Posted November 23rd, 2009
How to Create A Fan Community w/Spike Jones of Brains on Fire
Here is a great and quick listen to an expert on creating a community around your brand using social media. Enjoy!
Posted November 23rd, 2009
Are You Pursuing Your Dreams Against All Odds?
I think I am the biggest dreamer in the world. That whole idea of envisioning where you want to be eventually manifesting, has worked consistently in my life.
You probably get where I’m coming from, right? Maybe you are a dreamer, an artist, or a creative spirit who has so many dreams swirling inside you, you feel you might explode if you don’t get it out.
but what happens when you don’t get it out?
If you are one of the lucky ones that had maximum support when you started your usiness, took that promotion or some other ambitious endeavor…You are blessed!
but if you are like most who have to scratch and claw their way through thick clouds of challenge to avoid seeing their dreams die, You are supremely blessed!
How so, you ask?
because each ceiling you break, hurdle you jump, tragedy you overcome; you are that much closer to being successful in your journey. It doesn’t matter who doesn’t believe you can do it or who is rooting for you in vain while consciously hoping you fail so you can live life in a way that makes them comfortable.
Successful entrepreneurs are like diamonds. No one cares about you when you are a dark and cold lump of coal. but when you emerge from the awesome pressure of the weight of the world, then they’ll believe. but this does not matter either.
The only thing that matters is that moment your light of success shines and you have the pride of knowing that you didn’t give up on pursuing your dream AGAINST ALL ODDS!
Posted November 19th, 2009
INSPIRED BUSINESS- Telecommuting w/ Brandon Dempsey
Life’s detours, both literal and figurative, affect progress in our lives everyday. Road blocks suck, literally! But it’s not everyday someone sees this inconvenience as an opportunity to build a new and more efficient path to get to the destination of success! Brandon, inspired by his father, set out to show businesses exactly how to chart their own path to success via the road of Telecommuting.
Telecommuting is fast becoming a trend that is embraced by both the workforce and employers as a alternative path to success. If you are a small business owner, you can’t afford to miss this inspiring conversation. Listen to my inspiring conversation with Brandon Dempsey as he shares with us how he has become an ambassador for the Remote Work Movement as well as how he is helping small business owners achieve an affordable we presence:
and much more…
LISTEN NOW OR DOWNLOAD FOR LATER:
Wish to learn more about the full breadth of Remote Work Services offered by Brandon’s companies? Sail on over to:
Discover what a Sample Remote Worker Program looks like and immerse yourself in lots of valuable information by visiting:
Discover how Brandon is making promoting and managing an online presence affordable and easy for small businesses.
Be sure to share your thoughts about this conversation and submit any questions you have for our guest.
DON’T MISS THE CONVERSATIONS…
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Posted November 18th, 2009
Create an Affiliate Program to Increase Sales for the Holidays!
So you’ve released a new book or some other tele-product and your list just gobbled it up. The first month of your release, sales were jumpin’. Now, they’ve slowed to a crawl. How can you give your sales a jolt in time for the holidays. Well, you can work harder to find, engage and compel new customers or you can recruit a loyal sales force by creating an affiliate program for your product.
Odds are you yourself, whether knowingly or unknowingly, have made a purchase thorough an affiliate. If you have ever clicked through a link on a blog post or and ad that caught your eye to make a purchase, there was most likely an affiliate of that product somewhere that got a cut. So, why not put this trend to work for you?
First things first. What is an Affiliate Program? The affiliate bandwagon is on the fast track these days because it allows people who have bought your product or believe in your offerings to be rewarded a commission for driving new sales to your site. Think of affiliates like your ‘virtual foot soldiers’; they help you to reach people in places online you would not have been able to reach alone.
Why would you want to use an affiliate program? An affiliate program is a great way to build the solidarity of your brand through the powerful web community. It is awesome when your buyers, not only become advocates of your products, but benefit themselves for helping you win more sales. It’s a win, win!
So, how do you set one up? When you think about setting up an affiliate program for your online business, think systems first!
Check your shopping cart solution: This can be a another topic in and of its own. If you are using a shopping cart solution to transact sales, check the features. Some of these programs come with the ability to create affiliate programs within your current set up. This makes setting one up a little easier, since you are already familiar with the system. Tools, structure and automation are key. Affiliate programs should not be set up apart from the shopping cart system itself (unless you have a really deliberate reason for doing so). That is, it should be built in as a feature so that integrating it is simpler. A program that runs separately, if any such thing exists could turn out to be more trouble than it’s worth. Here are a couple of the most popular tools and some of the ones I am familiar with.
What percentage commission should I pay? It depends. Referral payout rates can range from 10-50 percent. However, on average 25% is a good starting point. Of course, you would want to consider the product, its pricing and the affiliate’s time in making your decision. At the end of the day, if the affiliate isn’t enthused about the payout, they won’t make a real effort to get you sales. Be fair to yourself and your affiliates.
Some best practices to ensure success: While the idea of a loyal sales force inspired to bring your products to millions is alluring, Your affiliate campaign can fall flat if you don’t do all that you can to arm your affiliates with tools to make their job easier. This includes creating promotional resources such as:
I love affiliate marketing, because when it’s done right, it provides you the opportunity to get and give all at the same time. In keeping with the generosity based marketing theme this month, this is a great starting point for building this concept into your business model.
Reward your customers and followers for believing in you and everyone wins.
Until next post,
Happy Wishing
Posted November 7th, 2009
Meet Generosity-Based Marketing
It’s the month of Thanksgiving, Christmas is on it’s way and, it’s time to start thinking of how thankful your customers and prospects are for having a relationship with you and your business.
All of us business owners have something in common, we’re in business to give and help solve someone’s problem. However, if we are being honest with ourselves, we often have an expectation that all our “help” will in someway benefit our bank accounts.
The idea of being generous to prospective buyers to establish a relationship and trust that compels them to buy, is not a new concept. In fact, you only need to look as far as the television to find sales ads and special offers calling your name. People have to know, like and trust you in order to part with their hard earned dollars. The Generosity – based Marketing Model does just that!
What is Generosity – Based Marketing and how can it help my business?
The first time I was introduced to this term was by the thought leaders behind the Online Business Management movement, Tina Forsyth and Andrea Lee. In the online world, FREE is the most popular flavor. The generosity model uses the idea of ‘free’ as its feature. Many successful multi-million dollar online businesses use this model and the concept is simple. Generate the perception of ‘usable value’ by guiding prospects through a funneled sampling of your offerings, enticing them to buy at higher and higher levels.
For example, a free report on how to do “X”, can be coupled with a free teleclass on “X” with other related incrementally priced products placed in between. The next step could be encouraging them to enroll in a a higher priced online course or purchasing one-on-one coaching.
Whatever you offer as your freebie, just make sure that what you are providing is something of ‘real’ value and not something thrown together, that makes no sense to the bigger profit picture.
How do I use this model in my business?
According to the Pink Spoon Marketing method, there are eight steps to building a generosity-based model into your business:
1. Discover Your Niche Market
2. Elicit the Problems
3. Find the Solutions
4. Choose Your Products and Packaging
5. Generate Traffic with Integrity
6. Continue to Convert Traffic into Prospects
7. Strengthen the Trust Relationship
8. Pursue a Bold Outrageous, Provocative Position in your Niche Market
Throughout the month, I will be sharing with you more about how to you can leverage the power of this model to build an online business with an endless stream of passive revenue and loyal customers.
Just so you know…
This series was inspired from content from the Pink Spoon Marketing Kit authored by Tina Forsyth and Andrea Lee. To grab your step by step guide to multiple streams success through the art of the ‘FREE TASTE’, visit this product page to learn more:
Posted November 5th, 2009
Obstacle Oriented Vs. Results Oriented: Which are You?
Okay, light bulb moment. Like you, My inbox is filled with a constant stream of information from those “Free Offers” you find all across the web these days. Most of them I peek at from time to time, but there are a few that I look forward to getting.
One is from Steve Little Founder of The Perfect Biz Finder. This week, he sent me a video for folks that want to start an online business. Since I am a fanatic for all things online, I took a peek.
One of the many points that stuck out during the near hour long presentation is the idea of being “obstacle/problem” oriented versus being “outcome/results” oriented.
This stuck me because I have seen the threads via facebook screaming in code for help. See I know a lot of people who have ambitions both online and off that are experiencing setbacks and antagonizing circumstances that seem to be threatening their journey for success. However, its important to understand that to be successful you have to change your perspective when difficulties arise.
Here is an illustration of my point…
This Parking Spot Is Too Far Away…
You know when you drive to the store and you have a wide open parking spot for the taking but you choose to ride around for several minutes, hoping to get one closer? Regardless of whether it’s your lucky day or you end up settling for that wide open far away spot, the fact remains that all the time you’ve spent circling the parking lot wasted more time than you would have just walking a bit further to the entrance.
This is what happens when you are oriented toward o
bstacles or allow the negative to draw you out of your rhythm. You get detoured from your path by spending too much time and energy focusing on beating the obstacle, instead of using the hurdle to create a better outcome for you and your goals.
I Need The Exercise…
Let’s take the same scenario and say you immediately whipped in to the far away parking spot while thinking, “I need the exercise anyway and I’ll just waste time trying to find one closer” . Now, what was an “obstacle” in the previous scenario, is now a catalyst to not only help you more quickly reach your goal, but yields other beneficial results as well.
Highly successful people are able to alter their perspective to achieve their desired results. For them, the glass is always half full! As you wrap up your week, remember—you will experience the greatest challenge right before your greatest success. So, when adversity stops you in your tracks, try looking on the bright side of your situation. The next thing you know, you’ll be looking back as you lecture an audience about how to reach success against all odds!
Find ways to think positively and make adversity work for you and I promise, you’ll be walking right through the entrance of success in no time!
Check out the video that was an inspiration for this post. You’ll be glad you did. If this helps, let me know.
http://www.getaltitude.com/CD394/getignition/ignition_intro_signup.asp
Warm Wishes For Success,
~Kenya