Stepping Up

Skype video conference is a tool you will want to consider using if you are looking to establish leadership in your niche or business. Standing out from the crowd by definition puts you a step ahead of everyone else. But you need to have tools and strategies to take this bold step.

Skype video conference is one such tool, and using the strategies discussed in my video on this topic will give you a clear idea of how to take full advantage of it in your business or professional practice.

Your “Skype Video Conference” Profit Center

The incredible power of the Skype Video Conference is in it’s personal branding capabilities.

If you are a business leader, you need to gather your followers. A Skype Video Conference puts you at the head of the conference table.

If you are an MLM business representative, you need to court and train your downlines, and prospective recruits. During your Skype Video Conference, you become the leader of the pack. Chances are, recruits will insist on being on your team after your presentation.

If you are an internet marketer, a Skype Video Conference is the perfect format for teaching your subscribers how to follow in your footsteps.

If you are a personal coach or mentor, there’s virtually no tool that give you the invaluable personal branding, as well as a platform for one-on-one consultations, as a Skype Video Conference.

Are you a blogger, a niche marketer, a company representative… it hardly matters what your exact position is. What is important, is that you stand up and be counted as a magnetic, compelling leader. That’s why you need to explore the depth of this simple, free yet virtually unrivaled personal branding tool.

Putting “Skype Video Conference” In Perspective

I’d love to hear your comments, experiences and perspectives on developing your personal brand. Please take time to re-tweet and Facebook share this post so your followers can benefit from your sharing.

This is the third and final part of the series I’ve done on the value of Skype. If you want to know more about using this resource and strategy to develop your business, please start with part 1, Create A Skype Community. Then proceed to part 2, Skype Set Up.

After you’ve seen the essentials of Skype, and the basics of setting it up, you will be prepared to fully implement this effective social media strategy, by setting up your first (or maybe your next) Skype Video Conference.

Skype set up is a powerful step to take toward making your online business interactive. It’s a great way to build your personal brand, and to garner leadership status in your field, specialization or niche.

This is the second of a 3-part series. If you’d like to start from the beginning, click on Create A Skype Community.

Here’s the basics of getting started.

Please share this in your social media and bookmarking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Digg and Stumbleupon.

I’m always happy to read your questions and comments below. Let me know if you need any help with your own Skype set up.

I discuss both the differences and similarities on the video below.

Don’t forget that the most important similarity between internet marketing and network marketing is that they both employ personal branding techniques to bring you to the forefront of your company, business or idea. That’s because both rooted in attraction marketing.

Stop following… start leading.

I’ve done a free video series that will show you precisely how to brand yourself as a leader and expert. When you’re tired of following uplines, employers and supervisors who limit your growth, sign up for my free Up & Running 5-day Video Series.

This video series takes you Step by Simple Step through the process required for YOU to step forward and take a leadership role in your business.

Sign up for my FREE Up & Running 5-day Video Series right here.

Happy to have you on board.

In a 1959 Twilight Zone episode called “One For The Angels”, Mr. Lewis J. Bookman, pitchman, makes a deal with Mr. Death.  He can stay alive just long enough to make his “pitch of a lifetime”.

Your online business, your ability to monetize your blog… will stay alive only as long as your pitch allows.  If you’re not delivering your own “pitch of a lifetime” on your blog, it could mean the death of your internet marketing goals.

Mr. Bookman’s Pitch

“Ladies and gentlemen, if you will feast your eyes on probably the most exciting invention since atomic energy, a simulated silk, so fabulously conceived as to mystify even the ancient Chinese silk manufacturers. An almost unbelievable attention to detail. Witness, if you will, a demonstration of tensile strength. Feel that, if you will sir. Unbelievable, isn’t it? As strong as steel, yet as fragile and delicate as Shantuang Silk. Picture if you will, three hundred years of backbreaking research and labor to develop this, the absolute ultimate in thread. And what would you expect to pay for this fabulous, I say fabulous, incredible amazing development of the tailor’s art? Would you pay thirty dollars a spool? Twenty five? Twenty? Ten? Well very well you might, sir, if you were trying to purchase this in stores. But this fantastic thread is not in stores. It is smuggled in by Oriental birds especially trained for ocean travel, each carrying a minute quantity in a small satchel underneath their ruby throats. It takes eight hundred thirty two crossings to supply enough thread to go around one spool. And tonight, at my special get-acquainted introductory mid July Hot Summer Sale, I offer you this fabulous thread, not at twenty dollars a spool, not at ten, not at five, but at the ridiculously low price of twenty five cents a spool!”

What’s Your Pitch?

Your Opt-in Offer is where you make your pitch.

This is your chance to let your readers know that you have some amazing, free, highly valuable information to share with them.  All they need to do is “opt in” – that is, type in their name and email address to get your offer.

Now, this offer is made with a few printed words and/or a short, one or two minute video.  That’s not a lot of words and time to make a pitch of a lifetime.

So don’t waste a single word.  Make every word drip of value and intrigue.

Make your offer unique.  Make it something people can’t find ANYWHERE except by opting in to your offer.

That doesn’t mean you need to have a unique product, but it must be so intricately woven into your personal brand that your readers won’t want to buy it from anyone but you.

A Pitch For The Angels

And, oh, by the way.  Mr. Bookman’s “pitch of a lifetime” was not any product or item he so eloquently hawked.  It was, in the end just this:

“An item never before offered in this or any other country. One guaranteed live human man servant.
Me! Lewis J. Bookman! The first model of its kind. He comes to you with an absolute guarantee all parts interchangeable, with a certificate of four years serviceability. He eats little, he sleeps little. He rests only occasionally, and there he is at your elbow, at your beck and call whenever needed.
I challenge any other store, wholesale house or industry to even come close to matching what I offer you here…”

And, of course, nobody can match this offer, because, there is only one brand of Lewis J. Bookman.

And, of course, there’s only one of you, too.  So go out and brand yourself and make your own pitch of a lifetime.

Mr. Bookman’s pitch was so effective that even Mr. Death was taken in, cheated though he was by what had actually served up as a “pitch for the angels”… a pitch so compelling that Mr. Death forgot to take the life of a little girl who lay dying, and so, had to settle for Mr. Bookman.

Now, go out and have some fun with your own pitch.  It’s time to get creative in capturing leads and prospects from your Opt-in offer.  Make your very own… your totally unique pitch of a lifetime and watch people scramble to get onto your list of adoring (or at least very curious) followers.

I’d love to hear how you designed your pitch, or what issues you might be facing trying to create or tweek one.

Isn’t it great to get a bunch of people opting in to your offer?

Hey… You Got Leads!

So now the CASH is rolling in, right?

If that has not been your experience, then you’re crashin’ out when you should be cashin’ in.  But don’t think you’re alone.

One of the biggest pitfalls to online marketing success is converting leads.  The truth is, most people are extremely active in trying to obtain leads, but once they have them they think the game is over.

THE AUTO-RESPONDER TRAP

My clients are great.  They take copious notes on how to grow a blog, develop killer content, mesmerize prospects and suck them mercilessly into their sales funnels.

They get it.  The game is all about offering great value and attracting grateful prospects.

They also understand the flow charts.  Furnish value, attract leads, and get them into an auto-response email list that more actively promotes the product or service offer.  They even get down to the business of creating an impressive auto-responder list of emails that defines, illustrates and otherwise promotes the heck out of their primary offer.  Their auto-responder campaigns are often impressive and even quite deep, maybe 45 to 60 days and beyond.

But here’s the trap.  The auto-responder is so good, so efficient, so cleverly written and presented, that it is often left to stand alone in terms of converting the lead into a customer or client.

It is simply relied on too heavily by the busy entrepreneur in his or her frantic efforts to keep feeding it a growing list of anxious prospects.

HERE’S THE CRASH

So prospects go to a static, though well-developed list of email that tout an enticing product or service.  They may buy in, they may opt out… they may simply stop opening the emails before sending them to trash.

“Well, there’s nothing I can do about that,” you could complain.  “I brought them into my list, gave them the best offer I could muster, and now they either realize its value or they don’t.  I can’t waste any more time on them.”

I actually hear this response to a crashing conversion metric all too commonly.

The prospects opt in.  The emails automatically kick out.  The open rates drop drastically after the first few days.  The conversion rate quivers, dips and finally crashes.

And the frustrated entrepreneur usually responds to the crash in one of two ways:

1. Give up and decide that internet marketing just doesn’t work (and, of course, it doesn’t… FOR THEM!).

-or-

2. Get really busy looking for more innovative and aggressive ways to build up “The List” (the idea being, apparently, that what didn’t work for 100 people will be much better when it doesn’t work for 1,000… What?).

AND HERE’S THE CASH

The solution is one that often meets with sighs, but believe me, it’s a game changer.

You can (and should) do all the things that we just walked you through in the “Crash” strategy.

But… In addition, you have to WORK (hence the sighs)… your list of prospects.  I don’t mean create more emails.  I’m not talking about better copy, more videos, or more poignant links (although each of these things is worth review).

The way to work your list into a frenzy, into a dither, into the CASH column… is a familiar technique.  It’s called PERSONAL BRANDING and BUILDING AUTHENTIC RELATIONSHIPS.

You need to AUGMENT your skeletal auto-responder email series with broadcast emails on a REGULAR basis (at least… at least 3 times a week).  The broadcast emails should be personal interjections.

Mention your most recent blog post.  Link back to it.  No sales talk.  Just mention the blog post and why your prospect will want to read it.

Talk about why your 5-year old cried today… his first day of kindergarten.

Let off steam when you’re favorite team loses the 7th game of the World Series.

You get the idea.  Let people in on your life, your thoughts, your emotions.  Establish relationships.  And in the process… Brand Yourself!
Alternatively, you can broadcast informational emails.  A few a week.  How to save money with this idea, how to create more business, reduce the chance of a heart attack… whatever pertains to your list… and that depends on your niche, be it business, health, relationships or whatever.

Is this extra work?  Of course.  That’s why so many people pass it by.

But this is the way to get the attention of your prospects, to deepen your relationships with them, further brand yourself, and offer them even more value.

This is also the way to improve your open rate and subsequently your conversion rate.

This is the way to avoid the CRASH and enjoy the CASH!

Please comment below.  I’d love to hear your point of view.

You don’t just need a blog. You need to learn how to be a blogger. Actually, you need to be a STAR blogger. Maybe even a SUPER STAR blogger. You want to make money blogging, don’t you? You want to promote your great ideas, don’t you? You want to help people, help the world, entertain, enlighten, spread love and value to others… don’t you?

If you answered yes to even one of these questions, then you need to get down to business… the business of becoming a STAR blogger.

You Can Warm The Bench…

You see, it’s nice to be a blogger. It’s a nice thing to do. It passes the time away. Your family and friends are amused by it. They might leave you some cute comments. You could even add it to your resume if you want to get some freelance writing assignments.

But blogging is also an incredibly powerful communication tool. You can use it to position yourself as a leader in your field, as an artist, an educator or a philosopher.

You can also use it to make money. Sounds pretty selfish, huh? I hear lots of people say “it’s not about making money”. That’s fine if you’re financially independent or blessed with a trust fund.

Otherwise…

Try telling your kids when they’re hungry… you “got no cash today”.

Try telling your favorite charity when they beg you to help them assist people trying to recover from an earthquake… sorry, I didn’t think money was too important… so “I ain’t got none”.

And you can forget about helping your aging parents who can’t afford the dentist, your shut-in aunt who can‘t pay for air-conditioning, or the old man across the street losing his house to back taxes… just tell them you don’t place much value in money. Tell them you blog just for the “art” of it (ie., your ego).

… Or, You Can Step Up To The Plate!

But if you decide you DO want to monetize your blogging efforts, or you do want to spread your ideas, talents and unique perspectives… then here’s the 5 reasons why you want to be, not just a blogger, but a STAR blogger!  Take notes, and then take these 5 Steps that will take you from the Bench to the Batter’s Box…

Being a Star Blogger means

• You are getting people’s attention (Action Step 1: Get People’s Attention)

• You’re taking on a leadership role within your community or niche (Action Step 2: Be A Leader)

• You are positioned to dominate social media circles (Action Step 3: Master Social Media)

• You gain the trust and credibility that commands a huge audience or following (Action Step 4: Create Trust)

• You are in a position to generate incredible profits (Action Step 5: Capture & Convert Leads)

If you are looking to accomplish these objectives as a blogger, remember that blogging BEGINS with you developing yourself into a STAR BLOGGER.  In future blogs, I’ll go into the 5 Action Steps in detail.

In the meanwhile… If you’re ready to step up to the plate and establish yourself as a STAR Blogger NOW… I’m here for you!  Let’s talk!

I’d love to hear what level of blogging you’re at now, and what things you think you need to work on to start being a STAR BLOGGER!

Obtaining A Domain Name

This is a pretty simple step.  Simply go to a major domain site like GoDaddy.com or HostGator.com and see if the name you have in mind is available.

Test out a few names.  Pick your favorite and purchase it.  It’s really that simple.

Just a few things to think about here.  You will want a dot com name in all likelihood.  They get far better recognition than dot net or any other options.  Since you are looking to create a personal branding site… the type best suited for Tribal Syndication… you are best off giving it your own personal name.  If your name is not available in dot com, I suggest you use a variation of your name rather than settle for a dot net.  For instance, if JohnSmith is taken, try AskJohnSmith, or JohnSmithCoaching, etc.

Hosting Your Blog Site

Most of the people I’ve worked with in Tribal Syndication use Word Press to host their blogs.  I recommend you do the same.

Word Press is so flexible and universal that you can shape and design it to fit just about any purpose you have in mind, and because of its compatibility with so many plugin features, you can really make it powerfully useable for the specific purpose of Tribal Syndication.

Word Press has a free, unhosted version known as its dot com version.  This is NOT recommended for Tribal Syndication because it is not easily syndicated.  Instead, be sure to purchase a domain name and then have that hosted as a Word Press dot org site.  This can be accomplished through the hosting service itself if you use GoDaddy or Hostgator.  Otherwise, you can do it yourself or have your blog design service handle it.

Creating a Theme and Design for Your Blog

This is the most visible aspect of your blog, and perhaps the most important thing you’ll do to both attract and keep prospects on your site.  The importance of keeping people on your site is pretty evident.  If people aren’t visiting or spending much time on your blog, you won’t be very successful in creating any blog “buzz” for yourself.  That will translate into very little business coming through your opt-in offers and, therefore, an empty sales funnel.

I would certainly recommend at this point that you use a blog design service to get you up and running, unless you are one of the minority of bloggers that is truly capable of all the coding and technical maneuvering required to do it yourself.  It’s certainly penny wise and pound foolish to try to be a master of all trades.  This is a job for the pros, as long as you have the budget for it.

When you get a Word Press blog site, it will be a basic shell.  You need to design it before you start adding content to it.

Think about your theme first.

Is your blog about health and nutrition? Internet marketing?

How do you want to be perceived?  As a success coach? A personal development guru? A leader in you business? An affiliate marketer?

Once you’ve decided “WHO” you will be on your blog, the header, optin features,photos, background color and overall design features will need to comply with the image you wish to present to the world.  If you are capable of doing this kind of design work, that’s fine.  If not, use a professional design service.  But remember, be SURE to know exactly what you want on your blog… the photo, the headline, the opt-in box… because ANY changes you want to make after your blog has been designed will cost you extra money for the designer service.

Finally, for the purpose of Tribal Syndication, you need to modify your blog with the many available Social Media plugins available.  Most important for Tribal Syndication, you need to have bookmark sharing plugins like Onlywire, Facebook share, Twitter retweet, Google Friends and many others.  These are CRITICAL to making your blog interactive and to do the Tribal Syndication required to make you a serious player on the internet.

If you are able and willing to spend the time required to learn how to get these plugins installed and activated on your blogs, then do.  Many of them require some pretty significant time to set up, but once done, they are pretty much set.  I know from first-hand knowledge, that they don’t always operate the way they are supposed to, so you might want to have your blog designer set them up and maintain them for you, although this is a fairly costly service.  Only you can decided what your budge is for this, but whether you do it, or a design service, it is essential that your blog be equipped and maintained with cutting edge social media plugins.  This is essential to maximizing your Tribal Syndication efforts.

I’d be more than happy to help any bloggers trying to set up and design their blogs, or to find the best and most affordable design services out here.  I’ve been where you are.  It has not always been pretty, but I’ve picked up some real world solutions and know-how in my trips around the block.  Whether you’re one of my existing clients, or just a casual visitor, I’d be happy to help you work your way through this rather daunting challenge.  Once you’ve got the technical stuff under control, the real fun begins… creating your content!

I always advise my clients to begin their online success journeys by developing a meaningful Social Media presence.  Most of you are probably already on various Social Media sites.  But now you need to learn how to use them to become a powerful engine to endlessly drive prospects and leads into your online business.  Every entrepreneur knows that prospects and leads are how you spell success.  Let me give you a brief insider glimpse at the counsel I give my clients for using Social Media to achieve this critical goal.

1. Assume Position

When YOU–the entrepreneur–go online to begin marketing, consider which marketing positions to take up.  Usually, you start by creating accounts on the “Big Three” social media sites: Facebook, You Tube and Twitter.

There are social bookmarking sites like Digg and Delicious, video sites like Viddler, Metacafe and Google Videos.  And this just scratches the surface.  But I suggest you do what I teach my clients: start with the Big Three and expand as you begin to develop your online niche, create valuable content for others to share, and start building a base of followers, readers and viewers.

So, let’s say you open accounts for the Big Three sites.  These constitute be the Social Media “positions” that you have taken up.

Open accounts for each of them in order to assume those positions.

Carefully develop your profiles to define who you are and why you’re in the Social Media to begin with.  In this way, you’ve taken the first step to identifying yourself to potential business partners and prospects.

2.  Reinforce Your Social Media Positions

Developing your business through Social Media requires more than just creating and setting up accounts, of course.  You must reinforce your positions with good, valuable content that is specifically meaningful to your target clientele.

This will be the subject of the second part of this 3-part series.

3. Use Your Positions To Co-Ordinate and Carry Out Your Extreme Marketing Campaigns

Now that you’ve got your social media positions staked out, it’s time to attack.  Go on the offensive.  Root out all the browsers and seekers of whatever products, information and other value that you have to offer.

This will be the subject of the third part of this 3-part series.

SUMMARY

Your Social Media sites will be the base from which all operations proceed, and your Internet Marketing Success will be measured by how effectively you carry out missions to attract and convert prospects, leads, down-lines and business partners into your marketing funnels.  Once you have established ongoing reinforcement of your Social Marketing positions, you are ready to unleash extreme campaigns that will put your business on the map and establish you as a force to be reckoned with in the world of cutting edge internet entrepreneurs and online marketers. – Don’t miss my other posts that detail the second and third parts of this 3-part series designed to propel you to rapid victory in Online Marketing.

Coordinate You Tube Videos and Ezine Articles

You Tube video campaigns can personally brand you as an expert on topics that are more fully explored in companion ezine articles that you publish simultaneously.  This is a coordinated effort that is designed to drive You Tube visitors to your ezine articles for further information.  At the same time, ezine article readers are being driven to your You Tube videos for a more intimate and personal review of  your topic.

I encourage my clients to introduce people to their topics and ideas at the same time that they introduce themselves as go-to leaders that people interested in these topics and ideas will want to consult and work with.  At the heart of this strategy is developing your approach to a topic by coordinating a distinct campaign to share particular insight or information through  your own unique and personal perspective.

Let Me Show You How To

Put This “Insider” Technique To Work

First, try creating an outline of the main features of the topic that you wish to discuss.

Next, write a somewhat detailed article.  In it, you should expand each of the points made in your outline.  Give some specific examples or possibly story lines that underscore your point of view.

After your article is written, create a You Tube video using the same outline.   Use your own personal impressions and experiences, possibly sharing story lines that underscore or illustrate your point of view.  You can reference your article in your video, and even link back to it.  In that way, after you have briefly illustrated an idea, technique or strategy in your video… you can send viewers immediately to your article for a fuller narrative explanation.

This is a very powerful method for introducing people to your personal brand.  We can already presume are become interested in your topic.  That’s how they found your article or video… by browsing the keywords that your article are video is about.

If they like your unique approach to the topic, now they have qualified themselves as prospects both interested in your topic and also… attracted to you and your handling of the topic.  They are now truly qualified prospects that are interested in following you.

Drawing Your Prospects Into Your Personal Brand

At this point, it becomes your job to direct them to your Twitter and Facebook pages, and to your personal blog.  From here, they can become involved in other things you do.  This might include your primary business, your affiliate programs or anything else you might  be offering.

To make this strategy even more powerful, you could consider writing ezine articles for multiple sources, and submitting video to multiple other video hosting sites in addition to YouTube,  Your personal branding efforts are limited only by the amount of effort you put into creating excellent content and proceed to syndicate it through multiple video and article sharing and hosting sites.  Perhaps most exciting of all, it will not cost you anything except for your time and talent.  And that’s really what you want to invest first and foremost.

There’s a lot of opportunity to make enormous amounts of money. You can find business partners, MLM downlines and retail customers in larger numbers than you ever dreamed imaginable in the 3-dimensional world. You make new friends so quickly… by the hundreds on Facebook, by the thousands on Twitter. You get to sell your products, promote your business and blast your message and ideas into the ether!

But for many entrepreneurs, the allure of online marketing is most pronounced in the glitzy realm of Stardom. We have all learned by now that personal branding is the essence of attraction marketing. We can best attract people to our products, ideas and messages by positioning ourselves as repositories of value and conduits of success. This becomes our “brand”.

We can develop large followings to our brand, even virtual fan clubs. Some of the most magnetic leaders in the electronic universe command almost cult-like followings. Perry Marshall, Mike Dillard, Jonathan Budd and Katie Freiling come to mind for me. You will probably conjure up images of many others of this ilk. Then there are the rising stars,… too many to recount. Those that are walking the path of their mentors such as those mentioned, aspiring to be their understudies and dreaming of one day being their peers.

I must admit, the leaders I have mentioned have all been a great inspiration to me. Their value as internet marketers is limitless and their foray into the regions of personal development is both inspiring and challenging. Each of them is a great mentor and true leader in this society of aspiring internet marketing stars. And I certainly count myself among that throng.

Yet, in the midst of my entranced immersion into the cult of the star–not least of which is embedded my own personal quest for stardom and leadership–there emerges a twinge of discomfort. This need not concern my reader, insofar as my reader feels unity and cohesion with this road well-traveled. But my own personal quest is apt to be shred to pieces, drowned in irrelevance or hurled upon rocky shores should I surrender my personal bearings upon this journey.

The simple truth is, I did not wander into the regions of online marketing in search of fame and stardom, but to quietly cultivate an independent and sustainable lifestyle. My success, therefore, became defined in terms of my ability to attain these basic achievements. It was elevated by my sense of responsibility to family and community.

Goals of unlimited fortune and unparalleled fame seem to be the norm in the online world, and I think that is fine and well as long as they do not become absolute ends in and of themselves. Personally, I find it imperative to revisit my reasons for creating a personal brand. For me, it is to gain great success, not solely for my own gain, but most especially for the glorification of my Creator and Redeemer. I struggle to create fame and fortune today, but regardless of how great or minute, both will most certainly be gone tomorrow. I may one day be a Superstar… or not…

Either way, the greatness of my success will lie solely in my willing endeavor to apply every ounce of all my abilities to gain success for myself, my family and my community. “I”, in fact, am powerless to succeed on any level, or in any aspect of my life. Only through the grace of God have I been given my own distinct gifts, my own distinct “brand” and even my own ability to take best advantage of them. And only through the grace of God will I ever succeed to whatever degree I do.

But when all is said and done, my ultimate success… my shining “stardom”… will not be measured by the results or extent of my endeavors, but by the humility and persistence with which I undertake them.