Blue Voda Video Tutorial

Here's a quick video tutorial I made showing just how easy it is to create a website with the free, BlueVoda website building software. Make sure you click on the link below the video to get your software at no cost. Hope this is helpful.






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Educational Marketing – How to Use Educational Marketing to Build Your Online Business

In today's internet age, tolerance for direct solicitation is very low. People nowadays just really detest being sold to. I certainly do, and the same can probably be said for you, too. It seems like every time we check our email, someone is spamming us. We as a people are tired of being worked like this. We want to be presented with information gently, and then be left on our own to decide whether or not we want to buy.

I believe that prospects will be a lot more receptive to you and your business, IF you stop trying to sell your opportunity upfront. Instead of leading with your business, try using “my story marketing” and “educational marketing.” My story marketing is simply conveying your own story, and allowing others to determine for themselves if you are someone they want to work with. If your story resonates with them, they will come to you. Educational marketing is simply adding value when you submit content online.

People will respect you more if you give your knowledge away generously. You will set yourself apart from the other 99% of marketers who try to sell their business upfront. By leading with your story and focusing on adding value, you will be embracing new age marketing. I don't know about you, but I find this to be so much more refreshing and effective. Your prospects will view you as a generous teacher and a non-aggressive marketer. Don't worry, you won't be losing sales by not selling upfront. In fact, you'll probably end up seeing more sales by becoming more approachable.

Instead of pursuing aggressive marketing, you will be using attraction-based/educational marketing, which is how the most successful online entrepreneurs operate. It's proven and it works. I believe you should consider making it your default marketing strategy. So that said, the next time you submit content online, focus on adding as much value as you can. Use video to put together an educational training or write an article that will give people new business ideas.

By being an educator rather a salesman, you will stand out as a genuine person, and people will be more likely to do business with you. Put it this way: if your prospects learn something valuable from your educational marketing, they'll be more likely to trust you and be willing to check out your business opportunity. I think this change in strategy will greatly improve your bottom line.

-Dan
Platinum One Destinations

Embracing a Personal Philosophy of Activity

Today, I want to talk about how important I believe it is for us as internet marketers to embrace a personal philosophy of activity. What I mean is: we need to ensure that we are making progress with our business each and every day. In today's internet age, it's very easy to simulate forward movement without actually doing anything. So that said, we must be cautious that the actions we are undertaking are actually productive and necessary. This is one of the principal assumptions that Tim Ferriss makes in his book, “The 4-Hour Workweek.” He says that we waste way too much time when we're surrounded by things like email, telephone and PDA's. I agree wholeheartedly, and caution all internet marketers to watch out for wasted time in their home offices.

As online entrepreneurs, the only ones to whom we are accountable are ourselves. No one else is going to tell us that we are wasting our time. Therefore, we each need to pay close attention to the way we spend our time while we're on the job. The onus is on us to make sure that we're being productive. In online business, we all know that momentum is key. If we're not constantly moving forward then we're losing momentum. Momentum requires being focused and productive. Thus, having a personal philosophy of activity will allow us to stay on course and never lose momentum.

Here are some suggestions for productive activity and maintaining momentum in your business.

1. Only focus on a few main tasks each day. It's easy to lose time going back and forth between projects, so keep your actions concentrated.

2. Sometimes our computers are like a black hole of lost time. Even as internet marketers, it pays to get away from the computer now and then. Go write an article by hand, or pursue one of your other business tasks that doesn't require you to be at your computer. Doing this from time to time will keep you fresh.

4. At the beginning of every day, write down your top few goals for the day. Having them in writing next to you will make them more difficult to forget and will help keep you organized.

Best,
Dan
Platinum One Destinations

How to Manage Stress As An Online Entrepreneur

People have long compared the life of an entrepreneur to a roller coaster, and rightly so. It's an up and down struggle with no guaranties – a world without salaries and regular paychecks. Profits are only made when our efforts are productive. This is no different for today's internet entrepreneur than it was for entrepreneurs of past generations. Stress for us comes in all shapes and sizes. For some, it results in not having enough hours in the day, or lacking tech savvy. For others, it lies in not being able to generate enough leads to their business opportunity, or being insecure about their own training of new business partners. Whatever it may be, we as internet entrepreneurs need to learn how to manage stress and rise above our challenges. We're in a great industry with enormous potential, but many of us are first time entrepreneurs, so we need to be cognizant of the unavoidable hurdles and learn how to overcome them

One of the ways I teach new teammates how to manage stress is through mindset training. Once a person has a strong mindset, stress will not affect him/her in the same way. A proper mindset allows you to understand that business growth is directly correlated to your own personal growth. You can continually add value for your prospects by becoming a better you. This realization will do wonders in dealing with stress, because it will allow you to remove your emotions from the “yes's and no's.” If a person elects not to join your business, it will not bring you down. This is because you have the equation for success. Improve yourself and your business growth will follow. As long as you are committed to achieving personal growth, your business will improve and stress will become easier to deflect. This one philosophy alone makes entrepreneurship so much easier.

Aside from mindset training, I recommend that you always keep in mind what it is that separates those who succeed from those who don't. It really comes down to the following: have a dream, pursue your dream with intensity and never give up. This may sound really cliché, but if you think about it it's true. Before you begin any entrepreneurial venture, you want to begin with your end goal in mind. If your goals are big and important enough, then nothing will be able to stop you. If your goals don't carry much weight or don't really mean much to you, then they won't pull you through the tough times. Once you start pursuing your dreams, never give up no matter what. Those who succeed just never quit. It's that simple. Obviously you need to be watching your progress, because lots of effort without direction won't get you far either. Having a goal, pursuing it and resolving never to quit should help you overcome any stress you are faced with along the way.

Lastly, overcome stress by taking care of yourself. If you're an internet marketer, then you have the luxury of working from home. You don't have to waste time commuting every day, so use that time to your advantage. Exercise, eat properly and get enough rest! There's no reason why we shouldn't be healthier than our corporate counterparts. Our business success depends on our energy and vitality, so make sure you do everything possible to keep yourself in the best shape!

I hope these suggestions help you on your path to success.

Dan
Platinum One Destinations

Building a Profitable Online Sales Funnel

As an internet marketer, the sales funnel usually begins when a prospect opts-in to your capture page. Your capture page, in essence, is a simple website that a marketer can use to “capture” the contact information of the person who is viewing that website. This capture page is critical to the development of the sales funnel, because without it, you will never be able to build a list of potential customers. Prospects will just visit your site and then leave. This is not what we want. Whenever someone visits our site, what we want is for them not to leave until they give their contact information, thus in effect agreeing to receive future correspondence from us via an email autoresponder.

Now, whether you use pay-per-click advertising, video marketing, ezine articles, or any of the other lead creating techniques, your sales funnel begins when someone gives you their name and contact information. But remember, before you even get to the front end of the sales funnel, you need to master the skill of attracting prospects to your website. This is one of the first critical skills that an internet marketer must learn – how to generate traffic to his/her capture page.

Once you bring a prospect into the sales funnel, it is your job to keep them engaged and interested in what you have to offer. If your correspondence with them via email autoresponder is weak and lacking substance, then you will probably lose them as a future customer. The goal at the beginning of the sales funnel is to prove that you can add value. If you can get your prospects to know, like and trust you, then there is a good chance they will do business with you in the future. My advice is to not try and make money off your prospects at the front end of the sales funnel. This is just my opinion. Many marketers do try to sell some small informational product on the front end, but I don't like to do this. At the beginning of the funnel, my only goal is to add value, and at the same time both qualify and disqualify leads.

With regards to your email autoresponder, I believe you should have frequent follow-up correspondence with your list. Oftentimes, your emails will prove too many for some prospects and they will simply opt out of your list. This is perfectly fine. In fact, we want some people to opt out. That may sound strange, but if someone gets tired reading your emails, then they probably won't have the patience to succeed in your online business. That makes sense, doesn't it?! Weeding out the field is a smart idea. We don't want everyone, we only want the prospects who want what WE have to offer.

Once you begin to establish a relationship with your prospects, you can start marketing to them. This takes place near the middle of the funnel. Maybe you offer a low ticket internet marketing boot camp first, and then later on offer up your high ticket opportunity. Similarly, depending on what you want to do, you can also offer products at the back-end of the funnel, both for those who elect to join your primary opportunity and those who don't. I'll expound upon this idea in one of my next postings. For now, just remember how the sales funnel should function.

1. Sales funnel begins when a prospect opts-in to your capture page.

2. It continues with you adding value via email autoresponder. Send your prospects useful information about online business and succeeding as an internet marketer. I recommend refraining from upfront sales pitches.

3. Once you develop a relationship whereby your prospects start to know, like and trust you, you can then start marketing your lower ticket products.

4. Then move towards marketing your primary opportunity.

5. At the back end, offer products which can both be used by the prospects who join your primary opportunity and those who don't.

I look forward to continuing this discussion on the sales funnel soon.
Take Care,
Dan

Platinum One Destinations

Why You Need a Mentor in Internet Marketing

No matter what business or career you pursue, you can always benefit from the assistance of a mentor or teacher. In all of our professions, we learn the skills of our trade either through our own personal experiences or by being mentored by others. Online business is no different in this respect. In fact, it may be even more necessary in the online world than it is in the offline world, to pair yourself with a leader. This is because many of the skills essential to an internet marketer are not necessarily inherent (i.e., we need someone to teach us). People who have not ventured into internet entrepreneurship probably have never learned about search-engine optimization, attraction-based marketing or pay-per-click advertising. Thus, having a mentor in the online arena greatly increases our chances of success by introducing us to the concepts and strategies we may not have knew existed.

Nowadays, there are so many different ways we can use automation and leverage to our advantage. If we don't have a teacher or a mastermind group, we risk the chance of losing ground to our competition in this respect. A mentor will show us how to employ maximum amounts of automation and leverage in our business, and in turn make us more efficient. There are still great fortunes to be made online, but there is also great competition, so we need every advantage we can afford. Having someone to guide us is one advantage that we should not go without. A simple analogy would be like driving from Maine to California without a map - most likely you would get there eventually, but why would you want to try? As internet marketers and online business owners, we need someone who can show us a roadmap.

Obviously, you want to choose a mentor who shares your own personal philosophy, and who has already made it through the learning curve that you will undoubtedly go through. So, the process of pairing yourself with a teacher and leader might take time, but it will be well worth the effort.


Best,
Dan

Platinum One Destinations