Tuesday 21 July 2009

Social Media and Networking

Second Spearker was Penny Power founder of Ecademy.com:

Penny Power is the founder of Ecademy, website for Business networking and social networking. She left the corporate world in 1993, then she stared training and recruitment within Schools from 1993 to 1998 and she had two children. In 1998, she started a new venture; Ecademy website. Penny Power and her family lived through very difficult moments because she took risks and doing that has consequences, they lost all their money and they had to live in a caravan for a while. But now, Ecademy has become an international successful website through which they earn money; thanks to connecting people globally, advertising and selling information. They enjoy life by travelling with their children all around the world, according to Penny you shouldn’t separate family from work.

To create Ecademy, Penny Power needed 5 years to develop her website whilst working freelance, teaching and having children. It was difficult to have children and to maintain her previous lifestyle. Financially it was a hard choice – but worth it.

She explains that it’s not easy to make her family understand about running her business and to take risks. Also it takes lot of time at the beginning and we can’t take care and spend as much time with their family as you would like.

The World has changed, The Old World was closed, selective and targeted instead of the New World is opened us. One of the changes is thanks to Barack Obama’a election. There is an openess and transparency that did not exist before. Even if lots of things change, including technology, our needs are the same. At this point, we have to refer to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs:

- Physiological needs
- need of security
- need of belonging
- need of respect for yourself
- need of accomplishement of yourself

Starting a business is really difficult but you can be successful. There are two different ways to be a new entrepreneur, you can work at home or at the office. The home-worker should be adaptable for their clients, own values and contribution to success and he has to create a personal branding. Whereas a new entrepreneur should understand the world and its generations, so it’s better for him to collaborate on some projects with competitors instead of making ennemies.

For every entrepreneur, you’ll create an online brand in three steps:
- sharing knowledge with strangers and bringing it into the open
- sharing specific knowledge and making new friends
- creating opportunities with advocates

To conclude, I think the most important thing I learnt during this seminar is that you can be successful even if it’s difficult. It’s necessary to live through hard moments, be aware of the pitfalls and you should take risks, because it could be a real chance for your business to succeed. Penny Power, went from living in a caravan to living the millionaire lifestyle through all those good and bad choices as well as the risks: so go for it!

Friday 17 July 2009

Women’s Masterclass: Your Work/Life Balance

First Speaker was Hannah McNamara:

At the time of Business Link on Thursday, 16th July, Hannah McNamara talked us about work/life balance for women who have their own business. Main reasons to open a business are to earn more money, to spend more time with family, to not have a boss...
According to them, you spend happy days when you work for yourself.

The differences between business and job is: your full time job will be Monday to Friday and will be normally over after your normal hours and business will take lot of time to start up, develop and generate money and it will not allow time off because you have to take care of delivering, administration and dealing with other businesses by yourself.

Furthermore, your company’s image is very important, you should network during events, but while you while you’re doing this you are not taking care of your work priorities and that’s also a big problem when you’re in a meeting, sick or in holidays.

As far as sales and marketing concern, you have to focus on people who want to buy your products/services and after you should continue building a relationship with them, they will feel important and it will be a crucial point for your business. You will need a website, it’s also necessary to save your database, to encourage contracts (clients/affiliates/employee/freelance) and to know how to use your software. The most important thing is to be legal as far as terms and conditions concern, with contract for each employees and a relevant insurance.

Then we did a workshop by group of five people, we determined some activities which can be out-sourced, we concluded there were accountancy, marketing, e-mail responses, website managing, graphic design, etc... It’s necessary to delegate some parts of your business because other people will have skills you don’t have and they can also become a partner in your business. They can also cover your business while you’re in meeting, you have big contract, during your holidays by using freelance. Finally, when you decide to out-source you must create a contract with non-disclosure agreement and without a conflict of interest (you should’nt work in the same field). You should use these steps to delegate i.e: because you will use during the year freelance few time and you don’t want to duplicate your work, you should write a detailed brief (on phone or face to face) and reccord a training video.

Some people who have a business, decides to work at home to take care of their children at the same time, often they are called Virtual Office and they use Virtual Office themselves but an important things to do is not to give home address and also you should separate home and business work and calls with a time line for you and for them. During the day you can commit a PA to manage to recall your contacts, to respond to your e-mails. With a Virtual Office you can rent a meeting room.

Business networking is a marketing method where business opportunities are created through social network. According to Hannah McNamara, networking is the best way to meet people who are interesting by your business and who want to buy from you. It’s an activity which takes lot of time but it’s interesting because you go to some events and sometime it’s a real opportunity. Networking can work for you because it creates opportunities to talk about your company at an event. They are mainly used to meet new contacts and you should be prepared your pitch and to questions we can ask you.
To reach this goal, it’s necessary to be curious and polite, to talk and to include everybody. But you don’t have to be egocentric and sell too much. Some advices if you go to an event where you don’t know anyone, you can forget your main goal, ask to someone to introduce you in a group or to talk to somebody who look lost.

Finally, when you met a personn who is interested by your business, you dropped them an e-mail and/or called them after few days (in the first send out e-mail you should let them know you will be calling in few days) to arrange a meeting. To sign the contract with them, you should ask them questions, to help them first and to learn about they’re need.

My Comment:
I think it was an exciting seminar because she gave us advices about networking and how to open a business. She was really dynamic and funny and her exercises allow us to meet some people and to calm our anxienty.

Justine Bataille

Sunday 12 July 2009

Validation!

I was on Twitter earlier today and came accross a great video from YourBigBook (follow her on Twitter)
Great content! I watched the video she recommended and wanted to pass it on!

I am training the next four days so will not have access to my blog : ( but will write real soon

Enjoy…some inspiration from an up and coming film maker!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cbk980jV7Ao

Saturday 11 July 2009

My Last note on Twitter for Business

Twitter is about creating relationship…


Look at Alexa.com it is good for traffic ranking (you can see how twitter was before and his today) so do the same for your site, blogs, etc…


Use Twitter Deck: is easier to use and manage.

Use Tr.im: for making shorter links and hiding affiliate link and it’s good for tracking the traffics (it makes your long URL a short one).

>Use Tweet Later: is like an auto responder – it will tweet people right back but be cool on it because people could get scare. Set up Auto Replied: go to my Twitter account, then its easy to fellow the step automatically.

Use Twollo.com: to help you finding targeted people via conversation subject / interests (like google keyword) – but go slowly as lots of people will tweet right back to you. You can use it too get more follower on you Twitter: (auto fellow up) via keyword like: work from home, Magnetic Sponsorship, MLM, Network Marketing, Home Business, etc…

>Use Ping.fm: to update your social network via tweeter to everywhere i.e.: facebook, Myspace, etc…

Use MyTwitterToolbar.com: it’s from the guy from “The Secrets” its very good for twitter tips & twitter tools and all for free.

Go to http://twitter.com/curtsecret to gets the best tips & video from the guru (create an account on Twitter to just fellow gurus – no friends and family) i.e.: http://twitter.com/francksecret PS: it’s good to schedule time like 15mns to get Gurus (fellow the list of gurus) then 15mns replying via your personnel twitter account. It can be time consuming so make it effective.


Note:

You need to create a relationship and the way to do it is by following your follower and its easier with Twitter Deck so you can reply directly, interact, etc…



Note:

You can Change your twitter background, go to setting, and then designed, change background image.

PS: You can also add flash widget to your blog and Social Network it’s useful too.








Try on Twitter:

By (Jesse Newhart on Twitter)

Example: Get Twitt by stranger like mad:


Go to: JesseNewart he talk about Mayhemstudios

How to help people:

by re-twitt other twitter friends (if they good article)

Reply to people,

Participate,

Answer question (if you know the answer)

See: barefoot_exec she twitt people and add other people twitt a lots




Click Search Technique, and then enter a search

i.e.: Iphone a result will be show; press control and scroll on your mousse field (to get all avatar field minimise on the same page) then click control and click avatar that will open all their profile avatar in different tabs, skip the no pictures on avatar as they normally like to stay anonymous so they probably will not come back to you anyway,

Select the one you like i.e.: look if they speak English, ratio, go for people who have a lots of following (that show they are pro-active) so they should follow me back, click control + W (to close window) keep doing it,

Tips new search: rt = retreat, then click control + W (to close window) keep doing it,

Follow limit is 2000 people so do 900 to start then do it again after few days to a week as people can get busy, you should get about 2 third of people who will come back to you (about 600)


New search: click your Twitter karma in google click whack, then your twitter username and password, it will load up. 5 options go for only following, click all boxes, then click bulk unfollow, you want to clean up your Twitter Stream as you can follow only 2000 people so make it worth, its easy and some people will say it’s a spam so go to:


www.socialtoo.com (Guy Kawasaki love this site)


Twitter Profile It is good for auto-response and other,



http://friendorfollow.com is good to find people then click control + W (to close window) and make sure you follow them or not.


Let’s say:

Monday your follow 999 people, few days later I unfollow the people who didn’t follow me then on Thursday

I do it again, keep doing it twice a week and you should get 1000 people a week on twitter,





My comments:


It was great stuffs (solid stuffs as they keep sayingJ) Thanks curtfrieden,

I will definitely worth it and I will fellow you and see if you fellow me…J

I learn lots but its more to learn as I understand and it’s a great Marketing tools too.

You need to participate to get result because it’s about creating a relationship.



See you all on Twitter soon…




Franck Robert

(on behalf of Amanda Steadman)

Friday 10 July 2009

Website Top tip: Make sure fonts are legible

Website Top tip:
Make sure fonts are legible
As more and more complex systems are being developed online, design guidelines are constantly being updated. However, basic guidelines are no less important and ensuring that text used on a website is legible is a fundamental part of a sites’ design. These top tips will ensure your site can be used by people with poor eyesight. But remember clear, legible fonts are appreciated by all users no matter how good their eyesight.

1. Ensure you use a suitable size No matter how good the content, there’s no point providing it if users can’t see it. Small fonts can be annoying to those with good eyesight, and render a site unusable for others. Ensure all text on the site is large enough for people to read easily. Aim for size 10 or higher.

2. Don’t use overly complex fonts (anywhere) People don’t read from screens the same way they do from a book or magazine. Instead they scan and a complex font could get in the way. Virtually all sites use a simple font for their body text, but complex fonts are still sometimes used in banner adverts and for headings. Headings and banners need to be just as legible as the rest of the page or they aren’t doing their job.

3. Remember to have a high contrast Make sure the contrast between the background colour and text is high. If the contrast is too low users will struggle to make out the text. There are various online tools you can use to check this, such as the Juicy Studio Contrast Analyser. Pay particular attention to banners as these often superimpose text over a picture of varying contrast.

Great stuff From Webcredible

Thursday 9 July 2009

“Imagine, You And Other Top Internet Marketers, Family and Friends Joining Mike Filsaime and Amanda Steadman On THE Million-Dollar Mastermind Vacation

A SPECIAL INVITATION FROM:

Mike Filsaime and Amanda Steadman

TO: Our VIP Internet Marketer friends, JV Partners, Affiliates and their friends and families.


Dear Friend, this is Amanda Steadman from Wealbabes.com



Greetings! I have just come back from the Internet Marketers Cruise in the USA and Caribbean…what a tremendous time with a group of very intelligent, inspiring, financially free individuals! I have been lucky enough to start in Joint Ventures with quite a few of them who are going to share all their money making and client happy making secrets.


Now, lets hear from Mike Filsaime….

Every year for the last few years, just around New Year’s week, I have been getting together with a group of my best Internet Marketer buddies and their families for a very exclusive “world class” vacation…

We’ve escaped to some exotic Caribbean islands aboard beautiful luxury cruise ships, and experienced some major pampering, exciting shore excursions, gourmet meals, and the priceless cameraderie of like-minded people in a very relaxed environment.

Cruising has become one of my favorite ways to see the world, and I finally realized that I shouldn’t keep my “private annual escape” just to myself (and a few chosen Inner Circle A-listers).

Okay Mike and Amanda Steadman, Count Me In…I WANNA GO!

If you’ve never been on the Annual Marketers Cruise before…then you’re in for the time of your life and a vacation like no other.

On January the 9th, the annual Marketers Cruise is leaving from Port Canaveral – Orlando, Florida and you can start the new year off right

& set sail to the Exotic Caribbean… Cozumel (Mexico), Belize (Central America), Isla Roatan (off the coast of Honduras)and Costa Maya (Yucatan Penninsula)


CLICK HERE To Claim One Of The Few Remaining Staterooms

Your cruise event planner is Captain Lou Edwards from SpecialEventsAtSea.com. He is the guy behind the curtain, who’s list of cruise clients include a who’s who of the World’s Top Internet Marketers.

Armand Morin, Alex Mandossian, Rick Raddatz, Shawn Casey, Carl Galetti, Rich Schefren, Robert Allen and many others have all been aboard Lou’s group cruises and raved about them.


My family, friends, key staff and I look forward to this vacation each year because of the lifetime friendships formed, deals done, and new products launched as a result of the cruise.


In fact, I remember New Year’s week of 2006 when a group of us cruised to Central America. My star had been rising, but I had yet to make my mark on the Internet Marketing community.


On this voyage, I was holed up in my cabin, feverishly working on my laptop and hitting the Internet cafes in each port.


I was putting the finishing touches on the launch of a little thing called Butterfly Marketing. That was a big breakthrough product for me, and I fondly remember that cruise as an integral part of the process.


I think the cameraderie and support of a group of like-minded peers is priceless. Even though I’ve decided to cut back on business travel and live appearances so I can spend more time at home, the annual Marketers Cruise vacation has become an exciting MUST DO each January.


Mostly by word of mouth, our little group of Internet Marketer cruise guests has DOUBLED anuually…from 31, to 67, to 118, to nearly 300 guests this past January.

Okay Mike and Amanda Steadman, Count Me In…I WANNA GO!


So…We’ve Put Together Another AMAZING Marketers Cruise Vacation Setting Sail January 9th to 16th, 2010.


Our ship is the BRAND NEW Carnival Dream being constructed right now as the largest state-of-the-art floating city FUN-SHIP mega-resort ever made by Carnival. You can do it all, or just lay back and do absolutely nothing because it’s your vacation. There are so many positive and wonderful things about taking a cruise. The only negative that comes to mind is that it seems to end too quickly!


Those of you who missed the last one, you might be wondering just what exactly makes this the ideal vacation with the perfect work and play balance.


And the, simple answer is…you’ll have special access during the “sea days” to powerful Mastermind Sessions with some of the world’s TOP millionaire marketers, their pals, and other VIP members who are attending.


Meet Your “ Million Dollar Mastermind” Moderators…
Paulie Sabol, Donna Fox, Tom Beal
They are the brilliant leaders of last year’s highly acclaimed i5 Gold Mentoring Program, from which many coaching clients have gone on to new levels of online marketing success. As Master Marketing Mentors…Paulie, Donna and Tom will help facilitate the onboard brainstorming sessions each morning on the days we are at sea.

Okay Mike and Amanda Steadman, Count Me In…I WANNA GO!

How To Find Great Links For Twitter That Get Retweeted Like Crazy

Go to Google reader, you will find a site call popular with the best talk about info via other sites, click in search i.e.: web design, click enter, you will see best RSS feeds and click sign in for the one you like. Subscribe to good blog is good for the content.

· i.e.: tweetmeme show popular story on tweeter, you can look at what your friends see

· i.e.: friendfeed to share your Google reader, pretty good to retweet, etc…

· i.e.: Stumbleupon, you can search on it, (i.e.: web design) and you will best story

What happen it’s because its popular then you get popular…because people love great information and love to share it with other…easy!

My comments:

Jesse Newhart is very good with clear information about Tweeter; I highly recommend it for newbie and/or just to stay in touch with latest on Tweeter.

Franck Robert (on behalf of Amanda Steadman)

Sunday 5 July 2009

Freeing up the Money and Cancelling Credit Card Debt

Great News..the UK lenders are starting to offer 0% credit cards again and personal loans and mortgages should start to move again! Hurrah!
This is a good sign…and spring is on its way as I watch the snow melt outside!

Credit Cards
Also we are in touch with a company that is cancelling out credit card debt and are helping many, many people in the UK. There are also new products coming out that are related to other financial products which will aleviate some of your credit worries. Please contact us @ “>

Thursday 2 July 2009

10 Reasons to be Properly and Property Optimistic

The sun is out (ish), the trees are budding up (indeed) and the bunnies are bouncing …cheeky bunnies :- ).

Property prices appear that they may no longer be in free fall, having resumed a more orderly decline. In light of this we go in search of 10 reasons why landlords should be optimistic.

1. House prices are stabilising
We can’t produce evidence of a bounce in house prices for landlords, or even details of a much vaulted ‘green shoots’; but figures are emerging that suggest that the rate of fall is slowing, giving landlords more visibility on when we might hit the bottom. March saw the typical house increase in value for the first time since October 2007, rising 0.9% according to the Nationwide and a respected consultancy Lombard Street Research (LSR) has suggested property prices may bottom by Xmas.

2. Mortgage approvals are up.
The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) has reported a rise in the number of house purchase loans approved in February up to 24,300 from 23,400 the month before. Lending is critical to get the house price market moving and now the banks are re-capitalised with tier 1 capital at very high rates. Lending should start to flow once more.

3. Tenant demand remains high
Your Move recently reported that tenant demand was up strongly in February, 46% up on the previous year. Clearly if people can’t buy or are fearful of buying because of potentially further falls in house prices they rent. This can only be good news for landlords.

4. Rents are stable or may even be rising in some parts of the country.
For many landlords talk of falling rents is a mystery. It may be happening in the swankier post codes in London as impoverished bankers are forced to cut back. For many ‘average’ landlords rental levels have been holding up well. The latest figures from the Rent Index indicate that rents have actually being rising up 1.7% and 2.6% over the last 1 month and 3 months respectively. However in other parts of the country where I have properties…they have been going down! In particular Manchester town centre and Brighton areas.

5. Interest rates are at historic lows
With the base rate at 0.5% and at a historic low many landlords on tracker related buy-to-let mortgages are paying record low mortgage payments. The other good news is that latest predictions forecast that these rates could remain well into 2010 as the government battles the spectre of ‘deflation’. This means that landlords could bask in the sensation of cheap money for some months to come – however don’t ‘bank’ on it as I am sure the financial establishments are keen to increase them sooner rather than later! So dont get too comfy.

6. Record rental profits
Low interest rates means many landlords are experiencing unprecedented ‘rental profits’.
Some landlords are making a profit for the first time ever, and other portfolio landlords are generating £100,000‘s in annual rental profits. Not bad for a sector that is supposedly on its knees and at a time when other businesses are making huge losses and slashing jobs. Again we don’t know how long it will last so make contingency plans.

7. Costs are falling
Not only are finance charges falling, but because of the deteriorating employment situation building, repair, cleaning work for the first time in decades is getting cheaper. No longer do landlords have to beg and plead to get a quote. With the jobs situation deteriorating by the day it won’t belong before plumbers will be phoning up landlords and asking for work and at a discounted rate – oh joy!

8. Disappearance of the FTB whinger
How many landlords have got fed up with the stories over the last decade blaming landlords and buy-to-let for forcing up the price of housing so that ‘little Jemima’ cant afford to buy her 1 bed starter flat in Clapham because of all the landlords pricing her out of the market. Well the great news is that Jemima and all her winging cronies have all gone very quiet…this can only be a good thing for landlords and the rest of humanity!

9. Property bargains
There is nothing like a crash and a good economic shake out to allow a landlord to pick up a true long-term property bargain. It’s been true through out the centuries and any investment analysis will tell you. “The real money is made by investors who buy at the bottom and sell at the top.” Well we might not be quite at the bottom, but arguably you never know the market has bottomed until it’s too late. The next few years will certainly throw up some good long term for investments for property investors.

10. Hedge against inflation
Whilst the current talk is about deflation many economic experts are warning about the prospect of inflation taking off once all the money injected by the Government through the likes of ‘quantitative easing’ and the like have worked there way through the system. We all know the best hedge against inflation. You’ve guessed it – property. Sometimes being a landlord has its perks as well as its pitfalls (now that’s another article!)