How many of you have your goals written out?

Watch this video and let me know what you think…

For those of you in Florida, I’m going to be speaking at The Prosperity Conference in West Palm Beach, FL on September 16 & 17.  Along with yours truly, some of the other speakers will include Jack Canfield (Co-Author of Chicken Soup for the Soul), Nancy Matthews (co-Founder of the Women’s Prosperity Network) and a few others.

My session is entitled:

“Is Your Business Social?  Learn how Social Media sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, & Now Google+ can get you more business.”

I’m going to be covering an overview on how to use social media sites to increase your business, get more customers, improve your customer service, and generally boost your overall business.  This is a session that you do not want to miss.

CLICK HERE for more information about the conference and to register.

Before I get into the coaching, let me start with the Volkswagon Bus and the Pimp Slap.

Many of you have heard of Frank Kern, he is without a doubt one of the top marketers in the world.  Right now, he is doing a very cool promotion where he is giving away one of his prize possessions, his classic 1963 Volkswagon Bus.  The best part is that to get your raffle ticket won’t cost anything.  just CLICK HERE to find out more on his Facebook Page.

Now on to the “Pimp Slap” topic. NO, I have not been out on the town.  I wanted to give you a heads up about a new WordPress plugin called “Geo Pimp Slap” that I am testing on some of my websites.  I can’t go into detail yet because this isn’t going to be available to the public until the first week of August, but in the meantime let me just say that it is pretty amazing.  How cool would it be to be able to add the geographically targeted data like city, state, or zipcode of your visitor directly into your website without any programming or technical knowledge?  Well, that is what this does.  This plugin is going to be dirt cheap (under $30) when it launches.  And, I’m going to be adding a very special bonus when I announce the launch that could easily help you create an additional stream of income for you, or a stream of leads for your business.  But, there will be more on this in a few days… There won’t be a lot of notice, so be ready for it.  You must be a subscriber to the MarketingBum News to get this special bonus, so make sure to sign up on the right side of this page.

OK, now on to Coaching.  I need to say that I was very amazed by something that happened this past week and want to use this opportunity to share a very interesting lesson with you.

As you know, last weekend I was at JVExpo in Orlando, which if you weren’t there, you missed a huge networking opportunity.  Deals were made right in the room by some top marketers like myself to help promote a wide array of new and growing products, services, and events.  Also, there were dozens of people who had products or even ideas for products who had the chance to connect with top marketing experts for help in developing their products.  I’m going to be working with a couple myself that you’ll be hearing about in coming weeks. This event was so HOT that almost everyone in attendance has already signed up for the next one which will be in Las Vegas in October.  I’ll get you the details as soon as it is firmed up.

Now, back to the coaching… When I originally mentioned JVExpo to you in my emails a few weeks ago, I added on a special bonus just for people who registered through my link.  I offered a 1 hour one-on-one coaching session (worth $500), all you had to do was email me with a copy of your receipt and once I verified that you purchased through my link, we would schedule the call.  Now, here’s the interesting part… out of all the people who registered through my link, only 1 has contacted me about scheduling the coaching call.

I don’t know about you, but I take every opportunity to learn and to grow my business.  And if I’m offered a free coaching session with a business person who has built multiple successful businesses, I would jump at the chance.  When something like this is in front of you, take it…

As a closing note for those who registered through my link, you have until the end of the day on Friday, July 29th, 2011 to contact me about scheduling you coaching session.  Don’t wait too long.

I just got back from a weekend seminar called “JVExpo” in Orlando, FL.  It was an absolutely amazing networking event and I had the opportunity to meet some really great people.  During the next few days, I will be sharing some more information from the weekend, but for now, I wanted to introduce you to an great guy named “Bill Walsh”.  He is a speaker, author, owner of a venture capital company, and much more.  His new book “The Obvious” is a must read.

The reason that I wanted to start the week off by introducing you to Bill is that he is going to be holding a webinar this coming Wednesday evening that I highly recommend you attend.  On this 30-minute Free Webinar, Bill Walsh reveals how super successful entrepreneur builds, develops and creates million dollar joint ventures.  Bill Walsh speaks all over the world about creating success and living your dreams! One of the companies in his program just hit over 2 million dollars per month in revenue and over 300,000 customers in less than one year!

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER RIGHT NOW!
Remember, this Wednesday July 20th at 6pm Pacific (9pm Eastern)

Over the course of the next few days, I am going to sharing some more information that I learned at this event, and also introducing you to some new technology that I am going to be adding to my business.

It really doesn’t matter what type of business you’re in, one of the most powerful ways to build it is through the power of others.  Many people throw around the term “Joint Venture” without really understanding what it is all about.  A real joint venture happens when you partner with someone to the advantage of BOTH of you.  This can happen in a business relationship or even in a personal one.

I know that when I’m working on a new project in any of my businesses, I am always looking for some good Joint Venture partners that I can work with.  Since any good joint venture relationship has to be a win-win, I always try and bring more to the table than the other person would expect.  If my goal is to build a list, and the other person has one, then I look at what I do have to offer them, it may be experience, knowledge, information, or anything else that has value.  Then I put together an offer and see how it goes, all the while being open to feedback and counter offers to make it a win-win at every turn.

A great way that I’ve found to locate and build joint venture relationships is at conferences and seminars.  If you can find some that are in your niche, then absolutely go to them.  When I’m looking at potential conferences to attend, I look at the content, speakers, and information offered, but I also always consider who else will be attending these events.  A lot of the business that I get done at conference is done in the hallways, on the breaks, at the meals, or in the lounge after the conference even more than during the conference itself.

One of the things that I also do in my business is to make sure to share with all of my followers what conferences and seminars I am going to be attending, so that if they are interested in networking with me, they know where I am.

If you haven’t already subscribed to the “MarketingBum News”, please make sure to fill out the form on the right to join.  You can also follow my page on Facebook (Facebook.com/MarketingBum), since I post a lot of information there as well.

I’ve been thinking about this for a while and I’m about to start a brand new challenge that I’m sure that you’ll be interested in.

To build some momentum for the release of my upcoming book “How To Blog For Profits“, I am looking for a select group of people who are interested in building a profitable online business for themselves.  So, what does this look like?

Well, I’m looking for 25 people to take a “60-Day Challenge”. During this “60-Day Challenge”, you’ll get access to my proven, tested Blog For Profits system. There will be daily emails from me to keep you on track in working the system. We’ll have weekly Q & A calls and unlimited email access to me, personally for the duration of the 60-Day Challenge.

The best part of the challenge is that it will be absolutely FREE for the participants, and in exchange for your testimonial at the end of the Challenge, you’ll receive a signed copy of the finished book when it is published.

Now, in case you didn’t catch it, the goal of the Challenge is to have you build a blog that is making you at least $1 per day by the end of the 60-Days.  Okay, so now I’m sure that you’re ready to get started, well, you can’t yet!

If you’re interested in joining the challenge, go ahead and fill out the contact form here on the site. Make sure to include all your contact information, and I will get back to you with the next steps.

This challenge will begin on July 1st, and will go thru the end of the summer.

I’m sure you’re saying to yourself, what good is $1 per Day? Well, if you can make $1 per Day, then you could make $10, $50, $100 or more each and every day!

And, as an additional bonus for the participants of the challenge, I will be providing a one-on-one, 1 hour coaching call with each of you (this is a $497.00 value) at the end of the challenge, to help you develop your business action plan to continue to grow your successful online business.

Now, go ahead and submit your information so that we can get started on July 1st.

A big part of making money online is a matter of finding an audience who you can either advertise to or receive direct payment from. Either way, you need something interesting or informative with which to catch and hold your readers’ attention. In this respect, content is everything

You need to learn how you can make money presenting and distributing content via podcast or a newsletter, and how you can connect directly wiht you audience as a kind of online tutor.

Getting Paid To Podcast

To create a podcast, you will need a microphone and some recording software. If you have a camera, you can also produce video podcasts.

You can download a free recording program from audacity.sourceforge.net, where you will also find tutorials on the technical side of podcasting.

When you have the content and are able to produce good quality podcasts, you need listeners. You can find them by submitting your podcast to directories such as podcastalley.com, promoting it through a website or blog, or advertising in forums and newsletters.

The bigger your market, the better. Don’t be afraid of competitive markets, they’re big for a reason–they pay and people are listening!

You will then be able to make money by finding a sponsor who is willing to pay to reach your listeners. You could find your own advertisers, or join a podcasting network such as podtrac.com.

If your content is desirable enough, you can charge for access to it, through services such as iTunes (apple.com/itunes). If you are selling your podcast, however, it is a good idea to create a free content version too in order to reach new listeners.

How To Get Paid To Publish Online Newsletters

Even if you prefer the written word to audio podcasting, you will still need to take care of some technical details.

The best way to distribute newsletters is through an autoresponder list service. These can be set up to automatically deliver pre-written emails to subscribers at set intervals. Each new subscriber will receive all of the emails in your predetermined sequence. That means you can load up a year’s worth of content (or more), and it’ll automatically publish straight to your subscribers’ email boxes without you touching it again!

A free autoresponder can be downloaded from responders.com, while a more professional program can be bought from aweber.com. These programs will also help with managing your subscriber list, so you stay spam compliant.

A successful newsletter will be attractive, easy to read, and compatible with different computers and internet browsers. You can create beautiful PDF documents using a free program such as openoffice.com.

Also, you do not have to create all your own content. You can get free stock photos and articles from sites such as publicdomainimages.net and ezinearticles.com. You can also pay for pre-written content from sites like associatedcontent.com.

Email newsletters are perfect for marketing your own products, if you are running an online business. You can also make money by selling space to advertisers or even charging for subscriptions.

By using the tools from services such as aweber.com, you can grow your online newsletter list to hundreds or even thousands of people.

Get Paid To Teach People All Over the World

If you have knowledge and experience to share then you can do so in a podcast or newsletter, or by writing content for a site such as demandstudios.com, who will pay for articles.

Alternatively, you can become an online tutor and communicate directly with students through video chat and email. You could find your own students by advertising your services on craigslist.org, or join a company who will pair you up with suitable learners.

In order to get the best jobs, you may need some relevant qualifications, such as a degree, proven experience in a particular field, or a teaching certificate of some kind.

Websites that recruit online teachers include universalclass.com, mytutor24.com, and tutor.com. Wiziq.com has a teacher directory where you can describe yourself and potential students can find you.

There is a brand new site called CoffeeShopMillionaire.com that’s helping people like you to start their own dream business, create absolute financial freedom, and escape the rat race for good–faster than they ever thought possible.

Click the link below right now to learn how you can join the new class of “lifestyle entrepreneurs” and make a full-time Internet income, or even generate millions of dollars working online from any coffee shop, anywhere in the world

http://www.MarketingBum.com/csmill

A couple of months ago, I was at Yanik Silver’s Underground Seminar (which is an amazing event) and one of the speakers made a comment that I’ve been thinking about, and this weekend, I found myself repeating it.

He said that most, if not all of the advancements in Internet technology can be credited to the porn industry. I mean, think about it… If it wasn’t for the online porn industry, would we have the high speed streaming video that we have today?

This weekend I was working with a consulting client and we were mapping out a backlinking strategy as part of his overall SEO strategy.  I was explaining how backlinking benefits your website’s ranking in the search engines, and he mentioned that he had received an offer to “link swap” with another site in his niche. After explaining the pros and cons of this to him, it reminded me about what I heard at Underground, and that is the difference between Reciprocal and Cyclical Backlinks. For those of you who are like “What??”, here is what I’m talking about.

When Site A and Site B want to link swap. This is called reciprocal linking, where Site A puts up a link to Site B and Site B puts up a link back to Site A. This is all fine and well, but the search engines have caught on and while it is an SEO boost, this doesn’t carry weight like before.  I’m not saying that you shouldn’t do this type of link swapping to boost your SEO juice, but it isn’t the best.

The “NEW” thing is something than the porn industry has been doing for years, and that is Cyclical Linking.  This is where Site A links to Site B, Site B links to Site C, and Site C links back to Site A.  Usually the robots and spiders that the search engines send out will see that Site A links to Site B, but takes notice that there is no link back from Site B directly to Site A.  So, it gives the link from Site A to Site B a little more weight than if there was a reciprocal link back.

I find it pretty funny that right now, all the SEO “gurus” are teaching the value of Cyclical Linking vs. Reciprocal Linking and this is something that the porn industry has been doing for the past few years.

So, what’s this mean?  Well, I’m not saying to go out and see what the porn industry is doing to get their sites ranked.  However, I would recommend that you think a little outside the box when it comes to building your sites.  SEO is more than a game, it is a challenge.

I don’t know how many of you this will apply to, but I wanted to put it out there for you anyway.

I know you’re probably one of the Millions and Millions of people who are “on” FaceBook, but how many of you are actually “using” FaceBook?

There are millions of people every day who spend minutes to hours “on” FaceBook, whether it is playing games; communicating with friends, family, or others; discussing their experiences with others, or even promoting their businesses.  Now, I know that I’m going to get some comments or emails because I’m going to blatantly honest and say that everyone who has a business of their own needs to be “using” FaceBook instead of being “on” it.

Whether it’s speaking at seminars or events, or just talking to consulting clients, I am always asking people about their Social Media Strategy.  And Yes, FaceBook MUST be at the center of that.

Many of you might have heard that putting up a FaceBook fan page is difficult, or it requires special programming skills in some foreign language called FBML, or that you need to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars to bring on a team of designers to “create” you FaceBook fan page and then spend hundreds more each month so that they can keep it updated for you.  Well, this is one of the reasons that I myself haven’t been working on my Fan Page, or even really promoted it.

Well, that is changing!

Earlier today I met an amazing young man who introduced me to a tool that actually even a “BUM” like myself can use to easily and quickly put together a FaceBook Fan Page in just a couple of minutes.  And, here’s the best part… it’s absolutely FREE to get started.  If all you want to do is put up a simple single fan page, you can do this for an investment of $0.00 and then it will only cost you $0.00 each month

Now, I know that many of you will need more tabs, or manage a couple of Fan Pages like I do, so there is a charge for the more advanced features, and larger accounts.  But, it is nothing like what you could pay to have someone create your fan pages for you.

Here’s the link to the service:

And YES, that is my affiliate link.  I may be paid a commission when you signup for this service.  If you have a problem with that, please re-read through my articles on Affiliate Marketing, you obviously missed something there.

I am going to be using this product myself to not only build out my MarketingBum Fan Page, but will also be using it for my other product pages, and also for my clients, so make sure to check and see what I’m doing on them to see how it works.

I’ve been talking about the power of social media networks like FaceBook & Twitter for a while now.  Most people know that these sites have, especially recently come into the forefront of most business’ marketing strategies.

How many commercials did you see during the superbowl that instead of showing the company’s website, showed the link to their FaceBook Fan Page?  The answer is most of them.

Well, how do you think that they are able to manage their social media presence on these sites, I mean it is almost a full time job for me and I’m not that big… Yet!

Here’s an interesting news report that I found on YouTube from the CBC News up in Canada talking about this very issue:

I know that many of the people who read my blog are entrepreneurs, so you aren’t necessarily looking for a full time corporate job doing something like this for a single company.  Well, maybe the answer is that you start your own Social Media Management service?  That’s what my friend Kate Buck Jr. did.  Now she manages the social media campaigns for companies and other entrepreneurs.

Recently, she and Ryan Deiss launched a Social Media Manager Training program that I had the opportunity to review.  This program is great, it takes you through all aspects of what is involved in being a Social Media Manager.  Also, they give you a blueprint and all the tools that you need to really be successful in this service.

Maybe after you take the Social Media Manager Training, you’ll come back and talk to me about taking over this function in my business.  Go check it out…