Pat and Lorna's Blog » Information Marketing

Spectacular Content Creation Tips – Creating and Finding Content

Pat & Lorna Shanks — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 23:03:33 +0000

When your business is information marketing, your product is content – lots and lots of content. Trying to slide by without lots of quality content is like trying to run your car without maintaining it – you’ll run for awhile, but eventually you’re facing disaster. How do you gather content for your business?

Here are some ideas that we recommend:

Do it yourself

If you don’t happen to be made of money, you can try writing your own content. This is a hard option for some, and one that can derail many a beginning entrepreneur with the sheer volume of the project, depending on the project.

Outsourcing to the rescue

You can hire others to write personalized content for you – namely a ghostwriter. Don’t try to do everything yourself, when it’s not your strength. Know in advance that this is a more expensive option…one that can cost you hundreds of dollars for a not-terribly-impressive amount of work. Hey, writers have to make a living too.

Take your time to find someone who you can successfully work with, and who will produce great content for you. You can have your ghostwriter create content from general topics. If you want more specific work, it helps to provide notes and research, whenever possible.

Article directories

Another way of finding content for your site is to go to article directories. There are many to choose from on the Internet, and many of them allow you to use their articles for free or for a small charge. Sites such as Ezine articles and Article Dashboard can provide content for you. The downside to promoting duplicate content on your website could be lowered page rank in the prominent search engines. Make sure to monitor your results when using content from these sites.

Private label content

Private label content is another option. You find a membership site where private label content is offered. Get what you need and apply it to your website – no writing required. That’s not to say that there’s no reading required, however. Before you purchase pre-made content, always read it first to make sure it’s the right quality level of writing that you require, as well as appropriate to the content you’re trying to market.

You may also want to do a search of the Internet to see how many other areas have the same content you’re considering. If your content isn’t unique, you’re going to have a difficult time drumming up reader interest and having them want to return.

Reconsider the written word for the spoken word

Written words are showing no signs of dying out anytime in the near future, but we have other ways of providing content as well. If you’re developing severe writer’s block when it comes to writing your own content, have you tried speaking it instead? Record yourself speaking what you want to write about, and then simply transcribe your own ideas, in your own voice, or hire someone else to do it for you. What could be more original?

Create a process that is ongoing

Information marketing thrives on newness. Whatever way you get content for your business – whether it’s created by you or by someone else – plan on a regular schedule of updates, to keep your business evergreen.

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Pat and Lorna Shanks are "SPECTACULARIZERS" of great audio content. They teach entrepreneurs, independent professionals and small business owners how to attract more clients and make more money using Spectacular Presentations and Robotic Internet Marketing. For more "Spectacularizer Tips", go to www.PatAndLorna.com or follow us on Twitter.

Spectacular Content Creation Tips – Creating and Finding Content

Pat & Lorna Shanks — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 21:01:05 +0000

When your business is information marketing, your product is content – lots and lots of content. Trying to slide by without lots of quality content is like trying to run your car without maintaining it – you’ll run for awhile, but eventually you’re facing disaster.

How do you gather content for your business?

Here are some ideas that we recommend:

Do it yourself

Outsourcing to the rescue

Article directories

Another way of finding content for your site is to go to article directories. There are many to choose from on the Internet, and many of them allow you to use their articles for free or for a small charge. Sites such as Ezine Articles and Article Dashboard can provide content for you. The downside to promoting duplicate content on your website could be lowered page rank in the prominent search engines. Make sure to monitor your results when using content from these sites.

Private label content

Reconsider the written word for the spoken word

Create a process that is ongoing

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Spectacular Content Creation Tips – Six Easy Questions to Content Optimization

Pat & Lorna Shanks — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 21:06:04 +0000

It’s easy enough to understand the need for content optimization, but how to do it? There are so many choices of context that it’s very easy to become overwhelmed, and either end up doing too much and spreading yourself thin, or never getting started in the first place.

There are some organization questions you can ask yourself when getting started in the process of content optimization. These questions can focus your efforts and help you make the most of your time and investment in content optimization.

Here are what we call the six easy questions to content optimization:

1) Who in my market is this going to reach?

It’s important to consider the demographics of your market and how they’re going to receive your content. If you have information published in a book, who is likely to read a book? Who might not? Books reach a certain kind of consumer, while television commercials reach yet another, and podcasts and websites reach another. Where are you most likely to achieve success with your content, considering your market?

2) What context will the content be in?

Where will your content be most effective? Not all kinds of content successfully translate to all contexts. A mime show won’t make much of an impact on the radio, but in a live seminar, it could be very effective as a visual illustration of a spoken point. Are you aware of the different kinds of contexts that are available? You may need to educate yourself on your options, so as to be able to reach as much of your market as possible.

3) Where does my market want this content?

Everything done in business has to respond to the needs and wants of the market if you want to have any hope of being effective in your efforts. Would your book work better as a series of shorter articles? Perhaps you would wish to consider such a method if you’re marketing content to a demographic of people who are known to be very busy and not likely to take time to sit and study a book. Maybe you could do a series of autoresponder messages instead, or make your information available online in a way that could be accessed 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

4) When is my market going to consume this content?

Time of day can be a factor. If you’re running television or radio ads, and your market is mostly at work when those ads are being aired, they’re not going to be as effective as you may want. Would evenings be better? Lunchtime? Weekends? Should it be available in a format that could be found anytime, or would a specific, targeted time be more effective?

5) Why is it important for my market to get this content?

What are the reasons? Where is the need that you’re ready to fill for your market? Why are you interrupting their day at work or at home to share this information with them? What will be the benefit to them?

6) How do I optimize my content into this context?

Here’s where you get down to the technical details…how to move your content into the context you’ve chosen. There are techniques and tools for each kind of context, and you’ll have to understand the workings of each and get comfortable in that format in order to succeed.

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Spectacular Content Creation Tips – Researching Content and Knowing When to Stop

Pat & Lorna Shanks — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 02:36:50 +0000

Research is so much easier now than it was before the Internet came along. Much of your information content research can be done on the Web. However, the Internet is so deep and wide that it’s easy to get lost in webpage after webpage, looking for the information you need.

The following are some research tips for those who are looking to create useful content:

Define your content sharply…

If your research topic is broad, your job is a lot harder than it is when you're more specific. Doing research on “apples” will take months and years, while research on “diseases that specifically affect Granny Smith apples” is much more focused, and the research is not nearly as daunting.

If your knowledge on the broad topic is sketchy at best, then checking out the broader topics will be necessary until you come across an angle you can use to cut away the information you don’t need. When Leonardo da Vinci was asked how he made his carvings, he indicated that the statue was already in the stone, he just cut away everything that wasn’t the statue. Your content is out there… it’s your job to cut away all the unnecessary information to find the content you need.

When to go deeper into your research:

Once you find the topic that needs researching, your research should start to center around questions. When you’re scanning through other content, take notice of what information isn’t there. What questions are coming to your mind when you think of that specific topic? What would be useful to your market? Getting those questions answered will peel away all other information that isn’t useful to you, and get you closer to what you need.

Remember that your market has questions; sometimes even questions they haven’t put into words yet. The more questions you can anticipate, the more knowledgeable and credible you will be to your market, and the more useful your content will be.

When to get offline when researching:

Not all valuable content is on the Internet. It’s time to go offline to do your research when you’re unable to find a credible answer in the different websites you go to. The key word here is credible. If you want your content to be taken seriously, it has to be reliable and credible.

Reliable and credible content doesn’t come from someone who throws up a website and claims they know what they’re talking about, when they have no specific expertise and no credible organization as their sponsor. Anyone can put an opinion on the Web. When you can’t find reliable sources to answer your questions, step away from the computer and pick up the phone or visit the library instead.

When to stop research:

There does come a time when research becomes procrastination. If it’s time to write, but you’re still doing research, it’s time to sit down and produce content. Researching to specific questions will go a long way towards reducing the tendency to procrastinate. It also helps to set deadlines when the content has to be ready. If you get into your topic and you’re finding lots of interesting information, make a note to yourself to continue your research…AFTER the specific content you need is produced.

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Spectacular Content Creation Tips – Does Your Content Result in Sales?

Pat & Lorna Shanks — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 21:20:23 +0000

You’ve got your content presented, ready for people to benefit from it, and you’re marketing diligently. So… how do you know your content is being effective? That is the golden question, and one that’s very difficult to answer, simply because information marketing hits so many different places. Unless you ask your customers directly (which isn’t always practical), it’s hard to know how many times they were exposed to your content and from what directions. Your customers may not even know themselves.

So how can you tell if any one kind of content you’re presenting is as effective as it could be?
The following tips may help:

Make a simple marketing chart

Your information content is meant to steer the market to buy what you’re providing. If you’ve communicated effectively, then purchases will happen. A simple chart with three columns can give you the general idea of whether or not you’re going in the right direction.

Create a three-columned chart. In the first column, list the month and year of your business activities. In the second column, list any and all marketing activities you did. In the third column, list your sales figures.

It’s best to begin with specific content in place, and track results for at least six months before you draw any conclusions and make any changes. This is business research. If you were working on a science experiment, you know that changing the control part of the experiment will keep you from understanding the results. Too many changes will muddy your marketing results. If the sales figures increase or decrease as a result of changes, you won’t know why they happened if too many factors changed too quickly.

While seasonal changes and other economic factors are too complicated to achieve really specific results, this process can help you to get a ballpark idea of the impact of your content in the marketplace.

Feedback from customers

Other factors to consider are your bounce rate (“bounce” meaning how many people click on your site and then immediately click away, instead of interacting with your content). A high bounce rate could indicate that either the content of your site needs improving, or the layout needs to be manipulated to optimize the impact of your existing content. A low bounce rate could mean a higher customer interaction with your content, and could potentially lead to greater sales figures.

The great thing about doing business online is that feedback can be set up to be immediate. If your customers don’t like something, the anonymity that the computer provides will provide you with lots and lots of recent, raw feedback.

If you want to know where content can be improved, looking for patterns in the feedback your content receives can be very eye-opening and, if acted upon, can lead to greater customer satisfaction, which leads to greater sales. It can also create new, specific ideas that can lead to the creation of great new content, which is what your market is hungry for.

Ultimately, remember that the main feedback you’re looking for is the monetary kind. Who’s buying? When? Why? Would they buy again? How could you entice them to buy again?

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Spectacular Content Creation Tips – Helping You Decide How to Optimize

Pat & Lorna Shanks — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 13:55:41 +0000

Making the decision to optimize your business content involves other decisions as well. The one major decision to make involves how specifically to make that change. How that is done partially depends on what form your content currently takes.

We have simplified content optimization into four distinct types. Here are what we call the four R’s of Content Optimization:

Re-use – using the same content in different places

Just because content is already in one context doesn’t mean it can’t move to another. Let’s suppose for this illustration that we’re dealing with a person who’s written an article on weight loss, and wants to optimize their content. The easiest change to make might be to simply take the same information and put it in different places. The information from the article could be updated slightly and moved over (or re-purposed) into a blog, or an ezine article. If the article was posted online, the same article could be posted to different directories, which would then get referenced on different blog posts.

Re-purpose – moving the same content to a different context

Suppose that this same author wanted to expand on the weight loss article that had been written, and transfer this information to a completely different context. A teleseminar on weight loss might be considered, which would incorporate more audio, bringing in a completely different audience. An interactive video could incorporate the written word and audio recordings, and perhaps also a fill-in-the-blank worksheet, which would incorporate visual, audio and kinesthetic stimulation for a more well-rounded learning experience for the market.

Re-package – revising the same content for a different market

The same weight loss article could appeal to a wider audience if the content were refashioned towards a different angle or demographic group. Perhaps the article on weight loss could be pointed towards beginners or those who had already lost weight and were trying to keep it off. Maybe the article could be slanted towards weight loss professionals, on how to be more effective with their clients.

Remember that content is only as valuable as the relationship it has to the market. In the final analysis of your content’s effectiveness, the market is the key. The most important thing is that the market “gets it”. Coming to the market is your responsibility, not the other way around.

Re-cycle – using the same content on a regular cycle

This same weight loss article might be set on some sort of cycle. It could be repurposed into a series of emails, setting a year’s worth of weight loss tips on a 52-week autoresponder system. The material could be conceived into a course (online or offline) that repeats itself every few months. Making regular blog posts on weight loss at regular periods of time would also be a way of recycling your content at regular intervals.

Bonus way to use content – Re-peat all of the above

Everything old is new again. Content can be repurposed and repeated for maximum impact. Make it better, and bring it out again. Lather, rinse and repeat. Continue to expose your content to the market again and again, finding new customers on each exposure. The only limit to repurposing your content for maximum optimization is your own imagination.

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Spectacular Content Creation Tips – Avoiding Duplication

Pat & Lorna Shanks — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 23:04:36 +0000

Duplicate content abounds online and offline and presents a challenge to the information marketer. If the same perspective and even the same words are being presented over and over again when someone in your market does a search for information, then what distinguishes you from the hundreds of others websites saying the same thing? Why should they return to you for more information?

The following questions can help you in avoiding too much duplicate content:

Can I add something different to the conversation?
You always have your own expertise and perspective to add that is unique. What questions have you noticed that aren’t being addressed about your topic? What questions aren’t being sufficiently answered?

Does my content answer questions or provide information my market needs?
The way to success in any business is still the same, whether on or off the computer… see a need, and fill that need. When your business is information marketing, what information does the market require to fill a need? Do you have that information, and can you provide it in a way the market can understand and assimilate it?

Can you make connections between old and new information?
The basic mode of learning in any field is to take new information and connect it to older information. This provides a basis of understanding that builds on the past and prepares for the future. Does your content provide that for your customers? Is your content presented in a way that its importance is comprehended by the potential market?

Can you present a viable alternative to the way something’s been done in the past?
Improvements in systems fill a great need for better ways of doing things. Differentiation of your online pages will help you to be found more easily when those in your market use the different search engines. Make your presence as uniquely yours as possible, so that you will be remembered and more easily distinguished from other information marketing businesses similar to yours.

Can you present reasons why this content is important?
Sometimes you may have to present the reasons why your market needs your information, since they may know of the problem but have not properly defined it yet. Provide that definition for them and they’ll rush to find your answers.

Have you balanced information with persuasion?
In the information marketing business, content marketing is often more effective than interruption marketing (i.e. commercials). That doesn’t mean, however, that you shouldn’t tell your customers about what you have to offer them, and guide them gently to the “Buy” button. Remember what, where, when, how, and why when you’re providing your content. Give them the reasons to go there. Provide answers to questions they may have, so any possible objections can be overcome. Don’t make what you have to offer a mystery, or make it difficult in any way to be obtained.

Sales and the bottom line are your barometers to determine whether or not your content is truly effective within your market. Avoiding too much duplication will increase your effectiveness with customers.

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Spectacular Content Creation Tips – How to Create Fresh Content

Pat & Lorna Shanks — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 13:00:38 +0000

Content creation is an unending job. It can be difficult to create fresh content on the internet, which has become a barrage of websites and articles. With so much information out there, it can become difficult to find a unique approach that will enlighten and intrigue your audience.

What Will Hook Your Audience?

If you can find that rare perspective that hasn’t been explored beyond the boundaries of usefulness, you will be able to captivate your audience and accomplish the goals you are working toward. This can be a daunting and unnerving task. It requires one to look for information outside of the box.

Where Is Outside the Box?

• Blogs - Along with putting blogs on your website, you can also research for content on other people’s blogs. By visiting a number of blogs related to the topic you are writing about, you can find people’s opinions, references to other sites containing information that may interest you, as well as many interesting facts. You may be able to post to a blog and ask for opinions about a particular subject and obtain your own survey results from that.

• Social Sites – Another unexpected place that you may find excellent content are sites such as Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Twitter, and the like. Use caution in this area. Although you can find fresh information, you must verify its validity before you end up providing incorrect data to your reader.

• Off-Internet Documents– Because the internet is so easy to use and convenient, most people limit their research to internet options only. Therefore, if you leave the web to find your content, there’s a good chance that you may have a fresher view. Don’t be afraid to use newspapers, magazines, reference books, pamphlets and brochures that you may pick up anywhere out in the public domain. Depending upon the topic you are researching, government offices and supporting offices may have useful material that they are willing to give you.

• In Person – There is still no substitute for human contact. If you have the opportunity to discuss your topic with an expert either via telephone or in person, don’t pass it up. Taking information from a personal interview with a guru is always fresh. Since no one else will have the exact conversation that you will, you have an edge.

There are roads less traveled on the content creation journey. If you take the extra effort and seek them out, you will find opportunities to produce top quality, reusable content that will enthrall your reader and draw them back time and time again. When you produce return visitors on a regular basis, you know you’ve created content that is among the best.

Are you up for the challenge? Do you have enough desire for top notch content to go the extra mile to search it out? The results can be very fulfilling and benefit you in multiple ways. Dig in and create some content that you can be proud of!

Spectacular Content Creation Tips – The Human Touch or a Digital Creation?

Pat & Lorna Shanks — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 21:22:25 +0000

Creating content is a necessity in the Internet world. The cost of the tools may have dropped considerably, but the value of your time continually increases. Creating content can be as easy as editing text with the help of modern text editors; however that depends upon your standard of quality.

There are programs out there that claim to create high quality articles out of thin air for you. However, it doesn’t take much article reading to find that there are plenty of articles out there that have poor grammar and don’t really seem to make sense. Much of this comes from software that doesn’t have the human ability to blend the information that has been accumulated into a logical, flowing, and interesting series of words, sentences, and paragraphs.

Creating content is easy, and can be done by a computer program. Creating intelligent, reusable and quality content is not quite so easy and requires human participation. Creating content can be the fun part of designing your website. This is where you get to add everything you want to share with the world on your site.

Suggestions on how to gather your content information…

• Researching newspapers, magazines, books, and other forms of hard copy.
• Interviewing or questioning those that are in the know regarding the topic that you wish to write on.
• There are many facets of online research to choose from, which include search engines, article sites, blogs, social sites, and statistical sites maintained by governmental and other such bodies of authority.

What to do with the research?

Once your research has been completed, you then integrate the information from all of your sources, along with any that you retained from personal experience, organize it into categories and present it in a logical and appealing manner. Your presentation must flow fluidly from paragraph to paragraph and it all must relate to your main topic.

This is where the content creating software falls short. It doesn’t have the ability to take the information and group it into categories and flow effortlessly from one paragraph to the other. Often times, the sentences are choppy and broken with grammatical errors. A paragraph or sentence will sometimes seem as if it doesn’t really fit the theme of the whole article.

Five Steps to Creating Quality Content:

1. Decide on your topic and keywords.
2. Research your topic using any or all of the sources mentioned above.
3. Decide on one or a handful of points that you wish to expand on in the article.
4. Categorize and organize the information that you’ve collected.
5. Present your information in an appealing, logical, and flowing manner.

Creating content can be time consuming and may seem futile in the beginning. However, you will find that if you commit to steadily producing quality content, you will reap the rewards of your efforts. A software program can produce the appearance of paragraphs and may sometimes even have one or two pieces of valuable information, but there is no substitute for the human brain when it comes to creating QUALITY content.

Happy New Year!

Pat & Lorna Shanks — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 16:00:55 +0000

It's a New Year, and as always it is associated with new beginnings and new possibilities. What a great feeling that is! It's like starting with a clean slate or a level playing field with endless opportunities.

And of course it is the time for resolutions, plans and the setting of goals. Not only do people set personal goals, they set business goals as well. Great! It is much easier to direct a business when there's a plan or "road map" to follow.

Along with all the "usual" plans for a business…

What products are we going to produce and offer?

What pricing are we going to set on these products?

What's our marketing plan?

… an essential question to ask is "What is the focus of our business?"

Believe it or not, there is one answer to that question that can apply to any and all businesses.

That answer is… "To provide value to our customers."

Business success would be much more prevalent if this simple motto was followed.

This motto has been and will continue to be the focus of our business at TheCoolestCouple.com.

So to all we wish a Happy and Prosperous New Year! May 2010 be all that you hope for and much, much more.

We would also like to thank all of our friends, clients and customers for the blessing of having you touch our lives. You are all very much appreciated.

To a Spectacular 2010!

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Spectacular Content Creation Tips – Researching Information Online

Pat & Lorna Shanks — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 19:23:36 +0000

Creating quality content requires a human touch and can be a costly expense. It’s hard to financially justify spending your time and energy on writing every-day content as profit-gain from content is only measurable over time. However, it is a worthwhile endeavor that will pay off in the long-run.

It is best if you create your own content in establishing yourself as an expert in your niche. It is important to consistently compose current and accurate content that will draw in today's online consumer. As well… to be successful you must build an atmosphere of enjoyment.

One way to get the basis for your content is to research other online sources.

One method of gathering information for your content is to research sites online. It is easy to find a handful of sites where you can research facts, figures and information that relate to your topic, and then collect, organize and expand on it to create an informative and pleasing conglomeration of all of the collected information.

Steps to Creating Content using Online Sources:

1. Choose a topic and keywords -

2. Choose the sites to research - The next step is to visit a handful of sites that focus on the keywords you have chosen. The most popular sites can easily be found through any of the major search engines. After reviewing some of the sites matching your criteria, select three to six sites that have information that is appealing to you as a reader. If the information is appealing to you, it will most likely be appealing to others.

3. Take notes - Take brief notes from each of the sites you’ve chosen, calling attention to the points of interest that you wish to expand upon.

4. Organize – Put your notes into categories and group facts that apply to the same point of interest. This will help you to make paragraphs that flow fluidly and help your readers to understand the point.

5. Prepare Your Content For Presentation – Now that you have all of your information collected and categorized, it is time to present it. Be sure to integrate your keywords into any subtitles and throughout your text in a natural conversational manner. Do not over-use the keywords or phrases as this will put off your reader.

Creating content should be your job. However, researching for content information can be delegated or outsourced to others. If you actually enjoy the research and going through the steps to create the final product, then go for it! If you're enthusiastic about going through the whole process of content creation, you will produce an informative and entertaining final product that will attract and retain your reader. After all, this is the ultimate goal of your masterpiece isn’t it? Have fun.

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Spectacular Content Creation Tips – Setting High Standards for Quality Content

Pat & Lorna Shanks — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 15:00:58 +0000

In the past several years, article writing for website promotion has become a plague. There are so many more articles out there today than even two years ago that it is becoming common place to read low quality articles that were not ever proof-read before being published. Many have grammatical errors, spelling errors, or broken English. Some have obviously been written by software programs because they have strange symbols in mid-sentence.

Articles have become an onslaught of keywords and key phrases with little attention paid to the content value. People are just looking to increase their website rankings by having more links to their site. This tends to leave readers frustrated and annoyed – not good for traffic creation.

Raising the bar on content standards…

Don’t flow with that crowd. Make your articles count. Help raise the bar regarding content standards. It is necessary to provide your readers with information they didn’t have previously or a new perspective on the topic. It is hard to find new resources for information because the internet is flooded – some good, some not so good.

Where can you capture high quality content?

One place that you may be able to get a new perspective on your topic of interest is from video conferences and video lessons that are offered on the internet. It has become increasingly popular to produce video lessons and conferences or interviews online. Many are through opt-in lists or free memberships. If you are willing to subscribe, you may have a new content resource that will raise the standard of your articles.

Make sure you’re within your rights.

This gives you a perfect opportunity, but always be sure to inform your reader that the information is taken from a particular lesson or conference and be certain that you are not violating any copyright laws. In some cases, it may be necessary to obtain permission from the producer of the conferences or lessons before creating your article.

Depending upon your subject, you may be able to get some very good information from television too. With all the channels now offered, you can usually find information on just about any topic at some time throughout the day.

Once you are certain that you are within your rights and not violating anyone else’s rights, sit down, listen up, and start taking notes. Just like in school, take good notes and be sure that you get your information correct. If you specifically quote someone, be sure that you give the appropriate reference and credit. One of the benefits of the recorded lessons is that you can rewind and be sure that you get your facts straight.

As we mentioned before, the quality of content has greatly diminished over the past couple years. It is now more important than ever to be sure that your facts are correct, your grammar is better than average, and you offer some information of value. Those that actually have high quality articles will shine above the rest and create more traffic to their sites.

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Spectacular Content Creation Tips – Your Business Website

Pat & Lorna Shanks — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 20:21:17 +0000

Websites are usually built to resemble company brochures. Websites are a core ingredient to nearly any type of business. They are easily the number one resource people use to learn about you, your products and services. They allow people to do research and review products before they make a decision. Websites that are popular and profitable are useful.

New and unique content…

You really have to find and magnify the unique value that your company provides and do something innovative. The quality of a page and the uniqueness and value of its content is the sole responsibility of each Webmaster.

Often sites are designed with idea that the ideal content can be created and maintained past initial launch without making any major changes. This is rare. For your website to not only attract initial traffic, but to also retain its visitors, the content of its pages as well as outside articles that direct traffic to it must be kept current. This is a tremendous and continuous task.

What type of content should I provide?

When you build a website, you want to create content that will help your reader in some way, shape or form. However, you have to be cautious that you are not so helpful that you turn an otherwise would-be client into a do-it-yourselfer. It is up to you to decide when your content provides too much information and much of that will depend upon the type of business that you are in.

For example, if you run a roofing company and have a website that is designed to secure clientele, you would choose your content accordingly. You may want to create articles that will help your potential customers decide on the best type of roofing material for their particular roof. The business owner may even decide that it would be acceptable to provide articles that give step by step instructions for doing a certain type of minor repair, knowing that if you help a would-be client to save money by doing their own repair, they may well turn to you when it’s time to replace the entire roof.

Where can I obtain content?

While you may be able to find information on the internet to create content, you want the content to line up with your business’s advice to your clients.

To determine what content to use for your site, start by asking yourself lots of questions. Each time you see content of interest; ask yourself if that topic or idea could apply well to your own business. Take notes for each and every article that you want to include in your site. Put the information into a useable and educational form that will benefit the reader and create trust in the company.

Content creation is your responsibility.

The responsibility for the content of your site and any outside sources that you create to direct traffic to your site is yours. Do your best to be certain that the information provided is current, accurate, helpful, and interesting to the readers. When that is accomplished, your website will begin to fulfill its purpose.

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Alex Mandossian On His Secret For Overcoming The "Fear Of Success"

Pat & Lorna Shanks — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 22:32:19 +0000

In this guest post we have Alex Mandossian sharing his secret for overcoming the "fear of success" and the self sabotage that accompanies it.

To learn more about Global Teleseminar Week, and Alex's strategies for turning your annual income into a monthly income, click www.ToTeleseminarSecrets.com

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Teleseminar Secrets Tip #35

Pat & Lorna Shanks — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 22:00:44 +0000

FAQ: "How can Teleseminars be used with Affiliate Marketing campaigns?"

Answer: Please see video below.

Please click the image below to start the presentation.
(Duration: 7 min, 28 secs)

We are proud to support Alex Mandossian's Teleseminar Secrets course and his internet marketing strategies, as we had a hand in putting together the middle part of the above video using our www.SpectacularPresentations.com format.

We would like to support others who take Teleseminar Secrets as we have learned so much from taking Alex's course. We have special bonuses that we would like to offer you if you order through our affiliate link at www.ToTeleseminarSecrets.com.

Here's How To Claim Your Special Bonuses

Read the rest of this entry>>

– Pat & Lorna

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What To Know How "The Big Call" Can Change Your Life…

Pat & Lorna Shanks — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 21:00:56 +0000

"December 1st marks the first day of Global Teleseminar Week which also begins 'Teleseminar Marketing Season' in winter and spring," says our friend, Alex Mandossian.

On the first Thursday of December (for the past five years), Alex hosts "The BIG Call" which we have decided to co-sponsor this year, so we hope you participate

This year, the first Thursday of December falls on the 3rd, so clear your calendar for that evening. If you do register for The BIG Call make sure you use this VIP Discount Code: AM3964. (That VIP Code shaves-off $79 from the $99 tuition everybody will pay without it).

WHY Participate? Because you'll get private access to over 2 1/2 hours of densely-rich content that will significantly do two things for you:

1) More Money: You'll dramatically increase the possibility of transforming your annual income into a monthly income within 3 years

2) More Time: You'll dramatically increase the possibility of maintaining your current income (if happy with it) and triple your time-off

WHAT Is The BIG Call? It is a LIVE and unique Teleseminar training on how to grow (or start) a business by adding the power Teleseminars to your marketing mix. You will get a 21-page Action Guide that you'll fill-in during the call as you listen and follow along with Alex guiding you along the way.

HOW Do I Participate? Just grab your mouse and click here. If you're reading this in time to become one of the first 200 who register, you'll even get an important bonus gift for taking immediate action. Click here and take a look!

WHAT IF I Do Participate? You'll get access to the same Teleseminar training that many thought leaders such as Jack Canfield, Ivan Misner, Les Brown, Harv Eker, Dan Sullivan, Bob Proctor and Brian Tracy now utilize in their business. Take a look at "Page 15" of the Action Guide you'll get after you register.

Alex has an unprecedented 365-day money back guarantee, if you have a sliver of doubt that this Teleseminar Training will exceed your expectations.

So you really have no excuse not to grab your mouse right now, click here and get registered. And because you've read this far, we know you're more than just curious about how The BIG Call may change your personal and professional life.

We took a chance and listened to this call 4 years ago and cannot tell you how much it changed our lives. This $20 call could be the best $20 dollars you've ever spent, it sure was for us!!! – Pat & Lorna

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Teleseminar Secrets Tip #20

Pat & Lorna Shanks — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 22:00:58 +0000

FAQ: "How do I convince leaders in market niches to let me conduct teleseminars with them if I don't have a proven track record?"

Answer: Please see video below.

Please click the image below to start the presentation.
(Duration: 3 min, 59 secs)

Here's How To Claim Your Special Bonuses

Read the rest of this entry>>

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Teleseminar Secrets Tip #17

Pat & Lorna Shanks — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 22:00:51 +0000

FAQ: "How do I get rid of my fear of doing public Teleseminars?"

Answer: Please see video below.

Please click the image below to start the presentation.
(Duration: 5 min, 55 secs)

Here's How To Claim Your Special Bonuses

Read the rest of this entry >>

– Pat & Lorna

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Teleseminar Secrets Tip #3

Pat & Lorna Shanks — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:00:31 +0000

FAQ: "In a Preview Call, what's critical to include and exclude to maintain value but not give away too much?"

Answer: Please see video below.

Please click the image below to start the video.
(Duration: 7 min, 09 secs)

Here's How To Claim Your Special Bonuses

Read the rest of this entry >>

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Teleseminar Secrets – Insiders' Views

Pat & Lorna Shanks — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:00:06 +0000

Teleseminar Secrets is, hands down, the best marketing training we've ever been on. It has made us more money and grew our list faster than any other tool, and has taught us rapid content creation in ways we never could have expected.

Yes, the class is very expensive, but what is your business worth? We both agree that it is well worth it plus a lot more – and comes with a gorgeous money-back guarantee.

Teleseminar Secrets only opens up once a year. The Teleseminar Secrets Preview Call is on December 3, 2009. The Teleseminar Secrets classes start on December 7, 2009.

The course is taught by our good friend, partner and mentor Alex Mandossian . Again, we would highly, highly recommend this course to anybody wanting to know more about Robotic Interenet Marketing , and yes you are also going to learn alot about Telesemianr Secrets too!

Alex Mandossian has also been a mentor to us in moving our Robotic Interenet Marketing business along, so we definitely recommend Teleseminar Secrets .

We will bring you more insider tips of this year's Teleseminar Secrets course and Teleseminar Secrets Preview Call as more details are released.

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A Sneak Peek into Teleseminar Secrets

Pat & Lorna Shanks — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 04:15:09 +0000

Teleseminar Secrets season is fast approaching, and our good friend and mentor Alex Mandossian (who teaches the course) has put together some insightful preview training.

We say insightful, because in this preview training he actually takes excerpts from his Teleseminar Secrets course and divulges some interesting and relevant information that you can actually use.

Alex is a marketing wizard who has built an extremely successful business around teleseminars.

So watch and listen as Alex gives you a sneak peek into Teleseminar Secrets:

At the end of the video you will see the following opt-in, we suggest that you opt-in to get additional content from Alex.

TSS Opt-In

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The Social Media Revolution Marketing Blueprint – Q & A

Pat & Lorna Shanks — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:33:15 +0000

We got this letter from Maritza and Jeff…

Hi Pat & Lorna,

With all the buzz about the launch of The Social Marketing Blueprint, you probably have some questions. So in this email we would like to take the time to address as many questions as we can.

We've poured through about a week’s worth of questions from the blog, email and Instant TeleSeminar and found the most commonly asked questions.

Here they are with our answers…

1. How & when can I get a copy of The Social Marketing Blueprint?

The 7 Module Video Training Course will be released on Tuesday October 27th at 12 Noon Eastern Time (that’s 9 am Pacific and 5pm UK) at this website: http://www.ToSocialMarketing.com

Memberships will be awarded on a first come, first serve basis. It’s important that I tell you that now, because I don’t want to put any pressure on you, it’s just that we are only taking on 212 people in the Training Course, and I’d really like you to have a copy. Now, as you may have guessed, we have a lot more than 212 people on the mailing list, plus some big players like Alex Mandossian, Mike Stewart, Pat & Lorna Shanks (Hey that's us ) , Travis Greenlee, David Perdew and Lynn Terry will be mailing their lists on launch day too. Plus we have sent out over 10,000 direct mail pieces to small businesses.

When you add all this up well over 1 million people will have access to this launch.

So we're just trying to provide as much information now, on the front end, so you can go ahead and make your decision to buy it. And if you decide it is for you, then that’s great. Just please be ready on Tuesday October 27th at 12 Noon Eastern. http://www.ToSocialMarketing.com

2. Why are you limiting it to 212 people? Is this for real or just another marketing gimmick?

Good question. Well, first of all, we don’t do marketing gimmicks. If we say there is a limit, there is a limit. And 2 of those 212 will have already gone to our two scholarship winners by launch time. The main reason we are limiting it to 212 is because of the Bonus 2 Tickets to the Social Marketing Blueprint Workshop at Maritza’s Hacienda in San Antonio – we can only hold so many people there.

So that’s not some Big Glamorous Reason, just a real reason.

3. What if I am a beginner? Do you have a “mind map” or set of step-by-step instructions that even a beginner can follow?

Good news! That is exactly why we are calling this The Social Marketing BLUEPRINT!

When you come on board, you will get immediate access to a pdf version of the actual Blueprint, as well as have an 11 x 17 color copy sent to your address that you can hang right next to your computer and use everyday.

Plus you will get access to the step-by-step instructions for each part of the Blueprint, so you will know exactly what steps to take and when. Each module will guide you through from beginning to end, from setting up your Social Marketing accounts, optimizing them, to making offers and profits, and everything in between.

4. How is the course laid out? Is it all in Video? And how do I get started? Blogging, Facebook, Twitter, what?

The course is grounded in Video Training. Each of the 7 Modules will be Video Training, plus the following:

Down loadable mp3s of the Videos so you can take the Audio with you
Transcripts of the Video Training
Other down loadable pdfs
Down loadable version of the Diamond Deadlines Online Success Journal and the Reverse Engineer Your Income Journal
A hard copy workbook binder of the Diamond Deadlines Online Success Journal and the Reverse Engineer Your Income Journal
Follow up LIVE Q & A TeleSeminars for each Module

Here’s how the system will be laid out:

When you come on board you will receive immediate access to the Mindset Module – this is first Module because we have found you have to begin here for the optimal success. Get your Mindset and your Social Marketing Mindset working for you first and you will be well positioned to maximize the many tools coming your way.

You will also receive right away the first part of the Blogging Module, with new parts coming each day in your first week. Here are the Modules and the release schedule for each:

Module 1 – Mindset – Entire Module right away

Module 2 – Blogging – First part of the Module right away and then additional parts each day for the first week.

Module 3 – Article Marketing/Ezine Articles – Tuesday November 3rd

Module 4 – Twitter – Tuesday November 10th

Module 5 – Facebook – Tuesday November 17th

Module 6 – YouTube – Tuesday November 24th

Module 7 – MeetUps – Tuesday December 1st

We have laid it out this way for a very important reason.

You are MUCH MORE likely to succeed if you digest this one Module at a time. Both of us have taken many, many courses, and coupled with our extensive surveys and research with our students, we have found that gradually releasing the Modules step-by-step dramatically increases your success rate.

There are many reasons why this is so, a huge one being that many, many courses that come “all at once” end up being nothing more than “shelf-help” – sitting on a shelf somewhere collecting dust.

And though we couldn’t prove this, our hunch is that many big time gurus know this and even count on it so they can sell you more “hype & hope”…)

5. Is this gonna be all theory or will it be how to?

We don’t do just theory. That’s the “hype and hope” method mentioned above and used by many big time gurus.

We only do “how to.” Step-by-step from setting up your account to monetizing Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, EzineArticles, Blogging and MeetUps.

And integrating and automating them into a repeatable system. You are going to learn how to do what we do everyday.

6. With so many choices out there, how did you decide on these 6 particular Social Marketing Tools?

The criteria we used included

- ease of use and the learning curve of each,
- the reach and web presence possible,
- our success and the success of our students and others, and
- the traffic rack of each.

Alexa.com ranks websites based on the traffic coming to a website – a ranking of 1 means a website gets the most traffic in the world…the lower the number the better. Being in the top 1,000 means the website gets an incredible amount of traffic.

Here’s what Alexa says about our 6 Social Media Tools at the time of this writing:

Facebook – #2

YouTube – #4

Twitter – #13

EzineArticles – #149

MeetUp – #834

Blogging – Depends on your individual blog – and we show you how to get more traffic with the Social Marketing Tools and Blog Profit Strategies

What this means for you: You will learn step-by-step exactly how to leverage, integrate and automate these well trafficked sites to send highly qualified traffic to your site!

7. How much will The Social Marketing Blueprint cost?

A lot.

We have not decided on the exact price yet, but it won’t be cheap. We’ve been told we should not release it for less than $1997 because of everything you get in the course.

And the reality is just the Bonus of the 2 tickets to the Social Marketing Blueprint Workshop would be worth more than $1997.

Plus the 7 Video Training Modules complete with mp3s and transcripts, the LIVE Q & A TeleSeminars, the hard copy workbook binder of the Diamond Deadlines Online Success Journal and the Reverse Engineer Your Income Journal, plus all the Bonuses…

All together it’s worth the $1997 and more.

If you are wondering if this stuff works, go back and watch the videos and listen the teleseminar http://www.ToSocialMarketing.com

We’re not going to try to sell you on why this is worth it. Frankly, if you need us to “sell you on it” then this isn’t for you.

If you want to get your Membership you’ll be ordering online, so just be ready at your computer at exactly 12 noon on Tuesday October 27th…

So while the final price is still up in the air, we can tell you for sure that it wont be$1997…or anywhere near that.

Also – you’ll be able to pay in installments if you need to. This way EVERYONE gets a chance…

We’ll be back tomorrow with some more cool info and stuff we’re adding to the Blueprint (like the “Lifeline Pass”), this email has gotten long enough as it is…I just really wanted to answer your questions so you can be prepared on Tuesday October 27th at 12 Noon Eastern…

Until tomorrow…

Maritza & Jeff

==========

Pat & Lorna here now, but we made this offer to our list:

For those that sign up for this program through our affiliate link, we will give you a dynamic mind map of the full course (once it s completed).

You can see an example here => http://2yourpage.net/go/smb5

We hope to hear you on the calls and that you become part of the Social Marketing Revolution!

–Pat & Lorna

P.S. These two are the real deal and one of the nicest couples you'll meet in Internet marketing. We trust them and are already doing some of this ourselves, and its working great!

P.S.S. If you don t believe us go to Google and search for Pat and Lorna and see how many social sites that we appear on. We can t imagine how much we ll grow once we implement everything Maritza and Jeff teach us, and we can t wait!

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Social Media Revolution Video

Pat & Lorna Shanks — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 20:24:07 +0000

So is Social Media just a fad?

Are Twitter, Facebook and all the other social networks site going to stay?

Watch the video below to find out why and tell us your thoughts in the comments

(Running time 4 Mins 22 Secs)

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Did You Know…? Video

Pat & Lorna Shanks — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 20:16:45 +0000

So how fast is everything moving at you today?

Did you ever wonder why some days you feel so overwhelmed?

Guess what, it's not you! Watch the video below to find out why.

(Running time 4 Mins 55 Secs)

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Spectacular Content Marketing Tips – The Many Forms of Context

Pat & Lorna Shanks — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 20:29:56 +0000

Everyone has their favorite way of consuming information. Do you know what that is for each of your customers or clients? Obviously not, that would be impossible. So how do you ensure your content is purchased, consumed and put into action by as many people as possible? The fastest and easiest way is to have your content available in multiple formats or contexts.

Let’s look at the many forms of context:

There are an infinite number of contexts that the content can be formatted into. We’ll name the thirty-two most commonly thought of:

Spectacular Presentation
Blog Post or Page
Podcast
Article
Telesemina
PDF
Book
E-book
Binder
Booklet
Inner-Circle Call
Coaching
Consulting
Audio
MP3
Media Player
CD
DVD
Course
E-Course
Assessment
Certification
Ezine Series
Online Video
Email
Fax
Guide
Newsletter
Thumb Drive
Live Seminar/Workshop
Membership Site
Bonus Gift

What happens when all this is applied?

Wow! That’s a lot of formats. Originally created content can be converted into all those formats, and that’s just the beginning. There are more that you can probably think of on your own. There is no limit to the creativity that can be injected into the context arena. The only limit is your own imagination, so go crazy.

When you apply the four R’s (reuse, repurpose, repackage and recycle), actually all five R’s (add repeat to the previous four), to the original content thirty-two times, you could use that same content to produce each and every form of context listed above. Can you imagine how many people you can reach through that many different formats?

In addition, some of those in your market will not only consume one, but several formats of the same information. That means that their ability to comprehend the information and their likelihood of putting it into practice greatly increase. The power of words is tremendous and when it is increased exponentially through multiple forms of context it is out of this world.

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Article Marketing for Beginners and The Red Dress

Pat & Lorna Shanks — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 22:53:48 +0000

What do Articles and a Red Dress have in common? They make you stand out in a crowd, especially if you’re a man. But what has that got to do with Article Marketing?

Well as Jeff Herring (aka The Internet Article Guy) says, Article Marketing = Internet Marketing. That means getting your site, product or service to stand out in a crowd and get noticed.

Click on the video below and see what Jeff has to say about getting started in Article Marketing…

Get it now: Article Marketing For Beginners

We met Jeff about 2 years ago at an Alex Mandossian TeleSeminar Secrets Reunion where we created a friendship and working relationship with him. Jeff is one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet within the Internet Marketing space. He’s down to earth, super nice, and a great sport (he’s even been known to wear a Red Dress to stand out in the crowd), but don’t let Jeff hear that (Pat and Jeff have something going on about some sort of Red Dress).

Jeff is one of the best teachers on the topic of article development and we have taken a few of his courses over the years. If you want to check out some of our articles you can visit them at www.PatAndLorna.com/ArticlesLorna or www.PatAndLorna.com/ArticlesPat

Alex Mandossian

Another good friend, Alex Mandossian, who is another great Internet Marketer, says this about Article Marketing:

“Article Marketing is the absolute best resource for generating unlimited amounts of free traffic. And the traffic is evergreen – it keeps coming year after year” ~ Alex Mandossian

Jeff just launched a brand new 12 week course on Article Marketing called “Article Marketing for Beginners”. The course is specifically for beginners, but we decided to review it anyways. Here is the proof that we actually purchased the course. Most people tell you to purchase some course without actually buying it themselves, never mind using it.

We just completed the first lesson, and we’d easily say this is great stuff for any online marketer on practically any level. Even if you think you know article marketing inside and out, you’ll probably learn a thing or two from Jeff and his article marketing expertise. For us, having a simple task and checklist with a timeline, is super helpful for accountability and progress.

Knowing how to do something and actually taking action on that knowledge are two different things.

We like the idea of having Jeff Herring coming to our inbox every week, reminding us to have GUTS – “Go Use This Stuff!”

Here are the details of the course:
Course Name: Article Marketing For Beginners
Access Course: Article Marketing For Beginners
Length: 12-week course, weekly training (via email)
Investment: $37 per month (3 months only – Total investment $111)
Details of Course: There are weekly trainings with easy assignments, monthly bonuses, and several surprise bonuses built in – all designed to help you succeed at using articles to drive traffic, build lists and make sales. The lessons are short, very easy to follow, and come with actionable guides to walk you through every step.
Training Material: eMail, PDF’s, Videos, Assignments, Bonuses
Excerpt:
Coolness Level: 4 Stars
Red Dress Level: Very HOT Jeff

What others are saying about the course:

With all that said and done, Jeff is right – it truly is painless.

Jeff’s course comes at the best possible time. Right now is a perfect time to use Ezine Articles for backlinks, indirect top 10 Google rankings, and targeted content marketing campaigns. This last quarter has been the biggest online shopping season of the year. All that, plus you’ll be setting yourself up for an incredible year of traffic for 2010.

Be Cool and Take Action
–Pat & Lorna

P.S. Here’s the link: Article Marketing For Beginners

As Jeff Herring would say… have some G.U.T.S.! (Go Use This Stuff) Red Dress and All… and remember to Stand Out in the Crowd!

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Spectacular Content Marketing Tips: Maximizing Your Content Reach

Pat & Lorna Shanks — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 16:10:53 +0000

Many people present their content in an audio format, some just in a written context. While these are definitely good ways to present information, they end up missing out on a large number of key factors that could increase the impact of the presentation.

If visuals are added to audio content, or if audio and graphics are added to written content, it will reach a larger percentage of the market. People learn differently… using their visual, auditory and kinesthetic senses. The more of these you reach, the more of your market you reach.

Then there is also the factor of scheduling… availability of the content. Live presentations are great… teleseminars, webinars… but they are held at a specific time. If the customer cannot be there at that time, they miss out. Yes, the recordings can be available to them afterwards, but then the content is again not reaching them in an optimal format or context.

So, what is the best way to present content?

We recommend presenting content in what we refer to as a Spectacular Presentation format. These are online presentations that include written content, graphics and audio. The user is in total control of when they view the presentation and at what speed… and can search it for specific information.

The top ten benefits of presenting content in this format are:

More effective than audio alone.
Multi-sensory content delivery.
Searchable.
Table of contents.
User playback controls
24 hour content delivery.
Easy to repurpose.
Branding.
Create once and sell many times.
Robotic internet marketing.

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), playwright and critic once wrote in a personal correspondence to a colleague

“The greatest problem of communication is the illusion that it has been accomplished.”

That quote summarizes the responsibility of the content producer. It is up to the person that produces and presents the content to be absolutely certain that the user has every convenience and ability to comprehend the information that is being conveyed. By presenting your content in a way that involves more of the physical senses, is available to the user when they want it and gives them control of their learning, you will accomplish that goal.

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Spectacular Content Marketing Tips: Key Factors for Content Presentation

Pat & Lorna Shanks — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 16:05:36 +0000

Content is king. People are not going to buy information that is of little or no value. Solid content is of utmost importance. However… if content is presented in such a way that it only reaches a fraction of the market it’s intended to reach, then that content falls short in its effectiveness to grow your business and spread your message.

Presentation does not compensate for lackluster content, but it can make a difference in how content is received by your market.

What makes a presentation spectacular? There are nine key features of a presentation that will make them much more spectacular for your viewer.

The nine key presentation features are:

Title/Timeline of Presentation – This tells your viewer what presentation they are watching and how long it will take them to view it. That’s about as basic as it gets.
Branding – It’s important that you have a picture of yourself included in the presentation that your market will recognize you by. Recognition is important.
Table of Contents – Having a table of contents that will allow your viewer to navigate easily through the presentation is very convenient. This gives the viewer more control and the ability to find the topic they want to review.
Remembers Where You Left Off – Viewers love it when your presentation keeps track of where they left off. They don’t always remember, so if the presentation does that for them it’s just that much more convenient.
Large Content Window – Make sure that your content is easily viewable. A large number of presentation formats only allow for a small viewing window making the content quite small and difficult to see. A large viewing window and actually being able to see the content is a huge bonus for the viewer… highly recommended.
Current Slide Info – This allows the viewer to see where they are in the current content slide or page. There’s no second guessing as to when it ends or if there is still more content to come.
Full Playback Control – Give the user the ability to back up a slide, to move forward a slide, fast forward, rewind, pause, or resume. The more control the user has, the better they like it.
Resource Links Area – A very easy to use area that has links to other resources that relate to your presentation. This could include a PDF version of your presentation, web links, or other information that is related to your content. This makes it easily accessible to your reader.
Searchable – This gives your user the ability to not only search for topics in the table of contents, but to also search the content itself for the information and terminology they are looking for.

In a nutshell, the more convenient and easy to use your presentation is, the more spectacular it will be. Users love to be able to always know where they are at in the presentation, how far they have to go, and easily find items of interest.

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Spectacular Content Marketing Tips – Benefits of Content Optimization

Pat & Lorna Shanks — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 22:30:29 +0000

It goes without saying that if someone gets a lot out of your information they will be inclined to purchase more from you. We call converting your content into a format that will reach more of your market, “Content Optimization”.

Benefits of Content Optimization

If you started optimizing your content right now, what would the results of that be?

Massive Reach – By converting your content into multiple formats, you will be able to relate to a wider variety of people than by a single context.

System Creation – By going over the same content multiple times, you will begin to develop templates and methods. You will polish and perfect the communication of certain points of the content each time you revisit it. As you observe some techniques working better than others, you will be able to hone your skills for the most effective delivery of your information.

Know Your Market Better – By repeatedly going over the same information, you will begin to know your market better. On the flip side of that, they will also begin to know you better. The more familiar you are to them, the better your chance of obtaining their trust and loyalty.

Roadblocks of Content Optimization

There are stumbling blocks that can prevent you from optimizing your content. Just what could stop you from doing something that sounds so simple? Let’s take a look:

Breaking Your Comfort Zone – When you have spent much time working with one particular format of content, it can be intimidating to convert to another. For example, someone that writes articles all the time may be uncomfortable presenting that same content in a video presentation. This can hold some people back from exploring other contexts.

Context Confusion – Deciding which context to convert to can be difficult. There are so many choices it can be overwhelming. The most difficult part is starting out.

Multiple Context Personalities – Because there are so many contexts to convert to, people often find that they spread themselves too thin. Because there are so many great ideas running around in their head, they find themselves trying to do it all by themselves, working on one thing today and another tomorrow. Without focus, none of them will be accomplished.

Strategies to Overcome Roadblocks

Always review Kipling’s Six Servants of Content Optimization – Know who your market is, what context the content will be in, where the audience wants the content, when they’ll want it, why it’s important, and how to get it into the context desired.

Never invent the content – Always improve your content by reusing, repurposing, repackaging, or recycling. Don’t try to reinvent the wheel. The same information is simply reformatted to a different context.

Outsource – Strengthen your strengths. Continually work toward improving those talents that come easily to you while you outsource your weaknesses. If one form of context is extremely difficult for you to convert into, outsource it to someone that actually enjoys doing that.

By overcoming the roadblocks and optimizing your content today you will extend your reach massively. You will develop a system for converting your content into other formats and you will know your market better and become better known by your market. It is worth the effort and will become easier as you go.

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Strategic Partnerships to Grow your Blog

Pat & Lorna Shanks — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 16:53:14 +0000

You’ve created a blog. You may have created it just to communicate with others; simply using it as a social networking site. However, did you know you can use it to engage people and then send them to your main website? You can… and very effectively as well. Now you may be wondering, what do I write and where can I get my content from? It can appear as though you will be spending a whole lot of time creating and writing content for your blog, with little time left over for the other important parts of your business. The good news is that it doesn’t have to be that way. There are many ways to find, create and write content for your blog, without having to do it all yourself.

Please read on to discover how to do that and so much more…

Creating Content to Capture Client Interest

One of the best tools to use for driving potential clients to your website is to incorporate a web log, or blog. Blogs originally came into existence so people could write about their life and share it with the world. Smart internet marketers quickly saw the potential for reaching out to the vast internet audience, and began utilizing blogs to increase sales. Carefully crafted blog content powered by SEO, or search engine optimization is a low cost way to market and to build sales.

How Do Blogs Work?

Content should be at the heart of your blog. Your goal is to connect with your readers on a friendly level, rather than a sales person-to-client level. So you should write or use content that is conversational rather than preachy or obviously sales driven. Our tendencies as human beings are to trust friends, but to dislike salespeople. When writing your blog, keep it light and caring, but informative and interesting. Cover topics that the other guys in your niche don't. Highlight what makes you different from the pack. Always be honest and sincere. It may be necessary to do some research about your chosen niche. Read other blogs and product service sites for new information that you can work into your website and blog.

Capturing Content if You Don't Write

So you still want to use a blog to market your website, however, you're not a writer. What do you do? Well, the internet is your answer, because there are hundreds, if not thousands, of content websites with millions of articles on all topics for use by people who are not necessarily the strongest or creative of copywriters. Many of these websites give away the articles for free. All you have to do is to sign up. Sometimes they offer a certain number of articles per month and if you want more, then you may have to pay a nominal fee.

Team Up

Another way to capture content for your blog is to team up with someone else and share your copy, your ideas and other resources. Many blogs are produced by teams of writers, rather than just one, who take turns posting. This takes away the burden from everyone on the team of individually having to come up with something new every single day. The quickest way to kill your blog is to let it stagnate without adding new information on a regular basis.

Utilize Search Engine Optimization

All of your content should be search engine optimized, meaning it should be sprinkled with the buzz words of your niche market throughout the copy. These buzz words are the words that people looking for your services and products load into a search engine in order to find relevant websites. The most successful SEO blogs routinely land their pages at the top of the search page, where the searchers will find it first, by keying on the buzz words and strategically placed keywords. Statistics have shown pages in the first five search engine spots usually are the ones making the most sales. Buzz words or keywords are good, however don't overload the copy. For instance, a 500 word article should have no more than 3 or 4 keywords. They should come at the top, the middle and at the end of the content. Anything more is spam or junk mail.

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Alex Mandossian Discusses What Abundance Is

Pat & Lorna Shanks — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 16:33:31 +0000

Our good friend Alex Mandossian discusses what abundance is. Watch and listen to what he has to say and then please tell us what you think abundance is.

Please click the image below to start that presentation.(Opens in a new window, duration: 4 min, 24 sec)

To get more Abundance in your like check out the Virtual Abundance Expot.

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Worldwide Survey to Define "Abundance"

Pat & Lorna Shanks — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 01:39:17 +0000

Abundance is a concept often debated in spiritual and entrepreneurial circles.

Entrepreneurs commonly use the catch-phrase "thinking BIG," but they really mean the same thing.

Abundance is tough to define because it's one of those unique ideas that must be experienced to really be
understood … it can't just be explained.

Yet the most encouraging part of adopting an abundance mindset is how it can connect you to people with totally different set of beliefs and values.

It instantly sustains inclusivity even with people who are dramatically different.

POP QUIZ: What do Mother Theresa and Donald Trump have most in common?

The answer is their abundance mind-set.

Donald Trump says, "If you're going to think anyway, you might as well think big."

Mother Theresa said: "The more we discover the magnitude and abundance of God's gifts, the more we will find ourselves."

Again, the abundance mindset creates connections.

Bucky Fuller had this to say about the abundance mindset:

"The condition of planet earth is abundance. Our belief in either scarcity or abundance determines how our financial, legal, political and military systems are set up or exist at all.

Scarcity and abundance are foundational and contextual ideas. They each give rise to a distinct system of thought and a number
of rules, characteristics and measures which only make sense within their own system."

Above all, the abundance-mindset is a choice. In other words, you choose to look through the lens of scarcity, or through the lens of abundance. There is no in-between.

"Do … or do not. There is no try." ~ Yoda

Because there are are so many differing opinions about abundance, my colleagues and I have decided to conduct this worldwide survey get more opinions – your opinion – on this highly debated topic.

Our JV partners, Alex Mandossian and Scott Martineau are hosting the Virtual Abundance Expo next week, so I figured this a great opportunity to host a survey and attract the best single sentence that clearly defines abundance.

What to do now: Please use the comment box to write your definition of abundance. The survey ends at 5pm PDT on Monday, July 27th, right before Jack Canfield's keynote speech for the Virtual Abundance Expo.

All the definitions will be gathered and tallied the next day and five finalists will be chosen for the final vote.

If you are one of the five finalists, your definition of abundance will be personally evaluated by our Virtual Abundance Expo faculty.

The top vote-getter with the clearest and most concise definition of abundance will be personally interviewed by Scott and Alex as a honorary faculty member for Virtual Abundance Expo.

So what do you say … are you game?

If you are game, then take a peek at these 9 abundance quotes to get your heart and mind moving…

"The only factor becoming scarce in a world of abundance is human attention" ~ Kevin Kelly in Wired

"Nothing amuses me more than the easy manner with which everybody settles the abundance of those who have a great deal less than themselves." ~ Jane Austen (1775 – 1817)

"Abundance is, in large part, an attitude" ~ Sue Patton Thoele

"Abundance of knowledge does not teach men to be wise" ~ Heraclitus (540 BC – 480 BC)

"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little" ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882 – 1945)

"Unfortunately, the balance of nature decrees that a super- abundance of dreams is paid for by a growing potential for nightmares" ~ Peter Ustinov (1921 – 2004)

"Abundance is not something we acquire. It is something we tune into" ~ Wayne Dyer

"Expect your every need to be met. Expect the answer to every problem, expect abundance on every level" ~ Eileen Caddy

"Not what we have, but what we enjoy, constitutes our abundance" ~ Epicurus

Now it's your turn … type in what you feel abundance means to you. Go ahead … the simple act of thinking about it will instantly improve your day.

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Spectacular Content Marketing Tips – Persuasive Copy Content

Pat & Lorna Shanks — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 17:30:36 +0000

Doing business online can be a successful, profitable venture. Getting visitors to your site and then to getting them to buy your product or services is the obvious key to this success. That sounds like a daunting task… and one that many find a huge challenge. However, it doesn’t have to be. With the help of a few tips and tricks, this can actually be a simple process with many interesting ways to approach it. What are these tips and tricks?

Persuasive Copy Content

Writing copy or content, is writing to persuade your clients to buy your services or products pictured on your website. It is not enough to place an item on your homepage with a “buy” button next to it. The purpose of the copy is to turn your readers into people willing to buy your wares. So before you sell the product or service, you have to sell them on why they should buy from you.

Search Engine Optimization Copy

SEO content is copy that is optimized with keywords which allow search engines to drive people to your website. The best keywords are the same ones used by people to search for products and services such as yours. Placing these words and phrases throughout your content will draw the search engines and propel the people to your site. However, sometimes what the people search for and what the search engine understands and returns, are two different things. The successful sites have figured out how to synchronize the search and the search engine, and make them land on their website more often than not.

Learning Through Trial and Error

Trial and error is the best teacher for learning how to walk the line between searching and selling with your writing. Visitors to your site want to think they’ve made the decision to buy all on their own, rather than to feel like they’ve been coerced into buying. Gaining this skill can take years to master. Some people give up and hire a professional copy writer. Investing in a content writer is a one-time investment that will pay dividends into the future.

Fresh Content Sells

It is a proven fact that sites which continuously freshen their content on a regular basis grow steadily in customer returns and search results status. By constantly renewing your content you attract people who want to link back to your site. Legitimate reference links are one of the factors required to boost page rank.

Ways to Get Content Quick

Rather than sit at the computer all day struggling to pound out copy content, here are some ideas for getting it quick.

•    Public Domain Copy- This is copy not protected by copyright. This means it can be copied, revised, edited, reprinted, distributed or sold.
•    Famous Quotations-Create short pages that will suck in thousands of people every day. Visitors are likely to bookmark the site and return.
•    Definitions-Of current buzz words or weird words that have made it into the public lexicon can create short pages with heavy drawing power.
•    Hosting Directory Pages-Are a favorite of the search engines. Make sure your content is all around the directory to capture the eyes of your visitors.
•    Other People’s Content-There are literally millions of writers begging for websites to post their articles. They can be found in online article directories. Just make sure to credit the writer if you use the work.

Using other people’s content allows you to build big websites quickly. However, it is important to not get so big that you lose control. A little common sense, trial and error and patience will turn your website into a search engine success.

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Spectacular Content Marketing Tips – Creating Online Quality Content

Pat & Lorna Shanks — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 19:00:36 +0000

All websites have some sort of content, and quite often that content is on the website to inform people and to get them to purchase a product or service. That means you want the content on your website to have the biggest impact possible on the visitors to your site, and to influence them to make that purchase. So, is there a way to make that happen? Yes, there are several tips and tricks to give your content more persuasive impact.

Creating Quality Online Content

Creating or capturing content for your marketing website is not difficult, but there are some basic rules that need to be followed. These rules will help clients maneuver through your pages, giving them a better understanding of what you are offering, leading to additional sales of your products and services

Style and Format

Reading online can be tough on the eyes, even for young people, so it is important to be precise. You want concise, not wordy blocks of text. Use short sentences as well as short paragraphs. Sentences should contain no more than 21 words, while paragraphs should have no more than 65 words maximum. Now there are no format police around, so you can go longer, however, the shorter the better, is the rule of thumb. Using the pronoun “I” is inappropriate in business; steer clear of it whenever possible. It is appropriate to use “you” or “we.”

Don’t underline text for emphasis. Underlining denotes a link. SOLID CAPS, Italics, or Bold, are no good either. Capital letters are to be used at the beginning of a sentence, or in acronyms, such as; K.I.S.S, or the first letter in the name of a person, place or thing. Other words should not be capitalized throughout the content.

Give it Structure

Every page should begin with a unique and explanatory headline
This headline should be followed by a summary or description
If you use subheadings-then write them like headlines
Restrict each page to one topic only
Purge all outdated or redundant material from pages
Don’t duplicate information, create a link to it
Shy away from vague references, be as precise as possible without being personal
Don’t use the future tense in anything other than news stories

Using Links in Content

Your link text should be self explanatory, so that the reader knows exactly what he or she will find when the link is clicked. Many people prefer making links stand alone rather than embedding them in sentences. The rule is not concrete. It is more a matter of personal taste, however.

Itemized Lists

A list should contain no more than 7 or 8 items. The items should be listed in logical order. A long list should be subdivided into smaller, shorter lists for easier reading and understanding. Descriptive subheadings will help your clients better understand your content.

Searchable Content

Use keywords within the content since these are the words that people used to find your page in the first place. It is wise to use the keywords in the headlines as well. Again it is important to be as specific as possible with these words or phrases.

Including Tables

Tables are better for presenting data in a crisp concise manner. They are not good for presenting text of any kind. You should keep tables short and narrow so that it fits the screen easily. Tables that can only be read by scrolling usually don’t get read. Avoid using a table if it causes the text to wrap to the next line. Remember, you want clients to find your page and then read or scan it for information. A page that is difficult to maneuver will not draw repeat clients nor hold on to new ones past the initial click.

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Optimizing Your Content – Benefits for You and Your Market

Pat & Lorna Shanks — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 04:27:54 +0000

Content is what your information, your message, is all about. However, there is content that really engages people, gets them telling others about what they’ve learned and how they’ve successfully implemented the ideas… and the content that gets forgotten as soon as the last word has been listened to or read. It goes without saying that if someone gets a lot out of your information they will be inclined to purchase more from you. We call converting your content into different formats or contexts “Content Optimization”. How does that help your business?

Massive Reach – By converting your content into multiple formats, you will be able to relate to a wider variety of people than by a single context.

System Creation – By going over the same content multiple times, you will begin to develop templates and methods. You will polish and perfect the communication of certain points of the content each time you revisit it. As you observe some techniques working better than others, you will be able to hone your skills for the most effective delivery of your information.

Know Your Market Better – By repeatedly going over the same information, you will begin to know your market better. On the flip side of that, they will also begin to know you better. The more familiar you are to them, the better your chance of obtaining their trust and loyalty.

By presenting your content in multiple formats or contexts, you will gain a much larger market reach and your customers and clients will better understand your message and be able to put it to use.

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Every Business is an Information Business… Find Out Why

Pat & Lorna Shanks — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 20:07:52 +0000

We’ve been very blessed to have great mentors in our internet business. One of these mentors is our colleague and friend Alex Mandossian. Each and every thing he has suggested we do has not only worked, it has helped us grow our business.

And that’s why we want you to be on a very special call, which is this Thursday night at 9 pm Eastern, when Alex will hold a preview teleseminar for his upcoming Virtual Book Tour Secrets TeleCourse.

Now, Alex course is called Virtual Book Tour Secrets, but he really should change the course to Virtual Information Secrets. By attending the preview call you will find out why we say this.

So go ahead and take advantage of this man’s knowledge, especially his brilliant marketing mind, just like we have.The call is $99, and well worth the investment at that price. However… we can save you $79 off of that price! That's right… only $20 for 2 hours of amazing content that you can really use in your business.

To get your amazing discount, just enter the VIP Discount Code: gabe1025 when you click here to register for the Preview Call. Do it now before all the slots are filled. Go ahead and do it now because we really want you to learn from this guy….

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Spectacular Content Marketing, Capturing the Value of Your Website

Pat & Lorna Shanks — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 17:06:32 +0000

By now anyone who has a website knows the importance of using content to market their services and products online. Search engine optimized content; in other words, search engine friendly content is one of the best ways to drive traffic to your website. SEO content requires the use of buzz words or keywords in order to make the search engine take notice. However, not all keywords are equal. In order to drive potential sales to your site, you will need to identify the keywords that work and the ones that don’t.

Capturing a Niche with Content Marketing
For instance, your niche market is the travel market. Travel packages are a dime a dozen online. The word “travel” as a keyword is not going to work very well. Why? Because the word “travel” is too vague and can be used in a million different ways. However, one of your recent blog posts talked about travel possibilities for senior couples’ Caribbean Cruises. This represents an under- served market that is not readily visible. Anyone typing in senior couples cruise or some combination of those words, are going to find his or her way to your website. You might even go back and tweak the original post a bit with a few more keywords designed to lift your website to the top of the search page.

Search into Sales
The more searches which land on your pages the more likelihood that those searches will turn into sales. It also means search engines will find you more easily. This type of content marketing is called long tailed content marketing. It is specific marketing. Using specific phrases instead of vague words as your keyword means less competition in the marketplace for you. Another good thing for you is that there can be many variations on the phrase, with each variation having its own page of search content.

Pages Mean Visibility
The more pages of content, the more you increase your visibility to search engines. Targeted content make the search engine believe that you are the authority on the subject and begins ranking your pages higher in all searches. Back links developed from other sites which find you interesting, sales increase as a result. It’s called the snowball effect. Mix in some highly targeted or niche content marketing, using keyword phrases instead of vague multi-meaning single words and you can’t help but capture the niche.

With a Little Help From Friends
So maybe, you’re getting traffic due to something you wrote and you don’t know how to expand into the niche because you are not familiar with it. This is where research both online and offline comes in. Look into the niche that was generating your traffic. Go to websites that give away articles and select a couple to help you market to this niche. Another way is to find knowledgeable friends with which to share information about the niche. Ask them to write some content for your website or to direct you toward information that will enable you to keep the traffic flowing.

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Practical Presentation Marketing Tips – Hub and Spoke Marketing Presentation

Pat & Lorna Shanks — Tue, 26 May 2009 15:28:48 +0000

How does your message get to your market? What’s the center of your marketing model? Many people will say it’s their book, workshop or podcast series. Not so. There is an extremely effective marketing model that demonstrates what is really important in your business. It’s amazingly simple, yet so amazingly effective. Here’s the scoop…

Hub and Spoke Model

There is an interesting analogy for a very effective marketing model. It is known as the hub and spoke model.

Hub = You and Your Message

In hub and spoke marketing the center of it all, the hub, is you and your message. After all, that is what you have to offer the world.

Spokes = Are the Media between You and Your Market

The spokes of the wheel, the connectors between you and your market is the media. The media consists of all the many ways you can get your message out there. There are books, e-books, teleseminars, Spectacular Presentations, e-courses, podcasts, and the list goes on and on.

Wheel = Is Your Market

The wheel is your market. All those different mediums are designed to bridge you and your message with the wheel… your market. The idea is to use many different ways to get your message to your market. That way, if one or two of them cease to be effective, you have many more to fall back on.

Just think though… you could have a message, many different mediums, and still have a flat tire (market). You have to know what your market wants. If they don't want what you are offering, it won't matter how you get it to them, and they will be an uninterested or flat market.

An interesting model? Definitely.

There is also an interesting way to really learn how this works.

Check It Out For Yourself

To see the hub and spoke marketing video go to www.hubandspokevideo.com. It will allow you to see and hear how this marketing model works.

Remember, every business is an information marketing business. If you have a product you can create an information product out of it, a book, a CD, an online presentation, etc.

Understand how effective marketing works… study this model and you'll be way out ahead of your competition.

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Content Presentation with Your Market in Mind

Pat & Lorna Shanks — Tue, 19 May 2009 10:00:51 +0000

There is an amazing amount of great content out there… including yours. But… does it have maximum reach? Are all the people in your market able to effectively consume it? After all, that is the goal of any information marketing business… which is every business.

Understanding how people receive information is imperative for optimizing the reach of your content. If they are struggling to absorb your message, they won't find any value in it and they sure won't find any success in implementation.

Here's how people receive information – also known as their learning modalities:

Visually: (55% – 75% of the population) These people learn by seeing. Reading text, charts, graphs and watching any type of video are some of the ways by which these people learn or consume information.
Auditory: (20% – 30% of the population) These people learn by listening or speaking. Listening to recorded audio, hearing a live speech or reciting are ways by which auditory learners consume information.
Kinesthetic: (5% – 15% of the population) People in this group learn by doing or touching. By writing, typing, clicking the mouse, or any other type of physical action, information will make way more sense to these individuals.

The message here is… don't put your content out in one format only. If all of your content is presented as audio files, then over 60% of your market will not be able to effectively take in what you are saying. That's a huge number of people that won't "get it".

So look at many different means to present your content. For example, there are Spectacular Presentations, teleseminars with PDF handouts, DVD's, questionnaires, live workshops, seminars, etc… the ideas are virtually endless.

If you visit www.HubAndSpokeVideo.com, not only will you experience a great marketing message, you will discover many interesting and effective ways to present your content.

Remember, it's not what you want, it's what your market wants… and adding value for your market is what it's all about.

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New Client Introduction

Pat & Lorna Shanks — Mon, 18 May 2009 17:00:39 +0000

To learn about Pat and Lorna's criteria of working with a new client,

Please click the image below to start the presentation.
(Opens in a new window, duration: 9 min, 14 sec)

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Reuse, Repurpose and Repackage – Disney Style…

Pat & Lorna Shanks — Sun, 03 May 2009 22:08:58 +0000

Start with great content and then reuse, repurpose and repackage it for greater leverage and increased market reach. This is something that is known to work exceptionally well in the information marketing world.

Now it's been discovered that it has been working very well in cartoons too. Cartoons? Yes, cartoons. Disney has successfully been using this concept for years, yet very few people realize it.

It's motivating to see a successful, mega giant like Disney successfully implementing this concept. It makes it so clear that repurposing works. Why start from scratch on every new project when reusing, rerpuposing and repackaging existing content can be done quicker, easier and with a lot less effort?

Don't believe us? Take a look at the video below to see how Disney has successfully reused, repurposed and repackaged its cartoon content.

Please click the image below to start the presentation.
(Duration: 3 min, 28 sec)

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21 Uses of Spectacular Presentations

Pat & Lorna Shanks — Fri, 01 May 2009 16:48:08 +0000

Learn about the top 21 Uses of Spectacular Presentations for your business.

Use Spectacular Presentations robotically to "Engage Your Audience. Experience the Message."

Please click the image below to start the presentation.
(Opens in a new window, duration: 8 min, 10 sec)

To learn more about our services please visit Pat and Lorna at www.SpectacularPresenations.com.

To learn about Pat and Lorna's criteria of working with a new client, please visit our New Client Introduction at
www.SpectacularPresenations.com/newclient.

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Podcast Secrets + An Amazing Faculty = Podcasting Profits

Pat & Lorna Shanks — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 21:16:20 +0000

Podcast Secrets? What secrets?

How would you like to "Recession-Proof" your business with the monetization power of Podcasting… even if you're starting an online business from scratch?

Podcast Secrets, taught by Paul Colligan and Alex Mandossian will give you the tools you need to do just that. Trust us, anything you can learn from Paul and Alex is well worth your time and investment. They are information marketing masters… knowledgeable, insightful and focused on helping you achieve success.

So what will you discover in the Podcast Secrets course?

Take a look…

Strategy Casting – How to Aim Towards Monetization
Ease Casting – How to Podcast Simply and Easily
Growth Casting – How to Grow Your Hungry Audience
Stat Casting – How to Track the Numbers that Matter
Off Casting – How to Get Your Audience to Act
Funnel Casting – How to Profit Directly from Your Audience

And…

If you look at their Podcast Secrets Faculty Page, you’ll notice 12 of the top experts in Internet Marketing, Media Production and Social Media.

How does this work with Podcast Secrets?

This special program includes a solid hour of pitch-free training with each of the faculty members. It will then be followed with a Q&A session.

These will be included in the private membersite and the premium course feed – but there is nothing like being there live!

We have been honored by being included in this year's Podcast Secrets Faculty. So without further adieu… here is the Podcast Secrets 2009 Faculty (In alphabetical order – links open their Twitter accounts):

You’ll notice we’re following all the faculty on the Podcast Secrets’ Twitter Account. We recommend you do the same.

Leesa Barnes – How to Use a Podcast to Fill & Make Money From Any Event
Denis De Bernardy – Semiologic Secrets
Jamie Davis – Lecture 2.0: giving students 24 hour access to the classroom through recorded media and podcasting
Michael Geoghegan – From Podcast To Book Contract In 6 Months Or Less
Jeff Herring – Article Marketing Your Way To A New Audience
Christina Hills – Blogging Basics From The Beginning
Dave Jackson – Working With A Podcast Consultant
Mike Koenigs – Secrets To Web Video
Raymond Chip Lambert – Linked-Into A New Audience
Julie Perry – YouTube Secrets For Podcasters
Dan Safkow – Vendor and Reseller Outsourcing Secrets
Pat and Lorna Shanks – Making Your Audio Podcast Very Visual
Mari Smith – Relationship Marketing Secrets
Mike Stewart – Building The Best Studio For Your Buck
Jason Van Orden – Promoting Your Podcast
“Mr. X” – The Next Generation Of Paid Podcasting

We totally recommend that you invest in Paul and Alex's Podcast Secrets course. With the knowledge imparted by Paul and Alex and the wealth of information shared by all the amazing faculty members, you'll be well on your way to Podcasting Success!

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Podcast Secrets Teleseminar – Boost Your Business with Podcasting

Pat & Lorna Shanks — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 17:00:40 +0000

iPods are everywhere! And there is so much "stuff" that can be downloaded on to these wonderful devices. So how can your business benefit from this? Here's how to get started…

On April 9th, please join our colleagues Alex Mandossian and Paul Colligan when they reveal their closely-guarded "Podcast Monetization Roadmap" that they have been testing for the past 3 years.

If you're pressed for time, see below for your private registration link and VIP Code…

****************************************

Here's your private access link, click it now:
www.ToPodcastSecrets.com

Your VIP Discount Code is: "PC916"
(Save $79 from the normal $99 tuition)

****************************************

Information marketers, authors and publishers:

Because you're reading on, let us get more specific about WHO should attend this call.

If you're an information marketer, author or publisher and you’re frustrated about producing content or events that only a few people consume, then this training is for you.

Paul Colligan and Alex Mandossian have taken the Podcast concept to stratospheric new heights because their new and improved system for Podcast Monetization lets you connect directly with your students, clients and customers with nothing more than a telephone in your hand!

This means you can promote your business not just in a few cities, but world-wide…
… and all at once!!

What you'll learn in just 2 hours:

The "Podcast Monetization Roadmap" is a revolutionary concept for selling more content and information products through the power of a Podcast and the multi-million dollar buzz that the little iPod device has received.

****************************************

Here's your private access link, click it now:
www.ToPodcastSecrets.com

Your VIP Discount Code is: "PC916"
(Save $79 from the normal $99 tuition)

****************************************

In just two hours, Alex and Paul promise to teach you:

* 8 reasons why Podcasting brings them, and can bring you, a critical business (and profit) advantage.

* 7 secrets to producing profitable Podcasting content in the fastest possible time.

* 9 marketing channels for the Podcasters … and how to leverage each one.

* The 6-Step Podcast Monetization Roadmap

* How to part-the-curtain on the listening habits of your audience, and leverage that knowledge to produce profitable audience action.

* At least 5 things, you can implement today that will integrate your Podcast content into your business structure … and how to see results almost instantly.

* 7 steps to getting your Podcast audience to take the very actions you want them to take.

What If You Can't Attend?

We encourage you to register with your VIP Code, even if you can't attend this tele-training because you'll get access to the recordings by the following day. That means you can listen to the call over-and-over again so you don't miss a morsel of content!

They'll even make it available via Podcast so you can get first hand-experience at the process.

Click the private registration link now and remember to type-in your VIP Discount Code so you'll save $79 on your tuition cost.

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Here's your private access link, click it now:
www.ToPodcastSecrets.com

Your VIP Discount Code is: "PC916"
(Save $79 from the normal $99 tuition)

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Busy? Set up Systems to Aleviate the Stress

Pat & Lorna Shanks — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 02:56:51 +0000

In the past few days we've been extremely busy! Sometimes it's hard to believe that life can be THAT busy.

Check out this scenario… family time, important time-sensitive project, and day-to-day business activities… all at once! We don't believe we are alone in this predicament. Have you been there… or somewhere like that?

The cure for this situation? Systems!

While you are working to get your project completed, the other activities in your business start falling behind. But they don't have to. If you set up systems to handle your regular business activities they can happen almost automatically.

Write down the activities you do in one day, then do it again the next day, and the next, and so on. After a few days you should be able to discover which activities you do over and over again… on a regular basis. These are the activities that you can and should systematize.

If these activities can be completed automatically for you or if the time to do them can be cut to a fraction of the normal time, wouldn't that be beneficial? We believe it is.

Some activities that we've developed systems for:

Blog Posts – We write a few when we have time and then have them scheduled to come up in our blog on specific dates.
Spectacular Presentation Creation – We have a specific system and assigned duties when it comes to presentation creation.
Article Writing – Our system for writing articles at times also involves outsourcing, which is another way to get things done faster, better, and with the least amount of effort on your part.

These are our examples. Think about it… what can you systematize?

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Staying Warm with the Power of Social Networking

Pat & Lorna Shanks — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 20:16:51 +0000

EzineArticles.com raised a challenge to its authors to have 5,000 followers on Twitter before the end of 2008. The reward? A very warm Ezine Articles fleece jacket!

With only about two weeks left in the year, we were about 590 followers short of that target. And… with the temperatures hanging around the -25 degree Celsius (-10 degree Farenheit) mark, those fleece jackets were looking very inviting!

So, feeling motivated (and cold), we sent out a few messages on Twitter asking others to help us reach the 5,000 follower mark.

Wow! We were blown away with the results! In a few short days we reached our goal. And now, with two days left in the year, we have a grand total of 5,584 followers.

Previous to sending those messages our followers list did not grow anywhere near that quickly. It was, in our opinion, a miracle… or at the very least, a huge learning.

It was solid proof to us that there is power in social networking. Think about it, if it worked this well to increase follower numbers, what else could be accomplished? Anything! There is power in numbers and in people working towards a common goal. All it takes is someone to ask for help or raise a challenge that others believe in.

To answer a much-asked question… can social networking help your business? We believe it can. There is a lot of help and support available through the social networking channels.

But one last word… karma. You can only get out of something what you put in. By being involved in social networking and by offering your help and support, you may be pleasantly surprised what will be available for you when you ask.

To follow Pat and Lorna on Twitter, go to PatAndLornaOnTwitter.com.
To follow Pat and Lorna on Facebook, go to PatAndLornaOnFacebook.com.

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Why “Progress” Exceeds “Perfection” – The Reason Behind It

Pat & Lorna Shanks — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 07:03:20 +0000

Alex Mandossian of AlexMandossian.com posted an entry on his blog Here's Why "Progress" Exceed Perfection which included the Spectacular Presentation that we've created below.

Well, what is really interesting is that Alex also sent an email to one of his lists called the Wednesday Minute, and we are asking for your help…

Here is a copy of the email that he sent out…

WEDNESDAY ~ December 17th, 2008

It's time for the Wednesday Minute — the weekly audio/video magazine for electronic marketers.

The topic of this week's edition is:

"Why 'Progress' Exceeds Perfection"
http://AlexMandossian.com <— See Dec. 17th video post

In today's edition, I'm conducting a little experiment and I hope you participate with candid feedback.

Here's the thing:

I'm tinkering with changing the Wednesday Minute format from just "audio" to "Online Video."

It's a special type of Online Video called "Spectacular Presentations" and I think it adds more value to
learning than traditional "talking head" video presentations.

But I want YOU to be the judge…

Watch this video on my 12/17 blog post and leave a comment to tell me what you think. OK?

http://AlexMandossian.com <— See Dec. 17th video post

If I get positive feedback on the the new format, I'll continue to utilize it on other Wed. Minutes.

Good Sales,

Alex Mandossian
CEO & Founder
http://HeritageHousePublishing.com

If you like the Spectacular Presentation (a copy can be viewed further down on this post), we are asking that you please make a comment on Alex's blog telling him that you enjoy this format. Here is that blog entry again => Here's Why "Progress" Exceed Perfection

Thanks for your help, we look forward to creating more of these.

– Pat & Lorna

Below is the presentation that he posted on his blog.

Please click the image below to start that presentation.
(Opens in a new window, duration: 10 min, 12 sec)

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It’s Not What You Know, It’s Who Knows You (The Fun Way)

Pat & Lorna Shanks — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 16:00:08 +0000

Just attempting to prove, it's not what you know, it's who knows you.
And of course who you follow also makes a big difference.

And no, it wasn't Pat in the blue suit. But you'll need to watch to find out.

Thanks for Paul Colligan to pointing this out to us.

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Final Teleseminar Secrets YouTube Video

Pat & Lorna Shanks — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 13:00:00 +0000

Alex Mandossian's Teleseminar Secrets … time is running out! December 6 at 5:00 pm PST is the deadline to register for Alex's training that we highly, highly recommend. When Alex says he is "cutting off", he really means it! Don't wait and miss this course.

Go to: www.ToTeleseminarSecrets.com NOW to register.

Please click the image below to start the video.
(Duration: 8 min, 50 secs)

We are proud to support Alex Mandossian's Teleseminar Secrets course and his Internet marketing strategies, as we had a hand in putting together the middle part of his previous video trainings using our www.SpectacularPresentations.com format.

We would also like to support others as we have learned so much from taking Alex's Teleseminar Secrets course. Our gift to you, if you order through our affiliate link at www.ToTeleseminarSecrets.com , is to offer you our Affiliate rebate (Alex's teaches this in the course) of $500 (on top of Alex's $16,949 free bonus gifts which includes his famous preloaded Portable Learn Pod) towards the registration fee for Alex Mandossian's Teleseminar Secrets.

Here's How To Claim Your Rebate

Read the rest of this entry >> .

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Teleseminar Secrets – Watch Alex TV

Pat & Lorna Shanks — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 13:00:03 +0000

The latest movie from Alex Mandossian on his Teleseminar Secrets course.

You really don't want to miss Alex Mandossian's upcoming course on how to make money with teleseminars and (what we like the most) his Internet marketing strategies and tactics.

Alex is going to open up and reveal the identical teleseminar tactics that have made him $1.6 million in 10 months; working-from-home with only one employee!

Sign up today to take advantage of a $79 coupon – meaning you only pay $20 – but only if you use this special link. Teleseminar Secrets $79 Discount Coupon

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