Posts Tagged Internet Marketing

Gather Success Challenge V – Promotion Challenge

May 31

Posted by Valentina in Internet Marketing | No Comments

Massive Action Flower Cluster

This week’s Gather Success challenge is to drive traffic to the post about this challenge on Gather Success. The task is to promote any which way: blog, email, Facebook, Twitter etc. this url:

http://bit.ly/bDDm4N (so please feel welcome click and visit

The purpose is to get good at online promotion by using all the tools we have on hand for a single purpose, i.e., take massive action. I think of massive action as a cluster, like the photo of the flowers to the left – it is the cluster of the flowers that forms the beauty of a shrub in bloom. I think that we all use these marketing tools but not necessarily as a cluster. We are vaguely aware of the power of massive action but for some reason seldom use it to our advantage. Alvin is one smart cookie. Yes it is his site we are promoting (gold star for big smarts) and here are the rules:

1. Traffic hits to blog post is determined by unique visits
2. You may use Twitter, Blogs, Facebook or Email List for promotion
3. You will need to digg the blog post once!
4. RT the blog post once!
5. Reddit the blog post once!
6. Delicious the blog post once!
7. All promotion should point the blog post with your bit.ly tracking link to track @

Notice the addition of points three through six. I have Delicious and Reddit programmed on to this site ( and many other social marketing sites), but actually going to the sites and doing the digging gives me a personal introduction to Digg. As I was thinking about this, I have been keenly aware that although I know of Delicious and many other social bookmarking sites, I really don`t know what each one is set up to do, in other words, what its specialty is.

As I click away on the keyboard, this is good news and not so good news. The not so good news is that I am late to the game – not the whole challenge, just this week’s. The results are due in on Tuesday (and today is Monday)! Nevertheless, better late than never. It is the exercise I want to get into my system. Action develops memory smarts like reps develop muscle strength.

The good news is that I am in the number 5 position for the challenge … albeit a distant number 5.

The main benefit of participating in this challenge however is the heavy lifting of actually doing the marketing. It’s just like when I started this blog, I knew a lot about blogging and internet marketing but found that when I put shoulder to the grindstone, theory and action did not always run on parallel bars. It really is blood, sweat and sometimes even tears, to get the wheel to grind.

Participating in the Gather Success Blogger Challenge I have picked up the following:

- Going back to basics is empowering: At the very least it reaffirms that which you already know, at best you pick up new gems that you may have missed first time around or were never aware of in the first place.

- Escalated speed of progress. Familiar territory covered quickly and with ease, unfamiliar ground quickly understood and enacted.

- Identifying areas of weakness. In my case I know that my social media smarts are in need of some serious smartening up. Having gone through the exercise I now visit Twitter and Facebook with some regularity. I don’t always post, just hang out and try to understand by osmosis. I have to admit that I am beginning to understand Facebook better than Twitter, but am confident that the latter will eventually become just another marketing tool I use with ease.

- Procrastination rules – aaarrrgghhh!!! This is my big elephant in the room. It shows up way too often in all that I do. I mean, here I am, putting up this post the day before the results are due instead of the day the challenge began!

This makes me think of my previous habit of being chronically late for just about everything. I decided to change that. I did. I did that by simply changing the goal from being on time to being early by 10 to 15 minutes. That bought me time for unexpected delays. I am still not perfect but am on time better than 90% of the time.

I will now work on my procrastination. Instead of saying that I will complete the project on time I will change that to I begin my projects in a timely fashion so as to complete them before they are due.

- It’s fun to play … participating in challenges gets the adrenaline going and sharpens your smarts.

I hope that some of what I have experienced to date will be useful to you. In the meantime you could help me play by visiting:

http://bit.ly/bDDm4N .

You can also view all of the videos of the call-ins that Alvin hosts every Tuesday and pick up the same gems that I do.

Tags: Internet Marketing

Sunday Morn Musings: The Ordinary Man

May 30

Posted by Valentina in Miscellaneous, Sunday Morn Musings | No Comments

The Little Engine That Could

Welcome to Sunday Morn Musings. This is my weekly free fall – writing about whatever it is that occupies the mind on a Sunday Morn. The idea of a “no topic” posting is the stepchild to a blog I used to write: Four O’Clock Thursdays which is still up there if you want to check it out – more likely, I will repurpose and republish some of those posts here over time. On Sunday Morn Musings the topic may be about blogging but just as likely it may not.

My last post here was on Frank Kern’s State of the internet address. Today I republish an article which first appeared on my Four O’Clock Thursdays. That was a year ago. The words were about the man. The article about life. I hope you enjoy the read:

Dateline: May 07 2009

…The trip to San Diego was fabulous. I had dinner with a friend I have not seen since my days in Japan and it was just so cool to do catch up…we were just like kids! So much fun.

The reason I went to San Diego however, was to attend an internet marketing seminar. If I have never mentioned it here, that is what I do: internet marketing. As with any profession it is important to keep up, learn new things and meet colleagues and peers in your line of work. To that end the weekend did not disappoint.

I loved the venue which was at the Hard Rock Hotel in the Gaslamp Quarter of San Diego. The whole area is uber chi chi. At the seminar of 500 or maybe 600, I met a lot of people from all parts of the world. We had time to chat, and scope out business opportunities and joint venture options and just make new friends. Life is good.

What completely blew me away at this seminar however, was the opening address by the host. Frank Kern is a surf dude, extraordinarily successful in internet marketing and showed a side of human depth that he does not often display – at least not publicly. I had the privilege to briefly chat with him and you know how you get a certain feeling about someone? The feeling I got was that this young man is a very kind human being.

In his opening address Frank spoke of the Average Man and how the average man is no longer average. Summarized in my own words, which do little justice to the original:

Back when the average man went out to work, to get a job done, to feed, clothe and house his family, being an average man meant something. The average man took responsibility for his well being and did not sit around listening to excuses as to why he was no further along in his life than he was. He put in an honest day’s work and looked forward to putting in another with the hope in his heart to do better and to give more tomorrow. Being average was something to be proud of.

Yes there was always more to aspire to. The average man in those days did not buy into excuses peddled by feel good professionals. He did not think there was anything wrong with him and if occasionally the world was not rosy, well that was life and in time things improved.

Today a new industry has blossomed – the feel good industry, the instant fix for whatever is wrong with you. The media is awash with psychiatrists, psychologists, and self anointed professionals who tell the average man that indeed there is much that is wrong with him but not to worry, it is not his fault and if he but listen to them they will fix that which is wrong with him. He is sat down to an aptitude test which tells him what he can be when he grows up: a doctor, lawyer, garbage collector. Don’t worry, nothing wrong with garbage collector – it is not your fault if this is all that you are suited for, it is not your fault if:

- You can’t read – In the US 27% are functionally illiterate

- You are able to read just enough to get by – 25% – 30% in the US fall into this category.

That makes more than 50% of Americans who can barely read. But that’s not their fault. They are probably dyslexic, have ADD or ADHD or their parents did not love them enough.

Today the average man

- spends 20% of his time at work making non-work related phone calls

- 38% of those calls are job hunting (now that makes for an excellent employee)

But that’s ok … it’s not the average man’s fault. The job is not meaningful, the boss demands too much and pays too little. Why would the average man not steal some time from the man who pays him for a job he hates to look for another job?

And get this … the average American household watches on average 8.35 hours of TV every day. Needed escapist therapy to handle the boredom and tedium of a life that seems to be going nowhere.

Systemically the feel good industry of “Hey you’re OK, I’m OK – its not your fault that yada, yada, yada” … systemically the average man has succumbed to a litany of lies that say

“it is not your fault…”

“..you are entitled to”

“…it is your right…”

and so the standards of the average man have been dumbed down. Today the average man is no longer proud of who he is and is not willing to do anything about it. The average man is no longer average, is bereft of the values of his forebears.

This is not who we want to be, to aspire to. Today’s average man is not who we want to hang out with.

“If you want to do the things that other people can’t do, simply do the few things that other people won’t do”

Frank was diagnosed as being dyslexic, and to compound that “problem” he was pronounced to be ADD which, when the experts became even more knowledgeable, was upgraded to ADHD! Meds were the answer. For a while life was absent of chaos and internal turmoil, it flowed smoothly if somewhat artificially. The rose colored glasses he was given to wear, were, hey, OK!

Got him into college. Performed abysmally. Sure enough the aptitude test confirmed that he was not suited for higher learning, indeed collecting garbage was more like the kind of life he should be aspiring to.

Fortunately there was enough of a contrarian still lurking in Frank’s body. He took off the rose colored glasses. Collecting garbage did not appeal to him. He refused to accept what others had decided for him and made his own decision: to take responsibility for himself.

Today Frank is not only wildly successful, but a bright and articulate man and all because he refused to be an average man and to accept the pablum that was being fed to him.

Tags: Internet Marketing, Sunday Morn Musings

Frank Kern’s State of the Internet Address

May 27

Posted by Valentina in Internet Marketing, Making Money, Miscellaneous | 8 Comments

With Frank Kern at Mass Control

Have you seen Frank Kern’s State of the Internet Address? It is on video that is several months old now – in fact Frank put it up in December of last year. One of the members of an online mastermind group I belong to brought it to our attention.

I just watched it this morning. Excellent.

Frank is one cool dude and really knows his internet marketing stuff – he’s been in it since 1999 and has become an acknowledged master at the art of the game. Not bad for a kid who was once told by a professor that his chances of success in life were none and none.

In his State of the Internet Address Frank talks about his vision of where the internet is going, his predictions and how we as internet marketers are in the perfect place at the perfect time to ride the perfect wave of money that is coming our way.

Currently only 10% of brick and mortar businesses have an online presence, mostly in the form of a brochure rather than an ecommerce/marketing site. Frank predicts that within the next decade 100% of bricks and mortar businesses will have an online presence and that an ever growing number of these business owners will be looking at having more than a “brochure” presence, but rather as a means of attracting and retaining customers.

As online shopping grows and customers become increasingly comfortable with pulling out their plastic or using alternate forms of payment such as PayPal, there will be areas of commerce where online shopping will eclipse that of traditional bricks and mortar.

We as internet marketers are standing in front of a tsunami! Those of us that take advantage of this phenomena will be riding the wave, those of us who dither around looking to perfect our art will be swamped.

I love the way that Frank simplifies everything. Commerce?

B has money
B hands money to A
A hands B a product of greater value than the funds he received.

Note the word “greater” … that’s what Frank calls outcooling your competition.

Sunday Morn Musings: Create Your Own Economy

May 2

Posted by Valentina in Making Money, Sunday Morn Musings | 1 Comment

Last night I was listening to a radio talk show – a money talk show. I like to tune into this show as a way of keeping myself somewhat current with what is happening in the world of finance. This is a show that is targeted to the average person, people like you and me; not bankers, not economists. Tuning into this show does not make me an expert but at least I get a good layman’s perspective on the world economy and how that impacts my country on a larger scale of things and me on a minute scale of things – I also get some good tips on how to manage money. It’s my way of improving my financial IQ.

On yesterday’s show the host challenged us to create our own economy.

Create my own economy?

As I listened I realized how powerful that challenge was.

I also realized that without knowing it I was already creating my own economy and could do a lot more to make it a much healthier one.

The more I listened, the more the idea of a personal economy appealed to me. The imagery is far more powerful than the one that comes to mind when you say budget.

But an economy is more than just a budget.

Creating your own economy is just another term for personal finances which includes income, budget, asset growth, net worth, wealth preservation and that most sought after position of all: the cashflow. Cashflow is the money you have left over after the bills are paid.

The talk show host went on to say that in your economy, everything you own should cashflow.

Well, there it was. Pure and simple. That is why my net worth suffers from anemia. Most everything I own drains and costs rather than contributes and that it seems, is also the main problem with the world economy right now, but there are bright spots, countries like Brazil and China are enjoying good economies compared to most other countries; he posited these two countries vs what is now being termed as the Greek Tragedy.

You can’t do much to make a difference to the world economy, but you can to make a difference in your own.

To create a healthy personal economy you have to turn the tables and start thinking differently.

Whether you are employed or are in business for yourself, how much of your money do you put to work for you? For that matter how much do you pay yourself? You see it appears that most of us don’t do a good job of our income and outgo. We get the money and pay bills. We may contribute to some sort of a retirement plan and perhaps put a few dollars into a savings account. The reality is that most of us don’t even do these bare minimums, let alone grow our net worth. Even high earners are up to debt in their alligators. Now according to the talk show host, debt does not necessarily have to be a bad four letter word, there is such a thing as good debt, and that is when the debt incurred actually produces cashflow. Most personal debt produces outgo.

That got me thinking. The concept is not new to me and I am sure it is not to you. But it got me knoodling.

I wrote out my financials.

Not a pretty picture.

Too much red ink.

Now in my case a lot of the red ink is tax deductable. Items such as communication, transportation, insurances, accommodation and utilities are partially if not completely tax deductable as my businesses are run from my home office and each qualifies as a home based business. Still, when examined with microscopic attention the economy on the home front needs a lot of restructuring.

The biggest gaping hole was that the “economy” was not set up for preservation of capital. That according to the talk show host should be job one because preserved capital grows, and as it grows it can be put to better and higher use so that the resulting cashflow is passive rather than linear.

Aha! But isn`t that what you and are trying to do with internet marketing?

Yup!

We’re on the right track.

But don’t you just love the concept of creating your own economy?

Somehow the sound of “creating your own economy” has a much more powerful ring to it than budgeting

Are you ready to set out and create your own economy? A buoyant one? Let’s go for it.

Tags: blog income, Internet Marketing, Sunday Morn Musings

What Does a Blog Income Life Look Like?

Apr 17

Posted by Valentina in Internet Marketing, Making Money | 6 Comments

“What does a Blog Income Life look like?”

This is a question I often get asked.

The real answer is that it differs blogger to blogger. But that’s not what the question is about. The question is about my blog income life. It’s not stated that way but I know. So I answer accordingly.

I think that there is some disappointment when my answer fails the litmus test. People have read and heard that there are bloggers out there who are living the life of Riley, drinking fine wines, dining on epicurean delights, travelling to exotic destinations and living in the house of their dreams.

The answer is that yes, there are bloggers who do pull in the big bucks and enjoy a lifestyle to which many aspire – bloggers or otherwise. The disappointment is in my answer.

Amongst my friends I am living the life of Riley – now wasn’t he the real life spy after whom Fleming supposedly modeled James Bond? – after all I ditched the 9 to 5 a long time ago, have the luxury of doing what I please during the week as opposed to leaving things like mountain hikes and day fun trips to places like Whistler for the weekends.

Actually I probably put in longer hours than my 9 to 5 friends. Not all my time is devoted to blogging. I have several businesses and each needs my time. Internet marketing is a new venture for me and so far the ROI, both in terms of money and time invested is miniscule. So if I do drink a fine wine even if only now and then it is not because of my blog income – not yet.

The question that goes begging then is why do I persist with blogging if my other sources of income are sufficient to buy me that fine wine – even if only now and then?

The answer is passive income and living the life of Riley – eventually. Fine wine any time I want it!

Most of my business activities are linear – that is, produce the results and make the money. There is no recurring income for having done something one time and having a check arrive in the mail on a regular basis. No, actually I do have one such business in network marketing and it is the reason I looked at internet marketing in the first place – to market it online.

I got hooked.

Internet marketing had a lot of intuitive appeal to me. I dove in head first.

After taking several courses the penny dropped – the best place to cut your teeth on internet marketing is in blogging. Hard costs are minimal. Expertise is gained on the job and progress is largely dependent on time available and general comfort level with the internet.

So perhaps the proper question at this point of my blog income life is

“What does the time you spend on blogging look like?”

On average I put in four hours a day. Not all those hours are devoted to Blog Income Life as I have other blogs which I market online. Ironically it is these others that make bank for me. Here are the activities that make up the four hours a day on blogging:

Writing content. I write fresh, original content for all my online marketing – that goes for blog posts, article marketing, long sales letters, squeeze pages and feeder pages.
Publishing to appropriate venues.
Visiting similar content blogs
Commenting on blogs
Visiting forums
Social media marketing

These activities are what I would term as high gain, their function is to ultimately make me money.

In addition to high gain activities I also schedule at least an hour a day to continue my internet marketing studies. I still buy courses that I think will help broaden my knowledge and more importantly online experience – it`s what I call muscle building. Confession: sometimes this part of the day does not get done.

Sorry … the blogging money truck may have left but it has not arrived at my doorstep yet. The little guy, the tonka truck makes frequent stops though.

What do you think is at the core of the question of “What does your blog income life look like?“

Curiosity for one.

But I think the question is deeper than that. I think that the real question is `

“Is it true about what they say about blogging – that you can make a lot of money in no time flat and with little effort?”

They have seen the ads, read the long sales letters, watched the videos. What they take away is that this is a piece of cake and anyone can have the cake and eat it too. Overnight success is shouted from one guru to another. The questioner wants me to validate this with an affirmative, that yes, I make gobs of money blogging.

The truth is that overnight success can and does happen – most often after months and months, even years of continuous effort. Ask any guru – most have put in the time in some way or another on the internet. Even John Chow who started to make $40K per month in less than two years on his blog already had another online business. To hear him tell it, his John Chow blog kind of just happened. It appears that way, but John has smarts and had already built up his internet muscles and when you already have muscles, the heavy lifting isn`t so heavy.

What I find enormously rewarding with my internet marketing in that for the first time in many years there is a learning curve to scale. Too often we get into a groove that has become comfortable and that groove provides us with what we need. We don`t need to learn new things to perform well. For me internet marketing was completely new. I had to engage my brain and apply.

On this blog I write about things I have learned and experienced in my blogging career. I hope that the content is of value to you, my visitor; that you can take a nugget or two away with you and that it will help you in your own journey to a profitable blog income life.

An unexpected bonus. Well you could have knocked me over with a feather as I never would have thought that I would enjoy studying but I find the challenge of learning invigorating, it’s like feeding your brain that has been starving all this time. Feels good.

So for now my blog income life is mostly about learning, applying and measuring … and a whole lot of satisfaction with the progress I am making. Financial success? Promise, I’ll let you know. If there is one piece of advice I can give it is simply this: stay the course, correct, continue.

Here’s to your blog income!

Tags: blog income, blog income life, blogger, Internet Marketing

Four Bleeping Hours!

Apr 12

Posted by Valentina in Internet Marketing, Time Management | 3 Comments

Four Bleeping Hours! Daily!

Just to keep up with your emails!

I recently had a discussion with a colleague — someone new to the world of Internet Marketing. Like so many newbies, she had subscribed to several guru newsletters and had bought a course or two, OK, make that three or four and maybe more. What this means of course is a very active Inbox. In the course of our conversation she fessed up that going through the emails took as much as four hours every day. Four hours? Four bleeping hours! She was frustrated that after half a year the results were abysmal and was wondering if she shouldn’t throw in the towel with this latest venture of building a blog income and try something else.

Ok, four hours may be a bit on the high end of the spectrum for just “managing” your inbox, but honestly, don’t all of us fall victim to doing exactly what my friend did? Lets do a quick inventory. How many newsletter subscriptions do you have? How many courses have you signed up for – the freebie ones, the cheapie ones, and the not so cheapies? You get emails from all of those too even after the course has run its course (yes pun intended … ok, I just couldn’t help myself). Never mind the plethora of jokes from friends who obviously have no intention of making money on the internet. Then of course those jokes have to be forwarded to your own special inner joke circle.

STOP! This is insanity! If you’re serious about becoming an Internet Marketer – one that makes money that is – then you have to declutter, unsubscribe, don’t open the jokes – or at least save them for “break” time. I save mine for the weekends, and if some don’t get opened, so what.

The first thing that newbies need to know is that the internet is not a free ride. It is a continuous process of learning, and, unless you have the basics down pat, you’re never going to join the ranks of the gurus whose newsletters you so readily subscribed to and from whom you bought the courses and for which you now have no time because it takes you four bleeping hours every day just to read all that good stuff that comes into your inbox. FOUR HOURS!!! … and there is so much information you don’t know where to start and then you get frustrated because nothing is working and you throw up your hands in frustration and start looking for the holy grail of the internet and you can’t find it! Whew! Months go by, even years.

Don’t fall victim to this trap.

I bet you have emails in your Inbox that have not been opened. I would even go so far as to say that some have been sitting there for over a week, maybe even a month! Be ruthless with the stale dated ones – open and unsubscribe. Don’t start reading! If you haven’t read something for a month don’t read it now! If you really like the newsletters save the links. You can always resubscribe at some future date when you are ready for more and have learned how to manage your online time better.

Good News/Bad News. The good news is that you know more about the internet than you think you do. You’ve gone through kindergarten. You know the basics of being on the computer: open, close, send & receive emails, browse, Google something. You might even be active on some social marketing sites … you know, Facebook, Twitter and perhaps niche specific social media sites. Later on you will learn how to use these sites as valuable marketing tools, but for now, put your time into the action packed basics that will help you towards earning an online income.

Take these steps immediately:

1. Email all your joke buddies. Tell them that you love them and appreciate their jokes but could they put them on hold for several months. Tell them that you are working on a very important project to build a blog income and much as you love a good laugh here and there, for the time being the Ha Ha’s have to stop.

2. Love em and leave em. Unsubscribe to all but 5 of the top newsletters you receive. Make sure that the ones you decide to keep will add value to your online income career. I would suggest that you keep one or two that give information on how to maximize your blog, the others should be about your niche so that you can broaden your own expertise in your field.

3. Those course gather dust on the shelves are never going to do you any good unless you crack them open and start in on them. If you more than one still sitting there (or downloaded into your computer), choose one to work on now. Calendar time to work on it. . Whether you decide to devote 3 or 4 hours a day or a week, schedule it. This is very important. I would recommend scheduling some time on a daily basis, but if the weekend is all that you can realistically devote to your course, then bunch up the hours, four or five on Saturday and another four or five on Sunday.

4. Resist the temptation to check on your Inbox all the time. I used to check three times a day, now I check only twice a day. Once in the morning and again at close of my official business hours.

5. Small consistent steps will pay off. Do whatever you can to free up more time to do that which is a high gain activity … write daily. You don’t have to publish daily, but by putting in even 30 minutes a day on writing, you will be building your blogging muscles and will always have articles on the go.

this post was first published in December 2008.

Tags: blog income, Internet Marketing, Time Management

The Week That Was : April 04 – 10

Apr 10

Posted by Valentina in Making Money, Weekly Review | 3 Comments

I’ve long forgotten what it’s like to have a long weekend. For the entrepreneur who calls the spare bedroom the office, days and nights and weekdays and weekends often blur. This is particularly true of those of us who are internet marketers and earn our incomes online. Last weekend, Easter, I decided that the 9 – 5 may have a point: take some time off. And so I did. Four glorious days of it.

You know what was so good about it? Yes, spending time with family and friends, but the truly surprising part was that it was really invigorating to get back on the computer and get moving again. I got a surprising amount covered. The brain seems to think faster and I think you waste less time, because, well there is so much to make up for. I think I’ll do that more often.

I was intrigued that one of my posts this week was not only indexed , but actually got a Google Broad position of 98 and Phrase position of 48 – OVERNIGHT! I’ve never had anything like that happen. The post in question is This Too Shall Pass. I think it’s the video which I embedded into the post . Now I don’t think that any video would garner that kind of attention, but this one is really tops. You just gotta watch it.

Summaries of articles posted since the last review

Blogger Reality Show Challenge 05/04/10
The World’s 1st Reality Show For Bloggers To Challenge Each Other Each Week To Win The Ultimate Prize To Be Alvin Phang’s Apprentice!
Sooner or later it had to happen – a Blogger Reality Show and Alvin Phang of Gather Success is the man to have put it together. Everyone can participate. The show starts April 30 so hop on out on over there and register. It will be fun.

What is your Blog’s USP? 06/04/10
Do you know what your blog’s USP (Unique Selling Proposition) is? What sets your blog apart from the others. Some things to consider and apply to your blog that will have your tribe growing and following you consistently. Read the whole blog post

This Too Shall Pass – 09/04/10
This was my first attempt at embedding a You Tube video. I think I missed a step or something as after you click on the video it asks you to click again … but the video is so hilarious. You really do have to watch it. I then drew some parallels from the video to blogging.

The gloves are off. Two of my fave bloggers Dave and Pat seem to be duking it out in the blogosphere or so their posts seem to suggest. They’re both sharp dudes though and even though the titles seem to be at polar opposites, there is some common ground there. Definitely a must read.

Pat Flynn - Its Dumb Not to Dumb it Down

Dave Doolin – “Dumb it down” they say… No! I say, “Smarten it up!”

I’m not going to even give a summary – honest, just go read both posts.

Tomorrow Sunday Morn Musings returns. Adios!

Tags: earn online income, Internet Marketing

This Too Shall Pass

Apr 8

Posted by Valentina in Internet Marketing, Valentina Recommends | No Comments

Today I got this in my inbox. Its a link to a You Tube video. It’s hilarious! Takes the domino effect olympians to a whole new level. You can watch it here (for some reason I was unable to download/embed correctly – just click the YouTube option and it will play.

As I was watching the video I could not help but draw parallels to blogging and internet marketing. Lets take a look at what we can learn from this video:

1. UNIQUE

What first caught my attention is that this is a departure from your standard domino effect videos. Clever as those are they are from today onwards – at least in my eyes - just thematic variations on dominos falling in rapid succession. In this video the dudes devised a clever use of mixed objects to move inertia to action

How does this apply to blogging?

In yesterday’s post I talked about your blog’s USP and how differentiating your blog from others was important. In this video we see imagination taking over and the result is a uniquely creative domino effect.

2. FIRST STEP

The simple act of pushing the truck sets off a succession of movements that impact some domino style blocks. I like the use of these blocks as it tells us from the outset that this is another one of those domino wonder videos, then it changes tack as a string is toggled, then a marble then a series of half pipes and the whole thing goes down a wild rabbit trail. It had me glued to my screen. I watched it several times to see the point of connection at each new article in motion.

How does this apply to blogging?

The first physical step that a blogger takes is to buy a domain. From there on the ball starts rolling. In this video there were 89 mechanisms involved. As you progress in your blog you learn how to optimize your keywords, how to appeal to the search engines, to drive traffic, to develop a community, to attract stark raving fans, to have conversions. Ultimately to make money.

3. CONTENT

Did you notice that all the items are ordinary, every day things? Same with what you write in your blog. Unless you’re writing to a very small niche of rocket scientists – well, this is not rocket science. Content for your blog is all around you. Some seemingly non related items can be worked into your post, no matter what your topic is. Think about how strong March winds, or April flowers, or fashion shopping baskets might fit in to what you write about. My friend Cheryll just started a site on her collapsible shopping baskets (its a work in progress just wanted to show you an example) … if yours is a greening the planet type of blog, would these not fit in nicely as a post.

Most importantly, keep it simple.

4. ENGAGEMENT

Make it fun. OK. This is a tough one. Not all of us are blessed with clever witticism, thigh slapping humour or the ability to string a bunch of words in such a way that they will entertain your audience. Ok … the least that you can do is lighten up – yes, I am working on it!

5. LEVERAGE

Excellent example of the leverage of the power of kinetics. How can you leverage your blog for traffic, conversions, links, list building, making money

6. TENACITY

This took a lot of planning. Do you think that it was perfect from the get go? How many “takes” did it take? It took months to perfect the concept and get this – there are 89 points of connection and it took 85 takes! Aaah. Tenacity, thy name is success!

If you get the time watch the other videos on the behind the scenes of the making of this video, do. It is both inspirational and informative. I was so taken by the video it took me a second or two to clue in to the fact that this was a band! OK GO! The creators? Oh I dunno, gotta be engineers or just dudes with too much time on their hands and bent imaginations living in their heads!

BUT DON’T YOU JUST LOVE IT?

Tags: blogging, Internet Marketing

Five Basic Steps to Online Networking

Mar 29

Posted by Valentina in Miscellaneous, Plan Development | 4 Comments

We all know how networking works in the offline world, but did you ever think that the same principles can be applied to the online world and that it works equally well across all spectrums of internet marketing? Whether you are blogging for money, or focusing on affiliate marketing to earn an online income, networking, whether offline or on can have a definite positive impact on your bottom line at the bank. Online networking should be part of your plan to succeed on the internet.

How, you ask, do you network online? Networking has spun a whole new business model –daily there are several networking events held throughout any major city at venues as diverse as the people who attend them. For a small entrance fee and the cost of a wallet full of business cards you can attend these well orchestrated functions where it goes without saying that the reason you are there is to make connections and so is everyone else. No need to chit chat about sports, kids or the last adventure down the Amazon. Cut to the chase and go for the jugular: What do you do? What are you looking for? How can I help you? No fit, no worries, move on no offence taken.

But how do you do that on the internet?

There is no virtual room that you can enter, tap someone on the shoulder and exchange URLs, contact info and other bits of critical information about each other’s businesses. But … develop online relationships you can

First off I am not a great fan of the organized network functions. They are too frenzied for my liking. Long before someone came up with the idea of throwing a party for no other reason than to facilitate encounters of the business kind, networking was alive and well. Have you ever moved neighbourhoods or cities, perhaps even countries. How did you meet your new neighbours ? Chances are that you joined some associations, societies, private clubs and extended and accepted invitations to social gatherings.

If you are new to internet marketing think of it as a new neighbourhood. How might you meet others on the internet and more importantly how do you meet the right crowd? Here are a few suggestions:

FORUMS:
Search for online forums that are either complimentary to or the same interest as your own. Register for an account and start visiting. There is usually an introduction thread going, do that. After that just hang out a bit, read what others are saying and if you like the tone and the content, participate. Best way is to be helpful. When someone is looking for an answer to something and you know it, supply it, or weigh in with your opinion or suggestion. The key is to make your responses of value. Get noticed.
BLOGS
Find blogs in the same or complementary niche as yours. Visit the blogs – some you’ll like some you won’t. Bookmark the ones you do and make a habit of dropping in and not just reading the posts, but commenting as well. Think of yourself as a guest and what is the role of a guest? To enjoy oneself of course but also to add value to the host’s party. The blog is the party. Be gracious, read the whole post and make a comment, either by complimenting the host on the article or suggesting something that may extend the value of it.
TWITTER
Twitter is a great place to socialize and is perhaps the best gateway to online relationships. Done with an end purpose in mind you can develop strong relationships with others of a similar industry or common goal. Most people go about “meeting” people on Twitter the wrong way – they immediately start following people without any thought as to whether they should. I mean when you think about it would you go out on the street and tap people on the shoulder to say that you are new in town and want to get to know them? Of course not.

Similarly with Twitter. Ideally you should start by only following people you already know, but if you are completely new to this scene and you don’t know anyone – or at least, you don’t know that you know anyone – you start with a simple search. Look for people in your profession or industry, similar hobbies or common goals. Select no more than 10 to start with and before you follow them, visit their profile. Do you like what you see and read? If you do then go ahead and follow. Be sure to log in once a day to see what your new online compradres are tweeting about. Follow the thread. If you like what you are reading, stay a follower and begin to engage in the conversation, if you don’t, then simply unfollow.
FACEBOOK
Similar to Twitter but different. Matt Astifan likens it to the next step after Twitter. Twitter is where you meet someone, get to know a bit about them sort of like doing due diligence, and then if you decide that this is a keeper, invite them to your Facebook. Facebook is a slower pace where you can get to know your new online friend a bit better – it’s like slow dancing vs rock or hip hop – perhaps even give a referral or two.
OTHER SOCIAL NETWORKS
Twitter and Facebook are the two most popular social networks out there, but you may want to look for specialized social networks – you know, something like where all the medical doctors hang out if you’re a doctor, or a neurosurgeon or where budding authors exchange good tips on editors, agents and publishers.

Do all of the above without expectations. You will find that visits will be returned, tweets will be forwarded, invitations will be given. Not only will you be joining a community of like minded people but people who are willing to support each other’s endeavours, perhaps even signing on as affiliates and even joint venture partners in the future.

Now doesn’t that look just like offline networking? Have you in fact been doing online networking without knowing it? What have you done that has grown your community? Can you suggest other ways of online networking? Have you benefitted from online networking? How? Don’t be shy, post your comments below.

Tags: Affiliate Marketing, blog income, earn online income, Internet Marketing

The Week That Was: Mar 21-27

Mar 27

Posted by Valentina in Weekly Review | No Comments

Sometimes you just have to laugh because the alternative is to cry.

Such was the case this week. There are times when one is tried every which way. I always tell people who are experiencing some really tough times that it means they are on the threshold of something big but to make sure that they are up to the big, the universe sends challenges. We all get through challenges, life goes on, but it is how we deal with those challenges that determines whether we move up, stay static or slide backwards.

OK………….. I’m waiting for the big times to come!

Blog Income was down for almost two full days at the beginning of the week. Incompatible plugins. Then Friday, once again while I was in the back office, I managed to shrink the site and the font size – if you scroll past to earlier posts you will see that the font size is small. The good thing is I have found out how to increase the font size for each posting – now to just make it universal and widen the blog to it’s original size.

All this in the last week of Quarter One! … so, better times ahead.

New posts since the last Week That Was:

Sunday Morn Musings: Big is NOT Beautiful! 21/03/10
Social engineers are at it again. As usual they employ semantics as their tool of choice and preach from the pulpit of political correctness. They want us to think that “Big” is beautiful. Read that as FAT is beautiful. BALDERDASH! … On my Sunday soapbox (maybe that is what I should call it)I take issue with fat and health.

Life, Timing & Love all live in The Land of Internet Marketing 24/03/10
… calm has returned to the domain of Blog Income and that makes life good but it’s been a few hair raising and tearing days. At first annoyance, then disbelief, then as the reality began to seep in, utter panic. An internet marketer’s nightmare

Wordpress Direct Review – 26/03/10
“No more wasting your precious time with setup, Search Engine Optimization, or maintaining your site . . . WordPressDirect has been designed to handle all the setup, SEO and maintenance functions for you. With over 15,000 users, we are the leader in Search-Optimized Blog Publishing.”

Now that’s some powerful statement and if true it is the best kept secret in the internet marketing world. In this post I go over my experience along with some suggestions for improvement that WPD might want to take to heart.

Lean pickings this week. With every challenge met new things are learned.

To Your Awesome Blog Income Life!

Tags: blog income, Internet Marketing

Blog Income Life

Blogging for Money and Loving It!