Hello everyone! I’m excited to announce a new Webinar Series that I’m going to have each week on Wednesday at 8:00 CDT.

I know that there seems to be so many Webinars offered with what seems to be every night so this one will be a little bit different.

This is how.

1. This will be fast paced and will be limited to only 1 hour.
2. Each week will feature a colleague that I’ve met over the last 2 years who I consider to have some rock solid value to contribute to everyone on various topics for 1/2 hour and then myself for a 1/2 hour.
3. There will be a PDF link that will contain any of the links or resources mentioned in the Webinar.
4. An email address will be provided to ask questions. This will allow more content to be provided as well as allowing me and my guests to explain things in much more detail.

So this first inaugural week we are going to have:

Danielle Zach who is going to have a presentation about Business Mindset for Success.

You can register by clicking the link:
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/984131465
or click the image below.

Come prepared to learn about Mindset and some Google secrets that will help you grow your business.

I’m not a professional by any means when it comes to conducting Webinars. However, I’ve led a good dozen or so and had some great feedback. I’ve also been given ‘control’ by others to show various techniques and how-tos. Like anything it’s a matter of having experience. Additionally, It also makes it hard when you might think that you are only speaking or demonstrating to only a few others. So I’d like to share what I think and my perspective on giving them.

Firstly, Webinars are one of the top, if not the top, way to communicate to others. You literally have a group of people who choose to attend your Webinar. They are not simply visitors to your blog but are captive participants. There’s something that they are looking for in your invitation and most will attentively watch and listen. They made a conscience decision to be there.

Secondly, Webinars offer a way to personally brand yourself. This occurs by allowing others to sense your personality by your enthusiasm, by your knowledge, by your ability to communicate, by even your humor. People are drawn to others who make themselves open to others and to some extend vulnerable. Of course people are looking for information and education, but underneath it all, people are also looking for people who are just like they are. I don’t know how many people think their perfect so are they expecting perfection in you? I don’t think so. They want to see that you are a real person. They want to see your personality and genuineness.

Additionally, conducting Webinars offer a way to demonstrate your leadership. You are taking the bull by the horns so to speak and training and teaching others. I’d like to think there is leadership in all us, there is, but sadly, most people are followers. I think most of the followers simply lack a bit of knowledge about certain things. Most of it has to do with mindset and confidence. They don’t necessarily see themselves as leaders but I’m sure in their own right, there is something they are passionate about that they could talk about all day. So they do have it in them. A concept called LIT, (Learn, Implement, Teach) stresses this point. There are things that you are learning that are ahead of many people. You actually are closer to and can relate to things that you just learned. You, in the eyes of others can speak to that topic much better than a seasoned pro. So even if you don’t think you have anything to have a Webinar on, think about something you have recently learned and implemented, and have a Webinar on that. It doesn’t have to be a documentary. It can be how YOU decided to learn about it, what YOU were expecting, how YOU implemented it, and the results YOU got. By doing this, you will demonstrate leadership and people will follow you. People naturally flock to leadership.

Thirdly, Some of the initial chit chat is nice but you need to get down to business. That business, should be outlined in a Powerpoint presentation or it’s MAC equivalent. If you have a PC and don’t have Microsoft Office, there is also a product called Open Office that has all the equivalents to the MS product. It can be found at OpenOffice.org The initial slides should have your title and then the next, what you are going to cover. I like to have bullets of topics that are going to be covered along with some possible or expected outcomes the audience will know when you are done. An example I recently had as something I was going to cover was “My Blog post recipe that will have Google salivating before you even hit the Publish button! Move over B. F. Skinner!”. This will make your audience even more attentive and have a veil of anticipation. Your goal is not to only list what you will be covering, but make it a little sensational and dramatic if possible. I also threw in a little humor so you are really starting to brand yourself as I mentioned above.

Fourthly, You have to consider your audience. A lot of what I teach is fairly technical and I end up being too technical about things and it flys why over to many peoples head. This happens because I make assumptions. So with anything technical, you have to step back and educate people along the way. Now you may have some who think this is redundant so you also have to assure them that it will only take a minute or two and that it will be worth their time because you will get to the advanced information regarding the topic. In some cases the topic may be much to advanced or basic for your audience. You need to make sure that on your invitations that you specifically target the audiences you are looking for.

Fifthly, I am probably guilty of this the most, is I tend to have some long drawn out sentences and sometimes my vocabulary gets a little verbose. To make it worse, I sometimes start talking much to fast. So you and I need to keep our presentations at a steady pace and when getting into complicated things pause more often and solicit feedback to make sure everyone understands as well as keeping our language in easy to understand language.

Finally, hosting your own Webinar can be fun and rewarding. You will get to interact with a variety of people from all over the world. You will get to see the value of your products from all over the real world. If done correctly, you should also start to see several streams of income you wouldn’t be able to generate elsewhere. Taking the time to properly prepare your Webinar will help you to be a better presenter. And by doing them religiously, you will become a master at them and should start to see increased sales and people into your MLM businesses.

Someone I highly respect James Schramko has a nice quality 1 hour video for an extremely reasonable price. There aren’t very many people who have the high productivity and profitability James is known for. Check out the How To Run A Webinar video.

As I said originally, I’m no pro so I definitely would like to hear what you have to say on the subject so I welcome your comments.

Recently, I spent a fair about of time studying a thief that I’m sure we are all familiar with, procrastination. I knew I’d get around to it one day. [Canned laughter... It's a tough crowd.] What I’ve discovered through some serious introspection is it seems to be a topic just about everyone understands. Seems to me whenever the topic is brought up, everyone always nods their head and says, “Ya ya, I know, I know.” But do they really. I think most recognize that procrastination exists, but have a hard time conquering it. Every January people from all over the world make resolutions to change something in their lives. Most of these resolutions fall by the wayside fairly quickly. But people know they should modify their behavior but have a hard time doing it.

When it comes to building businesses online there is a lot to learn. Even if you do have experience, things change quite quickly. You need to be learning constantly. Additionally, you have to become a business specialist. You have to contend with taxes, bookkeeping, affiliates, vendors, advertising, fulfillment, traffic, lead generation, etc. If you are a procrastinator, you’ll be eaten alive. You may as well simply donate your time to some civic group. You at least have something to show for it.

As I mentioned earlier, most people recognize procrastination. They know that they can’t blame others and are responsible for their own actions. They understand that they have to be goal orientated. They understand that even bad action is better than no action and that they need to break bad habits that rob time. But there is one that is a little bit harder to recognize. That is that the time you spend at your computer had better be productive and directly responsible to creating income. That’s the bottom line. Checking your email 15 times a day, perusing over to your Facebook Page, or your Twitter account and following links to who know where and generally, spending time on your computer unproductively is a type of procrastination. There are many ways to rationalize this practice but holding it up to the test of creating income for your business is the litmus test.

There certainly are strategies of using social media, but just make sure you schedule your time for that action. If it is taking more time than you allocated, make sure you are receiving a measurable and tangible benefit.

Now I want to throw a caveat on all of this and it’s that you should concentrate your time on money generating activities and automate or outsource the rest. For some, the money making activity might be networking with people by calling them up. For those who are technically savvy, web creation may be their ticket so to speak. For some it may be copy writing.

So in closing I ask you examine some of the things you may be procrastinating with and try and uncover the root cause, make some resolutions and find ways to combat the thief, and your bank account will love you for it.

Firstly, I want to thank Phil Jackson for his recent post called “RIP Tribes? Phil has been a crusader in the Tribe Syndication Group called The Daily Crushers. This is basically a response to the post.

As I am witness to the power of tribes, and have been involved with some very loosely coupled tribes in the beginning where some of the methods and ways going about being a member involved trying to get others to do things the way they wanted them, or when you had a chance to dictate them, it was too much of a learning curve to get them to happen on a consistent basis.

I also have been involved with several other tribe organizations in may ways. What I have discovered is in the old saying that someone who does not have enough skin in the game isn’t someone could depend on. So what ended up happening was dumbed down version of going to others sites and clicking a button on someone’s blog post if you found the time. I learned later that that this may have given them some authority, but there are better ways that work 10 times better.

I’ve always been at odds with the term “Tribes” because it was taken from the book called “Tribes” and Seth Godins definition of a “Tribe” was always in context of leadership. The way it has been used is directly in opposition of that, as a commune. Tribes are people who follow. People will follow leaders. Leadership is something that is only earned by trust that is demonstrated by the way someone acts. It is not simply a title given to someone. That leader in order to be called a true leader must be doing things that promote and train others to be leaders as well. A true leader is not gauged by the title they hold or have been appointed but by the trust they have gained by lifting their followers. This is totally in contrast of the prevalent definition of a communal group that have a set of dictates to follow. Seth was trying to instill and train new leadership, not a new version of group followers. Seth was looking for people who wanted to learn “LEADERSHIP” and to train them. If we were to use the term “Tribe” the way it is being used for tribe syndication, its goal should be to figure out a way to dissolve as soon as possible. Each one of us should take the bull by the horns and LEAD and form a new “Tribe” group.

I think that Tribe 2.0 as Phil has said is the next evolution to do just that. It is recognizing the gap I talk about above. The term “tribe” should never remain a permanent thing or structure. As defined above it should evolve. But a mastermind group can be permanent. Seth Godin’s tribe definition is to teach and create new tribes, the things you can learn in a mastermind group.

I have created implementation models that can blow the doors off of the early implementations of Tribe syndication. I, like Phil, have realized that there is much more to “Tribes” than simply providing backlinks to your Tribe members. I have developed ways to automatically provide thousands of backlinks to your content. So now we step into “Tribe 2.0″. “Tribe 2.0” could be better known as a “Mastermind” group coined by Napoleon Hill.

So is Tribe 2.0 could be the original “Tribe” concept that Seth Godin wrote about in his book called “Tribes”? What a lot of people were led to believe is that a common shared goal could be a “Tribe” because it was based on a common belief. It was a communal goal that was to be practiced by all. We now know different.
The answer is YES!

The syndication group I spend my time with is more than just a group of syndicators. What I’m finding in the tribe I formally participate in is I am getting a chance to PRACTICE leadership. Hopefully they are learning it as well. I am getting a chance to educate, as I learn many things as I study their communication practices. I am learning information about many things. The great thing about it is that we are all at various levels of leadership and various levels of mastering online marketing, whether is be coaching, affiliation marketing, or daily practices that elevate our business and personal growth. The commodore and bonding we are experiencing, even though we may be at different levels, give everyone a chance to contribute to everyone else’s growth and I think eventually, much longer term relationships that can expand to joint venture partnerships in the future.

Our goal, I think is to be more in line with what Seth Godin proclaimed is to build tribes and teach them leadership, and kick them out of the nest. Once they are on their own, they will still have a bond. If leadership training is the goal, and leadership training does include learning and teaching technical skills, the psychology of sales and marketing, and personal development, then “Tribe 2.0” is something we should ingrain in our businesses. I welcome Tribe 2.0.

Join us at The Daily Crushers.

Over on Facebook they give you the ability to choose between 6, 9, or 12 people to display in your Friends box on the left hand side of your Facebook page. You also have the ability to edit who you want in them as well. After getting the idea from Steve Hachey about 6 months ago I decided to not only show 6 people but to re-designate the box as Friends of the Month and have a blog post about them with a little bio about each. So without further ado, I present May’s Friends of the Month.

Jodie Thompson blog facebook
Jodie has been involved with online marketing going on 3 years now. She has a large reputation as a giver. She seems to be involved in many things but as someone who knows and understands what it takes to become profitable on the Net, she has many insights not necessarily known to others. She has a solid relationship with many of the movers and shakers in the industry. She is a marketing coach for both on and off line businesses and also has a 6 week course offering that teaches people the technical skills and the mindset to jump start their online endeavors. What I love about her is that she has a way about herself that uplifts your possibilities, instills you with confidence, and has a great sense of humor.

John Chatman blog facebook
I’ve known John for about 6 months and speak to him on a regular basis. While I haven’t done any business with him it’s nice to have someone to bounce a few ideas back and forth with John is very charismatic and a natural leader. He is diligent and is extremely persistent in doing what he needs to do to succeed. There is no doubt that people who enter into business with him have made a good choice.

Danielle Zack blog facebook
Danielle is an upcoming entrepreneur and one to watch. She emotes enthusiasm and teaches everyone that once we realize our power and tap into our potential, we eliminate our limitations and then can manifest our goals and dreams. As a mother of young children she caters to other stay at home moms. She calls herself an Mompreneur and is dedicated to helping other marketers find success. She uses video in her marketing and has an excellent series on how to do just that. You can find it here.

Robin Lynn Brooks blog facebook
Robin brings a vast experience of life from all around the United States. She’s lived in Connecticut, Florida, California, Hawaii and South Carolina. She focuses on finding opportunity through networking with people and showing others how to as well. She is optimistic and finds good in people. If your looking for warmth and sincerity you can’t go wrong befriending her.

Omar Briones facebook
Omar lives out in LA and has been marketing for about 2 years. He has been working behind the scenes so to speak as an internet marketer. This means he is good at writing copy and affiliate marketing. I’ve seen some of his work and he is quite good. He hasn’t necessarily made the jump to social media marketing but does have a presence in some private communities which we both belong in and is always on Facebook. Though he is young he has much more experience than the average guy. So I’ll say this. If I knew what I know now when I was 21…. Anyways, jump on over to Omar’s Facebook page and give him a shout.

Terry Petrovick blog facebook
Terry is a 7 figure earner in the MLM and Online marketing industry. Terry is a genuine and friendly guy. He has a down home genuineness that seems to draw people in. He used to have a nick name called “Country”. Sorry Terry…. When it comes to brass tacks, taking the bull by the horn and implementing ideas, Terry is tenacious. Action is his middle name, thus his earnings reflect this. Terry is always willing to help you in any way possible. Even with his multiple income streams in several organizations, Terry is both approachable and available. My wife and I have met him and his family at a conference and can attest to his sincerity. Terry’s strong point is his ability to talk with people. There’s a lot to learn there.

So there’s my Featured Friends for May 2010. Go visit their Facebook sites, befriend them if you haven’t leaving a message that I said you should connect. Go visit their blogs as well, there’s a lot to learn.

As an afterthought, while writing this I just wanted to make sure some of you don’t feel slighted. There are so many people that I’m grateful to having met over the last 16 months. It’s a reminder of the power of networking and relationship building.

Till next month.

Old Ways
Every day more and more people are coming to the internet. Not only do I meet people seeking freedom, ways to replace the income from a traditional job, but there is still a HUGE wave of people internationally that are finally getting wired to the internet via phone, DSL, and cable. I’ve spent a fair amount of time internationally and have had a lot of experience where the only access I’ve had to the internet when I was visiting was through dialup speed at an internet cafe. Most people did not even have a personal computer let alone one that connected to the internet till a year ago. On subsequent visits to the internet cafes, the speeds have increased to a network that had at least 256kps. I now talk weekly to many people who now have DSL into their homes via Skype.

Today
Folks, this is for the first time opening the world of the internet to people that is in the range of 60 million over the last few years. I talk, work, and do business with people from all over the world. I am not limited to English either. There are many tools that do translations now so it is possible to provide your content to non-English speaking people. Though what I am finding is that English really is the language of the worlds business. The people coming to the internet, no matter what country, know they need to be able to speak or read English.

To the Rescue
Nevertheless, allowing people from foreign countries to be able to quickly translate your Blog into their own language can attract people internationally. They may be somewhat familiar with English but can read and grasp thier own native language much easier. WordPress plugins come to the rescue once again. There are a host of them out there. I can’t necessarily recommend one because they all have been written at various times and not all of them work with all themes. This is a time you will have to experiment and see what works for you. I however do recommend Wibyia. Wibyia is the software used at the bottom of this blog. There are many functions available with this toolbar and translation is one of them. This toolbar can be found at www.Wibyia.com .

Emotional or Rational
People whether they admit it or not are not rational beings, especially when it comes to buying things and following things of interest. They are led with emotion. I know.. I know.. you guys think you are strong and would not fall for the emotion. But you too are led by emotion. As an example, picture yourself driving down the road in your own classic midnight blue convertible, top down, fancy blue-rays on, lumbering down a remote hi-way, on a sunny day. Now most guys would think this is cool. I know I would. So let’s examine what buying decision went into purchasing that vehicle? Was it because you could get fresh air? Air conditioning works great in my estimation. Was it because it was fast? Last I looked you can’t drive faster than 65 MPH in most places. Was it because you consider the older vehicles to be more dependable? Well today’s cars are much more dependable. The real reason… It’s because it looks cool! It’s because you can use is to attract the opposite sex and maybe get lucky! It’s because you like the rush of being pushed back into your seat when you accelerate. It’s because you like the idea of having everyone envious of you. It’s because you like to have people think your rich. It’s because you want people to think that the vehicle is just simply an extension of your personality, sleek, exotic, sporty, open, attractive, and sexy. So don’t tell me you’re not emotional. These are far from rational.

If you understand emotions you can find their triggers.

Stories
So why this little story here? Well people like to read about stories. And because they are emotional beings, they like to relate to stories and put themselves in the story. They like to compare themselves and they like to find people who are just like them.

The other benefit of using stories is that it helps your Personal Brand. Letting others know some of the emotional things that make you tick, and conveying stories about life, your family, your dreams, your plans, helps people relate to you. People like to know that there are people just like them. So remember, people love stories.

Conclusion
So in your Blog posts, your copy, and your email campaigns if can weave stories into them you will garner their attention much better than if you are more expository. Now this isn’t the easiest thing to do if your topic is something technical but if you can at least convey some of the benefits and consequences for not acting into a story line, you will have their attention.

RSS Feeds
There are 101 uses for RSS feeds as well. I can’t necessarily give RSS feeds their due in this limited space but I can give you a background. RSS stands for Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication (it depends on who you ask). RSS is a XML format specifically designed to share content. Netscape originally developed RSS to distribute news headlines and then abandoned the concept due to the lack of popularity. In recent years RSS has become the standard for content syndication. RSS syndication has allowed for smaller content providers to gain exposure and increase their news and content distribution. The increased exposure has evened the playing field for content providers.

RSS Directories
In the same way there are site directories on the internet there are RSS directories as well. The more your content gets submitted the more links to your content plain and simple. What should you submit? All of it. Take the RSS out of your Blog site, all of your social media sites, all of your book marking sites, and any place you have backlinks.

Submission Toos
Where should you do it? Every place you can. Now here’s where you’re going to need some software to do this tedious task. Sorry, but this is tedious but you only have to do it once. There is a freebie but it is somewhat limited. (http://www.allscoop.com/tools/rsssubmit/) Ideally, you want something that goes to more that just these limited number of sites. The best one out there is called RSS Submit but is a hefty $114. It can be found at http://www.dummysoftware.com/rsssubmit.html. My recommendation, share the cost across a content syndication group.

There is one thing I’m sure most Bloggers are not doing yet and that is making their Blogs readable to mobile phones, including the I-Phone. More and more people are using their phones to Twitter and read Facebook, why not make your available in a format that makes it easy to navigate? If you get out their early and the average Blog, no matter how old and established it may be doesn’t, you have the advantage.

While most phones allow you to read existing Blogs remember they now have grown larger and larger in their footprint and it will require much more bandwidth to even open them. This is because most Blogs have a slew of plugins. So what is the answer?

Well as ironic as it may seem it will take a plugin. It’s called WordPress Mobile Pack. It includes a mobile switcher to select themes based on the type of user that is visiting the site, a selection of mobile themes, extra widgets, device adaptation and a mobile administration panel to allow users to edit the site or write new posts when out and about.

Now you can tout you Blog as mobile ready.

The plugin can be found at

Link: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wordpress-mobilepack/
.

By adding a unique Tell a Friend button on your website, your visitors can automatically e-mail their friends about your website whenever they find something they’d like to share.

The idea is simple; you place a ‘tell a friend’ button on your website, and when your visitor decides to tell their friend about your website, they click this button which then presents them with a straightforward form to e-mail their friends.

You can find the plugin at:

Link: http://www.freetellafriend.com/