List Building With Social Media

On March 26, 2012, in Online Content Marketing, by Jim
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Roxanne Monette-Thompson recently trained on using Facebook shares to build an email marketing list.  Her method, which is free, can be used whether or not you have a product of your own.  Her technique is evergreen, and reportedly will “kill” the bright shiny object syndrome, which now plagues many Internet marketers.  She currently earns about $3k monthly in only about 5 hours per week.  How does it work?Roxanne Monette-Thompson with Willie Crawford

Roxanne suggests using reworked PLR from Master-Resale-Rights.com or to create your own “free” guide or report which relates to your target audience.  In order to give people access to your “free” product, a squeeze page is used to capture prospects’ name and email.  An autoresponder can be used (MailChimp is free for a small list).  Roxanne suggests setting up a business email account vs. using your personal email address.  Next, a webinar service would be needed (up to 200 attendees are allowed using AnyMeeting.com).  An affiliate offer via the Warrior Forum, Clickbank, or other affiliate program.  Finally a social media account, e.g., Facebook and Paypal account are needed.

Image representing MailChimp as depicted in Cr...

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Next, Roxanne suggests posting content on  Fan Pages in related niches.  After a couple of days, a link to your squeeze pages can be included.  She develops a list, which can often go viral due to the nature of social media.  She also tries to develop a relationship with the Fan Page owner, who often hasn’t made any attempt to monetize their page.  She offers to do a joint webinar in which she shares profits with the page owner, promoting her own products or affiliate products.  In some cases the affiliate product owner will actually participate on the webinar.

Her detailed methodology is offered in her List Machine training course, which can take a new marketer from ground zero to earning an online income.  In addition, her detailed instructions make it easy to outsource and/or use virtual assistants for the entire process.  Although simple, her training is very complete, and potentially very useful to a newcomer to Internet marketing.  Finally, just about any business owner would benefit, although most usually would prefer to stick to the “main thing” and find a marketer skilled in this approach.

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Plugin Hotshot by Jason Fladlien – Product Review

On February 23, 2012, in Online Content Marketing, by Jim
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Jason Fladlien is regarded by most as the new Internet marketing wunderkind.  His latest product puts his talent on realtime display, as well as reveals many of the secrets that has allowed his company, Rapid Crush Consulting, to make a transition from information products to leading software developer in the last year.Jason Fladlien's Product Creation Secrets - Plugin Hot Shot

Jason is a self-proclaimed WordPress plugin addict.  He buys everything that he sees on the market, but with a method and strategy to his madness.  His latest product offering, Plugin Hotshot, was developed during his popular Product eClass, as a live example for his students.  This product is to be offered for sale, but his eClass students have the first shot at promoting it.

What most marketers haven’t realized beforehand is that Rapid Crush Consulting rarely develops software “from scratch.”  Rather, their methodology makes use of research, negotiation, and refinement of products that may be offered on venues such as the Warrior Forum with resell rights.  But even if a product doesn’t come with such rights, Jason often will offer to buy products that may have a promising potential if properly marketed.

Whose  methodology does this bring to mind?  Can anyone say Microsoft’s Bill Gates?  Jason believes that as the Internet’s information and software products industry matures, there will be a tendency to consolidate, as a products publisher model replaces the current “wild west” environment.

Plugin Hot Shot, Jason’s newest product, simply documents some of the successful methodology that his company has used to create an amazing level of success recently.  It covers the development process as well as the level of support needed by a company seeking to do an adequate job in the software arena.  When done correctly, however, the rewards can be significant.  Rapid Crush has developed one of the industry’s best line of products related to the popular WordPress platform, including:

English: This is a screenshot of an example wi...

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  • WP Local Pro – An excellent WordPress theme, which is very popular with local business consultants.  Using this theme is easy and produces very professional looking websites that don’t look like a typical WordPress blog.
  • WP FanPro – An innovative WordPress-based customization tool for Facebook lovers.
  • WP MobilePro – A tool to develop, increasingly important mobile-compatible versions of any website.
  • WP Twin – Simple WordPress backup system.

These are just a few of the innovative plugins developed by Jason Fladlien and his team at Rapid Crush.  His Hotshot Plugin product is a must read for those that seek to survive and thrive in the rapidly changing Internet marketing environment.

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Facebook Marketing Lead Generation

On December 1, 2011, in Social Network Marketing, by Jim
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Ken Michaels started in Internet marketing in 1993, after realizing he hated selling.  His area of expertise is developing systems to automate the lead generation process using social networks.  His specific area of focus is creating Facebook pages for small businesses.  Finding clients using specific online tools and automated systems is his expertise.Facebook 4.74 Degrees of Separation

Just 5 years ago, most businesses were interested in getting websites setup and leveraging Google through SEO.  In the last few years, social media started to take over, led by Facebook and YouTube.  Today, most people are obsessed with Facebook, where 4.74 is the new “degrees of separation.”

There are several easy ways to generate Facebook fan page leads including:

  • Manta – This is a directory of small businesses, which categorizes businesses by company revenue.  According to consultant Ken Michaels, targeting businesses under $1 million can have an advantage of ease of contacting the decision maker.  In addition, these businesses often hire-out specialists for specific tasks such as  marketing online, since they really only have time to run the day-to-day operations.

    English: Graph of social media activities

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  • Yellow Book – In this directory, businesses are listed according to the level of advertising that they currently own:  Gold, Yellow, or Blue.  The ones to target are the ones already spending money on advertising.  In addition, businesses that have paid Yellow Book to create a video can be selected (Note:  the videos that have been produced are very poorly done, including a promotion at the end for Yellow Book!).
  • Social Bakers – This website is a directory of Facebook pages, including the number of fans, and complete details on every existing Facebook page.  The best target businesses are those with between 100 and 300 “likes.”  This is the point where most fan pages “die off.”

Developing leads in an automated fashion can be done with automated systems.  FB Cash Accelerator leverages Social Bakers to generate thousands of leads, in minutes, including contact information when available, applications used, and if the Facebook page has been claimed by the owner.  In addition, a full contact manager is included, including support for virtual assistants and outsourcing the lead generation.

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Building a List of 1000 in One Week – An Innovative Viral Approach

On November 12, 2011, in Attraction Marketing, by Jim
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The three biggest niche marketing segments online are health, wealth, and love.  Marketers that are in these areas have a lot of competition, but by working hard, it is possible to reach the top.  Sub niches are easier, however, e.g., “losing weight” within the health niche.  Regardless of niche, Mike Cowles, teaches that it is much faster to do affiliate marketing in your chosen niche vs. creating your own products.

Here is what is needed in either case:

1.  Squeeze Page – Squeeze Page TemplateAlthough a squeeze page is easy to create, most people will enter a “fake” email address.  What is really needed to build a list quickly is a way to actually get your prospects’ “real” email.  Your target opt-in rate should be 40% or better, which means you’ll need a very good offer.

2.  Initial Email – Once on the list, tell your subscribers that you’ll be sending them some special information soon and to look for it in their mailbox.  This will improve your opt-in percentage, plus start the process of building a relationship with your new prospect.  Use a picture or send a video to personalize your introduction.

3.  Separate Your List – You should include a paid offer fairly soon, in order to separate your list into “lookers” and “buyers.”  In general, for every two emails offering valuable free information you should include one paid offer.  You can also survey your list to separate further into those that are aggressive vs. just interested in getting occasional information.  Mike Cowles suggests to subscribers who are in the process of an opt-out, an opportunitty to receive only infrequent, valuable special offers.  List automation supporting all of these features can be set up using Aweber.

4.  Joint Venture – Make an offer to several (up to 10 or 20) other marketers to put one of their products in your email sequence (forever), if they will send out one email to their list with your offer.  Let each one of them know that you’ll be doing this with 10 other marketers (especially if you don’t have a big list yet), so they’ll know you’ll be building a worthy following in the near future.  You also want to get your offer to go viral if possible, for maximum impact.

Using this technique can definitely get 1,000 people on your list within a week.  To facilitate the process, Mike Cowles now offers a new Rocket List Builder system, based on an innovative Facebook App.  His App captures his prospect’s “real” email and writes to their Facebook wall, so that all of their friends will see the offer as well.  Thus you’ve now leveraged the viral aspects of Facebook, making it really a slam dunk for your success.  To see how this works and to get a free copy of our squeeze page code, just click the button below for immediate access to the download.  An overview and detailed training by Mike is also available.

 

 

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Using Facebook as a Business Tool – A 3 Step Strategy

On November 5, 2011, in Online Content Marketing, by Jim
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Not too long ago, the only “social media” was email.  Local businesses were only interested in Yellow Pages, TV, newspapers and radio ads.  And, Mark Zuckerburg only allowed college kids on Facebook.  Today, there are nearly 700 million users on Facebook, but mainly for social reasons.  Is it possible today, to leverage Facebook to quickly produce income in today’s economy?

As most savvy marketers are intuitively aware, Facebook is a goldmine for business.  In fact, in the marketing world, there has never been a more powerful tool, especially due to its viral properties.  Facebook’s “viral” concept for businesses is primarily via its “Like” button.  In the old days, setting up a “Tell-A-Friend” script was very difficult by comparison.  In addition, it’s Ads are demographically targeted, which is impossible on Google and integration with PC”s and mobile devices is seamless on Facebook.  Finally, its built in tracking  provides much better information than Google’s Insights.

But, since Facebook is an inherently social platform, it requires a certain “finesse,” which many fail to understand.  Sending and/or directly posting ads for products and services is actually grounds for immediate cancellation of an account.  Ads are allowed on Facebook Fan Pages, however, and in particular, can be placed as a “profile picture.”

Fan Page creation, which is easy and instant,  includes several nice features.  Up to 5 images can be uploaded with URL, which appear on the main page and can be linked to affiliate products (hint: market by targeting Facebook Groups).  Fan Pages can be created for products & free reports (including  PLR).  Here is a  strategy for consultants working with small businesses (business owners willing to develop in-house can simply create their own pages using some of the tools mentioned below).

  1. Pick a local business niche with high customer transaction value or high consumption volume.  Service businesses are best, e.g., restaurants, bars, dentists, chiropractors, gyms, etc.  These type of businesses are willing to pay $500 to $1500 upfront and a monthly maintenance fee of $50-$500 (for reputation maintenance) to manage their pages.
  2. Create generic industry Facebook Fan Page templates in advance with placeholder content and offer it to business owner in that particular niche.    This is fairly easy to accomplish from the Developers menu in Facebook, by “embedding” a website that is 580px in width.  In addition, several tools to facilitate the process are available including a WordPress theme by Rapid Crush Consulting, that is specifically designed for this purpose.
  3. Maintain control of the page and lease it to customers, so that  in the event of non-payment control of the page can be maintained.

Businesses are now recognizing the value of Facebook pages in increasing numbers.  Not only is Facebook an extremely viral advertising tool, but it is a high profile website that seems unlikely to face competition in the near term.  If Google can’t make a dent in Facebook’s preeminence, it is unlikely that any other challenges will soon appear.

 

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Secrets of Business Marketing on Facebook

On September 6, 2011, in Social Network Marketing, by Jim
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Facebook is one of the hottest topics online, although only a minority of marketers are effectively using the platform for marketing.  Becki Andrus began online in 2006 and quit her job in 2007 based on her own successful traffic generation strategies.  She has been moving with the trends vs. using some of the more traditional Internet marketing strategies, although her initial marketing focus was Adwords.  She believes that Google Adwords is too hard today for most due to campaign slaps, adwords account shutdowns, SEO algorithm changes, and higher competition.

Although marketing on alternative platforms, especially Facebook is easier, the Facebook mindset is crucial to understanding marketing on Facebook.  Those trying to blatantly market in their ads will be ignored.  By way of contrast, when Becki quit posting to a fan page due to an emergency situation that came up suddenly in her life, her fans began posting to the page to inquire where she was and that they “missed” her updates.

Marketing on Facebook is about creating relationships.

Today, the average Facebook user spends 33 minutes on the site vs. 20 minutes on Youtube and 13 minutes on Google.  The search engines recognize the importance of social media, with Google’s +1 as key evidence.  In addition, Bing now integrates a user’s profile preferences into it’s search algorithm.  Small businesses now recognize the importance of Facebook, but few know how to leverage it.  Finally, Facebook has become a main source of information; often much better than available on the news sites.

Image representing Facebook as depicted in Cru...

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Today, very few marketers are using Facebook due to:

High perceived cost of ads.  But most of this is based on a misunderstanding of how to use Facebook for marketing.

Ineffective ads.  Another misconception, based on using “traditional” marketing methods vs. socially adept marketing.

Personal logins and privacy concerns, mixing business conversations with those of friends.  Again a misunderstanding of how Facebook keeps fan pages completely separate from business accounts

Of today’s 500+ million Facebook users, over half log in every day.  Social relationships are most important and users are there for social interaction and entertainment.  Many people start their day with Facebook, often before brushing their teeth.

Becki uses Facebook for affiliate marketing (creating fan pages in niche markets), opt-ins to build a list, building a blog following, offline marketing, branding (more expensive), and staying connected with current customers (often more effective than email marketing).  Although no website is required, she advises associating a website for list building, since Facebook owns the property.

Fan pages are effective in building a community of people with like interests.  In addition, the news feed creation automatically creates updates for fans.  The viral aspect of these feeds encourages friends of your fans to join and promote your page as well.  And once a page has been established, the use of demographic targeting can be used to keep the costs down.  Split testing is important, in order to maximize effectiveness.  Becki is achieving 80% (up to 98%) conversion (Likes), which isn’t possible with any other type of traffic.

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Austin Walsh Review, 19 Year Old Social Media Expert

On August 17, 2011, in Social Network Marketing, by Jim
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Austin Walsh is a successful 19 year old Internet marketer in Chicago.  He has been an entrepreneur since age 15 when his Dad bought him $400 worth of equipment to start his career as a DJ.  For New Year’s eve, he created a Facebook event, expecting 200-300 attendee at an event, however with 2700 attendees registered the owner informed him he’d only get paid $500.  Austin decided to try to find an alternative venue in Chicago with only 72 hours notice.  With only 24 hours notice he changed the venue on Facebook and not a single person showed up at the original location.

At this time he found out that his Dad was a seminar speaker.  He joined as a speaker on the circuit, but didn’t forget about his Facebook experience and soon started a business in marketing online.  Today he is passionate about the possibilities and future of marketing online using Facebook.  His 6 Figure Incubator program, iSocial Academy, teaches a systems approach to Facebook marketing.  His client list includes very well know speakers, e.g., Les Brown and others, for whom he still manages Fan Pages.

Austin has the following suggestions for Fan Page Branding:Les Brown and Austin

  • Use a picture of yourself (or a personality in your business) vs. a company picture.  In a test with Mark Victor Hanson, a personal picture was “Liked” 4,000 times more than a business picture, e.g. one of his book covers.
  • Use favorite Fan Pages from key figures congruent with your business principles.  This will result in a lot of content for your page from notable people.
  • Do a weekly video.
  • Use a customized Fan Page which includes a welcome tab and opt-in form to capture subscriber emails.
  • Be an E.A.P.  This stands for extremely active poster.
  • Brand on an international platform.
  • Have a Fan Page launch.  Give rewards to people who help you build a following.

In addition, Austin uses continuity program levels.  Nano continuity, priced at $9.97 per month or less, provides a good entry point for small business “gold” club members.  Major continuity would contain more content, priced at $97/month and $27/month as an intermediate offer.  He also uses video tagging with great content to advertise his “brand,” to about 50 people at a time.  He also uses text mesaging and Facebook’s code of 32665.

Although Austin appears to be one of the most capable marketers in the Facebook realm today, he believes that any business that wants to survive will need to eventually get online.  And especially to get on Facebook.  For those in the network marketing space, we highly recommend the training offered by My Lead System Pro pertaining to Facebook.

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How to Build Facebook Applications for Local Internet Marketing Needs

On July 5, 2011, in Attraction Marketing, by Jim
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Sam Bakker, creator of the FB Cash 2.0 marketing system, recently introduced an application generator for Facebook Fan Pages.  His new product is a simple Facebook application generator.   There are several benefits of Facebook applications vs. a simple fan page.  These include the ability to capture a person’s main email address and inclusion of images when someone “likes” a page (vs. a hypertext link only on a fan page). Additional advantages of Facebook applications over Fan Pages are the ability to:

  • Add to Facebook Event
  • Redirect to External Website
  • Information Capture

Recently Herbal Essences deployed a Facebook application which resulted in over 500,000 followers.  Only a few other very large companies at this point, have been able to leverage Facebook as effectively.  The reason that only large business have so far been able to exploit Facebook applications is the cost…estimated at $2,000 plus for creating an effective application.

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Many local businesses are finding that current spending on yellow pages, newspaper, radio and television is yielding little return on investment.  A typical small business spends about 9% of its revenue on advertising and many are looking for more cost effective methods, especially in the current economic turbulence.

In a recent study of traditional advertising methods vs. traditional Internet marketing:

  1. $10,000 in radio ads produced 200 to 300 leads.  The cost per lead was therefore between $30 and $50.
  2. $50,000 in television ads produced 500 to 600 leads, at a cost per lead of $80 to $100.
  3. $20,000 in magazine and newspaper ads produced 300 to 400 leads.  The cost per lead was $50 to $70.
  4. $10,000 in Internet marketing brought in 700 to 800 leads, yielding the lowest cost of $12 to $15 per lead.

Sam’s Facebook application has several advantages over traditional Internet marketing.  The use of Facebook applications is rare; and only in use by a very few very large business who have the resources and technical ability needed.  Also, Facebook applications are familiar and trusted.  Who doesn’t know someone who plays “Farmville,” and security concerns are minimal at this point.  In addition,  Facebook applications can be integrated with many other Internet functions, e.g. GoToWebinar, and have many viral aspects never before seen in the advertising world.

A simple Facebook, such as that developed by Sam Bakker can be a boon for many small businesses, giving them advantages over the competition unobtainable in any other way. The system can be previewed in great detail in Sam’s online workshops. His FBCash 2.0 marketing training system for Facebook is available as a ClickBank product, and as a feature of his Facebook application generator.

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Facebook Marketing – The Revolution in Internet Marketing

On June 16, 2011, in Attraction Marketing, by Jim
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Nick Peall began marketing on FaceBook in 2005, at which time his first campaign failed, at a cost of $6 per click  and no conversions.  More recently he’s created lists of 60K and 100K in 48 and 24 hours respectively with a cost per click as low as .2 cent.

What he discovered “on his journey” was that there was no one who offered help in marketing on Facebook.  Thus he started his own R&D project in testing results.  Eventually things started to work.  What he learned was that Facebook marketing is often completely opposite what is familiar from the world of Google pay-per-click.  Why does Nick love Facebook now?

  1. You can create huge lists within days or even hours.
  2. Making pages takes minutes with no need for FTP or a domain.
  3. There is unlimited traffic for under a penny per click.
  4. You can reach millions of people in any niche or vertical market.
  5. There is little to no competition, since most marketers are doing a poor job.
  6. Communicating with your list just takes a photo or YouTube video.
  7. The delivery rate for Facebook updates is instant.
  8. Response times are measured in minutes or seconds.
  9. Your audience is spending hours per day waiting to hear from you
  10. Facebook is the new gold rush in Internet marketing.

Nick has had more than 3.5 million page impressions for free on one of his recent Facebook Fan Pages, with more than 100K “likes.”  Fan pages are the “new” opt-in list in the world of Internet marketing.  On Facebook, response times and reply rates are instantaneous as hundreds of people act within the first hour.  Instant traffic can be generated for affiliate offers.  Many “unknown” marketers have lists over 100K in Facebook.

When creating a Fan Page, always choose “Brand or product,” and select website. Nick states this as a warning from his own experience in having his pages recategorized as community page when they reached 10K members.  When this happens, all your work is lost, since you have no further control of the page.

Ad creation isn’t difficult, but following a few simple rules will greatly increase your results.  Use a question/call to action in your ad.  Also, since Facebook is a very visual environment, creating appealing graphics is essential.  Here are a few tips:An Effective Facebook Ad

  • Use warm colors edge to edge
  • Use interesting images
  • People’s faces are usually best

One of the key differences between Google marketing and Facebook is the fact that Facebook uses demographic targeting vs. a “product” approach that most Internet marketers are accustomed to.  There are major differences between social media and search traffic.  Those that miss this point will fail, e.g., burn their ads budget with NO conversions.  Nick’s membership coaching program, MrFBX, seems to be an excellent jump start for those wanting to hit the ground running with their Facebook marketing.

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Ray Higdon Review – 5 Mistakes in Setting Up a Blog plus His Own Traffic Secrets

On June 15, 2011, in Network Marketing, by Jim
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Ray Higdon was in foreclosure under two years ago.  Today his blog outranks some entire MLM companies in Alexa.  And he’s persisted even though he’s had his Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube accounts all shut down as part of his learning curve.  On a recent webinar, he shared content that every network marketer and internet guru should pay close attention to.Ray Higdon with fiance and family

Ray believes in the power of blogging in order to connect all social media and bring together his brand.  What are the biggest mistakes being made by most marketers today?

  1. Most marketers focus inward vs. solving problems.  New marketers have an unrealistic view of their own credibility, often trying to impress others with their knowledge, especially technical stuff.
  2. Beginners are often not consistent enough to have credibility.  On the flip side, those that are consistent practically find it impossible not to get 40 leads per day.
  3. Many are taking their opt-in lightly.  Building a list is the entire reason for a blog.  Make sure your offer addresses real pain and solves real problems for people.
  4. Some are waiting for everything to be perfect.  This is a big mistake.  John Maxwell’s book Failing Forward contains great advice.
  5. Most mismanage their list.  Ray’s list recently earned him $3200 without really much effort when he offered them access to a webinar series on sponsoring.

Ray believes that leaders must first believe in their own value in the marketplace.  In fact, your value in the marketplace will dictate your income, but not only that your “belief” will energize your own activity in creating value.

Although he hasn’t done any article marketing previously, Ray now believes in the power available using tools such as Article Marketing Robot, Unique Article Wizard and Bestspinner.  Rob Fore’s training is the best available. An even better way to get traffic is TribePro and similar systems.  Ray recently had almost 4500 shares on his content from syndication.

But the #1 best way to get traffic is to build and take care of your list.  Listen to the struggles of others.  Also, the opt-in used on your blog is very critical.  State in clear terms the benefit the prospect will get when joining your list.  Then instead of relying on the series of MLSP follow-ups, take them directly to your giveaway.  Send content to your list everyday based on content you’ve created on your blog.

Listen To The Struggles of Others

Most networkers are not very good at handling their leads.  Ray assumes that he will sign-up leads from people’s websites who didn’t call them.  Some of Ray’s future plans include article marketing, hiring a PPC marketer, using guest bloggers (people in his team having results).  He advises to think with the end result in mind, e.g., where are you going.

Some other advice Ray offers include using the maxoptin plugin which allows you to add people to your list when they comment on your blog…automatically.  If someone takes the time to make a comment, they probably are interested in getting continuing content from you.

Always think with the end in mind

All of the top marketers started from positions similar to Ray; many were dead broke.  What they have in common is vision and belief in themselves.  The Internet offers opportunities available in no other industry, despite whatever college degrees are being attained by others.  Let others know “your story,” and set a goal to tell it to a big audience, e.g., on an MLSP weekly call.  Always think with the end in mind.

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