7 Steps to Getting Started for New Internet Marketers

Posted by Marty Dickinson on Oct 29, 2009

Getting started on the Internet seems to most to be a hugely daunting task. But, with a few good guidelines, you will be amazed how easy and fun it really can be. Here are 7 steps to getting started for new Internet marketers:

1. Know What’s Selling Online – If nobody’s buying it and nobody’s made it yet, that most likely does not mean “opportunity” for you. So, don’t get fooled. If you want to know what people are spending their money on right now, today, one great way is to go to Amazon.com and search a category of interest. The results you get will be sorted showcasing the best selling products in that category.

2. Enjoy Being Online – If you don’t like candy, you’ll be miserable in a candy store. So, before you go putting time and effort into learning how to make money on the Internet, you must learn to enjoy sitting at a computer and typing things. Of course, I could also add-in there using your mobile device. Social media is a great way to learn to enjoy working online. Join Linkedin, join some groups and participate in some discussions. Create a Facebook profile and reconnect with friends. Start tweeting on Twitter and inspire people to “follow” you because the quality of your tweets are actually worth paying attention to. User your personal name for all of your profile account names such as Twitter.com/MartyDickinson so that people can easily find you in the future.

3. Engage Offline Networking – An online business is a lot like a traditional off-line business in that financial success in both requires “people” to buy from you eventually. Go to Meetup.com and search for a group that meets near you to discuss certain topics. I just launched a few days ago, a Meetup group of my own called “Ski With Marty,” for example. Business owners, authors, speakers, and anyone else who wants to network and get some exercise can hook up with me every Wednesday during ski season at one of our world class ski resorts here in Colorado. By the time we have our first networking event on December 2, my goal is to have 100 members in the group. Checkout Meetup.com/SkiWithMartyInColorado if you’d like to see a sample Meetup group page.

4. Love to Sell – To be successful in any business, you must adopt a deep-down belief that anything you choose to promote is not really “selling,” but more of a “recommendation” of something you’ve experienced to make other peoples’ lives better. The fastest and cheapest way to do that is to find other peoples’ products to sell, try them for yourself, and start recommending them to others. These are known as “Affiliate Products.” ClickBank.com is my favorite for finding digital, downloadable affiliate products to sell and you can often contact the product producer and request a “review copy” of their product, which is FREE of course. Their hope is that by you having the product in-hand, you will have a better understanding of the product and will give more accurate recommendations. Continuing with my example of Amazon in step 1, they of course have an affiliate program as well. But, they only pay 4% of the sale price. So, the only products worth promoting on Amazon, in my opinion, are larger ticket items (over $75).

5. Register Domain Names – Whenever I am asked “Where do I register a domain name,” I steer them to BestDomainPlace.com. That is a domain name that I registered to point to my affiliate account. When you register a domain name for promoting an affiliate product, use the URL Forwarding feature (free with BestDomainPlace.com) where a tutorial is provided. Promote your affiliate products in your social networks and whenever a related subject comes up at your in-person networking events. Last week I was talking with a parent at my kid’s school about Internet stuff and suggested she buy a domain name for her personal name at BestDomainPlace.com. Sure enough a few days later, I saw the order come in.

6. Offer Your Services – Everyone has something of value they can offer. What is the one thing that you are truly really, really good at? Connect with others on your social networks (because you enjoy doing that by this step) who are in a related area to the service you want to provide. For example, one of the services I offer is creating websites for business owners, authors and speakers. So, I went to my Linkedin profile, logged in, clicked on “Groups,” and search for “authors” then joined a group, “professional speakers” and joined a group, and then “small business” and joined a third group. Within about 60 seconds, I was connected with over 16,000 people around the country who were in my direct target audience for a service I offer. Now all I have to do is participate in the groups and offer valuable content and the contacts begin.

7. Produce a Product – If you have an idea for a product, someone else has surely produced something close. At a recent Affiliate Marketing Meetup session, a good friend and former client who went off on his own to make $40,000 a month selling affiliate products online said, “Start off small by creating your own e-book, but first buy a few of the top selling e-books for that topic and use the best parts of each to create your product.” Now, he wasn’t suggesting you just copy and paste other peoples’ books into you own. But you can use concepts of how items are presented and rewrite them with different words and different examples. And, of course, add-in your own best stuff to make the product truly unique and the best on the market. If it’s a digital, downloadable product, get it added to ClickBank.com so that other affiliate marketers will have the opportunity to sell it for you.

All of these steps and I haven’t even talked about “Starting a Website” yet. That just goes to show that there is so much you can do to get started on the Internet these days, in your spare time, on a shoestring budget. Then, when you earn a few bucks, use that income to broaden your reach…and that’s when a website, or 5, 10, 50 websites come into play.

The best time in the world to get started on the Internet is right now, today.

Why Attend a Seminar? 101 Reasons

Posted by Marty Dickinson on Oct 28, 2009

Seminars are designed to give you tons of usable content on a variety of topics. The other purpose of a seminar is to get you introduced to several experts in a short amount of time.

When you hear someone you like who is able to speak to “you” and your situation, it is only natural that you would want more from that person. You wish you could just sit side-by-side with that person and suck them dry of their knowledge and experience for the rest of the week! You want more than their measly speaking slot allowed for, right?

Hence the offer or the dreaded “sales pitch.”

Ask anyone why they don’t like going to seminars and their reply will always be the same, “I hate getting those looooong sales pitches.”

And it’s true. No one likes to get a sales pitch. But, we don’t want to be left hanging either, do we?

Think about it. If a speaker just spewed an hour or 90-minutes of straight content and then said, “Well, good luck with that. Hope I got it all out and hope you took good notes,” what would you think? You would leave frustrated and probably pretty ripped off.

A good seminar speaker will always give you tons of content you can use but yet provide a way for you to get even more.

So, expect it. Live with it! And, even get to the point where you appreciate the typical seminar format (sales pitch and all) and you will be able to see the many more benefits of attending seminars and conferences.

In case you’ve been steering clear of seminars for a while purely because you don’t want to get “sold” on something, let this be a refresher by offering 101 reasons why you should attend seminars:

1. Learn new information from the presenters
2. Meet new people and share experiences
3. Brainstorm your ideas and get immediate feedback
4. Get new product or service ideas by hearing about needs in your industry
5. Get spin off ideas from others, meaning, you might tell someone you main idea and then they’ll suggest you create something slightly different
6. Evaluate the latest tools and technology to help grow your business
7. Hear the same information you might know already but from a different angle from a different speaker so that you have an even better understanding of the topic
8. Find investors in your business
9. Allow time for creativity by getting away from your daily routine and working “on” your business instead of “in” your business
10. Get inspiration from success stories shared by speakers and others you meet
11. Buy products at the best possible price that can save you time and money and are not sold in stores
12. Surround yourself with like-minded people for engaging conversation and meeting new friends who understand you lingo
13. Connect with joint venture hosts to potentially promote your product to thousands of people
14. Practice your in-person networking skills
15. Expand your social networking followers by inviting them to connect with you online
16. Observe how the heavy-hitters in your industry use use their time at the events
17. Get answers to your business questions and challenges
18. Get presentation materials to take home with you for later study
19. Learn of free resources you can try later
20. Chance to win something if there’s a contest (I won a laptop last year!)
21. Learn facts and statistics that will help you better undertand your market and industry
22. Get content to use in your own presentations, without plagiarizing of course
23. It’s a tax write-off
24. Increase your email list by getting other peoples’ business cards and contacting them later to have THEM sign-up to be on your list
25. Get away from your normal work environment for a few days
26. Keep up with your competition by learning the latest strategies in your market
27. Get one-on-one guidance from speakers
28. Discover there’s more to know even if you think you knew it all
29. Pride: when you find out how much you really do know, you will gain a sense of pride in yourself and you will start answering other peoples’ questions
30. Get business because there are probably people in the audience who need your help
31. Hear stories of what to avoid
32. Connect with people on your list that you’ve never met in person
33. Evaluate how events are run
34. After hours networking
35. Making yourself visible
36. Learn new procedures
37. Make a product from your notes
38. Record interviews with experts and make a product for sale
39. Have someone interview you for a potential product for sale
40. Get video testimonials while you’re there
41. Get pictures with industry experts
42. Determine who you don’t like
43. Settle your fears
44. Verify a hunch you have about a topic or issue impacting your industry by hearing the views of experts
45. Update your understanding of an older process that has new steps
46. Troubleshoot a problem you have that can only be solved by others who would attend a similar seminar
47. Treat yourself to a relaxing pool or massage after the seminar sessions are over
48. Transform your mood from being at a plateau to one of new possibilities
49. Teach others what you know about your topic as a break-out presenter or just as part of the audience helping those around you
50. Systematize a process you’ve only known pieces and parts of
51. Receive large volumes of usable content within a compressed amount of time
52. Satisfy your urge to be on the cutting edge
53. Restore confidence in yourself that you are in the right industry and that your perseverance to succeed is worth while
54. Recognize areas of opportunity that your business could be taking advantage of instead of being content with stagnation
55. Realign your priorities so that your work time is better spent going forward
56. Question the knowledge of experts in a public forum
57. Purchase helpful products and services that you otherwise would not even know existed
58. Plan a new direction and kill an old one once you find out how dead your old market really is
59. Praise a mentor in person who’s virtual products, newsletters, or articles have helped you somehow
60. Demo a software product to key industry influencers to get their opinions
61. Overcome the fear of mixing and mingling with people you don’t know
62. Volunteer to help so that you get to meet the event staff on a higher level
63. Experience how some people make a lot of money in a short time
64. Model after your favorite speaker’s presentation skills
65. Acquire continuing education credit
66. Meditate after hours on the influx of information you’ve just learned
67. Locate vendors who support people in your business
68. Launch a product of your own to a targeted audience by spreading the word and passing out flyers one-by-one
69. Investigate a new law impacting your industry by seeking the opinions of experts
70. Imagine the possibilities if you were to implement even 10% of what you learned at the seminar
71. Identify key players that you need to become more acquainted with over the years
72. Find contractors for hire or even be introduced to support staff that might be looking for a job you may be providing
73. Formulate a new business venture if you run into just the right person
74. Finalize business as you can recommend to a prospect that they meet you at the seminar
75. Facilitate a dinner or be a co-sponsor for the open bar and get public recognition at the event
76. Exhibit a booth to get direct traffic from your target audience
77. Eliminate doubt by seeing a speaker live before you decide to hire them
78. Diagnose problem areas in your business because a speaker went through the same problem
79. Disprove a roadblock that’s been preventing you from meeting your goals
80. Conceptualize a new business
81. Compare your success with others you meet
82. Accelerate your skills faster than reading a book in most cases
83. Believe there is hope for success
84. See a culture in another city or country
85. Assemble a group of people you’ve been talking to by phone or email to conduct a coordinated book or product launch
86. Calculate your operating budget for the upcoming year based on the new strategies you’ve learned
87. Confront someone who has been badmouthing you in the social networks and resolve the complaint (peacefully)
88. Build traffic to your website by passing out your business cards and giving people a reason to contact you
89. Critique the work, ideas, websites of others because it’s not all about you
90. Earn money by making a sale to someone who needs what you offer
91. Make money by promoting an affiliate product to someone when the opportunity comes up in conversation
92. Extract the true secrets of trends or processes from industry experts when you talk to them one-on-one
93. Generate interest and intrigue about a new product you offer or are coming out with soon
94. Observe audience reaction to the topics presented so you can see what your market is really interested in
95. Separate yourself from family so that you can focus on business
96. Test headlines, book titles, product names to get peoples’ reactions and suggestions
97. Implement a new technique you’ve learned after the seminar session and ask questions about it the next day
98. Reconnect with old friends you made at previous seminars
99. Solidify the bond between you and your clients as you invite them to attend the event together
100. Recruit speakers to present at your own seminar, conference, tele-seminar or webinar
101. Because it’s fun

To get to or remain at the top of your game, you should plan on attending 4 seminars or conferences each year. Minimum 2. More than 10 and I would say you’re probably overdoing it, unless of course, your main business is getting connected with conference speakers or joint venture partners.

Carefully evaluate how your business fits in with seminar attendance and then start looking for the conferences to attend. I’m alerted every time a seminar, conference, workshop, tele-seminar or webinar is announced on the web thanks to Google Alerts. You should do the same so that you can pick wisely.

And, if you happen to see a guy running around in a black shirt with a HereNextYear logo on the shirt, be sure to say hi…because it’s me!

How to Choose Which Seminars to Attend

Posted by Marty Dickinson on Oct 6, 2009

Up until about a month ago, the seminar business was in a severe hole. Economy-struck attendees put their wallets away in fear of spending a red cent for travel or education.

Webinars attempted to fill the learning gap but we all soon realized there is just no substitute for joining as a group in person.

That’s all changed now as you and I have inundated e-mail boxes full of seminar sales pitches, more webinars, and local workshops.

Last week I suggested you consider checking out my former client Byron Walker’s Affiliate marketing event in Golden Colorado (which is already 70% full I might add) and I look forward to seeing many of you there.

So how do you pick?

After all, the worst thing you could do is shut yourself off from all the great learning events coming up.

The most important thing is to attempt to exclude cost from the process. Meaning, I don’t care if an event is $10 or $10,000. If it pays for itself because of something you learned and applied or someone you met continued business worth….it was worth it!

So, beyond the money, what are the 3 most important criteria to evaluating whether or not to attend?

1. Who’s Presenting - If you’ve seen someone present before at one event, chances are their presentation won’t stray too far when they present at another. But if you like a particular presenter, you know that person would probably not waste his or her time presenting at a worthless event.

2. The Topic Being Presented – If you know for a fact that you will never ever EVER attempt to sell anything on Ebay, then why go out of your way to go to an Ebay seminar? Conversely, if you hear about a really hot topic, and you’re curious, those are the events you really should consider attending.

3. Who is Referring You - Until you’re on a list, you won’t even know 99% of the events that go on. They’re often not promoted on t.v. or radio. You wouldn’t think to search for them on Google. What I look for is frequency. Does the referrer suggest I attend everything under the sun? Or do they help qualify the event for me by telling me “I highly recommend this event if…”

When you put all three of these pieces together, a hot topic you really should know more about, a speaker you know is high quality, plus you’ve had an honest referral, those are the events to attend.

So, ahemmm, again I’d like to recommend Byron’s event coming up if you haven’t checked it out yet.

Claim Your Seat Here!

It has all the components of an event you really should attend.

And make sure to use Discount Code Number “DISC154″ when you claim your seat.

All the best,
Marty Dickinson
President
HereNextYear, Inc.
HereNextYear.com

P.S. I’ll be there too, so make sure to stop by my booth.

Here’s the order link again.

(Use Discount Code Number “DISC154″)

Think and Grow Rich Free Ebook Download

Posted by Marty Dickinson on Aug 1, 2009

I was looking for a new book to read and on my wife’s dresser was a stack of books. One of them was Think and Grow Rich. I’ve read it many years ago and of course saw the movie, “The Secret,” which Napoleon Hill’s original teachings inspired of course, but I thought I’d take another read through.

Y’know? It was like I had never read the book before! If you’ve never read Think and Grow Rich, make it your next read. In fact, I even found a free pdf download of it. So, you have no excuse now. Read it! And, you’ve already read it but it’s been a while, read it again. You have no excuse. You don’t have to go to the bookstore. You don’t have to pay for it. Just click the link and start reading.

Getting Leads and Sales with LinkedIn Without Even Trying

Posted by Marty Dickinson on May 1, 2009

LinkedIn has finally revealed to me how it can produce more leads and sales for a business and I did it without even trying. I started my LinkedIn profile in 2007 and setup my profile just like the pros. Got a bunch of connections and then just sort of left it be. I thought the whole purpose of LinkedIn was to just wait for connections to happen. Boy was I way off!

Since starting my LinkedIn profile, I’ve spent far more of my online social networking time with other systems like forums, Facebook, most recently Twitter. I’ve had leads, made sales, increased my opt-ins with every single one of those systems…but nothing from LinkedIn…until the last two weeks.

Here let me show you!

Today is Friday. On Wednesday night, I sat in my recliner for the second half of the Denver Nuggets once again destroying New Orleans in the basketball playoffs. During the last 10 minutes of the half-time report and commercials, I read questions people were making in groups I had signed up to be a member of (free member of course).

After the game was over I just sat in my chair for another 30 minutes joining another 3 groups and posting a few questions of my own and answering others.

The next moring, this is what my email box looked like:

#1 is a lead, someone asking me about what kind of Web site work my HereNextYear company does for clients. #2 is an opt-in to a subscriber list for my Ultimate Blog Setup Checklist site. #3 is a product sale where someone bought one of my e-manuals and #4 is an invitation to join someone’s linked in profile.

The rest of what you see in my email there are from comments made to the groups I belong to after I made comments to them. So, about 80% are people commenting about my comment.

What does all this mean?

It means the secret to using LinkedIn as a lead and sales generator is to participate. You need to do the following:

1) Create a profile in LinkeIn if you don’t have one already
2) Add links to your Web sites in your linkedIn profile so that when people do decide to find out more about you from your participation in groups that they will have a place to go
3) Click the “Groups” link from within your profile to search for groups where your target audience might be already members.
4) Join 10 or more groups if possible and choose some groups that have more than 5000 members. It’s okay to belong to some groups that have smaller membership numbers, but you need to be part of some larger groups just for sake of volume. For any group member that has the “email me every time a comment is made to this group” activated, when you make a comment, an announcement will go out to everyone on that group list. That’s what you see in my e-mail inbox image above besides the #1,2,3,4 is notices that comments have been made to the group I’m participating in.
5) Every time a notice DOES come in to your email, read the reply and engage in more conversation.

One conversation I was participating in is about LinkedIn spam. It was such a popular topic that there were 4 pages of comments within a week’s worth of discussion. I shared my opinion on the first page of the comments but then added more comments to make sure I had visibility on other pages too.

So, keep track of those discussions and participate frequently.

Should you ONLY participate in LinkedIn groups with the intent of getting sales or leads? YES is my opinion! That’s why we spend time on the Internet for social networking. But, the WAY in which you do it is important too. Don’t just be salesy about it. Simply make comments and share your opinions and expertise. When you write good responses, people will send you emails saying “Hey, great comment to that question and thanks for the help.” And, that’s when you know you’ve made a great first impression. Someday, a person like that could turn into a client, an opt-in, or even a recommender for your services.

And, that’ is the power of how LinkedIn can help you get leads and sales without even trying.

Join me on my new Linked-in Group where discussions are already underway for a variety of subjects related to how blogs interact with social networking. We’re calling it

The Social Blogger Group at Linked-in:

The Net Effect – How Your Blog, Social Networking and Websites Work Together

Posted by Marty Dickinson on Apr 30, 2009

Web sites used to be designed with the primary intent to push pages of content onto the public through search engines. But, when social networking began, the traditional Web site became more of a second, higher-level form of introduction. First people would meet each other on the social network and then your newly found friend would eventually click on something to get to your main Web site.

But, traditional Web sites still today are too slow to keep up with the traffic and conversations that result from the many forms of social networking available on the Internet. When someone becomes introduced to you on Twitter, Facebook or Linked-in types of sites, and THEN they visit your Web site, they are usually wanting to interact with you more.

If you don’t know how to use Dreamweaver or have given up trying to learn your high-end Joomla or Drupal install, it’s just not that motivating to offer to pay someone to make changes or additions to a Web site every day. This potential for interaction is gone unless they pick up the phone to call you or send an email to you.

I’d like to suggest that the importance of a blog has reached a whole new level. Your blog is now at the heart of your entire social traffic flow as shown in this diagram:

Whatever interaction you have on social sites eventually should flow to your blog where you can encourage further interaction. Then, once someone is ready to really look at the services you offer, they are directed to your main Web site.

Note too that the “Net Effect” of using your blog as the very heart of your social gathering place is your ability to add new content quickly and even automate it to be pushed right back to the very social networks you are already receiving traffic from.

Join me on my new Linked-in Group where discussions are already underway for a variety of subjects related to how blogs interact with social networking. We’re calling it

The Social Blogger Group at Linked-in:

I hope to see you on Linkedin soon!

Why Your Goal Should be to Get 2000 Followers on Twitter

Posted by Marty Dickinson on Apr 21, 2009

If you don’t already have 2000 people following you on Twitter, that should be your primary focus until you have exceeded the 2000 mark. Get there as fast as possible now so that you don’t have to worry about it later. Why is this so important?

• Size does matter – Many experienced Tweeters will automatically follow you once you follow them. They will checkout your profile later and likely unfollow you if you look like you’re just starting out with 100 or less followers.
• Twitter limitations – You can only follow more than 2000 people after you have more than 2000 people following you. Twitter does this to prevent people from abusing the system as it’s easy to just click the “follow” button over and over again in hopes people will follow you in return. Hey, we’ve all done it sometime in our Tweetlives.
• Proof of higher stature – One of the great uses of Twitter is to follow people you admire. But, if you follow someone with 50,000 followers, you probably won’t get much notice or attention when you have only 100 or 200 followers. Sure they’ll follow you, but that’s likely just an automatic setting and you will probably get unfollowed within a few weeks.
• Better results – If you Twitter for business, you can expect on average to get one or two people clicking on a link you might feature in any given Tweet. With 2000 followers, you will start to see higher clickthroughs ranging between 15 and 50 of your followers clicking on links per Tweet.
• Inspiration – When you get more results from your Tweets and find yourself meeting and conversing with high profile people in your industry as a result of Twitter, you will be inspired to participate more in Twitter. And, that’s what your 2000 or more followers will be expecting of you.

For almost everyone I’ve met or talked to about Twitter that has less than 500 followers, the entire process seems like such a waste of time for them. But, something changes when you get to 1000 followers. You begin to see Twitter in a different light; one that offers the true potential everyone is always talking about.

If you have less than 2000 Twitter followers, take the challenge right now to develop a plan for getting 2000 and more followers on Twitter.

How to Get 2000 or More Followers on Twitter

Posted by Marty Dickinson on Apr 21, 2009

I’m not quite there yet, but by the end of the month, I surely will have 2000+ followers on Twitter. It took me a while to learn how the big boys Tweet and I think I’ve got it now. There are a few tools to use, a few things to automate, and a few tricks to get you ahead that not a lot of people are talking about. But, I’m going to divulge the secrets right here for you for free in thanks to all the people who have helped me for free with my own Twitter journey.

Here’s the summary of steps you will need to get 2000 or more followers on Twitter, beyond just the basics of setting up an account and without tweeting day and night hoping people miraculously follow you by the hundreds, because it just doesn’t work that way:

Get a free account at TweetLater.com – Certainly one of the most essential Twitter tools available, here you will be able to add a setting to automatically follow anyone who follows you as well as create automated posts ahead of time. Here’s a screenshot to show how a post is added and scheduled for delivery to Twitter in 5 steps.

1) Add a new Tweet
2) Shorten any long urls you might be pointing people to
3) Publish right now or
4) Set a specific time and date by clicking on the calendar image
5) Include distribution of your Tweets in your rss reader

Add a custom background (theme) to your Twitter profile – Every highly followed Tweeter I’ve come across has a custom background (also known as a theme) promoting their Web sites and products. Using default settings for Twitter backgrounds just looks like you’re not a seasoned Twitter user. Adding a custom theme increases Twitter followers all by itself by giving you the opportunity to show creativity while remaining professional

Plan for 3 sets of 5 Tweets minimum per day – You won’t have to do this forever. Remember, we’re just trying to get you to 2000 followers within a short amount of time. Use your TweetLater account to add scheduling Tweets so that you hit 3 different groups of people at different times throughout the day. I usually focus on the 8:30-10am, 2-4pm, and 8-10pm crowd.

You can post about several topics such as:

• Trade news
• Industry facts
• Links to tips and article pages (not on your Web site)
• Links to tips and article pages (on your Web site)
• Fun posts/attention grabbers
• Product reviews
• Web site reviews
• Questions.

Use IFollowBack.com – This free utility allows you to see profiles of Tweeters who agree to follow those who are willing to follow them. So, by simply going through one profile at a time, you can find people who you are interested in following or who might prove to be even potential customers for you. The prerequisite for being part of this rather secret program is that you have to be willing to follow others who choose to follow you.

Lots of people get hung up with this concept of “being followed.” I got an email once from a guy I followed and he literally said “Who are you and why did you choose to follow me?”

Geez! Pretty harsh ‘ay? Just goes to show that not everyone grasps what Twitter is really about. It’s about exposing yourself to a larger amount of people than you could ever meet for the same price FREE!

Use FriendOrFollow.com – This free tool allows you to see all the people you are following who are not following you. Sure, someone might follow you initially but they can “UNfollow” you anytime they want to. You will need to delete several unfollowers so that you have room to follow others while on your way to acquiring 2000 followers of your own (people following you).

I’ve been suggesting for a while now that using Twitter is a great way to get started on the Internet without spending a penny. If you use those five components together, you will be on your way to getting 2000 or more followers on Twitter.

Choose To Participate in the Economic Meltdown

Posted by Marty Dickinson on Feb 19, 2009

I hear speakers boast how they’re “ignoring” the economy or “choosing not to participate” or “not joining the membership to poverty”. Just today I received an invitation to attend a workshop called Marketing Through the Meltdown.

C’mon America. We’re better than this. Don’t ignore your life or your future. Don’t resign yourself to doom.

This isn’t a time for desperate measures. But it IS a great time for considering how your product or service is essential to someone’s well-being, that’s all.

And, I believe just about any product or service can be promoted as an essential component to someone’s well-being.

So, here are some steps for you to pick yourself up and change your mindset from one of attempting to ignore what’s happening to embracing the economic situation and moving forward and upward:

1) Know people are making money - Sure, lots of companies have been laying off and shutting down, but there are plenty of new business starting-up too. Before you can make money, you have to believe you can. Doesn’t that make sense? If you keep thinking “nobody’s going to buy from me, nobody’s going to buy anything!” then they surely won’t. Don’t get caught up with “who’ is making money exactly, or what industry. Just change your mindset by knowing in your heart and mind and even saying to yourself that, “In every economic downturn, people do find opportunity and I are one of them!”

2) Diversify – Adapt some of your current offerings to meet the new needs of your market. Our HereNextYear blog package is a good example. In January, we had a “soft launch” of the new package deal and had a record sales month. We just got two new clients yesterday for the blog package and that’s a $2500 product. Same service as what we would’ve done previously, just packaged differently to meet the needs of the market.

3) Acknowledge your lifestyle – Those that know me know I go skiing every weekend with my kids, sometimes once during the work week too. Sure costs money to make those trips even with paid season passes. There’s gas, breakfast on the way, dinner on our way home…at least we bring bag lunches! That weekly cost adds up, but it’s a lifestyle I want to uphold and it motivates me to continue to be positive and work hard to maintain that lifestyle.

4) Find what people are doing – When you find someone that’s not foreclosing on their home, hang around them. Find out how they’re spending their time, what seminars they’re attending, what they’re learning about, how they’re promoting their business.

5) Learn and expand - This is not the time to turn into a t.v. zombie and watch 5 hours of news or fall into a trance listening to old Pink Floyd albums or playing Captain Jack by Billy Joel over and over again. Once you find out what people are doing to be successful, give yourself a chance to learn with them. Take a video production class. Learn SEO for your Web site or get onto the social networking bandwagon and devote an hour a day to conversing with others online with Twitter or industry forums.

They say that when the economy recovers, the world will never be the same and that we will all be so much better off. What about your personal economic growth? Does it have to wait until the world fixes itself?

Of course not. Take this opportunity now TO PARTICIPATE in this economy. Because what you have to offer really is essential but only if you believe it is.

Tips to Ease the Fears of Public Speaking

Posted by Marty Dickinson on Feb 12, 2009

Public speaking is one of the most feared things on the planet. You probably knew this because maybe you’ve experienced the same jitters (or death-gripping fear) on a stage or in front of an audience before. If you are in an industry that doesn’t require some form of public speaking then maybe you can apply some of these tips to networking (which is one of the most important skills for building your business)…

• When writing the speech or message, if possible, allow 5-10 days to prepare. Do research on your topic (statistics, case studies, updates in your industry, etc.). Many people fear public speaking because they feel like their audience will know more about the topic than they do. Another reason for this fear is knowing you are not as prepared as you could be. So prepare and get comfortable with what you are presenting – that’s half the battle.
• Know your audience. Try to mirror their mood (or start where their mood is and build them up to a more exciting place), language (or slang terms they use), etc. And hey, worse come to worse – fake it ‘til you make it!
• Don’t get caught up in the idea of public speaking (being in front of a big, judgmental audience, etc.).  You were asked to give the message for a reason, right? Have confidence in the fact that you are on stage to train – not to be judged.
• Prepare an outline. I’ve known people that write out their whole talk word-for-word. Some of the best speakers I’ve seen were presenters that didn’t read their PowerPoint slides or notes during the entire presentation. They loosened up and slipped in a joke here and there, which made it a lot more enjoyable for me.
• Start with a strong opening. Think about what would grab your listener’s attention – you want to lock them in right away so they follow you from beginning to end. If not, you’ll get less and less eye contact (which will make you more and more uncomfortable). You could start with a joke or a dramatic story to engage people. But make sure to follow YOUR style and personality versus trying to mirror other presenter’s you’ve seen.
• Have key points throughout your talk. People love lists like “The top 3 ways to achieve financial success”. It makes your material easy to digest and better for note-taking. Think of it like telling a story on stage.
• Distill your content in as few words as possible – rambling will only have your listener’s mind stray.
• Always stay on time!
• Your appearance is important. If you look like you take good care of yourself, people will naturally feel like you are there to take care of them by providing top-notch information.
• Always look for new material to make it interesting – Magazines, newspaper, motivational books, billboards – anywhere!
• End with a powerful and motivating close – leave them wanting more through a powerful story of someone who implemented similar strategies and saw success.

Those are some tips and techniques that have helped me tremendously in the past. Hopefully they can help you feel more prepared, more accepted – and less fearful.