unique

Mumbai Airport goes live on Facebook and Twitter

by Paul Joseph July 12, 2011 Featured

First airport in India to go live on Twitter and Facebook Mumbai International Airport Pvt. Ltd.(MIAL) today announced the launch of the social media initiative for Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport(CSIA). CSIA has the unique distinction of being the first and only airport in India to go live on social media with a dedicated Facebook page and Twitter handle. You can connect with CSIA… (Visit Yourstory.in for full news, other content, and much more!)

Tagged as: content, india, social-media, twitter, unique, yourstory-in

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4 Mantras to Personal Branding Success

by Paul Joseph June 27, 2011 Featured

Today’s marketplace is constantly evolving. It’s vibrant and dynamic, irrespective of the state of the economy. It’s part-real, part-virtual. And this environment has been a breeding ground for independent-minded and independent professionals, making it incredibly important to stand out. Personal branding has become an all-important mantra for those people whose business is all about what they can offer as individuals. In a cluttered environment, how can you create a personal brand that stands out? Here are 4 simple mantras that could help you fashion your own unique personal brand. But, remember, this is not a blueprint; just some tried and tested steps. The most important aspect about personal branding is the word ‘personal.’ Create your own unique chart to personal branding success. Mantra 1: Honesty is the best personal branding policy You can’t fake who you are, online or in person. Who you are is what the personal brand should be about. People relate to honesty and make long lasting connections based on the real you. When you fake a personality, you won’t be able to keep it up forever, and the followers you have accrued will fall by the wayside the minute the façade comes off. A great example about honest Personal Branding is Zen Habits’ blogger, Leo Babauta. After 4 years of blogging about personal goals and realizing his dreams, Leo has some 200,000 subscribers and his blog has been ranked the No.1 blog of the year, two times in a row, by TIME magazine. Whether you want to start a blog, a small business or become a consultant, you can apply Leo’s approach. By behaving and working in ways that you are truly comfortable with, not only are you happier, but you also help people build trust and confidence in you. Leo’s cult is only growing by the day, and he’ll continue to wield influence, if he continues to live and preach honestly. A growing number of gurus in the self-help space, where personal branding is very important, lose followers, because sooner or later, they’re ‘exposed’ for being something they said they weren’t. Mantra 2: What’s your middle name? Think hard. In high school, did kids call you Tom-cool head-Jackson or Sarah-math wiz-Smith? Or something not so flattering? Whatever your strengths and weaknesses are, they are unique. They will set you apart from hundreds of thousands of others, peddling the same goods as you. Leveraging your Unique Selling Point, is far more than just having a logo or a catchy slogan that talks about your special quality. It’s living your Unique Selling Point. Heard of Anthony Bourdain? Sure you have. Gordon Ramsay? Sure you have. They are both loud, angry, and aggressive people but also world famous chefs. Their signature qualities aren’t typically seen as positive or good. But the fact is, these very qualities make them unique individuals with something, unique to offer. Make the most of what is unique about you. Use it to your advantage. Surely, throughout their careers, Bourdain and Ramsay may have been advised to tone down their ‘loudness’. Ramsay, being more aggressive, might have been branded arrogant and abusive, but it is these very qualities, while making his sous-chefs’ lives miserable, makes his personal brand come alive. A very important lesson in personal branding is to accept who are, and work on those very qualities to build a brand that’s unique and different. Mantra 3: No money in anonymity Online presence these days, involves leaving your personal brand behind, wherever you go – whether it’s posting on forums, responding to blog posts, maintaining a blog, tweeting or creating online profiles on various networks. There is literally no money for those who want to stay behind the scenes these days. Increasingly, employers ask for twitter accounts and blog addresses to be mentioned on resumes. In fact, these resumes need to be uploaded on a personal website too! Establishing online presence or presence within professional networks in your area of expertise is a crucial first step in building a person brand. While social media and the internet are still evolving in many ways, privacy concerns frequently emerge. It may be tempting to share everything about yourself, but in the process of building a personal brand, do remember not to reveal personal information like home numbers and address. Mantra 4: Look up, but don’t imitate If you take the blogging world as an example, the phenomenal success that some bloggers have achieved, simply blogging about day-to-day things like personal goals, has spawned thousands of replicas. But, the truth is, there are only one or two stars in the sphere. Chris Guillebeau is a star ‘travel hacker.’ He travels around the world, at a fraction of the normal cost, by manipulating travel miles, reward points and frequent flyer bonuses. Through his newsletter, where he initially shared travel hacking tips, he has attracted millions of followers. He’s got book deals about living a non-conformist life, his career, is literally made. But he has also spawned hundreds of other bloggers like him who want to travel, write about it and live off those earnings, but only a very small number has succeeded, and only remotely. Building his personal brand was an arduous journey for Chris. He shares his difficulties in many blog posts, where he talks about writing assignments at top dailies that paid pittance, about how he shared information for free and relied on donations from readers. Personal brand building is a difficult journey and there is no one road to success, you can have mentors who inspire you but imitating their every move will only make you a rip-off. With that, we come to not just the end of this article, but also the essence of it. In an effort to build a personal brand, acquire millions of followers on twitter or subscribers to your blog posts, or that big, half-a-million dollar project, don’t forget who you are. Preetam Kaushik is a freelance writer/independent columnist and an avid blogger. He is a web 2.0 expert and writing consultant serving a wide array of clients. Read more about Preetam here .

Tagged as: business, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, environment, marketing-strategies, personal, time, unique

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Why Keeping It Real Is Your Best Selling Tactic

by Paul Joseph June 20, 2011 Featured

Greetings once more fellow entrepreneur, this week I have something quite unique and extraordinary to share. Yesterday, I interviewed Shaune Clarke , and what began as a 45 minute interview spilled into nearly two hours as we took a free fall into the mind of one of the most uniquely gifted entrepreneurs I’ve encountered. Because Shaune shared such a wealth of information, I’ve had to edit the interview into several parts, so today we’re looking at the first part, in which Shaune shares with us his insights for entrepreneurs about creating your own game , the 1/2 step away market , unwarranted sales resistance , and the art of graceful persuasion as it relates to building trust through authenticity and our unique giftedness. Phew! And all this in under 20 minutes! You can just imagine what we covered in two hours! So, let us begin, come and join me at the edge to take a leap into the farthest reaches of the unique genius of Shaune Clarke Creating Your Own Game One of the comments that  people consistently make about Shaune Clarke, is that he’s not like anyone else they’ve met in the business he’s starring in, whether it’s Speaking Training , Copywriting , Internet Marketing , Interviewing or Natural Health . Shaune explains that most people will often compare themselves to competitors and try to compete with them, when really, there’s no reason to do this. Shaune learned from his experience as an extremely successful copywriter, that having something different equates to having something valuable, providing there is a market for it. Shaune says that 95% of the time, there is a market, and there are already people in that market spending money. After Shaune had hired one of the top gun copywriters to write sales copy for him and it flopped, he thought, “You know what? I didn’t like that style of sales copy, I wouldn’t respond well to it, so there must be others who would feel the same.” So he invested time and money into learning about how others wrote sales copy, then set about writing in his own unique style that was more aligned with his own values and preferences. This turned out to be so successful, that within 6 months , he couldn’t keep up the demand for his work and he was asked to train other copywriters. Shaune realized two things through this experience. One was that bringing his unique gifts to his work was extremely valuable and lucrative , and training others to emulate his style would not work either. For his clients in his trainings, learning to find their own unique style and inner giftedness and bring that to their work was going to be far more valuable and lucrative to them as well. The Half A Step Away Market Shaune explains that the market is always changing and evolving, and doing so rapidly. The established players are often not able or willing to adapt or change to the market as it evolves, so when we come into the market with something new, there are clients already in the market who are going to resonate with what we’re offering. He also speaks about the 1/2 step away market , which is the people who are at the very edges of the market. These clients have a problem that needs solving, but there’s currently no one in the industry that has communicated to them in a way that resonates with them, and therefore draws them from the edges of the market into it. Everyday, someone who has not spent money in an industry will begin to invest their money in it. There are people both in your market and right at the edges who will resonate with your unique style and gifts that you bring to your business. Unwarranted Sales Resistance Shaune explains further that all clients will experience something he calls unwarranted sales resistance . This is because all of us have had an experience of spending money before on products and services and not getting our problem solved. This means someone’s previous bad experience is going to be projected onto us when they are considering buying from us. This is unwarranted sales resistance because it has nothing to do with us , it is related to a previous experience our client has had, and it is being projected onto the current situation. Our role as business people is to just be aware of this, and to maintain our certainty of the value and quality of our products and services and communicate this elegantly to our clients. It doesn’t involve pushing or comparing. It’s a matter of understanding that there is an element of risk involved in spending money, and the biggest thing is not to try to sell somebody on our products or services, but to build trust. The Art Of Graceful Persuasion Shaune goes on to say, “We don’t need a sales formula, we need a formula for imbuing authenticity into our work which inherently builds trust .” Shaune is acutely aware that his speaking training clients experience a far greater degree of competence, confidence and authenticity when their presentation is imbued with their own unique gifts. He says, “Speaker training should adapt to you, you should not have to adapt to speaking training.” The more our unique giftedness is allowed to be present on our work, the more authenticity there is to it, and the greater the level of certainty and trust we can build with our clients. “We’re all very good at persuasion when we’re self motivated, like persuading our partner to go to a particular restaurant or holiday location or getting the kids to do their homework,” Shaune explains. But when it comes to exchanging money for goods and services, we can get tangled in an uncomfortable and encumbered selling process, when it really doesn’t have to be like that. The art of graceful persuasion is being aware the combination of unique skills, insights and information that you bring to your business, and using these to bring authenticity to your work. This inherently builds trust with our clients so that they understand that we are going to give them quality goods and services, and they will have their problem solved. Shaune’s speaker training is really a method for gaining a greater depth of understanding and self awareness of your unique giftedness and learning how to communicate this to your clients. This builds trust and moves clients through unwarranted sales resistance gracefully and with understanding and empathy . When he was considering taking on the task of training others to speak, he told his partner, Clarinda, “the world does not need another speaker training, what the world needs is a training that shows people how to bring their authentic self to their work and demonstrate this value to others. ” Luckily for those clients like myself, who were seeking to bring more awareness to our unique combination of skills, insights and information and then learn how to communicate this value to our clients, Shaune has put together exactly this, and the art of graceful persuasion is no longer an enigma. There is, however, a lot more to learn from Shaune, but we’ll have to wait for another article to find out as this one is has reached critical mass for the quantity of insights I can fit into my head in one go! I would love to hear your comments at the end, thanks for watching or reading. Cheers, Neroli. Get your bonus copy of my book “How To Start An Internet Business & Make Your First $1,000 Online” Download Here

Tagged as: article, business, client, clients, kids, marketing, money, sales, unique

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How To Find Your Inner Genius

by Paul Joseph June 2, 2011 Featured

I’ve been considering lately the way each of us already has a unique inner genius and how this can be found and bought to the surface. This thread of contemplation has led me to a creativity enhancing technique we have discussed previously, called mental priming . How this works in relation to our unique genius is that each one of us is already mentally primed to look for things, to know things and to store information as it relates to our highest values . What Is A Value? Dr. John Demartini says values are defined as the things we most highly prize in life, whether it’s related to personal, family, business, social, intimate relationship, physical, mental or spiritual quests. Our values arise out of perceived voids in our lives , so if we perceive that we are lacking financial wealth, then creating wealth rates high on our list of values. If we perceive that we are lacking in an intimate relationship, then finding a partner rates high on our list of values, etc. How Do We Know What Our Values Are? The way we know what our highest values are, is by paying attention to what we predominantly think about, talk about, spend our money on and fill our space with .  This means we are already mentally primed in whatever relates to our hierarchy of values. If you remember last week’s interview with John Assaraf , he referred to the way we look for things in our physical environment that connect to what we’re thinking about. That’s an example of how we’re gathering information as it relates to our highest values. Because we’ve been amassing an incredible amount of information and generating insights related to our highest values for most of our life, this is where our genius lies . In much the same way we each have a unique fingerprint, each person has a unique hierarchy of values. Dr. Stuart Brown says we can move between our different play personalities, but will usually favor one or two through out our life, we also do this with our values. We have core values that remain the same for life, and then certain values come and go at different stages. Because we have been filtering and storing information as it relates to our unique hierarchy of values, we have created a resource that no one else on this planet has. Why Aren’t We Using Our Resource Of Unique Information? There is, unfortunately, a fairly big spanner in the works, as there often appears to be when it comes to the human condition, and as usual, it’s related to our mind, perception and thought processes . If we’re already brilliantly gifted in a way that no one else on the planet is, then how come we’re not aware of this and accessing it to make our lives so much more fulfilling? There are two reasons I can find immediately. Pale In Imitation The first is that most of us are not aware of our core values, and instead of living according to our highest values, we try to live according to the values of other people, like those in our family, peer group or society. When we’re not crystal clear about our values, and don’t live according to them, we diminish our ability to impact the world through our creative expression. Whenever you hear yourself saying or thinking, “I should be doing this or that…” is an example of trying to live according to someone else’s values. If it’s related to your highest values, you just do it , there’s never an element of “should” or having to force yourself. Dr. Demartini has spent decades traveling the world, working with millions of people. I heard him speaking two days ago, and he said that he has only ever found one woman on this entire planet who was truly congruent – living according to her highest values . He said this woman was doing extraordinary things for children and children’s education around the world as a result of this. That’s a pretty eye-opening revelation isn’t it? Out of the millions of people Dr. Demartini has met and worked with across the planet, only one has ever been truly congruent. At least we know we’re not alone on this journey of self-discovery and learning how to access and express our genius. Unconscious Competence Means We Give It Away For Free The second thing that affects our ability to make use of these gifts is that we can’t articulate easily what they are, and how they relate to our values. The reason it’s important to get clear and articulate about this, is that once we do, we can place a financial value on our gifts . Then they become a valuable and marketable resource. Currently, you may be doing certain things in your business or personal life that you are unconsciously competent at. That means, you’re so good at it, you just do it and don’t even know that it’s a gift. As long as this is the case, you’re most probably giving away something that could be a highly lucrative and marketable resource for free. If we are not clear about our hierarchy of values and how this has developed a unique combination of skills and information for us, then it’s most probably being underutilized and undervalued. So we can’t be rewarded for this potentially brilliant resource. After contemplating this problem I’ve decided to do some more work on my creative character survey . I’m going to need to put in quite a bit more thought, research and structure to make it so people can find out about their hierarchy of values, and uncover the resource of information and skills they’ve been gathering over a lifetime. I’ll keep you tuned on its development. If you want to find out your hierarchy of values right now, the easiest way is to list what you think about, what you talk about, how you spend your money and how you fill your space . The things that keep showing up again and again in your list will show you what you truly value in life, and therefore it ranks highly in your hierarchy of values. Once again, thanks for reading and I’d love to hear your comments at the end. Cheers, Neroli. Get your bonus copy of my book “How To Start An Internet Business & Make Your First $1,000 Online” Download Here

Tagged as: book, highest, people, space, unique, young

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How To Segment Your Subscribers When You Run A Blog Business

by Paul Joseph May 20, 2011 Featured

I was reading Dee’s recent article in his customer segmentation series where he talked about how to segment your blog readers. One of his main premises was the difference between a person who leaves a comment, or many comments and those who don’t. I agree with Dee that these are possible options for segmenting your blog readership, but I want to expand on his piece and give some examples of my own attempts to segment my readership over the years. Blogging For Profit One of the key distinctions that must be discussed before looking at how to segment your blog readership, is the reason why you are aiming to do this in the first place. In my case, and very likely your case too, we want to segment our readers so we can achieve the following goals – Make money , often from promotional content (affiliate links and your own products) Do so without alienating your audience The challenge is always how to find a way to commercialize a blog without diluting the value of the reason people come to the blog in the first place. Often the commercial intent can be blended with the content, so you can satisfy both needs, however segmentation can take this process even further, ensuring only those who are interested in certain types of content receive it, and those who are not, don’t. To achieve this outcome you need to figure out the following – A means to identify each group by specific criteria relevant to your goals Once identified, a means to segment and continue communication with each group separately I’ve always found it difficult to use only your blog content to accurately segment readers into different groups. Sometimes you just want to make sure as many people read your content as possible with no sales message, where at other times you want to make as many sales as possible , but not turn away readers who don’t want to buy. The people who buy are a tiny percentage of your entire audience, so if you spend all day promoting to everyone, eventually you will lose your audience, unless you can find a way to bring in a continuous stream of new people who replace those you lose. Ideally we want to maximize both audience retention and growth , and maximize profit too. Segmentation Options Dee mentioned how I use text, audio podcasts and video on this blog and this is one way to segment my readership. This is true, but in terms of commercial intent (the goal of making money), I don’t segment my readership using these formats, this is merely an attempt to maximize the amount of people I can reach using different media. That’s the same reason why I have brought on more writers to this blog. With more than ten people now contributing their unique ideas and experiences, Entrepreneurs-Journey.com has grown beyond me to point where I don’t feel like it is just “my” blog anymore. We could segment our audience based on authors, or subject, or media format, or the time of day people read or what country they come from, and it would be great to know all this about my audience, but I’ll be honest with you, I found it way too difficult to figure out all this data and come out with methods to segment each group. It’s just too much and too difficult using the format of a blog. I feel it is always best to give all my content to all my readers. That was until the day I made one change. I added an email newsletter to my blog. Why My Newsletter Forced Me To Think About Segmentation Many, many, many times I’ve been asked on coaching calls – “ Which content should I put in my newsletter and which for my blog? “ The distinction isn’t always clear to people since they are both content delivery mechanisms. When I started my first newsletter I knew one thing: I was creating a newsletter to filter people into a group who were interested in one specific thing, so eventually I could sell them something. Here’s a key difference between a blog and an email newsletter (at least in 99% of the cases). Blogs do not require a person opts-in . There is no action to take to read the content, you simply find it and consume it. An email newsletter or email list asks a person to “opt-in”, by presenting some kind of offer, a reason why and what they will receive in return. You can blog away happily for a long time not worrying too much about the specific nature of your topic, as long as you stick to a specific area, and feel your way to a target market. When you start your newsletter, you have to decide the offer you are making, which very much dictates the type of subscriber your attract. This is in fact, the very first point of segmentation, taking a generic website visitor and turning them into a person who has expressed interest in a certain type of information. That first filter is a powerful segmentation step. It tells you that someone is willing to join your list to get what you offer. When I first brainstormed ideas for my email newsletter I considered two variables – What I thought my audience were interested in . What I felt I could deliver to them based on what I had done and knew about. My decision was to launch a blog traffic tips newsletter , which was added to my blog when I did a redesign to include an opt-in form. My newsletter from that point forward was my first ever attempt at segmentation with commercial intent. I know had a readership and a list of “prospects”, people who had stuck their hand up to show interest in one specific topic. This was very helpful when it came to deciding what content went where as well. From then on I wrote a series of weekly emails specifically related to blog traffic (in fact most of my articles about how to build a great blog went into my email list initially, not my blog), while my blog became a place to talk more about my experiences as an entrepreneur, including how my current businesses were going. How I Segment My Audience Today For me, email has always been a much easier tool to segment, even with just a basic autoresponder. I use the AWeber email autoresponder (read my review here – AWeber Review ), which has some simple to use segmentation tools, including – Multiple Lists The ability to create multiple lists, so you can make different offers to create different segments. For example my list of people who want to make money with blogs is one list and those who want to learn more about membership sites is another. I have others for things like my coaching programs and even for sponsors who want to advertise on my blog . This is an important segmentation tool, because you can use different lists for different levels. I have people on prospect lists (never purchased, but opted-in for free content) and customer lists (made a purchase). I can mail these lists individually, or pick and choose which ones I combine or even exclude. One good way to use this tool is to mail your prospects special offers for your products, but exclude people who already have purchased those products. You can also choose to send affiliate promotions only to certain groups depending on what you are promoting and how valuable that list is to you (for example you may not want to promote affiliate products too heavily to your paying customers to keep them focused on your products). Segmentation Based On Action Another tool within AWeber allows you to segment based on an action, for example someone clicking a link in an email, or if they opened the email or not . There are many ways to use this, but I primarily use it to reduce my unsubscribe rate when it comes to affiliate promotions. Affiliate promotions rarely interest your entire list, but for the segment that does show interest, you want to make sure they are mailed several times. Often I email my entire prospect list an email related to a product, then segment the list into people who opened the email (usually around 10%-20%). I then send the segment the followup emails about that same product, for example when the closing deadline is coming soon. By doing this I don’t send multiple emails about the same launch to people who don’t want it. I’ve also used this function to send a different email with a new subject line to the group who didn’t open the first email to see if I can get their attention. The email subject is such a critical variable when it comes to email marketing, so having this tool is like a “second chance” to mail about the same thing, without annoying the group who opened the first. Segmentation Based on Location One other nifty tool is the ability to mail only certain countries. I’ve emailed my Australian subscribers details about events in Australia, which excluded everyone else for obvious reasons. My Australian portion of my list is only about 10%, so being able to mail this group specifically is helpful, especially without annoying the rest of my peeps. A Good Autoresponder Is A Must As you can know doubt tell, having an email autoresponder that allows you to control these different elements is pretty powerful. Don’t forget you also get statistics about all these actions too, so simply by taking the steps to segment your email lists you can learn a lot about your subscribers. If you don’t already have an account, I strongly recommend you try out AWeber now . I’ve been using them for five years and I couldn’t have done what I do without my email list – www.aweber.com Simple Segmentation The main reason I focus my customer segmentation on email marketing and not my blog is that I find it much simpler that way. My blog isn’t the tool I use to segment people as much as it is the tool I use to capture attention initially. I actually see my blog more like a magazine and database of training content . The writers here at Entrepreneurs-Journey.com give you daily training and insights into our businesses. If you want more from any of us, you can visit the respective site and join the email list if available. That’s the same for Entrepreneurs-Journey and my training. If you want to learn more about making money with blogs, then you opt-in for the Blog Profits Blueprint and are then exposed to further training about that subject as well as related promotions. Segment Your Advertising The one area where the blog itself is great for segmentation is Sponsored advertising . However most bloggers don’t take advantage of it. CarAdvice.com.au (founded by my friend Alborz Fallah ), only makes money from advertising, and a heck of a lot of it (millions a year now). They make so much because they segment the sponsors based on the content and charge a premium price for targeting. In fact their only monetization method is advertising, hence they’ve become very good at it. For example Toyota might choose to place their banners only on the Toyota related content, or even sneakier, only on content about their competitor’s vehicles. By doing this they are ensured of having a very targeted reader for their advertisements. If you have a product related blog, this kind of segmented sponsorship might be a great idea. Segment With Purpose Segmentation is definitely powerful and I hope this article, and Dee’s ongoing series on customer segmentation , give you plenty of ideas for how to segment in your online business. Don’t forget the two most important rules – Segment with a purpose in mind – how can what you are doing help improve relationships with your customers and make you more money Keep it simple – there are countless segmentation options available, but only a few steps are enough to make a difference that matters Good luck! Yaro Starak Segmented Get your bonus copy of my book “How To Start An Internet Business & Make Your First $1,000 Online” Download Here

Tagged as: advertising, article, attention, book, customer, goals, location, time, unique, young

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What Is It That You’re ALWAYS Selling?

by Paul Joseph May 6, 2011 Featured

Commenting on my earlier post about “ Time Management Secrets Every Entrepreneur Should Know ,” Dennis said: “Nice presell, Dr.Mani.” I laughingly replied that there was “nothing for sale”. But I lied! Here’s why. Let me ask you a question. What one thing is it that you are ALWAYS selling, no matter what you say or do? Regardless of which business you are in? Wherever you are, whatever you’re doing? Think about it for a moment, answer the question to yourself…and then keep reading. The first time I consciously thought about it was around three years back (it happened in the shower, where some powerful insights pop up regularly, and random thoughts snap together into a startling and clear picture! You?) It was almost revelational! You see, the line of thought started from a forum discussion where people were talking about the now famous Internet marketing ‘ 30 Day Challenge ‘ by Ed Dale . One person stated that Ed wasn’t selling anything…but I knew better. Because I ‘bought’ it. Even ‘sold’ it to others. But… WHAT was it? Before answering it, let me ask you another question. If you could afford to, would you buy me? Yes, ME. Would you buy me? Now, no matter what your answer was, think about this. What if YOU were a product or service? Who would buy you? Why? Marketing is about filling a need, identifying what an audience wants, solving a problem for them. And selling is about making them want it – because unless they want it, they sure ain’t going to buy it! People do business with people. They prefer to work with people they know, like and respect. And because business is always about people, the one thing you are always selling is the PERSON behind the business.  The ‘product’ or ‘service’ called…YOU. If you’re a ‘product’, you should fill a need. If you’re selling the ‘product’, you should learn about positioning it as something your audience wants. That’s exactly what marketing yourself is about – and every single one of us is doing that (successfully, or not) every day, in every way, all the time… knowingly or otherwise! It’s what Ed Dale is ‘selling’ (and doing it masterfully) in his FREE ‘ 30 Day Challenge’ . He’s selling you on ‘Ed Dale’ – the man, the expert, the brand. And every year, thousands are buying…just like I did, just like even you did, maybe. Through this weekly column on Yaro Starak’s blog, that’s what I am doing too. I’m selling you, my reader, on the brand called “ Dr. Mani” . So, you think it’s egoistic to consider an individual a ‘brand’? Here’s an eye-opener for you. It’s this article by Tom Peters I read way back in 1997 that shifted a paradigm in my business thinking, and got me working on a strategy to brand myself. “ The Brand Called You ” is a landmark article every entrepreneur must read, especially in today’s exciting, socially networked, globally accessible world powered by the Internet. Because now, EVERYONE – yes, that includes YOU – has the power to build a brand around the unique, special and exquisitely exciting person that you are. “Solopreneurs should not fear competition. You are unique. There is only one YOU.” My friend Mari Smith , whom FAST COMPANY magazine calls “the Pied Piper of Facebook” , said it very nicely on one of her blog posts. That’s absolutely true, especially when you sell your audience on you. Suddenly, you have no serious ‘competition’. And that’s why it helps to think about yourself in the same way as you would a product or service. Consider features and benefits. Figure out positioning and USP (Unique Selling Proposition). Think about marketing angles and presentation. Then use the inexpensive, yet wildly powerful tools that you have access to, and leverage your online presence into a strong brand that attracts the right kind of people into your network . “Social marketing” , even if it’s a paradox in terms, is about revealing and sharing your personality. When you align that with your brand and business, you can squeeze incredible value out of your engagement on every social network you choose to participate on. That’s how marketing on social media works. Authenticity is its currency. Transparency is the risk. Trust is your rich reward. The nice thing is that you can direct the conversations that happen around your brand – by becoming a part of it online . Except that it’s a lot more complex than merely promoting a service or launching a new product – because this is something you are selling ALL THE TIME. Yes, even when you’re schmoozing on a discussion forum, or answering personal email, or dashing off a tweet on Twitter, or updating your status on Facebook. Yes, even when you’re posting that funny picture on Flickr, or commenting on recent news updates, or sharing a joke or quote or a blog post with friends. Yes, whatever you do online (and maybe, even offline – since the people you do it with may share it on the ubiquitous Web!) And the collective impact of it all is what goes into creating what Hugh ‘GapingVoid’ Macleod calls ‘ the global microbrand ‘ that’s YOU. That’s the risk – and the opportunity. Because when you do things that are remarkable or worth sharing, you tap into the new ‘recommendation era’ we are now entering, and get your brand to go viral through social networks. People tell people about you. New audiences hear about you and your message. Markets open up and expand. Competition withers away and dies. All of this can happen – for FREE! Amazing, huh?! So what can you do to take advantage of this situation and leverage it into expanding your business and growing your profits? It’s easy. Just make it easy for others to recommend you . Realize that you are selling yourself, the brand named ‘You Inc,’ and use that realization to structure everything that you say and do – at least in the future. You can take this insight that you are selling yourself all the time, and use it to attract the attention of your ideal propects, build relationships with them that translate into getting closer to your goals, and turn them into spokespersons for your brand, for your business, and for YOU. Knowing this, will you go out on Twitter or Facebook spraying around affiliate links willy-nilly? Or will you engage your followers and friends in conversation? Knowing this, will you mindlessly pass along racist jokes, controversial blog posts, or make religiously offensive comments? Or will you first run it through the “Does this fit my brand?” filter? Knowing this, will you condemn and criticize folks, or bad-mouth certain categories of people on a public discussion forum, lose your temper or go off on rants? Or will you tweak this behavior to fit your ‘micro-brand’ better? Maybe yes. Maybe not. But either way, EVERYTHING that you do has an impact and influence. Because, remember, YOU are the brand! Thoughts? Comment away Dr. Mani Get your bonus copy of my book “How To Start An Internet Business & Make Your First $1,000 Online” Download Here

Tagged as: book, branding, goals, management, network, people, personality, unique, young

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Warning: Traffic Generation is not One-Size-Fits-All

by Paul Joseph April 14, 2011 Featured

I can’t begin to tell you how many countless times I’ve heard someone ask the question, “how do you get more traffic to your website?” And I don’t mean to me per say, but in general. This really is the ultimate challenge for many site owners isn’t it? At the end of the day, No traffic means no prospects, which means no revenue! Yikes! I’m here to debunk the notion that there is any one particular technique, tactic, whatever you want to call it, that’s going to bring in loads of traffic. I’m also going to tackle the notion that it’s a one-size-fits-all concept. That is, to get tons of traffic you need to follow a particular color by numbers plan. Nothing can be further from the truth… I’ve tried countless traffic generation tactics for multiple sites, from blogs to ecommerce, and I can tell you that traffic generation is all about implementing various tactics, seeing what works for YOU, and doing more of that! What works for one business may not work for another. This is not to say that you can’t follow a blueprint, where you plan your traffic generating strategies and work your plan.  This is very different than saying what works for me will work for you. Let me give you a few examples. I recently visited a site called Social Mouths , where the blog owner “confessed” that for the longest time he was only posting one article a week on his blog. Yet his traffic numbers and stats have continued to increase over the course of time. Hmmmm…. I also visited another site called Biz Chicks Blogs where the site owner, Tia Peterson, noted that her traffic increased substantially by posting content frequently. Who’s right and who’s wrong? That’s just it – neither one of them is wrong. They are both benefiting from the fruits of their labor and reaping the rewards of high traffic numbers, even though they have had different modus operandi. Or do they? What you don’t know is everything else they may or may not be doing behind the scenes, which may be contributing to their traffic generating efforts, such as: Blog commenting Interviews Webinars Social Networking/ Social Media Optimization Private Groups RT Clubs SEO Guest Posting Holding contest and encouraging social sharing Joint Ventures Facebook and Google Adwords Advertising Integrating forums on their site etc. … all things that may be contributing factors to their success. Want a plan? Here’s one for you: Test different specific traffic generating tactics on your site and measure their effectiveness over a designated period of time. Create a spreadsheet. In the first column type in Traffic Generating Tactics and type in the specific technique you want to measure. In the second column type in Start Date. In the third column type in Google Analytics Status (if applicable). Enter any statistics that you may have in this column. In the fourth column type in End Date. Enter the date in which you’ve stopped testing. In the fifth column type in Results. Make notes of any progress (or lack of) that you’ve noted using this technique. In the sixth and final column type in Additional Notes. Here you can type in relevant notes as you go along or enter any results from other statistical analysis. Here are some examples: If you are currently only adding new content to your site once a week, try adding 2-3 and measure the results over a three month period using Google Analytics to see if it makes a difference. If you are only utilizing social media for five minutes a day, try increasing it to 10-15 minutes and see if the increase in engagement equals higher traffic volumes. If you are not currently taking advantage of guest posting, seek out relatively active sites you can request to post on and see if over a course of time, your traffic increases using this method. If you’ve never paid attention to SEO before, think about optimizing some of your pages/posts and track their performance to see if ranking better with them correlates to more traffic. On the flip side, if you are an SEO fanatic, lighten up a bit and see if you can write content that connects to people more on the emotional level and see if this in turn promotes social sharing, thus more traffic! If you’ve used email marketing sporadically or inconsistently, try stepping it up a notch by emailing your subscribers on a weekly basis. I think you get the idea… The Big Takeaway: Traffic generation is all about trial and error.  You can only evaluate what works and what doesn’t work by trying different tactics. Stop comparing yourself to other websites in your industry; you are your own unique business. Focus on your unique selling proposition and capitalize on these assets. In a nutshell, traffic generation is like trying on shoes, they may look fantastic on someone else, but not so much on you. They key is to finding shoes that fit perfectly for YOU. Have you had success with traffic? What are your traffic generating secrets? Michele Welch is a Personal Coach and Online Business Advisor . She shares online business tips with those looking to start their own online business ventures, through her blog.  Read more about Michele here .

Tagged as: entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, internet marketing, online, seo, social, traffic, unique

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Why Creativity And Blogging Are A Match Made In Heaven

by Paul Joseph March 20, 2011 Featured

The aim of this article is to help you (and me) understand how our time in the blogosphere helps us access our creativity and fine tune our creative gifts . It’s also aimed at inspiring you to keep going, to keep reaching for those things you set out to achieve, and to remind you why it’s worth it. When we start out as bloggers, we may have many reasons for doing so, but did you ever stop to consider that among the primary reasons is finding your unique form of creativity and expressing your creative genius? For many of us, this probably doesn’t cross our minds, however, blogging is a brilliant vehicle for finding this stuff out. Finding Our Creative Genius So, here we are, setting out to make our mark in the world of blogging. How do we start? Where do we start? To the best of my knowledge, Yaro always says to write about whatever you really like, whatever floats your boat . That sets the scene for our first act of creativity. When we find the thing that makes us tick, we find our authentic voice or our “element” . This is one of the greatest gifts we can ever give ourselves in life. Our element, or our unique form of creativity, defines who we are . This gives us a level of self-awareness and self-assurance that most of the world is lacking because they’ve never gone looking for it. Being in touch with our truth or our authenticity is so powerful because in many ways, we’re unshakable in this place. It’s a place of inner knowing where we feel sure about who we are and what we’re doing. As bloggers, we have to find it, our success or failure depends on it . Who ever imagined blogging could give us this gift of finding our own creative genius? Brilliant! As many of us may have experienced, there can be a few false starts along the way. Rock star blogger, Alborz Fallah , stumbled along scribbling about a few different things until he hit upon the thing that launched him with significant impact into the blogosphere. That’s all part of finding out who we are and fine tuning our creative gifts. If we knew exactly what we were doing to begin with, there would be no lessons to be learned, and no joy in finding our inner genius. The Benefits Of Creative Genius In Action So, we’ve rattled around for a while and slowly but surely uncovered whatever it is that makes us tick, then we begin to share our wisdom. This in itself is a very powerful act of creativity and the benefits of doing so are almost immeasurable. To name a few of the big ones, in expressing our creativity, we find our tribe and we find our place within that tribe, and we may even find our gifts of leadership in creating our own tribe. When we blog, we share our wisdom/creativity . When we blog, we find our tribe and our place in our tribe, or we create our own. When we express our creativity, we literally send out signals to the rest of the world about who we are, and other people who share similar interests and vibe about the same things will be drawn to you and your creative expression. Then the power of one becomes the power of many, and this opens the floodgates for even greater connection, communication and creativity within the group. Our creativity is the thing that builds our tribe or connects us with an already established tribe and helps us find our place in the world. An extraordinary thing about blogging is that we generally become the Creator of a tribe. Yes, that’s right, Creator, with  a capital “C”! Blogging is a highly creative act , and in doing so, we literally become creators, in myriad ways. It’s possible that whatever your unique creative expression is doesn’t have a defined group of people gathered to connect, communicate and co-create about this “thing” yet. By finding your authentic form of creativity and sharing this with others, you may become a leader for a group the world doesn’t even know it is missing. That’s one of the hallmarks of creativity , bringing to the world things it doesn’t even know it’s missing. Creativity And Leadership How about that? Now we’ve stumbled upon leadership amongst the many brilliant reasons to pursue blogging. Leaders are inspiring and highly creative individuals , that’s what makes them leaders, and that brings us to our next ramble. When we find our unique form of creativity, and share our wisdom within an established tribe, or create our own tribe, we inspire others to do the same. By showing others what is possible through our own actions, we make it real for them. I generally like to think of inspiration as an inside job, that it comes from within. But there are always exceptions and it can also come from others. We’re inspired when we see others reach the goals they set for themselves. Inspiration comes from seeing another person expressing their creativity (in whatever form that may be) and reminds us that we have those same creative abilities . If they can do it, we can do it. Two great examples of this in my life are Gideon Shalwick and Kerwin Rae . I’ve thanked both these men in my book for showing me by their own example, that if I say I’m going to do something, then act on it, my dreams are within reach . I know this is possible because I met Kerwin and Gideon when they were audience members in seminars and conferences that I was kicking around in a few years ago. Both of them have gone onto create their own vibrant and animated tribes, become leaders in their area of expertise , and create extraordinary businesses that give them the kind of life style they intended for themselves and their loved ones. Action Speaks Louder Than Words This seems like a stupid title, given that I’m in the process of writing words, but bear with me! Sir Ken Robinson is recognized as a world renowned expert on creativity, I’m a ridiculously massive fan of his work. He says, “creativity involves doing something, it’s a process, not an event.” Both of these men were similar to me when we first met, with big dreams and strong self-awareness. But they also had an unshakable focus on creating the lives they wanted. Both of them showed me by example that following your dreams and making them a reality is a completely reasonable thing to expect from life if you follow through with action . They did it, then why can’t I? Of course I can! If they did it, so can I. There was no major difference between our creative abilities then, and there isn’t now. We’re all born highly creative , and we share an equal portion of creative power, but we need to be able to tap into our “element” and do the work, and it’s going to be a lot of “work”. But if we’re in our element/zone, it never feels like something we do begrudgingly, we love it and couldn’t think of anything we’d rather do. (Now I’m getting a bit off topic, but Dr.Mani wrote a great article for Entrepreneur’s Journey on this last week.) The only difference in Kerwin and Gideon was they found their “element” sooner, shared their wisdom, and created their tribes whilst I was still kicking around figuring it out. It sure made me snap to attention when I saw how they had accomplished the things we had talked about a few years previously. I realized, I’d better stop tire kicking and do something if I want results! These are perfect examples of inspiration from others who have expressed their creativity and made stuff happen in their lives. As most of us know, Gideon found his unique form of creative expression through blogging . (Rock on Rapid Video Blogging;) This has made it possible for him continue to express his creativity on even greater levels as the influence of his work extends further into the world. Another bonus of expressing our creativity and becoming an inspirational leader is that we have incredible power to incite action and create movements! Who wouldn’t love to be known for inciting action and creating movements? Those things are cool! Just look at the example cited above about Kerwin and Gideon. These guys didn’t just inspire me to get off my behind, they incited me to take action and begin creating my own movement. In their businesses they incite action in the lives of those who are drawn to engage in the activity of their tribe. Gideon and Kerwin create movements in the way their tribes are collectively engaged in activities that are designed by the tribe and the leader to take them to a place they collectively want to go. That is an intensely powerful form of creativity in action and it gets me freakin’ exciiiiiiiiited!!!! Blogging = Creative Genius and Inspirational Leadership In blogging, we can see clearly how this plays out for us. When we find our unique form of creativity and express it, we join or attract a tribe. We may have to spend some time finding whatever it is that makes us tick and also connects us with others . The more authentically we express our creativity, the stronger our influence in our group and the more opportunities we get to express this creativity . The more we finely tune our unique form of creativity and build upon our wealth of self-knowledge and experience, we naturally find ourselves in a position of leadership. Our Leadership role means we can inspire others to express their unique form of creativity, and incite them to take action, and if we do this on a large scale, then we have created a movement! Yaro is doing this right now with the changes he’s making to Entrepreneur’s Journey . He’s created a strong group with shared goals (entrepreneurship, blogging and internet marketing) and we collectively take action to reach those goals. By allowing myself and other writers on his blog, he’s taken on another level of leadership where he creates a space for others to express their creativity . Big ups to Yaro for taking it to another level and stepping into Inspirational Leadership on a whole new platform! As creators, it can be very difficult to let go of your creation and allow it transform into a new expression of creativity. If we can’t let this happen, there’s always going to be a limit to how much our creative expression can grow, because part of being a creative genius is inspiring others to express their creativity . If we refuse to share our creative gifts through Inspirational Leadership , our creative ability can be stunted and weaken it’s power to influence others. Sure, we might still experience some level of creative satisfaction, but we’ll get nowhere near expressing our true creative potential , which always wants to go further and to take it to the next level. So, how cool is that? Finding your creative genius, expressing your creative genius, awakening your leadership potential, inspiring others, inciting action and creating movements. And all this can come from blogging! Was this something clearly laid out in your list of “why I’m going to be an amazing blogger?” Possibly not, but it’s worth adding now if it isn’t there already. And please note, the first thing on the list, the foundation for the whole equation is in your unique form of creative expression . None of the rest happens without knowing who you are and what your unique form of creative genius is. Many of you will have completed my creative character survey to find out where your creative gifts lie. I’ve done some more work on it since the initial launch. Now when you find out an aspect of your creative character in the results, it also tells you how this plays out in your life and what kind of roles are suited to this creative element. This is a work in progress, as I’m constantly learning new things to add to the survey results! For those who might be curious, you can do so by clicking here: Your Creative Success Quiz . Many thanks for reading this article, please leave any comments at the end as I’d love to hear any insights you may have about your own experiences. Cheers, Neroli. Get your bonus copy of my book “How To Start An Internet Business & Make Your First $1,000 Online” Download Here

Tagged as: creativity, entrepreneur, goals, knowledge, online, person, time, unique, young

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6 Social Networking Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make

by Paul Joseph March 11, 2011 Featured

The glory of social networking, for entrepreneurs, is that it’s a low-cost and open-ended platform for finding the people who will be interested in your business. From trolling your LinkedIn network for possible VC contributors to blogging about your business as you build a customer base, social networking can, indeed, be a powerful and low-cost tool in your business-building and marketing workshop. But if you use the tool the wrong way, it’s awfully hard to make something good with it. At best, you’ll be inefficient. At worst, you’ll waste a lot of time you don’t have and fail to get results at all. Are you making these mistakes with social networking? 1. Spreading yourself too thin. There are no longer any questions about where the customers are going, so businesses are following, and we all trot merrily off to the Internet. As the Internet continues to expand in volume, it produces more and more specific networking options. There are niche networking sites, endless forums, and online communities for every taste and topic. All that specialization can be useful for getting in touch with your target market, but it can also be overwhelming. Every new social networking platform offers a new opportunity, and entrepreneurs find it difficult to pick just a couple and focus on those. But failing to focus puts you in the impossible position of trying to keep up with far more than you can. You end up making little or no impact on any of your online networks. Solution: Pick two or three social networking venues and focus on building your relationships within that network. Once you’ve established a strong following and developed a routine for consistent interaction at a level you can keep up with, you can consider venturing into new networks. At that point, though, you might not even need to. 2. Mixing personal and professional social worlds. There’s nothing wrong with having a personal, friendly tone as part of your professional network. There is a problem when you’re recounting last night’s bar adventure via your professional Twitter account, or posting photos of your dog, your kids, and your newly stained deck, you’re mixing things up too much. As an entrepreneur, you may not have a boss holding you accountable for what you post online, so you’ve got to set your own standards and stick to them. Solution: The bottom line? No matter how cute that photo of your dog is, or how funny that joke was, if it’s not directly related to your business, leave it off your professional social networks. 3. Neglecting to offer value. The purpose of social networking is to connect with people who would be interested in what your business offers and cultivate relationships with them; as you build rapport and trust, they move from contacts to customers. That’s what entrepreneurs need to see happening. The key to cultivating relationships and building trust is to offer something of value to the people you make connections with. Otherwise, you’re just so much additional noise in an overcrowded party. Don’t be the guy hanging around, just making small talk. Be the guy who brings a cold drink over, or the girl who turns up some better music and gets everybody dancing. Solution: Helpful, informative, specific content is, generally, the easiest and best way to offer value via the Internet. Spend far more time creating content than “building a network.” Once you’ve got the content in place, you can start sharing it. 4. Failing to outsource. Oh, the entrepreneurial pitfall! You’ve had to do it all, you’re smart enough to figure it out, so why would you pay out your dwindling capital to have someone else do it for you? The reason is simple, and you’ve heard it before: your time is money. If you’re spending hours on creating a Facebook page, a website, a blog, or some other item you could easily outsource, you are spending money on it. It will just cost you in terms of lost profit and lost opportunity rather than in terms of the cash you already hold. Solution: Outsourcing the details of social networking does not have to bust your entrepreneurial budget. Hit Craigslist with an ad and you can get a money-hungry student to do in a couple of hours what might have taken you a couple of weeks. 5. Mistaking “networking” for just plain old working. Interacting on your social networks – especially with influencers in your target market and potential customers – gives you a great feeling of accomplishing something. And yes, you are building relationships that can turn into profit and growth for your business. That’s important, but it’s not your primary work, and if you confuse the busyness of networking with the productivity of real working, you’ll find yourself falling behind on your most important to-do items. Solution: Designate specific times, and time limits, for marketing via social networks. If you find yourself unable to keep up within those time limits, perhaps you’ve spread yourself too thin? Or perhaps you need to outsource some of the networking upkeep? 6. Mistaking peers for clients/customers. Entrepreneurs are drawn to other entrepreneurs, and it’s fun to swap war stories and anecdotes, give tips, offer advice, and commiserate over the economy or the unique struggles entrepreneurs and business owners face. Your entrepreneurial pals can be valuable peers for many reasons, but peers are not the same as customers, in most cases. While you’re investing time into peer relationships, your potential customers are somewhere else, unaware of your existence. Solution: Save some of your downtime for peer interaction, and stick to building customer relationships during your designated social networking time for business. Reading up on entrepreneurial blogs, sharing stories, and just chatting can be a good way to unwind at the end of the day, in between meetings, or when you’re stuck traveling or at your Aunt Mindy’s 17th annual bluegrass and barbecue hoedown. The key is to keep your goals for social networking ever present so you can stay focused on investing your time (and, sometimes, your money) into what will get you the most important results. If you’re not sure what your social networking goals are, that’s the first place to start: get a social networking strategy in place, and stick to it. If you focus on what matters, and avoid the mistakes so commonly made, you’ll see a good return on your time while still getting the work done. Annie Mueller enjoys creating a personal yet professional voice to render complex topics understandable. Her passion is helping home, small, and micro businesses succeed. Read more about Annie here .

Tagged as: business, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, internet marketing, social-media, time, twitter, unique, work

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