BrandingYOU&Co. » Marketing

How To Create Raving Fans on Facebook to Generate Leads For Your Business

Claire Morawski — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 19:32:38 +0000

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You can spend hours on Facebook chit-chatting, or you can spend 30 minutes per day on Facebook networking and building your business. Facebook is a great tool to network and promote your business, especially if you are involved in Network Marketing, if you are a service professional or an owner of a small business. However, there are some rules to abide by, for Facebook to work for you.

Here are 5 tips which you can start implementing to build a huge fan base and to start generating leads for your business.

1. Setting up your profile. The aim of your profile is for people to get to learn more about you, what is your speciality, and how you can help them. On your home page you would want to add your website to divert traffic to your website.
2. Adding your photos. Add professional photos. Always keep in mind that your clients will be viewing your photos, and would be judging you according to your photos. Also make sure to add any photos of you at a conference, or in some business networking event – this enhances your professionalism and you are viewed as a person who is always learning.
3. Adding friends. Facebook is known as a social network site. Here is where you make friends. But you don’t waste time ‘chit-chatting’. Instead you focus on finding like-minded individuals, who have the same interests as you and who are looking for answers to their problems. When you find a person who you want to connect with, send them a personal message, example ‘Hi ….., I see that you are into branding. So am I. Let’s connect.’ In addition, you have to be consistent, and make it a point to send friend requests and messages to say 30 people a day.
4. Developing a relationship. Once you have your contacts, you have to focus on developing a relationship with them, and becoming a ‘friend’. Focus on helping them, the same way you would care for a friend. Focus on creating value. Share valuable information on Facebook, such as a link to an interesting training or a link to a free ebook, or a link to a website. Can even send them a short welcoming video, for the people to get to know you better.
5. Remembering b’days. Our favourite day is our b’day. It’s a special gesture when someone remembers your b’day and actually sends you a personal greeting. This can easily be done through Facebook.

As always you have to stand out of the crowd, to be remembered. So be creative, and let your own personality come through.

P.S. Get immediate access to an Exclusive Free Training on
How To Turn Facebook Into a Ferocious Animal That Creates Cash On Demand .

P.S.S. To Learn More About Marketing Strategies And How To Use The Internet to Brand Yourself As An Expert In Your Niche Marketing, Lessons Are Being Given At www.BrandingYouandCo.com

To Your Success

Attention All Service Professionals – 5 Simple Ways How to Create an Online Presence to Generate More Business

Claire Morawski — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 14:18:54 +0000

Ever since moving to Toronto I started realizing how different marketing oneself is here, compared to Malta. In Malta, which is a small island in the middle of the Mediterranean, has a population of roughly 400,000. So, word of mouth, the local newspapers, radio and TV stations were the most effective marketing strategies that one would use to brand oneself and one’s business. However, this all changed when I moved to Toronto, and started studying how someone can market effectively to a much larger audience, such as the 2.4 million people who reside in Toronto alone.

This quest led me to the internet solution. I started realizing that if I wanted a hairdresser in Toronto – I would look up ‘hairdresser Toronto’ on the internet. I would check who has a website and what feedback this hairdresser has from the public. This happened whenever I wanted an accountant for my tax returns, an esthetician for my facial, a dress for my brother’s wedding, a place to rent, a particular piece of furniture, a health insurance plan, an instructor for our driving lessons, to buy a car, and more. I always found my answers on the internet, and I am sure I am not alone considering that in 2009 in Canada alone 74.9% of Canada’s population are internet users.

Unfortunately at this day and age, if a service professional (or anyone for that matter) doesn’t have a presence online, they are considered invisible. So, in this article I will be discussing how a service professional can market his / her business online.

Who are the Service Professionals?

According to the Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of Law, a professional service is defined as ‘a service requiring specialized knowledge and skill usually of a mental or intellectual nature and usually requiring a license, certification, or registration’.

So, it could be anyone who provides a ‘skilled’ service. Some examples are hairdresser, esthetician, teacher, accountant, chef, GP, podiatrist, dermatologist, nutritionist, personal trainer, dressmaker, lawyer, photographer, carpenter, massage therapist, interior designer, and so on. This list is not exhaustive, but at least it gets you thinking whether your profession can be classified under a Service Professional.

How to Create an Online Presence?

1. Have a website. I recommend having a self-hosted blog, because
a. you have total control over your website
b. you own your blogs and you are responsible for them
c. it is easy for you to install, maintain and update information
d. blogs do better in Search Engine ranking.
Nowadays you don’t need to know HTML or spend a lot of money to have your own website. I set mine up in 1 day (this is just structurally and not the content). It costs me US$15 annually to have my own domain name, and roughly US$12 per month to host my domain. And through my website’s host I get a free program which I can install on my domain, to be able to have my website.

2. Social Network. Create various accounts with different social media sites, such as Facebook, Linkedin and Meetup. And network – this is a similar concept to how you would network face-to-face, to promote your business. Although one has to keep in mind, that each social media site has its own ‘hidden’ rules that one has to follow, otherwise you risk being pushed to the side and not being taken seriously.

3. Give Value. When people search on the internet, they are primarily looking for information. So the rule of thumb is to give 95% of the time, and expect 5% in return. This means that if for example you are a hairdresser, post regular articles on your blog where you are educating your readers. Examples of topics would be – choosing the best hairstyle for your features, how to take care of your hair during the hot summer months, 5 easy tips on how to maintain healthy hair. Once people find that you are providing value, they would view you as an expert and a person-to-go-to for advice.

4. Build a Relationship. Once you have a loyal following, it is time to build a relationship with your readers. Usually this comes in the form of asking your readers for their email address, so you would be able to send them weekly emails full of valuable information. Never spam or try hard-core selling.

5. Send Updates. When you have a list of people following you, it is easy to keep them updated with any news that you might have. You would do this either by sending an e-mail blast to your readers or by using tools such as Twitter.

How to Benefit from Online Marketing?

Once you are seen as an expert, you can benefit in either of 2 ways:
1. If people are looking for a service professional in your area and they have realized how knowledgeable you are in your niche, then they would come to your salon or office or restaurant.
2. On the other hand, if you are in a different area you can make use of the loyal following by selling online. Examples of items that you can sell are: an e-book which you wrote, products that you work with, and affiliate products.

Visit mySkin&Co to see how I brand myself in my niche of skin treatment and myBody&Co where I focus on providing information on healthy living.

P.S. To Learn More About Marketing Strategies And How To Use The Internet to Brand Yourself As An Expert In Your Niche Marketing, Lessons Are Being Given At www.BrandingYouandCo.com

To Your Success

Review of Aweber – Email Autoresponder

Claire Morawski — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 20:42:00 +0000

I personally use Aweber to build a relationship with my readers, subscribers and customers. In this article I am going to list Aweber’s features and how they can help you in your business, so that you would be able to make the right choice whether Aweber is right for you too.

1. It is simple in design. When you subscribe, there are many training videos, articles, guides and webinars that walk you through the setting-up process and to get familiar with the system. In addition, the core features are easily available through tabs at the top. It personally took me about an hour (maximum 2 hours) of playing with the system to set everything up.

2. Aweber boasts excellent email deliverability rates, so that your email reaches the inbox of your subscribers. Aweber enforces a zero-tolerance anti-spam policy. They even have a built-in spam meter, where you can see the possibility of your email’s spam rate before sending, and it also gives you suggestions on how to lower the score.

3. Grow your list through a signup form on your site. Through Aweber, you can publish a signup form (a web form) on your website, blog or even onto your social media account, to turn people visiting your site into subscribers. You can easily choose from a wide variety of ready-designs, and yet you can still customize them according to your needs. For example you can add various fields to your web form, such as Phone Number as a required or an optional field, or your Subscribers’ Skype IM. In addition, it is also easy to install the web form once you create it.

4. E-mail authentication. Once a reader signs up for your list via a web form on your site, Aweber sends the subscriber to confirm their opt-in status via an authentication email. The authentication email ensures that the reader is serious about subscribing, and it also ensures that Aweber’s spam-free reputation remains so. You can also customize the email authentication, so that it will have ‘a touch of you’ to your new subscriber, and has a higher rate of the subscriber actually accepting. In addition, you can also control the landing page that the subscriber would be taken to, once they confirm that they want to receive information from you (this is excellent, especially if you have 2 lists from 2 different websites).

5. You can use Aweber to send your monthly Email Newsletter, and also to create autoresponders to build a relationship with your subscribers starting the moment they sign up. Autoresponders can welcome new subscribers, educate them about your products, and drive them back to your website. In addition, Aweber has an Autoresponder Send Window feature, where you get to choose the day and time you know it is best for your subscribers to receive emails from you.

6. You can choose from over 135 HTML email templates that are tested for readability, if you love sending colourful, image-rich newsletters, or you can paste in your own template or create one from scratch using the message editor. There is no need to know any HTML.

7. You can have unlimited follow up messages that Aweber will automatically send to your opt-in subscribers. You get to choose the order you want your emails to be sent, and how far apart you would like them to be sent. Aweber lets you know the possibility of your email’s spam rate before sending, so that you can adjust your message accordingly to lower the score. In addition, you can also track all the links in each email.

8. Can send a broadcast to all your subscribers, or you can even choose a particular list. When you send a broadcast, Aweber allows you to monitor to how many subscribers was the message sent to, how many were delivered, and how many were actually opened.

9. Can set up different lists for your prospects and customers, or for different websites – all from the same account. Each list will have a unique list of emails and a unique customized signature box. So if you have 2 websites, you can easily send 2 different lists of emails with a unique call to action in your signature box specific to your subscribers’ interests. In addition, you have the option that Aweber will automatically subscribe or unsubscribe someone from one list when s/he subscribes or unsubscribes from another list. Also, if you already have an existing list of subscribers, you can easily migrate this existing list to Aweber.

10. Can easily integrate your list with many shopping-carts and other third-party applications. For example, if a customer shops at your webstore, the customer will automatically receive an e-mail if they want to be included in your email list. Then, unlimited autoresponders can be set up, such as sending them a follow-up message after 10 days asking them whether they are satisfied with their purchase, sending them a survey, and so on.

11. If you have a blog, you can send Blog Newsletters (RSS to Email). The Blog Broadcaster automatically turns a blog’s RSS feed into email that you can send to readers daily, weekly, monthly or whenever you have something new on your blog. With email bloggers can reach a broader audience than they can with RSS subscribers alone.

12. Aweber offers very detailed and easy-to-read reports. You can track each campaign to see what’s working and what isn’t. For example, you can see how many of the emails you have sent were delivered, how many were actually opened, and you can also track every single click in the email. You can also get a detailed report on your subscribers. For example, when did they join, which list are they on, which was the last e-mail they received, how many emails they have received so far, if they unsubscribed, and so on. In addition, if someone unsubscribes, Aweber asks them to fill out a form for feedback, which you will have access to, to be able to tweak your campaigns accordingly.

13. Aweber also offers powerful testing tools. For example, is your signup form grabbing visitors’ attention (find out through split testing web forms), what is the best time to send your email newsletter, which email title will prompt subscribers to open and read the email? With email web analytics, you will be able to answer these questions and more, and you would be able to tweak your campaigns to be more successful.

14. Customer Service is excellent. These guys are 100% behind their product. Apart from the excellent educational materials such as their articles, videos and webinars, they also offer all users free customer support as much as you need. You can ‘speak’ to real people by phone, email or by live text chat. And this, even though Aweber is easy to use.

15. Aweber is a leading authority among many powerful web stores, online marketers, and industry leaders. Aweber have been in business for over 12 years.

16. Pricing of Aweber grows with your success. For up to 500 subscribers, it is $19 per month or $194 yearly. This price includes unlimited autoresponders, unlimited follow ups, unlimited broadcasts and unlimited campaigns. It is excellent if you have more than one site and would like to manage all of your email marketing in one solution. You would pay more only as your list grows, at a monthly amount billed separate from your Account Plan. For example, for 501 to 2500 subscribers, you pay an addition $10 monthly. This plan is quite straightforward and one of the most reasonable on the market.

17. In addition, Aweber offers a 30 Days Trial for only $1. And if within those 30 days you are not satisfied with the results, Aweber offers a full, hassle-free refund. This is a great way to test Aweber. Click Here And Get Your First Month For Just $1

To Your Success

P.S. To Learn More About How To Use The Latest Technology and Marketing To Make A Fortune Online, Lessons Are Being Given At www.BrandingYouandCo.com

AutoResponder Service – why your business needs an e-mail marketing campaign?

Claire Morawski — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 15:30:03 +0000

What is an AutoResponder?

It is a service which automatically sends e-mails or newsletters to your subscribers. You would have an opt-in box (or web form) tied to your auto-responder, and when someone leaves their e-mail address, the auto-responder immediately starts sending this person e-mails from the list that you have in the back-office of your auto-responder. The e-mails would have been written by you or your team, and would have been uploaded to your auto-responder in a form of a list. In addition, you usually get to choose how far apart you want your e-mails to be sent to your subscribers. And, you can have multiple lists of e-mails targeting different clients.

Why would you need an AutoResponder?

The simple answer is, to build a relationship with your customers. We all know the benefit of having a list of subscribers – apart from the fact that it reflects positively on the value of your company, it also gives you power since it is the subscriber who asked for information in the first place. The key here is to respect that trust, and focus on building a relationship with your subscribers, so you will be viewed as a person or business with valuable information which your customer will benefit from, which would in turn reflect on the percentage of your e-mails opened. So no spamming, and no hard selling. Follow the 80-20 rule – 80% valuable information 20% soft selling.

Who can Benefit from having an AutoResponder?

It works both ways…
 For the entrepreneur who wants to build a relationship with his / her customers
 For the subscribers who want to be more informed about a particular business or a particular niche or a particular topic. The advantage for the customer is that they can unsubscribe at any time – giving them some form of autonomy.

What are the Benefits of having an AutoResponder?

 You can build a list of subscribers from an opt-in box (web form) – we all know that the gold is in the list
 You can link your opt-in box to your auto-responder, so that once someone signs in, she or he would start receiving the e-mails that you uploaded to that list.
 You can focus on building a strong relationship of trust with your subscribers – so that you will be seen as an expert in your niche and the person-to-go-to when they need help in a particular topic of your expertise.
 Because you will be sending an e-mail often, your subscribers are used to it. And then, when, once in a while you send about some product or affiliate link, they don’t find it offensive, and it won’t jeopardize your relationship of trust.
 An auto-responder sends e-mails automatically – sending e-mails manually is not an option as it will take you forever.
 People who opt-in are sent an e-mail immediately. We all know how nowadays everyone is surfing the net, but because of the nature of the internet, everyone seems to have a short attention span, and you would be forgotten immediately unless you capture their attention, and then focus on building a relationship. So an auto-responder will keep building a relationship with the subscribers for you. (The key would be to have an enticing offer which would make your readers subscribe.)
 When you upload a list of e-mails in your auto-responder, you usually give them the order you want them to be sent out, and usually you also get to choose how far apart you want the e-mails to be sent out. So, technically, this relationship-building with your customers is being done on auto-pilot while you are focusing on other stuff in your business, … and it is even working 24 hours for you (even while you sleep)!
 Sometimes you would need to send an e-mail (broadcast) to all your subscribers, irrelevant of how long they have been on your list. This can easily be done through your auto-responder.
 Usually the auto-responder’s e-mail address is white-listed, which means that your e-mails are actually being delivered to your subscribers.
 Through your auto-responder, you are also able to monitor your campaign statistics, such as how many e-mails sent were delivered, how many of them were actually opened and you can also track every single link click in the e-mail. With this information, you are wiser, and you are able to tweak your campaigns to get better response rates.

At what stage in your business (When) should you have an auto-responder?

My answer to this is ‘Today before Tomorrow’. As any business owner knows, it is essential to build lists of one’s customers and prospective customers to be able to keep in touch and soft-sell one’s services. In the long term, your customer list is one of the most valuable assets your business will have. So you need to start collecting your e-mail addresses of your target market from today.

Where should you place your opt-in form?

Your opt-in form should be enticing and in a prominent place. The purpose of this web form is to ‘make’ the reader input their e-mail address to start receiving information from you. So, essentially the opt-in form is a source of lead generation – it is where you start building your list. Once you have them onto your list, you start focusing on building a relationship with your subscribers. So your web form is very powerful.

You can have your web form anywhere where you have a web presence – can be on your website, your blog, your social media accounts, at the end of your articles, and so on. Anywhere where HTML is allowed.

Another idea is to give people an incentive to opt-in. For example, give them a free e-book, or a chance to be in a monthly raffle for a free treatment or a free dinner, in return for their e-mail address.

What to Write in the E-mails?

Keep in mind the 80-20 rule. 80% valuable information that usually offers a solution to your subscribers’ would-be problems, and 20% a soft-sell e-mail. Never hard sell, or just write e-mails where you are selling your services, products, affiliates, etc. As otherwise, this will lead to your subscribers wanting to unsubscribe.

So here are ideas of what you could write:-
 Newsletters
 Tips
 A link to an article that you have posted on your blog
 Any Information that your subscriber would benefit from – example a new video that they should watch, or a book they should read
 Updates on what is happening in your business, and how this can help the subscriber

How Often Should I E-mail?

This is entirely up to you. I would recommend once a week minimum. More often might be too much, while less frequently might not be often enough to do the job of building a relationship of trust.

You might also want to split the lists. Example once a month would be a newsletter, and once a week would be something like ‘Weekly Tips’.

What not to do?

 Don’t spam
 Don’t sell your subscribers information
 Don’t send one off e-mails – be consistent
 Don’t send one off e-mails, which would be just on your product
 Don’t just send e-mails pitching your products – follow the 80-20 rule

I personally use Aweber – it is my preferred auto-responder. Click here, if you would like to check it out.
I would also be writing a Review of Aweber in a future post. Subscribe to the feed so you’ll be the first to know when it is posted.

To Your Success

Social Media Marketing – is it worth your time?

Claire Morawski — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 22:33:08 +0000

A lot of people shun away from Social Media and Social Marketing, because many associate Social Marketing with just sites such as Facebook and often consider this a ‘waste’ of time spent chit chatting. The majority are not aware of how effective Social Marketing is to build a fan base, to brand yourself as an expert in your niche and to generate more traffic to your business. But this is only guaranteed if one knows how to use Social Marketing the right way.

In this article I am going to go over the several different types of sites that make up Social Media, and categorize them in 5 sections.

1. Social Networking (Community Sites):-
These sites are where one enters to network with different kinds of people. Each site is usually for a specific group of people.
 Facebook – student communities
 LinkedIn – manage and share your resume (CV)
 MySpace – friend site
 MeetUp – find common interests and organize meetings
 Twitter – update your followers what you are up to

2. Social Bookmarking (Social News Sites):-
These are the user-submitted and voted news sites where anyone can post stories and take advantage of the traffic flowing through the sites to get targeted visitors. Communities can share their favourite bookmarks, articles, videos, etc – anything that is news.
 Digg – submit links and stories; vote and comment on the content
 Technorati – find what people are saying
 Del.icio.us – store, share and discover web bookmarks
 Reddit – submit, rate and rank news
 StumbleUpon – discover great websites that match your interests

3. Content Sharing Sites:-
Websites where you can generate your own content and share it with the community.
 Wikipedia – contribute and get smart (can create a Wiki for your site)
 Squidoo – create pages (called lenses) for subjects of interest
 HubPages – submit magazine-style articles which are posted as individual webpages (referred to as Hubs)
 Gather – share, earn and gather information
 EzineArticles – expert authors share their best quality original articles

4. MultiMedia Sharing Sites:-
Websites which specialize in all kinds of media sharing and creation.
 YouTube – upload and share your video
 Flickr – manage and share your photos
 SlideShare – upload and share publicly or privately PowerPoint presentations
 JamGlue – create and personalize audio. Upload, record music and remix it.

5. Blogging Sites:-
Blogging platforms allow you publish content directly onto your blog, to communicate and share your knowledge with your customers.
 Blogger – a free blog publishing tool from Google for easily sharing your thoughts with the world.
 WordPress.com – another free blog publishing tool
 Movable Type – build websites, blogs and communities on a single platform
 WordPress.org – own your blog and install on a domain name of your choice

In future articles I will be showing you the different ways of how I use the above multi-faceted marketing strategies to promote my businesses (internet marketing business, service provider offline business, and service provider online business). In the meantime start contributing to the places and get links. Just do it responsibly and the way the other members of each community do it to keep from getting banned. You do NOT want to spam these places.

Be aware – this Social Media trend is HUGE and is extremely under utilized by the majority of online business owners, offline business owners and network marketers. However, be warned… there is a right way and a wrong way to use Social Media and Social Marketing to get massive levels of exposure – including more traffic and more leads – for your business.

If, on the other hand, you are aching to learn immediately the correct way of how to use Social Marketing Strategies, so as to start implementing the strategies ASAP to market your business, then Click Here if you would like to generate leads for your MLM business or Click Here if you would like to generate traffic for your Online, Offline or Small Business, especially if it is service related. You would need to input your e-mail to get access to some phenomenal training, and a chance to have a coaching session with me where I will personally show you the ropes and how to specifically use Social Media Marketing for your particular business.

To Your Success

How to Market Online To Generate an Income

Claire Morawski — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 18:54:10 +0000

Whether you are involved in a Network Marketing Company (MLM) or you are a service professional or you are a small business owner, internet marketing can help you explode your business. However, one has to have a strategy in place for the marketing to be effective.

Branding YOU as the Expert

The NUMBER ONE rule of thumb is that you have to Brand You and Your Company as a leading thought in your industry, to succeed on the internet. You have to respect the ‘law’ that first you help people before asking for their business. It is human nature that when people start viewing you as an expert in your field, they automatically do what you tell them to do – as they have come to respect your opinion and trust you that you are advising them for their own benefit. You have become a source of authority in their life – so they buy from you, they ‘hire’ you as their service professional, they follow your guidance, …

To become known as an expert in your niche, you mainly start by helping people. You have to earn their trust, by showing them that you are a leader in your industry and you know what you are talking about. But first they have to experience first hand that you know what you are talking about and that they can trust you. Hence, a complete no-no is pitching your sales talk at first sight. Rather at the first meeting offer some tips on how they can better their situation.

Let me give you an example for all this to be clear. Let’s say you are a florist by profession and have a store (can be online or offline). You are in an online forum when someone complains that they bought these flowers and after just 1 day they died. So you would write in the forum about tips how to make your flowers survive longer than 1 day – you would go into how to choose flowers when buying, if to cut the stem or not, how often to change the water, what room temperature should the flowers be and so on. At the end of your comment, you would write your name and your website address. This would position you as an expert, and people would come to visit your website and then your store. Compare the above to instead leaving a comment and writing something like this: ‘Buy your flowers from www.FxLxOxWxExRxS.com – guaranteed to last you for 10 days.’ I am sure you realize which comment will generate more traffic.

Who can Market Online?

Anyone who is alive and breathing can use the power of the internet to market and brand oneself and one’s company.

If you are a Service Professional or a Solo Entrepreneur, you can use the internet to brand yourself as an expert in your field. Set up a blog and market yourself as a thought leader in your niche, by writing articles and giving free knowledge to your readers. For example if you are an accountant you can write articles on how to calculate your yearly income tax, how to save on your taxes, simple tips for business owners, and so on.

Same goes if you are a Small Business Owner – use the internet to brand your business as the leading company in your niche. If you are an owner of a hairdressing salon – write articles on how to have a hair cut that suits your features, the latest trends, 5 easy tips on how to ensure healthy hair, and more.

Let’s now look at someone who is involved in an MLM company. You were given a generic company website, you were not taught how to market effectively, and hence you are suffering from a lack of leads. So you turn to the internet to brand yourself as an expert in your niche, and hence start generating endless leads. Let us say that you are involved in a company selling vitamins. So you create a blog where you market yourself as an expert in vitamins – you write articles on why vitamins are important, how many vitamins a day is needed, what vitamins to avoid if you are breast feeding, and on and on. This will brand you as an expert in vitamins, and people would automatically follow your advice and buy vitamins from you. Now in Network Marketing, one makes a living from selling but also from recruiting. So it is also important to brand yourself as an expert in recruiting. You can do this by targeting those individuals who are aspiring entrepreneurs. (Note: not your friends and family, nor the strangers at the mall, nor the leads that you call off a list, but aspiring entrepreneurs who have always dreamt of being their own boss). You would write articles to teach them on how to start their own business, how to market online, how you recruit people, and so on.

One thing I have to emphasize is that the information that you supply to people has to be the truth – as otherwise if someone finds out that you have been tricking them, then your reputation and business takes a quick downhill turn.

How to Market Online

Your next question must be how do I market online and brand myself as an expert?! You have to use marketing strategies to generate traffic to your website – some of them are free and others are paid strategies. An easy-to-understand example, which many of you are familiar with, is offline marketing – stores and other businesses use different mediums, such as newspapers, magazines, press releases, postcards, radio, TV to advertise and generate traffic to their store or business. Exactly the same goes on in the internet. There are different marketing strategies that you can make use of to advertise you and your business, to generate traffic to your online store (your website) and / or your offline business.

One of my favourite marketing strategy is blogging, and hence article marketing. I am sure that you have realized that having an online presence is a must nowadays for any business. If you don’t have an online presence, you are invisible to the world, and generating business would be harder. Some businesses choose to have a static website, however I strongly prefer a self-hosted blog where you are constantly updating information and constantly communicating with your clients. (Note: creating a self-hosted blog is easy to setup – no knowledge of HTML needed, and you can set up your own self-hosted blog with one 90 minute training webinar. You can Click Here for the free training) With blogging comes article writing, where you can even submit your articles to different directories – this marketing strategy will help to continue branding yourself as the person-to-go-to in your niche, and will help to promote your blog as a platform to your business.

Other marketing strategies include using social media such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn to brand you as an expert, and direct people to your blog, and hence to your business (can be online store or offline business). Using paid strategies such as Pay Per Click ads and Paid Press Releases is another form of generating traffic to your business. Leaving comments on other blogs, participating in forums and interacting on the internet is also effective, especially in the beginning. Advertising for free on Craigslist and Backpage is another option. E-mail marketing is another effective way to keep a correspondence with your list of readers and clients.

As you can see, there are many ways one can ‘advertise’ on the internet. But MY ADVICE TO YOU is to choose one marketing strategy, or maximum two, and stick with it till you start seeing results. Keep tweaking and testing till you become an expert in that marketing strategy, and your conversions start pouring in. Always follow the mantra ‘expect to give before expecting anything in return’ – give out free valuable information (not spam and not pitching your sales story) that will brand you as a leader in your niche, and eventually this will earn you big bucks. And also keep in mind that using the internet as a medium to brand yourself as an expert takes time – so be patient but consistent – your determination will eventually pay off big time.

I personally use MLSP as my marketing system – it is my educational platform where I constantly learn effective marketing strategies that brand me as an expert in my niche, strengthens my reputation, and consequently gives me great leverage and power to explode my business. If you would like to test drive the same system, then visit www.BrandingYouandCo.com for more information.

To Your Success

A Review of MLM Lead System Pro (MLSP) – Part 2

Claire Morawski — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 15:32:56 +0000

This is a continuation of MLM Lead System Pro Review Part 1. So first I would recommend you reading Part 1 before tackling Part 2.

What is it that makes MLSP so good over other systems?

 The training – you are taught how to brand you and not their system – they are interested in seeing you achieve the success that you deserve.
 Customizable down to every single last detail on your landing pages – you can get to choose your brand name, the layout, colours, template, title, subtitle, body content, meta title, meta description, meta key words, subdomains, video, pictures, …
 Can add separate articles linked to your landing pages – like this your landing page can rank for keywords, as the search engines would now view your landing page as a website. As usually the search engines don’t give any rank to landing pages.
 Can track every hit your landing pages get, including unique visitors.
 Can create unlimited number of ad campaigns with this system and target anybody, anywhere, and in any niche. Example can buy one domain from Go Daddy, where you will have free subdomains – and each subdomain can have a different landing page. For example I have my main on www.BrandingYouandCo.com, then I have my 5 day training on how to set up your online business and brand yourself online at http://training.BrandingYouandCo.com, on http://company.BrandingYouandCo.com I have a presentation for my primary company, and http://webinar.BrandingYouandCo.com I have an invite for the weekly webinar. And what’s cool is that each campaign can be linked to a different list from my autoresponder, where I target each list differently, and can create a form for each campaign to include it wherever I want – my blog, facebook, within a post, …. All this with the same monthly price – no additional fees.
 A community of members, including some top producers in the industry on Skype, as well as a forum, and tech support. As far as I am concerned, I always had my questions answered within 24 hours max, if not immediately.

What are you expected to do once you join?

There is a ‘Getting Started Section’ showing you exactly step-by-step how to set up the system. Each step also includes a video showing you how to go about it. You will buy a cheap domain name from Go Daddy, set-up your affiliate links, and set up your autoresponder – I use Aweber, which is an automatic system which will send your e-mails for you to your leads. If you are new – expect to spend quite a few hours to set it all up.

From my experience, if in the beginning you are not comfortable with making videos with you talking on them, then don’t step out of your comfort zone – just add a picture of yourself or add one of MLSP’s default videos or your ‘upline’s’ video – you will still do well with MLSP. Then once you start seeing it work, and putting some steady cash in your pocket, then you will be motivated, encouraged and more confident to be bolder and add videos and maybe even your own trainings.

Next step is where the training and the consistent work begins. The trainings can be quite addictive, so my advice is to first focus on building your website, customizing your welcome videos and video for your landing pages, writing articles, and generating traffic to your sites first, then watch and listen to the training calls. And in the beginning, only go over enough training videos to get you by generating your first traffic to your new website, as you’ll soon find out that experience can be your best judgement whether something will work for you. I would recommend focusing on one strategy in the beginning – choose between Facebook Marketing, Linkedin Marketing, Article Marketing – I personally use Article Marketing as my main traffic generation marketing strategy. Once you join MLSP, I would guide you as to which videos are important for you in the beginning to help you start generating traffic.

Is MLSP too saturated?

With MLSP you have the advantage that the more you customize your marketing system, the more unique your websites will look and the more you brand yourself not the MLSP system. This will eliminate the problem that other systems have – where you find everyone with the same default website with similar videos.

The fact that there are hundreds of programs out there, all with the same company cookie-cut website trying to promote their primary program, shouldn’t discourage you at all. It should only worry you if these people were instead promoting a cash-flow inducing funded proposal system like MLSP.

In addition, there is no competition out there, as unfortunately, due to various reasons, 95% of network marketers fail, therefore your real competition is hard to find. And you are actually promoting a system and a training that teaches ‘how to market your business and how to brand you’ that any online business desperately needs to learn and implement to succeed.

How Much Is All This Going To Cost Me?

 Monthly price of $47 (a membership fee)
 Trial period for a nominal fee
 Other tools that you need – an autoresponder – I use Aweber, buying a cheap domain name from Go Daddy (these are the basics), then you can add other tools depending on what marketing strategy you are adopting to generate traffic (I personally use Article Marketing which is free, although I use a software called Automatic Article Submitter to help me out, to make my life easier – saving me time and money)
But these are all minimal costs that will put your business in profit, as soon as you have the system set up and you are starting to drive traffic to your website.

My Sincere Conclusion

MLSP is a fantastic system. Without it I would definitely not be where I am today. But please join MLSP for the right reasons, and if you are prepared and determined to prosper online, then it is an obvious choice that you can’t do much without MLSP.

If, on the other hand, you are willing to give it a try, you are dead serious about taking your life and business to the next level, and would like to join a system which would teach you how to brand you as an expert in your niche, then START TODAY by simply signing up in the box to your top right, for this Wednesday’s FREE training.

Immediately in your inbox, you will receive an e-mail containing…
1. a link to my personal schedule where you can set up a free coaching-session with me, where we will plan your course of action to achieve the success you deserve,
2. a link to a recorded training (with compliments from me, especially for YOU) – it will give you a taste of the value of the trainings, but especially it will get you started RIGHT NOW on your journey of building your own self-hosted blog.
The follow-up e-mails will contain an invite to join us on Wednesday’s trainings, and valuable newsletters with down-to-earth internet marketing tips, which will guarantee you success.

Will see you on the inside…

Click on Banner

To Your Success

A Review of MLM Lead System Pro (MLSP) – Part 1

Claire Morawski — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 15:27:56 +0000

You might have landed on this article if you are researching MLM Lead System Pro and would like to learn more about this system and how it can help you in your business. In this review I won’t disappoint you as I’ll give you a detailed outline of how the system works, for you to be able to make your next step in your business.

However, if you are new to how business is done over the internet, and you just happened to land on this page, then I urge you to read this article as it will change the way you will look at things in the future, and how you will operate your offline business.

How Things Are Done On The Internet

Switching your business from offline to online to generate more leads is relatively easy and will ignite your business. However, there are some certain rules, tools and systems that you definitely want to have in place, for your business to prosper.

For example, if offline you were promoting your business through calling prospects, sending out newsletters and flyers, advertising on the local newspaper and other such things, with the internet it works pretty much the same although you can have an automated system which works for you 24 hours a day, 365 days a year – even when you are asleep and on vacation.

Top producers in the internet world practice attraction marketing where they build an online presence to brand themselves as the person-to-go-to in their niche and promote funded proposals to generate income. MLSP is both an attraction marketing system and a funded proposal rolled into 1 amazing system.

What will MLSP do for you?

Here is a list of things that MLSP offers and how these will help you:
 It is an attraction marketing system, providing you with fully customized and repeatedly tested
o Landing Pages – it is a page where people leave their e-mail address for something in return such as a training video or an e-book. Since this Lead Generation Page is fully customizable, it builds your list and your brand, not MLSP’s.
o Introduction Pages – where your opt-ins (the people who left you their e-mail address and optional phone number) will have access to their video training or downloadable e-book.
o Sales Pages – tells people about MLSP – testimonials, etc, and a price at the end – for people to join MLSP.
 Top notch training via members’ area back office (archived) plus weekly training calls with top network recruiters – you’ll learn from the best for your business to keep propelling forward. Note: I offer this weekly webinar for free to my guests/readers of my blog, but if you want to access the archives and to have the whole system you would need to become a member.
 MLSP is what we call a funded proposal. It increases your cash flow, as even if people don’t join your primary business or MLSP, they can still buy from you products that will help their business. The affiliate programs are all top tier programs that offer the best services, products, and e-books in the entire industry.
 28 follow-up e-mail messages that have your affiliate links in them. The emails have been tested for effectiveness, and they provide value to your leads (not spammy at all). These e-mails are fully customizable and they allow you to build a long-term relationship with your leads.

Who is it for?

The main reason why Brian Fanale, Norbert Orlewicz and Todd Schlomer created this system was to teach struggling MLMers how to market effectively and how to brand themselves first and not pitch in their business opportunity to strangers. And this system has worked wonders, as a lot of people involved in network marketing have failed miserably because they are not taught how to market effectively.

However, I also use this system effectively to brand myself and my offline business on the internet. You’ll find that most of the capture pages and the videos that you add can easily be customized to your needs, and the marketing training can easily be adapted to be valid for creating any business online. For example, you can easily use the same system (mainly the training) to brand you if you are a service professional such as a personal trainer. In addition, you might enhance your personal training prospects, and maybe decide to join an MLM company or just use affiliate marketing to promote some products related to personal training or to enhance your offline personal training business.

So, although MLSP mainly targets struggling MLMers, I have also used it effectively with the solo entrepreneur, the small business owner, the service professional and the next aspiring entrepreneur. After all, MLSP is a lead generation system – and who, of those who want to build an online presence and brand himself / herself on the internet, doesn’t want to generate leads?!

Who is it NOT for?

MLSP is a system and they offer you good training on how to market, but it is you who is responsible for the hard work to generate traffic to your websites, and be creative as to ways to build a relationship, brand you and to convert your leads into paying customers. However, the system and the tools and the training are what will propel your business forward.

An interesting comparison that I like is comparing MLSP to fishing. So they will give you an excellent state-of-the-art fishing rod, they will tell you from where to buy tasty bait, they will train you how to fish, but then it is entirely up to you to choose your strategies as to what time is it best to go fishing, the best season, the best place and so on.

So, for those lazy individuals who expect to buy into a system and they just sit on the sofa waiting for the money to fall onto their lap, this system is not an option. This is no easy get-rich scheme system – and thanks God for that.

In the MLM Lead System Pro Review Part 2 tomorrow we will discuss:

What is it that makes MLSP so good over other systems?
What are you expected to do once you join?
Is MLSP too saturated?
How Much Is All This Going To Cost Me?
and my sincere conclusions.

To Your Success

A Review of the Automatic Article Submitter Software

Claire Morawski — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 15:13:28 +0000

As most of you know, Article Marketing is one of my favourite marketing strategies, since it enables me to:
 offer my readers valuable information,
 build a relationship of trust with my clients,
 be viewed as the-person-to-go-to by my ‘fan-base’,
 build a successful blog,
 brand myself and establish my reputation.

In addition, since I also currently use Article Marketing to drive 90% of my website traffic, I was on the lookout for the best article software which would allow me to boost my work. David Wood, who has personally tried many article submission and creation software, introduced me to Automatic Article Submitter. After checking it out for myself, and seeing some training calls by David showing how he personally uses it, I decided that this is the software for me.

I have purchased it and personally use it every single day for my own business.

What’s so powerful about AAS?

Milan Kosanovic created this software, because of a need of an article submitter that does EVERYTHING that a successful article marketer needs in order to really dominate his / her niches with articles.

Some of its powerful features are:
 submits to hundreds of good quality article directories
 automatically creates and confirms article directory accounts for you – including confirmation of e-mails
 gets your article properly submitted to the sites you want them submitted to, puts them in the correct category without having to manually look at each and every site.
 can vary the article directory site lists so you can get massive incoming links and massive incoming traffic
 automatic submission passes you the actual messages that the directories show after the submission – allowing you to know whether the submission failed or worked
 automatically creates pen names (can do this manually too) and provides an easy way to manage and use them for each article submission.
 completely automates the submission process and schedules submission times for multiple articles, so your article marketing campaign can be run on autopilot, while using separate pen name so your niches aren’t leaked and you build credibility in your niches
 allows you to ‘spin’ your article with a dictionary of 20,000+ related words
 spinning your articles, so you have more than one version of each article, which can be used on your site and submitted to article directions as well
 checks your article and provides keyword analysis and spell check before you submit an article
 figures out the keyword density and word counts of your articles before submission, so you don’t have to waste time and energy resubmitting rejected articles

As you can see, this is a complete article marketing tool for elite article marketers – there is nothing on the internet which is remotely close to as powerful as AAS, there is definitely nothing as simple to use, and there is no other software that can do everything that this can, all rolled into one…

How does it work?

The first time you use Automatic Article Submitter, you need to first create an account with all the directories, but then the software will automatically respond to each e-mail to verify your account. Then you need to choose a category for each directory. This does take a bit of time the first time around, but then all this is saved in your software, and the next time you use it, it will only take a few minutes and a few clicks of a button to submit your article to multiple directories.

Everyday I write and spin an article. So after writing my article, I upload it to my website, then I copy and paste the article into the Automatic Article Submitter Software. I spin the article, where I personally rewrite each sentence at least twice – it takes a bit of time, but it rewards me with legitimate, good quality versions of my original article, which in turn intensifies my reputation. Next, I insert 3 variations of a good headline and a powerful signature box with a strong call to action. I select a group site I want to submit my article to – it will have all the categories selected, since this was done the first time around. I hit the submit button, and the software automatically submits my article with different variations to multiple good quality directories.

How do I benefit from AAS?

What I like about Automatic Article Submitter is the fact that I spin the article myself. There are software which does the spinning for you, but unfortunately you end up with an article full of nonsense. I prefer spending a bit of time extra on this stage, but in the end I am confident that my articles are of good quality. What the software will do, though, is spin those sentences around to create multiple variations of the same article for you, so that when the article is submitted to the different directories, then the search engines view these articles as all different. Hence, improving your articles’ ranking.

In addition, because now you have a wide presence on the internet through your content-rich article, your traffic to your main website will increase dramatically, leading to more leads and conversions.

Another aspect that is worth mentioning is that Automatic Article Submitter does extend an offer to you to become an affiliate and a living proof that Milan Kosanovic’s Automatic Article Submitter Software is essential to any business online.

The software currently costs a ridiculously cheap one-time payment of $97, but it might eventually go up to its original price of $127. There is a 90 Days Money Guarantee, which means that if you are dissatisfied with the software’s effectiveness, Milan will disable your copy and process a full refund. It comes with ample training videos to help you to make the most of this stellar piece of software.

Get Your Automatic Article Submitter TODAY to start generating REAL traffic and to BRAND YOU as an expert in your niche.

To Your Success

8 Cool Things About Blogging

Claire Morawski — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 15:06:58 +0000

What exactly is a blog?

The purpose of this article is not to define a blog. There are a lot of articles on the internet which go into detail on what a blog is. Check out Blog by Wikipedia – the free encyclopedia and Introduction to Blogging by WordPress.org for detailed articles on ‘What is a Blog?’. To make sure that we are on the same level though, I will share with you this short video which clearly defines ‘what is a blog?’ in a visual nutshell. Then we will continue with the article, and discuss how blogging can change your world…

Blogs vs Traditional Websites

Let’s first start with some of the positive things about blogs. In the beginning blogs where viewed as a personal diary – this is not the case anymore, although there are blogs written about personal aspects of one life. Nowadays blogs are mainly a place where one posts VALUABLE information – and I can’t stress enough the value in the word ‘Valuable’ – blogs are NOT a place where one writes garbage and scammed articles, as like this the life of the blog will be very short lived. People don’t like going to blogs to read about this product and that, unless it’s professional reviews and there is also other valuable information where the reader can benefit from.

With that out of the way, let’s go over 8 cool things about blogs, that I like:

1. they are dynamic. In the sense, that unlike traditional website which are static, blogs are changing all the time – depending on how often the ‘author’ updates his/her blog. If there is always valuable information, people keep coming time and time again to the blog to read the recent information, will subscribe to the feed to be updated through their inbox about the recent post, and eventually the ‘author’ will be viewed as an expert and as the person-to-go-to in his/her area of expertise.
2. they are interactive. I write a post, someone leaves a comment, I comment back, another person leaves a comment, I comment back, and on and on it goes. With blogs there is a communication going on and a sense of something ‘alive’ behind the computer screen, which with traditional websites this could not be done. And people LOVE leaving and reading comments, especially when the ‘author’ comments back. I have seen blogs where the post was written 3 years back and people are still leaving comments. The more comments one has, the more the blog is viewed as professional and the ‘author’ as an expert, because it’s the way people psychologically think.
3. posts are archived. Your posts will still be accessible and ‘pulled’ by the search engines when someone researches one of your keywords – even years on. So all the hard work that one puts into writing articles will not die after a few days or months. In addition, the posts go in archives, and one can easily access them through a search box, or by means of category or date, through your blog. So although on the home page of your blog there might only be a few posts, at the back there is a ton of information that can be easily accessible. So one can spend hours on a good blog.
4. easy to create & update. Another thing which I simply love about blogs is that one does not need to know any special computer language (like html) to be able to create one’s own blog. Nowadays it’s so easy to build a blog and to update it regularly. I am in favour of self-hosted blogs where you own the blog, as opposed to a blog where it is hosted somewhere else where you don’t have any control. Although building such a blog (self-hosted) takes a bit more time and determination, it’s worth the effort, knowing that you can fully customize it how you want and that you own it. Also, it’s so easy to add videos, pictures, link to social media accounts, recorded training calls, audio recordings, forums, shopping cart, …
5. they are your voice. The ‘author’ or blogger is completely free to design what information and what kind of message he /she wants to convey to his / her readers. In addition, the blogger can choose a topic he / she wants to write about – usually blogs revolve around 1 topic, and can choose if he /she wants to blog as a hobby, part-time or as a professional – with the difference being of how often one posts an article and how much work you want to put into it, and hence how much money one wants to earn from blogging.
6. can be a stand-alone business. Full-time bloggers decide to blog professionally and earn an income from blogging. There are many ways in which one can monetize one’s blog – look out for another article dealing with ‘Monetizing Your Blog’.
7. can supplement an existing offline business. Creating a blog can help your company be regarded as a thought leader within your industry. In addition, prospective clients can read your blog, interact, and purchase products and services from you.
8. can enhance your career. Through blogging, and hence greater visibility, one can experience positive career and business impacts, and build a reputation for thought leadership in your industry.

The Very Few Disadvantages That I Can Think Of

1. one has to commit. If you want your readers to keep coming back for more, there needs to be articles or other type of information posted regularly for them to read, as otherwise your blog will die a slow sure death. Depending on your reasons for blogging, then this is a clear indication of how often one should post a new article. At least 2 per week – or you can have a ‘rock’ post once a week, and other small supporting articles for the rest of the week.
2. too personal. One has to balance out what to write. Some people keep it strictly business, although a lot of readers like reading blogs because it makes the blogger human – so some might decide to put in a bit of personal information. One has to be prudent and realistic what information to place on one’s blog – you don’t want your reputation, business or career to be put in jeopardy.
3. controversial topics. Same goes for controversial and radical topics – one has to weigh really well what to write about. It’s ok to place your opinion about someone or something, but remember too much negativity will after a while get boring, and a blog can be potentially viewed by 1.6 billion people.
9. too much spam. I bring up this topic once more, as it is the basis of a good blog with many viewers and subscribers, and a ‘ghost’ blog. People search the internet for valuable information – the more ‘free’ value you can give your readers the more they will visit again and again. Then once you build a relationship and you are viewed as an ‘expert’ in your field, then you can start looking for ways to monetize your blog.

For additional information read this interesting 2009 Annual Study on the Growth and Trends in the Blogoshpere by Technorati. The introduction is by Jennifer McLean and the 5 consecutive reports by Matt Sussman

P.S.

If you are ready to take over the blogoshpere, and would like to create your own professional blog and learn how to monetize it, then gain access to Claire Morawski’s Training, where you will be taught in easy-to-follow steps how to create your own blog.

To Your Success