Learning Internet Marketing

I've been involved in a number of webinars and mastermind groups this week and taking all kinds of notes, although I know by now that the secret to success is to act on the things that I learn. And I am trying, small steps at a time:) Anyway, here are the main takeaways I got from this week. Any comments of mine will be in brackets after the tips - which are in no particular order.

I've got a little bit of news to tell you today. I've been busy, workshops are getting more popular, and I've started doing more presentations. The latest was a talk I gave to members of the Assante Wealth Group about what social media is and the basics of using Twitter. The group of 150 people were 50+ and only a handful had ever used social media before. I started with a general overview of Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, using comparisons to give them any idea of what each of those sites is used for. Then I used a little story with slide photos to get across some of the do's and don'ts when using Twitter. Right now I'm in the process of putting the slides together on Slideshare and then I'll post it here for you to see. My entire presentation (30 minutes) was video taped, but apparently the quality wasn't very good, so I didn't get a copy. I did record the presentation for myself when I practiced ahead of time, and will include that audio her...

This past weekend I attended Podcamp in Toronto. If you've never been to a podcamp, they happen in various cities and are billed as an 'unconference'. All kinds of people, young and old, with a common interest in social media. Sessions are free, refreshments are free, attendees come and go during the presentations, and anyone who feels they have knowledge to share can be a presenter. Maybe some day I'll do that, but I find the idea of people walking out while I'm talking a little unnerving. I attended a number of presentations, the ones about Blogger and Wordpress both were good for my ego since they made me realize how much I do already know. The Youtube session was interesting, except for the guy in the audience who insisted on giving his two cents about everything that was being shared. The LinkedIn presentation was okay, but I would rather have had some concrete ideas than statics about how useful a site it is and how easy to find joint venture partners. My ...

Creating more Youtube videos is on my to-do list for this spring. But I think I need to take a lesson from my granddaughter's future husband and learn to use humor much more than I do. Here is a recent video he created to give you an idea of what I mean. Don't miss the surprise ending. Until next time, Carol

It's been a busy 2011 so far and I'm trying to get myself more organized. Besides attending the NAMS5 virtual training, which was pretty intense, I'm conducting a number of local workshops. These are on a variety of topics to do with marketing on the Internet, social media, and information product creation. Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn are very popular right now, both with businesses and people who want to keep up with technology. My favourite is showing how to use Hootsuite to bring it all together without taking too much time. Some workshops I've done before but since I use the classroom as my lab of sorts, I'm always trying new ways to present the information. I know it would be much easier to create the content once and simply teach it, but there are always new things I've learned that I like to add. Plus I really enjoy the workshops that have a lot of interaction, so I try different ways to get the points across in fun ways that people will remember. I...

This past weekend was a busy one, with sessions on various aspects of Internet marketing all day long. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday the webinars were from 10 in the morning until 5 at night, with an hour off for lunch. That sounds like a heavy schedule and it is, but the one I attend live in Atlanta starts at 8:30 every morning and then ends at 6. Then everyone sits around and networks all evening. So in comparison, the virtual training was easier, plus if I had other plans, like my grandaughter's birthday party, I could take time off. All of the audio recordings will be sent so I can review those I missed later. There were a number of different presenters and most of them spoke for close to an hour, with a live question and answer time at the end of their session. Some topics covered were affiliate marketing, building community and becoming a market leader, re-purposing your content, using Twitter and Facebook effectively, video marketing, strategies to convert your readers to b...

These days I've been doing a lot more in the way of presenting my knowledge to offline business groups. After all, I may not know a lot about marketing on the Internet compared to the big names, but I know a lot more than most brick and mortar businesses do. Networking groups and local businesses, as well as your Chamber of Commerce and community centers, are always looking for interesting speakers for their members. Although you might not be paid for your time, those people will get to know, like, and trust you and when they need the services you offer, guess who they'll call. To give you an idea of the possibilities, these are some of the presentations and their audience.  An ongoing monthly Meetup group - various ideas for using Internet marketing and social media. A large business women's networking group - ways that businesses can promote themselves online. A local government agency that provides help to unemployed workers - ways to make a little extra income on...

At some point, we all realize we can't do everything ourselves. When that happens, it's time to start thinking about hiring the services of a Virtual Assistant. My life has been so much easier since I started working with my VA. She does all the techie things I can't do, keeps me on track, motivates me when I get discouraged. If you're wondering how outsourcing could help you, here are some of the tasks that can be delegated to a VA: * Responding to customer e-mails and phone calls * Scheduling business and personal appointments and interviews * Bookkeeping: invoicing clients, receiving and paying bills, reconciling bank statements,  tracking expenses     and tax records, working with your accountant * Internet research and fact checking * Planning travel for speaking engagements and seminars * Maintaining newsletter and customer mailing lists * Managing website and newsletter ad sales * Handling registrations for teleclasses and workshops * Maintainin...

I mentioned in the last post that I was going to be involved in a mastermind group to help promote one another. So far we have met once on Skype and twice on a teleseminar. These are my observations so far: Our Skype meeting was a lot of fun, but didn't accomplish much. I don't use Skype often and the others did only for one on one text chats. When the first two members got on Skype, it was fine, we could see and hear one another well. As soon as someone else entered the call, the video capability was lost. Once four of us were on (member number five couldn't attend that day) it was hard to hear properly. There was a lot of phone interference and we kept getting dropped from having a group call. We finally gave up and called it a day. The next two sessions we've used a teleseminar service. I have a free trial for InstantTeleseminars so we used that. The advantage here over freeconferencecalling.com is that there were local phone numbers for the American members of our...

Thanks to Bob 'The Teacher' Jenkins, my main NAMS takeaway this past time was how beneficial it is to have a mastermind group. Consisting of up to six people, you work together to promote one another. Things like re-tweeting on Twitter, commenting on their blogs, cross-promoting, guest blogging for one another, commenting and liking each of the group's Facebook pages, adding their videos to your site if applicable. Basically, anything that you would love someone to do to help promote you, your site, and your products. The best group members should have similar target markets and be marketing at a similar level. As much as I might like to have an Internet marketing superstar in the group, I doubt that's going to happen. So I've hooked up with four other marketers to do this. None of us are absolute beginners, but none of us are making megabucks online either. We all have different products and services, but our markets would be interested in hearing about the other...

Okay, it wasn't a jet, but I did take a 747 to NAMS. And yes, I've been back for a week now. But it takes me a while to recover so you won't get all the juicy details for a bit longer yet. All I can say is I took loads of notes, hung out with some amazing people, and wish they didn't live so far away. I learned a lot and really enjoyed the sessions with Bob 'The Teacher' Jenkins, Karon Thackston, and Kathleen Gage. Of course all of the presenters were great, but those three I got the most from. And I had a 15 minute consultation with Mark Hendricks as well. The last NAMS I didn't think I had anything to discuss with him, but this time I forced myself to sign up. I was super nervous, but he was very easy to talk to, and he actually liked my idea for a membership site. I'll talk more about that another time. Once I get my notes organized, I'll give you my top ten takeaway points. Now the challenge is to do them, not stay in learning mode. So ...

For those of us that have signed up to attend NAMS (Niche Affiliate Marketing System) in Atlanta, the excitement is mounting. We are starting to sound like a bunch of kids asking "Are we there yet?" Well, two more sleeps and we'll be there! I'll try to keep an update of the goings-on for the time as often as I can. Better yet, follow me on Twitter - my user name there is TorontoCarol. This time around, the NAMS group are going to be raising money for Dr. Mani's life-saving surgeries on children in India. I'll keep you posted on those efforts as well. There's no telling how much money a large group of Internet marketers might be able to raise together. I'll be taking some books with me to read on the way to Atlanta. Right now I've started 'Click Here To Order' by Joel Comm. Next up is 'Social Media 10' by Chris Brogan. Do you have any other reading suggestions for me while I'm traveling?

Summer is moving right along. Too quickly, in fact. In three short weeks I'll be in Atlanta again, attending NAMS. Short for Niche Affiliate Marketing System, this will be my third time going to the workshop. Three days of hands-on working with some of the top affiliate marketers on the Internet. For the first time, NAMS will be split into four learning groups rather than three. Two levels of Beginners, one Intermediate, and one Advanced. That will be a plus for the many new people that come since they are all at different stages. Beginner 1 will focus on those who don't even have a website yet. Beginner 2 attendees are already blogging, but making little or no money as an affiliate. I'm usually in the Intermediate room, although I haven't made much affiliate income in the past. That's beginning to change now. I'm still doing a lot of offline training and I'm getting bolder at asking my students to sign up for domains and hosting under my link. Before, I wou...

If you've ever felt that you were too old to learn Internet marketing, take heart from this story, written by an 85-year-old marketer (also known as my dear mother). When I was a young girl attending public school in the 1930's, my city of Toronto, Canada had a population of less than one hundred thousand people. Now there are over 2.5 million people living here and of course it is still growing. That population is not large compared to some cities in the far East such as Osaka, Japan, where my present day mentor and teacher Kevin Riley lives. Osaka has a population of over twelve million people. During the years known as "The Great Depression", Toronto was a fairly safe city to grow up in and children played outside most warm evenings after school until the street lights came on. I always enjoyed school but the safe and pleasant after school activities back then were fun too. My formal schooling had a temporary closure when I turned sixteen and had to wor...

As part of NAMS 3, Joey Smith took us behind the scenes of his regular webinar.

I've decided to work my way through one of Kevin Riley's courses here for the sake of myself and everyone else. This particular course is called "How To Make a Bundle of Cash in Just 3 Days". I received it last year, so can't guarantee that he is still offering it. Still, if we do the steps together, we should make some progress. Your idea of bundle and mine may be different. My main goal is to learn the process. Kevin suggests finding affiliate products that offer 100% commission. He has a number of them that are used as lead generators. Do a Google search and you will probably find a number of possibilities. I like to purchase the products first to make sure I'm recommending something I won't be ashamed to be associated with. You want to select products that have a good sales page, including an attention grabbing headline, interesting content, cover image, bullets used, testimonials, a call to action that asks for the sale, and a guarantee. First ste...

This weekend I had a booth at a local women's show. It was my second time attending, and each time I learned a little more. The first time, I realized that a lot of people stand at a distance and look at what you have displayed, so it's useful to have things to attract their interest. I also realized that you never can tell who might be interested in what you have to offer. Many times, they didn't fit my idea of my target market. I had plenty of handouts available this time and talked to as many people as I could. As a result of my interactions this weekend, I am questioning my current offline business model. Right now, I offer workshops and private training for individuals who would like to start an Internet home business. I enjoy showing them the possibilities available on the Internet. Motivating and training are my favorite things to do. But I found that the main interest at the women's show came from the other businesses that had booths. They were keen to learn...

I recently came across a copy of 'Make Real Money On The Internet' by Stephen Pierce. Written in 2008, the information is still very helpful and covers selecting a micro-niche, delivering products to that niche, putting your business on autopilot and getting traffic to your site. I was familiar with most of the points that were covered, but if you are just starting out, this is an excellent reference and an easy, enjoyable read. Pierce's story itself is quite inspiring. My takeaways from the book: perform keyword research by focusing on trigger words - play,  how to, help, order, buy, learn, instructions, training, tutorial, tip. when you learn to generate traffic, you will become an expert and a person that is in-demand take risks if you can't write, there are many other ways to get your info product created capture your customer information get to the point that your whole business runs on auto-pilot Make Real Money On The Internet

As well as the photos that were taken during Lynn Terry's Elite reception, a lot of posing took place in the hallways and especially in the lobby area every evening. Here are a few more Internet marketers good times together.

After almost two months since attending NAMS in Atlanta, I finally have time to upload some pictures. There were about 150 people at NAMS and around 80 of them were members of Lynn Terry's Elite Mastermind Group. Lynn booked a room at the hotel for an Elite reception one evening, complete with food and drinks. As you can see from the photos, a lot of high profile marketers are members and we have a lot of fun when we get together. As an online group, we help one another to grow our Internet businesses, giving encouragement and motivatation when needed. Lynn is always there as a loving mother of her little flock. The result: one big family feeling.