How To Make Money From Special Reports

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Make Money From Special Reports

Why Entrepreneurs Get Nothing Done & Spend Too Much Money

Yup, I said it.

Entrepreneurs everywhere are spending a FORTUNE on info-products, coaches, teleseminars, in-person events, membership-programs, etc. and it’s getting them NOWHERE.

Now, I’m obviously not advocating spending zero dollars because let’s face it, we all do need a bit of help. What I AM encouraging is to stop spending your money with everyone on the planet and find one person you resonate with, is where you want to be and gets the latest stuff happening on the web.

Otherwise, you end up like most entrepreneurs. You hire a coach and then another coach and then a guru and then you buy big group coaching programs and then you attend in-person events with high ticket prices and then you hire an online business manager and then a web designer and then an SEO expert and… and… and…

You get the point (I hope)…

What happens is that instead of listening to ONE person who knows what they are doing and is where you want to be, you are listening to ten or twenty or thirty people who all tell you DIFFERENT things and make your head spin. All of these ideas that you’re paying for are great except nothing is being implemented because you just don’t know where to start.

So, if you’re not making any money and you’re scratching your head trying to figure out why, even after all of this great advice you are getting nowhere, FIRE half (or more) of the people you’ve hired to “coach” you and find yourself an awesome coach, strategist or someone who can lead you alongside your own amazing and brilliant thoughts and ideas.

Do so and I guarantee that you’ll make more money this year than you ever have.

Put down your wallets… and watch this video.

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Erin Blaskie is the owner of Business Services, ETC - A Global Internet Marketing & Implementation Firm. Her company helps businesses from around the world take their practice online and create huge success using various internet marketing tactics. Erin herself has been featured in three print books (”Becoming an Online Business Manager” by Tina Forsyth, “My So-Called Freelance Life” by Michelle Goodman, and “The Official AWE Emerging Trends Guide 2009” compiled by the Association of Web Entrepreneurs), honored as Office Arrow’s 2008 Runner-Up Business Woman of the Year, interviewed by countless gurus and media personalities (John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing, Sheri McConnell, Stacy Karacostas, Gina McNew) and featured in major news publications (ABCNews.com, Ottawa Citizen and Employment Journal).

The Three C's of Building an Audience with Social Media

What's the biggest difference between people who are successful in social media and those who are not?  Simple--the successful people have built themselves an audience. 

An audience doesn't necessarily mean having 10,000 followers here or 5,000 friends there.  At its most basic level it might be that.  But what's a bunch of friends and followers if they aren't helping you to grow your business? 

Consider this: what if your "audience" isn't anyone who would be interested in what it is you offer?  What if they were people just looking to boost their numbers without any interest in engaging with you in any sort of dialogue?  What if they were primarily focused on promoting their own stuff the majority of the time?  These types of scenarios are clearly not ideal.

So what should you really be looking to achieve?  Building the right kind of audience with social media means your participation there is leading you to be seen as a credible, trust-worthy source who may be able to help others solve whatever problem they may be having.

It means you are reaching a market of people you have deliberately sought out through search strategies who might need what you have.
When you've grabbed the attention of your followers and friends and built interest and credibility, you now have a way to gain traffic to your website, capture more leads and continue building and strengthening the relationship.

It's all in the three C's:

1.  Content:  Content is the lifeblood of successful social media marketers.  What reasons are you giving people to listen to you? This goes two ways: sharing your own helpful posts, links, tips and resources--and promoting and sharing the content of others.  This does three main things: establishes your expertise, drives traffic to your site, and provides your audience with helpful information.  Remember, the content you are sharing should not always be your own.

2.  Conversation: Simply by being seen as someone who provides great content in the social media space you will naturally find yourself engaged in conversation.  Having these one on one conversations is what is going to make you stand out among the noise and deepen the relationship.  In addition, when you make it a habit to promote others, this brings more "social appreciation" your way.  These interactions cause others to seek out more information about you beyond where you've made the initial connection.

3.  Conversion:  Once you have converted someone to a newsletter subscriber, blog subscriber or paying client or customer, you've taken the steps toward acquiring another raving fan.  These loyal folks will not only bring you more sales, but will be much more likely to sing your praises to others out in the social media universe.  This is how you grow your "tribe."
Do you see how simple and effective it is to build an audience of captivated friends and followers?   Do you see the difference this could make to your bottom line?
I know you do. :)

© 2009 Communicate Value. All Rights Reserved.

Christine Gallagher, The Online Marketing and Social Media Success Coach, is founder of Communicate Value, where she is dedicated to teaching small business owners and professionals how to conquer the overwhelming aspects of online and social media marketing to increase business and maximize profits. To get your F.R.E.E. 5-Part E-Course and receive her weekly marketing & success articles on leveraging technology, building relationships and boosting your profits, visit http://communicatevalue.com.

The Journey of Online Marketing and Social Media

We're a society of want-it-nowers, always looking for instant results. We love our credit cards, microwaves and drive-thrus too much for this mentality not to creep into our online marketing activities.

It takes time to build a list, to put out good content, to be seen as an expert in your niche. Conversion of the leads you capture through social media is almost never immediate.

One of the most frequent complaints I hear from small business owners looking to get more clients and customers by building an online presence is that it "takes too much time."

"Oh, yeah, that would be nice but I just don't have the time."

Many of these people have an existing offline business and are either struggling to attract more business, or are burning themselves out dealing with day to day responsibilities, endless networking meetings, seeing one-on-one clients and generally putting out fires. Therefore, adding online marketing into the mix sounds like one more "thing" they just can't imagine juggling.

The irony is that the internet can provide the leverage that would allow these small business owners and solopreneurs some of the relief they are so desperate for.  It's not a magic pill and it does take time. (I know, they don't want to hear that.)

The other group consists of those who are trying to build an online business and grow impatient with not seeing those quick results.  Sorry, but it's not going to happen that way. In my experience, success comes as the result of consistently doing small, sometimes boring tasks day in and day out.

You might not see any fruit from your labor for weeks or months on end.  But it is a result of those consistent actions that momentum will build and progress will be made.  This is especially true with social media.

"But I have 5,768 followers and 2,987 friends!  No one is buying from me!"

"I've been on Twitter for 2 months and I'm not making any money!"

In this case, it's not only time, but what you are spending your time doing there.  Are you providing value, having conversations, driving traffic outside of these sites?

Yes, there is a lot to learn--but there is so much information available out there.  Online marketing and social media can be absolutely amazing for your business IF you are willing to learn how to do it right and make the investment of time.

What are you spending your time on?

© 2009 Communicate Value. All Rights Reserved.

Christine Gallagher, The Online Marketing and Social Media Success Coach, is founder of Communicate Value, where she is dedicated to teaching small business owners and professionals how to conquer the overwhelming aspects of online and social media marketing to increase business and maximize profits. To get your F.R.E.E. 5-Part E-Course and receive her weekly marketing & success articles on leveraging technology, building relationships and boosting your profits, visit http://communicatevalue.com.

How to Make Your Blog More Social Media Friendly

Having a blog is a great step in the right direction if you are looking for ways to dive into social media.  Conversations are at the core of what it's about, after all.  However, there is a lot more that you can do once you've got that blog up and running.  You can think of your blog as a hub connecting all of your social media activities--and you'll want to encourage visitors to interact with you socially in as many ways as possible.  Here are some ideas that you can run with:

Social badges, buttons and widgets (oh my!): Why not advertise your social presence while you have your readers' attention?  There are many different ways to do this. 

Facebook recently introduced Fan Boxes for those users with Fan Pages. These allow Page administrators to embed the most recent activity from their Page right in their website or blog.  If you don't have a Fan Page and want to let people know about your personal Facebook profile instead, you can also add a badge to your site provided by Facebook.  Use the "Create a Profile Badge" link all the way at the bottom under your picture. 

Facebook Connect is another option--this is a tool that allows software, websites, mobile devices and more to integrate with Facebook and send information between them.

Want to encourage your readers to follow you on Twitter?  A simple Google search shows that there are many different badges out there to add to your site.  Twittercounter.com has one of my favorites--the "big bird button" has a sleek design that displays your number of followers. 

Finally, Google Friend Connect and MyBlogLog are two online services that allow web users to connect with their friends on different websites.  These free services help foster community around blogs and blog authors.

Submission buttons: If you use the Wordpress blog platform, a wonderful plugin to use is "Sociable."  This adds a row of buttons to the bottom of your posts for various social sites and tools such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Digg, StumbleUpon and more.  This way, readers can easily submit your content to be bookmarked, voted on and shared.

If you aren't a Wordpress user, the ShareThis or AddThis buttons are a great alternative.

Share-friendly content: It goes without saying that you want to add content to your blog that provides lots of value for your readers.  This is what builds your subscriber base and ultimately determines your success.  Some content is more "shareable" than others.

As one example, people just love lists.  "Top 10 tips on...." "7 Ways to...." -you get the idea.  Consider adding these types of posts to the mix, because readers are more apt to share them. 

It's also worth mentioning headlines. Keep in mind what might be attention-grabbing when you write your blog posts' titles.  People will be more likely to not only read further, but to share it with others and have those people share it too.

These days, people expect to be able to interact with you when they visit your site.  Make it super simple for them and they'll be back for more!

© 2009 Communicate Value. All Rights Reserved.

Christine Gallagher, The Online Marketing and Social Media Success Coach, is founder of Communicate Value, where she is dedicated to teaching small business owners and professionals how to conquer the overwhelming aspects of online and social media marketing to increase business and maximize profits. To get your F.R.E.E. 5-Part E-Course and receive her weekly marketing & success articles on leveraging technology, building relationships and boosting your profits, visit http://communicatevalue.com.

How to Avoid One on One Client Burnout with Multiple Streams of Income

When it comes to one on one clients, I often see solo professionals either exhausted from working with them all the time--or frustrated and not making the money they want because they are focused on selling services or products at the highest price point they offer.
If this sounds familiar, you may adore your clients and love helping them, but are feeling burnt out or stuck because one on one sessions are all you are offering. 

So what's the solution?

Leveraging your time and talent by diversifying the ways you earn income in your business.  One of the greatest things about running all or part of your business online is how easy it is to do this.  Let's be honest, it's no fun when a few of your clients all quit in the same month and you're left scrambling to replace that income.
Similarly, if you are finding prospects saying they can't afford what you offer, you still don't want to lose them completely.  They've shown interest in you already--wouldn't it be great to still be able to help them at a price they are willing to pay?

Some marketers refer to this as the "funnel" system of marketing and it is really quite clever.  Because not only does it allow you to still be able to make a sale, if you've provided them value at that lower price point, they are more likely to come back and buy from you repeatedly--and at higher prices.

So what do these multiple streams look like and why are they considered leveraged? It is all about reaching more people without spending more of your time.   Here are some specific examples:
E-books: These are simple to create.  Just PDF a Word document and you're good to go.  This type of offering is usually the lowest priced item in the funnel (often between $17 and $47 depending on how comprehensive they are), and the best thing about it is that you write it once but sell it over and over.  This is definitely a smart use of your time.

Teleseminars: All you really need is a phone for this.  There are plenty of free conference call services that also record the calls for you.  Once you have a recording, you can also sell that as a product afterward or offer it as a bonus with another offering.  Teleseminars can be done as a one-off call or a series of calls.

Group coaching/training or e-coaching:  We all have valuable knowledge we could teach and share with others.  Believe that others would be very willing to pay to learn what it is you know!  A great way to accomplish this is to train or teach a group of people all at the same time.  This can be done by phone, interactively by webinar, or even by email.

Membership sites: Sometimes referred to as continuity programs, these are private sites that people pay a fee, usually monthly, to be a part of.  It's a way to provide useful, exclusive content to paying members and it's a win-win: they get valuable tips, lessons and strategies from an expert and you get paid consistently and by multiple members.

Affiliate marketing:  Have you used products you've loved and would be happy to rave to others about?  Consider becoming an affiliate if a program for that product is offered.  Essentially, because you are helping to spread the word for the creator of that product, they are giving you a percentage of the sales they make.  Pretty easy!
Next time you are stressed over a lack of clients or simply worn out from one on one appointments, commit to getting going on at least one of these streams.  If you still need convincing, think about all the time it will help you free up to be with friends and family. 
After all, isn't that what it's all about?

© 2009 Communicate Value. All Rights Reserved.

Christine Gallagher, The Online Marketing and Social Media Success Coach, is founder of Communicate Value, where she is dedicated to teaching small business owners and professionals how to conquer the overwhelming aspects of online and social media marketing to increase business and maximize profits. To get your F.R.E.E. 5-Part E-Course and receive her weekly marketing & success articles on leveraging technology, building relationships and boosting your profits, visit http://communicatevalue.com.

6 Ways to Integrate Twitter and Facebook

Twitter and Facebook are not the only social media sites out there--not by a long shot.  But they are of course two of the most well known and widely used.  They are also very similar in that they both essentially function as "status updates."  Because of this similarity, some really great tools and applications have come out which allow users to integrate the two.  Here are six of the tools I have used and like:

Twitter clients like Seesmic or Tweetdeck: These are two Twitter desktop clients that allow you to browse your friends' Facebook status updates and update your own status right from their interface--no need to have a web browser open or be logged into the Twitter or Facebook sites.

Twitter or Selective Twitter Status applications: These two Facebook applications allow your tweets to automatically be posted to your profile.  Selective Twitter Status is great because you decide which specific tweets go to update your Facebook status by adding #fb after them.  This way your friends who aren't familiar with Twitter lingo aren't confused by your frequent status updates.

Vlingo application: Vlingo is a free application for the Blackberry, Nokia and iPhone.  It allows you to update your Facebook or Twitter status using your voice right from your phone!

FriendFeed application:  If you use FriendFeed, which consolidates all of your social media activities across different networks in one place, you can add the Facebook FriendFeed application.  If you are importing your Twitter feed, every time you tweet it will post to your Facebook wall.  This may be preferable to updating your status with every tweet such as with the Twitter for Facebook application.

Tweetpo.st: Tweetpo.st is a very cool site which allows you to post tweets as Facebook status updates, post links you tweet on your Facebook wall (so your friends can watch videos and see pictures right in their News Feed), ignore @replies, change @mentions to real names and more.  It does all of this by using Facebook Connect.

Custom Profile Box or Extended Info applications: Finally, if you are just looking for a way to let your Facebook friends know that you tweet and encourage them to follow you, you can add one of these Facebook applications.  They both allow you to insert a graphic or text, which you can then easily link to your Twitter profile.  For example, I added a clickable Twitter bird logo that reads "follow me on Twitter."

Now you can save time and expend less effort on the two most popular social sites by using these helpful (and free!) social networking tools.

© 2009 Communicate Value. All Rights Reserved.

Christine Gallagher, The Online Marketing and Social Media Success Coach, is founder of Communicate Value, where she is dedicated to teaching small business owners and professionals how to conquer the overwhelming aspects of online and social media marketing to increase business and maximize profits. To get your F.R.E.E. 5-Part E-Course and receive her weekly marketing & success articles on leveraging technology, building relationships and boosting your profits, visit http://communicatevalue.com.