The post 3 Reasons why I didn’t Attend Traffic & Conversion (T&C) this year. appeared first on Cory Shanes - 24 / 7 Entrepreneur - Articles, Ideas, Tips, & Tricks for Entrepreneurs.

1. No one cares about YOUR business.

But they do want to put their NOSE in your business.

Solution ⇒ People and Your Potential Customers want to “spy” on you and your lifestyle.

2. Getting Public Appeal is difficult and dangerous.

Solution ⇒ Niche appeal – Become a “celebrity” in your field.

3. You can have 2 types of customers databases

A lot of customers paying a little bit of $$ each.
OR / AND
A few customers paying a lot of money each.

The Value of your product has to Outweigh the Price. (Lesson learned from Jeff Combs)

4. There is a a lot to do in order to create a campaign

Solution ⇒ Do the parts you’re awesome at and team up to do the rest of it!

5. It’s difficult to sell customers who need more money.

Solution ⇒ Focus on finding clients who require MORE time, rather than MORE money.

6. So many mentors in so many roles.

Solution ⇒ Have various mentors with specific roles.
For example: Money, Business, Marketing, Content, Life.

7. Your business can sound boring.
Solution – Be a little crazy. It is more interesting. (Lesson learned from Les Brown)

8. People don’t want to be on your list just because.

“Please get on my email list” ← This doesn’t work.
Lead with value, and tell people what they will receive is what works.
Create a Value Proposition!

9. You’re not using your mind and skills correctly.

Or you’re letting Drama get in the way.
Solution ⇒

10. People are not buying from you.

Solution ⇒ Create a bond with your potential customer.
Bonding Equals Buying.

11. It’s easy to become overwhelmed and lost in the sauce. 

Be Your Own BOSS by following the B.O.S.S. System
Branding
Outsourcing
Strategies
Sales

Learn more about B.O.S.S. here.

12. Stage time equals Wealth time.

Solution: Get your business exposed to the masses through social media platforms.

What lessons have you learned in your business?
Leave one or more as a comment below!

The post 12 Field Tested Online Business Lessons appeared first on Cory Shanes - 24 / 7 Entrepreneur - Articles, Ideas, Tips, & Tricks for Entrepreneurs.

I decided to create this article after observing a lot of the things that my friend, clients, and business associates say and do in their business and personal lives.

Stage 0 – Giving way too many fucks.   

This is when you care too much about the outcome.   In fact you usually care soooo much that you actually end up hurting the outcome.   Imagine squeezing an egg so hard that it cracks in your hand;  this is Stage 0, you don’t want to be here. This sucks. Imagine the most worrisome control freak in your universe, they’re giving too many fucks.   Don’t know this person?  Then it’s you.

Stage 1 – Giving a fuck.

You care about the outcome, you leave the outcome up to chance, you pray about the outcome.    This is like putting an egg on the stove, taking a shower, and when you check on it, you’re hopping it turns out good.   Sadly, most people in society are presently here.  Their life will be like a roller coaster.  This is a person who cares more about what people think of them, rather than what they’ve personally accomplished.  While this is most people’s lives, it’s not recommended.

Stage 2 – Not Giving a fuck.

You do whatever you want. While at first this sounds good, it’s also counter-productive at times.   It’s the rebel, while this provides a more fun environment then Giving a Fuck, it also doesn’t always lead to the desire outcome.    The problem at this stage is that you actually do not give a fuck.  While this is an improvement from over-caring, it also lacks enough of a strategy to be effective.   Freedom is good, chugging a jug of vodka on a Tuesday afternoon usually is not.  Stage 2 people set goals, but take actions that do not match the goals.  No egg analogy here, because reasons.   <– and if you’re dense, I’m being rebellious here to prove the point.

Stage 3 – Giving the Right amount of fucks.  

While this stage SHOULD BE the obvious choice, it’s also the stage that is most rarely reached.   It’s where you can make a proper judgement in a case-by-case basis if you should give a fuck, or not give a fuck.    I guess that less than 1% of society operates here.    This is like understanding how to properly cook an egg, and make it delicious. This really should be the goal every time because, if you’re going to do something, why not do it with some effort?  I would stay at this stage, you also are not emotionally attached to the outcome.

So in review, you decide to give or not give a fuck, take a related action, and then do not actually give a fuck about the outcome.  What is done, is done.   This is where you find the balancing between caring, not caring, giving a fuck, and giving too many fucks.    Again, while ideal, it’s also sadly not a common stage to be reached.

Sooooo which stage are you at?  Stage 0, 1, 2, or 3?

Or are you a majestic Unicorn and give a different amount of fucks?

AND Is there a Stage 4?

Comment Below.

The post The 4 Stages of Giving a Fuck appeared first on Cory Shanes - 24 / 7 Entrepreneur - Articles, Ideas, Tips, & Tricks for Entrepreneurs.

Okay 3 – 2 – 1: Laugh:

I wouldn’t be surprised to see Kenny Brooks (the Comedian Saleman in the video) on TV sometime soon.

I’ll be publishing from this blog more often.  So if you want to stay updated subscribe below:

Remember to comment, like and share if this video above made you at least chuckle.

The post Is this One Of The Best Door-To-Door Salesman Ever!? appeared first on Cory Shanes - 24 / 7 Entrepreneur - Articles, Ideas, Tips, & Tricks for Entrepreneurs.

If you’re a rookie when it comes to sales, or just looking to refresh your already existing sales skills, I suggest picking up The Sales Bible.

Why?

Because I’ve read it and can recommend that every page in that book is worth its weight in gold.

7 Reasons why you’re not making sales:

1.  You’re spinning your wheels, and you’re not actually spending any time speaking to people directly.

Pick up the phone, call people on skype, do whatever it takes to have a voice to voice connection with someone.   People will buy from you when they trust you.

Want to duplicate the process?   Film some videos.  This is easier then it looks.

For example, the iphone 4 lets you make calls AND vlog too! Just don’t drop it!

2.   You’re telling the customer everything too soon.

Look you don’t ask someone to marry you on the first date.   Don’t try to sell on the first date either.   Yes you may have exceptions to this rule (such as a one call close) and you should consider those sales a hole in one.   Think about it, who do you buy from more –  telemarketers? Or someone who actually connects with you and solves a problem?  The answer is obvious; the person who solves your problem.

3. You don’t have a gateway set up for someone to create trust with you before buying the product.

Duh… start blogging.  Want to know how I know this works… you’re on my blog right now – aren’t you.  Just watch our training WordPress Bootcamp 2011 to see how this is done quickly and easily.

4.  You’re not asking for the sale.

Believe it or not… at some point you’re going to have to ask for the sale.  Not just tell people to go to the sales page.  But to literally tell your customer to go to the sales page / check out / buy now button and hit it, and then enter in their payment information… Make it very  clear to your customer on how they actually purchase your product or service.

The stores do it with signs pointing to their checkouts… why can’t you?

5. You don’t follow up.

“If you don’t follow through, you’re basically putting forth 70% effort or less.”

Why is “follow through” necessary when swinging a bat or golf club?

“A proper swing should be one, long arc. Focusing on the “follow through” ensures that your mechanics are correct from the beginning of the swing.”

6.   You don’t own, never tried, or don’t know the details of what you’re selling.

“You Can’t Sell from an Empty Wagon, unless you’re selling wagons.”   (Seriously who buys wagons these days??)

This has to be the most frustrating thing I see in sales.  People who sound like idiots trying to sell something they don’t use, and then they complain that no one buys from them.  Use the product if you want to make sales with it!

If you can’t afford the cost of your product, how do you expect to convince someone else to buy it?!

7.  You lack self confidence.

All truth goes through three stages:

• First it is ridiculed
• Then it is violently opposed
• Finally it is widely accepted as self evident

Arthur Schopenhauer
German philosopher (1788 – 1860)

If you’re being ridiculed or violently opposed right now, and you’re confident in what you’re doing, then you’re on your way to being widely accepted as a genius entrepreneur in your niche.  Just keep hacking at it.  Find people who believe you right now and want to do business with you.

What your tips for making more sales?!  Leave a comment below:

The post 7 Reasons why you’re not making sales appeared first on Cory Shanes - 24 / 7 Entrepreneur - Articles, Ideas, Tips, & Tricks for Entrepreneurs.

Two types of people you will encounter are the “Winners” and the “Whiners”

Winners are Why People – They tell you Why Something Works.

Whiners are Why Not People – They will tell you why something will not work, and cannot be convinced otherwise.

So whats the difference between the two?

Which should you work with?

Should you act as a winner, or as a whiner; the answer should be obvious.

Why People vs. Why Not People.

“Winners” will tell you reasons why you can generate any particular amount of income.  Winners dare to dream.

• “Whiners” will tell you why it is not possible to ever make 6 or 7 Figure Incomes. – Why not people are skeptics.

Winners will give you every reason why you should take action on your plan. Winners take action.

• Whiners are people who give you every reason why your plan will not work. – Whiners quit before they start.

Winners will tell you why they’re the right fit to get the job done. Winners have a success mindset.

• Whiners will give you excuses and reasons as to why they can not succeed.  -Why not people have a fearful mindset

Winners will inspire you, are self motivated, and want to succeed.  Winners are great at #Winning.

• Whiners will tell you why you’re not good enough.  This is usually because they don’t think they’re good enough or that they can succeed.  If a whiner simply had more confidence, they could shift into becoming a winner.

Winners are people too.  They’re not some type of super human.  They’re just strongly determined to be successful.

• Whiners tend to personalize everything as if they’re the only one, they’d rather complain then fix a problem.

Winners have a motivation to succeed and make it a priority.  Winners are motivated to grow.

• Whiners have every reason why they can’t succeed.
• Example: Their job, not enough time, their family, the weather, their car, etc.  They are suck in their past rather then creating their future. 
  

Winners make great leaders, mentors and influencers.

• Whiners will suck your energy dry, they focus on failure, and create more of failure.

So ask yourself, are you being a “why person” or a “why not” person?

And if you’re being a why not person… how is that serving you?

The post Are you a “Why” or a “Why Not” Person? appeared first on Cory Shanes - 24 / 7 Entrepreneur - Articles, Ideas, Tips, & Tricks for Entrepreneurs.

It’s called the facebook like locker.

If the plugin works correctly it should reveal a secret section of content in this post after you click the like button below.

Hidden in the box below is a one hour+ training on using LinkedIn & Facebook Groupsto grow your business.

I’ve never shared the recording of this webinar before, so this is an exclusive piece of content too.

Help me test out this plugin by hitting like, and I’ll give you this $100 video for free.

Check out this video out by clicking the like button.

The post Ninja Trick – Hit “like” to read the entire post appeared first on Cory Shanes - 24 / 7 Entrepreneur - Articles, Ideas, Tips, & Tricks for Entrepreneurs.

If you missed Facebook Live, or just want to review what was broadcast,  then this post is for you.

These announcements were some serious game changers, in fact one of them is totally innovative, and like nothing we’ve used before.  I highly recommend you take the time to learn more about Facebook’s new features.

Embedded Recording of Facebook’s Live Broadcast:

Complete Recap: 10:30 am PST 3,000 viewers – They’re getting started.

Mark Zuckerberg Speaks
10:40 am PST – 7,400+ viewers

House Cleaning Items:

• Facebook is eliminating all fake name profiles.   You must be able to prove this is your name, not your business’s name.  They are even calling to verfy with people who claim their fake name profile is real.  This includes Businesses using Personal profiles.

If you’re one of these “fake” people your profile’s days are numbered.

• Rolling out more of Facebook Places on multiple types of phones.
• Facebook Questions is expanding, and growing rapidly.
• If you don’t play games you’ll see less games in your newsfeed, if you do play games, you’ll see more about games in your feed food.  No more Game Spam.
• The Facebook Chat API has been reworked, tweeked and improved.
• More Releases and Features during the Next month

With Facebook Connect, Facebook is Building a Social Platform:

You can bring those connections to other social applications.

Find more people who have your interests to interact with.

3 New Features Announced:

1. Download Your Data

Facebook will now make it easy to safely to take your Facebook information anywhere you want.

New Product “Download Your Data”

Facts:

1. Facebook Connect is currently the largest login system on the web.
2. Over 1M sites are currently using Facebook Connect

Problem: Currently it seem’s like Facebook owns all of your data.

Purpose: Click and download your entire Facebook profile, info, photos, videos, message.

Benefit: This is meant for “normal” users.   Facebook wants you to own your data.

2. The “Applications You Use” Dashboard.

Problem to Solve: Various applications connect to your profile.

Benefit: More control of how applications uses your profile.

Features:

• Change permissions, see when the last time the site “connected” to your profile.  Track it and manage it to make sure its being shared correctly.
• You can manage its ability to post on your wall
• Makes the users feel safer, and requires the developers to make more well rounded products.

3.  “New” Facebook Groups

Problem: You want to connect with different friends different ways.

Mark Zuckerburg’s Thoughts on this Problem:

What people really want is niche specific sharing.

This leads to a Catch 22.

A lot of the time you do not want to post about the same thing daily and annoy your friends who aren’t into what you’re into.  At the same time you do not want to exclude your friends who are into what you’re doing.

Example:  If you’re a runner.  Your running friends will be the ones most interested in your current speed time.  The rest of your friends… not so much.

If we can Map all real world groups, and everyone participates we will all create lots of useful of content and in the right context.

11 am:  There are currently 8560+ viewers

Naive Solutions to this “connection” problem:

• Pick and choose the right people to invite to an event.
• Friends lists and pick and choosing lists.  Almost no one wants to make lists.

Only 5% of FB users use lists.   and a majority of those people only make 1 or 2 lists.

No one wants to do that work.  There may be too many people in your friend pool.

Algorithmic Solution

Design an Algorithmic that tracks the weights of your friends relationships.

This is still a problem, if it works, then Facebook is creepy,  if it doesn’t work Facebook is broken.

So even if it worked, it wouldn’t work.

Algorithms  are still limited for grouping people.

Example of a working Algorithmic Solution:  The Facebook Newsfeed.

Social Solution:

This is Facebook’s core:

1. Build a good interface for tagging.
2. Making it so that its easy for people to say “we’re connected”
3. Would work just like Facebook photos.

11:10  10k+ viewers

Facebook’s Goals for Groups:

• Map all real world groups,
• everyone participates
• useful in lots of contexts.

Fact:  95% of Facebook users have a photo of them online.  Either one they uploaded, or one they were tagged in.

Social Solutions

• Best group communication tool
• easy for friends to set up.
• Build the best tool to allow the groups to communicate.

5-10% of Facebook users will build a majority of the groups.

Invite your friends, tag your friends, just like photos.

What groups would you like to create?

New Groups:

A Shared space, great for:  Family, friends, sports teams, business, work, social activities, etc.

Each group is functioned by the entirety of the group.

Features:

• A wiki style note editor
• group chat
• ask a question to everyone in the group
• email lists
• Contact everyone offline and online
• Control of the distribution of your message.  Conversations are integral to the group.

This is being released: groups, groups mobile, and group open source, for developers to build it for expansion.

The Facebook Butterfly Effect.

The interactions of one person in the product, will affect the experiences of others around them.

Audience and Space

In real Life you have your Dinner Table, Locker Room, Bar

Groups are creating spaces for your audience within the Facebook universe.

The Result of these new Facebook features is More Control and More Confidence in how a user’s Identity and Facebook profile is used.

11:30  Question & Answer Session

Down to 7,000+ Viewers

• Lists will be staying, but a majority of users will use groups.
• You can have your friends activity segmented by groups
• By design, its easy to add someone to the group, and its simple to remove yourself.
• Once removed you can’t be added by someone else, you can only add yourself then.
• The goal is to increase the functionality of groups and Facebook
• “New Groups” are Great for groups of 3 to 100 people
• After 250 users, Facebook will limit and turn off features to make it less annoying.
• You can micromanage your sharing.
• Your lists never affected anyone else, now this feature will compound and grow
• A small % of userbase will map out the entire program.
• “Friend lists felt like work;  groups is fun”  that’s what will drive this.
• Settings for groups: open closed and secret.  closed is the default

3 Questions to Disqus in the Comments:

1. Did you get to watch the LiveBroadcast?
2. Do you like the new features being rolled out?
3. What Groups will YOU create?

Want to Learn more about using Facebook Groups??

That’s awesome, we want to help show you what you should do next.

Go to:  http://socialmedialistmachine.com/fb-groups-for-business/ to learn more about Facebook Groups for Business.

The post Recording & Outlined Notes of Facebook’s Live Event – 10/6/10 appeared first on Cory Shanes - 24 / 7 Entrepreneur - Articles, Ideas, Tips, & Tricks for Entrepreneurs.

• Attract quality like -minded leads to your Business, even when you’re Sleeping?
• Save money on Marketing expenses?
• Stop wasting your time speaking to the Wrong People?
• Fully integrate your Business with Web 2.0?
• Build a Database of Customers waiting to do Business with you?
• Have your Customers Suggesting your Business to all their Friends?
• Use Social Media to Grow your business?
• Insure that your social media program Does Not look like Spam?

If you’re like most of our readers, you answered YES! to many of the questions above.

The 24/7 Entrepreneur  is bringing Ben Dixon the Branding Expert out for a very special webinar to share how to target and attract your PERFECT CUSTOMER in Social Media! He’ll be covering a POWERFUL Facebook strategy to identify and connect with your PERFECT CUSTOMER!

Learn:

• The Psychology behind identifying your perfect customer.
• How to utilize Facebook to connect with 30 PERFECT CUSTOMERS a day
• The secret strategy to brand yourself so you ATTRACT and CONVERT the perfect customers

We have figured out how to implement these strategies within our businesses…

And here’s the best part, we did this webinar at NO Cost.

The economy has shifted, and people are not doing business they way they used to.

The good news is people are still buying, and spending their money.

So what has changed?

With a smaller budget, individuals are now being more economical with their spending.

They would rather spend their money with someone they “know, like and trust.”

Luckily, with the economical shift, has come a new platform for marketing; Social Media.

Why Social Media?

Let’s face is, nearly everyone, including your Perfect Customers is checking in daily with some form of a social media website.

And let’s not forget browsing the web on their brand new mobile phones.

Social Media allows you to put a system in place in order to attract your ideal customers, and network with them at any time of day.

That’s why we’re bringing in Social Media Branding Expert Ben Dixon, to explain and show you how your business could bring in an endless amount of Your Perfect Customer.

Ben has literally made tens of thousands of dollars from customer’s he connected with right on facebook.

Using these strategies to brand YOU makes all of the difference.

This webinar WAS Recorded.

Sorry, you missed out at attending the webinar live, but we did record it.

In order to maintain the integrity of our training,

Please register below to access the webinar recording.

As an added bonus we will keep you up to date of future training webinars as well.

Leave your questions from the training on THIS PAGE below.

The post How To Attract Your Perfect Customer In Social Media appeared first on Cory Shanes - 24 / 7 Entrepreneur - Articles, Ideas, Tips, & Tricks for Entrepreneurs.

Actual conversation.

Do you agree or disagree?
Please leave a comment below.

The post The difference between a Job and a Business appeared first on Cory Shanes - 24 / 7 Entrepreneur - Articles, Ideas, Tips, & Tricks for Entrepreneurs.

The post Core Solutions? appeared first on Cory Shanes - 24 / 7 Entrepreneur - Articles, Ideas, Tips, & Tricks for Entrepreneurs.

Don’t worry, I’ll be showing the 24/7 Entrepreneur site some more love in the coming weeks.

The reason for not focusing on this blog recently is because I’ve been working on more of a group project lately.

If you have not seen it before; I’ve been developing a site called, “Building a Brand Online” As the name implies, its a site for everything about Building Your Brand or Business Online. We even have a group coaching program where we allow others to see us create the site from behind the scenes. It’s a very exciting project and I have recently been committing my time to developing and building that site. However, I can’t just let this site turn into a Ghost Town.

Onto the new content. Experts vs. Marketers. Who’s going to succeed the most?

I found this article super interesting to work on, mainly because I see several people on a daily basis online being an expert, and actually forgetting about the art of marketing. The purpose of this article is to help others make this shift from Experts to Marketers.

Qualities of an “Expert:”

• They believe their knowledge or their content is the value, people should hunt them down and pay them money for their content.
• Have a sense of entitlement.
• “I’ve earned my knowledge, and you should respect me because of it.”
• They’re attached to their knowledge and feel like they should be paid money to share it.
• Experts feel like you should pay them something because they know something
• Experts focus on the topic at hand
• Experts can’t figure out why they’re not making money
• Experts see only their point of view
• Think they should outsource marketing
• They “choose a niche to go after” based on who they think they can teach.
• Always expect people to buy. “People should be paying me.” They hold out their best ideas.
• Believe its obvious that what they teach has value, and expect people to automatically pay them.
• Example: The experts will teach you “how to have a good dog.”

Qualities of a “Marketer.”

• “The value is in the perception of the customer.” What the customer thinks of the product.
• The Marketers believe you don’t want to pay them money, but they can design a system that will give you a sense of value in order to generate a sale
• Marketers are not emotionally attached to their idea, and will abandon the idea if it doesn’t result in sales.
• Marketers focus on the individual.
• The marketers see their customers point of view. What does the customer need?
• Thinks in needs and niches
• Starts on pain, pain motivates action.
• They find an unmet need of other people in the world, and creates a product to fill that need.
• Will research what their clients are looking for.
• Never expect to buy, “Its probably not going to work.” They expect to test it, until they find out what works.
• They have no attachment to what works
• Will lead with value. Giving away their best stuff first, in exchange for future sales.
• Will prove and explain why their product has value.
• Will learn what a customers biggest fear is.. and then SOLVE that problem.
• example: The marketer will teach you “how to stop your dog from barking and growling.”
• Marketers are the ones making Real money

How to shift from an Expert Mindset to a Marketing Mindset:

#1 Mentally let go of old self image. Let go of past success. Evolve past those attachments

#2 Give away your best stuff for free. Experience the freedom. The value is not in the ideas themselves, the value is in your ability to communicate the ideas to where it is valuable. Build the muscle of communicating in a way where its communicating to others.

#3 Make the commitment to become a powerful marketer. Get into their eyes. Give them the hope that there is light at the end of the tunnel, put it in their words.

#4 Care. Care enough to respond to comments, emails, conversations, calls, questions etc. When people feel that you care, they will establish more trust with you.

Steve Jobs answer to Eben Pagan question. “What is your #1 tip to building your wealth?” – “Care.”

Thank You’s:

I could not have created this blog post without the help of several other Marketers.

Thank you #1 goes to Eben Pagan and Joe Polish. These guys are two of the best marketers in the industry, and an interview between the two of them is what actually motivated me to create this article.

You can listen to the complete 1 hour interview here:

“What Prevents Experts From Making REAL Money?”

Thank you #2 to Marcelle Allen for helping take notes from this interview in order to create this blog post.

Please, make sure you like her fan page as a thank you for her efforts. She writes some pretty awesome content too.

Thank you #3 goes to Dmitriy Kozlov.
He made the awesome Experts vs Marketers image on our home page.
This is the cool thing, he did it for free, on the spot in less then 30 minutes.
Why did he do it? Because he’s a great Marketer, Dmitriy knows that by doing this small thing to help us out, I’d share a link, and edify his business.

I’m being transparent here, you should like him for being awesome and helping us out too.

The post Experts vs. Marketers: Who will succeed more? appeared first on Cory Shanes - 24 / 7 Entrepreneur - Articles, Ideas, Tips, & Tricks for Entrepreneurs.

Why should your website be built on WordPress.org?!

1.  The pluggins

Wow, Wow, Wow.  When I first saw the concept of wordpress pluggins I was blown away.  There are currently over 10,000 free pluggins avaiable for wordpress, and even more when you include premium paid pluggins (which are not required)

This entire site is built on Free wordpress pluggins:

2.  SEO Benifits

The fact of the matter is “Google LOVES WordPress”  Don’t believe me?  Check out this keynote by Google’s SEO master Matt Cutts – (Does Google Like WordPress blogs for SEO?)

3.  You can change the design / layout in a heartbeat.

Free Themes -Wordpress currently offers over 17,000 Free themes.  Check it out.

Premium Themes – I recommend Themeforest, you can get a premium theme, just like this one there for $15-$35.  View Themes.

4.  Personal Branding –

Your blog, is your hub.  You should be going out to other social media sites to find people who will, know (twitter), like (facebook), and trust (youtube) you and sending them to your wordpress blog.  Then from the wordpress blog, they can actually be connected to the rest of your sites.

5.  You get to keep all the money your website generates.

Okay, guess what!  This right here is my FAVORITE reason for wordpress.   WordPress.org sites, let you generate your own income.   Seriously, you own the site, so you keep the profits.   If you’re only marketing on facebook, you’re just giving them more traffic, and your customers are probably clicking the facebook ads.  They could be clicking YOUR website’s ads instead.

Ads like this one, provide me with the income to be a full time Internet Entrepreneur.

6.  Simplicity: No coding is required.

Not an html junkie?  No worries.  With WordPress you don’t have to be.

7.  Control: But if you want to code; you can.

Unlike some other user friendly editors, wordpress lets you edit the complicated stuff too!

Want to super-customize your site?!  You can!   Don’t know how to do it?   You can find someone who does the complicated on facebook, skype or elance.com

8.  Wordpress keeps you up to date.

A couple of months ago when facebook added the “like” feature, us wordpress bloggers were the first ones to have it.   People were coming to mysite, and talking to me just to simply ask how they can use it too.   Basically, my site got new traffic, just for having the latest features on it.

As an added bonus, wordpress keeps your current plugins and features up to date via a notification system.

9.  It works for major sites, myself, and it will work for you too.

You may not have realized this yet, but wordpress is not just for blogs, businesses use it too.
Arthur Tubman, says it best – “A website is 1999, a WordPress Blog is 2010; thats the major difference”

Want to see more sites built on wordpress, so that you can see whats possible?   WordPress.org showcases some of their featured sites.  (Which gives me an idea… time to get listed!)

10.  Its the most inexpensive way to own a complete, premium website.

Lets be honest here.   How many of you have spent $1,000 or more having a website designed for you?   I’ve heard of people even paying as high $5,000 for a site recently, and they still looked like they were stuck in 1999.

WordPress makes it easy.   WordPress is FREE.

Here’s the 3 Steps you must follow to get a wordpress site created.

First, you MUST own your own domain name (www.YOURNAME.com) This is another way you will be self branded. Would you rather send clients to facebook.com/yourname OR to www.YourName.com?
Which one brands you better? The answer is obvious; the self branded url.
A personal domain name costs less then $8 / a year: Domain Sale! $7.49 .com at GoDaddy

Secondly, you must own hosting.   I use Host Gator because they’re only $10/ monthly, have the best customer service out of any hosting company I’ve ever used (try their live chat) and they offer their first month of service for a penny.    You can’t avoid paying hosting, its like your water or electric bill for your house, it MUST be paid, in order for you to brand yourself online correctly.   $10/ month to earn 100% of your revenue… I like that system.

Third, and most difficultly, you must invest some time to install your blog to your host, find your best theme, install 15-20 plugins, set up your widgets (your sidebar) and create and design a header for the top of your blog.   This can be a 2-10 hour process, depending on your experience level, or would cost at least $500 for you to hire someone else to do it for you.

However, there is a solution to step 3.

My friends at the http://thefreeblogfactory.com, who you can see advertised throughout this site, will create your blog and customize it to your preferences for FREE, when you set up your hosting through their system.  The Free Blog Factory uses Host Gator too, so I know the system is good.  In fact, http://thefreeblogfactory.com set up THIS BLOG for me back in December 2009.

The Free Blog Factory will Build your Blog.

Bonus:  Reason #11 – Check out my widgets.

Thank you Marcelle Allen from Secret Blog Tips, for this  reason to switch to WordPress that I nearly left out; widgets.   Widgets make your blog run like magic.   They are what you use to actually create your sidebar and make it function.   They’re kinda like plugins but different.  Let me show you how they work:

So there you have it our Top 11 Reasons to go WordPress.

Did I leave out any WordPress benefits?

What is your favorite reason for using WordPress?

Comment below:

The post 10 Reasons why you should switch to WordPress.org appeared first on Cory Shanes - 24 / 7 Entrepreneur - Articles, Ideas, Tips, & Tricks for Entrepreneurs.