Ok, so I didn’t personally make this event, but I know someone who did and this is what they took away from it in their own words – good advice for WWN in IM. (What’s Working Now in Internet Marketing).

Mind you, this advice has probably always worked, and will always be good advice to follow:

(my comments are in blue italics)

One serious piece of information that I got from this event, which was especially settling for me was this…

“The major shift that is taking place in the field of Internet Marketing is actually a ‘Good Thing’! One that makes online businesses transparent and genuine to consumers.”

The regulations make ‘dishonest marketers’ scared of losing it all, and it brings the ‘honest ones’ more credibility in the marketplace.”

This is a good explanation for what Branding Yourself includes – keep this in mind when you leave comments, write blog posts, etc. What you say today doesn’t go away tomorrow.

1. Brand Equity – “Be your ‘best self’ while interacting and conducting your business online. In this age of social media technology, ‘everything about you is recorded’. Every comment you make, every opinion you have – everything! You are your ‘brand’ — your personal brand affects your future business dealings.”

2. Transparency - “Be as transparent as you possibly can. Transparency promotes trust, honesty and our best conduct.”

3. Follow Regulations - “Understand and follow regulations. Don’t give the FTC or other regulatory organizations the chance to make your life and business a ‘scapegoat’ in the marketplace.”

4. Retention Equity - “Always put more focus and time into your current customers and clients, before your bring in more new clients. That’s what will keep you in business for 5, 10, or 20 years or more in business. Even in the worst of circumstances.”

5. Value Equity – “Once you have figured out how to pay your monthly bills, the focus should be on building your value equity. Your value equity is what you generously give to your marketplace without expecting money upfront. Be generous.”

This goes without saying – I can’t say I’ve followed this advice to the tee as I’ve focused on offering value before I have ‘figured out how to pay the bills’ from IM efforts. Not saying I’m right or wrong, just didn’t do it this way.

*****

Can’t emphasize #6 enough – although modeling successful people is very important, you need to be willing to believe in yourself and set yourself apart  by being authentic.

6. Maverick Entrepreneur – “Do business the way you want to. Stop looking at your competition all the time and matching everything they offer. Your energy is well spent showing your own authentic personality and your uniqueness will pay you thousand folds’.

Hopefully you can take some of this advice and run with it – or better yet, you are already doing these things. Good for you!

Here goes:

Ever notice how whenever someone comes out with a new SECRET technique – whether they’re charging you for it or giving it away for free, that when YOU go to try it, it almost always bombs? Costing you time and money in the process too.

Seems like the technique worked for them in the past tense, now that it no longer produces, they can let the kitty out of the sack and share their ‘SECRET‘ with the world.  Awww, how generous of ya. I guess that means you a good guy a me now follow you and give you money, okeedokie?

I think what the Secret Technique really is, is it’s just a leveraging tool for creating higher value for the person sharing it. It’s like,” Look – I know what I’m doing. I made bank on this little trick.” (Now, because it was a one time, one trick pony) I share it with everybody announcing my greatness to the world and by the way won’t you please pay attention to me? Me,  a person who is successful and savvy. You’ll follow me now? Really? Great! Now check out all these offers I have to sell you! Ah yes, mo’money mo’money mo’money.

Seriously, think about it. If you fall upon a technique or manufacture one with some co-conspirators, you can now show off your paypal transactions and brag about your growing bank account that happened, ‘literally overnight while I was asleep‘. This will suddenly give you street cred and people will think you are on to something big.  They buy in for however you package it. Your real money is now made on selling this ‘not-so-secret-anymore technique’ to the masses as well as building a HUGE email marketing list that a percentage will keep buying the next greatest thing you offer to them. Brilliant.

This is something that I believe needs to be brought up.  I’m tired of seeing so much failure experienced by so many coupled with too much brewhaha and smoke and mirrors by the few who ARE making it.

It seems to me like there is a huge BRIDGE missing in the whole rags to riches stories that are out here in IM Land. Don’t you agree?

I mean, everybody I know (and plenty I don’t) who are ALREADY successful or at least BS-ing their success never seem to mention or acknowledge how or what it was that finally brought them up from the depths of homogenous moneyless amateurism to the sudden ability to make money on command. You know, where they already seem to have made it, claim to tell you how easy it is and how they can (for a price) show you how to do it too?

Funny thing is, every time you buy into one of these things, if you stop to pay attention, you’ll realize that the HOW they are making their money is by selling their story and maybe some techniques and tools along with it. That is NOT the same thing as how THEY made their first money.

Often, it’s claimed that it was a mental shift – a Mindset Change – if I may take liberty there. Like, “the day I decided to be a leader, I was a leader.” Seriously? Come on. I wasn’t born yesterday.

Ok, I’m not going to get all negative and Devon Downer on ya.  I would like to see less hiding behind marketing hoopla and more authenticity. My two cents worth. Keep in mind that none of this will still not guarantee your success :

• Luck
• Persistance
• Consistency
• Motivation and Passion
• Modeling the Right mentors
• Money for tools, advertising, etc

I think advice like pretending to be successful is ingenuous and foolish. Better hope you make it before they peak behind the curtain. Not a good way to present yourself to the world.

By far the most annoying thing I find is those people who hook you with a product that may or may not be good and then you find them promoting a new different  affiliate offer to you everyday till you unsubscribe. My god, if you multiply that by however many ‘guru’s email lists you subscribe to, you’ll be on the  Information Overload Express Train to Crazy Town without a nickel to your name because you foolishly spent every cent on all these conflicting next best gotta-have things.

Phew! Ok, a bit discombobulated rant there but I’m sure I speak for the 1000s of frustrated marketers who are trying to figure out the missing link that separates the winners from everybody else.

If you ARE one of the success stories, why not take this as an opportunity to be a new STAND OUT guy or gal who tells it like it REALLY IS.  Might make even more money while you are at it.

I’ve been busy on other projects so I apologize for not being more consistent on this blog.

Another sign: you are still spending what money you have on the latest training, tool and pre-launch but have yet to make any consistent money or even any money at all.  You tell yourself, “I’ll do it just as soon as I finish this course on how-to . . .

Truth hurts, but lack of progress and lack of money should hurt more.

What do I mean?  Uh, the one-two punch of marketing and advertising come to mind.  Have you written anything lately?  Are you making videos? Holding training webinars? Putting out articles and press releases?  Asking for the sale? Or more appropo, suggesting they check out your newsletter or email training series? BUILDING YOUR LIST !!! Placing ads on websites like Facebook, Google or Craigslist?

So get out of your comfort zone, get off your butt and take some ACTION.

If you need some more motivation but don’t want to waste too much time, check out Bob Proctor’s story here.  He’s got a great system to get you going.

As the cream rises to the top and we see a new batch of ‘gurus’ [cringing as I use that word], the newbies and not so newbies are missing the boat by focusing on the wrong things and going about this the wrong way by trying to emulate them when they don’t have the experience or clout to pull it off.

Sure, there’s a place for personal branding but  what I’m seeing is little egos trying to be big, while other people’s objectives seem to be a desire to become the latest reality internet star. If that’s what they want and they’re just wanting attention, so be it. But if your goal is to build a long term sustainable business, then pay attention.

I’ve heard people call this erroneous concept Ego Branding marketing, where, let’s face it, most of us are coming across as lame, desperate, corny Gong Show rejects.  It’s no wonder they’re not seeing duplication in their efforts and business – which from what I’ve seen, is a blessing in disguise.  The medium where this is most apparent is obviously video marketing.  By no means am I saying stay away from making a YouTube video for your business.  What I am suggesting is that you understand the role it plays in your business before you hit record.

This ego branding is directly conflicting with the concept of ATTRACTION MARKETING.  People come of as amateurish and NOT COMPELLING at all.  Don’t get me wrong, stories are good and sharing yours is a part of the attraction process.  Letting people get a taste of who you are and what you are about is what the attraction marketing part is.  What most of this Ego Branding marketing is doing is REPELLING other people.  You could almost say, the way ego marketing is being implemented by most people is the exact opposite of Attraction Marketing.  Talk about self-sabotage of one’s business.

The goal is not to get EVERYONE in the world to follow you or join your tribe. You are only wanting those like minded souls you resonate with.  Once that’s accomplished, let them know what you have to offer in the form of information, training and support – AKA, ‘if you want to work with me, or find out more, click here.’

That’s where your ego steps aside and you let the duplicatable marketing funnel/machine take over – you know, the part that everyone can do. . . the Tools that we all use – autoresponders, capture pages, marketing copy etc.

So remember, the object is to find like minded people who are seeking out information and partners to grow and prosper with, not attempt to vainly entertain or impress with your talents or lack thereof.

Parting thought: Targeted info in front of targeted eyeballs = successful business. Loverage + Leverage = Freedom

You need to understand the principle of  ’CONGRUENCY’ & how absolutely important it is in your marketing.

Sometimes I see people writing all these elaborate things to their list, trying to sell like crazy, inserting phrases or statements or action steps that DON’T really support effortless ‘no friction’ buying by their prospects, and all sorts of other stuff.

Well, in short… STOP DOING THAT!

You are wasting your time, and weakening your power to market.

Your job as marketers is to make it as EASY as possible on your prospects, and to guide them along EACH step of the way.

FRICTIONLESS, BRILLIANT, is the feel you want for your marketing processes.

Here’s an email that PERFECTLY primes my prospects to take the action I want them to take… which is WATCH THE VIDEO.
I’m  not asking them to buy, I’mnot selling them on the system…

I am ONLY leading them one step at a time.

The people who try to lead 5 steps at a time… are not as effective as those who know how to guide along EVERY step.

All we want our prospects to do here is WATCH the video… and it’s our job as marketers to prime them as much as possible to watch the video, but also be eager to buy what we’re offering.

Check out this email I recently sent my subscribers (if you are on my list, this might look familiar):

Hey Buddy,
This video is seriously AWESOME…

http://watchnow.mybeachbumbiz.com

Check this out. It’s a completely free 21 minute video revealing one of the “Secret Systems” my friend Jonathan has been using to generate 417+ leads DAILY for his business on the Internet.

That’s no small # right there.

It’s VERY difficult to explain how much money 417 leads daily is really worth to you…

But let me just tell you there’s basically an UNLIMITED amount of ways for you to profit in YOUR business from that many leads.

Building downlines, affiliate promotions, cross promotions, launches… you NAME it.

Anyways, here’s the video that explains everything…

http://watchnow.mybeachbumbiz.com

I highly recommend you watch the whole thing. The solution

provided at the end is seriously the “Next Level” of where things are going in our industry…

And a total KILLER way to grow your business on autopilot using the Internet.

Speak again soon…

Cheers,
Terry

P.S. haha, I found myself laughing at this video like a hyena. Some parts of Jonathan’s life were so depressing it’s now FUNNY. See…

http://watchnow.mybeachbumbiz.com

It captures their attention, it engages them with a HUGE benefit for their business, it ‘hints’ towards the secret system, it calls them to action to watch the entire video & get the “Next Level Solution” at the end…

Just keep in mind, when you are promoting your business, and anything else… to keep your marketing as CONGRUENT with the action steps you want people to take as possible.

You really need to take a look at Twitter’s updated TOS to make sure you don’t hose yourself and get your account(s) all cancelled for violating their definitions of Spamming.

Too many aggressive and/or naive marketers are guilty of at least one of these tactics – don’t you be one of them.

Read it all here: Twitter Rules

Here’s a summary list:

*Spam: You may not use the Twitter service for the purpose of spamming anyone. What constitutes “spamming” will evolve as we respond to new tricks and tactics by spammers. Some of the factors that we take into account when determining what conduct is considered to be spamming are:

• If you have followed a large amount of users in a short amount of time;
• If you have followed and unfollowed people in a short time period, particularly by automated means (aggressive follower churn);
• If you repeatedly follow and unfollow people, whether to build followers or to garner more attention for your profile;
  
• If you have a small number of followers compared to the amount of people you are following;
• If your updates consist mainly of links, and not personal updates;
• If a large number of people are blocking you;
• The number of spam complaints that have been filed against you;
• If you post duplicate content over multiple accounts or multiple duplicate updates on one account
• If you post multiple unrelated updates to a topic using #
• If you post multiple unrelated updates to a trending or popular topic
• If you send large numbers of duplicate @replies
• If you send large numbers of unsolicited @replies in an attempt to spam a service or link
  
• If you repost other user’s content without attribution.
• If you have attempted to “sell” followers, particularly through tactics considered aggressive following or follower churn.
  

Your account may be suspended for Terms of Service violations if any of the above is true; accounts created to replace suspended accounts will be permanently suspended.

*Pornography: You may not use obscene or pornographic images in either your profile picture or user background. – well, that just goes without saying.

Little Ticket To Wealth is an awesome little traffic source that is a $100 one time cost  and $10 per month hosting.  Leaders looking for a system to get their team plugged into for traffic generation as well as a solid FUNDED PROPOSAL need look no further.

Compared to other site that charge $100 per month every month to email 10-20K leads each month, the value here is apparent.

One major issue with buying leads for marketers is figuring out what to do with them once they buy them.  Autoresponders like AWEBER and Get Response will cancel your account if you try to import lead lists.

Little Ticket to Wealth solves this issue by offering two optional bulk email import friendly autoresponders.  The do-it-yourselfer is just $20 a month making it cost just a dollar a day to email 150,000 leads per month.

For those looking for total automation, $50 will get you the Done For You system. All you have to do is provide your link to whatever you are promoting and the system operator takes care of all the details for you.

Little Ticket To Wealth allows the marketer to create up front cash flow by monetizing their list building by paying out $100 per sale (after passing up your first 2).

The way I am using this system is I send a broadcast to my leads on day one promoting Little Ticket To Wealth with the provided ad copy in the back office.  The next day I drive traffic to my lead capture page or primary program.  On day 3 I will email 5000 leads the Little Ticket To Wealth again and so on.

You can check it out here:

http://150kLeads.SimpleAndAutomated.com

Flickr – Craigslist Marketing Secrets – Terry Carter

These are the ingredients:

1. Yahoo email account

2. Free Flickr account – thru your yahoo email

3. Craigslist or Backpage ad

4. JPG or similar photo/pic to upload to your Flickr account

5. The website you want to promote.

Craigslist and Backpage are very similar in the way you post an ad. Both allow up to 4 images to be uploaded onto their site. However, you cannot have them link to anything.  So we turn to a free photo sharing site like Yahoo’s Flickr.

Flickr allows you to upload up to 200 images ~~ per yahoo email account ~~ which seriously people, really should be more than enough.

The problem we run into with using a Flickr hosted image is that by default, when you grab the embed code to put it into your ad, it links to the Flickr account it’s tied to.  Not very helpful for driving traffic to your website.

What you need to do is grab the ‘embed it’ code on Flickr for the image you’re using.

Then post it into the description box of the craigslist or backpage ad.

Next you want to delete all the junk in the anchor tag <a href=”http…..”>

and replace it with <a href=”http://www.YourWebSiteLink.com”>

be sure to not leave off closing ” ” marks or else the link won’t work right.

(CHECK your CODE!) That’s where people usually run into trouble – they accidentally delete a closing tag or ” ” or something easy to miss and wonder why it doesn’t work.

That’s pretty much it on using Flickr with Craigslist and Backpage to drive traffic to your website.

Free Attraction Marketing Training:
http://www.TerryPCarter.com

Follow me on Twitter:

http://Twitter.TerryPCarter.com