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Something to think about!   Twitter Evan Williams: How Twitter's spectacular growth is being driven by unexpected uses   ICAN ISO Connection   To our knowledge this is the first and  only attempt by an ISO Sales Group to educate all its member in the monetization (MAKING MONEY) of their own websites, podcasts and or blogs with special emphasis on SEO, Affiliate Marketing, Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 tactics in a weekly free training forum.     Free! Please  ask questions!   We are here for You.   INFINITE INCOME PLAN INFINITE INCOME PLAN: "The Un-Censored Guide" With over 65 pages of "step by step instruction" I'll show you EXACTLY how I went from working as a factory laborer, to generating Million Dollar transactions online and how I build my large annual income streams so they practically run on auto-pilot.  Click for more » This Little Tool Quadrupled My Signups After my recent push for Robert Plank’s Speed Copy Secrets copywriting special report on how to write copy in under an hour, I wanted to test a few other things from Robert, since he’s a gifted programmer and offers some neat scripts. (Actually, I recently bought everything from Robert I could get my hands on, and so far I’m thoroughly impressed. Specifically, his “Full-Blast PHP” and “Sales Page Tactics Volumes 1-3″ products are fabulous.) I’m testing just a couple of Robert’s scripts on this blog, and early results are stunning. Let me share with you a few test results…   The Emergence Of The Relationship Economy Scott Allen the New Order of Things to Come combines direct selling and copywriting. This 257-page report shows you how. Click for more »     Free Computer Geek Discovers Speed Copy Secrets? Not a copywriter or just starting out? Can’t afford a high-priced copywriter? Need copy real fast to start selling or to promote affiliate products right away? Here’s something that might interest you… Computer programmer Robert Plank shares his quick and easy formula for writing compelling sales letters fast. Sure, nothing beats knowing how to write great copy. But… This painless formula will have your products launched and your websites up and running in less than an hour! (If you hate writing copy or don’t have time, or you simply need copy really fast, you’re going to love this.)     Confessions Of A Website Copywriter Possibly the Internet's best copywriting eBook on how to write proven sales copy for the Internet, from writing and web design, to testing. Highly recommended! Click for more » P.S.: Don’t Forget to Include This in Your Copy One of the most venerable and common elements of a good salesletter, after the headline, is the postscript or “P.S.” The end of every great sales letter should be capped with a strong P.S. We are often told that the P.S. is the second most read part of a salesletter. Why? Because after reading the headline, many people tend to skim and scroll right down to the bottom. It’s like the “second headline,” so to speak, of a good salesletter. This is particularly true when we know that most people tend to read the headline or the “Dear Friend” salutation, then turn to the closing of the letter to see who signed it or who is it from. Partly out of curiosity. Partly to justify reading it in the first place. So a postscript is not really a place to introduce new pieces of information that are not supported or discussed in the letter — unless it is meant to arouse curiosity, forcing the reader back into the letter. It is a perfect tool, however, to get the reader to take action.   Turn Words Into Cash Million-dollar influence and persuasion tactics so potent, if they were any more powerful the government would be forced to classify them as 'mind control'! Click for more » FREE Marketing Ideas: survive (and thrive) during these tough economic times Live, interactive call-in show brainstorms ideas to help grow your business. Hi folks. I'm Markus Allen. If you're looking for quick and easy ideas to help you grow your business, you might be interested in StumpMarkus. Every Thursday at high noon (NY time), I host a business building "talkcast"... a live, interactive discussion about all things related to marketing. The call is 100% FREE. No issue is taboo. And we have a blast swapping ideas.   Secrets of a 10% Conversion Rate Paul Hancox combines direct selling and copywriting techniques to produce online conversion rates as high as 10%. His 127-page report shows you how. Click for more »   “Blogger’s Blueprint” Your Blog…Start to Finish Right Here If you’ve always had questions about starting your own blog or needed just a little guidance to get all the steps completed, here is a free guide you’ll definitely want to pick up…so you can finally start blogging TODAY. It’s called the “Blogger’s Blueprint” and that’s exactly what it is. It’s a blueprint to: - Deciding if blogging is right for you. - Choosing the right blogging platform. - Finding no-cost themes for your blog. - How to write a blog post - Getting your blog showing up in Google - Useful plug ins for your blog. - Traffic tips. - How to earn from your blog. This 35-page guide is certainly going to help you cut a lot of learning curves. Download it instantly at: Download » …you’ll be glad you did.    # 1 Pick See all new blog posts on one site!   alphainventions.com   Do You understand Money? Money?       Get Connected

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No Excuses in 2009

Your Business

No Excuses in 2009 - Here Are 7 Essentials To Start Your Internet Based Web 2.0 Business!
January 4, 2009 by Bill Sifflard http://budurl.com/9wpe

Have you been thinking about starting a new internet based Web 2.0 business, want to change your lifestyle, quit your current job, but always seem to have an excuse to either not start or not follow through on your dream? Do you have great concept, skill or passion that you want to run with, but you just do not know where to start? Well today, right now is the perfect time to follow your dream and get your business rolling. Stop making excuses and decide today that you are going to follow your passion and make 2009 a year to remember and not another one worrying about the economy, your jog security and paying the bills. Start following your vision and use these seven concepts to help guide you as your develop and grow your new entrepreneurial adventure.

1. Create An Ultimate Personal Vision
In an earlier post I wrote on New Enterpreneur Essentials I laid out the steps for Creating Your Ultimate Personal Vision “UPV”. Check out this post, use the tools and define your UPV. Even if you have an existing business or are just thinking about entrepreneurship, this is a great exercise to evaluate what you really want from your life.

2. Consistent Focus and Commitment
If you are going to go after this and take your life in a new direction, then you need to determine how much time you are willing to put into the project and commit yourself to it. If this is a part time venture and you need to keep your day job, that is fine. Just establish how much time each day or week you are going to commit to building your new business and stick to it. If you are going to go at this full time, then set specific goals and organize your time to focus on what will drive your business forward. You will hit road blocks!, You will get frustrated and discouraged! I do not know many entrepreneurs over the last thirty years who have not experienced those feelings. The difference is that the successful ones NEVER lose their focus and commitment to their UPV, where the unsuccessful ones LACK the focus and commitment letting a set-back or unforeseen challenge side-track their efforts and they give up.

3. Information Overload
Once you start surfing the web you can feel totally over-whelmed with the overload of information that is available. The key to being successful in the Web 2.0 era is “focus on your core“. If you try every idea that comes along, or try to read every post, tweet or email you receive with the next greatest idea you will accomplish nothing.
I am not saying that you do not want to continually learn and develop your knowledge and understanding of the market, you should always be learning. There are some great bloggers out there who you are going to want to read and learn from, but you can not read them all and you need to structure and set aside a reasonable amount of time for “feeding the mind”. You can not learn to ride a bike by reading the manual. I use to hire sales people who would want to sit in their cubicle for weeks reading about products and programs until they felt like they were an expert. I would kick them out the door and tell them they are never going to balance themselves on that bike of become an expert unless they get out there and fall a few times. You are going to fall and learn from it, but keep picking yourself up and get back on that bike.
What is important also is that you focus on your business plan and work it to success. I see to many people trying to juggle 2, 3 or 4 different projects at once and never really committing to the success of any of them. Your plan will evolve and change and you may decide to go in a different direction at some point, but what ever direction you go in…commit to it and give it your all!

4. Mastermind - Develop a Circle to Learn and Grow
If you think you can do it alone…you can’t! and more over why should you try to re-invent something that you can learn from others. I believe strongly in Napoleon Hill’s philosophy and vision regarding the development and use of a Mastermind Alliance or Group to develop both personally and professionally. To be a successful entrepreneur you need to align yourself with others who can contribute to your success, be able to share ideas, opportunities and challenges in a forum where all can contribute and benefit. It may be that you find a group with similar interests in your local area, meet up with a group on LinkedIn or Twitter or you may want to join a group that brings professionals together from across the country and around the world. To learn more about Mastermind Groups read The Secret Behind a Mastermind Group at the Bssential Small Business Solutions website.

5. Do Not Waste Your Time - Outsource
So many Entrepreneurs try to do it all themselves and waste their vital time and energy doing work that they can have done faster and better by others for a fraction of the cost. Your time is valuable and once you determine the value of your time you will realize that logos, websites, administrative duties, email campaigns can all be automated or handled by “Virtual Assistants” and other professional sourcing solutions, so you can focus on what will make you money. You can develop an effective Web 2.0 presence and not know anything about WordPress, widgets, themes or html. You just need to know how to delegate and establish the processes and procedures you want in developing your site and your business.

6. Marketing the 80/20 Rule
Marketing yourself, your business and driving traffic to your site needs to be the primary focus of your attention. If you are not spending 80% of your time generating traffic to your site then you are not going to achieve the success that you desire. This gets back to outsourcing where you waste time doing things that will not help grow your business. Invest your time in learning developing your marketing skills from those who have been successful. You need to focus on learning how to drive traffic to your site, creating useful content that will draw readers to your site and utilize the tools that are out there to promote and get your site noticed by the search engines.

7. Build Your Community
Community and a follwing is critical to your success in building a internet based business. When I talk to brick and mortor retailers the first question I ask is “how big a database of customers they maintain and how often to they communicate with them and how?” I generally get a blank stare like I have 3 heads. Most businesses have no idea who their customers are and your primary focus is to reach out and create that list of subscribers to your site that you can establish and build a relationship with by getting them to opt-in to your blog post updates, email newsletter as well as buy products and services you offer. If you draw a visitor to your site, but do not get them to give you permission to communicate with them they are a lost customer. Develop a marketing strategy to offer something in return for their registration. The key is working to get a name, an email address and opt-in permission to contact them.
Follow Your Dream.

Now is the time to follow your dream, stop making excuses and commit to yourself to change direction and set a new course in 2009.
To learn more about building your internet Web 2.0 based business join the Bssential Solutions Community and utilize the links, tools and services that you can find there.
There you can sign up for regular updates to the website and blog, register for the Bssential Small Business Solutions Newsletter and check out some of the courses and programs we offer to help establish and grow your business.

 

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You in 2009

Your Personal Life

1. Take a ten to thirty minute walk every day.  While you walk, smile.  It is the ultimate anti-depressant. 
 
2. Sit in silence for at least ten minutes each day. 
 
3. Buy a DVR to tape your late night shows.  Get more sleep as a result. 

4. When you wake in the morning, complete the following statement, 'My purpose is to ____________ today.'  

5. Live with the three E's -- Energy, Enthusiasm, and Empathy. 

6. Play more games and read more books than you did in 2008 

7. Make time to practice meditation and prayer. They provide us with daily fuel for our busy lives. 
 
8. Spend time with people over the age of seventy and under the age of six. 
 
9. Dream more while you are awake. 
 
10. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants.  Eat less food that is manufactured in plants. 

11. Drink green tea and plenty of water. Eat blueberries, wild Alaskan salmon, broccoli, almonds and walnuts. 
 
12. Try to make at least three people smile each day. 
 
13. Clear clutter from your house, your car, your desk and your mind.  Let new and flowing energy into your life. 

14. Don't waste your precious energy on gossip, issues of the past, negative thoughts or things you cannot control.  Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment. 

15. Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn. Problems are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away like algebra class but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime . 

16. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a college kid with a maxed-out charge card. 
 
17. Smile and laugh more. It will keep the NEGATIVE BLUES away. 
 
18. Life isn't fair, but it's still good. 

19. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone. 
 
20. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
 
21. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree. 

22. Make peace with your past so it won't spoil the present 
 
23. Don't compare your life to others'. You have no idea what their journey is all about. 
 
24. No one is in charge of your happiness except you. 

25. Frame every so-called disaster with these words:   'In five years, will this matter?' 

26. Forgive everyone for everything. 
 
27. What other people think of you is none of your business. 
 
28. REMEMBER - GOD heals everything. 
 
29. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
 
30. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick.  Your friends will.  Stay in touch. 
 
31. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful. 
 
32. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
 
33. The best is yet to come. 

34. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up. 
 
35. Do the right thing! 
 
36. Call your family often. (Or email them to death!) 
 
37.  Before you go to bed, complete the following statements: I am thankful for __________.  Today I  accomplished _________. 
 
38. Remember that you are too blessed to be stressed. 
 
39. Enjoy the ride.  Remember this is not Disney World and you certainly don't want a fast pass. You only have one ride through life so make the most of it. Enjoy the ride.

Commit to yourself to change and set a new course in 2009.  Thanks Mom.

 

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BLOGGING

Business Blogs about business blogging

• There are easily ten great blogs out there about how to earn money with a blog or how to use a blog to support your business. Some of the best are 

• ProBlogger, 

• Blog Business World, 

• Business Blog Consulting

•  Buzz Marketing with Blogs.

By Scott Allen

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Blogs for Entrepreneurs

• Small Business Trends - Anita Campbell looks at the latest trends affecting small businesses and entrepreneurs. A must-read for entrepreneurs.

• Just for Small Business - Full of thought-provoking tips for small business owners from Denise O'Berry, I like this blog because the topics are often unexpected - not your usual small business fare.

• WorkHappy.net - Carson McComas lives up to this blog's subtitle of "killer resources for entrepreneurs" by providing links and reviews of "killer" applications and other resources to help entrepreneurs work smarter, not harder.

• Duct Tape Marketing - John Jantsch delivers 2-3 small business marketing tips weekly in easily digestible, actionable bite-size chunks.

• The Entrepreneurial Mind - Jeff Cornwall, Director of the Belmont University Center for Entrepreneurship, looks at trends in small business and entrepreneurship and their impact on individual business owners.

• BizzBangBuzz - Pittsburgh attorney Anthony Cerminaro delivers excellent commentary and some original posts on the challenges facing emerging growth companies, with particular emphasis on legal issues.

• Business Opportunities Weblog - Dane Carlson mixes links and commentary on legitimate business opportunities with his thoughts and personal experiences regarding entrepreneurship.

• Go BIG Blog - 9-time serial entrepreneur Wil Schroter, founder of the Go BIG Network, a networking site that helps growth-oriented entrepreneurs connect with investors, suppliers, co-founders and employees, uses his "no-BS" approach to tell entrepreneurs the way it really is that you won't read in the books.

• Young Entrepreneur Journey - Michael Simmons, bestselling author of The Student Success Manifesto explores what he calls "Extreme Entrepreneurship". It's a new blog, but the content is already outstanding.

• Startup Spark - Ben Yoskovitz provides a steady supply of business tips, plus some in-depth discussion of things like entrepreneurial passion, social entrepreneurship and dealing with business failure. Startup Spark also hosts the new Carnival of Entrepreneurs.

By Scott Allen

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Blog Hosting Solutions
 

Dedicated & Shared Hosting Services

• Dreamhost - Offers a lot for a very small amount of money

• CirtexHosting - Hosting plans starting at as little as $2.

• BlueHost - Another affordable hosting solution.

• HostGator - Cheap shared personal hosting.

• Media Temple - Grid based hosting; known to be able to sustain lots of traffic.

Paid Blog Hosting Services

• TypePad - If you are a MovableType fan, then TypePad is the premiere service to be using to host your blog.

• Blogsite - An enterprise level blogging and publishing platform. Multiple blogs can reside with in one blogsite. Amazing SEO visibility.

Free Blog Hosting Services

• WordPress - WordPress allows you to create and host a blog on their own servers and you can display it to the world. You don’t get as much customization and functionality as if you have it hosted on your own server (for example, advertising is not allowed), but it is still a very good way to blog without paying money.

• Blogger - A service owned by Google, Blogger is a way to have your blogs hosted for free and you can post as much as you want. It allows Google’s AdSense to be used.

• Xanga - iXanga is a lively community of online diaries and journals. Users create their own profiles and there are many opportunities to interact with other users.

• LiveJournal - LiveJournal is excellent if you wish to blog on a personal level and join a community and share your blogs among friends.
  Vox - A new contender to the arena but Vox is a very nice and powerful blogging tool; not to mention free!; You receive many social experiences with this option as Vox is based heavily on community based blogging.

• Tumblr - Tumblr is great if you don’t have time to blog, but still want to share something now and again. It lets you easily post videos, pictures, links, and of course you can write there too.

by Mashable Team

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Mini-Blogging Services

• Jaiku - Jaiku allows you the ability to post “mini-blogs” which are short blogs (usually under 140 - 160 characters in length) about whatever you decide. Jaiku also allows you to link together content from other services and social sites that provide RSS/ATOM feeds and they can be displayed as well.

• Twitter - Twitter lets you say what you are doing in 140 characters or less. Recently new features have been added that have made it into a great communication tool.

by Mashable Team

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WordPress Themes

• ThemeViewer - The number one location to find WordPress themes to make your page cool, which you will most certainly want to do.

• Templates Now - A smaller collection of WordPress themes, but still worth your while to check out.

• TemplateMonster - If you want more professional quality themes then this site can be useful. They offer extremely high quality themes that you can purchase
  for WordPress.

• WordPress Themes - a neatly categorized site with a huge selection of themes

 WordPress Plug-ins

• Akismet - The best blog comment spam prevention plug-in. Ships free with WordPress, but you still have to turn it on and keep it updated.

• WordPress Backup - an absolute must if you want to keep your archive in case of something going wrong

• WP Cache - if your blog ever experiences a burst of traffic, you’ll be thankful you have WP Cache

• Sitemap Generator - everyone who cares about SEO (and that should be everyone) should have this one

• Preview Pane - If you upgrade/install WordPress 2.2.x, the Preview Frame has gone missing, as the developers decided to leave it out, and it is a vital tool on checking your posts, so this plug-in restores that functionality.

• Facebook Photos - A nice WordPress plug-in that allows quick access to your Facebook photos and the ability to integrate them in to any post within WordPress with ease.

• Flickr Photos - Same as Facebook Photos, but for use with a Flickr account.

• Related Posts - This plug-in lets you display all the posts you have written on the same subject near each post. It increases the chance that a visitor will spend more time browsing your blog posts.

• Feedburner Feed Replacement - sooner or later, most people switch to Feedburner for their RSS needs. This plug-in redirects all the RSS feeds on your blog to the Feedburner one. Might cause problems with Technorati.

• Ultimate Tag Warrior - an advanced solution for all your tagging problems.

• Adsense Deluxe - a great way to manage AdSense ads on your blog.

• Super Archive - Creates a great dynamic archive for your WordPress blog posts.

• Stat Traq - Get detailed statistics in a very effective graphical format.

• Sociable - adds all those cute tiny icons for easy social bookmarking

• LightBox 2 - A fade effect that you see on a myriad of blogs you visit these days where you click the image, the background fades and then the image itself displays in full view. A very nice effect to have.

WordPress Plug-in repositories

• Official WordPress Plugging Site - The official WordPress plug-in repository is actually one of the best lists of its kind out there

• Wp-Plugins - a comprehensive list of WordPress plug-in

• Wp Plugging DB - another large database of plugging for WordPress

• Weblog Tools Collection - an often updated site bringing you the latest WordPress plugging as they arrive

by Mashable Team

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Tips & Advice
 

Blogs about Blogging

• About.com Weblogs - Professional blogger / freelance writer Deborah Ng covers a wide range of blogging topics for all levels of blogger, but is especially good for new bloggers.

• Advanced Business Blogging - Two people who are really making money with blogs and new media and showing others how to.

• Blogging for Business - Ted Demopoulos focuses “on practical business implications and uses of new media and technologies, including Blogging and Business, pod-casting, and other ‘Cool Internet Stuff’.”

• Andy Wibbels - The author of Blog Wild! puts emphasizes blogs for small business marketing, but his tips are useful for all bloggers.

• ProBlogger - Darren Rowse is the definitive guide to making money with your blog.
  MasterNewMedia - A site about independent publishing and social media which publishes articles showing how to create effective blogs and improve online marketing strategies.

• Copyblogger - a great resource of no-nonsense information for bloggers (and everyone else who wants to learn how to write well)

• DailyBlogTips - a place where you can find useful tips to improve the quality of your blog. Updated daily.

• Blogging Pro - news, tips and technical support for bloggers.

• Blogs in Education - a great list of useful resources aimed at those who want to use blogs for educational purposes.

Tips

• 10 Most Practical Blogs for Entrepreneurs - No philosophy, theory or personal rants/raves/ramblings here - just practical tips for business owners.

• Twenty Usability Tips for Your Blog - Tips for increasing the usability of your blog for your users which can lead to new and returning readers.

• Big list of blog search engines - a very detailed resource for blog search engines.

• Search Engine Submission Tips - an interesting list of techniques and strategies you can use to make your blog appear in relevant search results.

• How to Make Money From Your Website - a practical guide that explains the differences between the different advertising systems that you can use on your blog.

• 25 Tips To Optimize Your Blog For Readers & Search Engines - useful tips that help your blog stand out from the crowd.

• Research, Promote And Monetize Your Online Writing: A Blogger’s Guide To Twitter - a great guide by Michael Pick that shows you how to get the best out of Twitter.

• 25 Tips for Marketing Your Blog - a detailed list of tips to help bloggers optimize their site for online marketing.

• 9 Lessons for Would-be Bloggers - Joshua Porter shares interesting lessons he learned in 7 years of blogging.

• Weblog Usability: The Top Ten Design Mistakes - Jacob Nielsen writes down a list of the worst things you could do on your blog.

• How to Become a Freelance Blog Writer - Leo Babauta shows how to become a freelance blog writer and get rewarded.

• How To Prevent Running Out Of Blogging Steam - Did you run out of words? Here is what you can do when you have to face a situation like that.

• 13 Tips To Get Your Blog Noticed - a list of short tips to make your blog shine among the others.

by Mashable Team

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PODCASTING

Podcast Marketing – How to Promote Your Business Using Podcasts

Podcasting is blogging with audio instead of text. Essentially, you post an MP3 file instead of an article.

5 Reasons Why Podcasts Are Great

1. An increasing number of people are downloading new podcasts every day.
2. Unlike TV, podcast can be played whenever the listener wants.
3. People can listen to them in their cars on their way to work or when they go for a run. You will get their full attention.
4. There is a lot less competition in the podcast market than there is in the article market.
5. Podcasting is a lot easier and less time-consuming than blogging and getting your articles published.

5 Steps to Producing a Podcast

1. Download Audacity at http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/ or any other audio editing tool.
2. Get a good microphone.
3. Write the script (so the podcast doesn’t sound improvised and amateurish).
4. Record it in a noise-free environment.
5. Apply the noise-reduction filter in your audio editing software and save the podcast file.

Where You Can Submit Your Podcast

• PodOMatic - http://www.podomatic.com/

• Podcast Alley - http://www.podcastalley.com/index.php

• iTunes - http://www.itunes.com/

• Yahoo Podcasts - http://podcasts.yahoo.com/

• Digg Podcasts - http://digg.com/podcasts

• Podcast Directory - http://www.podcastdirectory.com/

• Podcast Pickle - http://www.podcastpickle.com/

• PodFeed - http://www.podfeed.net/

• Odeo - http://www.odeo.com/

• Digital Podcast - http://www.digitalpodcast.com/

• Podcast.net - http://www.podcast.net/

• Singing Fish - http://search.singingfish.com/sfw/home.jsp

• Blog Universe - http://www.bloguniverse.com/

• All Podcasts - http://www.allpodcasts.com/

• Big Contact - http://www.bigcontact.com/

• Collectik - http://collectik.net/collectik/

• PodNova - http://www.podnova.com/

• PodTech - http://www.podtech.net/home/

Submit your podcasts to all the major podcast directories at one time for free and they save you a lot of time.

• PodPusher - http://www.podpusher.com/

• Pod Submitter - http://www.podsubmitter.com/submit
  

by Zeke Camusio   

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COPYWRITING

• John Carlton Interview  Top copywriter John Carlton opens his killer copywriting bag of tricks. 

• Scientific Advertising  Claude Hopkins' timeless classic is one all copywriters should read. 

• Gary Halbert Interviews  A copywriting legend, Gary Halbert reveals response-boosting tips. 

• The Science of Getting Rich  The book that inspired The Secret and its modern self-help craze. 

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MARKETING

“New Marketing” Tips 1- 14   

November 10, 2008 in Marketing Tips 

•  Upgrade your Cell phone: When you have the right tools, everything is that much easier. You will be more inclined to follow up and follow through if you make email and web access as easy as possible. Get a Smartphone! Here your basically looking for accessible email, but as you get swept away with online marketing tools you may quickly find yourself taking / uploading photos and video or checking different websites and web statistics that mandate smart phone use. Cell phones that can do what you’ll need them to do, plus some, are available to you for around $100 bucks on Craigslist.com without a contract! You may also qualify for one through your carrier at a discount with a contract. I would look for a phone with a camera, a qwerty keyboard (purely subjective), internet access, POP3 email access and camcorder. Some great used phones that will work well for your social marketing purposes are the Motorola Q, Treo 650 or above, Blackberry Pearl or other Blackberry multimedia models and the iPhone. Please don’t’ think you’re limited to these; there are many other capable phones out there.

• Get a Gmail account (the next slew of points refer to all Google apps / tools, but please note that similar services are also available elsewhere via Yahoo.com, for example).

• Set Google alerts in Gmail: Setting up Google alerts for your business name, your name, your employee names, your competitors’ names and your supplier / area or important product names to keep tabs on what people are saying about you or for news you may need to know. Google alerts will regularly search the web, alerting you to key information as it hits the web. More importantly, news you can use to market or better connect with your customers.  

• Google Calendar: Share a Google calendar, mark your daily special & weekend events or anything else notable and encourage your customers as well as your employees to “share” your calendar. Make sure you keep it up to date! Google calendar modules can also be incorporated into your website and other’s websites fairly easily so also encourage others to embed your calendar into their website.

• Use Youtube: Create Videos and Other Content! Search the web for examples of what other businesses are doing to create marketing or informational videos for their sites. Use youtube.com to host your video, it’s your most reliable distributor and the cost is perfect! There are many so many ways to embed your video and share it and, even more importantly, by using youtube you make it easier for “the masses” to stumble across your videos.

• Multimedia Marketing Interns: Bring on an intern or two to work on marketing your business via the web and through multimedia projects. You should provide a computer, a video camera (rental or purchased) and a list of projects with expectations. Also schedule weekly meetings with your interns for updates exactly what they’re doing, make sure you have access to all sites (including passwords and usernames) and make sure you are very clear as to what is acceptable and what is not. While this will take some time and coordination it could pay off big for your business.

• Community Calendars: With just a little searching you will quickly find free community calendars available around the web. These are often found on local websites in your community including sites of local newspapers, chambers of commerce, television stations, churches, etc. Create a list and update each frequently with specials, announcements and events. Not only will you get out in front of potential customers for free, you will be found in searches more often.

• On Your Site Advertising: Create a couple advertising opportunities on your own website, perhaps in a sidebar or other strategic locations within your menu of services. These ad spaces can be utilized for leverage in your co-op dealings, used as trade opportunities for advertising or discounts on products / services. Another possibility could be offering ad space as part of a customer loyalty reward program or even selling them for a little extra cash!

• Use Craigslist and Ebay to sell products, used equipment, etc. You may also consider using craigslist to look for an “at home marketer” or to search for internet savvy interns.

• Coupons: Create unique coupons that are printable / downloadable from your website, but don’t expect them to suddenly drive droves of customers into your shop. Use them as “information purchasing power” to get information from your customers and potential clients. Businesses that regularly offer customers deep discounts train customers to wait for the next set of discounts. Offer coupons that are good enough to persuade potential customers to give over their email and other information, not so good that they will interrupt business. This will open the door for you to communicate with customers directly! Coupons and contesting can be a cost effective way to stay in front of your customers, but don’t get carried away or take advantage because once they add you to their “spam” list you’ve closed a door you may not be able to open.

• Occasional Contesting: Don’t give away t-shirts give away an iphone. That is to say, do something cool and different that relates to your business. Unfortunately, there is already an abundance of crappy t-shirts in virtually everyone’s closet but who wouldn’t trade their email for a shot at a free iphone? While this may sound like a very expensive proposition, it doesn’t have to be! I suggest purchasing a gift card with the current purchasing price of an iphone (199) plus a couple months of service cost. This means you could launch a very cool contest for around $500 that will create some buzz for your business and give a big boost to your new robust email address list. Digital cameras and video cameras also make great prizes that are cooler than t-shirts for around a couple hundred bucks and are sure to get noticed. *Please research contesting or contact a lawyer before running contests as there state and federal laws to comply with as well as legal-ease to contend with that I am not addressing in this post.

• Social Networking (and Professional): I’m not going to launch into a big thing on how you should be using Facebook and Linkedin.com and many of the other social networks for your business, I think I’ll leave that for another article but… you should. These sites will drive your name & company name to the top of search lists for free. More importantly, when used strategically, you can get real information, connect and strengthen your relationships with higher quality customers and even develop a following!

• Email Blasts: With your newly found following on the different social networks combined with all of those emails you’ve been collecting from couponing and contesting, you are now ready to send email blasts alerting potential customers of your new services and reminding existing customers about your product offerings! Keep email blasts short and to the point with few, if any, graphics and most of all be as relevant as possible. *Please research email blasts before sending to keep from being caught in spam filters and to comply with spamming laws.

• Blog: To the “not so web savvy” there is still somewhat of a mass negative connotation for blogging. Some initial reactions may be “I’m not a writer,” “I don’t have time” and “What would I blog about?” Well, you’ve just read numerous ideas that you should begin adopting for your business, all with good potential to raise your online profile and profitability… start putting some of these ideas into action and blog about what you’re doing or simply talk about what’s coming up at your business, why you have made certain business decisions or how happy you are that big shipment many of your customers are waiting for has finally arrived! I assure you that you will be surprised at how much there it to say and how many folks are interested! Whatever your business is, there are certainly many topics to discuss and many motivations for blogging. At first I began blogging to add content to my portfolio site, now I blog to market myself to new clients. If you’re interested in Blogging, here are some “must read” tips on creating killer content by Chris Brogan.

Inovedia Marketing www.Linkedin.com/in/richardbouchez

In this economy, everyone's looking for ways to cut down, and small businesses are no exception. One of the best ways to save money in business is to examine your annual expenses and consider how you can decrease those costs. Thankfully, there are some pretty amazing resources to help you figure out new ways to do just that. Check out what we consider to be the top 100 blogs for resources and inspiration to cutting your small business costs in 2009:

General Business Finance

Learn more about business finance from these blogs.

Startups.co.uk Money Blog: The writings in this blog will help you avoid cashflow headaches, deal with taxes and more.

Rosemary's Business Finance Blog: Read Rosemary Peavler's About.com business finance blog for great advice on cost cutting, effective finance and more.

Shoestring Smarts: Shoestring Smarts will help you learn how to build and operate a successful business on a limited budget.

Mostly Economics: Mostly Economics is full of helpful Indian economic and business research that can help you cut your costs.

Pakdi: Pakdi's blog discusses layoffs, money, business, and more in Malaysia.

Young Professional Finance Blog: Get great ideas for finance from this blog that highlights young professionals.

Freakonomics: Read this blog to learn interesting concepts in business economics.

Lion and Gun: In The Lion and Gun, you'll find news, philosophy and more related to politics, business and finance.

Wallstrip: This blog highlights company stocks at their height, and examines the reasons why that company is doing so well.

Art of Money: Learn more about business finance through this blog about online business.

SpendMatters: In this blog, you'll find practical advice for spend management.

AL6400: Alan Yu's blog is all about making and saving money in your business.

Maver Management: Maver Management Group offers advice and information for cost cutting, profit, and more.

Money Talks: In this blog aggregator, you'll find some of the best posts for business finance and cost cutting.

Business in General: Read this blog to get insight and advice into business finance, growth, and more.

 

Accounting

Effective accounting can help you find money, so get a few tips and ideas from these business accounting blogs.

Basic Accounting: Use the advice in this blog to learn how to use accounting to make your business finance situation better.

Accounting Observer: Jack Ciesielski's blog is all about accounting, investment, and finance.

re: The Auditors: This blog focuses on business finance problems.

Samarak: Samarak offers useful advice, tips and news for small business accounting.

Sox First: Read this blog for insight into Sarbanes-Oxley, management, compliance, and more.

 

News

Stay informed about the world that affects your business, and you'll be able to make better decisions about what to cut and what to keep.

Dealbreaker: Dealbreaker highlights business news and financial gossip, pointing out mistakes from other companies that you can learn from.

Curious Capitalist: The blog offers commentary on markets, the economy, and business.

Traders Trade: Stay updated on the latest in business and financial news through this blog.

 

Business Inspiration

Get inspired to cut costs and improve your business with the inspiration found in these blogs.

Small Business Trends: Get inspiration for building a financially stable business from this blog.

Business Pundit: Drea Knufken's blog discusses smart business.

The Entrepreneurial Mind: Dr. Jeff Cornwall's blog will help you learn more about financial management and more.

Freelance Switch: This blog for freelancers can help you learn how to cut costs and build a better freelance business.

Small Biz Survival: In this small business resource, you'll learn about focusing on income producing activities, smart marketing strategies, and more.

Freelance Folder: Freelance Folder offers wisdom for working efficiently and cutting costs as a freelancer.

Small Business Blog: Through this blog, you can learn how to make financial efficiency of marketing, managing and growing your business.

 

Business Resources

Use these blogs to find low cost or free business resources that you can take advantage of.

Small Business Mole: Make use of this blog to find money-saving business resources.

Small Business CEO: Small Business CEO is all about resources and knowledge for small business CEOs.

Fresh Inc.: In Fresh Inc.'s blog, you'll find lots of useful business resources that can help you save money.

Entrepreneur.com: This blog can help you learn smart strategies for a slow economy, find money saving business resources, and more.

YoungEntrepreneur: YoungEntrepreneur highlights creative and often low cost ideas for startups, and provides regular advice for business cost savings.

Invoice Factoring Blog: Read this blog to get great ideas in invoice factoring and more.

Mind Petals: In this group, you'll find creative entrepreneurial activities that can help save your business money.

Business Idea of the Day: Get new business ideas every day from this blog.

Neville's Financial Blog: Neville's Financial Blog highlights low cost, successful business ideas.

Dorm Room Biz: On the Dorm Room Biz blog, you'll find out tips for bootstrapping and creating a successful business on a dorm room budget.

How to Change the World: Guy Kawasaki offers wisdom on bootstrapping, venture capital and other creative funding ideas.

Biz Plan Hacks: Use these business plan hacks to run your business smarter.

Open Innovators: Open Innovators offers a variety of great ideas for business finance, including crowdfunding.

 

Startup

These blogs offer cost cutting and business building advice specifically for startups and growing businesses.

Up and Running: This blog from Entrepreneur will help you learn how to start your business and establish healthy finances for it.

FastUpFront: The FastUpFront business blog offers advice for staying out of debt, avoiding bank loan mistakes and more.

College-Startup: College-Startup offers great advice for reinvesting your profits, making business work on a dime and more.

StartupNation: Read this group blog to get great advice on starting your business on the right financial foot.

Noobpreneur: Here you'll find plenty of cost cutting ideas and business inspiration.

Inspired Business Growth: Wendy Piersall's blog focuses on entrepreneurial finance in the growth stage.

The Vest Pocket Consultant: Through Rosalind Resnick's blog, you can learn how to effectively grow your small business without breaking the bank.

 

Frugality

Get inspiration for running a frugal operation with the help of these blogs.

Young and Frugal: Employ these frugal ideas for millenials in the way you conduct business.

Principled Profit: Read Principled Profit to get guidance on being frugal and ethical.

Frugal Hacks: Frugal Hacks will help you be more frugal in business, and use smart ideas to save more money.

Being Frugal: This blog will give you great guidance for being frugal, even when starting your own business.

Frugal Freelancer: This freelancer blogs about saving money and being frugal.

Festival of Frugality: This carnival blog will help you learn how to pinch pennies in business and beyond.

 

Business & Personal

These blogs offer a mix of personal finance, business, and entrepreneurship.

I Will Teach You to Be Rich: Ramit Sethi's blog is full of pearls of wisdom for low cost, productive business.

Get Rich Slowly: Get Rich Slowly offers great personal finance advice that can be applied to business, as well as entrepreneur resources.

Mint: The Mint blog will help you learn how to reduce your personal and business expenses.

Consumerism Commentary: Flexo offers advice for frugality and smart money management.

FiveCentNickel: Five Cent Nickel has inspiration for cost cutting in personal and business finance.

WalletPop: WalletPop offers great advice for managing your personal and business finances.

Blueprint for Financial Prosperity: This personal finance blog can help inspire you to be more frugal with your business finances.

Personal Business & Finance Blog: This blog promises to provide you with answers to all of your finance problems in business and beyond.

Simplenomics: The Simplenomics blog will inspire you so simplify your entire business, including your business finances.

 

Cost & Supply Management

Cut down on costs in your raw materials and more with the help of these blogs.

Better Projects: Read this blog to learn about project cost management and more.

Expense Management: Expense Management will help you learn how to reduce your business costs.

Online Outloud: Read this non-conformist business blog for advice on cost management and beyond.

Expense Solution Blog: Read this blog to find solutions to expense management and more.

360 Vendor Management: This blog advocated vendor management so that you can get the most out of your vendor money.

Buyer Analytics: Use the advice in this blog to learn how you can make procurement more affordable.

Purchasing Transformation: This blog will help you meet challenges in supply chain and purchasing to save money.

The China Sourcing Blog: Learn more about using China sources to cut costs through this blog.

Supply Excellence: This blog will help you find strategies for cost saving in supply management.

TEMptation: With this telecom expense management blog, you'll learn about a variety of ideas for expense management in telecoms and beyond.

E-Sourcing Forum: Read this blog to find out how you can attain success in supply and spend management.

Vendor Management: In this vendor management blog, you'll find great information about improving relationships with your vendors to save money.

Effortless HR: Read Effortless HR to learn about payroll expense management and more.

Consumerist: This blog will help you consider your role as a business consumer, and learn how to get more value out of your purchases and interactions with suppliers.

Credit Card Processing and Merchant Account Services: This blog will help you better understand how to use credit card processing and merchant accounts, and can help you figure out how to save money on these expenses.

The Business Finance Blog: Here you'll find out about business loans, alternative financing and more for small businesses.

Maximum Business Credit: This blog offers great information for financing your business in an affordable way.

VC Freak: In this blog, you'll learn all about venture capiral news, startup funding, lending, and more.

MSBCHQ: MSBCHQ offers great advice about business credit and credit services.

Venture Chronicles: Through Jeff Nolan's blog, you'll get great insight into venture capital, finance, and more.

Commercial Finance Zone: Get help with commercial finance by following the advice on this blog.

The 21st Century Supply Chain: Get interesting ideas and perspectives on supply chain management through this blog.

Procurement Blog: This blog will help you make sense of procurement and better understand how to save money in the process.

 

Marketing & Customer Service

Learn how to make better use of your marketing dollars with help from these bloggers.

Startups.co.uk Marketing Blog: This blog offers a variety of useful topics on marketing that can help you save money and reach your audience more effectively.

Solo Business Marketing: This blog has great ideas and inspiration for effetctive and low cost marketing.

Basic Marketing: Read this blog to learn the basics of effective marketing, so you can better use your marketing budget.

Heart of Business: Heart of Business will help you design your business to make your customer happy.

Matt's Creative Advertising Blog: In this blog, you'll find excellent ideas and resources for creative advertising.

What About the Mailbox with No SPAM in It?: This blog explains how to make your marketing efforts more effective for your money.

Schipul Blog: Get smart and creative marketing thoughts from the Schipul Blog.

Marketing Genius: Maple Creative's blog offers marketing tips and more to help you succeed with less money.

Duct Tape Marketing: Read this blog to learn about effective marketing ideas that are also affordable.

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