One of my favorite comics is Louis C.K. I love him because he’s real. He’s an ordinary guy talking about ordinary things in a very funny way. He pokes fun at what many of us think and do.

Louis took a big risk recently, he self-published a comedy special and then offered downloads for $5 on a web site. Rather than taking a guaranteed smaller amount from a big content publisher like Comedy Central, he risked $200,000 to produce and market his special. He made most of that back with ticket sales, and then made a 100+% return on his investment in FIVE DAYS.

Why am I sharing this with you? 1) This is what’s possible when we publish our own material, whether that’s an ebook, a video, or an audio course; 2) He was unsure that it would work, and did it anyway; 3) I found out about the Louis C.K. DVD from one of my friends on Google+ (this was the first valuable thing I’ve read to date on Google+).

Go ahead and read the email Louis C.K. sent to me this morning, and be prepared to be inspired. Oh yeah, and buy his video!

Hi. This is LOuie. It seriously is me. Im even going to leave
the O stuipdly capatalized because who would pay an intern to do
that?? Okay so you bought the thing with my fat face on it and
you clicked the button that said i could email you. And i know
that now you are thinking “aw shit. Why’d i let this guy into my
life this way?”. Well dont worry. Because i really swear it that
i wont bug you. I will not abuse this privalage of having your
email. You wont hear from me again… Probably, unless i have
something new to offer you. The reason i’m writing now, in the
back of a car taking me to the Tonight Show set, is to let you
know that as of now there is some new and cool stuff on my site,
related to Live at the Beacon Theater. Theres a thing where you
can download and print a dvd box cover and label so you can burn
and make your own dvd of the video. And theres a new option where
you can gift the special to as many people as you want (for 5
bucks each) and they’ll get a nice gifty email from you with a
link to the video.

Also, some of you may know, i recently made a statement (that
sounds so dumb. Like i’m the president or something) about how the
video has been doing online. Im pasting it in here below in case
you missed it.

Lastly I’m planning to put some more outtakes of the show on
youtube and i think i will put one on the site that is only
available for free to you folks on this list, who bought the
thing and opted in. But dont hold me to that because really i
just thought of it and typed it.

Okay well please have a happy rest of the year and more happy
years after that. And please even have been happy in your past.
What?

Thanks again for giving me 5 dollars. I bought 3 cokes with it.

Regards. Sincerely, Actually,

Louis

===========================
People of Earth (minus the ones who don’t give a shit about
this): it’s been amazing to conduct this experiment with you. The
experiment was: if I put out a brand new standup special at a
drastically low price ($5) and make it as easy as possible to
buy, download and enjoy, free of any restrictions, will everyone
just go and steal it? Will they pay for it? And how much money
can be made by an individual in this manner?

It’s been 4 days. A lot of people are asking me how it’s going.
I’ve been hesitant to share the actual figures, because there’s
power in exclusive ownership of information. What I didn’t expect
when I started this was that people would not only take part in
this experiment, they would be invested in it and it would be
important to them. It’s been amazing to see people in large
numbers advocating this idea. So I think it’s only fair that you
get to know the results. Also, it’s just really cool and fun and
I’m dying to tell everybody. I told my Mom, I told three friends,
and that wasn’t nearly enough. So here it is.

First of all, this was a premium video production, shot with six
cameras over two performances at the Beacon Theater, which is a
high-priced elite Manhattan venue. I directed this video myself
and the production of the video cost around $170,000. (This was
largely paid for by the tickets bought by the audiences at both
shows). The material in the video was developed over months on
the road and has never been seen on my show (LOUIE) or on any
other special. The risks were thus: every new generation of
material I create is my income, it’s like a farmer’s annual crop.
The time and effort on my part was far more than if I’d done it
with a big company. If I’d done it with a big company, I would
have a guarantee of a sizable fee, as opposed to this way, where
I’m actually investing my own money.

The development of the website, which needed to be a very robust,
reliable and carefully constructed website, was around $32,000.
We worked for a number of weeks poring over the site to make sure
every detail would give buyers a simple, optimal and humane
experience for buying the video. I edited the video around the
clock for the weeks between the show and the launch.

The show went on sale at noon on Saturday, December 10th. 12
hours later, we had over 50,000 purchases and had earned
$250,000, breaking even on the cost of production and website. As
of Today, we’ve sold over 110,000 copies for a total of over
$500,000. Minus some money for PayPal charges etc, I have a
profit around $200,000 (after taxes $75.58). This is less than I
would have been paid by a large company to simply perform the
show and let them sell it to you, but they would have charged you
about $20 for the video. They would have given you an encrypted
and regionally restricted video of limited value, and they would
have owned your private information for their own use. They would
have withheld international availability indefinitely. This way,
you only paid $5, you can use the video any way you want, and you
can watch it in Dublin, whatever the city is in Belgium, or
Dubai. I got paid nice, and I still own the video (as do you).
You never have to join anything, and you never have to hear from
us again.

I really hope people keep buying it a lot, so I can have
shitloads of money, but at this point I think we can safely say
that the experiment really worked. If anybody stole it, it wasn’t
many of you. Pretty much everybody bought it. And so now we all
get to know that about people and stuff. I’m really glad I put
this out here this way and I’ll certainly do it again. If the
trend continues with sales on this video, my goal is that i can
reach the point where when I sell anything, be it videos, CDs or
tickets to my tours, I’ll do it here and I’ll continue to follow
the model of keeping my price as far down as possible, not
overmarketing to you, keeping as few people between you and me as
possible in the transaction. (Of course i reserve the right to go
back on all of this and sign a massive deal with a company that
pays me fat coin and charges you straight up the ass.). (This is
you: yes Louie. And we’ll all enjoy torrenting that content. You
fat sweaty dolt).

I probably sound kind of crazy right now. It’s been a really fun
and intense few days. This video was paid for by people who
bought tickets, and then bought by people who wanted to see that
same show. I got to do exactly the show I wanted, and exactly the
show you wanted.

I also got an education. And everything i learned are things i
was happy to learn. I learned that people are interested in what
happens and shit (i didn’t go to college)

I learned that money can be a lot of things. It can be something
that is hoarded, fought over, protected, stolen and withheld. Or
it can be like an energy, fueled by the desire, will, creative
interest, need to laugh, of large groups of people. And it can be
shuffled and pushed around and pooled together to fuel a common
interest, jokes about garbage, penises and parenthood.

I want to thank Blair Breard who produced this video and produces
my series LOUIE, and I want to thank Caspar and Giles at Version
Industries, who created the website.

I hope with all of my heart that I stay funny. Otherwise this all
goes to hell. Please have a safe and happy holiday, and thank you
again for all this crazy shit.

Sincerely, Louis C.K.

Having a captive audience within such easy reach can tempt many social marketers to make too many posts that diminish their audience members, and too few posts that warm and prime them. Advertisements for products, lots of re-posts of other people’s content and off-topic comments are among the social media communications that should be used sparingly or avoided altogether.

To keep your audience interested and growing, you must provide real value in all your  communication (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and so on). Your updates should be:

• Frequent (at least daily)
• On Topic
• Relevant
• Non-Promotional
• Free
• Valuable

Frequent: Posting daily lets your audience know that you’re alive, engaged and interested. Don’t go overboard; updating more than twenty times in a day can get annoying if all of the above factors are not present.

On Topic: What is the purpose of your social presence? If the purpose of your presence is to sell your fitness products, then make 90% of your posts about fitness. If you’d like to make personal posts, create a separate personal page or profile.

Relevant: Who is your audience? Why are people following you? Being relevant is similar to being on-topic. If most people are following you because they want to hear more about fitness from an expert, then give them what they want. Make posts that are relevant to what they’re looking for.

Non-Promotional: This is an area where many social marketers lose much of their audience. Even if they heard about you through your products, no one wants to receive a stream of advertisements about your stuff with “Buy Now” links. Promotional material should be infrequent and sparing, comprising no more than five percent of your social media communications.

Value: I’ll say it again, VALUE! Give, give, give away valuable information about your product, your service and especially about your industry. Give people information they can use right away, whether they buy your product or not. Make yourself indispensable to your audience. When you’ve earned their trust and respect, they’ll start buying your stuff.

For those of you who have been following me for a while, you know how I like to do things. I find something that may be cool AND useful, play with it, test it, and then share it, only if it proves to be both cool AND useful.

I have been studying the art of the Facebook Page for a good long while now. Learning how to dance with Facebook is an art in itself, as they seem to be constantly changing how they do things, as well as how we have to interact with them and with the platform itself.

In my last post I alerted you to Brian Moran’s work on Facebook. I found what he’s been doing to be very cool AND useful. His education program is thorough. He does NOT have any tools, leaving us to fend for ourselves with regard to implementing the Facebook Pages we create.

I’ve discovered the tool that will make deploying and updating the Facebook Page easy (yes, easy). It’s called Social Outbreak. Social Outbreak has been in development for a good long time and has all of the bells and whistles any serious Facebook Marketeer could want.

Social Outbreak will be very useful to those who have one or several Facebook Pages that they manage. Here’s who will benefit most from using Social outbreak:

• Small businesses – using Social Outbreak to manage their own Facebook Pages.
• Social Media managers – using Social Outbreak to manage their company’s Facebook Page.
• Social Media marketers – using Social Outbreak to manage Facebook Pages marketing their products and services.
• Social Media consultants – using Social Outbreak to manage their clients’ Facebook Pages.

If you find Social Outbreak to be useful, you can get paid for sharing it with others. Those who find it to be very useful will use Social Outbreak to market Social Outbreak.

As I was alerted to Social Outbreak’s imminent launch months ago, I am in a position to assist others with building their Social Outbreak businesses. I will be working closely with the first six who submit their applications. Already, tens of thousands are in line to get access to this tool, and we’re positioned at the front of that line.

Watch the Social Outbreak Video and submit your inquiry. I look forward to working with all of you, and the first six will get my direct personal attention with building solid businesses.

See you at the top!

Thubten

See update at the end of this post.
I am rarely accused of being a late adopter, but I certainly feel like I’ve been taking my sweet time really getting onto and into Facebook as a business platform. Facebook is where everyone else is. It’s where our family, friends, co-workers and customers are, and it should be where we are if we have something valuable to share.

I have been investing a great deal of time researching how best to integrate Facebook into blog sites. I quickly began using the social plugins, which you can see on the right in the sidebar of this blog. It’s taking me a little longer to integrate Connect/ Login/ Register with Facebook, as the code still seems very buggy, and I don’t want to have visitors get hung out to dry. Once Facebook works out those bugs, I’ll be integrating Register with Facebook on all of my blogs.

My research has revealed many gurus and various sites claiming to have the best information on how to use Facebook for marketing. I started with a Google search for information on how to best use Facebook Pages for marketing businesses. You’re welcome to do your own search and wade through the muck to (perhaps, if you’re lucky) find a gem.

One person stood out from the crowd, someone who’s already done all of the testing and distilling for us, allowing us to take a short cut and start getting some real results on Facebook quickly.

To learn from a proven expert, take a look at Brian Moran’s 10,000 Facebook Fans Site. As you learn and implement Brian’s systems and tools, you will be exposed to much of what we’ll be implementing for our clients.

To save our clients a whole lot of time (invested in learning and using all of Brian’s systems), WePost Media will soon be offering a Facebook Page development package to social media marketeers, in addition to its current Twitter and blog-based services.

Take Brian’s system for a spin. I would love to know what you think about Brian Moran’s 10,000 Facebook Fans Site.

UPDATE:
I have taken Brian Moran’s 10,000 Facebook Fans system for a thorough test drive and I stand by his information 110%. He’s got a money-back guarantee, so it’s really on us to get the most from what he provides. Check it out and let me know what you think! -Thubten

Almost every business owner out there has a list of business contacts. (If you don’t we’ll cover how to build your list in another post). If you are like many business people, sometimes your list of contacts may be a bit neglected. This can happen pretty easily. Why? It’s because most of us remain in business building mode, trying to generate new leads and new business.

When I start to work with clients, I often discover that they have a cash cow that is readily accessible to them. That untapped resource is their current (and often neglected) list. For most of us, unless a contact is someone that we are in regular communication with, a repeat customer, a friend or someone else we do regular business with, most people just send them a holiday card, if that.

Let’s walk through the 7 Steps To Leverage Your List and get you more customers at the same time.

Step 1 – Organizing Your List Data
This is the first roadblock for many. If it’s not already organized in an immediately usable platform like Outlook for direct mail or AWeber for emails, then you will need to get it into a spreadsheet like Excel. Don’t worry about getting it into anything like Outlook, Saleforce or anything like that. Just hire a temp if needed to get it into a spreadsheet. You can import into the service of your choice later.

Step 2 – Adding contacts to your list
Most of us only add direct business contacts. You need to go beyond that and include everyone you meet. Your doctor, your kid’s teachers, etc… So have a way of adding to your list easily.

I always advise people to build their list ”organically,” and don’t try to buy one. Purchased lists have very low conversion rates on direct mail. And if you send an email to a purchased list without having gone through all the hoops to ensure that it was CAN – SPAM compliant, there is a chance your ISP or your mailing list provider will cut you off. A list you build yourself and have an established relationship with, will always produce better results.

An important note about adding anyone to your email list, don’t add someone to your email list without letting them know that you are doing it. You also need to give them the ability to unsubscribe from your emails. Got that? Just because they gave you a business card at some networking event does not give you the right to blindly email them your special of the week. They really don’t care.

Step 3 – Start engaging with your list
Now that you have it organized and can add people to it, you need to engage. The rule that applies to social media also applies to your contact list. If you use social media, you know that there is immediacy to it. You’ll need to develop that with your list.

Depending on the nature of your list and business, it may lend itself to either direct mail or email. Choose one to start, get that process going and then move on to the other.

If you are sending out direct mail pieces, seriously consider what you are sending your contacts. If you got it in the mail, what would you do with it? What is the value you offer? Why should they care? Until you can clearly define that, save your money.

If you always send an email trying to sell something, or worse, you’ve bored them with some generic mailings that tell them how great you and your business are, chances are your list will not be responsive. You’ve just trained them to ignore you. I know of more than a few realtors who are guilty of this.

Instead, start providing them with value and information on a consistent basis. I mean real value. If you wouldn’t care to read it yourself and if it doesn’t interest you, why would your list care? If you have a blog, tell them every time you make an update. You can also take all your blog posts for the month and send that out as a newsletter to your list. You want to be the person or business they think of when they need that widget you sell.

Also, don’t forget to promote your Twitter and Facebook fan page. You do have those set up, right?

Step 4 – Tracking
I put tracking before making sales for a good reason. Most businesses will set up some kind of sales campaign and have absolutely no way of tracking where the lead, prospect, or sale came from. Print ads and Yellow Pages are notorious for this. Unless you use a tracking system, you will have no idea how well you did or how to improve.

If you use a email mailing system like AWeber, Get Response or Mailchimp, they have built in tracking, that tell you things like; how many people opened your email. You’ll also want to consider setting up a dedicated phone number and a web page that is specific to your sales campaign. It is the simplest form of tracking.

The benefit of a dedicated phone number and web page is that they can be used in any kind of medium: email, direct mail, radio, TV or print. Also when people call on that number or go to that web page it’s because you directed them there.

Step 5 – Determine The Need
Okay, now that you’re engaged with your contacts and you have tracking set up, it’s time to really leverage that relationship. It’s time to ask your list for something. But what do you ask? Well if you have a specific product or service, you may think, that is what you are going to sell. Not so fast.

Anyone can send out a 20% off coupon and say that they sell the best radial tires. That doesn’t guarantee any sales. To make the sale you need to understand your list’s need. You need to survey that list and you need to know things like:

• Who are they?
• Are they mostly male, female? What‘s their age?
  What do they do for a living? Etc…
• What do they want?
• And no, it’s not a new set of golf clubs.
  It’s how the new set of golf clubs make them feel.

You need to build a profile based on your list and their wants, needs and desires. If you are a realtor, you aren’t selling a house; you’re selling a dream, security, peace of mind. You need to tailor your sales communications, to the majority demographic of your list and then guide them through a process that fulfills their wants needs and desires.

Step 6 – The Sale
There are many schools of thought on how to get the sale. But for simplicity sake, let’s focus on an easy one:

• Tell them what your product or service is
• Tell them what it will do for them
• Tell them how to get it

That’s it. If you’ve done your homework and engaged with your list and you know who they are along with their wants needs and desires, then the sale part will take care of itself.

You should have built up enough trust and good will by engaging with them and providing them with value. So now when you ask for the sale, they are more likely to respond to it.

One question I often get is, ”Is there a ratio of content to sales emails?” Not really. It really depends on the industry. Some can promote once every 8 or 9
emails. Some only do it on a quarterly basis.

Step 7 – The Referral
Always ask for referrals. Most people or businesses just fail to do this. If you are providing value to your contacts and clients, ask them for a referral. Ask them who would benefit from your product or service. Ask them to make that introduction. And if it’s appropriate to your business, give them something for it.

Make sure to reciprocate. Your contacts may need help with referrals as well. As part of the engagement and survey process, be sure to ask them want kind of contacts they are looking for. If contacts on your list have their own list, you may be able to work out some kind of joint venture, where you can cross promote your products and services.

What are some of the tips you’ve discovered on how to leverage your list?

Manny Acevedo
Web: BuzzDigitalMedia.com
Email: manny@buzzdigitalmedia.com
Twitter: @MannyAcevedo
Linked in: linkedin.com/in/mannyacevedo
Facebook: facebook.com/manny.acevedo

How do you differentiate yourself when everyone with whom you work has the same qualities as you do?

If I were to create a gourmet chocolate product, such as @RighteouslyRaw, or publish an entrepreneur magazine for women, such as @StarLeeMag, I would not have millions or thousands of other companies to compete against, probably more like dozens, if that.

When I’m a traditional company, differentiating myself is essential. Doing so is easy when compared to the task that network marketing leaders have when trying to differentiate themselves from others in their industry, or even in their company. Each and every one of them is a leader, well trained, seasoned, savvy, experienced, committed, compassionate, on purpose, etc. Each will take you to the top with them. Each will make sure that you are only in the very best opportunity and that the company treats you right.

Short of touting how many millions they’ve made or how many thousands they’ve put into their downlines (which can get them into big trouble with the FTC), there’s no real way to distinguish between them unless and until you’ve joined their organization and drank the berry-flavored drink (which the company may or may not have sold you).

When each of these network marketing leaders goes onto Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to get the word out about themselves and their product, usually the result is noise to the rest of us. If they don’t have a presence, people notice, but when they shout their “unique selling proposition” from the mountaintop, they’re cancelled out by the many others doing exactly the same thing.

I was recently included in a network marketing leader fly-in for an amazing company that I’ll gladly share with you in due course. Given that I was the social media guy in the room, I got lots of questions about how to use social media to build a network marketing organization. I have not yet solved the dilemma that these leaders face. When I do, I’ll let them (and you) know.

See you at the top!

As someone who gripes as little as possible, I have finally come to the end of my rope.

No matter what anyone “in the business” says, VoIP sucks. Using Skype for business phone calls sucks. Google Voice sucks. It is all unreliable, intermittent and the sound quality just plain sucks. There, I said it.

I will have to get a “land line” and DSL to augment my Comcast internet “service,” so that I can have reliable phones.

After asking a brilliant friend what his solution would be, I’m going to implement it, at roughly 5x the cost of a regular phone line. Having 100% uptime is critical to any business, and I’m in business, so I need phones that work when people call.

Enough complaining from me. My brilliant friend is available for problem solving and consulting. Send me a comment on this post, and I’ll reply with his email address.

It’s time to get out in this gorgeous Portland weather!

Have you heard of Venmo yet? Most people haven’t.

I was a customer of PayPal’s rival, X.Com back in 1998, and was happy when they merged with PayPal. Since PayPal’s acquisition by eBay, at least from my point of view, everything’s gone down hill.

As someone who markets products and services via web sites, PayPal is a necessary evil. As more and more customers refuse to use PayPal, however, the need for a real challenger grows.

I was recently exposed to Venmo, and have been pleased with what I’ve seen so far. The interface is simpler than PayPal’s and seems to be simpler to use. Venmo has added a social trust dimension to exchanges, as well as the ability to pay each other using handheld devices (PayPal’s original business).

Using SMS text messaging, people can send money to each other’s Venmo accounts. It’s very cool! You can also embed payment widgets into your WordPress, or other web / blog site:

Trusted Payments

Pay thubten $15
because you like his blog

Whether or not you send me $15, check out Venmo. I have 11 invitations left. Send me an @ reply on Twitter, and I’ll send you one if I have any left.

As entrepreneurs and business owners we hear virtually constant advice (at least I do) from people in our lives and productivity/effectiveness gurus telling us to balance our lives. When I hear that it sounds very nice, but the reality is that life, at least mine, is never balanced.

What does balance really look like? Doing exactly the same amount of every type of activity each day? How would that look? “Even though there are another three loads of laundry to do today, I have to get two hours of video gaming in or I’ll be out of balance.” That’s ridiculous!

I think what the gurus are really advising us to do is to relax, be happy, and have fun as much of the time as possible.

Creating income from activities we enjoy is the ideal of nearly every entrepreneur and financial freedom seeker. I enjoy the work that I do, which allows me to have fun while doing it. This means that I need fewer distractions from work to be happy. To the outside world, my life isn’t “balanced,” but to me, I’m balanced, with just enough of everything.

Does this mean that I wouldn’t like to eat better, work out more, meditate more, travel more, read more for fun? No, it doesn’t. What it does mean is that it’s easier to achieve “balance” when you’re doing what you love, and when doing what you love generates income.

What do you love to do?

Yes, it’s nearly midnight on Easter Sunday, and I just finished a project that has spanned days, researching and testing free MP3 players for a friend’s blog site. Finding one that worked in every browser I could find, on both Mac and Widows was a challenge. I’m amazed that this had to be so difficult, but it was.

The parameters I needed to fulfill were these: 1) the player had to allow for me to host my own files, 2) it had to allow for unlimited file size, 3) it had to allow for unlimited running time, 4) it had to allow for volume control, as well as start and stop, and 5) it had to look decent.

To save you the brain damage of days of research and testing, here’s the small, yet powerful result of all of my work. Copy and paste this embed code into your post:

<embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.google.com/reader/ui/3247397568-audio-player.swf?audioUrl=http://www.YOURDOMAIN.com/YOURMP3FILE.mp3&play=true" width="400" height="27" allowscriptaccess="never" quality="best" bgcolor="#ffffff" wmode="window" flashvars="playerMode=embedded" />

Replace http://www.YOURDOMAIN.com/YOURMP3FILE.mp3 with your mp3 file url.

Here is the result. Does it work for you?

I welcome your comments.