Well as usual I spent WAY too much time on Pinterest, I can’t believe how addicting it is. I just have so much fun pinning stuff and looking at others pins and most importantly is the way it forces my mind into a “Creative” mode.

I get SOoooo many ideas hanging out over there, not just for recipes, crafts and whatnot’s but also new niches, product creation ideas and etc. It is incredible and I really LOVE it!!

I never really thought much about the traffic there, although it REALLY annoys me when people send me follow invites and they haven’t even pinned one single thing!! I NEVER follow them back because that is a SURE sign that they just want to market to me and I do NOT want to be “marketed to” on pinterest PERIOD!

Now being a marketer myself I completely understand the enticement with pinterest driving more REFERRAL traffic then even Google+ but there is a right way and a wrong way.

Take books for example, you can certainly pin your amazon affiliate links for a book or product that you like instead of just a random page but just make sure and be smart about it or else the incredible traffic will be useless after awhile because it is VERY easy for people to UnFollow you

Going through my usual morning tech news this morning, I came across a VERY interesting infographic about Pinterest and you know how I LOVE infographics:) Any who, here it is, I think you will really enjoy it. It is an interesting overview…

Image Source: Monetate

I would LOVE to hear your thoughts and opinions on Pinterest so please post them:)

So over the weekend I was really diving in and looking at some trends taking placing in Social Media and how they might effect you.

What it all boils down to are these key social trends that you really need to pay attention to in 2012.

Joseph over at techcrunch sums it up nicely: 

Key Social Media Trends To Look For In 2012

This google change is even bigger than Panda, if you can believe that!!

My feelings are still up in the air about it. I guess I just need to spend a few days and play around with it.

This Google , called “Search, Plus Your World” update has just become more personal.  The new search allows Robot’s to incorporate data from your social network  along with public internet, when delivering results of a search.

This algorithm is one of the most radical changes EVER created by Google. This new search is supposed to make life a lot easier for most users, allowing them to find privately shared content for family and friends, along with materials from across the web, all in one single search.

Here is what Matt Cutt’s has to say about it…

I’ve been reading a lot of the coverage of the Search plus Your World launch and I wanted to share my story and then clarify something.

I love to stay up until early in the morning playing Werewolf. In early December I went to a journalism conference called “News Foo Camp” in Phoenix and played a lot of Werewolf. When I got back, for some reason I searched for [werewolf] — maybe I was thinking about making a custom deck of werewolf cards. Because I was dogfood-testing Search plus Your World, this is what I saw:

In the top row of pictures, you’ll see a bunch of people playing werewolf, including a picture of me as the werewolf in the top-left image. Doing a generic search like [werewolf] or [photos] and getting back a picture of you or your friends is a pure, magic moment.

Let me tell you how it happened. I have Brian “Fitz” Fitzpatrick in a circle on Google+, because he’s in charge of Google’s Data Liberation Front and he’s an all-round awesome guy to boot. Fitz published an album of 25 Werewolf photos shortly after the conference. Okay, but I’m only in one of the 25 pictures; how did Google return the picture of me first? It turns out that Brian had tagged me in that single photo.

Once you know the trick, it might not seem like magic anymore. In fact, this is the “things just work” experience that everyone in the tech industry strives for. But when I searched for [werewolf] and got back a recent picture of me playing werewolf, it did seem like magic right then. I suspect as more people take Search plus Your World out for a test drive, they’ll quickly experience similar magical “Aha!” moments like I did.

I was reading some of the comments on tech blogs, and I wanted to clarify something: Search plus Your World does surface public content from the open web, not just content from Google+. For example, look back up to the top-right image from my screenshot above. That’s actually a werewolf photo that Gina Trapani took and it’s hosted on Flickr, not Google.

Here’s another example. If you follow the excellent and erudite Jennifer 8 Lee and search for [general tso’s chicken], Google can surface this high-quality thread from Quora:

By the way, that’s a fantastic thread for Google to highlight, since Lee literally wrote the book about General Tso’s Chicken. It’s exactly the sort of “just works” user experience you’d want.

It’s not hard to find content shared on other sites. For a search [grand unified theory of snack food],Paul Buchheit shared a link on FriendFeed, and Google can highlight that:

Or if I search for [connectbot], here’s a link that Brad Fitzpatrick shared on Live Journal:

(Yes, we do have both a Brian Fitzpatrick and a Brad Fitzpatrick at Google. People sometimes mix them up, but they’re different.)

I hope that helps to make my point. Search plus Your World builds on the social search that we launched in 2009, and can surface public content from sites across from the web, such as Quora, FriendFeed, LiveJournal, Twitter, and WordPress.

The team should be finishing the rollout of Search plus Your World in the next day or so, and I hope you enjoy it. Remember, to see the new results, you’ll need to be signed in with a Google account and search on google.com. Give this new feature a whirl: once you see how much better personal search can be, I don’t think you’ll want to give it up.

I am curious what you think about it and how you feel it will impact SEO for marketers?

Social Media Manager

How Much Do Social Media Managers Earn?

According to SimplyHired, a leading job search site, the average salary in this niche $55,000. But get this, consultants in the field earn much more. Proof?

ReadWriteWeb, a leading blog renown for offering in-depth analysis about the daily happenings in the tech world, surveyed some leading bloggers and social media (SM) consultants and guess what, NONE of them were earning less than $150 per hour for consulting. In fact, the average rate was around $300 per hour.

And, some commanded fees of $2,000- $4,000 for just 20-40 hours worth of work. [Source: Article on ReadWriteWeb website entitled, How Much Do Top Tier Bloggers and Social Media Consultants Get Paid? We Asked Them!]

So, now that you know that it’s possible to earn this much in this niche, how do you go about making it happen? Following are three key elements that must be present.

Starting a Social Media Business? Here’s How to Ensure You Earn the Industry Average of $100-$300 Per Hour

1. Assess Your Skills in This Area: You probably know much more about this niche than you think. If you use Twitter, are active in groups on LinkedIn and know how to maneuver on Facebook, chances are you have the skills to be a SM consultant.

Note: Businesses expect results from this medium. So, just because you “play around” on sites like the ones mentioned above does not mean that you know how to get results. But, with a few tools and the right advice, it’s so simple to learn you’d be amazed that businesses are willing to pay you for it.

2. Price Your Services Right. As a social media manager, you can charge as much or as little as you want.

A Social Media Expert Who’s Too Busy Charging “Only $125/Hour”

One expert in this area reported being so busy charging “just $125 per hour” that she raised her rates to lower her client load. She went on to note that many of her colleagues in this niche started offering workshops to businesses because they couldn’t possibly handle all the clients soliciting their services.

Not only did this add an extra revenue stream to their business, it allowed them to bring on more “qualified,” higher-paying clients.

3. Outsource the Actual Work: Via sites like Elance and Guru, you can find qualified talent to do the actual work, while you market for more clients.

Freelance or Want to Work-from-Home for a Living? Why Recognizing a Niche Can Catapult You into a High-Paying Career Quickly

A few years ago, phrases like “SEO content,” “backlinks” and “content marketing” were so new, that only industry insiders knew what was being talked about. Now, phrases like this are part of every online marketer’s vernacular.

And, freelance writers who were savvy enough to spot the trend capitalized; I know, I’m one of them. Many SEO writers who were struggling just a few years ago now make hundreds per day and have teams of writers under them because they recognized that SEO writing was a needed service and that businesses were willing to pay well for it – if you knew how to market to them.

Well, social media marketing has now reached this point. It’s those who are forward-thinking enough to recognize the trend and jump on it who will reap the benefits in a year, three years and five years.

I have been chatting quite a bit lately about the importance of businesses to have a Social Media Manager that not only takes care of the vast arena of social media marketing but also handles the businesses online reputation AND their online branding.

Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6149310

My favorite tool that is super easy to use is OnlyWire.com.

By using social networking sites you effectively bring fantastic traffic to your websites and offers.

OnlyWire is the ultimate time saver- with just one click, you’ ll be able to submit your pages to the built in software which will take care of the rest, especially of the submission process to all of the social networking sites at once.

This software is the perfect tool of generating tons of backlinks to your site, automatically submitting all your blog posts
or documents to 48 different Bookmarking and Social Media sites.

Setting up OnlyWire takes a little bit of time however you only have to do this once.

Believe me it is SOOOOooo worth it.

To get everything up and running just go to OnlyWire.com and click on each Social site and register with all the sites then you will need to  install the submission button as an add- on to your favorite browsers because it will save your time greatly.

Place the “Bookmark and Share” on your blog posts or site, allowing your visitors to share a page the like on their social
networking sites.

Am amazing feature of OnlyWire.com is the account management tool inside the program, which will allow you to easily keep track of
all your posts and shares online.

Another incredible benefit of OnlyWire, is that back links from all these platforms are automatically created for your blog or site,
increasing your PR and also bringing tons of traffic to your site.

As Google and other search engines loves back links, OnlyWire will prove to be a great traffic generator and a perfect tool for
sharing your content.

Are you using Bookmarking ALL your content?

If not then you should, that is the easiest way to increase your traffic and backlinks.

So for you today, I have put together a handy dandy infographic that you can print out and have handy to look at and be able to turn your short keywords with a TON of competition into awesome long tail keyword phrases with very little competition.

I hope this helps you with your marketing endeavors. I would love to hear your comments about this graphic, do you like  or not? Also do you like Infographics in general?

P.S. I don’t know what you may be using to collect payments from offline clients but I use both PayPal and Square.  I use both but I have to say that my favorite is Square. They are now processing over $11 Million dollars in sales a day!! Incredible!

You can look more into them by clicking here ==> http://TechCrunch.com

P.S.S Have you had a chance to check out the super cool Offline Snatcher? If not click here to check it out ==> Offline Snatcher

All your efforts online should be geared toward getting new people on your list and then building a relationship with them. Give them value instead of just hammering them with offers to buy.

Ultimately the formula for a successful business boils down to just 3 things and that is:

1. Traffic
2. Offer
3. Conversion

The more traffic you get to your blog or squeeze page, turns into more fabulous people on your email list that you can assist, which turns into more offers that you can let them know about that will HELP them achieve THEIR goals.

Given the fact that you have been transparent, honest and truly helpful to them, your conversions will naturally be much higher.

WARNING Soap Box time

You know when I woke up on New Year’s morning I said to myself that my most important goal in BOTH my personal AND business life is to be a Great Servant! I choose and declare that all my efforts with be on serving others to help them better their own lives in whatever way possible that I can.

However I need those people to step up to the plate also. I will accept no whining or complaining. I will only help those who will do the daily action steps.

You need to have the right mindset when starting out and remain focused on what it is that you need to do every single day to take your business to the next level, God knows we can’t depend on our government so you need to plan for your financial future and your families.

So before you do anything else please make sure that you do the goal setting lesson from yesterday.

Be Blessed AND Be a Blessing

P.S. Have you seen this secret tool for Lead Generation, is it coolio:)

You can’t aim at something that is not there. Just going over it in your head does not count. They need to be written down SPECIFICALLY on paper.

You really need to get yourself in a very quiet place, away from your computer with just a notepad and a pen and start doing some really deep thinking about how you want your lifestyle to be and writing it down as you go. Just write, don’t think about what you are writing. This isn’t for anyone other than you. So don’t correct the spelling and what not.

Just saying your want to make a lot of money, isn’t specific enough.You need to have an actual dollar amount and a dead line for that amount.

You need to write down WHY you want this amount and again, get very detailed.

After you write this down, you will need to write down EXACT steps of how you will get there.

Then break that down into daily action steps that you need to take.

Everything revolves around these 3 big categories: Health, Wealth and Relationships. You need to be the best that you can be in ALL these categories for true happiness to occur.

If you need help with more detailed Goal Setting just post here and let me know.

Also I would LOVE to hear some of your goals for 2012. I know I have some HUGE ones myself. Including starting an Exclusive Inner Circle for a very select and small amount of people to mastermind with and help you grow your business this year.

What you need is a daily routine that becomes a habit. You do it first thing everything single morning without fail.

BEFORE checking your emails, facebook, or ANYTHING else. You need to eat that frog so to speak.

BTW if you haven’t read that little book then you should, it is freaking awesome. You can get it here at Amazon for ridiculously cheap, Eat That Frog. It WILL change your life if you read it AND take action and do the tiny little steps Brian Tracy talks about.

Any ways, sorry to get off track but I mean seriously everyone tells you to make sure and implement social media sites, advertise using classified ads, Google Ads, Facebook Ads, Facebook fan pages. And on and on and on.

So you run around following their advice and feeling so incredibly scattered, like you are constantly “working” but never any results.

I have put together an infographic that will help you immensely…

I would love to hear your comments on this. Does it help you or not? Is there something that you need that I can help you with, let me know by posting a comment here

P.S. Have you heard about the PLR videos for offline businesses. Is it as simple as deciding on a market and emailing an already made video:)

“Why would anyone pay me so much for something so easy?”

For example like installing an autoresponder or create a QR Code and etc.  However what they fail to remember is that their clients aren’t actually paying for that simple install, they are paying for your knowledge and how your “small and simple” service adds to their bottom line.

It might only take you 10 minutes to install an aweber optin form to their website but stop and think just how many customers contacts that will collect with that simple little action that YOU did over the next 10 year and etc. It is truly immeasurable!

I came across these FANTASTIC article at mashable this morning that will explain this better

Here’s a hypothetical (yet common) situation: Sara is a brilliant web designer who has never raised her client rates. Not once. Sure, she signs on new clients more often, but her existing clientele enjoy some kind of unwritten grandfather clause that has maintained the same rates since 2002.

Does this sound familiar? Do you break into a sweat when you consider how to tell a long-time client you need to raise his rates? Are you worried that clients will run for the hills at the slightest rate increase?

With the rise of the Freelance or Gig Economy, more professionals are shifting from full-time positions to self-employed, freelance or contract roles. And often, for company employees accustomed to regular raises and pre-determined fee hikes, the notion of being in charge of one’s own prices is challenging.

A freelancer’s pricing model determines the success and sustainability of his business and livelihood. If you’re a freelancer who has been historically reluctant to raise your rates, consider the following.

1. Undercharging undervalues your abilities.

On the most basic level, your business is all about earning money based on the value it brings to clients. By undercharging clients, you send the message that your services and talents are worth less. If you’re good at what you do and are confident in the value you provide to clients, then you have nothing to fear from raising your rates.

2. Know when to undercut your competition.

When you were just launching your business or service, you may have started at a lower rate to get your foot in the door and to build your portfolio or reference base. But if you’ve since become established, it’s time to set your own bar for rates. After all, as your talents and expertise develop, you’re providing more value; therefore, you need to charge accordingly. This is no different than earning a periodic raise from an employer, a process which everyone understands.

3. Take the emotion out of a rate increase.

When it’s time to raise rates, many freelancers worry about hurting their long-time, loyal clients. After all, you may have developed personal relationships over the years. However, it’s critical to remove any emotion from the equation. Increasing your rates shouldn’t offend anyone — it is a pure business necessity. Even Social Security will receive a 3.6% cost of living increase for 2012.

4. Stop waiting for the “right” time.

It’s a classic mistake to keep waiting for the perfect time to raise your rates. It’s never going to be the right time, and the longer you wait, the more money you leave on the table. That said, the beginning of 2012 or the start of a new quarter are ideal times to enact new rates.

5. Start by increasing your rate with each new client.

If you’re struggling to raise your fees, start by setting higher rates with each new client you take on. You’ll ease yourself into the new rates and quickly discover that clients are more than happy to pay higher rates and still find you a great value.

6. Ease in with a small increase.

Let your current clients know that you’ll be raising your fees (start with a 10-15% increase). Communicate that you appreciate their business and that you’ve already raised your rates with all your newer clients. Be sure to give clients advance notice (about one to two months) before enacting the new pricing. Use terms like “fair rate,” “market rate” and “scheduled increase” to justify the increase from a business standpoint. Most importantly, keep your communication brief — don’t send the message that you’re open to negotiation.

7. Don’t lose sleep over lost clients.

In the majority of cases, clients will accept reasonable increases with relative ease. However, be prepared for a client or two to walk away rather than accept your new rates. If you’re confident with the value you deliver, don’t worry about the clients who walked. Most likely, those clients weren’t the best fit anyway. It’s best to move on to bigger and better things.

For any self-employed individual, setting your rates is a serious business. No matter what pricing plan you employ, be sure you’re not undervaluing your talents. As the New Year approaches, it’s a key time to get your business in order by making sure you’re compensated fairly.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, dblight, Flickr, thekellyscope

Have a Rockin’ Day:)

Trish