You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know
Press play and watch the video for some important lessons I learned about how I was the reason my business took so long to get off the ground and how I could leverage who I am to increase my online earnings.
Once you’ve watched the video, read below for more information about the two programs coming out and the special bonuses I’m offering.
Get Out Of Your Own Way
On June 11th Rich Schefren is opening up the doors to his Guided Profits System 2.0, only the second release of this course. As you likely know already, Rich has been a huge influence on me, in particular for one reason: He teaches how to get out of the way of yourself so your business can grow.
What I really admire about Rich is how he’s been able to build a business that truly functions without him. He even has a CEO that runs the business so he can focus on his strengths (i.e. the fun stuff he enjoys). His company does ten figures a year now (that’s over $10 million), which is truly amazing considering it didn’t exist just a few years ago.
I paid him $5,000 back in 2007 to go through his coaching program and to this day I consider it one of the best investments I made in Internet business training.
Discovering what your strengths are and finding out what constraints are holding you back, are the keys to success with any business. This is an area that is particularly relevant for us online business people because there isn’t really anybody else out there teaching this. Most of us do not intuitively understand that we shouldn’t be doing certain tasks and we aren’t even aware of how we hold our business back. Rich’s course is very good at helping you to discover what you don’t know you don’t know.
I endorse Rich’s program 100% and invite you to join via my affiliate link. I’m offering almost $2,000 worth of bonuses if you do so (see below). I recommend you consider Rich’s course if you already have a business and are in a situation to focus on yourself over the next 30 days as you go through his program.
Be True To Yourself And Others Will Love You
On June 12th Frank Kern is releasing the final 800 copies of his Mass Control 2.0 (yes everyone has a 2.0 nowadays). I don’t know if Rich and Frank talked to each other about launch dates, but hey, I love both these guys so I’m going to tell you about both of them in one blog post!
Why I love Frank is his ability to connect with his audience as a likable genuine guy. Not everyone loves him of course, but one thing is clear – he is by far the very best Internet marketing guru that can connect with people on a human-to-human level. Frank comes across as a “normal friend” and because you naturally like the guy, you naturally feel comfortable buying from him.
That in itself is a huge lesson and if there is one big take away from Frank is that you can – and should – be yourself when you market online if you want a strong relationship with your audience. As a blogger, we get this. To blog well, you blog as yourself.
Through the use of video Frank has taught how to use every day aspects of your life as a selling tool, which is something I’ve replicated after learning from him.
Frank’s opened up Mass Control several times previously and I’ve not purchased it, but this time with only 800 copies left, I’m buying. I’ve probably learned about as much from Frank as I have from any marketer in the last year or so, especially when it comes to relationship development and launch techniques.
Jeff Walker has the best product launch “formula” but Frank has the best strategy and techniques for influencing real human beings, who sit behind their computers and read your emails and blog posts.
If you want to learn more about how to effectively use email, blog posts, video or any form of online communication as a persuasion tool, Frank is the man, and since persuasion is my craft too, it’s about time I bought Mass Control 2.0.
If you’re interested in grabbing one of those last 800 copies of Mass Control 2.0 as well, I’m offering the same bonus as I am for Rich’s course, if you order through my affiliate link below.
Do You Want Almost $2,000 In Bonuses?
Podcast: How Companies Use Social Media And What It Means For Bloggers
Press play to begin streaming the audio or right click the download text link and choose save as or save link.
Download the MP3 [ 30 Minutes - 10 MB]
I meant to have this out to you on Wednesday last week after I recorded it, since the prior evening I attended a Third Tuesday meet-up in Toronto, which was the inspiration for the podcast. However, you see, I bought a new macbook pro.
Don’t get me wrong, I love my new mac, but this is my first mac and since I recorded the podcast on the mac there was a BIG learning curve to figure out how to get it ready for publication on this blog. As you will hear, it’s not quite right, but the message is definitely clear enough to enjoy. Apologies for the change in volume and odd shuffling noises.
How Do You Measure Social Media?
This Third Tuesday meet-up was a good one, the topic being – How do we measure social media? – with three expert panelists (Katie Paine, Marshall Sponder and Marcel Lebrun) taking questions from the audience made up of mostly PR and communications professionals, and related consultants and small business owners.
The idea of measuring the impact of social media is akin to measuring the effect of branding. Social media, much like branding, is often difficult to directly correlate with a business outcome, despite it obviously having a big impact on business results. I won’t go into here since I do so in some depth in the podcast, so have a listen!
If you are a blogger, a business owner or a person interested in the business side of social media, you will enjoy this rambling podcast.
Thanks to Joseph Thornley and his crew for putting on a great meet-up.
Show Notes
- Introduction to the Third Tuesday event
- What we mean when talking about measuring social media
- What this means for bloggers
- Why it’s the conversation that matters most, not the influencer
- No industry wide standards for measuring social media are available
- Not many people are actively measuring, only monitoring
- There is an opportunity to provide a database of influential sites ranked by social media analysis
- Use social media to assess how your competition is perceived and use that information to compete
- Consulting firms providing social media data mining services
- What changes to ad budget spending at companies means for bloggers
- Why being an influencer in any niche is so important
Click Here to Download the MP3 [ 30 Minutes - 10 MB]
Yes I Am On Twitter
You can follow me on Twitter here – http://twitter.com/yarostarak
Did you notice the tipping point? Twitter hit the tip somewhere in the last few months and it’s clearly gaining serious critical mass.
I’ve had a Twitter account for many months but largely ignored it because social media is such an attention suck and I already spend too long in front of the computer as it is. I’ve successfully ignored Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and I thought I’d do the same with Twitter, but alas, sometimes you can’t let things pass or you may miss out on opportunities.
I like to focus on one thing and become really good at it – in this case blogging and running my business – but you don’t want to get left behind either, and since Twitter isn’t too labor intensive to manage (compared to Facebook or MySpace), I’ve decided to bend to the will of the people and get active tweeting.
Twitter looks like a lot of fun and since it’s really like blogging but without massive wordcounts, it should be easy enough to maintain.
How Many Signs Do You Need Before You Take Action?
There have been a few signs lately that prompted the decision to become an active Twitterererer, for example…
Podcast In The Park With Yaro
Press play to begin streaming the audio or right click the text link and choose save as or save link.
Download the MP3 [ 19 Minutes - 5 MB]
Yesterday I was sitting at my computer facing a few too many emails and a rather large list of things to do and I could already feel my head start to hurt.
So what did I do? – I went to the park!
I decided if I was going to continue working I would probably be in considerable head pain by the end of the day, so I dropped everything and went to the Brisbane Botanic Gardens at Mt-Cootha and hung out with the birds.
I had my iRiver MP3 player with me and was listening to some podcasts, which created a desire to make one of my own impromptu rambling podcasts. My little iRiver has a built-in microphone, so I was itching to see how good it was – and wow, I’m impressed. The audio quality is not bad I’m sure you will agree, though I hope you like the sound of birds in the background 
.
The podcast is a short one about a whole range of Internet business topics starting with social marketing, moving on to email lists and then finishing with a little note on keeping perspective.
Show Notes
- Yaro talks about the recent Rich Schefren Attention Doctrine and StomperSMARTS launches
- A look at how the Internet marketing focus is shifting to social marketing
- How Yaro is using email lists with his blog to make money
- Why it is important to focus on intrinsic values and not just money
Click Here to Download the MP3 [ 19 Minutes - 5 MB]
Going Natural 2.0 Video – 3 Social Marketing Tips You Can Implement Today
Update: The links in this post now point to the sale page for the SMARTS program, since the program went live. If you haven’t seen the video yet, here’s the link: Going Natural 2.0 Video.
Also I called Don Crowther “Dan” in this article and have since fixed it – sorry Don!
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StomperNet have released a new video that provides a fantastic discussion of what Social Marketing is, why it’s so critical to the future of Internet marketing and ends with three (well four really) practical ways you can use social media sites to drive traffic to your site.
Here’s the link -
Social Marketing: Success without SEO, Pay-Per-Click or Affiliates
The video is long – 50 Minutes – and the tips start about half way through, but it’s worth watching from start to finish, especially if you have not looked into using social media and Web 2.0 sites as a means to market your blog or business.
Social Marketing Is Huge
I don’t know about you, but I can’t keep up with all the social media and Web 2.0 talk lately.
Not a day goes by where I don’t get some notification from Facebook and given the growth numbers the site is putting up, it won’t be long until Facebook rivals MySpace, the current traffic leader.
Then there’s YouTube, the video sharing site that apparently every single American who uses the Web goes to watch at least once every day.
…And that only skims the surface. There’s social networking sites like LinkedIn, bookmarking sites like Digg and Delicious and collaborative resource sites like Wikipedia. Plus every day a new Web 2.0 site is born offering yet another way to connect with people and drive traffic back to your site.
It’s so overwhelming, most of the time I just take a quick look at the few sites I frequent or keep profiles at, then go back and post an article to my blog.
However every now and then something comes out about social marketing that I take notice of because I don’t want to be left behind and I trust the source of the information.
The “problem” with social marketing is how different it is to traditional marketing. You can’t even smell like you are trying to sell something or just using the site to build links or traffic back to your site, because as soon as you do – BOOM – you are banned.
To make social marketing work you have to…well…be social. Yeah, not surprising, but very true.
Social marketing is about community participation, but you can have a business agenda. You are there first and foremost to be an active and valuable member of a community and if you are smart, use your profile and connections to drive traffic and links back to your site.
Everything has to be organic and friendly – it’s actually a wonderful way to market a business because it’s like talking to friends. There’s no hard sell because hard sell simply doesn’t work – it’s not even permitted.
