your Business

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Online Marketing Tricks

When it comes to online marketing, tricks are always a temptation. But if you’re thinking that by tricks I am referring to something questionable, I am not. Think of these more as tips than as something that we shouldn’t be using to help our businesses grow.

One of my Finnish friends, direct response copywriter and online marketer Juho Tunkelo is a master of online marketing tips to build your business on the Internet. He wrote two excellent posts on this topic, 3 Old, Tiny Tricks Still Working Amazingly Well in Online Marketing and 3 More Tiny Tricks Working Amazingly Well In Online Marketing where I was reminded of strategies from years past that may be even more effective today than they were originally.

One of these is the use of a countdown timer to let people know when an offer expires or goes up in price. Juho says that even if this seems so “early 2000s” it still works because scarcity is a powerful trigger, when used properly. Another of these tricks is to do something referred to as “pattern interrupt” through the use of slow motion videos on Instagram. You can then superimpose your marketing message over the video with a call to action just beneath it.

The last of Juho’s “tricks” I will share with you here is one that he shared with me personally when we met for an impromptu mastermind near Helsinki a year or so ago. It has to do with remarketing to your LinkedIn contact base. You export all of your contacts into a CSV file and then you simply upload that file with your contacts to a Facebook custom audience for ads and/or retargeting. Juho explains just how to do this in great detail in the post I have referenced above. He says that if you have something to promote to that professional audience that already knows you and are half warm anyway… the conversion rates can be astounding.

I recommend that you read both of Juho Tunkelo’s posts and join his list to receive his copywriting information, tips, and ideas to put to use in your own online business.

Do you have any tips or tricks you’d like to share with others? If so, leave a comment below so we can all benefit from your expertise. Online marketing tricks can be fun, as well as profitable.

Metaphors for Your Online Business

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Using Metaphors for Your Online Business Story

A metaphor is a figure of speech that refers to something as being the same as another thing for rhetorical effect. Examples include “those two friends are peas in a pod” and “the park was a lake after the big rain”. Using metaphors for your online business can be an effective way to incorporate storytelling into everything you share with your community.

My favorite type of metaphor is a parable, which is simply an extended metaphor that is narrated as an anecdote. An example of this is the illustrating and teaching done in works such as Aesop’s fables. In my own business I regularly use the metaphor “time is money” to teach the importance of time management.

Recently I was watching a broadcast over on YouTube where visibility expert Denise Wakeman interviewed Michael Kass and Tea Silvestre Godfrey on the topic of How to Use Metaphors to Tell Your Story. This conversation was brilliantly crafted to explain exactly how and why these are so crucial to our businesses.

I can remember attending an online marketing conference years ago when I was just getting started with my own Internet business. As I approached the large conference room there were groups of people gathered in circles, talking about a variety of topics related to themselves and their businesses. I didn’t know anyone there so I just stood by myself for a few minutes, listening to bits and pieces of conversations. One circle of people to my left was talking about a woman who used to be a school teacher and was now becoming successful as a marketer on the Internet. I leaned in a little bit closer to see if I could hear them mention her name. Imagine my surprise when one of them said “Connie Ragen Green”!

At that point I went over and introduced myself to the group. This was an important lesson for me. I learned on that day that my story would precede me and that it was completely up to me to share a story about myself that would portray me in the light in which I wished to shine. Ever since that time I’ve used metaphors and storytelling as a regular part of my marketing strategy.

Stories also make everything easier for people to remember. When you think about Abraham “Honest Abe” Lincoln, can’t you just picture him walking several miles to return someone’s change when he worked at the general store? And as Tea Silvestre Godfrey reminds us during the broadcast:

“If you’re attempting to teach anything, it’s more effective to teach with a story than with presentation of data.”

What’s your story? How are you sharing it with your audience? I recommend that you spend an hour watching Denise Wakeman’s broadcast I referenced above and learn how your stories will enhance everything you do and how to use metaphors for your online business story, while also taking advantage of how this will set you apart from others in your niche.