Internet Marketing Tips from Denise Wakeman

Been there, done that. What you can learn from the experts.

2009-07-11T07:58:00-07:00

One of the reasons I invest in my professional development is that I want to accelerate the growth of my business. I make a serious investment in my business: I attend mastermind retreats, I hire mentors, I take classes, and I buy ebooks and "traditional" books.

I also follow a lot of successful people. I watch what they do, how they do it and when I see something I can model for my own business, I adapt it and try it.

That's why I jumped on the chance to contribute to a FREE ebook that my colleague Scott Stratten (unmarketing on twitter) compiled with responses from 39 of his colleagues about what they would do differently if they could go back to the beginning of their speaking/coaching/writing career.

If I Could Go Back:
Successful Speakers, Authors & Coaches Reflect on What They'd Do Differently

You get to tap into the hindsight from successful people including Leesa Barnes, Alexis Neely, Mari Smith, Adam Urbanski, Michael Bungay Stainer, and me (!), to name just a few. I learned so much from the other contributors, especially around getting started as a speaker since it's not my strong suit.

If I Could Go Back is 123 pages of pure gold and it's totally free. Scott is not selling anything. He is building his list, though. He loves to share information and this is an example you can study and model for your own business.

Watch his videos, study his process and then figure out how you can do something similar in your own niche.

And read the ebook. As I said, it's pure gold and I'm pretty sure you'll get find a few golden nuggets you apply to your business.

Kick Start America - How You Can Help Get Our Economy Back on Track

2009-07-09T10:11:52-07:00

In previous posts I've told you about Dave Lakhani. Dave is quite brilliant in my humble opinion, as a marketer, a masterful speaker, and top notch trainer. I'm always blown away when I hear and see Dave present. I study his language and style because it works. I've been a fan for some time and his latest project seals the deal for me.

Dave recently published How to Sell When Nobody's Buying which sold out online and in bookstores within 8 hours of the launch.

In conjunction with the book and media buzz he's getting, Dave is launching an initiative called Kick Start America. I heard about it in April and he's officially announced it today.

Watch Dave's video in which he explains why he's created Kick Start America.

If you want to be connected with a very powerful person (tons of connections), potentially get a lot of visibility, and contribute to helping entrepreneurs around the country, then take a look at Dave Lakhani's plan to Kick Start America and reboot the economy. It's pretty impressive.

I'm not selling anything here. Neither is Dave, though there is a fee to participate which helps offset costs; Dave is putting in $150K of his own money. I'm in. The potential visibility is nice but it's not my primary motivator. I believe strongly in what Dave is setting out to do and I want to make a meaningful contribution. In fact it dovetails nicely with my passion for Kiva.org which supports entrepreneurs around the world in the form of micro-lending.

I wanted to let you know about this opportunity. Maybe it resonates with you too.

Twitter Mosaic is a Full Color Display of Who I'm Following

2009-07-06T08:59:19-07:00

I saw this on Paul Chaney's blog and thought it was cool. Here's my Twitter Mosaic. Cool, isn't it? These are some of the people I follow vs. people who follow me. I'm not sure if the order is random or by date I followed.

Get your twitter mosaic here.

@DeniseWakeman has been suspended and I have no idea why

2009-07-05T16:06:51-07:00

UPDATE: It seems that as of about 8:00 p.m. my twitter account was restored as were most of the thousands of others that were "accidentally suspended" due to human error. That caused quite a commotion in the twittersphere!

___________________________

This afternoon, I was working on a project and was checking out a client's blog. When I tried to retweet one of her blog posts I saw an alarming notice on my @DeniseWakeman twitter profile:

What the ??? Only a few minutes before I had sent a tweet.

I immediately went to Twitter's support page and submitted a support ticket. I got an auto reply with the following info:

If you are suspended, it's most likely for one or more of these reasons::

User Abuse
* a large number of people block the profile or write in with spam complaints
* aggressive following
* imbalanced ratio: the number of followers is small compared to number of people following
* misuse of the reply feature
* updates consist of duplicate links and/or text
* updates consist mainly of links and not personal updates
* updates consist of updates poached from others' timelines, passed off as one's own

Technical Abuse
* updates consist of links pointing to phishing sites, malware, or other harmful material
* a large number of accounts is created in a short amount of time
* an account is identified as belonging to a spam cluster

When this happens, we suspend the account for investigation and hide the contents from the public view in order to remove the cause of complaint.

Looking at this list, the only thing I can see that may be a problem is that I post links to my blog posts on two different twitter accounts.

I guess I'll have to wait and see what happens. So, in the meantime, will you please follow me on my @BlogSquad account? I don't want to lose touch with my twitter friends!

Video Isn't Just for Blogs and YouTube

2009-07-01T08:22:00-07:00

Today on a teleseminar, Terri Levine, one of my mentors, talked about how she's using video to create closer relationships (and as a result a lot more business) with people she meets: prospects, clients and other people in her life.

She's shooting about 100 (!) very short video greetings every week and sending them via email to her contacts. This isn't a revolutionary new idea...it's a reminder that there are many ways of connecting and by far video is the most powerful.

When you deliver a video greeting that has no hidden agenda, no sales pitch, just a heart-felt sincere message, then you create a connection that will stick with the recipient. You make someone feel really good!

Now that I think about it, I actually did this a few weeks ago.

I have a blogging client who actually lives in my neighborhood (very rare for me to have clients in the same town). Fern Burg is an aesthetician and on the spur of the moment I decided I wanted a facial. Fern was able to fit me in her schedule and I had a delightful, relaxing and cleansing experience. She was so gentle and I felt great and my skin looked great.

As soon as I got back to my office, I shot a video testimonial for Fern. She didn't ask me but I has on a high and even though I was not wearing makeup and my hair was messy, I shot it anyway and emailed the link right away. Needless to say, Fern was very happy and surprised. Not only did it make her feel good, she now has a testimonial from a happy client she can use on her blog!

It's really very simple to do this type of video. I shot it with my Flip Mino HD. The software in the camera gives you the option to email the video directly to a person with a note. No downloading. No uploading. No fancy editing. Shoot and send. Really, anyone can do this.

Implement just this one tip and you'll be light years beyond your competition. I guarantee it.