developing skills for internet marketing
In this video, I share how I worked through my fear of creating my first video. It's a bit scary, I admit; however, given some helpful hints and encouragement, anyone can be the star of their own show!
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Just want to say that Crush It! by Gary Vaynerchuk is a great book for understanding that anyone with a passion for something can turn that passion into a business using the internet.
This isn't a new concept, but Gary Vaynerchuk has graciously explained why you should cash in on your passion and create the life you want.
What I like about his style is that he tells it like it is. He says it takes hard work and patience. Gary says that patience is the "secret to the sauce."
Crush It! gets you to think about your passions and whether or not you can talk about them better than anyone else. He wants you to think about which platforms are best for touting your passions. You might be better at writing than video, or video better than audio.
I like his authenticity. You would never guess that this guy is a wine connossieur by his personality, but he is so real and so good at what he does and he's passionate! This is the kind of person who inspires me. Someone who takes what they love and shares it with those who would be interested. Notice I say would be. He had to find those who would be and get them to be involved in his mission.
If you don't have the book, head over to my recommendation/tools page, scroll down and click the link to review the book.
Enjoy and get crushin!
If you have been researching the "how-to's" of online marketing and have thought about quitting altogether, you probably just need one major thing: I call it patience.
I recently created an online video with this title and posted it to YouTube. Then, I read "Crush It!" by Gary Vaynerchuk and in it, he said that patience is the "secret to the sauce". So, I'm not crazy after all. It is the one ingredient that can take a person from mediocrity to greatness over time in internet marketing.
How does one cultivate patience and what does that mean to the online marketer? Your patience is tied to 3 things:
1) Your vision
2) Your will
3) Your results
First, let's bring the concept of patience into your consciousness. How is it defined? Mirriam Webster defines patience as the act of being patient, meaning "bearing pains or trials without complaint; steadfast despite opposition; not hasty or impetuous." The Bible uses the word longsuffering. This would be a synonym for patience. So begin to accept that your online marketing business is going to take time to build and you are going to need to look boldly into the future and envision your life a few years from now.
Let's start with your vision. First, you have to have a passion and a vision for accomplishing your purpose in life. Your purpose is tied to your gifts, talents and interests. As Mr. Vaynerchuk puts it, "it's got to be in your DNA." If you don't have your vision and passion outlined in your mind and on paper, you may flounder for months, maybe even years. Spend the time to figure out who you are. I became a yoga teacher at 43, but my body has been physically active for about as long, so it was no surprise that once I was exposed to yoga, it became a passion for me. The same holds true for my online marketing business. I have a degree in Public Relations. I spent many years working in advertising agencies and then the next 20 years in some form of advertising, marketing, PR and direct sales.This was a natural evolution for me. Think about your natural evolution. What makes you tick? If you already have this down, let's get to your will.
Your will is connected to your passion and you will do and act in accordance with that. Your daily activity must be such that it begins to manifest what you want to share with the world. There are people who will be interested in what you have to say, so you need to get busy identifying what that is, how you will communicate it and how you want to be perceived. Every day you will create something which will add to your knowledge and ability to be the expert in your area of interest. This part of your business is filled with learning, applying, mastering and teaching.
Once you begin to output your content in whatever way you choose, you will begin to look at the results. Is anyone watching? is anyone reading your stuff? Is anyone commenting? Are you getting any feedback at all? This is where analytics comes in and you would be doing yourself a big favor by paying attention to where your visitors are coming from and what they are watching, listening to and reading. When you see results, that's when you start to fine-tune your communication and your strategy. You want to respond to your audience. You want to continue to build. This is where many people quit. They either receive a lot of response and think they've hit pay dirt and slow down, or they don't receive enough response and think they aren't good enough. You have to be willing to look at your results and respond with what your market wants. If you want to be successful, you can't stop. You have to keep forging ahead and trying new things and seeing what works and what doesn't. I believe that this is the most critical stage because if you are being seen, you are doing something right. It will give you confidence to keep going.
I'm going to use the very simple act of driving a car to illustrate what I mean by cultivating patience. We all know that the point of driving a car is to get from point A to point B safely, right? (Think goals.) Maybe we aren't always conscious of that, but it would help to be, don't you think? We get in the car and we do the simple acts of backing down the driveway, stepping on the gas peddle, turning the steering wheel and all the things we learned in driving school. (Think action.) While we're driving, it would also help to assess our situation at all times, so we can get to our destination safely. (Think analytics.) On occasion, you'll run across a road block or detour or something that's going to take you out of your way. (Think possibilities.) You get back on the right track and keep driving until you reach your destination.
Make sure you don't allow car accidents, cell phones or other things to completely distract you from getting to your place of interest. This is so typical in online marketing. People will spend thousands of dollars trying to learn all the secrets of "driving" and they never get in the car!
Okay, I think you get the point. Be patient. Give yourself some time. Keep learning; stay active, but keep moving. You will be successful if you are happily sharing your gifts and passions and once you get your system down, you can monetize to your hearts content!
Please let me know if this has been helpful to you by leaving a comment. If you already have all the patience in the world, your success is imminent!
Here is a little warm up to get ready for my business day. You can do it too! Yoga is my life and I want to share it everywhere I go in some way. It keeps me young and brings much joy to my world.
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It dawned on me while I was studying to be an online marketer what tools I was using that were so helpful to me. While there are a lot of resources on the internet, I would have missed out on so much if I didn’t purchase a few books to supplement what I was receiving online.
Education begins with reading and there’s no better resource than a great book – especially if it teaches you, inspires you and motivates you to keep learning. Plus, books are mobile. You can take them into the bathroom, into your bed, on your camping trip or anywhere you might be residing. You can highlight your favorite passages, turn the corner of the pages and pass them along to help a friend.
Here are 7 must have books for online marketing:
1) Word Press for Dummies by Lisa Sabin Wilson – If you don’t have a WordPress.org site, you should get one. This is, in my opinion, the best platform for creating content available on the web. It gives you freedom and is so flexible and you own it, so having WordPress is nothing but winning for you. You will need some supplemental information besides what you get online, so get this book if you have WordPress!
2) Web Copy that Sells – by Maria Veloso – This is an amazing book that will transform the way you write copy for online marketing. This book is the culmination of years of experience and research in the world of copywriting and it is written for anyone who has a desire to improve their writing skills for marketing. If you have a website, you will be writing copy, so arm yourself!
3) Social Media Marketing for Dummies – by Shiv Singh – This is a great introduction into the world of social media and anyone interested in this subject should have this book. It seems to be written with the corporate perspective in mind, but independent entrepreneurs will benefit as well.
4) all a twitter – by Tee Moris – I bought this book when I wanted to truly understand twitter. It keeps evolving like everything else, but this books helps you evaluate what you should be saying in your tweets and what would be inappropriate.
5) Email Marketing – by Simms Jenkins – This is really “the truth about email marketing” and is chock full of great advice for online marketers.
6) HTML for the World Wide Web – by Elizabeth Castro – You don’t need to know a lot about html to have a website – especially if you have a WordPress site; however, it’s good to be familiar with code source so you can understand the language and “tweak” your pages as you like.
7) You Are What You Think – by David Stoop, Ph.D – This book has more to do with your mindset and your thinking. Dr. Stoop gives you reasons why you think the way you do and helps you to overcome past hurts and issues so you can live a life with purpose. Do not underestimate this resource. If you have any doubts about yourself, you should read this book.
These books can be interchanged with other books with similar content, but the point is that you will benefit from having these special resources by your side. Have fun collecting your library of teaching tools!
If you found this to be helpful, please leave a comment below! And don't forget to grab my FREE report below. Thank you!
Have you ever wanted to throw your hands up and say, "That's it! I'm done! It's just not worth it." Sometimes you just want to pull your hair out because some of the technical issues are a little beyond you and if only you had someone who could hold your hand and fix things for you, you'd make it to the next step. If you have been researching the "how-to's" of online marketing and have thought about quitting altogether, you probably just need one major thing: I call it patience. See what I mean.
Why did I bother putting a video together on patience? Because there are times when I have run out of it myself. I had in the past, put aside my love for online marketing because it became so challenging. But something kept me coming back. I guess it's the desire to continue pursuing your dreams that keeps you going, but you have to remember that processing information and continuous study is what makes you great. Hang in there! Don't give up. Find the help you need. Pay for it if you have to. This is not a free business or a free world. Hard work pays off and it's way more satisfying when you've continued to move through your perceived obstacles.
Please let me know if this has been helpful to you. If you already have all the patience in the world, your success is imminent. Thanks for stopping by!
Whether you are marketing yourself as an online entrepreneur, or any kind of independent business owner, you will need to incorporate your unique selling proposition into your marketing materials. Your USP is what sets you apart from all other people in your line of work. Are you a specialist in a niche area? Do you have special skills that people need? What benefits can you offer your customers and clients?
As you can see through this video, I have incorporated my skills of yoga and marketing to inspire greatness in online marketers. I want to teach people how to discover the amazing potential within and how to change thought and behavior patterns that result in successful skill building in business and in personal life.
One day I was watching a video of an online marketing coach who specializes in personal development and the light bulb went off for me. This is where my strengths are. This is what I’m good at – teaching others. I teach yoga; I teach my kids, I teach marketing and I am successful in life. I have what I need, and now I am teaching others what I know so they can get what they need. You might have to dig deep to discover your USP – but it’s in there! Start excavating now!
Please leave a comment. Tell me what kinds of videos inspire you. Thanks for watching!
As I was helping my daughter pack her jewelry for college, I ran across a necklace that was all tangled up. It is one of her favorite necklaces and when I asked her how it got tangled, she said it had been “lost” at the bottom of her purse for about six months and that’s how she found it. I asked if she tried to untangle it and she said she gave it a shot, but gave up.
Well, I have a thing about pretty necklaces going to waste so I hastily set out to untangle the necklace. The chain was like butter, the kind that seems to melt into other parts of the chain, so I carefully pried pieces of the chain away, chiseling at the glob in front of me so I could unearth the original beauty. I don’t know how many people would have the patience for this particular project but I just kept thinking about how beautiful that necklace is and about the special person who gave it to my daughter. Plus, it was one of the prettiest cross necklaces I’ve ever seen: delicate silver, feminine with a gold heart wrapped around it. I kept envisioning that cross necklace hanging around my daughter’s neck again and I would not give up.
Almost 30 minutes later, we had that beautiful necklace wrapped nice and neat, ready for at least one day’s wear at school.
Do you have a beautiful vision? Do you have a vision? What does it look like? What keeps you working towards your dreams? What more could you want than to unearth your amazing self and shine for all the world to see? What holds you back? Frustration? (Yep, I got frustrated with that necklace!) What makes you want to quit? Is it that you just can’t see the finish line? Guess what? There is no finish line – just an incredible journey of learning, applying, mastering and teaching.
Keep your vision alive. Write down your mission statement. Create a vision board for your desk. Write reminder notes about what drives you to keep moving forward. Next time you get tangled up in thoughts of quitting, draw that vision to your mind and keep steadfast. It never hurts to pray for help either! Ask for the energy and patience to keep going. You’ll be so glad you did!
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The coursework is intense and involves learning every aspect of marketing online. Here is a sample of the classes offered:
The main course I reviewed was a one year program and each class is four weeks long. The price is around $18,000.
Here are some places that one might work with this kind of experience:
• New Media & Digital Media Agencies
• Advertising Agencies
• E-Business & E-Commerce Companies
• Companies providing Online Marketing related Products and Services
• Corporate Employers recruiting for In-House Online Marketing related jobs
• Search Engine Marketing & Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Firms
These jobs pay in the salary range of $25,000 to $50,000 range once you’ve finished school.
Some of the other courses I looked at were around $745 for one class.
Now, there are a lot of “Online Marketing Coaches” on the internet who are offering these kinds of classes for much less. You wouldn’t earn a degree of course, but it’s kind of like going to school. You still have to listen, take notes, practice and apply what you’re learning. It is interesting how the internet has spawned so many careers with the activity that goes on daily in marketing, promotion, sales, information marketing, etc. Surely you can get a fantastic education for very little money if you are self-taught for the most part.
I know one millionaire mom who doesn’t have a bachelor’s degree, is completely self-taught and became successful by reading, applying, doing, fixing, studying, practicing and doing all the things it takes to master the art of online marketing. The best thing is that she works for herself and not a corporate entity.
Go to School!
There will be times you will need to hire someone to teach you something. However, if you set aside the time and “go to school” yourself by researching, reading, practicing and applying what you learn, you can be of great value to small and large businesses alike. I think it’s good to investigate the many options out there for getting an education in online marketing. If you’re considering paying for some kind of online education, examine the value of what you will be getting, how much time you have to “go to school”, and what you hope to do with your education.
The internet is one of the most powerful marketing tools out there today. If you can master the skills needed through online education, you will be marketable for sure. My point is that you probably don’t need to spend $18,000 to get a master’s degree, but you will need to roll up your sleeves and work hard to learn what the masters know.
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