Grow Your Facebook Fan Page Using A Facebook Fan Badge

This article will show you how to “Leverage The Love” of your Facebook Fans to grow your Facebook Fanpage. If you want to get a ton of free traffic and new Fans to your fan page Facebooks new widget might help.

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If you have your own Facebook Fan Page, one way to get your Fans to promote your page is to ask them to place a Fan Badge on their website or blog

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If you are an admin, the best way to show your fans how to put a Fan Badge on their site is to do this yourself first and then educate your Fans by showing them exactly how to do it too. You could make a quick camtasia video and post it on your fan page or direct them to this article. Better still copy the link from the widget you create and post it on your Fan Page. http://www.facebook.com/facebook-widgets/fanbadges.php?page_id=158064879912

Click on the “Promote with a Fan Box” link just below the Fan Page logo image on the left side of the page

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Now select “Widgets Home”

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You will now be taken to the main Facebook Widgets Page : http://www.facebook.com/facebook-widgets/index.php

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Select the “Fan Badge” link

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From the first drop down menu select the Fan Page you want to create the badge for

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You should get a preview displayed on the right of the page

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Now select the text inside the box and Copy it to your clipboard by clicking CTRL C

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Now go to your blog or website. In this example I am using my wordpress.org blog

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Login to the backend of your WordPress blog, http://www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin
Click on “Appearance” and then select “Widgets”

Drag a “Text” widget to one of your sidebars

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Click on ther new widget and paste in your code from Facebook

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Dont forget to click “Save”

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Now visit your website to check everything is working

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In this example I have place the Fan Badge in the left hand sidebar

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Your Fan Badge will now have a live link back to your Favorite Fan Page

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Share The Love

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Get into the habit of sharing your favorite Fan Pages on your Website, It’s probably one of the quickest ways to build a relationship with the admin of any Fan Page and if you share other peoples pages they may reciprocate and share yours.

Facebook Pages – How To Add A Facebook Fan Box To Your WordPress Blog

Get More Fans For Your Facebook Fan Page

Yesterday Facebook released a new application that allows you to place a Facebook Connect widget on your website that links directly to your Facebook fan page

This article will show you how easy it is to add a Facebook Fan box to your blog or website. What this means is that you will be able to attract more Fans to your Facebook page and your prospective fans will instantly see your stream and your other Fans and get some idea about what type of content you will be sharing

Set Up A Facebook Page

You need to have a Facebook Fan page in order to use this application, just scroll to the bottom of your facebook profile and click on “advertising” and then select the “pages” tab and then select “Create A Page”, for more information on how to create a Facebook Page check out this blog post on AllFacebook  – “how to create a Facebook fan page to attract millions of fans” check out Mari Smiths blog post “how  to create and promote a Facebook fan page”

Once you have your fan page set up you can create your fan widget by going to your admin panel, from your page you just click the link Edit Page link that is below your Fan Page Image/Logo

Select “Add Fan Box” Box from your Admin Panel

add a fan box

Now select your Fan page from the drop down menu and facebook will show you a preview of what your Fan Box will look like. If you want to make it smaller just uncheck the boxes that say “include stream” and “include fans” (this might be necessary if you want to improve the load time of your blog or website or if you are limited for space)

Copy  The Java Script Code

copypastecode

Now select all the code by highlighting it (CTRL A, CTRL C (pc) CMD A, CMD C (mac)) and copy it to your clip board. If you are a techie and want to find out a bit more about customizing your widget click on “advanced options” and you will be taken to Facebook developers where they have detailed instructions on how to add a fan box

Go to your blog and log into the admin section, for this example I am using wordpress but the technique should be similar on any other platform

Add A New Text Widget

appearance

From your dashboard , select appearance and then select  “Widgets”

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Now create a new text widget.

Depending on which version of WordPress you are using this will be slightly different, if wordpress 2.8  just drag and drop a text widget to one of your sidebars and place it where you want it to appear. If your blog theme is enabled with footer widgets you might want to place it there as Javascript and Facebook connect are notorious for slowing down your blog load times

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Paste The Code Into Your Widget

Now paste the code from Facebook into your text widget and remeber to click Save

paste code

Now Go And See What It Looks Like!

That’s it all done, wasn’t too painful was it?  All you have to do now is go to your site and see what it looks like

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Advantage Of having A Facebook Fan Box

The main advantage of having a Facebook fan box is that your visitors can become Fans immediatly as long as they are already signed into Facebook. Before this it was a two step process where you had to take people to your Fan page and then convice them to click on the “become a fan” button

What I like even more is that I can see immediatly what content is being shared on a Fan page and who the other members are. All the links are clickable so some marketers might say this is  leak away from having visitors staying on your blog. I personally disagree. I think people are more likely to come back to your blog, engage with your content  and be able to quickly scan your fanpage stream without having to visit Facebook.  If they do decide to leave you have some control over the links that they will visit.

Getting Your Community Connected

The advantages of having your community connected with each other are immense. The more networked your Fans are the more effect any fan interactions will have on facebooks newsfeed. More people will see if their friends are commenting or liking the content that you publish in your stream. Your aim is to create and own an  integrated network of Fans where information and news spreads rapidly and your fan page is the centre and hub  that this revolves around.

If your blog is hosted on WordPress.com

A number of readers have discovered that it’s not possible to add this widget to free wordpress.com blogs. This is mainly due to  a restriction on allowing Javascript code to be placed on their servers. If this is the case the only solution I can suggest  if you want to have your own Facebook Fan Box is to move your blog over to WordPress.org and purchase your own domain name and hosting. You can buy a domain name for $10 from Godaddy and get cheap hosting from Hostgator

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Social Traffic – An Honest Review From A Raving Fan

The Conversation Has Already Started

This article is my personal  review of Simon U Ford’s new book Social TrafficEvent Marketing In A New Media Scape which is  launched later this week.

I was one of the first people to get to read the whole book so I will attempt to be as honest as I can.  My opinions are somewhat biased since I freely admit I have been converted to a raving fan.

A Good Introduction

I first heard about Social Traffic while  I was finishing my own book , The Facebook Strategies Guide, Simon sent me a personal invitation to join his new group in a way that made me take notice. I wrote about this in a previous blog post about how to stand out from the crowd.  We quickly became friends when we realized  that both of us  understood the essence of conversational marketing and wanted to share this with a much wider audience. Simon also had much bigger plans which soon became apparent as he revealed his visions for the future.

Well Written And Easy To Read

I want to begin this review by stating that his book is very well written,  any of you who have been exposed to his writing style will  know he is a master wordsmith. Its 139 pages long so you can read it all in an afternoon. If  you are anything like me you will be busy clicking all the links and discovering  a whole new arena of useful resources and possibilities.

Social Media Strategy

After Simon sets the stage with an overview of  the rapid changes in our media landscape and where he believes it  is heading, he introduces event marketing and places it in a modern online context.  He emphasizes the importance of  Facebook, Twitter and Online Video. and gives a thorough introduction to the basic elements of each platform and their respective potentials.   Simon’s book overlaps very nicely with my own book  the  Facebook Strategies Guide for space reasons he omited much of the practical strategies and technical details but still shows an expert  understanding of how these platforms need to be used in combination all linking into each other and creating an integrated syndicated network.

Article Marketing

Simon then shares his own article marketing techniques,  explaining the linking structures he uses to build his web presence to dominate a broad range of keywords that then circulate link juice and traffic to his blogs and website.

Email Marketing

For me the best part of the book is the way Simon focuses on the importance of building relationships with your customers. He explains in a simple and conscise way  how you can automate this process and segment your email lists and structure your marketing campaigns.  Simon is one of those people who loves to test and track so you can be guaranteed that his results are based on hard facts  not conjecture. He reveals his  expertise at email marketing and  managing multiple auto responder  lists and gives you models you can replicate. Holding the right conversation with the right people at the right time is the key to his success and the beauty of it all is once everything is set up  it can run on autopilot sending targeted people into yoru sales funnel.

Launching An Event

In the final part of he book examines the steps you need to take to launch an event, while Simon focuses on physical events like parties and social gatherings,  the same principles can be applied to launching any product or service. He explains how to get your customers to become the evangelist for your product so all the selling gets done by your fans and loyal supporters. He gives a step by step sequence that you can use to build revolving door marketing campaigns so you can maximise your returns.

Do You Get Value For Money?

Most marketing gurus who launch a low priced info product  or ebook only  give  incomplete and  partial information, their products are little more than  thinly disguised sales pitches for  a higher priced product.

A Generous Helping

This book is different, Simon shares all his resources and information  generously,   explaining  the services he uses to build and maintain his organization and how you can replicate the same systems in your own business. You will probably not get past the first 10 pages before you are off clicking the links and visiting some of these little know websites  he recommends.  Like 5 different types of mind mapping software you can get on the internet or the services you need to subscribe to enabling you to  link and syndicate all your social networking profiles together so with one email you can send information to a whole range of platforms. At $47 this book is a steal. I already know  Simon has deliberately undervalued it and will almost certainly be raising the price  in the future.

Gems and Golden Nuggets

The later sections are as packed with valuable gems and gold nuggets as the beginning.  Put aside several hours to do it full  justice, I guarantee it will be time well spent. Don’t make the mistake of getting it and then letting it gather dust on your hard disc

Community Benefits

What is also important is the community that is gathering around the Social Traffic group on Facebook .  Having all our members read the whole book allow us to take the conversation to the next level. It creates a solid foundation for us all to build on and ensures that everyone is working from the same common understanding.

Birth Of A New Revolution
When you are there at the start of a new revolution do you actually know it is taking place or is it only years later that you can look back and see that definite point in time where a cultural shift happened  and that you were an active participant in shaping history

A Global Party
I have a friend  who told me what it was like to be at  Woodstock. He was there back in 1969,  he knew all the organisers and  was an active part of the social movement that grew from that muddy field.   I always love to hear him  give his  first hand account  of what happened and the people involved, its the personal stories that are much more fascinating than all the media hype that has grown around this mythical event .   I feel like we are  being invited to another Woodstock but this time the party is Global and anyone who buys a ticket can attend.

To get your copy of the book go to

http://tinyurl.com/socialtrafficnow

Act Soon Or You Will Miss Out
The doors open at 8.00 am on Tuesday EST. The book has been limited to 1000 copies. This is  not to create a false sense of scarcity  but to allow a real community to grow around it. A larger number or readers would become unmanageable as  they would not be able to get the same support and personal participation that is being offered in  our  Social Traffic group.  Make sure you are on the train and not left behind at the station. I know there are some people who will ignore my advice and will end up missing out but then that’s part of life isn’t it, as the old saying goes, “The early bird catches the worm”

So here is the link again just so you don’t forget,

http://tinyurl.com/socialtrafficnow

If you have enjoyed this post you can  follow me on Twitter and get my latest updates.
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Its Time For Collective Action – Web 3.0 Is Transforming Our Planet

If you are reading this post on Facebook  and would like to watch the video please visit my blog

http://www.iandavidchapman.com/

Clay Shirky – Here Comes Everybody

[youtube]http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=A_0FgRKsqqU[/youtube]

Group Network Theory

If you want to begin to understand the direction that the internet is moving and if you want to harness the power of groups in your own business then spending 42 minutes watching Clay Shirky is time well spent

Clay Shirky explains group network theory in a simple and easy to understand way  and I have begun applying his models to various situations and circumstances which I will explore in later blog posts. His basic premise is that groups go through 4 stages of development

1.  Sharing

2.  Conversation

3. Collaboration

4. Collective action

Tools To Change The World

Social Media has given us the tools to move rapidly through each of these stages and its now up to us as global internet citizens  to decide what type of future  we would like to create. The groups and networks you create today will be shaping the course of future history.  We have never had such an opportunity or such freedom for collective creative expression as we do today.

We Have A Dream

So I would like to invite you to share your own vision for our collective future. How would you like to  start this conversation , to be open to the possibility that no one person can dream it all on their own, that  it has to be a collaborative effort.  Can we look for ways to bring our collective force to bear fruit and manifest into this world, for each individual to be empowered to take actions that are coordinated towards our joint vision.

Out On The Edge

This is what I am passionate about and this is the main reason  why I got involved in Social Media in the first place. Its an exciting time to be alive to witness this moment in history and I feel we are much  further out on the edge than any of us really imagine. Those of you who I have spoken to personally will understand where I am coming from when I say this.

Circle Of Trust

Another friend Simon U Ford has been asking us to start recognizing the groups that we belong to and to begin to deepen those relationships. To think about building our circles of trust with those who we most resonate with.  Without the need for any rulebook,  allowing these natural structures to coalesce and begin forming on their own. Freely  giving our energy and attention to these people and these groups.

Sharing

Sharing with a friend is free.  Sharing with a friend adds value, Sharing with a friend shows that you care.

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Email Persuasion – 7 Reasons Why You Need To Put Your Email Messages On A Slimming Diet

In my previous post I explored why many
of the top Internet Marketing Gurus
craft their emails in a certain style

Skinny People Make More Money Online, Fat People  Get Ignored !!

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Following on from that I wrote a quick 7 point list
showing the reasons why writing narrow email messages
will increase you response rate and make your communication
more effective

1)  Narrow Messages Are Easier To Read

A narrow  message  allows you to scan through it  quickly.  Your message can be absorbed in a single glance. The foveal vision in our eyes can only see detail in a small  area of the screen; Everything on the periphery is ignored. Peripheral vision is designed to detect movement.  Always be  respectful of human physiology.

2) We Are  Conditioned  To  Read Newspaper Columns And Magazine Print

Our  brains are already trained to read things in this format so make your messages feel  familiar, Observe the style of your favourite print newspaper or magazine and replicate it in your messages

3) People Have A Limited amount Of Time And  Attention

By making your message brief and to the point you are respecting peoples time. If you don’t grab peoples attention in the first 3 seconds you will lose them so summarize your whole email in the first sentence so busy people can decide if they want to read further

4) Mobile Devices Will Be The New Way People Consume Information On The Internet

Ipod,  Iphone, Nokia N95,  Amazon Kindle;  A whole new generation of technology is awaiting  adoption by the mainstream, look ahead and make sure you can communicate across the platforms of choice

5) As People Get  Older Their Eyesight Can Degenerate

The number of older people using the internet is increasing.  Don’t alienate a huge potential audience. Use large sans serif fonts  and  choose 14 or 16 point text. For someone with poor eyesight a well formatted email made up of short sentences is much easier to read than a huge block of text

6) You Can Take Total Control Of Your Formatting.

Using hard carriage returns ensures your message will be read exactly  as you intended it to be on any browser and in any device.  If you are using embedded hypnotic commands and emotional triggers this can be crucial to their effect and overall impact

7) You Want People To Take Action

You want people to read your  message  and know  what you want them to do next. Top marketers usually  convey the essence of their entire message in the opening sentence followed by an immediate call to action. they include several links at different places and  they use services like tinyurl.com to make their links shorter and more attractive.

Share With Your Friends
If you enjoyed this post please share it with your friends, you might also consider subscribing to my full RSS feed so you never miss a future post

Follow Me
Be sure to check out the rest of my blog
http://www.iandavidchapman.com
And follow me on Twitter
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This post was inspired by a Marketing Online Live Podcast  from Paul Colligan and Alex Mandossian. I Love Ed Dale in case you were wondering and hope he has a good sense of humour


Reframing The Current Financial Crisis – Will You Get Swept Away In The Storm

The World Is Going To End?

When you are bombarded with information scaring you into believing the world is going to end, are you going to accept it blindly?, do you ever question It’s source ?, can you assess the fact from the fiction? In who’s hands is the real power to change the world? Can we as global citizens bear any responsibility or are we just innocent pawns to be sacrificed in a much bigger game?

Out In The Desert

I would like to tell you a story about a time I was caught in a flash flood and witnessed a disaster turn into something beautiful

Years ago when I was on my world travels  l  attended a festival  in the Negev desert, about 100km south of the Dead sea in Israel

Deep Division And Conflict

There were maybe 1500 people there, all camping out and living in a temporary community in  an inhospitable environment. All our water came in by tanker and we all had to get used to a very different way of life. It was a spiritually oriented festival and there were people there  from all backgrounds and religions. The camp had a lot of organisational problems and there was constant  arguing and negativity and the deep divisions between the different groups of people were brought to the surface. Some of the orthodox Jews took offence when more liberal minded  people wanted to wander around naked. You can  probably  imagine the conflicts in the kitchen with everyone’s particular food issues coming out.  What was supposed to be an experiment in tolerance and religious openness turned into different groups wanting to impose their belief systems on each other.

The camp was set in the desert and the only flat land suitable to camp on was in the valley of a dry river valley. Desert Waddi’s  are notorious for violent flash floods and we were in constant communication with the National Park Rangers who were keeping us informed about potential dangers.

A Warning

A week into the camp we received a warning that it had been raining in the mountains 50 km away and that we were in potential  jeopardy. The camp organisers went around telling everyone but as it was a beautiful sunny  day no one paid any attention. Most of the people came from the city and were not aware of the risk  or thought it was just another false alarm.

Not A Cloud In Sight?

I had a prophetic  dream the night before showing me the coming  flood.   I heeded the warning and  decided to move my tent.  My nearest neighbour was laughing at me saying  that there was no chance it was going to rain, the sky was a clear blue and there was not a cloud in sight, I moved my tent anyway despite her derision.

A Raging Torrent

Half an hour later  the first  trickle of water arrived in the camp. Those who knew what was coming quickly rushed to the car park and moved their vehicles. The majority just ignored the water and carried on with their normal activities.  Another 10 minutes passed and the trickle  turned into a small stream which rapidly grew into a  raging torrent 40 metres wide ripping  through the centre of the camp sweeping  away personal belongings,   tents, sleeping bags and air mattress.

Assessing The Damage

It was a miracle that no one was killed and an hour later after the flood was  over   we began to assess the damage. This apparent disaster brought the community together. Half the kitchen was swept away and  many people had lost everything but the spirits were  high, there was a joy and lightness that spread through  the camp there was no more arguing or religious debates and everyone pulled together to clean up the mess and rebuild the camps  infrastructure.

Being  in the Holy  Land that had seen so much conflict and bloodshed and in  the very place where prophets had gone to seek their enlightenment my heart was touched by the changes that occurred.  People putting aside their beliefs and differences  to solve a collective problem.

It’s A Wonderful Life

The Current world  financial situation has some interesting  parallels,  it’s not like there haven’t been enough warnings. Anyone who has tracked the price of gold for the past year will know that the people who understand the problems have little faith in  the value of paper money.

Those who moved their vehicles out of the way or re-pitched their tents on higher ground will come out relatively unscathed but will still have to live in the same communities with those who might lose everything. If you have ever seen the film “It’s a Wonderful Life” you will remember how unstable things can be when people lose confidence in their banks and how unscrupulous people take advantage and even engineer such situations in order to profit. The moral of this story was the same, when the hero was faced with apparent disaster  the community came together to help.

Timing And Terminology

I don’t buy into the fear mongering  and panic  that is currently being propagated by the worlds media. I do  believe we are in the midst of  a massive flood but  we have a choice how we handle apparent disasters such as this.  I only have to look at the timing in regards to the American Presidential Election and the  terminology they are using to recognise there is some serious negative branding and manipulation taking place.

Market Confidence

The world’s financial system is run on market  confidence, The money we spend is not real it is just a printed promise that there is gold in the bank to back up our pieces of paper. Governments and banks  can’t keep printing more money or lending money they don’t have. The buck has to stop somewhere and  when a crisis like this is reached a rebalancing has to take place.

What Do You Focus Your Attention On

When Rome was in flames I wonder if the citizens were thinking about their once great empire or were more concerned about getting out of the current situation alive, and protecting their community and loved ones.  Did they have any  leaders they could trust and rely on or were they merely pawns in a much larger game? Are we seeing the first flames that will engulf a global economic empire that might then plunge us back into a dark age or is it a localised fluctuation,  a shift in regional balances of power?

An Environmental Perspective

Reality can sometimes be hard to face and from an environmental perspective  any country that consumes most of the world resources and blatantly  pollutes the atmosphere in order to maintain  a high standard of living for its privileged citizens is  going to face some  kind of checking mechanism at some point.

The Media Shapes Our Beliefs And Attitudes

In our modern world this  next episode  will be documented and live for all to watch on their TV and computer screens . How many people actually realise that a lot of the problems stem for mass media shaping our belief systems  and lifestyles in the first place, It’s the hedonistic  consume now pay later lifestyle that has been fuelling  much of our modern economy.  Its not a sustainable  model and the sooner people wake up to this fact the better.

Faith In Our Leaders?

I have little faith in our global leaders to handle these problems, they are like bickering children who never listen to each other  and  organised like  street gangs that defend their own neighbourhoods using fear and violence. Killing each other to have control of the black liquid  drug that keeps them from going cold turkey.

Reframe A Crisis Into An Opportunity

I think the solutions will  be found in the global communities that are now  emerging,  visionary thinkers and enlightened leaders are needed who can see beyond the immediate problems and reframe a crisis into an opportunity.

Our Survival As A Species

We have a chance to do things in the right way. One that respects the interconnectedness of our  global system on all levels and places  our   survival as a species in a more realistic framework and timescale. If we are forced to live out the Malthusian model then war and famine will be resulting checking mechanisms.

An Economic War Fought On  A Global Spreadsheet

An Economic war can be just a painful and devastating  as one fought with guns and bombs. Few places in the world won’t be touched by the resulting shock waves.  These shockwaves will  be caused by a few blips on a computer screen as the Politicians and economists  adjust the numbers on a  global economic spreadsheet so their figures match up.  When you  cook  the books eventually the  auditors will come knocking and demand you pay your taxes.

Don’t Buy Into The Panic

We don’t need to buy into the panic and amplify it any more than is necessary. The real problems are  rooted  in our minds and this is where we each have a personal responsibility to end the conflict. A world controlled and ruled by religious fanatics of whatever denomination is always going to be a poisoned world.  Some worship  money while others worship the distorted words of middle eastern prophets but all seem to want to impose their beliefs on each other  and are convinced of their own righteousness.

You Have  A Choice

I know deep  in my heart that each of us has a choice what type of world we will live in . We are all connected,  our ancestors  come from the same mother,   we all breath the same atmosphere,  we all  drink the same water , we all walk on the same earth that gets its life and energy from the same sun that shines

Please Comment

I welcome your  comments and ideas on this topic  and any visionary insights  you can offer. The reason I ask you to comment is just to acknowledge that you have read my words.  A blank and empty space is as much  appreciated  as a long reply. I hope that in this apparent disaster I have done my bit to bring the community together.

For those who would like to read some of touching comments my friends have written on Facebook you can follow this link – Click here to read the comments on my Facebook Notes

Share With Your Friends

If you enjoyed this post please share it with your friends, press the share button on the top right if you are reading this in Facebook, if you have a blog,  send a link to this post so more people can find it.  If you are on Twitter retweet the link to all your peeps.

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Membership Websites – Who Do You Spend Your Time With?

Why Should I Bother Joining  A Paid Membership Site?

This was my first thought when I first became interested in using the internet for developing my business. I couldn’t understand why I would need to pay someone to have access to a community , especially since there was a free community that I can access all the time on sites like Facebook. After joining several paid membership sites I soon realised there were very good reasons for being part of an exclusive club.

Who Do You Spend  Your Time With?

Who you spend your time with can greatly determine your level of success .  You are influenced by other peoples beliefs and ideas. If you have no money and you spend  everyday in the company of millionaires it won’t be long before their financial success start to rub off on you. Equally if you spend most of  you time with happy positive people you will tend to develop the same positive outlook on life.

Putting People In Boxes

While I generally don’t like to put people into boxes, from my observations  I have noticed distinct categories of people emerging .  I have been forced to generalise and exaggerate in order to define these categories more clearly. In reality the boundaries are quite permeable and  you might identify with several at the same time or observe your own transitions through a number of  phases.

Different People Join Different Types Of Membership Sites

Different people   tend to join different types of membership sites and I wanted to examine the reasons behind this and understand the key factors to consider before joining a membership website. Who owns and runs the membership site is equally as important as who  the other members are and it pays to do a bit of research before parting with your money.

1. The Well Established

These people are already successful and have an established online presence.

They tend to own multiple  websites, usually in targeted niches and have a solid sales funnel in place that attracts people to become their customers . They have back end products and services to offer and  they tend to be quite visible and promote themselves and their business in an active way. These are the types of people who set up membership sites, coaching programs and other types of continuity programs.  They are highly networked and work together with other successful people leveraging each others talents to grow  each others  businesses. They look at their customers and clients from a lifetime perspective and therefore place a high value on their reputation.

2. Just Arrived And Learning Fast

These people are successful offline and want to  realise their full potential on the Internet

They want to learn how to expand their business and leverage their time more effectively. They don’t have much time to learn the best strategies through trial and error so they pay experts  to help them achieve their intended results much faster. They have a lot of existing commitments to their offline business and feel that there is a lot  they need to learn. Because they already have many of the necessary business skills and available capital to invest in their online business they will rise quickly to join those already established. These people will join paid membership sites because they want to mix with other serious people who are moving in the same direction. They have valuable talents and experience to offer and an established network of offline contacts, the  benefits travel in both directions. These people always have a competitive advantage because of the people they have access to. Their reputations give them instant credibility and they would survive and flourish whatever environment you throw them into.

3. In Transition

These people are facing major changes in their lives, its like they are riding two horses at the same time and haven’t decided which one the prefer

You often find people who want to change careers or who are  retired in this group,  they want to create a supplemental income. These people tend to  view their business as a hobby, they like to dabble and experiment,  to get their toes wet and feel the temperature of the water.  They  place  their own security as  a high priority and are cautious about investing their hard earned money in training and coaching and  although they feel this would benefit them they tend to be procrastinators and conservative by nature.

The lucky ones will  be attracted to join the right membership sites that will nurture and develop their talents, by associating with people who are successful they are pulled up to the same level, a good membership site will push them out of their comfort zone and challenge their limited thinking with new Ideas and potential opportunities

The unlucky ones will join membership  sites that often start out well and then fade into nothing. Because these people tend not to be leaders themselves they often join membership sites that are run by a sole charismatic individual , they want someone to tell them what to do  but they don’t always follow the advice. These types of membership sites often fizzle out because they are fuelled by the members enthusiasm which soon fades after the initial excitement.

4. Strugglers

Strugglers are people who have already  taken the plunge, they have put their lives on the line and often take serious financial  risks. Many have lost money, investing in products that don’t work or in teachers who don’t come up with the goods. Their online business is doing poorly, they tend to be unorganised and suffer from self doubt and limiting beliefs. They aspire to be rich and live the Internet life but seem to be putting hours into their business and  never getting anywhere.  They spend more time working in their business than on their business. They tend to join the wrong types of membership  programs, They are either out of their depth or their  poor working habits are  unconsciously sabotaging  themselves. 70% of internet marketers fall into this category and unfortunately many unscrupulous  “Guru’s”   prey on these types as they have money and  are willing to spend. These types of people will fall prey to the scarcity tactics and high pressure selling. They want to belong to the elite but deep down don’t feel they are not worthy and don’t deserve to be rich. They are often jaded and  negatively  criticise others who are more successful. These types of people often have debt problems from poorly managing their finances. They can seem  like a desperate person drowing,  because they will grab onto you and might pull you under if you let them.

Expect Unreliability

If you are serious about growing your business these can be  the worst types to associate  with. They  will suggest  JV partnerships and expect  you to do all the work or they will promise to do something and then let you down and  will waste your time and energy because they want you to solve their problems. Unless you are a life coach and your actual  job is too help these people I would suggest avoiding  them  for businesses purposes.

Don’t Let Them Drag You Down

Its  O.K.  to be this way and I am sure many of us can recognise it as a phase we might have gone through at some point in our lives . We either sink or we learn to swim. I am  not making any judgements here only to suggest that associating with people like this can bring you down especially if you are not firmly established in either of the first two categories.

5. Hopefuls

These people are total newbie’s and who have  never run a business before, they are bright eyed and exited about all the possibilities available to them, They don’t have the experience to tell the real from the fake and often become targets for unscrupulous marketers who promise to fulfil all their dreams and then don’t deliver the goods.

They will tend to join all the free membership sites and won’t understand the true value of a paid service.  This is good for you if you are a member of a paid membership site you know that everyone there is probably past this stage in their development. One of the reasons a paid club is so useful is that it creates an entry barrier. The higher the price  ypu pay the more serious you can expect the members to be.

Can You Spot A Rising Star?

Many membership sites have tiered entry levels so the newbie is not excluded. They might  have  bronze, silver, gold and platinum membership levels. It acts as a filtering process, not all hopefuls and newbie’s are  a problem, many of them will become the next generation of leaders and its good to have a way to spot who these people are.  If you help a rising star you can be sure that they will repay that loyalty in the future.

6. Pyramid People

MLM type people focus on recruiting  people into their down lines  or promote viral traffic schemes and get rich quick offers. The ones that succeed and do well are energetic, charismatic and brag about the lifestyle and success  that they have achieved. They neglect to tell you about the people under them who spent money on training and buying leads only to discover  that they don’t have the right personality for network marketing and have burned out all their friends and contacts. This industry uses the 99-1 principle. For every 1 person who succeed there are 99 who fail.

Religious Fanatics?

They act in the same way religious fanatics do, they want to convert everyone  to join their church.  They will often have paid membership schemes that look identical on the outside to other membership sites. How can you tell the difference, you might not even  suspect that your membership site might be a front for an unscrupulous pyramid scheme.

Do Your Research

One thing I always do is  Google the company name and  the directors names  along with the word scam, you can be sure if they have a history there will be others who have voiced their complaints and concerns. If they have a solid reputation you can expect to find evidence to back this up. Not all MLM businesses  are out to scam you but its your own personal responsibiliy  to discover if you are dealing with a legitimate organisation.

7. Bottom Feeders

Those are people who jump from one opportunity to another,  wanting to succeed but never implementing any of the strategies and consuming internet products like McDonalds Hamburgers – they tend to be  habitual failures and spend all their money on products  and courses that they never even finish.

If You Dig A Well You Should  Keep Digging In The Same Place

Like a person digging a well they keep starting one hole and then moving to begin another, never digging deep enough in one place to reach water. They tend to be more desperate and often console themselves with excuses and poor me stories. Much like the third category these people often don’t have a business . They might have registered a few domains and have a free blog account somewhere, but their online presence is a  trail of disaster, They will be trying to sell you products from  2004 on websites that they were duped into buying and   they have the master resale right to 100 other outdated products.  They are running their internet empire form under their duvet,   never waking up and getting out of bed   or  taking the step away from their couch to put any of their ideas into practice. They want a business that they can set and forget, they want to press a button and get paid.

Internet Parasites?

These types of people spend too much time in online forums,  you will  find them in all the free membership websites pontificating and hiding behind false names and profiles, they are often likened to parasites that sweep from one fad to the next. Following 6 months or more  behind the cutting edge, coming to feed after all the low hanging fruit is taken, always hungry. They will be the ones who are desperately spamming  your inbox begging for crumbs of  your attention. They are the sort of people who you  definitely don’t want to partner up with.

Freebie Hunters

You won’t normally find them in the Paid membership sites because the know where they can get everything for free. They view paid sites as a waste of money because they don’t understand the value of forming  real relationships and creating business partnerships. They tend to be  selfish and self centred and that is why they stay stuck where they are. Sites like Facebook protect you from the worst offenders in this category but some still slip through the net.

Read Part Two – How To Choose The Membership Site That Is Right For You

If you have enjoyed this article be sure to read part two where I examine the questions you need to ask to  find the membership site that suits you best. Check out my blog http://www.iandavidchapman.com or watch your news feed on Facebook.

Be Informed

Those of you who know me won’t be surprised by what comes next. There is a reason behind me writing this article, I want you to be as informed as possible and also to point you towards a  membership website that is different in many ways.

Master Buisiness Builders Club

It’s a membership website that has cutting edge Web3.0 Video  tools and has an impressive team of experts filling it with valuable content each and every month. It was created by Travis Greenlee and Mitch Meyerson,   and its called  the Master Business Builders Club.

Click this link if you want a quick guided tour, its my affiliate link so I get a commission  if you decide to join. The first month is totally free so it’s a no brainer really.  You will  have  access to tons of training material to help you grow your business  and can partcipate  weekly teleseminars and mastermind groups, check out the notice board  for who is coming up this week.

Going Round And Round In Circles?

I spent several hours last night coaching a friend who wanted some insights into her money and abundance issue.   This article is a result of that session and I thought I would share it with my friends as I really liked  the metaphors that we developed.

If You Jump In The River You Get Wet

Abundance is flowing all the time. The universe’s grace is there for all to receive. You just have to place yourself in its path/stream. If you jump in a river you get wet, if you stay on the bank or just dip your toes you don’t get carried to where the current runs the fastest

Beware Of Hidden Obstacles

Even if you are in the water can you see clearly how the water is moving you? In a river there are sometimes hidden obstacles or obstructions underwater that cause surface objects to move in circles and get trapped in a current or eddy. Constantly revolving but not actually moving forward with the main flow of the river .

Friction Will Hold You Back

This tends to happen towards the edges close to the banks, in the main flow these movements are carried forward by the power of the whole river. Where the water is moving more slowly there is more friction from the bank,  hidden rocks, tree branches and other obstacles that can’t be seen.

Going Round In Circles

When you run up against hidden conditioning and belief structures  no matter how much you hold the vision and see yourself getting the results you desire you will find yourself going around in circles and then complain that the Law of Attraction doesn’t work for you.

Blaming Is Only Shifting Responsibility

This applies equally to your personal life and your business. If you are not getting to where you want to be in life stop looking outside, blaming the government or the recession or your childhood or your wife or your parents or your employer or business partner. Blaming is not a way to get free of the friction that is stopping you reaching the centre of the stream and the main currents of life, it is just a way of shifting responsibility.

Are You Missing Something Important

You might not even realise you are going round and round in circles because you are in the water and you appear to be moving. You  insist that you are doing everything right but deep down you know that you  are missing something really important

Do You Have Clear Reference Points

What you are missing is clear reference points. Ways to calibrate and measure. If you can see a point on the bank or can see another object moving in the river you will soon realise  you true situation. People who are lost in the wilderness and who don’t have a compass will almost always find themselves walking around in circles. Until they learn to navigate by the sun and the stars or  by the bark on the trees they will stay lost.

Experience Is What  Counts

A life  or business coach  is like a strong swimmer who has experience navigating  the river and can dive down under the water to see what is really going on. They know where  the obstacles are and can intervene to nudge you back into the main flow. The best coaches are those who actually know from personal experience what it’s like to be trapped in the eddies and tangled in the roots of old patterns and limiting beliefs. They have the skills to survive and adapt in any situation or circumstance, they can read nature like a book and follow its silent guidance. They can help you make the maps you need and plan your future direction of travel.

Coaches

If you are reading this on Facebook you will see that many of the people I have tagged in this note are already coaches of some description, they might not call it that directly but their business is  about helping others to achieve success. They have their own specialisations so get to know your coach and make sure they have the experience that is relevant to your own personal needs. Even coaches need coaching, the best ones always know the limits of their own experience and are honest with themselves and their clients.

Free Consultation

I  would like to offer a free 20 minute consultation  to anyone who is serious about hiring my services.  I have gained  my PHD from the University of Life,  I have followed a few rivers from their mountain sources  all the way to the ocean,   I’ve also lived in deserts and trekked through several jungles.

Intuitive Skills

I rely a lot on my intuition which I have spent years developing and honing.  I am happy to apply my varied skills and talents to help you see clearly what you need to do in order to succeed.  If you want to live your  life and run your business in a way that doesn’t compromise you spiritual values  then working with me can bring you great benefits.

Contact Me


My skype name is :  ian.david.chapman feel free to add me as a contact have a chat

You can also contact  me directly through  Facebook  http://www.profile.to/ianchapman

or  on Twitter – http://www.twitter.com/iandavidchapman

or send  me an email –  ian@iandavidchapman.com

Many of the comments to this post are on Facebook, you can read them all and see the people who I tagged by following this link – going round in circles?

When The Universe Is Trying To Tell You Something

Many people who teach law of attraction and abundance are faced with the issues that it always brings up in their lives. Just what are they attracting to themselves and can they listen to the messages the Universe is trying to teach them.

Social Media Marketing System
This article will explore the recent re-launch of the Social Media Marketing System (SMMS) and explain from an insiders perspective some of the issues and controversies that were brought to the surface during this process.

I spent four hours last night on the phone to Brian Campbell going over these details and analysing the successes and failures, taking the lessons that we learned so that we can improve on what went well and to avoid some of the tactics that are now obviously outdated and no longer as effective

Free training
Brian Campbell began the re-launch of SMMS over a month ago, during the first week of June, he had intended to bring the launch to a conclusion around summer solstice on 21st of June. Everything was running smoothly and in the first week about 800 people had signed up for the free training that he was offering.

A Spanner In The Works
Brian hit the first major snag just as he was just about to release a new set of trainings. His internet hosting company had let him down and he was forced to migrate servers. Which meant shutting down SMMS for 2 and a half days while he worked non stop to get the system up and running again. His main concern was to ensure the quality of service to all his existing paying members and he had no choice but to put the launch on hold while he dealt with these technical difficulties.

This was like putting a bucket of water on the fire, the momentum that he had built up until then was frustrated and he was forced to re-schedule his plans.

Tickets Already Booked
Brian Had already set the date for handing over the $10,000 cheque to John Chow in Vancouver , his flight tickets were booked weeks before and all the arrangements were set. He was forced to improvise and the media publicity that he had hoped from the $10,000 cheque couldn’t be used as effectively as he had once intended

A Change in Direction
Brian then decided to change tactics and instead of going for the soft launch that he had had originally planned he chose to go for the all out in your face full frontal attack . Using the aggressive marketing tactics that have been so prevalent in the internet marketing world in the past.

A Viral Buzz
He launched P.R.I.S.M and created a huge Buzz on Facebook, the group grew extremely rapidly and had a massive viral effect because of the number of people who were posting on the group wall and making videos. His main leverage this time was not based on the quality of what he was teaching but was more focused on using scarcity tactics, exclusivity and the carrot of giving away another $15,000.

Old Tactics Leave Some People Jaded
It was a masterful display of the power that these psychological marketing methods can have over some people. And the were successful to an extent

I am not a personal fan of this type of marketing and in my opinion I think he may have turned a lot of people off. I had my reservations and maybe even damaged my own reputation by supporting him and promoting what he was doing to many of my own group members. It was a good learning experience and I know for future situations how I will choose to respond.

Many of those who have been around for a while are jaded by these old school strategies of false scarcity and emotional manipulation. Its exciting to watch but when the dust settles it leaves a strange taste in the mouth because they are not rooted in the principles of wealth and abundance that underlies a lot of what Brian normally teaches

The Rules Have Now Changed
Social Media has changed this whole game. Everything is much more transparent and real time comments and analysis expose the fact that a lot of people don’t appreciate this way of operating.
What might have worked for the past 5 years no longer has the same effect, this was clearly revealed in the recent Stompernet launch and the subsequent backlash that was expressed on Rick Butts blog

John Reese who just launched his Traffic Secrets 2 course deliberately avoided using any type of scarcity tactic in his sales presentation. As a guy who tests and tracks everything you can be sure he is aware of the latest trends and this was the reason for his decision.

Bad Timing
The final difficulties that Brian faced were due to the setbacks and timing of his launch. This had pushed him up to the fourth of July Weekend and he needed to bring it to a conclusion before then.

The massive attention that he had hoped would go towards his sales letter was distracted by the holiday period which meant that the results that he had hoped for were slightly less than he had anticipated and while it was still successful and many new members joined SMMS there are still many people who could greatly benefit who chose not to participate. Let this be a lesson to all those who plan on launching a product or service in the future pay careful attention to the public holidays and social calendar so you can have everyone’s full and undivided attention.

Health Issues
After 3 months of burning the candle at both ends Brian finally took a short break over the holiday weekend and gave himself the rest that he needed and deserved. He discovered that he needed more time to recharge himself and so instead of doing what most marketers would do, which is to bring in all those who were still sitting on the fence. Brian finally chose to sacrifice his original goals rather than burn himself out and damage his health. Having made this mistake in the past and being forced to take a year off from work and walk away from a $2 million business, he was not going to make the same mistake twice.

A Difficult Dilemma
When faced with the option of making more money as opposed to being fit and healthy which would you choose. This is a difficult dilemma and one that many people face because their financial success influences so many other areas of their life, and their family are lifestyle are often dependant on their income. Some are often tempted to choose money and work to the detriment of their physical health and well being and I will explore this topic in greater detail in a future blog post

Victim Of Your Own Success
Anyone who makes themselves publicly available can sometimes be the victim of their own success. With too many people demanding his attention and the pressures of running his existing membership and training program, Brian could no longer offer the personal connection that had been a major factor in the success of his initial launch. I know that in the future that he will be slowing down to focus more on the success of the existing SMMS members and building a solid base with PRISM and his recently released MIND programs

Takeaways and Conclusion
This article is a summary of my own personal opinions I am sure Brian will soon respond with his own version of events and while there are many minor details I missed out I hope you get the general drift. I learned some valuable lessons which are summarised below.

○ Honour the relationships that you have already spent time developing,
○ Concentrate on giving value to as many people as possible
○ Maintain the core principles that you stand for in everything you do
○ Always question whether a short term gain is worth risking your reputation
○ Health and well being are much more important than money
○ When the universe throws obstacles and barriers in your path pay close attention maybe you are missing something important
○ Timing and momentum are vitally important concepts to understand and apply
○ Even the best plans have to be changed at the last moment so learn to be flexible and improvise

I have received a lot of extra comments on my imported facebook notes you can read them all by clicking here – Extra Comments

Leveraging your time on Facebook

I have discovered that there is a simple way to leverage your effort spent networking on facebook just by choosing the right time of day to be online

Facebook’s real power lies in the viral nature of the News feed, everything you do is recorded and sent to all your friends, so they can see when you have made a post or joined a group. And all their friends can see it too. Because Facebook is happening in real time, the news feed is constantly being updated. Old news gets pushed down the list, making it important to know when most people will see what you are doing.

To take maximum advantage of the viral effect You need to focus your activity when most of your friends are online. This will vary for everyone depending on what time zone you live in and also what time zone the majority of your friends live in.

Keep a track of the little box in the bottom right of your profile, this shows you how many of your friends are online at any given time. If you keep a record by writing down the numbers you will soon see that there are definite peaks at certain times of day.

So if you only have limited time make sure you do most of your social networking during the peaks as this will give you the maximum impact on your network and give you the most exposure to all your friends.

This strategy becomes even more important as your number of contacts grows,

Me and Tony Williams are working on an application that can automate this process for you, but until then you will just have to use a pen and paper.

"How much money do you want?"

“How much money do you want?”

Among other things I’m a musician and one of the ways I used fund my travels was to play music, it was also a great way of meeting people and also improving my playing and I loved the feeling it gave me when I had touched people in their lives.

8 years ago I spent a year travelling around the Balkans, and used to enjoy going into these old beautiful towns and playing music on market days. This story takes place in Split, one of the major cities half way down the Croatian coast.

I had been playing for about half an hour, The street was bustling and I was enjoying myself when a complete stranger came and stood in front of me and asked, “How much do you want?”

He was an old man around 60, Tough looking but quite well dressed, he had on several large gold rings

“What?” I said, I looked at this old man taken aback by what he had just asked me. He Repeated the question again in his Balkan accented English,

“How much money do you want, How much?” I was shocked as I looked at him and even more shocked when he opened his jacket and took out a Wad of notes an inch thick.

“How Much?” he said again for the fourth time. My mouth was opening and closing like a fish, I was completely stumped and at a loss for words. He held out the money to me urging me to help myself. I still didn’t do anything, I just stood there staring dumbly at him, wondering if this was some sort of joke or that he might be about to mug me or something. He saved me by peeling several notes from the block he held in his hand and stuffed them into my pocket. He then proceeded to walk away down the crowded narrow street, leaving me speechless but also excited.

I am remembering this lesson now as I observe what is happening in my life again, I am being given a huge opportunity and it basically up to me what I make of it. When opportunity comes knocking at the door I want to be ready to say yes. This is how I feel again when I see what Brian Campbell is offering in his Internet Marketing University, I knew something like this was coming, I just didn’t know what form it would take.

Don’t be like me 8 years ago and sit there with your mouth opening and closing, paralysed with inaction or you will be left only with the crumbs from what is going to be a sumptuous banquet. Participate, communicate and learn, don’t worry about the money, that is only a side product of being successful, that will come with time and persistence and with using each others talents in positive creative ways.

Stompernet to Reopen the Doors

Brad Fallon and Andy Jenkins will be opening the doors to Stompernet again soon, I read a twitter from AJ which said he has just sent out the PDF’s to the JV partners, They also sent out a very sneaky marketing mistake on their autoresponder series to people who were not yet members of stompernet showing what was coming up in the next year, then they sent an appolgy saying it was a mistake…. yeah , I believe that!! those guys don’t make any mistakes, every move is carefully calculated. So if you want access to the best training I would make sure you don’t miss the boat. As they are sure to be innundated.

StomperNet Membership Update:

So here we are, April 15th.

For those of us in the U.S. it’s the deadline for filing our
income tax returns. It’s that dreaded day where the U.S.
government comes knocking to take a nice big bite out of our
hard-earned profits.

Now, I’m not here to talk politics (Good LORD don’t get me
started) – taxes are taxes (cough…CHOKE), and whether you
agree with them or not (AHHHH), the government says it’s time
to settle that bill. (Pfffft)

And when you’ve worked hard all year, it can be quite a big
blow to have to cough up what you owe. I wish I could make it
go away. For you AND for me.

But sadly, there’s just not a whole lot I can do – that’s
between you and the IRS. 🙂

Look, if you got bumped up into a higher tax bracket, well…
that’s just a side effect of success, right? And isn’t that
what we’re all here for? To learn how to earn more? To earn
so much that the government actually puts you on a whole
different pay schedule?

I mean, as far as consequences go, that’s not a bad one, but
MAN is it painful to have to put that check in the mail. It
can make enormous success seem like a bittersweet victory.

For small business owners, today is almost like a day of
mourning, and I feel your pain.
We all do. Heck, I’m even
wearing black as I write this (and not just because it’s
slimming).

That’s why at StomperNet, we want to do what we can to
counteract this annual attack on our members’ pocketbooks.

We can’t pay them for you, and we can’t just cut a check…

But hopefully, as we showed with the announcements at LIVE
Five, we’re got our members’ backs – not just with words, but with
PROOF and ACTION.

We’ve once again done our best to extend the benefits of
StomperNet membership – FAR beyond what’s ever been
advertised.

As you may know, at the event, announced FIVE new faculty members
and TONS of new courses and features that StomperNet members will
have full access to as part of your membership.

And today, April 15 – while the IRS TAKES your hard earned cash
(BOO!) – StomperNet gives back to members with the beginning of
FOUR new
educational series designed to make NEXT year even
better, so
2008’s tax bill is just a wee memory. (YAY!)

And this gives us a chance to put our newest faculty to work
getting member businesses firing on all cylinders as we head into
the springtime here in Georgia.

But before we get into the new content, I want to remind you
about StomperNet Personal Coaching.
This valuable component of
StomperNet is now NO LONGER exclusive to Veteran members.
That’s right, Personal Coaching will soon be expanded to serve
EVERY FULL Stomper that wants it (and a LOT of you want it)!

I wanted to mention that before we get into all the new
offerings we’re beginning to release today. We know StomperNet
can be like “drinking from the fire hose” – and we don’t want
to further bewilder those members who are already frazzled.

Does StomperNet seem like too much info coming at you too
fast? Hang tight!

Coaches will soon be ready to help all members get organized, stay
focused, and accomplish all their business and personal goals.
This is the CURE for that feeling of being overwhelmed.

Listen, name me one world-class athlete that ever made it to
the top without a coach in their corner,
keeping them focused
on their goals, and holding them accountable for just getting
it done.

We want members to be the “gold-medalists” of online business, and
that’s why we’ve got coaching for ALL FULL MEMBERS.

So, as you read about our new courses, just remember that very
VERY soon, we’ll have a personal coach assigned for every member, ready to help
with planning and really put ALL of this great new content into play.

So, now that I’ve told you there’s no need to panic,
here’s the fire hose!

Now, if you were at the LIVE Five event, you know that we
REALLY wanted to show you what we’ve discovered over the past
year. VIDEO is the future of internet marketing, and it’s
still a new and unconquered field, ripe for some sharp Stompers
to step in and really stake out some territory in this new
frontier.

Of course, if you’re a Stomper, or SMARTS member, or if you’ve
come aboard with us in ANY capacity since we opened in 2006,
you know that WE KNOW a little bit about using videos to really
grab attention in a marketplace.

But as good as we are at using video to PROMOTE our products
and services, the fact is – we DIDN’T have a lot of experience
when it came to using video to actually SELL our products and
services.

But if we were able to do so well with video promotion, it’s
pretty much guaranteed that using video for SALES is going to
be a HUGE tactic in the near future.

So in the StomperNet tradition – we went out and found the most
successful REAL WORLD PRACTITIONER of video sales letters, and
brought him on board to show ALL STOMPERS how we can put the power
of video to work not only generating leads…

… but to harness the raw, immersive, persuasive magic of
video to CONVERT interested prospects into SALIVATING
FANATICS – and most importantly – PAYING CUSTOMERS!

Though he needs no introduction from those of you that were
there, I’m going to introduce him anyway. 🙂

A down-home local boy, Mike Stewart proves beyond a shadow of a
doubt that when it comes to using online video to sell, you
don’t need a Hollywood budget, expensive equipment, or
superstar good looks.
(Not that Mike isn’t a handsome man…)

We brought Mike on board because not only does he know how to
make videos that SELL, but he knows how to do it FAST – he
knows how to make it EASY – and he knows how to make it WORK!

If any of you saw his presentation – you know that if video is
helping a small-town exterminator corner the local bug-killing
market – there’s no DOUBT that a savvy Stomper can utterly
DOMINATE their niches by using video NOW
– BEFORE the
competition can catch up.

That’s why we’ve teamed up with Mike to bring Stompers this course
on Video Sales Letters ASAP!

NOTE: We also just got Mike Koenigs (of Traffic Geyser) on
board, and more installments in my own video series are coming
to the member portal as well – video is going to be huge in the next couple of
years, and we want members more PREPARED than the competition, and
poised to do no less than DOMINATE – by the time any one else
can catch up to Stomper’s video marketing education, our members will
already
have cemented in their positions as market leaders in their
industries.

But start today with Mike Stewart’s first installment of Video
Sales Letters
– check out the forum here.

###

Next up, we want to talk to Stompers that are already started
up, who are already making money – but who are just spending way
too much
on PPC, or who just aren’t getting the traffic they
should be.

Our members came on board StomperNet because you knew that we’re the
BEST in the WORLD at SEO.
Brad Fallon and I made history with
the first “Stomping the Search Engines” course, and it’s
because of that course that our members are all called “Stompers”
today – that was the course that started it all.

But of all the aspects we deal with in online business – SEO is
the MOST fickle
– the game with the QUICKEST rule changes, and
the most drastic impact on our profits.

If you depend on SEO for your success, then StomperNet has
ALREADY given our members more firepower – more unfair advantages – and
MORE secret tactics than any other resource known to man.

But the fact is, the cutting edge gets dull fast.

New discoveries are made, new opportunities for domination of
the SERPS arise.

And we’re on top of it! Bit by bit, we keep Stompers updated with
the new ins-and-outs of the SEO game. But eventually, so much
stuff changes that we reach a tipping point.

At that point, so much new stuff has come to light that it
becomes time to just go back to square one and re- draft
everything you know.

That’s not to say that anything we advise is obsolete – what
we’re talking about is going back and re-exploring the
fundamentals of SEO,
but looking back with the intervening 2
years of hindsight – looking back with the added expertise of
faculty members like Leslie Rohde and Jerry West…

And let’s not forget the guy who’s lacing it all up for members,
Dan “the Man” Thies.
If you’ve spent any amount of time in our
forums, you know that Dan is ALWAYS ready with a quick (and
more importantly) INFORMED answer to any SEO questions our
members may have.

And now, after months of ongoing research and organization,
we’re ready to introduce what we’re calling “Stomping
the Search Engines 2″
– and we intend for this to not only
REPLACE the old stuff, but to update every still-working
strategy and drag it kicking and screaming into 2008.

Now, other courses may have just stopped there, but
we’ve taken it farther than anyone else possibly could.

“Stomping the Search Engines 2” is only going to be the tip of
the iceberg.
Last year, we teased you about something we’ve
been working on – something that will be the end-all be-all of
SEO education. We call that project “ULTRA” – and this is
training wheels…

Once our members get cruising with STSE2, they’ll be ready for the
cutting edge strategies and tactics of ULTRA.

But you have to start somewhere, so why not check out the first
video in the new “Stomping the Search Engines 2” course, with
Dan Thies leading the way. All the new resources are linked
from this dedicated new forum.

###

On to the next tasty treat:

We’ve brought on board Paul Colligan, a guy many of you may
already know as a podcasting guru and new media expert. In
Paul’s new capacity as a StomperNet Faculty member, he’s
designed an absolutely killer content strategy that’s unlike
anything we’ve ever seen before.

Heck, if we hadn’t seen it in action at LIVE Five, I wouldn’t
even believe it was POSSIBLE.

Imagine creating a single piece of content – not that hard,
right? We do it all the time.

Now, through the processes Paul calls “Uber- Distribution” and
“Uber-Syndication” our members can simply go thorough a short series of steps –
and each step MULTIPLIES and AMPLIFIES the step before it.

Once this system is set up, a single action sets in motion a
MASSIVE and INTEGRATED system that will multiply, distribute,
and syndicate messaging across nearly EVERY Web 2.0 property
that matters.

As a Stomper, your message propagates across the internet with
almost no effort at all – and when you’re done, you and your potential
prospects are left with an undeniable “big picture” – you MUST
be the expert on the topic at hand because your stuff is
EVERYWHERE!

Coming right off of the tail-end of SMARTS, Paul’s “Uber”
series is going take every bit of social marketing know-how
we’ve delivered and crank it up so loud, it’ll break off the
knob!

But enough of my crummy analogies – let Paul tell you himself
what “Uber” is, and why it’s going to revolutionize your
content strategy in 2008, no matter what your business is.
Check it out in the dedicated forum we’ve set up just for
the “Uber” series.

###

So that leaves us with one more major addition today,
and I’m very excited about this one.

You see, even though all the stuff we’ve already talked about
is spanking new, super-fresh updated content, it’s all still
stuff we’ve at least talked about before. Business basics,
SEO, Video Marketing – the courses that start today are all the
best-of-the-best when it comes to their topics, but they’re all
things that StomperNet is already known for. (At least we HOPE
so!)

But this is different. I saw something on TV years ago, and
hopefully you’ve seen something like it so you “get” this
analogy. If I recall correctly, some guy was making a world
record attempt and knocking over the most dominoes. We’ve all
seen that, right? Thousands and thousands of little bricks are
all meticulously arranged to create a seemingly magical chain
reaction when that first domino is tipped over.

Well, the big finale of this spectacular display of tumbling
blocks was when instead of tumbling one at a time, one domino
knocked over two – and then each of those knocked over two –
and then each of THOSE knocked over two…
in a split second,
it became impossible to see the individual dominoes tumbling –
all you could see and hear was this massive WAVE of falling
blocks. It was like an avalanche.

But don’t forget – it was a PRECISION ENGINEERED avalanche.

After all the blocks in the “wave” were tipped over, the
colored dominoes formed the image of a corporate sponsor’s
logo (I think it was Pepsi!) – much to the delight of the
crowd. Out of what was seemingly pure chaos, a nice and
orderly pattern is achieved.

Now, I know it’s kind of a weird story to tell, but that image
of the tumbling dominoes is just the perfect illustration for
what we’re calling the “StomperCORE”.

StomperCORE is shaping up to be the answer to what a lot of
Stomper members feel is the BIGGEST problem with our
membership.

Do you feel overwhelmed?

Do you feel like StomperNet has everything you need, but you
just have no idea where to start?

It’s a lot like you’re missing a couple of key dominoes in your
little “chain reaction” right? You knock a few down, but you
hit a gap, and all your forward progress is halted. Does that
sound familiar?

What you need is a CORE set of fundamentals – a CORE set of
values to prioritize, and a CORE set of strategies – you need
to start at the basics and build the FOUNDATION for your future
success.

If you feel like you’re holding back because you just need
someone to show you where to begin – or where to fill in the
gaps – wait no more!

StomperCORE is designed to consolidate and distill everything
we know
about business fundamentals and create a simple, easy
to execute “battle plan” to let our members quickly and easily create
and organize their vital business processes BEFORE they worry
about SEO or Social Marketing…

For a lot of Stompers, CORE will BE the missing dominoes in
your chain.
Once the foundation is laid, no force on
earth
is going to be able to stop the chain-reaction that’s
going to happen in Stompers’ businesses.

And this is why Howie Schwartz, our newest full-time
Faculty/Staffer, is the best choice to lead this project.

Some people would have thought Howie was a COMPETITOR of
StomperNet, considering that his last course, “Conversation
Domination” was compared to SMARTS.

Some people would have thought we’d somehow be ENEMIES when it
came to teaching people Internet Marketing. But nothing could
be further from the truth. Howie IS what StomperNet is all
about – he learns by DOING this stuff EVERY DAY in his own
businesses, and he taught his students ONLY the stuff that
worked.

And that’s our philosophy too.

And though Howie’s had great success teaching people about the
newest Web 2.0 Social Strategies, the fact is, Howie’s been
around a while now. And more than any other marketer on the
scene today, we knew that Howie would be the MOST capable at
teaching our students how to get started the RIGHT way, and how
to do it FAST.

Once the dominoes are in place, all it takes is the
slightest touch to put all that preparation and hard work into
motion. And that motion represents an exponential growth, just
like the domino world record grand finale.

We want Stompers to experience a growth in resources, a growth in
traffic, a growth in profits, and most importantly, a growth in
personal freedom.

But it all needs to start with fundamentals, and setting up
those first few dominoes JUST RIGHT!

That’s what CORE is all about, and that’s what Howie has in
store for our members just as fast as we can put the videos on the
server
. I can’t WAIT – for the Stompers that have been
struggling and just haven’t been able to get traction – CORE is
here, and there just aren’t any excuses any more.

Go check out the first CORE video NOW! The best place to start is –
you guessed it, a brand new dedicated forum just for CORE.

###

And there you have it.

What you see before you today has been
the culmination of no less than six months of behind-the-scenes
wrangling and working – the faculty and staff all putting in
overtime to get this content to you with the speed and quality
you expect from us.

And now it’s ready, so gear up!

While the rest of America is crying as they drop huge checks in
the mail to the IRS, or they yell less-than- pleasant words at
their accountants for being late…

StomperNet members can kick back, relax, watch our new videos…
and rest
ASSURED that if you put this stuff to work in your business,
your 2009 tax bill will be even higher than this year’s…
because together, we’re going to push your profits OFF THE EDGE
and into unknown, wild territory. We have the map and the
tools our members need.

Let’s go blaze those trails and make some
history, huh?

On behalf of all the StomperNet Faculty and Staff who have
worked so hard to bring this wonderful, powerful new
material to our exclusive membership – we wish you a HAPPY Tax Day!
(And may you have many more!)

Keep Stomping,
~Andy Jenkins