Work Yourself Up!

Creating Expert Status: Networking

You may know a lot about your business niche, but does anyone else know that? If not, it's time to set yourself up as an expert.

Sometimes it is WHO you know that counts, like when you're trying to accomplish something and need help. On the path towards expert status, you will need others to reach the destination.

I know, I know - you are not the type of person to shamelessly self promote. Don't worry because there is no shame involved. To do any less, than tell others about what you have worked hard to learn, is selling yourself short and that IS shameful. Even for shy people, networking with others in the business world can only help. What makes it a bit easier is that you and those you network with are all after a common goal - increased profits.

Why Network?

Networking is important in business. Making connections with others in the online world increases your visibility which matters when you want to get noticed. Who do you rub elbows with? Begin with someone with influence in your business area like a guru of sorts. Get to know them by hanging out where they hang out - on their blog, in their social networking groups and by attending events they host or are speaking at.

Networking mutually benefits both parties. While you are getting to know them, don't forget to let them know who you are. When you comment on blogs, link those comments to your own blog and/or website. If you host a podcast, invite them to be a guest.

Other Ways to Network

Blogs and forums are not the only way that you can make a useful business connection to promote your expert business status. Join local and online business associations. This is not in name only. Do our part and get involved so that others see your face, hear your voice and notice your work.

Your involvement in these professional organizations is a two-way street. Use the time to give but also get. Ask questions when you need to. Sharing business tips, tricks and secrets is a part of the perks.

Don't neglect the social networking communities. Facebook and MySpace are a lot of fun for connecting with old friends, but they are also big forums for sharing business information. You can post new happenings on your website and links. You'll be surprised who sees and takes advantage of the news. Invite all of your fellow organizational members as well as clients and other business associates to be your friends so they can view posts to your Wall.

Networking can be intimidating especially for business owners who are not good at self-promotion. But, once you begin, you'll notice the benefits and get hooked.

Why are Relationships with Readers Important?

How do you build trust with others? You get to know them and find out what they are all about. It is easier to do that face to face, yes, but it can also be accomplished in cyberspace if you are willing to work at it. But, why do any of that anyway?

Building relationships with your readers is vital to your business. Remember that your goal is to make money and for that you will need people to visit your site. But, visiting is not enough in and of itself.

Think about it in these terms. Let's say you launch an incredible new product. You advertise everywhere that you can think of. In the first months of your launch, your unique visitors go up 100% (it's possible!) AND the sales go through the roof.

In your bliss don't forget that the journey towards one-time sales is a short trip. If you made six figures in each of those months, it still wouldn't compensate for the next eight months of basement stats because none of those customers came back. That's no way to run and grow a successful business enterprise.

Instead, strive for repeat visitors every month of the year. How do you do that? You build a relationship with each one of them. No, you don't have to know them all by name, but you will want to pay attention and give them what they want to keep them coming back.

Readers are more than just people who come to hear what you have to say, they are looking for something. It could be your product but they won't stay where they are not appreciated.

Here are a few reasons why reader relationships are so important to your site:

1. They have friends. You never know who is visiting and reading your site content. One thing that you do know is that they have a sphere of influence with someone. That sphere can be yours if they are satisfied with their relationship with you.

2. They have money. What started out as simply a visitor can be converted to a customer who uses your products or services if they trust you. Now you have the potential for repeat business.

3. They represent a portion of the population. Whatever their connections, they can be useful to you in building a better business. Online business owners can provide organic backlinks for you; bloggers can ask you to guest post for them; avid social bookmarkers can help lift you to expert status by linking to your content.

Readers are not just numbers; they are people who are important in their own right and to your business. Connect with them.

4 Quick Tips for Convincing Partners to Promote You

One of the skills that can make you the most money online is networking, which is nothing more than building relationships with other successful marketers so that you both profit.

Networking successfully with jv partners can really boost your Internet Marketing business. The most successful marketers do so smartly; they use each other as leverage to get where they are today. Follow their lead and you'll see why.

Here are a few quick tips to help you get started.

Quick Tip #1: Develop a USP for Your Request

Most people in business have heard the advice that you're supposed to have a Unique Selling Proposition (USP) for your customers, but a USP also helps when you are seeking joint venture partners. The most sought-after JV partners receive requests on a daily basis. You'll want to strategize to stand out from all these others who are vying for their attention.

The best way to accomplish this is to think about how your offer is different from the other offers out there. What are you going to offer to that person's customers that no one has before? Make sure that you have truly thought this out before making contact.

Quick Tip #2: Pay Attention to the Marketer

Many marketers just focus on sending many JV requests out hoping that someone, anyone, will say yes.  The problem is that the most seasoned marketers can spot this a mile away. If you're asking someone to promote to their list, you'll get better results if you do some research on the marketer you are sending that request to. Whatever you do, don't send a group mailing or a form letter to the JV partners that you're really hoping to “wow”. It's a  turnoff.

Take a look at the websites they run and opt in for their newsletter. What kinds of offers do they normally promote? Knowing this key fact is important so you can determine if your offer may be something that would interest their target market. If not, save their contact info for another date.

Quick Tip #3: Compose the Proper Request

Now that you made the decision who to send your JV requests to, it is time to craft and compose what you are going to say in your request.

Make sure you get to the point. More often than not these marketers are extremely busy and time is money. Eliminate fluff and flowery language. Be cordial, but stick to the task at hand. You will also want to make sure to read and reread your email before sending. Even if you have had dealings with this particular marketer before, keep your letter at a professional tone.

Quick Tip #4: Plan Ahead

If you're looking for JV partners for a launch, the timing can make things a bit more difficult.

More than likely you have spent a lot of time preparing your offer and getting it ready to go. It can be very stressful to attempt to get those last minute details together in time for your launch. Inquiring about potential JV partners should not be one of the last minute details. 

Be sure to respect the schedules of your potential partners. Many of them plan their promotions out months in advance. So, giving them advanced notice will help you get a much better response. If your product is close to being ready but not yet completed, you still may want to put out JV requests. They may request that you contact them again at a later date, but at least you have made the first connection with them.

Bear in mind that you might be faced with rejection even if you do everything "right." Sometimes marketers are too busy, don't promote others' products very often, or have another reason why they can't promote you. Don’t let this discourage you; keep searching and you'll find the right JV partner to assist you on your journey to internet marketing success.

How to Network and Get Connected

In business, you can do a lot on your own, but it certainly helps if you know people.  Even if you're not looking to do "joint venture" deals, a good network of people is great for brainstorming and bouncing ideas off of.

But how do you start?

Take a look this report on networking by a guy who calls himself the "Most Connected Internet Marketer."  It had some great tips on how to get people on the phone, get a response to an email, and more.  Plus, this guy give you his personal mobile phone number, so you can call him.

It's only $7, so definitely check it out.

Going Local with Your Online Networking

Over the weekend, I got together with about 15 local marketers who are connected via the Warrior Forum.  This is the second time we've done this and the current plan is to continue to do events about every three months.

How does it work?  We just rent a hotel conference area for 4-5 hours, everybody shows up, and we discuss our businesses.  If somebody has an issue to work through, the groups helps do that.  If somebody has a solution to something, it is shared with the group.

I highly recommend doing this.  It's a great way to get to know people on a new level and the fact that you share something, even if it's just living in the same city, will help you to connect.

Can't find something in your area?  Set it up yourself!

How to Set up a Mastermind Meeting

Photo: Stacie Bennett of ClickNewz and Me

Taking Online Networking Offline - How to Set up a Mastermind Meeting

Over the weekend, I attended a small event of local online marketers.  Everything was organized via the Warrior Forum online message board.  Thanks to Stacie Bennett for taking charge of that.

I've said it before, but it's worth repeating here...  Real connections happen offline.

The people I work with the most (and make the most money with) are the people I've met offline.

Why?

1. It's easy to fake it online. - Anybody can put up a web page.  Anybody can post income shots.  Anybody can stand in front of a nice car or fancy house and take a photo to try to impress folks.  When you deal with people in person, you'll get a better feel for who they are and what they're doing.

2. It's more work to do something offline. - It takes more effort to get in your car and go to a live meeting than it does to post to a message board.  If you're looking for people to do business with, don't you prefer somebody who is going to go through some effort to make things happen?

3. This is a people business. -  Sure, it's about web pages, and autoresponders, and other "tools" needed to do certain tasks, but behind all of that stuff is a bunch of people.

Setting up a meeting is easy to do.  Simply go to your favorite message board, let people know where you are, and start getting connected with them.  Set a date, find a convenient hotel to meet at, and hold your meeting.

As this was the first meeting, we didn't really set an agenda or common goal, but that is something that I would suggest.  Certainly, everybody will want to (and should) meet everybody else, but my experience with having done several of these, is that people will walk away with a better experience, and be more likely to attend future events, if they can take away something which will help make their business goals happen. 

Common goals, which might work for your meeting, include:

• How to get more web traffic.
• How to get more people to your mailing list.
• How to get more money out of your current product.

Then go around the room and have everybody give a suggestion of something that is working for them.  For example, if you're talking about how to get more web traffic, I'd say something like...

"Online video has worked great for me lately.  The videos I am posting are in Google within 24 hours and Traffic Geyser has made it easy for me to submit to about 30 video sharing sites within minutes."

Then I'd talk about how I do everything, give specifics on how I create videos, answer questions, etc. 

Then the next guy in line would talk about what he's doing for traffic and the process would repeat itself.  When everybody finished, each participant would have a list of several traffic generation (or whatever the topic was) ideas to take home and implement.

This is one way to do it.  If you have others, feel free to comment below...